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Archive for the ‘economics’ category: Page 166

Nov 3, 2016

World’s Largest Floating Solar Test Bed Comes Online in Singapore — By Within Coca | Triple Pundit

Posted by in categories: economics, energy, solar power, water

640px-merlion_and_the_singapore_skyline

“A new floating solar photovoltaic system in Singapore is just one hectare in size and is meant as a prototype. But it could help usher in a new wave of PV placements on water resources globally.”

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Nov 2, 2016

AMA: I’m Zoltan Istvan, a transhumanist US Presidential Candidate. Ask me anything!! : Futurology

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, cyborgs, economics, geopolitics, life extension, military, robotics/AI, transhumanism

Come “ask me anything” right now!!! I’m trying to answer all questions I get asked:


Hi Reddit,

Thank you for having me here. My name is Zoltan Istvan, and I’m a futurist, journalist, and science fiction writer. I’m also the 2016 Presidential candidate for the Transhumanist Party.

Continue reading “AMA: I’m Zoltan Istvan, a transhumanist US Presidential Candidate. Ask me anything!! : Futurology” »

Oct 31, 2016

China to launch first e-commerce satellite in 2017

Posted by in categories: economics, food, satellites

China plans to launch its first e-commerce satellite in 2017, with the primary purpose of using satellite data in agriculture.

The plan was announced on Monday during an international aviation and aerospace forum in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, China Aerospace Museum and Juhuasuan, an arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba.

“In an era of space economy, the potential of a commercial space industry is immeasurable,” Han Qingping, president of the Chinarocket Co., Ltd, said at the forum.

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Oct 31, 2016

Diminishing Bitcoin Mining Rewards

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, economics, internet, privacy

By now, most Bitcoin and Blockchain enthusiasts are aware of four looming issues that threaten the conversion of Bitcoin from an instrument of academics, criminal activity, and closed circle communities into a broader instrument that is fungible, private, stable, ubiquitous and recognized as a currency—and not just an investment unit or a transaction instrument.

These are the elephants in the room:

  • Unleashing high-volume and speedy transactions
  • Governance and the concentration of mining influence among pools, geography or special interests
  • Privacy & Anonymity
  • Dwindling mining incentives (and the eventual end of mining). Bitcoin’s design eventually drops financial incentives for transaction validation. What then?

As an Op-Ed pundit, I value original content. But the article, below, on Bitcoin fungibility, and this one on the post-incentive era, are a well-deserved nod to inspired thinking by other writers on issues that loom over the cryptocurrency community.

This article at Coinidol comes from an unlikely source: Jacob Okonya is a graduate student in Uganda. He is highly articulate, has a keen sense of market economics and the evolution of technology adoption. He is also a quick study and a budding columnist.

Continue reading “Diminishing Bitcoin Mining Rewards” »

Oct 31, 2016

Bitcoin Fungibility: A Benefit of privacy & anonymity

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, economics, internet, privacy

I was pointed to this article by Jon Matonis, Founding Director, Bitcoin Foundation. I was sufficiently moved to highlight it here at Lifeboat Foundation, where I am a contributing writer.

On Fungibility, Bitcoin, Monero and ZCash … [backup]

This is among the best general introductions I have come across on traceability and the false illusion of privacy. The explanation of coin mixing provides and coin_mixing-03excellent, quick & brief overview.

Regarding transaction privacy, a few alt-coins provide enhanced immunity or deniability from forensic analysis. But if your bet is on Bitcoin (as it must be), the future is headed toward super-mixing and wallet trading by desgin and by default. Just as the big email providers haved added secure transit,
Bitcoin will eventually be fully randomized and anonymized per trade and even when assets are idle. It’s not about criminals; it’s about protecting business, government and individuals. It’s about liberty and our freedoms. [Continue below image]

Continue reading “Bitcoin Fungibility: A Benefit of privacy & anonymity” »

Oct 29, 2016

How Smart Beta ETFs of the Future Will Use AI

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biological, computing, economics, finance, information science, quantum physics, robotics/AI

Anyone who does not have QC as part of their 5+Yr Roadmap for IT are truly exposing their company as well as shareholders and customers. China, Russia, Cartels, DarkNet, etc. will use the technology to extort victims, destroy companies, economies, and complete countries where folks have not planned, budget, skilled up, and prep for full replacement of their infrastructure and Net access. Not to mention companies who have this infrastructure will provide better services/ CCE to svc. consumers.


In a recent article, we highlighted a smart beta ETF called the “Sprott BUZZ Social Media Insights ETF” that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to select and weight stocks. If we stop and think about that for a moment, that’s a pretty cool use of AI that seems well ahead of its time. Now we’re not saying that you should go out and buy this smart beta ETF right away. It uses social media data. We know that on social media, everyone’s an expert and many of the opinions that are stated are just that, opinions. However some of the signals may be legitimate. Someone who just bought Apple is likely to go on telling everyone how bullish they are on Apple shares. Bullish behavior is often accompanied by bullish rhetoric. And maybe that’s exactly the point, but the extent to which we’re actually using artificial intelligence here is not that meaningful. Simple scripting tools go out and scrape all this public data and then we use natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to determine if the data artifacts have a positive or negative sentiment. That’s not that intelligent, is it? This made us start to think about what it would take to create a truly “intelligent” smart beta ETF.

What is Smart Beta?

Continue reading “How Smart Beta ETFs of the Future Will Use AI” »

Oct 28, 2016

How Economists View the Rise of Artificial Intelligence

Posted by in categories: computing, economics, robotics/AI

Machine learning will drop the cost of making predictions, but raise the value of human judgement.

To really understand the impact of artificial intelligence in the modern world, it’s best to think beyond the mega-research projects like those that helped Google recognize cats in photos.

According to professor Ajay Agrawal of the University of Toronto, humanity should be pondering how the ability of cutting edge A.I. techniques like deep learning —which has boosted the ability for computers to recognize patterns in enormous loads of data—could reshape the global economy.

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Oct 25, 2016

Opinion: Workers will simply try to survive, rather than prosper, as tech takes over the economy

Posted by in categories: economics, employment

An assumption was that new jobs in new industries would take up displaced workers — but that hasn’t happened, says Satyajit Das.

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Oct 23, 2016

MORGAN STANLEY: It is ‘under appreciated’ how devastating the world’s ageing population could be for the global economy

Posted by in categories: economics, life extension

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Oct 21, 2016

In NYC today I did a live interview at with Armand Aviram

Posted by in categories: economics, geopolitics, transhumanism

Lots of topics discussed including my campaign, transhumanism, and my support of a Universal Basic Income:


We’re with 2016 Presidential candidate, Zoltan Istvan, who is running under the Transhumanist Party. What’s transhumanism? Find out and let us know what your questions are for Zoltan.

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