Futurism – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Jan 26
2015

Coinbase releases first licensed US Bitcoin exchange; Winklevoss twins gear up to do the same

Armstrong and the Winklevoss twins have promising visions in securing Bitcoin exchange.

Bitcoin exchange Coinbase has brought innovation to the next level by opening the first ever licensed US Bitcoin exchange. Backed by $106 million from the New York Stock Exchange, banks, and venture-capital firms, Coinbase’s newly launched US exchange, said to be named Lunar, will provide greater security features; so as not to repeat the mistakes of Mt. Gox and Bitstamp, the former of which declared bankruptcy last year while the latter has sustained hacking attacks and is now back in the game.

Coinbase has already acquired licenses from 50% of the states in the country, which includes New York. The remaining 50% is still in the works and is necessary to complete to be able to provide full nationwide services. Also, Coinbase does not only look at expanding nationwide, it also looks at expanding worldwide in offering their Bitcoin-related services.

Of this plan, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said: “Our goal is to become the world’s largest exchange”.

For this vision to be realized, Coinbase must make sure that no security attacks will ever threaten the safety of every user’s bitcoins, which is something that the company seeks and proves to show.

On the other hand, Coinbase is not the only one that has the same vision. Entrepreneurs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, widely known for their work on Facebook, are also eyeing on the same project.

The twins have already taken the necessary steps such as hiring engineers, enlisting a bank, and engaging with regulators to begin the process of opening their own Bitcoin exchange in the next months to come. The exchange will be named Gemini, Latin for twins.

Despite the volatile prices and security attacks on other exchanges, the Winklevoss twins haven’t lost their confidence in bitcoins and the technology that powers it, which is why they consider a reliable and regulated exchange extremely necessary to bring bitcoins up on its feet again.

Jan 22
2015

Future of Work: Why Teaching Everyone to Code Is Delusional

By Nathaniel Calhoun –Singularity Hub

Since 2005, I’ve been grappling with the issue of what to teach young people. I’ve written curricula for junior high students in the US, for a UNICEF program reaching students in a dozen countries, and now, for East African young people as they become financially literate and business savvy.

Through the years, I’ve watched program directors demand young people focus on foolish content because it lined up with something trending in the public discourse—units on climate change; modules about using social media to share stories; lessons on agricultural policy; and so forth.

What have I learned? The attention of a young person is tremendously valuable. We should stop teaching them whatever makes us feel good and get honest about the next fifteen years.

Jan 20
2015

How Our Inventions Reinvent Us

By Jason Dorrier — Singularity Hub

In two recent videos, Jason Silva visits the idea of ontological design—that as we design our tools, so our tools design us in return. We devise and engineer computers and the internet, and now computers and the internet are remaking us.

Silva describes the process as endlessly circular, like the serpent eating its tail.

Why does this matter? Because, according to Silva, as we become aware of these feedback loops, we can design with more intention. Make spaces—homes, museums, skyscrapers, cities—in anticipation of how they’ll influence our brains.

Jan 19
2015

Bitcoins and Google Glass: Are They Heading For the Same Direction?

From Innovation to Oblivion…

The ups and downs of Bitcoin as an internet currency may be compared to the eventual demise of Google Glass due to its lack of purpose among consumers. While it does not significantly hold true for bitcoins, which apparently have a more supportive and enthusiastic followers, the path that these two have taken and will take may be substantially similar than we like to admit.

For one, Bitcoin’s staggering price decline in the recent days left some people wondering what road it will eventually take in the near future. Is it only taking a detour or is it bound for a dead end?

In the case of Google Glass, it received much attention during its inception a few years ago. It was even named by Time magazine one of the best innovations of 2012. However, despite the ingenuity behind a supposed-to-be groundbreaking invention, Google Glass lacked a tangible sense, its purpose incoherent.

Thus, after much speculation, Google recently announced that it would stop selling Glass and that the product would no longer be developed in their research division.

Will Bitcoin End Up Like Google Glass?

