Lightwave, another emotional-computing startup, can capture not just the emotional state of an individual, but that of a whole crowd. It's already be… - Peter Diamandis

Humanity's greatest need right now, beyond new tech, is HOPE. A compelling, abundant vision of the future that people WANT to live in.

Yet for these high, hard goals to really work their magic, Locke and Latham found that certain moderators — the word psychologists use to describe "if-then" conditions — need to be in place. One of the most important is commitment. "You have to believe in what you're doing," continues Latham. "Big goals work best when there's an alignment between an individual's values and the desired outcome of the goal. When everything lines up, we're totally committed — meaning we're paying even more attention, are even more resilient, and are way more productive as a result."

It is important to remember that in 1953 none of the technology for these futuristic journeys existed. No one knew how to go that fast and survive. Even the most optimistic die-hard visionaries did not expect a lunar landing any sooner than the proverbial “Year 2000.” The only voice telling them they could do it was a curve on a piece of paper. But the curve was right. Just not politically correct. In 1957 the USSR launched Sputnik, right on schedule. Then US rockets zipped to the Moon 12 years later. As [Damien] Broderick notes, humans arrived on the Moon “close to a third of century sooner than loony space travel buffs like Arthur C. Clarke had expected it to occur.