On the Brink of Utopia

A new and coherent framework for fostering the breakthrough innovations that we urgently need to confront our collective future. We live in less innovative times than we think. Despite having made major technological advancements in a few areas, we are still left with enormous unsolved challenges. A radical shift in the culture of innovation is needed. On the Brink of Utopia, by authors Thomas Ramge and Rafael Laguna de la Vera, and with a foreword written by Nobel Laureate Stefan Hell, offers just that—a new and coherent framework for fostering breakthrough innovations for human progress. In their “Innovation Leap Paradigm,” they present seven steps in seven chapters and answer three simple questions: What great challenges need to be tackled? Who makes tech leaps? And finally, what political, economic, and cultural environments foster radical innovation? The authors sketch out a future in which technology will solve real problems, anywhere from climate change and hunger to obesity and menstrual pain. They envision a future in which biotechnologists work from a platform that enables them to develop effective drugs within months for any emerging virus, where green energy will be too cheap to meter and aerial carbon can be transmuted into a valuable commodity at scale. Offering a new perspective on innovation that centers not just American readers but also readers from all over the world, On the Brink of Utopia is a hopeful and visionary book that reimagines the roles of innovators, citizens, governments, and financial markets to foster innovation leaps that maximize the well-being of the greatest number of people.