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VICTORY!

VICTORY: Getting Fortune-500 Prospective Client’s Cash, Continually and Successfully! By Mr. Andres Agostini at www.linkedin.com/in/AndresAgostini

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS ACCORDING TO THESE COMPANIES:

Mitsubishi Motors, Honda, Daimler-Chrysler’s Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company, Google, Xerox, Exxon-Mobil, Boeing, Amazon, Procter & Gamble, NASA and DARPA, Lockheed Martin, RAND Corporation and HUDSON Institute, Northrop Grumman Corporation, etc.

FIRST. You fully study the corporation’s story and current culture and lexicon.

SECOND. You fully study the corporation’s financial and legal and compliance and tax standing.

THIRD. If the corporation is publicly traded, you strongly look into this.

FOURTH. You fully study the corporation’s industry and all of its competitors.

FIFTH. If the industry to which belongs the designated corporation is facing an extraordinary unforeseen challenge, make a long executive presentation for the middle-management executives, fully acknowledging the details of said challenge and suggesting, as per authoritative authors in the subject matter, a well-organized myriad of viable fundamental solutions.

At all times, you are to make this executive presentation like a presentation to a sacred university professor and classroom, hence an institutional one only, and not a marketing one as you objective is to break the ice with your targeted corporate client ONLY through meaningfulness, utility, relevance, and purposefulness.

In no slide you would mention your name, but in your solemn business cards.

Throughout this executive presentation, you will NEVER be addressing any theme natural to your Core Business’ Products and/or Services, but in your solemn business cards.

(Commentary to FIFTH. Why does it have to be a long executive presentation? I will respond through Napoleon Bonaparte’s best practices.

Every time a General (Manager) under his Command would give him a one-page letter (memo, slide), Napoleon would say to his General in question,

“…General (Manager), you are to wage a grave military campaigns full of dynamics and details … I want to KNOW everything at all in advance, every detail at all, large or tiny, in order for me to issue my most-detailed commanding plans for your campaign …”

Frequently, Napoleon would dishonorably discharge this General (Manager) or have his head role for incompetence, incompetence is another word for people with a Mind “Engaged” in worshiping The Least Mental Effort, thus repudiating the “extra mile” effort.

Clearly, Napoleon, during his life time and early on, heavily warns against Corporate America CEOs wanting JUST a 1-page memo delivered via email.

SIXTH. Then, you call the prospective corporate client’s P.R. person Or Communications officer and tell them about what you would like to do.

You send a letter with a summary of your presentation via FEDEX. They will give you a time and board room for your presentation, to be received by the corporation’s middle-level and supervisory-level management workers.

SEVENTH. Once you drive you car to the corporation’s office, pay extreme attention to (first) the lower-level security personnel, (second) the front-desk receptionist, and, if possible, and (third) to the great janitorial staff.

Get extremely respectful with them and treat them as the Chairman and become a bit friendly as you try to get the company’s ethos’s by and through the lower-level security personnel, the front-desk receptionist, and the great janitorial staff.

Listen and mind-record their word types and wording construes most carefully.

In my case, by observing the front-desk receptionist for ten (10) minutes, I can tell you exactly what type of corporate culture there is about my coping with, much more importantly than those confidential underground reports by Wall Street Bankers and Trader.

EIGTH. Before starting the executive presentation, say to the audience that you would like to introduce yourself to each one of them and shake their hands, to bring about much more psychological proximity and fore-acceptance.

Then, explain the order of your executive presentation. Second, with great care, deliver the presentation without attacking people, institutions, or even ideas.

Use, with extreme care and utility, their parlance and corporate culture at all times while you get, from A to Z, very solemnly.

Once you have thoroughly and calmly finished your executive presentation, use the Lee Iaccoca’s rule and say,

“ …okay, we have completed this executive presentation and through it we saw this, that, x, y, z,…” in a summarized way.

Give them now boundaryless time and psychological space to ask you zillion questions in the Q-and-A.

Ascertain to respond fully, accurately, on the point and with NONE MANIPULATION at all. If there is something that you do not know, tell them, research the answer fully, and get back with the answer via FEDEX-ed hard-copy.

Once you have responded all of the questions, give them an exact copy of the Executive Presentation, with the additional attachment of the authoritative literature you used in your evidence-based research.

Do this in hard-copy only and put it a nice white envelope. You give one package to each attendee and give the P.R. Manager three or four more for the CEO and the Board Members.

NINE. If you followed through to ULTIMATE PERFECTION, points #1 through #8, step by step, you will see them ask you something along these lines,

“…Okay, Mr. A, we like you evidence-based research and executive presentation and wonder who in the marketplace could offer these solutions to us …” Without being or sounding desperate, you will say quickly and softly, “… Our Company can fully take care of those for you …”

And the idea now is that you go from a Pro Bono Executive Presentation into a formal for-business conversation with your prospective corporate client.

