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Archive for the ‘government’ category: Page 166

Sep 14, 2018

Notes from Nietzsche and some Correlations with Transhumanism

Posted by in categories: ethics, existential risks, futurism, government, health, life extension, philosophy, transhumanism

In the vicissitudes of life, our recent and living generations moved from the hard times of a hundred years ago to the exponential good times of today. Now a few hundred key pioneers have positioned the world in front of the opportunities of Transhumanism and its main tenet, indefinite life extension. Will we unite the world on these issues and capitalize or waste it and let the weeds reclaim our “wheel”, the magnum opus of our generations? I challenge all would-be leaders and followers to honor our ancestors’ long tradition of pioneering the next stages of our future. Everything about you was crafted and honed for this and there is no other time. Find the blazers of our emerging values and paths, your philosophers of the future, out there at the forefronts on this epic new transhuman voyage of freedoms and discoveries and follow them. All leaders who haven’t already, I implore you to fully embrace your roles, triple down and raise your flags even higher. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote a book preluding this philosophy of the future, which serves as the structure for this paper and is quoted here throughout.

“[Conditioning to hard times] is thus established, unaffected by the vicissitudes of generations; the constant struggle with uniform unfavourable conditions is, as already remarked, the cause of a type becoming stable and hard. Finally, however, a happy state of things results, the enormous tension is relaxed; there are perhaps no more enemies among the neighbouring peoples, and the means of life, even of the enjoyment of life, are present in superabundance. With one stroke the bond and constraint of the old discipline severs: it is no longer regarded as necessary, as a condition of existence—if it would continue, it can only do so as a form of luxury, as an archaizing taste. Variations, whether they be deviations (into the higher, finer, and rarer), or deteriorations and monstrosities, appear suddenly on the scene in the greatest exuberance and splendour; the individual dares to be individual and detach himself. At this turning-point of history there manifest themselves, side by side, and often mixed and entangled together, a magnificent, manifold, virgin-forest-like up-growth and up-striving, a kind of tropical tempo in the rivalry of growth, and an extraordinary decay and self-destruction, owing to the savagely opposing and seemingly exploding aptitudes, which strive with one another ‘for sun and light,’ and can no longer assign any limit, restraint, or forbearance for themselves by means of the hitherto existing morality. It was this morality itself which piled up the strength so enormously, which bent the bow in so threatening a manner:—it is now ‘out of date,’ it is getting ‘out of date.’ ” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future

Our elders came from the great depression and world war. Then they had to watch what they called “morals”, but which were actually just coping mechanisms particular to their vicissitude of time, as Nietzsche gets at in various places, become increasingly disregarded. That happened faster than ever because, little did they know, the bell curve of exponential advancements in fields across the board were upon them. The variations of excellence and monstrosities proliferated like no other time and were supercharged for an abundant harvest by the buds of enlightenment and technology that had been poking their heads out of the fertile intellectual fields of civilization from the smatterings of good times they were able to come upon throughout the century. A lot of it was stored as compounding action potential. It went off like rifles in the 50s and 60s, with so much force that the bullets are still flying today, and the shots of individual aptitude have been firing ever since. Like he is saying, it’s a jungle of individual morals competing in the survival of the fittest, so you must find ways, that hard times naturally make, to get all these independent construction workers of the best ideas behind the same projects in order to tap that energy for the big stages and human potentials.

This is our window in time here, as I often say, to get projects like life extension, transhumanism, space exploration, and some other things done. The people of the past didn’t have this opportunity and the chance here isn’t available forever because death will close us off from it or bad times will set back in. A great gate in Plato’s cave has opened, the eternal guard lions of death have left their posts and we don’t know how long until they come back or the gate closes. It is devastating watching those who have been hypnotized by the cave, by the death trance, sitting there with a wide-open door and the clock ticking down. The climb must be made, now is the time, there is no other. Team up and follow the leaders on these new emerging circumstances and moral imperatives or everyone will die as the marvels of space and boundless technology tumble from our hands. We rouse them to action slowly but surely, though all as one, more gets done.

Continue reading “Notes from Nietzsche and some Correlations with Transhumanism” »

Sep 12, 2018

Digital government isn’t working in the developing world: Here’s why

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, employment, government

The digital transformation of society has brought many immediate benefits: it’s created new jobs and services, boosted efficiency and promoted innovation. But when it comes to improving the way we govern, the story is not that simple.

It seems reasonable to imagine introducing digital information and communication technologies into public sector organisations – known as “digital ” or “e-government” – would have a beneficial impact on the way public services are delivered. For instance, by enabling people to claim rebates for medical bills via a government website.

When implemented well, e-government can reduce the cost of delivering government and public services, and ensure better contact with citizens – especially in remote or less densely populated areas. It can also contribute to greater transparency and accountability in public decisions, stimulate the emergence of local e-cultures, and strengthen democracy.

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Sep 10, 2018

Watch This 1999 Clip of Jack Ma Trying to Convince His Friends to Join Alibaba

Posted by in categories: government, life extension

I know 100 leaders in longevity area. All of them will be invited to the Longevity Impact Forum, to create sort of Alibaba of longevity. We can beat government agencies and big companies because of our spirit!


“Underdog” entrepreneur Jack Ma is now famous for his record setting IPO when he took his e-commerce company, Alibaba, public. But not many people know he started Alibaba in his one-room apartment with 17 friends. Watch where all the magic of Alibaba started and be sure to check out Jack Ma’s amazing life.

