Science/AAAS peer-reviewed journals deliver impactful research, daily news, expert commentary, and career resources.

XPRIZE on aging will award up to $101 million for ...

The new contest aims to spur innovation into longer ‘healthspans’ with treatments that can actually reverse age-related degradation in body, mind and immune system.

New XPrize Will Award $101 Million To Innovators Who Can Reverse Aging

Founder Peter Diamandis calls for researchers, technologists, physicians, and AI experts to participate.

XPRIZE launches $101 million competition for innovations that combat aging and restore a decade of life

XPRIZE, the world's leader in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions to solve humanity's grand challenges, today launches $101M XPRIZE Healthspan. This 7-year global competition is the largest competition in history and the largest XPRIZE to date, offering $111 million total ...

XPRIZE LAUNCHES LARGEST COMPETITION IN HISTORY - $101M XPRIZE HEALTHSPAN TO DRIVE HEALTHIER AGING FOR ALL

The inaugural COP28 Business & Philanthropy Climate Forum, hosted by the COP28 Presidency on 1 and 2 December 2023 in parallel with the world leaders World Climate Action Summit, has announced key partnerships with leading global organizations, joining forces to drive global climate and nature action.

COP28 Business & Philanthropy Climate Forum unveils key partners including Africa Finance Corporation

A Duke-led team of engineers and conservationists race to beat the clock in the semifinals of a $10M competition to sample rainforest biodiversity.

Inside the XPRIZE Pressure Cooker

XPRIZE, an established global leader in incentivizing crowd-sourced, scientifically viable solutions to humanity’s greatest challenges, injects the spirit of competition, inspiring breakthrough solutions that can reshape the climate narrative.

COP28 Business & Philanthropy Climate Forum unveils key partners

The Forum will convene 500 business and philanthropy leaders alongside policymakers to accelerate solutions and drive bolder results. This first-of-a-kind multi-stakeholder engagement strategy for cli

The UAE's Cop28 Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum has forged new global partnerships to explore how the private sector can help bridge the $3 trillion gap in financing required annually to achieve net-zero emissions targets.

UAE's Cop28 Business and Philanthropy Forum forges partnerships to drive climate action

This forum aims to unite 500 leaders from the realms of business and philanthropy with policymakers to expedite climate solutions and generate more ambitious outcomes

COP28: Private sector, philanthropy commit to climate goals at forum

XPRIZE

xprize

This story is a part of Hacker Noon's series of interviews. The series is intended for tech professionals contributing the most insightful Hacker Noon stories to share more about their writing habits, ideas, and professional background (and maybe a hobby or two). If you too would like to start contributing to Hacker Noon, you can do so . Meet the Writer here So let’s tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests. Hello, dear Hackernoon readers. My name is kinda weird Slavic one. Ladislav. Weird in a sense that neither I nor any fellow Slavic has any idea what the hell short form of Ladislav is. As for interests. I love anything creative. My biggest success perhaps is my behavioral zero-day exploit blocker that protects hundreds of millions of computers as we speak ever since ESET nod antivirus v 5. I wrote the patent worked hard to implement and release it safely to the world on millions of computers without bluescreens. Yet my patent was stolen by the company while I was nearly dead in hospital after a paragliding accident. Yes… East Europe is definitely not a Silicon Valley. Yet. I don’t believe that there is such a thing as bad people. Just bad software. I.e way too many generations had been raised in an environment without moral examples.  But recently, luckily, Covid made me unemployed, and shackles of my creativity were (unfortunately for you, my dear readers ;D) finally released. Yay. In a sense, this Covid period opened my eyes. Now I finally understand why so much of math or philosophy was discovered in ancient Greece. Creative new ideas are now are swirling in my head pretty much every day. Ideas that I had never time to think about due to exhaustive daily jobs occupying my brain potential on boring and repetitive tasks. Don’t you ever wonder why is it that most of mathematics physics philosophy cornerstones were invented in this ancient but relatively short part of our history? Followed by pretty much just a few blips here and there?. I believe that the key to this was to allow extremely large population freedom to occupy their brain with other things than just delivering food and shelter. The majority of Ancient Greece was essentially a bunch of unemployed folks contemplating the universe’s inner workings and such since someone else did the boring repetitive work for them. Why I am mentioning this.? I feel like humanity’s second renaissance is coming. Why? Well, every time a major event like Covid or AI and automation taking the majority of repetitive boring jobs happens. The universe splits into many but usually just two major branches depending on how clear-cut the nearest probabilities for other outcomes were. I suppose in 50/50 like cases Kazimir effect tips the scales causing the butterfly effect. So. Let’s pretend that we will continue for a bit in this optimistic fork of this universe. A fork where we soon will have AI and robots doing most of our manual, repetitive work, with us being all on universal income finally using our brains in more creative ways like in ancient Greece. Covid, in a sense, accelerated this transition with another payment from the government coming soon.  And as for the less optimistic branch of this universe’s fork. Luckily we have Elon for scaring the doors from us. Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about? My last story was a crazy idea that I got one night and was super excited about, and immediately messaged to like half of SpaceX and asked them what they think about it. As . (So now I have like 10 SpaceX connections that can’t talk to me due to either NSA orders or the idea being too stupid). With both being equally probable. you do But In short. It just baffled me why we still keep building thin 130m tall and unstable rockets and then wait for good weather or government approval. So I proposed a starship transformer. The ship has the same volume but height of just 10m during start or landing. It, therefore, does not require any special towers not is it any longer fixed to time(weather) or place. Essentially, It could transform to a tall falcon-heavy-like upright supersonic configuration on demand. Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about? It’s hard to say since I am fascinated by so many things. Take, for example, our recent rapid advancements in the u of every living thing around us. And gene editing with Omega in particular. Did you know that 70% of mosquitos’ DNA is the same as yours and it is not a coincidence? Thing is. Life is pretty much a bunch of so far 3 types of programable (cells) with mostly the same code over and over. nderstanding of the genome nanobots So right now, I am writing a new story about how radically we can change the world by flipping a few homeobox-like gene bits in the DNA of Bamboo to control its size, shape, and direction. Why Bamboo? Well, Bamboo has strength and weight rivaling carbon fiber and, more importantly, can grow 1m a day even without tweaks. Unfortunately still has hardwired dimensions. ;D So with that little DNA tweak, you can essentially not build but grow green-sustainable, recyclable houses skyscrapers, and due to the parallel nature, even whole cities in a week. Branches solve traffic congestion by moving in the dense 3D mazes without the high energy cost of flying, and energy collection is already built-in in a pretty large surface of ever-present  leaves. Engineer nets will grow even thru the strongest granite via an unstoppable army of strong roots. And all of that with just a flip of a few bits. Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?) For me, I usually get super excited about something. Then it pretty much goes downhill with this weird drive of mine to share emotions and excitement and such. You know … Of the magic moment. And. If the is not at that particular moment at the wheel, then I start immediately to write everything down. I keep adding a lot of ideas in pure, unfiltered flow. You never know what branches lead where. Then I filter them thru good old google to see  how much of a wheel I am just reinventing. procrastination monkey In reality, a lot of these secondary ideas are usually either similar ideas with different wording or just way too much noise about nothing. So finally, my favorite Occam's razor jumps in, helping to distill just the best parts in the most succinct way possible since people rarely read past 3rd minute. And since English is not my first language In the final phase, I try to do my best to hide it ;) Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing? According to famous Professor and Neuroscientist at Stanford University Andrew Huberman, . The creativity of our brains is essentially a bunch of hamsters on wheels. And they pretty much run on dopamine.  Rare stuff that is naturally produced when you are in an equally rare state of happiness. Especially rare if you are stuck in east Europe. Luckily there are a few other ways to get it. I don’t do drugs obviously. Then there is sex. But that is out of the question since I am butt ugly. Still, I wish to have children one day and watch them grow. I guess my next respawn in this simulation. It’s quite simple actually So what is left for me is pretty much dopamine cheap offshoot adrenaline. Stuff I get from motorcycles paragliding or being broke and not filing tax reports in time. Endorphins I get from exercise or running. Or if you are not spoiled, a jam or Nutella will do wonders too and lasts ages. Thankfully I am getting crazy new ideas once a week, which produces a day or two of excitement and endorphins too. What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career? Exploring  crazy and fun ideas and hoping one day to implement them is fun and all. But what I really hope for right now. Is to find someone who will help finish the reusable particle-based ; Without filters or advice, I am stuck. Considering what I am trying to do and that so far, even a panel of respected judges and virologists didn’t find a major reason why it wouldn’t work; it still baffles me that nobody wishes to help. covid test I passed to the semifinals in XPrize It’s times like these when I am starting to believe I am in some kind of weird simulation. I mean, the cost of filters I need is out of my reach yet it is way less than someone pays for breakfast daily.  The optimist in me says that perhaps I am just struggling to get a word around. Why I am so focused on that covid test so much now over a year?. To be frank, considering the state we are in, not many things make more sense to me as having higher priority. Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice? No Idea. I have always been poor. I always dreamed about traveling the world though. Or have money to start building my own variant of and fly. And by flying, I mean really fly. Like with moving powerful hydraulics copying every slightest move or even hint of your  arms or hands. So you can clearly see now that my biggest guilty pleasure is that with my brain being free again I started dreaming again ;) 12m wide foldable hydraulic wings Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it? I am fanatically attracted to the ancient history of and life in general. I traveled a bit too. Then I am way too often attracted to new papers in fields I am not supposed to. I know. I know. Hereby dragons.  Not that I understand a thing. But curiosity knows no boundaries. Like the very recent fascinating new OMEGA gene editing advancements. And despite not being able to absorb or grasp all their content. There is still a lot of fancy pictures too. A lot of fun. DNA If I oversimplify it a bit. The scientists are, in a sense, writers too and are usually preparing their papers for the most efficient consumption. So the well-written paper usually has a very short but punctual condensed intro, and conclusion sections with plenty of fancy self-explanatory charts sparkled throughout. Yes, you need to possess at least a basic engineering decoding toolkit for something to stick. And something what Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck calls a growth mindset--The belief that you can grow and develop skills and abilities you didn't have before. But in my humble opinion, in this age, where every major educational information is public and found in seconds. An engineer is perhaps no longer only defined by which prestigious school he had taken but by his mindset. I.e., how he searches, processes, filters, and absorbs and combines that information with what he already knows. Especially how often he seeks and absorbs new information. And there are so many fascinating things happening as we speak in biology, genetics, computer graphics, or info. neural networks covid related What can the Hacker Noon community expect to read from you next? I am in the middle of a Bamboo software hacking article. To search for this elusive homeobox gene location, I currently have a lot of fun with searching DNA on GPU via 10 lines of Webgpu. Why Webgpu? First. Webgpu is HOT. I mean common. WebGL is so yesterday. Second. So article readers who are on HN, mostly programmers, will be able to do it themself in a browser too. And let’s face it. Which programmer would resist being able to massively accelerate their code in the 10 lines? The world of biology and genetics (or the world of nanobots as I call it) is so exciting. So much fun. Thanks for taking the time to join our “Meet the writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words? Thanks for stopping by. And those of you who wish to with the reusable test, especially before spring starts. 80nm-120nm Filters and Filter sealing design advice would be helpful. I am also pretty sure my design has a lot of flaws. But that is not the point. Nothing exists in v 1.0. We need to keep working on hourly reusable decentralized cheap test iteration after iteration. Since vaccinating the whole world is currently financially, politically, and logistically pretty much impossible. The More brains and hands-on-deck, the faster the progress. Let’s find a way to stop Covid together. join forces and help with stopping this covid nightmare

