Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: economics

From digital currency to machine learning, the financial industry is being rocked by exponential technologies. Blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, quantum computing, crowdfunding, and computing systems are allowing startups to solve consumer needs in new ways.

The downfall of the world’s largest institutions may not be imminent, but these new technologies are breaking up the previously rock solid foundation of finance, and allowing the fintech world to spring through the cracks. What’s happening now will rewrite the future of finance for years to come. By recognizing this reality and planning for it now, financial professionals can learn to thrive in an increasingly uncertain global economy.

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My apologies ahead of time everyone. LifeBoat is about awareness, discovery, history, social and economics and healthcare. And, I never ever post social situations on our site; however, I must raise this as it is all about humanity, being civilized, showing empathy, and respecting each other for, our passions in tech, science, medicine, etc., and simply for being humans with empathy.

Yesterday, I saw a disgusting report on how an innocent husband and wife who are US citizens and of Pakistan descent where verbally attacked by a horrible man on a flight to Houston, TX.

And, Wednesday a fellow techie lost his life in Kansas for being of Indian descent and his features. The person who shot and killed the young man didn’t even know if the engineer was born in the USA, or immigrated here or a citizen, etc. He just killed him as he verbally attacked him.

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Bill and Melinda Gates say “the future will surprise the pessimists.”

They discovered childhood mortality is a symptom of other issues

Children’s deaths are often a result of lack of birth control, gender inequality, and poor women’s health. Melinda wrote, “Virtually all advances in society—nutrition, education, access to contraceptives, gender equity, economic growth—show up as gains in the childhood mortality chart, and every gain in this chart shows up in gains for society.”

Bill added, “When women in developing countries space their births by at least three years, their babies are almost twice as likely to reach their first birthday. Over time, the ability of women to use contraceptives and space their pregnancies will become one of the largest contributors in cutting childhood deaths.” In fact, the Gates Foundation reports “no country in the last 50 years has emerged from poverty without expanding access to contraceptives.”

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The Los Angeles Times covered my libertarian campaign for CA governor. I do still support a libertarian version of a basic income due to coming automation—and the fact it will swallow welfare and other government programs, essentially reducing the size of government while distributing money to all residents.

Essential Politics: Lawmaker says California needs an estate tax if the federal version is scrapped, Sanders thanks supporters in Los Angeles

This is Essential Politics, our daily look at California political and government news. Here’s what we’re watching right now:

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It’s all fun and games, until Jose Canseco becomes the leader of the anti robot/AI resistance.

Jose Canseco is all juiced up about robots and their existential threat to humanity.

The steroid-tainted former slugger took a few Twitter swings at the human race’s blatant disregard of the current droid danger that is bringing the world toward an economic catastrophe.

“The robot threat is being taken to (sic) lightly,” Canseco began on Monday.

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The wave of automation that swept away tens of thousands of American manufacturing and office jobs during the past two decades is now washing over the armed forces, putting both rear-echelon and front-line positions in jeopardy.

“Just as in the civilian economy, automation will likely have a big impact on military organizations in logistics and manufacturing,” said Michael Horowitz, a University of Pennsylvania professor and one of the globe’s foremost experts on weaponized robots.

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Sweden is beginning to look at doing away with physical money in favor of a completely digital currency given that the amount of hard cash and coin in circulation has already decreased by 40 percent. While Sweden’s economy is better equipped to handle such a change, other countries do not share the same ability in infrastructure, and many would be resistant to the increased transparency of digital currency.

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MIT has never stood stand still in the presence of change and opportunity. Their Media Lab Currency Initiative is at the forefront of Blockchain and Bitcoin research. With the fracture of the founding core team, MIT stands to become the universal hub for research and development.

The initiative now has a team of 22 people and at least
seven ongoing research projects, and it nurtures three startups that use cryptocurrencies and the underlying technology in a variety of ways. Blockchain research now sits alongside transparent robots that eat real-world fish, solar nebula research, and other imaginative, futuristic projects in progress at the university.

The initiative has already funded the work of bitcoin protocol developers and has supported research, going far beyond bitcoin—even partnering with Ripple Labs and developing enterprise data projects.

Now, the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative is working on 3 big Blockchain ideas:

  1. Shattering online ‘echo chambers’
  2. Improving blockchain privacy
  3. Building central bank currencies

The DCI is led by former White House advisor and research director Neha Narula. Read about the three BIG blockchain projects at CoinDesk.

Philip Raymond co-chairs Crypsa & Bitcoin Event, columnist & board member at Lifeboat, editor
at WildDuck and will deliver the keynote address at Digital Currency Summit in Johannesburg.