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How To Spend a Trillion Dollars by Rowan Hooper

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How To Spend a Trillion Dollars

Author
Rowan Hooper
Narrator
Rowan Hooper
Publisher
Sound Understanding
Publish Date
6 January 2022
Run Time
8 hours 18 minutes
Format
Audiobook
Genre
Conservation of the environment, Environmental economics
Rating
4.0 (1 review)

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What to expect

If you had a trillion dollars and a year to spend it for the good of the world and the advancement of science, what would you do? It's an unimaginably large sum, yet it's only around one per cent of world GDP, and about the valuation of Google, Microsoft or Amazon. It's a much smaller sum than the world found to bail out its banks in 2008 or deal with Covid-19. But what could you achieve with $1 trillion? You could solve the problem of the pandemic, for one, and eradicate malaria, and maybe cure all disease. You could end global poverty. You could settle on the Moon and explore the solar system. You could build a massive particle collider to probe the nature of reality like never before. You could build quantum computers, develop artificial intelligence, or increase human lifespan. You could even create a new life form. Or how about transitioning the world to clean energy? Or preserving the rainforests, or saving all endangered species? Maybe you could refreeze the melting Arctic, launch a new sustainable agricultural revolution, and reverse climate change? How to Spend a Trillion Dollars is the ultimate thought experiment but it is also a call to arms: these are all things we could do, if we put our minds to it - and our money.

Critics Review

  • At a moment when science is proving it can solve the most urgent of problems – given the right funding – Rowan Hooper asks a very interesting question. How much would it cost to solve all the world's other problems?...Like any good game, this is deadly serious. What starts off seeming absurd ends up feeling obvious. Why would we not invest in our future? As Hooper says, "The world is full of extraordinary opportunities, and the vast majority are never undertaken

    Sunday Times

  • Will someone just give Rowan Hooper a mere trillion dollars and let him, very sensibly, save the world?

    Caitlin Moran

  • His book should be on the curriculum: There are a lot of numbers in How To Spend A Trillion Dollars but Rowan Hooper's prose style is clear and direct and he breaks down the choices into ten discrete projects. If you prime the pump of human ingenuity, extraordinary things are possible.

    Daily Mail

User Reviews

Book 4.0

Narration 5.0

  • 4.0 5.0

    The book is an interesting thought experiment. It shows that actually even the biggest problems can be addressed realistically with investment and ambition. And that the scale is realistic.
    Well worth a read.

    hallwiton 2023-11-19

Details
Author
Rowan Hooper
Narrator
Rowan Hooper
Duration
8 hours 18 minutes
Release Date
6 January 2022
ISBN
9781915042255
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Sound Understanding
Genre
Conservation of the environment, Environmental economics
Rating
4.0(1 review)
Narration
5.0(1 review)

Synopsis

If you had a trillion dollars and a year to spend it for the good of the world and the advancement of science, what would you do? It's an unimaginably large sum, yet it's only around one per cent of world GDP, and about the valuation of Google, Microsoft or Amazon. It's a much smaller sum than the world found to bail out its banks in 2008 or deal with Covid-19. But what could you achieve with $1 trillion? You could solve the problem of the pandemic, for one, and eradicate malaria, and maybe cure all disease. You could end global poverty. You could settle on the Moon and explore the solar system. You could build a massive particle collider to probe the nature of reality like never before. You could build quantum computers, develop artificial intelligence, or increase human lifespan. You could even create a new life form. Or how about transitioning the world to clean energy? Or preserving the rainforests, or saving all endangered species? Maybe you could refreeze the melting Arctic, launch a new sustainable agricultural revolution, and reverse climate change? How to Spend a Trillion Dollars is the ultimate thought experiment but it is also a call to arms: these are all things we could do, if we put our minds to it - and our money.

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