Meet the Writer: Hacker Noon's Contributor Ladislav Nevery, Innovator

A Solo-Entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business venture and assumes full responsibility for the associated risk. Which traits will make one a good founder? Passion Ability to tolerate risk Leadership skills Flexibility / Adaptation Decision making Financial Management Skills Human management / relationship skills Creativity / Innovation Those traits are mostly often named as the most essential in building an enterprise from a low scale business to a multi-million-dollar company. Let’s see how 6 solo-entrepreneurs over history have changed their lives and made a positive impact on society and people around them. Andrew Carnegie and His Steel Empire Andrew Carnegie is a quintessential Gilded Age titan. He’s an industrialist and a self-made man who started from nothing and . Carnegie was born in Scotland to a working-class and skilled labor family, and his father ended up losing everything. His family moved to the United States of America penniless; thus he had no real formal education, but he spent a lot of time reading, and he is a self-taught intellect. To meet up with life’s financial challenges, Carnegie started working as a telegrapher and worked with various companies. created an empire in steel The Gilded Age was marked by an economic boom with railroads being the economic forefront, and steel is critical to the building of railroads. Carnegie recognizes this, and he saw an opportunity by the end of his career, he had a monopoly on the production of steel in the United States. So, by 1901, Andrew Carnegie is one of the richest men in the world and currently has a net worth of $310 billion. Aside being the sole-proprietor of Carnegie Steel Company, Carnegie went on to set up several enterprises like: Carnegie institution of science Carnegie library Carnegie Corporation of New York Carnegie Endowment for international peace Carnegie Mellon university Carnegie hero fund Markus Frind and His Dating App Markus Frind is an internet entrepreneur based in Germany, primarily known as the creator of . Plenty of Fish as it was initially known was established in 2003, and since its creation it has risen to become one of the most in-demand dating sites with active users in Canada, Brazil, USA, Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. popular dating social network POF A graduate in computer systems technology from the prestigious British Columbia Institute of Technology (1999), he worked with several online companies and held several positions like system analyst, cybersecurity and web developer. After several unsuccessful jobs Frind followed his long ambition of being self-employed. He created POF in 2003 and by July 2013 made a profit of $1100. Now, POF serves a minimum of 1.5 billion webpages monthly and generates $100 million a year. Vishen Lakhiani and Education Technology Born 14th January 1976 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with lots of complications ranging from personal (poor eyesight, Asperger syndrome, skin complications) to amenities (complicated schooling system). Vishen fought through all these barriers and is currently a , an author of many books with his New York bestseller “The Code of the Extraordinary Mind” selling Hundred thousand copies worldwide, most importantly he is an entrepreneur and founder of 3 companies (Mindvalley, Dealmates, and Blinklist). speaker with millions of active subscribers His primary company, Mindvalley, deals with education technology, spiritual development, and publishing of daily self-care software such as Omvana. Mindvalley was built with $700 and is now worth over $120 million. In 2015, the 43-year-old Malaysian won the award for “Best New Idea” at the XPRIZE’s Visioneering event held in Culver City, California. Ingvar Kamprad and Furniture Paradise Ingvar Feodor Kamprad, a Swedish business tycoon, popularly known for founding IKEA, an intercontinental furniture trade company. Born March 30th 1926 in Sweden, Kamprad displayed his entrepreneurship traits from an early age when he began selling Matchbox in his neighborhood, then upgraded to selling nylons, picture frames, stockings, and pieces of jewelry. In 1943, at just 17 years, he (a combination of his initials IK, the farm he grew up in ELMTARYD, and his village AGUNNARYD) which turned out to be the world’s biggest retailer of furniture. founded IKEA In 1948 Kmaprad stopped other retail and focused chiefly on inexpensive furniture and offer home furnishing services, he expanded to renting a showroom in Sweden. Kamprad sold quality furniture at an amazingly low price which led to fast-rising popularity amongst the Swedish market. IKEA introduced flat boxed furniture in 1956 which led to a significant breakthrough and attracted interested buyers all over Europe and some parts of the world. Kamprad went from being a childhood retailer to a global business Moghul worth over $58.7 billion. Jaseel SK and Cheap Flights Affiliate marketing still shines on the internet, even if it doesn’t have quite the buzz it used to. The key is to remain persistent. Many people try their hand at affiliate marketing but leave after a short amount of time if they aren’t making money. Every day, Jaseel started earning a bit more through the Travelpayouts program. He didn’t know anything about the online market, and it took me months and long hours to get to a place where he was earning a profit. Later, he found out about Travelpayouts’ mobile SDK for both Android and iOS and he used that to develop the first version of an app for both platforms. Shortly after, he . had the app published on both platforms Until 2018, Jaseel was slightly over $200K USD per year from Travelpayouts, and most of the income came from mobile apps. He finished college in 2018 and fully focused on online marketing opportunities. Now, he still lives in India, so it’s a pretty high income. He said he could only imagine such income from his own venture and no corporate office job. Daymond John and Hip Hop Clothing Fashion designer, Daymond John, founder of famous was born in New York. His entrepreneurial passion started at a young age as he sold almost everything he could spare from Pencils to reconditioned Toy cars. John worked as a waiter at Red Lobsters long before starting his clothing brand. Hip Hop clothing brand FUBU In 1992, John kicked off business by making hats in his mother’s basement and selling them off at concerts and festivals around his neighborhood, in a bid to boost his business John mortgage his house and invested all the money into his business. FUBU an acronym meaning For Us By Us expanded their collection from just hats to the inclusion of-shirts, Hockey Jerseys, and Baseball caps which all had FUBU label embroidered in them. John’s brand skyrocketed when entertainer LL Cool J supported him by creating awareness about the brand which quickly rose to become the trending urban clothing, setting fashion trends for African American youths and most lovers of Hip Hop. FUBU foundation was created in 1997 by John, and it raised $1 million yearly which was donated to charity. Proud of his achievements, John inflated his business realm with the launching of FUBU Entertainment and FUBU Records which released a 19-track musical album which helped increased popularity of the FUBU brand and increased the sale to over $100 million during its launch. Daymond John is estimated to worth around $400 million.

