Toggle light / dark theme

A brief introduction on the coming technological singularity. And a hint at how digital peer to peer cryptocurrencies like bitcoin which was the first. Will turn the ‘internet of things’ into the ‘economy of things’. Plus also I feel validates the case for a new debt free monetary system to provide a universal citizen’s dividend.

#technologicalSingularity #singularity #AI #cryptocurrency #bitcoin #citizensDividend #socialDividend #universalBasicIncome #basicIncome


Discuss this video: http://www.reddit.com/r/CGPGrey/comments/2dfh5v/humans_need_not_apply/ http://www.CGPGrey.com/ https://twitter.com/cgpgrey ## Robots, Etc…

Read more

https://soundcloud.com/a16z/a16z-podcast-techs-big-ideas-and-the-swallow-the-red-pill-moment-with-dan-siroker-and-marc-andreessen

A new report from tech giant Samsung proposes that a fleet of roughly 4,600 micro-satellites orbiting Earth could solve our impending data crisis.

Predicting that by 2028, 5 billion Internet users around the world will be collectively chewing through at least 1 zettabyte per month — to put that in perspective, 1 zettabyte is 1,000 exabytes, 1 exabyte is 1,000 petabytes, and 1 petabyte is 1,000 terabytes — the report says we’re going to have to think seriously about how we can deliver that. A constellation of tiny Internet-beaming satellites could be a viable option, it says, and Samsung could be the one to build it.

The report, entitled Mobile Internet from the Heavens, describes an Internet satellite system that will avoid the latency issues of current communications satellites by being positioned much closer to Earth. “Most modern communications satellites live in geostationary orbit, roughly 35,000 kilometres above the surface, and this imposes a hard limit on speed due to travel time for the data transmissions,” Graham Templeton writes for ExtremeTech. “Samsung wants to position its constellation in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and thus reduce this delay.”

Read more

Cryptographers are working on new encryption methods able to protect today’s Internet communications from future quantum computers that can be able to break today’s cryptography techniques. The researchers have developed upgrades to the Internet’s core encryption protocol that will prevent quantum computer users from intercepting Internet communications.

Read more

Vara-Google-Alphabet-Announcement-690

“In one sense, Page and Brin are just formalizing an arrangement that has evidently existed at Google for the past several years—the two of them at the helm of a company largely occupied with seeking out new and strange areas of innovation. The bet, it seems, is that this arrangement will improve the chances that Page and Brin’s unconventional investments will pan out—and that, if they don’t, the rest of the company will be better insulated from its founders’ mistakes. Until then, Sundar Pichai can focus on the boring, plodding business of actually making money.”

Read more

Responding to this nugget from Engadget:

Tokyo District CourtTokyo’s district court has ruled that it’s not possible for people to own bitcoin, and therefore they cannot sue for compensation in the wake of Mt. Gox’s collapse.

The ruling comes days after the head of the world’s largest bitcoin exchange was arrested on charges of fraud. Judge Masumi Kurachi felt that bitcoins do not possess “tangible qualities” to constitute owned property. Mt. Gox held thousands of individual accounts, and so there’s plenty of angry customers looking for compensation.

Here at Lifeboat, we have a long term view of cryptocurrency, and we sense the underpinning of fundamentals that are often overlooked.

My response to the Tokyo court…

A personal stake in Bitcoin is every bit as real (and a bit more tangible) than a personal stake in Yen, Dollars or Euros. Fiat currency is backed by the knowledge that your national government will demand tax payments in kind. But is it tangible? Like any invention of humans, that’s a matter of perception.

a) Dollars / Yen / Euros

Dollar_closeOver the long term, national currency is likely to be debased by debt, social welfare, war, political ambition, and a desire to redistribute fruits of labor, typically to assuage political ambitions. A built in mechanism of inflation forces a hidden tax and enables legislators to spend beyond the consent of their constituents.

b) Bitcoin

Bitcoin_BlueBitcoin on the other hand is backed by math. It is an asset without the potential for inflation or manipulation. It is a pure supply-demand currency and a pure 2-sided network—completely unfettered by the chaff that comes with central banks and national treasuries.

A stake in Bitcoin rises over the long haul, because the total quantity of currency is capped. As it is adopted for payments and commerce, a fixed pie is sliced thinner and thinner. This results in increased value per unit. Result: A deflationary economy without the baggage of sluggish economics.

Japan has made a foolish pronouncement; one that will ultimately embarrass their courts. Declaring Bitcoin ethereal is laughable when you consider that paper money is no more tangible than an unfulfilled promise. Likewise, declaring the theft or mismanagement of Bitcoin unworthy of recovery or restitution is no different than declaring the theft of art unworthy of restitution. Consider that each Mt. Gox account holder has proof of a real dollar investment position and an appreciation that is reported and tracked by exchanges all over the world.

Wake up Japan. You have so much more to offer the world than a distorted interpretation of a new technology.

Philip Raymond is Co-Chair of CRYPSA,
Cryptocurrency Standards Association

It will be the first country in the world to have universal Internet coverage.


Google has teamed up with the Sri Lankan government to deliver broadband Internet to every region of the island nation, making it the first country in the world to have universal Internet coverage. The initiative is part of Google’s Project Loon, which aims to provide cheap or free Wi-Fi to people in remote rural areas around the world via a fleet of huge helium-filled balloons floating way up in the stratosphere.

Read more