Reviewed by Rick Burnette
Approximately 15 years ago, many change agents, do-gooders, and missionaries – including myself – possessed a considerable degree of optimism.
Even though 9/11 was still fresh in our minds and with wars continuing in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 2011 Arab Spring movement offered some hope that Middle Eastern totalitarianism might be on the decline. As a member of the G20 (the Group of Twenty that is the premier forum for international economic cooperation) and APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation), Russia appeared somewhat cooperative and the election of the first African American president seemed to indicate a future of racial healing.
Abundance, published in 2012 and reprinted in 2014, exudes even more optimism. The authors, space entrepreneur and innovator, Peter H. Diamandis (co-founder of Singularity University) and Steven Kotler, a journalist and co-founder of the Flow Genome Project, assert that the basic needs of every person on the planet will be met and exceeded within two centuries.
And how? Through rapid advances in technology including artificial intelligence, robotics, infinite computing, ubiquitous broadband networks, digital manufacturing, nanomaterials and synthetic biology.
Inviting us to imagine “a world of nine billion people with clean water, nutritious food, affordable housing, personalized education, top-tier medical care and non-polluting, ubiquitous energy,” Diamandis and Kotler proclaimed that abundance was within our grasp.
And what’s wrong with that?
After all, Jesus came so that “they would have life and have it abundantly.”
The authors did acknowledge the concerns of those who saw our problems worsening, with “the rich getting richer and the poor falling further behind, while the list of global threats – pandemics, terrorism, escalating regional conflicts – grows unabated.”
But they also dismissed such concerns as cynicism, claiming that such reaction might be “the biggest stumbling block in the road toward abundance.”
Unfortunately, since Abundance was published, in many ways, the needle of progress has barely moved. The current state of the world includes:
- The COVID-19 Pandemic causing more than 6.3 million deaths
- Wars raging in Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and elsewhere
- Military dictatorships in Myanmar, Mali, Chad, Guinea, Sudan and Burkina Faso
- Global supply line issues, shortages and inflation
- Between 720 and 811 million people in the world having faced hunger in 2020 (Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)
- One in three children is not growing well because of malnutrition (UNICEF)
- Seventy-one percent of the world’s population living in countries where inequality has grown (United Nations 2019)
- The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating global income inequality, partly reversing the decline of the previous two decades (World Bank)
Is technology the ultimate fix for these and other global challenges?
Better technology might ultimately repair our broken supply chain. But will it fix the hearts of CEOs who force farmworkers and meatpacking plant employees to labor in crowded, Covid-spreading conditions?
Better technology is making its mark on education. Not only has One Laptop per Child boosted learning opportunities around the world, Diamandis and Kotler anticipate the prospects of free virtual schools.
But has the U.S. digital divide been adequately addressed? A January 2022 U.S. News & World Report article highlighted a New America and Rutgers University study showing that one in seven children still do not have high-speed internet access at home.
Can technology solve ongoing global gender disparities in education? UNESCO reminds us that, worldwide, 129 million girls are out of school.
I cheer every advance in medicine, hoping indeed that advanced “Lab-on-a-Chip” (LOC) technologies will provide “accurate, low-cost, easy-to-use, point of care diagnostics” along with stem cell biotechnologies that are expected to help repair the brain and regenerate organs.
But what will it take for everyone to have full access to even basic medical care? In 2020 the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 9.3 percent of children under the age of 19 in the U.S. were still uninsured. And Partners in Health, the international agency founded by the late Dr. Paul Farmer, reminds us that half of the world’s population lacks access to essential healthcare.
Despite the authors’ excitement that a small-scale water distilling device powered by its own recycled energy could help overcome global water scarcity, almost two-thirds of the world’s population still experience severe water scarcity for at least one month per year. Domestically, up to 10 million American households and 400,000 schools and childcare centers are served by lead plumbing. Not surprisingly, low-income people and communities of color are disproportionately exposed to the risks of lead-contaminated drinking water.
Various accessible technologies exist for removing lead from water. But could it be that these persistent domestic issues, including the digital divide and unequal health care access, might have something to do with the fact that the top one percent of Americans take home 21 percent of all the income? The Economic Policy Institute reports that over the last four decades, income inequality has increased dramatically, with income growth for the vast majority having “slowed to a crawl.”