6 Solo Entrepreneurs That Have Changed Their Lives

Whether you see the glass as half full or half empty, I think we can both agree, sometimes it makes sense to just fill the damn cup. And that’s the focus of today’s article, part two in our series on Existential Risk. If you missed that, . check that out here before continuing And now that you’re sufficiently depressed, let’s take that discomfort and channel it towards something productive, solutions. A quick recap, the seven deadly apocalyptic horsemen: Well-intentioned genetic engineering Bioterrorism Climate Change Nuclear War Superintelligent AI Lethal Autonomous Weapons Space-Related Catastrophe And now the all-important question, how to tackle these seemingly insurmountable issues. 1. Well-intentioned genetic engineering If a billionaire or a bold company trying to cure cancer could accidentally wipe out most—or all —of humanity, how do we prepare for the eventual altruism that could kill us all? This will depend on the proliferation and cost of the technology, but it seems obvious to assume genetic engineering and biotech will become increasingly democratized— cheaper, easier, faster… This has certain advantages: individuals everywhere have the ability to counteract wrongs and keep an eye on the status quo. And yet, like a mass murderer in a Texas town filled with .45s, the idiot with the gun always gets off a few shots before someone drops him with a well-placed double tap… Biotech bullets spread much faster. A moratorium on genetic engineering seems equally unlikely, the promises are just too great. So, what do we do? Are these technologies safer hidden in some lab, or open-sourced for all to see? Then again, look at the public outcry against GMOs, primarily due to misinformation. Is involving the public in something as important as our collective defense against the unintended consequences of gene-editing really a good idea? Questionable, at best. But most countries and many companies will want to capitalize on the most transformative industry of this coming century. So, nuclear’s anti-proliferation strategy isn’t going to work. This club is too easy and too important to be a member of. An initial framework: Step 1) An international think tank: Get the smartest biotech (and related) minds together and incentivize them to brainstorm unintended consequences and possible synthetic bio risks, creating a risk index of all forms of genetic and biological research, to be used later in randomized monitoring. Step 2) An international standard MUST be implemented—with threat of retaliation for any who violate the terms — where certain controversial areas — such as chemical/biological/viral weapons and gene drives — are banned and unlike the social media free-for-all, companies and countries are held MASSIVELY responsible for the consequences of their actions. Step 3) Creation of a biotech-specific investigative journalism organization dedicated to uncovering problems with the industry and bring the darkness to light. This is anything but a complete plan, but as the scariest and most probable existential risk, it’s a tough nut to crack. NOTE: 2. Bioterrorism At least terrorism is more straightforward. But, it also suffers from many of the same issues listed above. There are a few saving graces, chief among them being reduced resources and predictability. Even if the Saudi Royal Family — the largest funder of terrorism worldwide— dedicated their entire estimated $1.4T net worth to the pursuit of bioterrorism, that’s only 0.65%  of the $215T wealth of the world. And there are a lot fewer folks to worry about and ways for things to go wrong. Unfortunately, even metal detectors in schools and sports stadiums have proven inadequate at stopping attacks. Would bioweapon detectors be any more effective? A few ideas: Source: CNN Step 1) SSRIs have been implicated in nearly 86% of school shootings ( ), and given the fact that this seems a good place to start. And it would decrease gun crime/school shootings… seems like an obvious win. here's more info with our interview with Dr. Bill Walsh no testing is done prior to prescription, Step 2) The trickier part of the problem are true psychopaths. It only takes one monster to engineer a super virus, and vaccines can take months to develop and mass-produce. If costs come down, it’s fair to assume the mass production part is as genetic/pharma 3D printers would be easily distributed, likely in every pharmacy. It’s even possible everyone owns their own one day. But that’s only half the battle. We need either: to be able to develop vaccines — or cures — exponentially faster, or we need sufficient immunity—or biological resilience — to survive as yet uncreated/imagined diseases and weapons. It’s almost impossible to predict all possible failure modes, so speedier drug/vaccine development is probably our only option — possibly combined with distributed gas-mask-esque protection. For my money, I’d want several international think tanks competitively funded (or something akin to the XPRIZE) with the goal to reach the one or two day mark for diagnosis and vaccine development after disaster strikes. A sufficiently catchy superflu covers most of the world in about a week. Time is ticking. Step 3) In addition to the aforementioned think tanks — working in collaboration with the threat think tanks from #1 — robust incentives for private market solutions need to be addressed. The market viability is currently too early, no one’s willing to pay for prevention until it’s too costly to avoid doing so. This is something governmental venture arms should invest heavily in, seeding the companies that could save all of us. 3. Climate Change Governments have proven ineffective at reigning in the effects of climate change, or our untenable CO2 emissions. This is the tragedy of the commons working its awful game theory. Everyone acts in their own immediate self-interest because everyone else is, and the pains of inaction are small, at least for the time being. There are two schools of thought here: technology will save us and technology is the enemy. Both are right, and wrong. To build a sustainable future, we have to embrace technological solutions to reduce emissions: more efficient farming, electric vehicles, renewable energy; while cutting back on overall consumption. If we’re already at the carrying capacity — the total amount of resource extraction our planet can sustain — allowing 3rd world countries to match our level of wasteful opulence will doom all of us, even if their economies and infrastructures are greener and more renewable than ours. The fact is, we make and consume too much shit. But, there’s an answer, and it doesn’t have to suck. Top-down approaches: Step 1) Courtesy of Douglas Rushkoff: Invert dividends and capital gains tax rates. Today, capital gains are ~10% and dividends taxed at the much higher income tax percentage. This incentivizes companies — and investors — to aim for growth at all costs, profits be damned. Only one thing grows forever, cancer. An economy predicated on growth consumes more and more as it destroys everything around it. By inverting tax rates, companies — and thus investors — could be more focused on sustainable business growth/practices. Apple wouldn’t need an iPhone to wear out every two years, or to slow down your OS to make you upgrade. Instead of an economy of one-and-done, it would incentivize a longer term, more minimalist existence where everyone wins, profits, and less shit ends up in the landfills of life. For more, see this interview. Step 2) : Eliminate subsidies on fossil fuels, cars and high emission industries and create subsidies for development/deployment of renewables. Courtesy of Jarl Jensen This one is pretty straightforward