As the formal conversation begins, as per my long experience, tell them kindly that in parallel you want to fulfill the corporation’s Guidelines to become a Registered Contractor as per your company’s Lines of Professional Practice.

Also in parallel, ask the mid-level managers that you are formally talking to that you would like to gain more familiarity by doing some small talk with lower-level employees, including the lower-level security and janitorial staff.

Put in writing a detailed overview and hand to him or her personally.

Sometimes these folks know the corporation better than the CEO.

THEN, FOLLOW THROUGH THESE PRACTICAL TENETS CONDUCIVE TO OUTRIGHT VICTORY:

(1.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Procter & Gamble, talk to them through the notions of and by Process Re-engineering.

(2.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at GE, talk to them through the notions of and by Six Sigma, and Peter F. Drucker’s Management by Objective (MBO). While you are with them, remember to commend on the Jack Welch’ and Jeff Immelt’s master lectures at GE’s Crotonville.

(3.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at RAND Corporation and HUDSON Institute, talk to them through the notions of and by Herman Khan’s (Dr. Strangeloves’) Scenario Methodology.

(4.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at Mitsubishi Motors and Honda and Daimler-Chrysler’s Mercedes-Benz and Maytag, talk to them through the notions of and by Kaisen.

(5.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at NASA and DARPA and the Industrial-Military Complex, talk to them through the notions of and by Systems Approach with the Perspective of Applied Non-Theological Omniscience. And, also, want to get funded by DARPA? How? The pathway is extremely easy and promissory. Just give them an unimpeachable real-life demonstration of how to “violate” the Laws of Physics correctly and frequently, for Life!

(6.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at Lockheed Martin, talk to them through the notions of and by Lean, Six Sigma and Skunk Works.

(7.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at Toyota, talk to them through the notions of and by Toyota Production System (methodology). Please remember: TPS is also known as “…Thinking People System…”

(8.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at Royal Dutch Shell, talk to them through the notions of and by Pierre Wack’s Scenario Methodology.

(9.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at Mayo Clinic, talk to them through the notions of and by Dr. Joseph Juran’s (Total Quality Assurance) Prescription (ISBN: 978–0787900960).

Also remember to conjointly speak, at all times, of efficiency, productivity, and ROI as it stems in the incessant real-time reckoning of man-hours per patient cured and healed.

To this end, you might wish to peruse this great title: The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management by Peter F. Drucker (ISBN: 978–0061345012).

(10.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at Google, talk to them through the notions of and by Strong Quantum Supercomputing and Human-Death Reverse-Engineering, as well as Curing Human Death.

(11.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at Xerox, talk to them through the notions of and by PARC (Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated).

(12.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at ExxonMobil, talk to them through the notions of and by Efficiency and Productivity as well as Return On Investment (ROI) per Petroleum Barrel produced (outputted), and Project Management.

(13.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at Boeing, talk to them through the notions of and by Aerospace Engineering, Avionics, Systems Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Safety Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.

(14.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence), talk to them through the notions of and by Superintelligence entrenched, in “… plain sight…,” in the covert ad infinitum realm of Dark Energy and Dark Matter.

(15.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at Loyd’s of London, Swiss RE, Munich RE, and Allianz, talk to them through the notions of and by Minimax, Statistics, Actuarial Science, Predictive Analytics, and Systems Engineering.

(16.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at Amazon, talk to them through the notions of and by Low-Cost And High-End Online Commerce, Content Creation, Hi-Tech, Quadcopters (Commercial Flying Drones), and Eternal Staggering Innovation. Don’t forget to mention the Mechanical Turk.

(17.- of 17 ).- If you want to seize the undivided attention of top executives at Northrop Grumman Corporation, talk to them through the notions of and by State of the Art: Quality, Continuous Improvement, Customer Satisfaction, Leadership (Man-Management and Statesmanship), Integrity, People, Suppliers, Sound Business Management, “…Best in Class…” Products and Services, and how to preemptively countermeasure Chinese penetrations and otherwise of both commercial and government networks in the United States.

NOTE: I know great c-suite consulting incumbents and other professional service providers who want to get the undivided attention of 90% of the CEOs above at once.

The majority of those CEOs are august applied scientists. They are only into applied scientific management. Ergo, they really need to get ready to be multidimensional and cross-functional and multifarious.