Google Glass and Bitcoin are connected by the revolutionary technology that made them a star in the first place. There was some genius work in each of the piece, there’s no doubt about that, but without a clear purpose of how to integrate each product into the mainstream society, it becomes pointless.

Fortunately, bitcoins may stand a chance. Though there’s a portion of the populace that thinks of bitcoins as the internet currency that’s only best suited for illegal activities, its original function, which is for faster and cheaper way of transacting online, still proves to be prevalent.

It’s true that bitcoins were way more fun before that they are now, but it cannot be denied that this cryptocurrency has opened doors for a myriad of possibilities and eliminated security vulnerabilities, in which financial institutions such as banks and credit card companies are relatively known for.

Unlike Google Glass, Bitcoin has a tangible sense, a coherent purpose, and a crystal-clear vision. That is to move around the internet with your money free from the control of the government or any institution. Since there’s nothing that precedes this work of art and technology, it has a chance of staying. Thus, Bitcoin’s game is far from over.

Jan 19
2015

If We Made ‘Back to the Future II’ Today: What Would 2045 Look Like?

By Jason Dorrier — Singularity Hub

It’s officially 2015, the year Marty McFly and Doc Brown visited in their souped up DeLorean time machine in Back to the Future Part II. There’s been a flurry of press comparing the iconic flick’s predictions to reality—and it got me thinking.

Let’s say Robert Zemeckis is making the movie today. He and cowriter Bob Gale are researching current trends in technology and projecting thirty years into the future. What vision do you think would emerge?

Jan 17
2015

IBM Reveals Proof of Concept for Blockchain-Powered Internet of Things

Quoted: “IBM has unveiled its proof of concept for ADEPT, a system developed in partnership with Samsung that uses elements of bitcoin’s underlying design to build a distributed network of devices – a decentralized Internet of Things. The ADEPT concept, or Autonomous Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Telemetry, taps blockchains to provide the backbone of the system, utilizing a mix of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake to secure transactions.”

Read the article here > http://www.coindesk.com/ibm-reveals-proof-concept-blockchain…et-things/

Jan 15
2015

5 Mind-Bending Sights: Finally, The Future Is Starting To Look Like We Thought It Would

By Steven Kotler — SingularityHUB

2015—that just sounds like the future, right. But does it look like the future? Because, that’s the thing, right—we all know technology is advancing at exponential rates. We are making soaring progress in a host of whiz-bang fields. But other than Tokyo, Times Square and, sometimes, Las Vegas from the right angle, the future doesn’t yet look like we thought the future would look.

But that is starting to change. Over the past few months, we’ve started to get clearer and clearer looks at the world that’s coming. Here are five of my favorites sights of tomorrow already here today:

Jan 13
2015

How the Year 2015 Is Depicted in Science Fiction

Motherboard

“We’re descending toward Hill Valley, California, at 4:29 PM, on Wednesday, October 21st, 2015,” Doc Brown announces in the opening scenes of Back to the Future II.

“2015? You mean we’re in the future?” exclaims Marty, apparently having forgotten that madcap time-distorting adventures are hardly out of character for the Doc.

What follows is one of the most influential depictions of the future ever conceived, in which flying cars, automated clothes, hydrated pizzas, and hoverboards are all entrenched staples. Since the arrival of the new year, a lot of people have expressed excitement that we have finally reached this benchmark age in science fiction. And it’s well-deserved press, because Back to the Future II is not only the most famous depiction of 2015, it’s also among the most widely known portrayals of the 21st century full stop.

Jan 7
2015

GM Overcoming Toyota & Ford Surmounting Honda, Unfailingly, For Life! By Mr. Andres Agostini

GM Overcoming Toyota & Ford Surmounting Honda, Unfailingly, For Life!

FIRST

The reason why Japanese automotive industry beat the U.S. car-makers is because, to them, it is an outright existential world to win and in the process spread a sense of Japanese exceptionalism.

They are fighting a most-lucrative World War merciless!

SECOND

The reason why car-makers in the U.S. can overcome the Japanese and German competition is a bit complicated.

