Lifeboat Foundation

An interesting activity that is relevant to Lifeboat concerns has been provided for us by the Foundational Questions Institute, styled FQXi. They recently ran an essay contest on the topic, “How should humanity steer the future?” This contest was announced to Lifeboat members. Fourteen of the 155 posted essays are written by Lifeboat members, and some are written by top scientists. The contest is closed to submissions, but we can still participate.

Members of the public are invited to read and rate essays on the FQXi website. Public ratings will not decide the winners, but they may guide official judges. Essay quality varies, and the best might make a real contribution, so FQXi could use help in finding which are best. Their diversity is also interesting, and might show us paths we could take, and perhaps paths to avoid.

Lifeboat members who submitted essays include James Blodgett, Frank Boehm, Angelika Domschke, James Dunn, Preston Estep, Bob Freeman, Giorgio Gaviraghi, Jacob Haqq-Misra, Orenda Urbano Hernández, Alexander Hoekstra, Ted Howard, Randal A. Koene, Alexander MacRae, Federico Pistono, Walter Putnam, and Tihamer Toth-Fejel.

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The White Swan Treatise at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/white-swan

White Swan Graphic 2 by Mr. Andres Agostini at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/White-Swan

The White Swan Treatise at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/white-swan

White Swan Graphic by Mr. Andres Agostini at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/White-Swan

White Swan Update by Andres Agostini at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/white-swan

All The Wearables You Could Be Wearing Right Now http://www.fastcocreate.com/3030158/infographic-all-the-wear…-right-now

Why Algorithms Are The Next Star Designers http://www.fastcodesign.com/3029756/why-algorithms-are-the-next-star-designers

Continue reading “White Swan Update by Andres Agostini at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/white-swan” »

White Swan Update by Andres Agostini at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/white-swan

«… Quants …» AND «… Qualts …» at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/05/white-swan-qualts

Alibaba files $1-billion IPO in US at http://businesstech.co.za/news/internet/57025/alibaba-files-1-billion-ipo-in-us/

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The White Swan’s «… Quants …» AND «… Qualts …» by Mr. Andres Agostini at https://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/04/white-swan

What is a Quant?

A quant is brand of industrial scientist and engineers who applies mathematical model of uncertainty to financial and/or socioeconomic data and complex financial instruments. And a person who also studies the flaws and the limits of these models, understanding that there is a point of breakdown …. A quant has a combined background of applied mathematics, engineering and statistics. A quant spreads the usage of artificial intelligence in today’s markets …. Whether he or she acknowledges it or not, the quant is extremely AWARE of the many critical short-comings of many quantitative strategies (as he is never interested in qualitative analytics), such as their tendency to lead to crowded trades and their underestimation of the likelihood of chaotic, volatile moves in the markets …. Along with Central Bank chairpersons and world’s finance ministers, quants are the first ones to “…elicit…” that the global economy is being “ …affected…” by “ …systemic risks…”, that systemic risk turbo-charged by several corrupted politicians, manipulative economists and beautiful quants that never understand what the tangible corporate theater of operations is.

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Growing up in the South gave me a certain perspective of the United States that I wish many wouldn’t have to deal with, from bigotry to ignorance, poverty to inequality. So listening to Hip Hop became my way of escaping these realities. As time progressed, however, and as society evolved, so too did Hip Hop. Now as we reach the Information Age and a nearing Transhumanist paradigm shift, I again look to Hip Hop and see what it’s saying and whether or not it’s keeping up with the times.

I was able to speak with two individual Emcees, in particular, who are making sure Hip Hop is alive and well in today’s age: M.C. Kilch and Maitreya One!

Both preside in New York, with Kilch from Brooklyn and Maitreya from the Bronx. They are Hip Hop Emcees and Transhumanists, dedicating their lives not only to achieve indefinite life extension for themselves, but for the culture and musical art they love.

First off, could you introduce yourself and tell us what it was that attracted you to the Hip Hop community? What inspired you to become an emcee?

M.C. Kilch: They call me Kilch, I’m a Dreamer and Emcee from Brooklyn, NY. Hip Hop is practically in your blood when you’re from Brooklyn, so getting attracted to it was easy. The attitude and energy of the culture makes it influential, whether you listen to it or not. It was the Freestyle cyphers that got me involved.

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Although I have already mentioned a recent technical note on the application of Astronomical Observation to LHC/Collider Safety in comments to other posts here and there, I have not posted specifically about it until now. So finally, a short mention:

The technical note follows on from a modest paper I wrote in 2012 (Discussions on the Hypothesis that Cosmic Ray Exposure on Sirius B Negates Terrestrial MBH Concerns from Colliders), which concerned micro-black hole (MBH) production and the white dwarf safety assurance. There I demonstrated that not only are most white dwarf stars not suitable as a safety assurance, but that those hand-picked for the 2008 safety report had magnetic field strength measured to just 99% confidence within the range for safety assurance. That is not to say that the LHC safety argument was only 99% reliable — just that one of the cornerstone assurances was. The affirmation of these measurements was needed for a safety assurance to LHC p-p collisions based on astronomical observations – as a safety assurance that is not based on Hawking Radiation theory — but based on verifiable measurement. The technical note captures the official LSAG (CERN) response on the matter after internal review at CERN in late 2012, which had remained archived from email discussions until recently, when those conclusions were formalised into this technical note:

Link to the technical note: http://environmental-safety.webs.com/TechnicalNote-EnvSA01.pdf

Continue reading “Affirmation / ES Technical Note on LHC Collider Safety (p-p/MBH)” »