There is, NEVER EVER, no Internet resource, nor an online book or article giving you this most-profound advice/

Authored By Copyright Mr. Andres Agostini
White Swan Book Author
www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini
www.amazon.com/author/Agostini

FUTURISM UPDATE (September 22, 2014)

FUTURISM UPDATE (September 22, 2014)

THE INDEPENDENT: A SpaceX cargo ship rocketed toward the International Space Station yesterday, carrying the first 3D printer for astronauts in orbit. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/postcard-from-cape-c…47380.html

3D PRINTING: 3D Re-Printer Concept – All-in-one Plastic Recycling 3D Printer http://3dprint.com/15103/3d-re-printer/

FOREIGN POLICY: Stuff I didn’t know: Earth’s rotation affects the accuracy of long-range shells http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/09/19/stuff_i_didn…nge_shells

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM: How printable organs will change the future of medicine http://forumblog.org/2014/08/3d-bioprinting-changing-medicin…ign=buffer

Rowbot Robot Tends to Farmers’ Fields http://www.21stcentech.com/rowbot-robot-farmers-fields/

THE ECONOMIST: How Alibaba measures up. China’s big e-commerce site dominates its American peers. http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21619213-…easures_up

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM: What makes Switzerland so competitive? http://forumblog.org/2014/09/makes-switzerland-competitive/?…ign=buffer

THE ECONOMIST: The internet of things. Home, hacked home. The perils of connected devices. http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21606420-perils…acked-home

THE ECONOMIST: The language of the internet of things. More and more devices are becoming connected, but will they speak the same language? http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21615067-…speak-same

FINANCIAL TIMES: The Connected Business. Need-to-know: A guide to the internet of things. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/daf3a2e8-bbc9-11e2-82df-00144feab7de.html

RREUTERS: Exclusive: Siemens near deal to buy Dresser-Rand — sources www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/22/us-siemens-dresser-rand-g…sinessNews

REUTERS: Exclusive: Iran seeks give and take on Islamic State militants, nuclear program http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/22/us-iran-nuclear-ex…YN20140922

REUTERS: SoftBank estimates $4.6 billion gain from Alibaba listing http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/21/us-softbank-alibab…8A20140921

REUTERS: Facebook’s Oculus unveils new virtual reality prototype device http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/20/us-facebook-oculus…L120140920

REUTERS: Rocket Internet CEO stands to lift stake via options: report http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/20/us-rocketinternet-…F820140920

MORE WWIII. MOSCOW TIMES: One-Fifth of Russia’s Oil Production Is at Risk Due to Sanctions http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/one-fifth-of-…07474.html

MOSCOW TIMES: Russia’s Banks Make ‘Colossal’ Efforts to Find Funding as Sanctions Bite http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russia-s-bank…07465.html

MOSCOW TIMES: Russian Strategic Bombers Approached U.S. Borders http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-strategic…07475.html

THE ECONOMIST: The internet of things (to be hacked). Hooking up gadgets to the web promises huge benefits. But security must not be an afterthought. http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21606829-hooking-up-ga…Id=8786768

INC: 3 Things Entrepreneurs Need to Learn from Joan Rivers http://www.inc.com/quora/3-things-entrepreneurs-need-to-lear…ivers.html

CISCO: What is the Internet of Everything? http://www.cisco.com/web/tomorrow-starts-here/ioe/index.html

TIME: The Next Big Thing for Tech: The Internet of Everything http://time.com/539/the-next-big-thing-for-tech-the-internet-of-everything/

FORBES: How The Internet Of Everything Transforms Traditional Industries http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2014/07/29/how-the-in…ndustries/

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM: Climate targets have failed. Time to try something new http://forumblog.org/2014/07/climate-change-technology-jeffr…ign=buffer

THE ECONOMIST: Bioethics. It’s not about miracles or monsters. A hands-on look at some hard, practical questions in bioethics http://www.economist.com/node/1131202

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: ISIS Goes to Asia. Extremism in the Middle East Isn’t Only Spreading West http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/142004/joseph-chinyon…es-to-asia

GIZMODO: A Common Bacteria Can Be Injected Directly Into Tumors to Fight Cancer http://gizmodo.com/a-common-bacteria-can-be-injected-directl…1621189270

WASHINGTON POST: The coming era of unlimited — and free — clean energy http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/09/1…an-energy/
_____________________________________________

By Mr. Andres Agostini
www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini
www.amazon.com/Author/Agostini

FUTURISM UPDATE (September 21, 2014)

FUTURISM UPDATE (September 21, 2014)

GE INTELLIGENT PLATFORMS: High-performance Automation for a Connected World http://www.ge-ip.com/future-of-industrial-automation

CNN: View from Russia: Could Putin be in Obama’s ‘broad coalition’ against ISIS? http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/18/opinion/isis-obama-putin-n…?hpt=hp_c1

YAHOO NEWS: Russian fighters intercepted by U.S. near Alaska http://news.yahoo.com/six-russian-fighters-intercepted-us-ne…07256.html

