Age of Abundance

Twelve years ago, my partner Steven Kotler and I argued cogently that humans, aided and abetted by news media, focus irrationally on apocalyptic news stories designed to evoke emotions to increase viewership. The objective data, though, was quite optimistic about where humanity was and its trajectory in 2012. Indeed, with the relentless advances in technology, we projected security for all humans by 2040!

So, where are we today, more than a decade later? Social media is supplanting news media and amplifying notions of apocalypse in ways only dreamt of in 2012. The COVID pandemic created the first meaningful change in American happiness in 50 years. Fears of climate change loom, with slow progress on mitigation. Let's take a step back from our fears and review the objective data together and see if we're still on track to global security in 2040.