Information Explosion
According to authors Diamandis and Kotler (Abundance), if every word written from the earliest days of civilization to the year 2003 would represent five exabytes of information. A single Exabyte is one billion gigabytes (a one followed by 18 zeros). From 2003 through 2010, the world created five exabytes of information every two days. By the year 2013, we will produce five exabytes of digital information every 10 minutes. The total of 912 exabytes for 2010 alone is the equivalent of 18 times the amount of information contained in all books ever written.
A rural farmer in a developing economy who has a cell phone using Google has access to more information than the U.S. President did just 15 years ago. The number of people living in absolute poverty has fallen by more than half since the 1950s; at the current rate of decline, it will reach zero by ~ 2035. In the U.S., groceries in 2012 cost 13 times less than 150 years ago in inflation-adjusted dollars. The standard of living has improved: 95% of Americans now living below the poverty line have electricity, running water, a refrigerator, television and Internet access.