Stellar: A world beyond limits, and how to get there.

Conceptually this reminded me of Buckminster Fuller's "Utopia or Oblivion" This book is predicated on two ideas 1. that society is a complex adaptive system and 2. that cost curves (also known as Wright's law which observes that as the production volume of an item increases, its cost fall and quality improves more quickly as the industry learns to improve the process) for AI (cost/performance 10x per year), solar (cost drop 82% over the last 10 years), wind (69% cost drop over 10 years), batteries (87% cost drop over 10 years), bio-reactor grown goods (99.9%+ drop over 10 years), transportation as a service (miles of self driving from 0 to billions over 10 years), and humanoid robotics (from millions per unit towards 20k-ish over 10 years) will continue (for another 5-20 years). If author Tony Seba wasn't already correct in his predictions from 10+ years ago this would sound like pure fantasy...but he has been correct. The challenge when reading this is that everyone reading this has lived their entire lives in what the book describes as an "extractive" system. The foundation of the systems around us (energy/food/labor) is extractive and has been since we transitioned from hunter-gatherers to agriculture. Since the beginning of agriculture we've burned wood/coal/petroleum/natural gas for heat/steam/electricity and consumption patterns have driven us towards hierarchical social structures. These define our current "normal". With the set of technologies defined above we move beyond "extractive" to what was described in "Cradle to Cradle" (Michael Braungart, William McDonough) as fecund or abundance. There is plenty of energy (solar and batteries), labor (robots and AI), food and building materials (vertical agriculture + robots and/or cultivated/precision-fermentation grown), etc created in a non-extractive system to supply more than enough for everyone. The analogy is humanity moving from a caterpillar to a butterfly. This change in state would bring changes to society, psychology, etc. Not perfect but an entirely different set of problems than we have now. The book goes on to suggest that although the technological change is near certain, the systemic changes needed are less certain. Vested interests could shape the use of these new technologies within the framework of "extraction" and deny "abundance" for a continuation of extractive/hierarchical systems.

Stellar is a brilliant and uplifting vision of the future. The authors show how renewable energy, AI, and other breakthrough technologies are converging to create a world of abundance beyond today’s limits. Clear, data-driven, and inspiring—this is a must-read for anyone who believes the future can be brighter than the past.

This book would have a 5 star rating if it had the way to change the voice. These two human voices are annoying to me. One of them i put at 1.2x speed to get rid of the sound she as making at the end of sentences. The other i couldn't fix, the accent made it hard for me to understand some words. I should have listened to the preview and just ordered the book.

I just read Tony Seba & James Arib's book Stellar. I thought it was going to be about what life was like when we have almost free energy and limitless AI. It is that and so so much more. it's a new philosophical text about what happens when humanity is no longer eXtractive (as it has been since the invention of agriculture) and instead is Stellar. What will humanity be like when we get to abundance? And it could be here much much sooner than you think....

This is the most inspiring and illuminating book I have read in a long time. In the end I am left smiling and feeling empowered to live my life in a way that cultivates a world that servers humanity, other beings and the earth as a whole. This book has a comprehensive view of human evolution since what we call civilization began around 10,000 years ago and a road map to a transformation to a whole new, and very wholesome, future, for all. Highly. Recommended.

This is a most fascinating read. I've been following the work of these authors for the short time now, only about 5 years, but it's been so interesting to follow the evolution of their predictions, which just keep coming true. Once I've read the reports and keep an eye out on the news, it's easy and plain to see that the disruptions they're talking about and the timelines they're mentioning are really accurate. I feel so fortunate to be able to inform myself on this incredibly hopeful information.

I hate books that keep repeating the same things across many chapters. This book does that. Tony Seba, one of the authors, explains this book well in a YouTube interview. That interview was much more enjoyable to watch than reading this book

This book enthusiastically covers the possibilities that our future holds as AI, robots, and increased abundance could dramatically improve everyone's lives. The author minimizes the downsides of change however.

Absolutely brilliant , they seem to frame the world today and most of its problems as the result of our need to survive (Dawkins) , then show why that is no longer necessary . Every aspect of civilisations past and present looks as though it has been considered even the Fermi paradox gets a mention .

Everyone should read this book! We are so close to live a world of Stellar abundance, but we must not grab defeat from the jaws of victory!

Maravilhoso

A book to help with an understanding of how the world is changing and how to prepare for it. I am starting a new venture and this study has been invaluable to start in the right direction. I wanted to purchase it from a different vendor but could not find it anywhere.

I'm studying the future of food, and this book helps put the transformation of the food system in a broader perspective. Getting rid of the extractive mindset feels liberating, and overcoming the resistance of incumbents feels hard, but it is inevitable.