Moving along to the future of food, Diamandis and Kotler cite remaining chronic hunger, the inefficiencies of industrial agriculture, and the polluting effects of farming. However, they’re bullish on the future role of genetically engineered crops and a high tech, indoor food production approach known as vertical farming.
The high productivity of vertical farming is based on artificial lighting replacing the sun with crops being grown in soil-less cultivation systems. The approach is highly space efficient and conducive for urban settings with multiple layers or columns of plants being arranged horizontally or vertically.
But to my surprise, the technophile authors conceded that by itself, high-tech agriculture cannot feed Earth’s future nine billion inhabitants. They also highlight the essential role of agroecology, a collection of food systems designed to mimic the natural world so that more food can be produced on less land while “enhancing ecosystems and promoting biodiversity.”
Diamandis and Kotler refer to a 2011 United Nations report disclosing that agroecology projects in 57 countries were found to increase crop yields an average of 80 percent (some as high as 116 percent). While agroecology practices appear quite low-tech, the associated approaches are proven and promoted through “information-based sciences.”
Though not stated in the book, one reason that agroecology succeeds is that one-size-fits-all approaches or technologies aren’t on the agenda. Smallholder farmers – most of whom tend less than five acres of land – are the drivers of agroecology. And it’s up to them to analyze their local circumstances (e.g., environmental, nutritional, economic, political, cultural, social) to determine what is required to sustainably produce a diverse array of food and other products.
Whereas scientists, technocrats, politicians and other leaders/influencers are prone to promote mass-produced innovations, trusting that benefits will somehow trickle down to the masses, agroecology practitioners and promoters are primarily engaged at the grassroots level. Fortunately, many who operate in the smallholder arena are open to opportunities for exchange with likeminded groups, both near and far.
Effective change agents, among other smallholder allies, are also very aware of the challenges faced by these farmers – many of whom live on society’s margins. And these issues are often related to inequality and injustice.
Unfortunately, Abundance doesn’t focus much on the promotion of equality and justice. One brief chapter on freedom considers human rights and reviews technologies such as a website, Ushahida, that charted political violence in Kenya as well as other examples of crowdsourced social activism in support of citizen journalism and the promotion of free speech and expression.
Even so, Diamandis and Kotler admit that the technology blade cuts both ways, observing how the Syrian government had begun to flood social media with pro-government messages, which pales compared to today’s torrent of disinformation.
Technology is not a silver bullet and even the most appropriate of technologies will struggle without structural injustice and inequality being addressed. For that to happen, we must address neglected tough questions. For example, why are smallholders accessing so little land and water? Why does lead remain in the pipes of marginalized neighborhoods? And why does basic healthcare remain out of reach for so many?
Isn’t this where the church comes in? Or where the church should come in?
Shouldn’t the church be speaking up for the essential agricultural and food workers subjected to horrid work conditions? By itself, technology won’t.
Shouldn’t the church be holding our local, state and federal governments accountable to enact real immigration reform, reboot our public schools, eliminate the digital divide and guarantee that every person can trust the water flowing out of their taps? After all, technology isn’t good at persuasion.
Shouldn’t we be demanding that every person across this land be afforded access to quality health care as well as nutritious food and safe shelter?
Shouldn’t God’s people be calling out those who create policies that work to the advantage of the wealthy and powerful while leaving everyone else behind?
Technology has no conscience, no spirit, and no sense of responsibility. It simply can’t automatically address, much less solve, these issues of injustice and inequality.
Ultimately, it’s the “Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done” abundance that we pray for.
May God grant us the courage, wisdom and love needed to prepare the way, including how we consider our technological options.
Rick Burnette has worked since 1994 to help local communities alleviate food insecurity. He and his wife, Ellen, established a nonprofit organization in Thailand (Upland Holistic Development Project) among migrant communities along the Thai-Myanmar border, and more recently among farm workers in Immokalee, Florida (Cultivate Abundance). He serves with CBF Global missions, has worked with ECHO, and others to address food insecurity and injustice, emphasizing culturally appropriate, sustainable, and holistic approaches. Rick and Ellen live in Ft. Myers, Florida.