YAHOO NEWS: Russian fighters intercepted by U.S. near Alaska http://news.yahoo.com/six-russian-fighters-intercepted-us-ne…07256.html

GLOBAL NEWS: Canadian and U.S. jets intercepted Russian planes over Arctic: Norad http://globalnews.ca/news/1573811/canadian-and-u-s-jets-inte…tic-norad/

NOT THE WORLD, BUT NATO AND THE MIDDLE EAST. CNN: Is the world going nuts? http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/19/opinion/zakaria-world-nuts…?hpt=hp_t5

FOX NEWS: F-22 fighters intercept Russian military planes 55 miles off Alaska http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/09/20/f-22-fighters-intercept…ff-alaska/

RT: Spare parts in space: NASA to send ISS its first 3D printer http://rt.com/news/189324-3d-space-printer-iss/

NASA: 3D Printing: Food in Space http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/home/feature_3d_food_prt.htm

NASA: 3D Printing In Zero-G Technology Demonstration (3D Printing In Zero-G) http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1115.html

SPACE COM: How NASA Is Launching 3D Printing Into Space http://www.space.com/24599-nasa-launches-3d-printing-in-space.html

GIZMODO: NASA Is Blasting the First 3D Printer Into Space Tonight http://gizmodo.com/nasa-is-blasting-the-first-3d-printer-int…1636978871

THE VERGE: The International Space Station is about to get its first 3D printer http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/19/6538231/nasa-is-about-to-s…into-space

CBS: A Pill To Treat Concussions Is On The Way http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2014/09/18/a-pill-to-treat-con…n-the-way/

FORBES: These Are Not Your Father’s Solar Panels http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymyler/2014/05/20/global-eff…ar-panels/

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE: A Map of Rosetta’s Comet https://www.mps.mpg.de/3788997/PM_2014_09_08_Eine_Karte_des_Rosetta-Kometen

THE ECONOMIC TIMES: Bill Gates meets Narendra Modi, lauds focus on sanitation and banking for poor http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation…?adcode=13

TIMES UNION: Russia — China relations“Russia reorients to the Orient” New monthly memo from Russia Direct http://www.timesunion.com/news/world/article/China-leader-in…760713.php

TIMES OF INDIA: It takes a solar lantern to change destinies http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/It-takes-a-so…027767.cms

NEWS INDIA: U.S. seeks ‘talk and trade’ to rebuild India ties http://newsindiatimes.com/u-s-seeks-talk-and-trade-to-rebuild-india-ties/

BUSINESS INSIDER: Two Big Trends Will Fuel The Renewable Energy Boom For Years http://www.businessinsider.com/trends-fueling-renewable-ener…z3DuDEq8Rp

BUSINESS INSIDER: This Startup Is Replacing Phone And Tablet Batteries With Invisible Solar Panels http://www.businessinsider.com/ubiquitous-energy-invisible-s…z3DuDeumGJ

BUSINESS INSIDER: 9 Signs That Americans Will See Solar Power Everywhere Within The Decade http://www.businessinsider.com/rise-of-solar-power-2013-5?op=1

BUSINESS INSIDER: What If Giant Space-Based Solar Panels Could Beam Unlimited Power To The Earth? http://www.businessinsider.com/space-based-solar-panels-coul…2014-7

Could the U.S. Military Be a Catalyst for Solar Energy? http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/05/13/could-the-u…-ener.aspx

THE GUARDIAN: Solar energy cells you can print out catching commercial eye, says CSIRO www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/solar-energy-cells-you…says-csiro

THE GUARDIAN: Focus on the facts – wind energy works http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/08/wind-energy-works-turbines

BBC: Generating electricity from wind power http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/generating-electrici…/6616.html

BBC: Cheap solar energy http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/w…ower.shtml

_____________________________________________
FUTURE OBSERVATORY

By Mr. Andres Agostini
www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini
www.amazon.com/Author/Agostini

FUTURISM UPDATE (September 20, 2014)

FUTURISM UPDATE (September 20, 2014)

DARPA: President Obama Highlights New DARPA Program Aimed at Developing Novel Therapies Customized to Individual Patients http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2014/08/26.aspx

Rising Tides – Mitigation versus Consternation http://www.21stcentech.com/rising-tides-mitigation-consternation/

REUTERS: North Korea says imprisoned American tried to become ‘second Snowden’ http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/20/us-northkorea-usa-…0B20140920

REUTERS: French jets strike in Iraq, expanding U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/19/us-iraq-crisis-idUSKBN0HE0Y420140919

REUTERS: Other automakers to challenge Tesla in over-the-air software upgrades http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/19/us-tesla-motors-so…HL20140919

BLOOMBERG: Al-Qaeda Spokesman Admits Embassy Plot as Judge Questions Deal http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-19/al-qaeda-em…ioned.html