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Sep 7, 2018

Why Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Are A National Security Risk And Also An Opportunity For Progress

Posted by in categories: education, government, security

A career’s worth of intelligence work for the U.S. Government has taught me one key lesson: national security is a lot like playing a game of chess. You have to anticipate your opponent’s every move in order to remain one step ahead.

Disclosing your strategy will be used against you. But if you recognize certain opportunities, you can win the match.

When I headed the government’s highly sensitive Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), I worked with a team to assess whether a particular chess piece — in this case in the form of an unfamiliar aerial technology — was a threat to our side of the chess board.

Continue reading “Why Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Are A National Security Risk And Also An Opportunity For Progress” »

Aug 30, 2018

Moon Village Association: Going to the Moon with cooperation from the private sector

Posted by in categories: business, government, policy, robotics/AI, space travel

Many countries including China, Russia, South Korea, India, Japan, and Europe Nations have all outlined significant lunar plans. To mention a few, the Moon Village concept got an endorsement from the Secretary General of the China National Space Administration, Yulong Tian. He outlined plans for a series of robotic missions to the moon, including China’s first sample return mission, Chang-e. The Director General of the Russian state space corporation, Roscosmos, talked about participating in any Moon Village effort. Smaller space agencies, such as Ukraine, share a similar desire to carry out lunar missions. President Trump signed the Space Policy Directive-1 in December 2017 and NASA has big plans for the Moon, with the recent Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) initiative. Space activities are not limited to government initiatives; many of them are being pursued in partnership with civil society and the private sector. Several private missions to the Moon are planned in Japan with ispace, India with Team Indus, Israel with SpaceIL, United States with companies such as OffWorld and Moon Express, Germany with PT Scientists, and Luxembourg with CisLunar Industries.

Private industry is developing business plans to profit by creating new services and products that eventually will become the Moon Market. There is already good cooperation between private and government industries in each country; however, there is no global platform allowing cooperation between industry and government around the world. There is also a need to engage non-space industries by communicating the potential of the Moon Market. The Moon Village Association (MVA), a non-governmental organization (NGO) created in 2017 and based in Vienna, is dedicated to this mission:

“It provides a forum for the development of the Moon Village for industry, government, space agencies, international organizations, NGOs and the public at large.”

Continue reading “Moon Village Association: Going to the Moon with cooperation from the private sector” »

Aug 30, 2018

China Is Quickly Becoming an AI Superpower

Posted by in categories: government, robotics/AI

While the White House report got modest news coverage and a mildly enthusiastic response from the AI community, this was barely a hiccup in comparison to China’s clarion call. When the CCP speaks, everyone listens.

Within a year, Chinese VC investors were pouring record sums into AI startups, surpassing the US to make up 48 percent of AI venture funding globally. Over the past decade, Chinese government spending on STEM research has grown by double digits year on year.

And China’s political system is set up such that local officials are incentivized to outcompete others for leadership in CCP initiatives, each striving to lure in AI companies and entrepreneurs with generous subsidies and advantageous policies.

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Aug 27, 2018

Singapore hit by ‘most serious’ cyberattack, resulting in theft of health data of 1.5 million people – including the prime minister

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cybercrime/malcode, government, health, military

Wealthy Singapore is hyper-connected and on a drive to digitise government records and essential services, including medical records which public hospitals and clinics can share via a centralised database.

But authorities have put the brakes on these plans while they investigate the cyberattack. A former judge will head a committee looking into the incident.

While the city state has some of the most advanced military weaponry in the region, the government says it fends off thousands of cyberattacks every day and has long warned of breaches by actors as varied as high-school students in their basements to nation states.

Continue reading “Singapore hit by ‘most serious’ cyberattack, resulting in theft of health data of 1.5 million people – including the prime minister” »

Aug 27, 2018

Global race for transformative molten salt nuclear includes Bill Gates and China

Posted by in categories: government, nuclear energy

Unlike Nuclear fusion which has never had net generation of power, molten salt nuclear fission power had 2.5 megawatts of net power generation from a US nuclear prototype back in the 1960s. The US government had major work on molten salt nuclear reactors form the 1950s through the 1970s.

There is now a multi-billion race from many US companies and China and Canada and European countries to develop molten salt nuclear power.

Continue reading “Global race for transformative molten salt nuclear includes Bill Gates and China” »

Aug 26, 2018

It’s time for governments to help their citizens deal with cybersecurity

Posted by in categories: business, cybercrime/malcode, government

When it comes to the individual citizen, whose responsibility is it to guard against cybercrime? Research we’ve conducted suggests that governments have a crucial role to play. They need to support individual citizens, as well as businesses, in a more practical and proactive way, to manage this particular society risk.

For instance, they could provide individuals with free face-to-face assistance and cybersecurity support. They could give clear guidelines and provide government sanctioned security software for people to install, and make sure it’s easy to get hold of. New York has recently started providing this kind of support to its residents. Based on our research, we believe there’s scope for all governments, including those in Southern Africa, to do the same.

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Aug 24, 2018

Turning agriculture waste into new industries

Posted by in categories: food, government

Increasing the value of agriculture waste and turning it into new products will be the outcome of a new $10.9 million research consortium led by the University of Adelaide.

The research – Agricultural Product Development – has been granted $4 million over four years by the State Government through its Research Consortia Program. The University of Adelaide is contributing $2.3 million (cash and in-kind) with the remaining support coming from a range of partners.

The consortium will bring together a total of 18 partners to develop high-value products from agricultural : nine South Australian-based companies from the agriculture and food sector, and another nine national and international academic institutions and partners.

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