and universally applicable. Renewables are already on par price-wise with fossil fuels and coal in most areas of the world. A little extra push makes the pieces topple faster and drives us towards a sustainable future. If additional subsidies were created for other greener businesses: clean meat (animal agriculture is responsible for ~13-18% of emissions — depending on how you measure and who you source — more even than global transportation), electric vehicles, net-zero construction, etc…, we’d be well on our way to mitigating worse of climate change. Wild cards: Carbon tax — has yet to work/be implemented but may in fact prove necessary. Bottom-up approaches: Step 1) Local agriculture/coops: The farther your food travels, the greater the carbon footprint and chance of spoilage/waste (which is approximately 24% of all food). The future of farming — with the possible exception of lab-grown meat, due to the value of scale — is local. City governments would do well to incentivize local farming, both creating jobs at home, reducing dependence on foreign forces and greatly reducing emissions. Step 2) Local tax hikes on high emission industries/products can ice this cake. Many initiatives are almost impossible on a global or even national basis, but municipalities and states have the ability to pass hard laws and bills that larger legislatures cannot. Some states are already leading the way and more will follow as consumers demand action. 4. Nuclear War For all its faults, mutually assured destruction (MAD), has been a relatively successful strategy, despite many near catastrophes. On the whole, the world has done a good job mitigating — or at least preventing — all-out war up to this point. But, the spread of nuclear power makes this harder daily; much like a country filled with guns, more isn’t merrier. The progression towards renewable energy and away from nuclear — given the accidents at Fukushima — is a positive development, at least from the prospect of nuclear war, but greater efforts MUST be made at disarmament, especially among mutually hostile countries: US/Russia, Pakistan/India, etc… But power is rarely given up, so more stringent monitoring procedures need to be implemented to prevent accidental leakages of technology/weapons, etc… For my part, I’d like to see overhauls of missile command systems. Is a thirty second — or however long the incredibly short snap judgment time is — delay really enough contemplation before hitting the big red button? Twitter would seem to suggest otherwise. 5. Superintelligent AI The consensus among AI researchers is there’s no consensus on if/when we’ll achieve superhuman AI. Assuming we will — a necessary assumption as not doing so would be like riding the Titanic without lifeboats or a vest — it begs the question: how the heck can we contain and/or control the all-powerful mystery that is AI? Thankfully, more and more AI researchers are working on this very problem today — many because they’re terrified of the implications. The best theory we’ve come up with is robust value alignment, ie building artificial intelligences in line with human values and morals. This is problematic at best. What exactly are human values? Sharia Law? The 10 Commandments? Hammurabi’s code? The US Constitution?  If anything, assigning a set of values for an AI to follow is an exercise in folly. HP didn’t break any laws when they made Hitler’s death camp punch cards… Well, we could try to have AI’s learn our values through observation, but data’s biased… and we’re even worse. Or, we could hope a superintelligence would just ignore us, but then again, we accidentally step on ants all the time, and kill the ones who crawl into our homes. So, what can we ants do? The best approaches I’ve seen involve either: limiting the capabilities of AI systems — which again, seems impossible given the risk/reward ratio and tragedy of the commons problem discussed earlier, let alone being able to predict bugs/failures — or counter-defensive AI, ie fantasy sports for society. I sure can’t cover LeBron James or stop a Steph Curry 3-pointer, but with other elite athletes (or AIs) playing on my behalf, at least there’s a fighting chance. Step 1) International regulations on proper development/containment of AI systems. The last thing we need is another NSA-esque leak where XYZ government or corporation accidentally release the end-of-times source code to anyone with an internet connection. Software is pretty easy to repurpose. Step 2) Sizable defense budget allocations to a non-governmental think tank/initiative focused on threat detection/forecasting. The only way to avoid disaster in the uber-exponential world of AI advancement is to plan for failure LONG before it happens. Two seconds is an eternity in ones and zeroes. 6. Lethal Autonomous Weapons It took a dozen terrorists, $500,000 and a few months of planning for Al-Queda to fly 747s into the World Trade Center. The world will never be the same. And yet today, any idiot can buy a drone and attempt to take out a jet or blow up a building, all from the comfort of their couch. Drones are scary, but autonomous drone weaponry is downright terrifying as costs drop and access rises. It only takes one country to develop said tech before others feel forced to play catch up. And how do you stop an autonomous army? Trick question, you don’t. It’s nearly impossible to shoot down —or suicide bomb —a drone. And to date, robust anti-drone solutions have proven ineffective. Democratized mass murder is something humanity CANNOT afford to let happen, there’s no way to put the cat back into the bag with 3D printers, global supply chains and open-source tech. We NEED international efforts, now, before it is too late, with 1st-strike retaliation against any country or company found to be in violation of the accords. I and many others I’ve spoken with are worried anything less would ultimately prove insufficient. 7. Space-Related Catastrophe In theory, easy — put money towards monitoring, fundamental research and design of asteroid path-altering technologies. It doesn’t really matter who does this, or why they do. We’re all on this little blue spaceship together. Unfortunately, every country hopes another will do the job for them. In the US, we’ve massively slashed NASA’s budget and people question the value of space and space exploration. That may mean international agreements are needed to ensure sufficient funding and advancement in the all-important space-missile defense system for all of us. This would be ideal for an ultra-billionaire to start a foundation around… hint, hint Jeff and Elon. Closing Thoughts Existential risks are a tough nut to crack. The list and suggestions above are by no means complete, a million challenges lie around the corner of every idea. But we don’t need perfect solutions to get started, just basic frameworks and smart, committed folks working towards the perfect good. And in a lot of areas, we have that already. And in a lot of ways, that’s you guys. Here’s where I ask for your help. I don’t have the answers, not even close. I just want to get the conversation started. How could we make these plans more robust and idiot-proof, because that’s what it will take. In the game of survival, it pays to rig the deck. Any great ideas? Would love to learn from other more knowledgeable folks, or, if you have any great suggestions for guests, mention them below. Any of these topics would make great episodes. Disruptors podcast Learned something? Share this around and click the 👏 to say “thanks!” and help others find this article. Hold down the clap button if you liked the content! It helps me gain exposure . Clap 50 times and follow me on Twitter: @mattwardio or subscribe to The Disruptors podcast.

