Age of Abundance: Bring changes for the world

Age of Abundance

The phrase ‘age of abundance’ was brought forth to the general public by Professor Michio Kaku and it may be what our human race is aiming for with all our scientific discoveries and inventions.

Professor Michio Kaku teaches theoretical physics at the City College of New York and is best known for his outlook on futuristic science and technology. ‘Age of Abundance’ discussed by Professor Kaku and because I am also a fan of Sci-Fi, I have since been intrigued by what our race can achieve in the age of abundance. For a comprehensive introduction to the topic, I suggest watching this youtube video on the aspects of ‘age of abundance[i]’ by Prof Kaku himself.

Many skeptics will deny the notion and suggesting such optimism as total bull but it wouldn’t hurt to dream a little, does it?

Avoiding all the scientific jargons and straight to the point, the age of abundance is a time when our world will not be limited to the basic rule of economics ‘demand and supply’, a time when humans are able to create objects of value at whim and away from the term ‘scarcity’. This reality may come in another century or millennium, nobody knows but however far-fetched this may sound, I’m still looking forward to it.

Signs of the new age

Researches and inventions that may lead us to the age must first tackle issues faced by our current world; energy, food and supply issues.

In the field of energy, our main source comes from burning of fossil fuels, there is a limit to how much we can burn based on what we can forage from our mother planet. We do have alternative sources such as nuclear, solar, wind and more. However, these alternative energies are still considered to be at ‘infant’ stages, which mean that they are not ready to go large-scale any time soon.

Interesting fact: there is a city in Abu Dhabi called Masdar City that is built as a ‘cleanhub’ capable of self-sustainability, using only renewable and clean energy for the city functions. For a brief introduction to the city, I suggest watching Stephen Hawking’s Brave New World[ii] which talks about Masdar city.

In terms of food supply, our world is actually facing a bigger issue than most have understood. In fact, the UN has mentioned that the unpredictability and more frequently extreme disasters and weather conditions will be the key causes for global food shortages[iii], shifting the world to an age of scarcity. It is therefore a race against time that we find new, and more stable, means of supplying food for our global population.

The most recent breakthrough in this sector will be the introduction of lab-grown meat or otherwise known as In-vitro meat. However grotesque this may sound, the meat produced this way actually does not harm any animals and will consist of same bio-material as found in grazed cattle. The issues surrounding such lab-grown meat stems further from just affordability but also ethical considerations which may stop mass acceptance of the idea of consuming such products despite its potential of controlling global food shortages. However, coming back to the topic of age of abundance, considering the potential of lab-grown meat from a scientific point of view, and the amount of space it can free up from cattle-grazing, more time will be needed to evaluate its true value for the global community.

What the age will bring

Now to the topic of concern, age of abundance will bring about major changes for the world, there are many possibilities and futures we as a race can achieve in the age but until then, the two closest restrictions have to be dealt with fast.

1. Breaking from economics

The world now revolves from the basic law of Demand and Supply; prices are all determined by commodities such as oil and food. In the age of abundance, much resource could be freed to focus on other important avenues such as reforestation, science and technology.

2. Eliminating poverty

Many times we have seen poverty from third-world countries from documentaries, and constant aid from charitable organizations to help combat food issues and more. If supply of food and technology is not a restrain, we may be able to eliminate poverty as a whole.

Actually, the most important possibility of the age of abundance is the potential of recovering our planet of damages done by global warming and other human activities.

Who knows, maybe the researchers at CERN will be able to dig deeper into the secrets of our universe? Who knows, maybe our planet can develop a space program to colonize our moon and beyond? These are all in the realms of science fiction but I definitely want to see that become reality.

(Disclaimer: I am no scientist nor am I trained in any way near professionals mentioned in my posts; some of my comments may be wrong or ridiculous but however, there are many things in life that I look forward to, and dared to dream for it to be realized.)

Anndy Lian

Chief Marketing Officer

Scientific Tradition Pte Ltd

www.scientifictradition.com