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May 28, 2015

Increase Gas Tax as Cartel Price Rises

Posted by in categories: economics, energy, geopolitics, transportation

It’s been awhile since the cost of gasoline topped $4 in the U.S. The national average hit $4.11 on July 11, 2008 and came close in May 2011 at $3.96. On New Years Day 2015, I drove through the night from Chicago to Boston. Despite the cold weather, the economics of fuel made it the best day for a road trip in years. I bought gas at a Pilot service station just off the Ohio Turnpike at $1.92/gallon. For me, it seemed like a bargain. Yet, 23 states charge less for gasoline than Ohio.

gas_price_2014-2015Now, at the end of May 2015, gas is rebounding from that low. Drivers on Memorial Day weekend faced the highest cost for gasoline of the year so far.

It’s tempting for politicians to advocate using tax breaks to smooth price spikes. With energy often surpassing the expense of food and rent and with so many individuals using fuel to make a living, reducing user fees or taxes during periods of very high fuel cost seems like the humane thing to do.

It seems humane, but it has the opposite effect. In fact, it is deeply punitive! That’s because the cost of gas is not an act of nature, nor even of free market economics. It is a product of cartels, special interests, conflict and FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). Offering relief during price spikes sustains demand while doing absolutely nothing to increase supply. This, in turn, exacerbates the spike, creates shortages for critical services and transfers enormous sums of money from consumers to producers. In effect, it is a free gift for producer nations.

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May 28, 2015

Fours Stages of Curing Aging

Posted by in categories: genetics, life extension

Curing aging has 4 stages: mild aging deceleration, dramatic aging deceleration, achieving negligible senescence and rejuvenation. Today we can definitively claim that the task of mild aging deceleration is theoretically solved.

We know the drugs and interventions that slow down aging in mammals. The only thing that we don’t know is dosages, regimes and drug combinations. Defining all of that is the goal of pre-clinical and clinical studies. They can be started immediately. It is also a good idea to do clinical studies of various diets aimed at improving human longevity.

Dramatic aging deceleration will be achieved using gene therapy. Breakthrough studies of lifespan extension in old model animals happened in this area quite recently. We know the genes and delivery methods, now we need a set of powerful experiments aimed at radical life extension. The subject of the intervention will not only be the human genome, but the genomes of the human microbiota.

Continue reading “Fours Stages of Curing Aging” »

May 28, 2015

Meet Ether, The Bitcoin-Like Cryptocurrency That Could Power The Internet Of Things — By Tina Amirtha Fast Company

Posted by in category: cryptocurrencies

http://c.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/1280/poster/2015/05/3046385-poster-p-2-this-company-is-helping-ibm-and-samsung-use-cryptocurrency-to-do-the-iot-on-the-cheap.jpg

At CES this past January, IBM researcher Veena Pureswaran described the company’s joint plan with Samsung to get home appliances to exchange cryptocurrency with one another. The currency, called Ether, is similar to Bitcoin, except that the traded commodity isn’t directly related to a financial value. Instead, Ether’s value is computing power.

What distinguishes the Ether and Bitcoin cryptocurrencies from traditional money is the online system that records their every trade. Networks of people called miners use the software to collectively verify and record these cryptocurrencies’ every trade. Like ever-growing strands of DNA, the currencies’ digital addresses, called blockchains, store the details of each trade. Bitcoin and Ether run on their own software platforms, but in both cases, a blockchain makes the whole idea possible. Read more

May 28, 2015

It’s Friday: Watch Jason Silva Talk Tech, Creativity, and Flow With a Few of His Heroes -

Posted by in category: futurism

Jason Silva isn’t a scientist, he’s a synthesizer. And he is a quoting machine. Kevin Kelly, Freeman Dyson, Ernest Becker, Erik Davis, Steven Johnson. These are Silva’s heroes, and he aims to infect us with his enthusiasm for their ideas. In his new “Creative Sessions” interviews, Silva goes straight to the source.

Instead of a quote from Erik Davis? Davis (author of TechGnosis) is there, sitting on his couch for an hour-long conversation—in which he gets plenty of time to frame his ideas, put meat on the bones, add context. Read more

May 28, 2015

New Wind Turbine Generates Electricity Without Rotating Blades

Posted by in category: sustainability

I just wrote a story about something like this back in December. Usually takes slightly longer for science fiction to become science fact.

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May 28, 2015

Pioneering Space

Posted by in category: space

Great philosophers, thinkers and writers have embraced the pioneering spirit—full of wonder, risk and great ventures into the unknown.

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May 28, 2015

Designed for the Future: 80 Practical Ideas for a Sustainable World

Posted by in categories: architecture, environmental, futurism, human trajectories, lifeboat

9781616893002

“In Designed for the Future, author Jared Green asks eighty of today’s most innovative architects, urban planners, landscape architects, journalists, artists, and environmental leaders the same question: what gives you the hope that a sustainable future is possible?”

Princeton Architectural Press

Trimtab Vol. 16 No. 5

May 27, 2015

Can This Man and His Massive Robot Network Save America?

Posted by in categories: life extension, robotics/AI, transhumanism

A long interview from Esquire on transhumanism, AI, life extension, my campaign, and thoughts on the future.

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May 27, 2015

Transhumanist Party Scientists Frown on Talk of Genetic Engineering Moratorium

Posted by in category: transhumanism

My new article for Huffington Post:

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May 27, 2015

Can Transhumanism Overcome a Widespread Deathist Culture?

Posted by in categories: life extension, transhumanism

New story in The Huffington Post on transhumanism, life extension, and overcoming deathist culture:

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