Overcoming Existential RisksThe World Needs More “Real” Superheroes…

To Become a Space Faring Civilization, We need to Move Beyond Rockets, including SpaceX and Blue…

ConsenSys isn’t the first to consider blockchain in space, but it seems poised to be the one to make it take off by acquiring . Planetary Resources This has been a golden age for space startups, or as some call it “astropreneurship.” Dozens of nanosatellite startups have entered the fray, and SpaceX has outpaced NASA in terms of its rocket development to ferry those entrepreneurial probes into orbit. Next year, SpaceIL, an entrant from the Lunar X-Prize competition, plans to put the first private spacecraft in human history on the Moon. Several other former entrants to the competition that inspired SpaceIL — including Moon Express and Astrobotic — also present space as a realistic commercial option for new businesses. , a Chinese project working through the Qtum network, made its debut earlier this year planning to use blockchain to manage a network of small satellites that previously operated only on their own. Through use of their token (SPC), satellites can rent space for communications. In conjunction with their own satellite-specific operating system, they see a way to encourage satellite app development and new uses for such probes via those apps. It would parallel the explosion of apps when smartphones allowed new uses for mobile. Space Chain ConsenSys seems to be betting big they can do the same thing and more. Already having over $50 million in venture funding with investors like Space Angels, OS Ventures, and Tencent, one could reasonably assume the price tag here was far north of $500 million if not close to $1 billion. Planetary Resources is a an interesting launchpad for that, since their end game is to encourage the robotic mining of asteroids. Harvesting the material in so-called “near-Earth asteroids” (or NEAs, which are outside the main Asteroid Belt) would get expensive. Evidently, ConsenSys sees a major business opportunity in making blockchain a part of the infrastructure used to facilitate that business and space ventures a little closer to home, expected to grow immensely in the next few years. fundamental Turning Blockchain into the Core of Space Commercial Infrastructure If space-based commercial activity does indeed expand — and it is projected to go from $360 billion to — it would mean a lot for the blockchain and crypto world if one of the industry’s pioneering companies were to compel customers to use blockchain infrastructure. $558 billion by 2026 As Planetary Resources General Counsel Brian Israel put it, “Ethereum smart contract functionality is a natural solution for private-ordering and commerce in space…in which a diverse range of actors from a growing number of countries must coordinate and transact.” Rather than fighting to transition companies off of legacy infrastructure, the entryway into space commerce would have to flow through a blockchain conduit. For the growing list of companies planning to do business out there, this would lay the foundations for blockchain as legacy infrastructure for off-planet industry. the Of course, any company with their eyes set on space would realistically start small, meaning Planetary Resources would have to build more local satellites or units before precision-mining ops on NEAs. They have done just that with their own band of satellites capable of monitoring agriculture, like several other companies in the industry. There is no need to assume smart contracts through ConsenSys and Planetary Resources would have to wait for an order of asteroid ore. Even between near-Earth observation missions and venturing out past Mars, there are plenty of ideas for making a buck. Just as Moon Express is venturing to do, ConsenSys’ new acquisition could feasibly launch a lunar business, ferrying soil samples and even Helium-3 back to Earth. ConsenSys Raises the Stakes by Diversifying its Portfolio What separates an acquisition like this from any other ConsenSys could have facilitated is the company’s clear foray into the wider technology and startup scene. This is a major acquisition, buying out one of the few indisputably influential space startups that have broken out in the last decade. That makes ConsenSys much more than a blockchain venture now. They are now officially in the space business. They aren’t just planning to run the payments infrastructure, but eventually manage the entire extraterrestrial mining, extraction, and delivery process for Planetary Resources. In the meantime, they get to see how to apply blockchain to space-based data, such as imaging from the hundreds of nanosatellites that have reached orbit in the last few years. That likely raises the stakes for other ambitious blockchain companies to expand their reach into different industries, making blockchain a staple of payments and data management in a number of verticals. This might just prompt other major decentralized ledger projects to look for big-time conduits to use blockchain technology, with space just being one of the new frontiers. Like what you read? Check out our GitHub projects and join the community: _Orbs platform reference implementation in Go. Contribute to orbs-network/orbs-network-go development by creating an…_github.com orbs-network/orbs-network-go _Orbs platform protocol and service specifications. Contribute to orbs-network/orbs-spec development by creating an…_github.com orbs-network/orbs-spec _Monorepo for Orbs platform reference implementation — orbs-network/orbs-network-typescript_github.com orbs-network/orbs-network-typescript _Go implementation of Lean Helix consensus algorithm — orbs-network/lean-helix-go_github.com orbs-network/lean-helix-go Join the Orbs community: GitHub: https://github.com/orbs-network : Telegram https://t.me/orbs_network : Twitter https://twitter.com/orbs_network : Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/ORBS_Network/ : Read the Orbs white papers https://www.orbs.com/white-papers Sign up for the Orbs newsletter

How ConsenSys’s Latest Acquisition Puts  Blockchain at the Center of the Commercial Space Race

