Abundance is really about exponential technology change in terms of price/performance of processing and bandwidth. As the cost of processing and bandwidth tend towards free, rational economic activity in the digital economy will look different from the economics of physical scarcity. I’m borrowing this use of the term abundance from Chris Anderson.

Also, I’m more used to the term “abundance” from so-called New Age circles, where my understanding of the meaning is that there is enough of what one needs, which is very different from an unlimited amount. For instance, there may be “enough” only if there is little waste: think of the hunting cultures where, on principle, every part of the animal is used. The “unlimited” meaning of the term has very different implications, e.g. that waste can be useful as it permits trying many things and throwing away those that don’t work out. Perhaps a new term now needs to be coined to succeed what I’m used to: I suppose “enoughness” would do but it lacks a certain something!

What big ideas are on my list? The biggest is socionomics, which dramatically changed my understanding of how many things in human society really work, from war, politics and the economy to what clothes people wear and what music they listen to. But a warning: I was happier when I was ignorant.