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Category: economics – Page 196

Antibiotic overuse is a ticking time bomb for Asia

Globally, antimicrobial resistance or AMR is becoming a core political, social and economic problem. The implications could never be more real than in Asia where, if no immediate action is taken, by 2050 about five million people are projected to die every year of conditions linked to bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics. This figure will be more than estimated cancer fatalities.

Katinka De Balogh says governments, individuals and health care professionals must all act to curb misuse before antibiotic-resistant bacteria creates a public health calamity.

Why the rise of the robots won’t mean the end of work

For now, at least, we have better things to worry about.

Sources:
https://economics.mit.edu/files/11563
https://www.aeaweb.org/full_issue.php?doi=10.1257/jep.29.3#page=33
http://voxeu.org/article/how-computer-automation-affects-occupations
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/f…150428.pdf
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/fi…conomy.PDF
https://www.vox.com/2015/7/27/9038829/automation-myth



https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Fut…oyment.pdf

Clips:






Recent advancements in artificial intelligence and robotics have commentators worrying about the coming obsolescence of the human worker. Some in Silicon Valley are even calling for a basic minimum income provided by the government for everyone, under the assumption that work will become scarce. But many economists are skeptical of these claims, because the notion that the economy offers a fixed amount of work has been debunked time and time again over the centuries and current economic data show no signs of a productivity boom. Fortunately, we don’t need to divine the future of the labor market in order to prepare for it.

Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what’s really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com to get up to speed on everything from Kurdistan to the Kim Kardashian app.

Moon, Mars, Asteroid and orbital colonzation and cities

He looked at the science and economics of a lunar colony.

Eighty-five percent of the rocks on the surface of the lunar highlands are anorthite, which contains aluminum as well as a massive supply of oxygen. Smelting aluminum in the quantities necessary to construct and maintain Artemis would produce so much excess oxygen—eight atoms for every two of aluminum—that they would be constantly venting it.

For every kilogram of payload, you need an additional 3.73 kilos of fuel. So a one-way ticket to the moon is calculated to eventually cost about $33,000.

U.S. officials are having a ‘Sputnik moment’ over AI innovation in China

Today’s Sputnik moment is China’s rapid growth as an economic and technological superpower. In 2017 alone, China has outpaced the United States in renewable energy efforts and has become the standard-bearer in combating climate change and advocacy for globalization. Similarly, China is rapidly moving towards taking the lead in technology from the United States and is looking at quantum computing and artificial intelligence as areas for growth to do so.

The Verge recently published an article citing Alphabet chief executive officer Eric Schmidt’s perspective that the United States is falling behind when it comes to research and development in artificial intelligence, particularly compared to the rapid pace of innovation that China has set in the field. Schmidt, who is also the chair of the Defense Innovation Advisory Board, gave those remarks as part of a discussion at The Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Summit held by The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a nonprofit think tank dedicated to research and analysis on how the United States can make informed policy-making decisions on national security and defense.

Uber announces LA will be the third city for UberAIR

Flying Ubers are coming to LA: Ride-sharing company links with NASA to bring 200mph electric aircraft to the city in 2020 and a flight will cost you the same as a car journey…

Uber’s Chief Product Officer, Jeff Holden, announced the plans at the global Web Summit in Lisbon today.

Mr Holden said: ‘Technology will allow LA residents to literally fly over the city’s historically bad traffic, giving them time back to use in far more productive ways.

‘At scale, we expect UberAIR will perform tens of thousands of flights each day across the city — at those levels, all the time savings will have a noticeable positive impact on the region’s economy.’

‘New Generation of Cities’: Riyadh to Build High-Tech Utopia in the Desert

Struggling to steer its economy away from oil dependence, Saudi Arabia announced an audacious plan to build a $500 billion super-city that is intended to become a world-class business hub.

Saudi Arabia is moving toward a “new generation of cities,” said Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince of the Middle Eastern kingdom, during one of his rare appearances before the press on October 24. The first of its kind, the city, to be named Neom, would be powered by green energy and have no room for “anything traditional,” he said.

Neom, an ambitious business hub, was promoted with a video clip showing happy people engaging in business, science, art, leisure, and showed men and women freely mixing in modern European clothes — something that is impossible in most of Saudi Arabia.

Cryonics: Putting Death on Ice

Robert C. W. Ettinger’s seminal work, The Prospect Of Immortality, detailed many of the scientific, moral, and economic implications of cryogenically freezing humans for later reanimation. It was after that book was published in 1962 that the idea of freezing one’s body after death began to take hold.

One of the most pressing questions is, even if we’re able to revive a person who has been cryogenically preserved, will the person’s memories and personality remain intact? Ettinger posits that long-term memory is stored in the brain as a long-lasting structural modification. Basically, those memories will remain, even if the brain’s “power is turned off”.

This infographic delves into the mechanics and feasibility of cryonics – a process that thousands of people are betting will give them a second shot at life.

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