THIRD

Except, perhaps for Apple, all Quality Assurance Methodologies in the U.S. manufactures designated to provide high-end products fail, and fail, and fail again.

FOURTH

However, when you see the Quality Assurance methodologies in the Military, you will notice the following:

(PER AS-OF-NOW RANKINGS)

America’s has the most-breathtaking quality in the Military, worldwide.

European quality is the second best in the Military, worldwide.

Israeli quality is the third best in the Military, worldwide.

Russian quality is the fourth best in the Military, worldwide.

Chinese quality is the fifth best in the Military, worldwide.

FIFTH

FOR AMERICAN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY TO BEST THE JAPANESE AND GERMAN, THROUGHPUTTING HIGH-END HAS TO BE CONSIDERED AS AN EXISTENTIAL REALPOLITIK GLOBAL WORLD, THAT SHOULD UPGRADED EVERY STANDARD AND PRACTICES, BY MOST CAREFULLY OBSERVING AND INSTITUTING THE STANDARDS AND PRACTICES OF THE U.S. MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX’S FIRST THREE (3) PRIVATE CONTRACTORS.

SIXTH

The day that American Automotive Industry starts to manufacture cars like most-complex state-of the-art weapons, the foreign car-makers will go bankrupt and the profits and jobs will be back to America.

SEVENTH

America makes the best PRODUCTS IN THE WORLD when it fears a massive stream of Sputniks. Otherwise, U.S. citizens go back to their zone of comfort and assume that the World is most characterized by RUTHLESS IMPERMANENCE.

THEREBY:

AND NOTA BENE, IT MUST BE, INCESSANTLY AND FOREVER, ACKNOWLEDGED:

Exactly like Andres Agostini, Egotistical Prima Donna (SkunkWorks practitioner) is no longer a captive to history.

Exactly like Andres Agostini, Whatever he, she can imagine, he, she can accomplish.

Exactly like Andres Agostini, Egotistical Prima Donna (SkunkWorks practitioner) is no longer a vassal in a faceless bureaucracy, he, she is an activist, not a drone.

Exactly like Andres Agostini, Egotistical Prima Donna (SkunkWorks practitioner) is no longer a foot soldier in the march of progress.

Exactly like Andres Agostini, Egotistical Prima Donna (SkunkWorks practitioner) is a Revolutionary! … ”

ABSOLUTE END.

Authored By Copyright Mr. Andres Agostini

White Swan Book Author (Source of this Article)

http://www.LINKEDIN.com/in/andresagostini

http://www.AMAZON.com/author/agostini

https://www.FACEBOOK.com/heldenceo (Other Publications)

http://LIFEBOAT.com/ex/bios.andres.agostini

http://ThisSUCCESS.wordpress.com

https://www.FACEBOOK.com/agostiniandres

http://www.appearoo.com/aagostini

http://connect.FORWARDMETRICS.com/profile/1649/Andres-Agostini.html

https://www.FACEBOOK.com/amazonauthor

http://FUTURE-OBSERVATORY.blogspot.com

http://ANDRES-AGOSTINI-on.blogspot.com

http://AGOSTINI-SOLVES.blogspot.com

@AndresAgostini

@ThisSuccess

@SciCzar

Jan 7
2015

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL AWAKEN, YET CONDITIONALIZED CONSCIOUSNESS AS PER NON-GIRLIE U.S. HARD ROCKET SCIENTISTS! By Mr. Andres Agostini

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL AWAKEN, YET CONDITIONALIZED CONSCIOUSNESS AS PER NON-GIRLIE U.S. HARD ROCKET SCIENTISTS!

