The book’s conceit is to imagine having a trillion dollars to spend on each of the big issues and scientific quests of our time: from poverty, climate change and species loss to interplanetary travel, the discovery of alien life and the creation of artificial intelligence. The banking crisis and coronavirus pandemic, he says, prove that money can be found. With so much at stake, why do we not find it? According to Hooper, you could eliminate world poverty with a trillion — or at least “level up” the poorest.