. >> next on booktv, robert bryce argues that technological innovations have improved the quality of life for humans for centuries, and it's completely reasonable to think that we'll innovate our way out of the problems we face today. this is a little under an hour. >> good afternoon, everyone. how was lunch? good. my name is mike allegretti, i'm vice president for programs here at the institute, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to today's book forum. we're here today to launch robert bryce's latest book entitled "smaller faster lighter denser cheaper," and i would add, more colorful. [laughter] look at that. it's jumping off the page. smaller faster lighter denser cheaper is robert's fifth book, and i think quite possibly his best. first off, it is a relentlessly optimistic, forward-looking work, and it subscribe toss the basic notion, the belief that america's best days are ahead of it. in an era with environmental catastrophes, sectarian violence, plagues, various other things on the airwaves and on the front pages every day, i was theme read some good news for a change, robert

a from a university of texas austin please join me to welcome robert bryce i'll peter to the institute. [applause] >> good afternoon. i have four points to make and i will make them in 20 minutes. first, gee whiz and second slouching toward dystopia. do the math. and finally the second american century. gee whiz. this smart phone has 250,000 tons of digital storage capacity of the computer that went to the moon on board with apollo 11. the i pods and no contains as much music as 300 records in musical terms that is 2,000 times more efficient by weight and 6,000 times more efficient by volume than the record. 1980 photovoltaic cost more than $20 a what to do this and $1. 1903 the wright brothers pioneered aviation by flying an airplane at 30 miles per hour today we routinely fly on board 737 that fly at more than 500 miles per hour. and we can drink beer and surf the internet while we do it. ford's new engine that is fascinating to three cylinders developed during the alan mulally tenure and produces 92,000 watts per liter of displacement. the power density metric 16 times more powerful

thank you, robert bryce, you keep the conversation going at facebook or twitter, use the hashtag. good news! let people know what you think. >>> murder, war, miserable poverty. it does persist and yet i'll tell you why these are the good new days? the performance review. that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. what is this place? where are we? this is where we bring together the fastest internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system. it looks like the future! he has a phaser! it's not a phaser! it's my phone! he can use his voice to control the tv. you can use your woice? my voice. your woice. my voice. "vuh," voice. his voice. your woice? look. watch sci-fi. [ female announcer ] the x1 en

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robert bryce is a senior fellow at the manhattan institute and author of "smaller, faster, lighter, cheaper, denser, how innovation proves the catastrophics wrong." thanks for being with us this morning. so i'm going to play some of the voice mails here, the $5.7 million went to columbia in a grant and this is how they're spreading awareness. this first one has to do with a hurricane. i'm sorry, earthquake and tsunami. >> i'm on top of diamond head and there is a earthquake about two hours ago and there is a tsunami warning going on. everyone is getting up as high as they can to avoid the wave and we're all pretty scared. if this tsunami doesn't get us, the heat might. like 115 degrees right now and it's going up. i was calling to say i love you and i miss you. it might be the last time you hear my voice. >> kind of raising a little fear there. what's your reaction? >> what is interesting about this entire project and it's the columbia climate change education project. it's yet another example of this drum beat of fear, the climate catastrophes are beating this drum saying be worried, be wo