Ben Lackey

“The Wright Brothers lifted off in 1903,” he says, “but by 1908, only ten pilots had ever flown. Then they traveled to Europe to demonstrate their aircraft and inspired everyone. The aviation world changed overnight. Inventors began to realize, ‘Hey, I can do that!’ Between 1909 and 1912, thousands of pilots and hundreds of aircraft types were created in thirty-one countries. Entrepreneurs, not governments, drove this development, and a $50 million aviation industry was created.”
― Peter H. Diamandis, Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think

“Right now, in America, 70 percent of our water is used for agriculture, yet 50 percent of the food produced gets thrown away.”
― Peter H. Diamandis, Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think

“Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese telecommunications tycoon, recently established the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, which awards $5 million (and $200,000 a year for life afterward) to any African leader who serves out his or her term within the limits of a country’s constitution and then leaves office voluntarily.”
― Peter H. Diamandis, Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think

“Old Earthers had focused their intelligence on the small and the soft, not the big and the hard, and built a civilization that was puny and crumbling where physical infrastructure was concerned, but astonishingly sophisticated when it came to networked communications and software.”
― Neal Stephenson, Seveneves