San Francisco, CASeptember 10th, 2018 As a Cornell undergrad, I can say that I learned how to think critically and analytically as an Economics major due to the rigorous course curriculum. Looking back, I realize now that the engineering and mathematics department as well as the liberal arts departments have produced a disproportionately high number of co-founders and CEO’s in the blockchain industry. Richard Ma, CEO of Quantstamp: Richard Ma studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell and was a high-frequency trader for a Bitcoin HFT fund before he co-founded Quantstamp, a protocol for smart contract audits. “Cornell’s rigorous Electrical and Computer Engineering program, as well as my engineering work on the Automotive X-Prize, built the foundation for a successful career in algorithmic trading, and then in the field of blockchain security with Quantstamp” Emin Gun Sirer, Scientist and Professor at Cornell University. Emin co-authored a whitepaper that describes new protocols called Snowflake, Snowball and Avalanche which randomly sample network participants and choose a single result. Euwyn Poon, Co-Founder of SPIN and LRX (Layer Protocol). Euwyn received CS degree from Cornell before subsequently obtaining a JD from Cornell Law school. Poon co-founded the popular bike-sharing platform SPIN and also most recently co-founded Layer Protocol, a decentralized reputation, incentive, and payments protocol for the global sharing economy, built on the blockchain. Jae Kwon, Co-Founder of Tendermint & Cosmos. Jae Kwon is co-founder and CEO of Tendermint and Cosmos and also President of the Interchain foundation. Jae began work on Tendermint in early 2014 and previously dealt with encryption and public key hashes earlier in his career. Jae is a CS graduate of Cornell. Gee Chuang, Co-Founder CEO of INK Protocol / Listia. Gee Chuang is Co-Founder and CEO of Listia and Ink Protocol and received his Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell. Ink Protocol is a decentralized reputation and payment system for peer-to-peer marketplaces and helps ​users safely ​send ​and ​receive ​payments ​in ​P2P ​marketplaces ​while ​earning ​a ​reputation ​for ​every completed ​transaction. Matt McGraw- CEO of Dispatch Labs. Matt McGraw is Co-Founder and CEO of Dispatch Labs a blockchain advisory group and also incubates several blockchain-related projects at Here Collective, his own co-working space based in San Francisco’s Mission District. “Cornell taught the whole me, not just tech, or Econ, or some specific thing. And now supporting the E@C program and really pushing entrepreneurialism on campus’s in general I think it’s helping push a new generation of business savvy domain experts. Richard Choi — Co-CEO of Carry Protocol. Richard Choi is Co-Founder and CEO of Carry Protocol and received a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell. Carry Protocol empowers consumers to own & monetize their transaction data. Carry brings blockchain to the offline world. Arry Yu — Co-Founder & President at STORM. Arry Yu received her Bachelors in Math, Music and East Asian Studies from Cornell and currently is Co-Founder and President of StormX, based in Seattle. StormX changes way people earn money by matching them with tasks and letting them complete small gigs from any mobile device, anywhere in the world, and be rewarded in cryptocurrency. Elaine Shi — Co-Founder & Chief Scientist at Thunder Token. Elaine is a distributed computing Associate Professor at Cornell and Co-Founder Chief Scientist at Thunder Token, a blockchain with “optimistic instant confirmation.” Kathleen Breitman — Co-Founder at Tezos. Kathleen Breitman is a graduate of Cornell and manages operations for Tezos. She was previously a strategy associate at R3, the blockchain consortium for R&D consisting of more than 200 companies. Richard Craib — Founder of Numerai. Richard studied Mathematics at Cornell and was on the Dean’s List. Writes Richard: “The mathematics classes were much tougher than the other universities I went to. It felt like you could really fail so you had to work extra hard for your grade rewards.” In my opinion, the rigorous Math and Engineering departments at Cornell fostered the independent thinking needed to foster innovation in a nascent industry. Why do you think some institutions have produced more grads that are now movers and shakers in the blockchain industry rather than others? Feel free to leave comments below. ___ Disclaimer: These opinions are solely my own and do not represent the opinions of Sharespost or any companies that I may advise or invest in. Please follow me on , , and if you’d like to connect. Twitter Medium LinkedIn

Top 11 Cornell Grads and Faculty in the Cryptocurrency Industry

If you enjoy , you must be interested in futurism, and where we are all headed, you wouldn’t be here otherwise. FringeFM technology The is fascinating, especially as exponential technology accelerates. AI, genetics, space, robotics… the world is moving faster than anyone can comprehend, try as we might. future At we’re pretty passionate about this, and at looking how technological advancement can improve the lives of all of us. And while we think we put out a pretty good podcast, there are some other great shows we wanted to recommend, in case you are interested in even more future focused shows and discussions. FringeFM We try to feature as many innovators and thought leaders focused on the future as possible, but we always want more. If you haven’t listened to all our , we recommend doing that first. FringeFM episodes But to add to that, here are some future focused podcasts and books which have had the biggest impact on our team personally. Our Favorite 5 Technology and Futurism Podcasts 1. Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur We had not that long ago. The episode was a blast where we covered a ton of material, from the future of interplanetary travel, the misconceptions about the Fermi Paradox, the reason we’ll probably live in Dyson cylinders rather than terraforming planets, how human evolution of body, mind and work will progress and much much more. Isaac Arthur, the host of SFIA on FringeFM If you love these topics, you will love and/or . On the show Isaac breaks down in-depth future tech projects/prospects to bring clarity to topics such as colonizing space (various stars, the Moon or Mars), building space elevators and other space launch technologies, exploring the Fermi Paradox and possibility of extraterrestrial life and much much more. Cannot recommend this highly enough, just make sure you watch the beautiful videos accompanying the content. Isaac’s podcast Youtube channel 2. Mind & Machine is the host of Mind & Machine, and we are planning to have him on the FringeFM soon. M&M is a bit like FringeFM, although generally features shorter conversations on singular, in-depth topics. August highlights a lot of augmented reality and VR, blockchain, AI and space and works in frontier tech consulting as a day job. He is a fan and friend of the show and someone we think our audience would enjoy a lot, since we love his podcast too. August Bradley You can subscribe to Mind & Machine or , your choice. on Youtube iTunes 3. Exponential Wisdom and Dan Sullivan make a great one-two punch in this dynamic podcast focused on technology, futurism and human longevity. I’ll admit to bingeing all 50 episodes of Exponential Wisdom within 3 days while envisioning FringeFM (listening at 3.5x speed). Peter Diamandis Diamandis, the founder of the XPrize, Human Longevity Institute, Planetary Resource (a failed asteroid mining startup) and many other game changing organizations is incredibly passionate and motivational, seeking to live to 700. And his co-host Dan Sullivan isn’t too shabby either, a 70+ year old executive coach focused on helping top performers up their game. Even at 73 years of age, Dan still works out hard every day, optimizes his health and is constantly testing bloodwork, planning to make it to at least 156. The podcast shares their various thoughts on the future, technologies to achieve extreme longevity, the cutting edge science most people are not aware of, a fair bit of personal coaching/enhancement and where we are headed as a species. We recommend subscribing in iTunes ASAP. 4. The Podcast Future Thinkers We recently had and , . Future Thinkers is a show about the evolution of technology, society, and consciousness, merging the meta with the advancement of technology in an interesting and thought provoking podcast we highly recommend. Euvie Ivanova Mike Gilliland the hosts of the Future Thinkers Podcast on FringeFM Both Mike and Euvie are bullish on blockchain and AI, into personal development and live beyond the bonds of conventional norms, allowing this duo to create a compelling interview show which talks about big, important topics for humanity’s future. If you like FringeFM, you will love this podcast too. 5. Of course, FringeFM FringeFM is the podcast that explores the edges of human understanding and looks at the technologies, trends and societal norms shaping our collective future. Here the world’s top minds share their insights and predictions on the convergence, direction and ethics of exponential technologies transforming life as we know it. Imagine longform TED Talk with similar caliber guests, but the ability to discuss a much wider range of topics and explore controversial areas in a no-holds barred, as long as it takes format. Every episode is fun, engaging and leaves you longer for more, excited about the future and interested in taking action. You can subscribe to FringeFM on , , , , , or iTunes Stitcher Overcast any Android app/platform Spotify Youtube just on our site! BONUS: Our Favorite Non-Fiction Books on the Future by Yuval Harrari Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow As a follow up to Harrari’s first book Sapiens, Homo Deus is an incredibly well written, thought provoking book on the future of humanity as we evolve beyond mere flesh and blood creatures. Understanding the past is one thing, predicting the future is quite another, yet we’d say Yuval Noah Harrari delivered a darned good effort that anyone could learn from and will enjoy. or , either way it is worth it. Grab a copy today on Amazon get a free audiobook from Audible by Michio Kaku Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel Impossible is nothing, or at least that is what Michio Kaku definitively proves with his book Physics of the Impossible. The book analyzes far future possible technologies and categorizes them as level 1, 2 or 3 impossibilities, ie things that are not currently possible but likely will be in next 50–100 years, things that may be possible and things that would need to rewrite our understanding of physics to be doable. The book is very interesting and reminds us all that you can do most anything you set your mind to. or a . Grab a copy today on Amazon free audiobook with Audible trial by Peter Diamandis Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think Peter Diamandis is pretty awesome, and in the book Abundance makes a compelling case that the future is going to be amazing. Forget the fear, uncertainty and doubt that are peddled by much of mainstream media. Abundance is a great book worth reading which will be inspire and educate you, a great one-two punch. or l. You can pick up a copy on Amazon grab a free audio version on Audible with a free tria Like this? You can also check out our guides to the best health/longevity focused podcasts and best space focused podcasts too. Brought to you by FringeFM At we explore the edges of human understanding and look at the technologies, trends and societal norms shaping our collective future. FringeFM Here the world’s top minds share their passion projects and how advances in genomics, space travel, connected devices, artificial intelligence and other exponential tech is converging to create the future of tomorrow. NOTE: This is a repost from FringeFM. If you got something actionable or valuable from this post or are excited about the round table, go ahead and “Clap” below .