BLOOMBERG: Protecting the Power Grid From Malware That Doesn’t Exist Yet http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-18/protecting-…t-yet.html

KAI: A long-lasting, water-based nuclear-energy-powered battery http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-long-lasting-water-based-nuclear…ed-battery

KAI: A new impermeable form of graphene oxide could be the ultimate protective coating http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-new-impermeable-form-of-graphene…ve-coating

KAI: Car hacking: who’s monitoring (or controlling) your car? http://www.kurzweilai.net/car-hacking-whos-monitoring-or-controlling-your-car

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW: 3-D Printing Will Change the World http://hbr.org/2013/03/3-d-printing-will-change-the-world/

SLATE: A Very Matter-of-Fact Interview About the Russian Tradition of Arresting Billionaires and Taking Their Stuff http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/09/19/vladimir_y…ments.html

BBC: Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania form joint military unit http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29284548

BBC: Six Russian fighter jets intercepted off Alaska http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29288277

HUFF POST: Canadian fighter jets intercept Russian bombers in Arctic http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/09/19/canadian-fighter-jet…;ir=Canada

DESIGN ENGINEERING: NASA’s JPL develops multi-metal 3D printing process http://www.design-engineering.com/general/nasas-jpl-develops…ess-132113

NASA: Printing the Metals of the Future http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-247

BBC: eBay security flaw has existed for months http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29279213

SCIENCE MAG: Gene therapy helps weak mice grow strong http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/09/gene-therapy-help…row-strong

LA TIMES: A theory for toddlers’ turbo-charged learning style. The lack of a fully formed prefrontal cortex — the section of the brain that keeps an adult ‘on task’ — may help young kids accumulate knowledge rapidly, a study suggests. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/07/health/la-he-toddler7-2009dec07

(CNN) — 2 US. jets intercepted six Russian planes that neared U.S. airspace off Alaska on Thursday and Canadian planes intercepted 2 Russian bombers that approached Canadian airspace, NORAD reported. http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/19/us/russian-plane-incidents/index.html

MOSCOW TIMES: Putin Seeks Ways to Cut Russia Off From the Internet http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/putin-seeks-w…07449.html

PEW RESEARCH: AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/08/06/future-of-jobs/

Internet of Everything is a $4.6 trillion opportunity for global public-sector organizations over the next decade http://internetofeverything.cisco.com/learn/value-stake-public-sector

NATURE AND SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: The Long Slow Rise of Solar and Wind http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v310/n1/ful…45;52.html

NATURE: Economics: Manufacture renewables to build energy security http://www.nature.com/news/economics-manufacture-renewables-…ty-1.15847

WALL STREET JOURNAL: GlaxoSmithKline Found Guilty of Bribery in China http://online.wsj.com/articles/glaxosmithkline-found-guilty-…1411114817

ADAGE: Hey, CMO: Larry Ellison and Oracle Want Your Business As Tech Titans Race to Dominate the Marketing Cloud, Oracle and Others Are Courting the New Decision Makers — You http://adage.com/article/btob/hey-cmo-larry-ellison-oracle-b…1411659572

PHYS ORG: Quick-change materials break the silicon speed limit for computers http://phys.org/news/2014-09-quick-change-materials-silicon-limit.html#jCp

ECONOMICALLY, EXPECT ZERO. PEW RESEARCH: World Remains Glum about Economic Prospects http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/09/19/world-remains-glum-about-economic-prospects/

PEW RESEARCH CENTER: Global Public Downbeat about Economy. Many Wary of the Future and the Present. http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/09/09/global-public-downbeat-about-economy/

BLOOMBERG: Pena Nieto Heads to New York After Energy Overhaul Moves http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-19/pena-nieto-…entum.html

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Chinese Views of India: Culturally Rich but Backward http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/09/18/chinese-views-…-backward/

PEW RESEARCH: Indians Reflect on Their Country & the World. Troubled by Economic Problems, Corruption, Pakistan and China. www.pewglobal.org/2014/03/31/indians-reflect-on-their-country-the-world/

BUSINESS INSIDER: Alibaba Is Already The Fourth Most Valuable Technology Company In The World http://www.businessinsider.com/alibaba-is-already-the-fourth…z3DpXE42qS

THE NATO CONSEQUENCES. BREAKING DEFENSE: Army Scrambles On 4 Continents: Odierno Previews New Doctrine http://breakingdefense.com/2014/09/army-scrambles-on-4-conti…-doctrine/

FUTURISM UPDATE (September 19, 2014)


FUTURISM UPDATE (September 19, 2014)

WALL STREET JOURNAL: It’s Time to Take Artificial Intelligence Seriously. No Longer an Academic Curiosity, It Now Has Measurable Impact on Our Lives http://online.wsj.com/articles/its-time-to-take-artificial-i…1408922644

