Archive for the ‘economics’ category: Page 113
Dec 30, 2019
Technology Biotechnologies
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: biotech/medical, computing, economics, nanotechnology
At Roswell we have developed the first Molecular Electronics chip. We utilized advances in semiconductor technology, nano-fabrication and bio-sensors to create standard CMOS chips that directly integrate sensor molecules into the CMOS integrated circuits.
Going “on-chip” to deploy bio-sensors provides unprecedented economics, precision, portability, and scalability. Our first chip is designed to read DNA; future chips will be designed for protein detection and other diverse bio-sensing applications.
Dec 29, 2019
Germany just guaranteed unemployed citizens around $330 per month indefinitely. The policy looks a lot like basic income
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: economics, policy
Germany’s supreme court recently ruled that an old policy that suspended payments if individuals didn’t actively search for work was unconstitutional.
Dec 28, 2019
Thieves are now using AI deepfakes to trick companies into sending them money
Posted by Joseph Barney in categories: economics, finance, law, robotics/AI
That might explain things…
There may soon be serious financial and legal ramifications to the proliferation of deepfake technology. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that a UK energy company’s chief executive was tricked into wiring €200,000 to a Hungarian supplier because he believed his boss was instructing him to do so. Instead, it was a thief using deepfake tech.
Dec 22, 2019
We’ve just had the best decade in human history. Seriously
Posted by Tracy R. Atkins in categories: biotech/medical, economics, sustainability
Let nobody tell you that the second decade of the 21st century has been a bad time. We are living through the greatest improvement in human living standards in history. Extreme poverty has fallen below 10 percent of the world’s population for the first time. It was 60 percent when I was born. Global inequality has been plunging as Africa and Asia experience faster economic growth than Europe and North America; child mortality has fallen to record low levels; famine virtually went extinct; malaria, polio and heart disease are all in decline.
Little of this made the news, because good news is no news. But I’ve been watching it all closely. Ever since I wrote The Rational Optimist in 2010, I’ve been faced with ‘what about…’ questions: what about the great recession, the euro crisis, Syria, Ukraine, Donald Trump? How can I possibly say that things are getting better, given all that? The answer is: because bad things happen while the world still gets better. Yet get better it does, and it has done so over the course of this decade at a rate that has astonished even starry-eyed me.
Perhaps one of the least fashionable predictions I made nine years ago was that ‘the ecological footprint of human activity is probably shrinking’ and ‘we are getting more sustainable, not less, in the way we use the planet’. That is to say: our population and economy would grow, but we’d learn how to reduce what we take from the planet. And so it has proved. An MIT scientist, Andrew McAfee, recently documented this in a book called More from Less, showing how some nations are beginning to use less stuff: less metal, less water, less land. Not just in proportion to productivity: less stuff overall.
Dec 18, 2019
Russia joins race to make quantum dreams a reality
Posted by Derick Lee in categories: economics, government, quantum physics
The government will inject around 50 billion roubles (US$790 million) over the next 5 years into basic and applied quantum research carried out at leading Russian laboratories, the country’s deputy prime minister, Maxim Akimov, announced on 6 December at a technology forum in Sochi. The windfall is part of a 258-billion-rouble programme for research and development in digital technologies, which the Kremlin has deemed vital for modernizing and diversifying the Russian economy.
National initiative aims to develop practical technologies that could mine databases and create ultra-secure communication networks.
Dec 17, 2019
Research yields potential bioblendstock for diesel fuel
Posted by Saúl Morales Rodriguéz in categories: economics, energy, transportation
The NREL scientists, along with colleagues at Yale University, Argonne National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, are part of the Department of Energy’s Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative. Co-Optima’s research focuses on improving fuel economy and vehicle performance while also reducing emissions.
“If you look at biomass, 30% of it is oxygen,” said Derek Vardon, a senior research engineer at NREL and corresponding author of a new paper detailing the Co-Optima research project. “If we can figure out clever ways to keep it around and tailor how it’s incorporated in the fuel, you can get a lot more out of biomass and improve the performance of diesel fuel.” The molecule, 4-butoxyheptane, contains oxygen while conventional petroleum-derived diesel fuel is comprised of hydrocarbons. The presence of oxygen significantly reduces the intrinsic sooting tendency of the fuel upon burning.
The paper, “Performance-advantaged ether diesel bioblendstock production by a priori design,” appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Vardon’s co-authors from NREL are Nabila Huq as the first author, with co-authors Xiangchen Huo, Glenn Hafenstine, Stephen Tifft, Jim Stunkel, Earl Christensen, Gina Fioroni, Lisa Fouts, Robert McCormick, Matthew Wiatrowski, Mary Biddy, Teresa Alleman, Peter St. John, and Seonah Kim.
Dec 15, 2019
A Hyper-Connected World With 25 Times Faster Travel Will Triple the World Economy
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: economics, education, space travel
Nextbigfuture has looked at the likely future of SpaceX up to 2030 and now recaps the view to 2030 and extends the view to 2050.
The Mars aspect of SpaceX future impact will be less important than how 25X the speed of sound travel transforms our world and has huge economic impacts.
Dec 13, 2019
Asia’s roll-out of 5G will bring benefits across the new economy
Posted by Derick Lee in categories: augmented reality, biotech/medical, economics, internet, robotics/AI, virtual reality
While these “moonshots” are still some years away, there are viable applications of 5G in the near term. South Korea launched the world’s first commercial 5G network in April and has seen data transfer rates rise from 50 megabits per second to over 700 Mbps. This enables the delivery of augmented reality, virtual reality and AI-enhanced real-time sports content.
With the arrival of next-generation mobile networks, new services like remote surgery will be suddenly feasible. More immediately, expect a boom in video traffic and augmented reality content.
Continue reading “Asia’s roll-out of 5G will bring benefits across the new economy” »
Dec 11, 2019
Exclusive: Interview with US presidential candidate
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: economics, genetics, geopolitics, life extension, policy, robotics/AI, transhumanism
Last week, the transhumanist activist Zoltan Istvan announced his candidacy for President of the United States in next year’s elections. The writer, humanitarian and outspoken advocate of radical science is no stranger to the issues surrounding Longevity, and has spoken widely on subjects including AI, genetic editing, technology policy, and futurism.
In 2016, Istvan ran as an independent presidential candidate and travelled across the United States, spreading his message from a coffin-shaped bus, known as the “Immortality Bus.” This time he’s on the ballot, running against Donald Trump as a candidate for the Republican party in next year’s primaries. Things are a bit more serious this time.
Among his key policies, Istvan includes transhumanism, universal basic income and the need to beat China in the global innovation race – an issue we addressed in our Jamie Metzl interview. We spoke to him to find out more about his views on the Longevity sector.