Our 5 Favorite Technology and Futurism Podcasts

Space exploration plays a special role in our hearts and minds. Humanity is set upon a great timeline of exploration, and space primordially calls to us next. Our first steps on the moon, for example, symbolize the cumulative technological achievement of humanity. Ever since then, children dream of jettisoning into outer space to explore the unknown. Our presence in space doesn’t just provide inspiration for dreams, though. Satellites track the weather, storms, and wildfires. They also help us plan agricultural and urban land use from a bird’s eye view. Photographs taken from space shuttles teach us about the planets in our solar system, and one day we may be able to travel extraordinary distances in record time. Space exploration provides tangible benefits. Space innovation needs to be better, faster and cheaper still. We believe the missing link is building the incentive systems that motivate innovation in space exploration. The space industry has a unique economic structure. Since designing, building, and launching satellites and rockets requires cutting-edge science and engineering, the industry requires a highly specialized workforce. The time horizon is long, as capital investments made in initial periods can be recouped only years in the future. Governments tend to be heavily involved in this industry as parts of it pertain to national defense and pride. Private companies, however, as U.S. government involvement recedes. have entered the industry The private space industry received an important boost in 2004 following the competition, which awarded $10 million to the first non-government organization that successfully launched a reusable, manned spacecraft. Many take the competition’s success to demonstrate that private enterprises can indeed meaningfully contribute to space exploration technology. These intellectual silos are unhelpful. Ansari X Prize The current market structure, however, stunts innovation because it incentivizes private companies to keep their intellectual property secret in order to protect their competitive advantage. The trouble lies in finding a way to quickly identify and motivate people who have the right skills and knowledge to collaborate on projects that can advance space technology. With private companies pursuing space exploration this could be you someday To address this problem, we need to tap into the power of some currently under-appreciated incentives. by sponsoring contests that focus on a particular technological need (like building a 3D-printed rocket engine) and awarding cash prizes for successful prototypes. Ten of these teams submitted engine prototypes a business plan that accounts for cost and overall feasibility. Renowned professionals from the space and tech industries judged the submissions. DIYROCKETS crowdsources the development of space technology Their first contest, for example, attracted the attention of 80 teams of engineers. and The winning team had members hired by Boeing and RocketLab, and the runner-up spun out into a new space startup. This method of catalyzing space innovation is revolutionary for several reasons: (1) Fosters intellectual collaboration that is sorely lacking in the space sector; people who have the right skills and knowledge unite to accomplish a specific technological need. (2) Leads to prototypes that are far less expensive than what the current market could provide; the cash prizes in the contest summed to a few thousand dollars, whereas private companies like Boeing charge several millions of dollars to design a rocket engine. (3) It changes the incentives of players in the space industry in profound ways. because they marry two dimensions that kindle the human spirit: (1) the challenge of working on cutting-edge technology and (2) the publicity that comes with successful designs. These powerful lead to high levels of motivation. Public contests are exciting for scientists and engineers to take part in social incentives Public contests allow scientists and engineers to work for the common good and most people are very motivated to achieve something meaningful that can help others. which is a profound . Public contests tap into the desire to do something meaningful and good in the world, source of motivation in human beings Space exploration is a public good, because the discoveries realized in space benefit many of us on Earth. and work together on meaningful endeavors, which is another . These contests could form the basis for to create decentralized space markets that enable scientists and engineers to innovate incredibly efficiently. What’s more, they create ad hoc networks that exist to solve specific technological problems. Due to their goal driven nature, there will be no unnecessary bureaucracy or “legacy” business units that tend to create barriers rather than incentives for collaboration. Public contests allow scientists and engineers to connect with like-minded peers basic human drive Different teams that contribute sub-components of winning prototypes can be compensated based on their relative contribution to the . This would allow scientists to create multi-layered that can solve sub-components of technological problems and provide for more accurate allocation of rewards. There may be , too. We believe that these contests can become even more effective by using the nCent protocol, which allows for an accurate tracking, attribution and auditing of the contribution of each party — and to permit multiparty coordination without requiring anyone to trust each other. technology networks many more applications of blockchain technology in the exploration of space The barrier to making space travel and exploration a reality is not an intellectual one. There are more than enough capable scientists and engineers who can help the space industry take the leap forward. Instead, the barrier is one of finding the right incentive system to get all of these hearts and minds to collaborate on the right goals at the right time. This article was researched and written in collaboration with Darlene Damm , Vice Chair & Principal Faculty of Global Grand Challenges at Singularity University and founder of DIYROCKETS. We’d like to thank Darlene for sharing her vision — and check out her latest contests ! As always, you can mail me at kk@ncnt.io …To the moon! To stay in the nCent loop, hear me tweet and join our international telegram channel .