Blue Origin to Replace Russia’s RD-180 for U.S. Rocket Flights http://www.21stcentech.com/blue-origin-replace-russias-rd-18…t-flights/

CBSNEWS: Popular Science picks best inventions for 2014 http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/popular-science-picks-best-inventions-for-2014/

BUSINESS INSIDER: World Bank: Economic Impact Of Ebola Outbreak Could Be ‘Catastrophic’ http://www.businessinsider.com/world-bank-ebola-could-be-cat…z3Di1nviFA

BUSINESS INSIDER: A Declassified CIA Paper Shows How Close The US And The Soviets Really Came To War In 1983 http://www.businessinsider.com/how-close-the-us-and-the-sovi…z3Di2QFSAu

BUSINESS INSIDER: Scientists Have Detected A New Stellar Explosion That Might Be A Supernova http://www.businessinsider.com/supernova-candidate-explosion…z3Di2pCdGE

THE ECONOMIST: The rise and rise of Xi Jinping. Xi who must be obeyed www.economist.com/news/leaders/21618780-most-powerful-and-po…-wisely-xi

KAI: Capturing the motion of a single molecule in real time as it oscillates from one quantum state to another http://www.kurzweilai.net/capturing-the-motion-of-a-single-m…to-another

KAI: Measuring the motion patterns of bacteria in real time http://www.kurzweilai.net/and-so-they-beat-on-flagella-against-the-cantilever

KAI: Twisting radio beams to transmit ultra-high-speed data http://www.kurzweilai.net/twisting-radio-beams-to-transmit-ultra-high-speed-data

NATURE: Machine learning approaches to genomics http://www.nature.com/encode/threads/machine-learning-approaches-to-genomics

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE: Intelligent Systems: Perception — Action — Learning http://www.is.mpg.de/research

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE: Machine Learning — Pioneering Research Network http://www.is.mpg.de/15591077/Maschinen-das-Lernen-lehren

WIRED: A Military-Grade Drone That Can Be Printed Anywhere http://www.wired.com/2014/09/military-grade-drone-can-printe…=social_fb

REUTERS: Alibaba IPO prices at top of range, raising $21.8 billion http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/18/us-alibaba-ipo-idUSKBN0HD2CO20140918

REUTERS: SAP agrees to buy expense software maker Concur for $7.3 billion http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/18/us-concur-tech-sap…N220140918

REUTERS: Qualcomm shows off robot technology, but mum on China dispute http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/18/us-qualcomm-robots…LA20140918

BLOOMBERG: Alibaba Overtakes Amazon as Most Highly Valued Online Retailer http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-18/alibaba-ove…ailer.html

FORBES: FDA Approves Lilly’s Once-Weekly Shot For Diabetes http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryhusten/2014/09/18/fda-appro…um=twitter

FAST COMPANY: WHAT PAYPAL’S VP OF TECHNOLOGY LEARNED FROM FACING ADVERSITY http://www.fastcompany.com/3035876/strong-female-lead/what-p…-adversity

THE ECONOMIST: MANAGEMENT thinkers have paid surprisingly little attention to how Chinese firms are run. http://www.economist.com/news/business/21616974-chinese-mana…china_wave

FINANCIAL TIMES: Lotus to cut workforce by more than a quarter http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/00758d68-3f51-11e4-984…z3Dinet9ol

AMERICAN SCIENTIST: Computers get faster every year, but Seth Lloyd thinks he has the limit finally in sight. http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/seth-lloyd

IEEE Spectrum: Wine Critics Watch Out: Artificial Tongues Are Getting Better http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/biomedical/devices/pucker…sting-test

SCIENCE DAILY: First blood test to diagnose depression in adults http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140917121229.htm

PHYS ORG: Spacesuits of the future may resemble a streamlined second skin http://phys.org/news/2014-09-spacesuits-future-resemble-skin.html

PHYS ORG: World population to keep growing this century, hit 11 billion by 2100 http://phys.org/news/2014-09-world-population-century-billion.html

ENGINEERING: Airbus Patents a VRHelmet to Make Flying LessAgonizing www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEdgeArticles/Articl…izing.aspx

ENGINEERING: Harvard Awarded DARPA Exosuit Contract http://www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEdgeArticles…tract.aspx

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE: New 3D-image modelling technology enables anyone to have a 3D digital doppelgänger http://www.mpg.de/7975368/bodylab-3D-modelling-technology

THE ATLANTIC: What Happens When We All Live to 100? http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/09/what-hap…00/379338/

NEW SCIENTIST: Quantum internet could keep us safe from spying eyes http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329873.000-quantum-i…BuhfhYb8mw

