On Amazon.com: Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper: How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong (2014)
Author Robert Bryce challenges the zero-sum neo-Malthusians (climate change, polution, water shortages, war, political gridlock, debt crises, income inequality, etc.) head-on in his latest book.
By recounting the technological progress human beings have made in so many different areas — including communications, electronics, transportation, energy, payment systems, food production, and medicine — he highlights how we have succeeded time and again at making life better.
He finished writing his book in December, 2013, so he missed the latest example of his thesis: consumer drones. Made possible by the SFLDC improvements to smart phone components — CPU, RAM, Flash storage, digital camera, GPS, WiFi, LCD display, accelerometer, compass — I received my DJI Phantom 3 Professional directly from Shenzhen, China, via Fedex on May 4, 2015.
For US$1,395, my DJI P3P specs would have been unimaginable even 5 years ago: 23 minute flight time (Li-Ion battery), 2,000m range (=6,561′; I actually piloted my P3P over 16,500′ away before it went into return-to-home mode due to low battery charge remaining 13,000′ away before it lost contact with the controller), 2.8 pounds, 1.9′ prop tip-to-tip, and an integrated 4K video camera. This quad-copter is amazingly stable, making it very easy to pilot. You can visit my YouTube Channel to see some of my drone videos.
Bryce paints an optimistic future filled with even more human innovation.
Ben Slivka 