Peter Diamandis (1961–) is a Harvard medical doctor who also has an MIT degree in aeronautical engineering.
He's also a serial entrepreneur, having created or cofounded
twelve businesses, the most of which are still operational today, including
International Space University and Singularity University.
The XPRIZE Foundation is his idea, and it hosts challenges
in futuristic fields including space technology, low-cost mobile medical
diagnostics, and oil spill cleanup.
Singularity University, which trains CEOs and graduate
students on exponentially developing technology, is chaired by him.
The major difficulties that mankind faces are the focus of
Diamandis' work.
His interests were first solely centered on space travel.
He believed that mankind should be a multiplanetary species
when he was a teenager.
When he recognized that the US government was unwilling to
fund NASA's lofty ambitions for colonization of other planets, he selected the
private sector as the new space engine.
He launched many not-for-profit start-ups while still a
student at Harvard and MIT, including International Space University (1987),
which is now situated in France.
International Microspace, a for-profit microsatellite
launcher, was created by him in 1989.
In 1992, Diamandis founded Zero Gravity, a firm dedicated to
provide consumers with the sensation of weightlessness via parabolic flights.
Stephen Hawking is the most renowned of the 12,000 clients
who have experienced zero gravity thus far.
In 2004, he established the XPRIZE Foundation, which is
essentially a large incentive reward (five to ten million dol lars).
Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil cofounded Singularity University
in 2008 to teach individuals how to conceive in terms of exponential
technologies and to assist entrepreneurs use exponential technologies to solve
humanity's most urgent challenges.
Planetary Resources, an asteroid mining firm that promises
to create low-cost spacecraft, was established by him in 2012.
Diamandis is often referred to as a futurist.
If that's the case, he's a unique kind of futurist, since he
doesn't extrapolate patterns or make intricate prophecies.
Diamandis' primary task is matchmaking: he finds major
issues on the one hand and then connects them to viable remedies on the other.
He has developed incentive prizes and a network of
influential billionaires to fund such prizes in order to uncover viable
answers.
Larry Page, James Cameron, and the late Ross Perot are among
the billionaires who have backed Diamandis' endeavors.
Diamandis began by focusing on the difficulty of getting
humans into space, but over the last three decades, he has broadened his focus
to include all of humanity's big concerns in exploration, including space and
seas, life sciences, education, global development, energy, and the
environment.
The next frontier for Diamandis is increased longevity, or
living longer.
He believes that the causes of early mortality may be
eliminated, and that the general people can live longer and healthier lives.
He also thinks that a person's mental peak may be extended
by 20 years.
In 2014, Diamandis founded Human Longevity, a biotechnology
business based in San Diego, alongside genomics specialist Craig Venter and
stem cell pioneer Robert Hariri to tackle the challenge of longevity.
Four years later, he cofounded Celularity, a
longevity-focused firm that offers stem cell-based antiaging therapies,
alongside Hariri.
~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan
You may also want to read more about Artificial Intelligence here.
See also:
Kurzweil, Ray; Technological Singularity.
Further Reading:
Diamandis, Peter. 2012. Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think. New York: Free Press.
Guthrie, Julian. 2016. How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight. New York: Penguin Press.