NATURE: Need an organ? Just print some stem cells in 3D http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729035.600-need-an-o…BuiUxYb8mw

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: 3-D Printing for the Masses. A rapid-prototyping service opens up technology to hobbyists and designers. http://www.technologyreview.com/news/410536/3-d-printing-for-the-masses/

NEW YORKER: Does Silicon Valley Have a Contract-Worker Problem? http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/silicon-valleys…iggtwitter

STANFORD UNIVERSITY: 3-D printing creates murky product liability issues, Stanford scholar says http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/december/3d-legal-issues-121213.html

REUTERS: Home Depot breach bigger than Target at 56 million cards http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/18/us-home-depot-data…J420140918

MOSCOW TIMES: Russia’s Gas Supply Cuts to Europe Bolster Gazprom’s Bargaining Power http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russia-s-gas-…07397.html

MOSCOW TIMES: Anti-Aircraft Missile Lands Near Chita http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/anti-aircraft-mis…07391.html

DER SPIEGEL: Germany’s Ailing Infrastructure: A Nation Slowly Crumbles http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/low-german-infra…90903.html

THE ECONOMIST: Self-driving cars. Coming to a street near you. http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21618531-…t_near_you

www.3ders.org: NASA to grow 3D printed space wood http://www.3ders.org/articles/20140210-nasa-to-3d-print-wood-in-space.html

CNN: The next frontier in 3-D printing: Human organs http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/03/tech/innovation/3-d-printing-human-organs/

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Flying High. The Improbable Rise of the Gulf Airlines http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/142000/jim-krane/flying-high

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: The End of Swedish Exceptionalism. Why the Elections Mark a New Era for Politics http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141998/bo-rothstein/t…ptionalism

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: The End of Swedish Exceptionalism. Why the Elections Mark a New Era for Politics http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141998/bo-rothstein/t…ptionalism

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Europe’s Jewish Problem. The Misunderstood Rise of European Anti-Semitism http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141990/yascha-mounk/e…sh-problem

FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Europe’s Jewish Problem. The Misunderstood Rise of European Anti-Semitism http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141990/yascha-mounk/e…sh-problem

FOREIGN POLICY: Hammered by the West, Putin Turns East. Russia and China are close to another mammoth natural gas deal that could reshape the world’s energy map. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/09/18/hammered_by…_gas_altai

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By Mr. Andres Agostini
href=“www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini” target=“_blank”>www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini
www.amazon.com/Author/Agostini

Why Superintelligence May Not Help Us Think about Existential Risks — or Transhumanism

Among transhumanists, Nick Bostrom is well-known for promoting the idea of ‘existential risks’, potential harms which, were they come to pass, would annihilate the human condition altogether. Their probability may be relatively small, but the expected magnitude of their effects are so great, so Bostrom claims, that it is rational to devote some significant resources to safeguarding against them. (Indeed, there are now institutes for the study of existential risks on both sides of the Atlantic.) Moreover, because existential risks are intimately tied to the advancement of science and technology, their probability is likely to grow in the coming years.

Contrary to expectations, Bostrom is much less concerned with ecological suicide from humanity’s excessive carbon emissions than with the emergence of a superior brand of artificial intelligence – a ‘superintelligence’. This creature would be a human artefact, or at least descended from one. However, its self-programming capacity would have run amok in positive feedback, resulting in a maniacal, even self-destructive mission to rearrange the world in the image of its objectives. Such a superintelligence may appear to be quite ruthless in its dealings with humans, but that would only reflect the obstacles that we place, perhaps unwittingly, in the way of the realization of its objectives. Thus, this being would not conform to the science fiction stereotype of robots deliberately revolting against creators who are now seen as their inferiors.

I must confess that I find this conceptualisation of ‘existential risk’ rather un-transhumanist in spirit. Bostrom treats risk as a threat rather than as an opportunity. His risk horizon is precautionary rather than proactionary: He focuses on preventing the worst consequences rather than considering the prospects that are opened up by whatever radical changes might be inflicted by the superintelligence. This may be because in Bostrom’s key thought experiment, the superintelligence turns out to be the ultimate paper-clip collecting machine that ends up subsuming the entire planet to its task, destroying humanity along the way, almost as an afterthought.

But is this really a good starting point for thinking about existential risk? Much more likely than total human annihilation is that a substantial portion of humanity – but not everyone – is eliminated. (Certainly this captures the worst case scenarios surrounding climate change.) The Cold War remains the gold standard for this line of thought. In the US, the RAND Corporation’s chief analyst, Herman Kahn — the model for Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove – routinely, if not casually, tossed off scenarios of how, say, a US-USSR nuclear confrontation would serve to increase the tolerance for human biological diversity, due to the resulting proliferation of genetic mutations. Put in more general terms, a severe social disruption provides a unique opportunity for pursuing ideals that might otherwise be thwarted by a ‘business as usual’ policy orientation.