(Excerpted from the White Swan Book)

Sequential and Progressive Tidbits as Follows:

SEQUENTIAL AND PROGRESSIVE TIDBIT # 1 OF # 5

” .… Consciousness is the process of creating a model of the world using multiple feedback loops in various parameters (e.g., in temperature, space, time, and in relation to others), in order to accomplish a goal (e.g., find mates, food, shelter)…”

SEQUENTIAL AND PROGRESSIVE TIDBIT # 2 OF # 5

” … Human consciousness is a specific form of consciousness that creates a model of the world (Weltanchaung ) and then simulates it in time [there is to say: RAND Corporation’s Dr. Strangeloves’s Scenario-Planning Methodology], by evaluating the past time to simulate the future [never by retrospection but acute prospections]. This requires mediating and evaluating many feedback loops [at times, also including close-loop feedbacks], with the [strategic] end to make a [sound and sustainably profitable] decision to [concomitantly] achieve a [driven by numerical data] goal and an [driven by narrative data] objective …”

SEQUENTIAL AND PROGRESSIVE TIDBIT # 3 OF # 5

” … The greatest achievement of the human brain is its ability to imagine [via outright scientific futuring] objects and episodes that do not exist in the realm of the real [, which is also to say in the PERCEIVED Corporate Theater of Operations], and it is this ability [and capability] that allows [and empowers] us to think about the future. As one philosopher noted, the human brain is an ’ …anticipation machine …’ [that is to say, a biological foresighting and farsighting apparatus] and ’ …making the future …’ [creating the desired output] is the most important thing it does …”

SEQUENTIAL AND PROGRESSIVE TIDBIT # 4 OF # 5

Dr. Gamel Hamel, a great U.S. citizen, is, as per my understanding, America’s top I.Q. #25. He was the CEO to Strategos and currently a prominent scholar and he is fully-tenured Professor Gary Hamel, PhD. at pervasive London Business School. Hamel, incessantly, pays a great deal of attention to REALITY and the quote below, excerpted in the White Swan book, is used by him frequently.

VERBATIM:

“… [He] tells a wonderful little story about how he came to recognize this deep truth: On the third day of a conference at a Buddhist center, I asked people why they put their palms together several times a day. THE BUDDHISTS BELIEVE THAT THE WORLD IS AN ILLUSION, BUT WE HAVE TO GO ALONG WITH THE ILLUSION FOR EFFICIENCY REASONS. When they put their hands together it is a semicolon, an acknowledgment that whatever they may think is going on right now is largely a fabrication of their own mind…”

TO UNDERPIN ALL OF THE ABOVE, BUT ESPECIALLY SEQUENTIAL AND PROGRESSIVE TIDBIT # 4, THIS MUST AS WELL BE OBSERVED:

AS THE GREAT VICTORIAN BIOLOGIST THOMAS HUXLEY (4 MAY 1825 – 29 JUNE 1895) ONCE SAID,

” …The question of all questions for humanity, the problem which lies behind all others and is more interesting than any of them, IS THAT OF THE DETERMINATION OF MAN’S PLACE IN NATURE AND HIS RELATION TO THE COSMOS [THE ULTIMATE ATEMPORAL AND ASPATIAL ZENITH OF AWAKEN CONSCIOUSNESS AND HENCE INTELLIGENCE AND WISDOM] …” (ASIN: B00KMY0DLK).

SEQUENTIAL AND PROGRESSIVE TIDBIT # 5 OF # 5

BY THE WAY, COUNTER-INTUITIVENESS AND SIXTH SENSE AND ETHICS AND INTEGRITY HAVE NO GENDER.

To shed some light, I will also share two quotes as well.

NEVERTHELESS, THE PANCHATANTRA (BODY OF EASTERN PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE) ESTABLISHES,

“… Knowledge is the true organ of sight, not the eyes [neither combined with and through the pineal gland] … ”

AND ANTONIO MACHADO ARGUES,

“… An eye is not an eye because you see it; an eye is an eye because it sees you …”

Managers always need a clear-eyed and lucid pineal gland’s knowledgeable and knowledge-injected vision.

DID YOU ALREADY CONNECT THE DOTS STEMMING FROM THE PANCHATANTRA AND MACHADO?

Did you already integrate those dots into your marshable gestalt’s big-picture vista?

As side effect, British Prime Minister W. E. Gladstone considered,

“…You cannot fight against the future…”