Here it is worth recalling that the Cold War succeeded on its own terms: None of the worst case scenarios were ever realized, even though many people were mentally prepared to make the most of the projected adversities. This is one way to think about how the internet itself arose, courtesy the US Defense Department’s interest in maintaining scientific communications in the face of attack. In other words, rather than trying to prevent every possible catastrophe, the way to deal with ‘unknown unknowns’ is to imagine that some of them have already come to pass and redesign the world accordingly so that you can carry on regardless. Thus, Herman Kahn’s projection of a thermonuclear future provided grounds in the 1960s for the promotion of, say, racially mixed marriages, disability-friendly environments, and the ‘do more with less’ mentality that came to characterize the ecology movement.

Kahn was a true proactionary thinker. For him, the threat of global nuclear war raised Joseph Schumpeter’s idea of ‘creative destruction’ to a higher plane, inspiring social innovations that would be otherwise difficult to achieve by conventional politics. Historians have long noted that modern warfare has promoted spikes in innovation that in times of peace are then subject to diffusion, as the relevant industries redeploy for civilian purposes. We might think of this tendency, in mechanical terms, as system ‘overdesign’ (i.e. preparing for the worst but benefitting even if the worst doesn’t happen) or, more organically, as a vaccine that converts a potential liability into an actual benefit.

In either case, existential risk is regarded in broadly positive terms, specifically as an unprecedented opportunity to extend the range of human capability, even under radically changed circumstances. This sense of ‘antifragility’, as the great ‘black swan’ detector Nicholas Taleb would put it, is the hallmark of our ‘risk intelligence’, the phrase that the British philosopher Dylan Evans has coined for a demonstrated capacity that people have to make step change improvements in their lives in the face of radical uncertainty. From this standpoint, Bostrom’s superintelligence concept severely underestimates the adaptive capacity of human intelligence.

Perhaps the best way to see just how much Bostrom shortchanges humanity is to note that his crucial thought experiment requires a strong ontological distinction between humans and superintelligent artefacts. Where are the cyborgs in this doomsday scenario? Reading Bostrom reminds me that science fiction did indeed make progress in the twentieth century, from the world of Karl Čapek’s Rossum’s Universal Robots in 1920 to the much subtler blending of human and computer futures in the works of William Gibson and others in more recent times.

Bostrom’s superintelligence scenario began to be handled in more sophisticated fashion after the end of the First World War, popularly under the guise of ‘runaway technology’, a topic that received its canonical formulation in Langdon Winner’s 1977 Autonomous Technology: Technics out of Control, a classic in the field of science and technology of studies. Back then the main problem with superintelligent machines was that they would ‘dehumanize’ us, less because they might dominate us but more because we might become like them – perhaps because we feel that we have invested our best qualities in them, very much like Ludwig Feuerbach’s aetiology of the Judaeo-Christian God. Marxists gave the term ‘alienation’ a popular spin to capture this sentiment in the 1960s.

Nowadays, of course, matters have been complicated by the prospect of human and machine identities merging together. This goes beyond simply implanting silicon chips in one’s brain. Rather, it involves the complex migration and enhancement of human selves in cyberspace. (Sherry Turkle has been the premier ethnographer of this process in children.) That such developments are even possible points to a prospect that Bostrom refuses to consider, namely, that to be ‘human’ is to be only contingently located in the body of Homo sapiens. The name of our species – Homo sapiens – already gives away the game, because our distinguishing feature (so claimed Linnaeus) had nothing to do with our physical morphology but with the character of our minds. And might not such a ‘sapient’ mind better exist somewhere other than in the upright ape from which we have descended?

The prospects for transhumanism hang on the answer to this question. Aubrey de Grey’s indefinite life extension project is about Homo sapiens in its normal biological form. In contrast, Ray Kurzweil’s ‘singularity’ talk of uploading our consciousness into indefinitely powerful computers suggests a complete abandonment of the ordinary human body. The lesson taught by Langdon Winner’s historical account is that our primary existential risk does not come from alien annihilation but from what social psychologists call ‘adaptive preference formation’. In other words, we come to want the sort of world that we think is most likely, simply because that offers us the greatest sense of security. Thus, the history of technology is full of cases in which humans have radically changed their lives to adjust to an innovation whose benefits they reckon outweigh the costs, even when both remain fundamentally incalculable. Success in the face such ‘existential risk’ is then largely a matter of whether people – perhaps of the following generation – have made the value shifts necessary to see the changes as positive overall. But of course, it does not follow that those who fail to survive the transition or have acquired their values before this transition would draw a similar conclusion.

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