How Blockchain Can Propel Us into Space

BuzzZZzzzzZZZzzzzzword drop: . Artificial Intelligence (AI) I saw this word appear everywhere around this year. But I think the most compelling takeaway was how we are still trying to make sense of AI and how it can help or hurt us. SXSW Interactive “AI Titanic” was an term shared in a panel discussion and it was not coined by me. Alas, I wish. excellent , an American computer scientist, electrical engineer, inventor, and transgender activist spoke about the looming AI titanic that is about to happen. Lynn Conway “Back in the day of bridge engineering,” she explained. “The public knew who built the bridge and there was transparency. But there was also a clear culprit if things went wrong. With AI, the way that it is managed today…we have little to no public transparency...we’re going to have an AI titanic…things are bound to go wrong…that’s how we learn…but, we need to be careful.” IEEE Tech for Humanity Series: Algorithms, Unconscious Bias + AI (Nita Patel and Lynn Conway) I’m still digesting this panel and my notes…it was an intense discussion on the unconscious bias that we all hold, but the the greater importance of developers and designers holding themselves accountable to their social impact. Really though…Who Holds the Responsibility? For all my fans out there, a dystopian future for humanity especially with our current relationship with technology could be upon us sooner than we think. Black Mirror I resent being dramatic…but the fantasy world depicted in the show could very much become our reality quickly and seemingly overnight. I look at how much change has happened in my existence already. Mayor of London, , came to SXSW 2018 and shared multiple different, powerful messages. Sadiq Khan A key takeaway here again was the theme of holding social responsibility. “And the consequences, for example — something we’ve experienced on both sides of the Atlantic — where there is concerns about elections being interfered with through social media. There are concerns around fake news. There are concerns around how social media can be used to amplify messages of hatred and division. And I think tech companies, politicians, have a responsibility to respond to those concerns.” — Sadiq Khan Credit: I took this! #FrontRow Is it all doom and gloom? No. I do want to leave on a more uplifting note about folks that are harnessing the power of AI for the benefit of humanity. I sat in on a panel session about AI being used positively to address and end world hunger. With access to new, emerging technology and data, the ability of AI to accurately aid the work of providers on the ground is immense. The panel was facilitated by Robert Opp, Director of Innovation and Change Management at the UN World Food Programme. The panelists offered diverse perspectives from their XPRIZE, Google, Gates Foundation and UN WFP backgrounds. “85% of people affected by hunger are also the most vulnerable to disaster.” I learnt about how current food assistance programs are being deployed around Africa and Asia, but more so, how AI multiples the efforts of one campaign worker to the masses. “1/3 of humans globally suffer from malnutrition.” As a humble and clueless human on the hurdles of current campaign workers, it was great to see so many organizations wanting to collaborate to innovate together and surface better solutions. Listening to both the 10,000 and 10 ft level discussions was enlightening. SXSW Session: The End of Global Hunger? AI Will Make it Work But that still doesn’t solve the responsibility question… I understand how we’re still learning. I understand how we’re still building and evolving our relationship with technology. I think all entities from governments to technology companies need to consider their larger social impact in the long term. When livelihoods are at stake, there needs to be a high level of social responsibility built in to the design based on the techno-socio behavior of users. What you’re developing may add dollars to your bank account, but it could cause greater harm when it breaks. Back to Lynn’s reference, no bridge engineer designed and constructed their bridge without considering the flow of traffic, the weather patterns, the material properties…there’s a larger ecosystem of variables that need to be considered always. They also when a bridge collapsed or failed. We need to rise and demand integrity when designing technology products for people. For our communities. For our humanity. For Jack Dawson. owned So what are your thoughts? Share them below. These are my simple ramblings on the matter.

Who Will Be Responsible For Sinking the Next AI Titanic?

The True Reason You Want The iPhone X But can’t admit The world is on the brink. Evil kills good people with mass shootings, tensions with North Korea increase daily, and actors abuse actors as sexual playthings. Yet despite the torture of humanity, thousands of people complain about the iPhone X’s notch. Not me. I enjoyed the iPhone tittle tattle. In the run up to the iPhone X’s release I salivated over articles on the X’s lush colours, OLED screen, Face ID, super-duper performance, glass construction, wireless charging, bionic chips. Oh, how I could go on. I read political stories too but only to feel more adult. On October 27th I sat by the iMac and waited until 08:00 am to pre-order the iPhone X — like millions of other people — I hit refresh repeatedly. What is it about the iPhone X that drives me to pre-order, and because I expected a 10th anniversary phone, join the Apple Upgrade Programme? Is it madness? More money than sense? Am I still 13½ years old? (Those were rhetorical questions). The answer might be clever marketing because after two months with the iPhone X, I’ve done nothing the one-year-old 7 Plus wasn’t capable of. Close Encounters of the Apple Kind My first encounter with Apple — the iPod Classic — was a difficult decision. A friend recommended the Creative Zen MP3 player, but it was near obsolete so I opted for the iPod and the addiction began. Perhaps if I’d opted for the Zen, I’d be using an Android phone today. A few years passed and BBC News featured a new phone called iPhone. But I gazed at my silver Sony Ericsson and wondered what more you’d want in a phone? And the cost 11 years ago? I would never pay £30 a month for a carrier contract. However after coffee with friends, who all had an iPhone, coupled with an illness in the family to emphasise the impermanence of life, I went iPhone. One iTunes library, four iPhones, two iPads, one iMac and a MacBook Pro later, I’m beyond redemption. But brand loyalty can’t be why I ‘rented’ the iPhone X. I could have kept the 7 Plus. El Notch, Yosemite Go Figure 8 I tried to resist the X and considered the smaller iPhone 8. The size was perfect, but the camera would be a step down. The 8 is cheaper on the upgrade programme. £18 less than the X or £12 less for the Plus. But the iPhone 8 Plus offers little that’s new since it’s the 7 Plus in glass. Wireless charging? There’s no such thing. The charger mat still needs plugged in. The iPhone 8 is a decoy phone — the iPhone 7s. But iPhone 8 can’t be why I fell for the X. My 7 Plus was still a premium phone without a scratch. Drip, Drip, Drip When I was a child, I got excited about Christmas from around September. For Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone my anticipation began one year before release. No sooner was the 7 Plus in my hand, the tech press speculated on the next iPhone. The whole market place was primed by the media and whipped into a frenzy. Rumours, , leaked as usual but with one difference. from people familiar with the situation 2017 saw the leaking of price. Customers needed to be acclimatised to the first £1000 phone so when it became official, the shock factor would be lost. You’ve been primed. In marketing terms, priming is the preparation of subconscious consumer behaviour through the subtle use of information. The new X for example, was secret, but there was just enough sexy news to whet your appetite. The X was everywhere and nowhere. But stories about a non-existent phone cannot be the reason I wanted one. There are stories about HomePods, cellular watches and iPad Pros and I want none of those (fingers crossed). Apple Framed the X as The Future… Today After a succession of similar iPhones, the X promised reinvention. The X’s keynote described the product as the future and you can hold it in your hand. The message was misleading. Edge to edge displays, wireless charging, OLED screens and facial recognition, have been available on other phones for years. But know this, the X looks beautiful, when switched on. When off, it looks like the Blackberry Leap. The build quality is superb though. It’s a wonder of marketing. You can feel unique using a product when millions upon millions of people across the world have the product too. But an OLED screen and facial recognition can’t be reasons to spend £56 a month. The 7 Plus screen is fabulous and fingerprint ID seamless. If having the future isn’t enough to make you buy, there’s always fear. Scarcity Scarcity and fear of missing out (FOMO) come into play. If one thing puts the fear of God into consumers, it’s the wait to get what they want. When I was a small boy, my favourite superhero was Spider-man. I begged Mum to buy me a Spider-man figure. At the toyshop we discovered it would be weeks before Spider-man would be back in stock. So what did I do? I settled for the Human Torch (one of the Fantastic Four). I regretted it soon after and my impatience meant I didn’t get Spider-man, ever. When impatience strikes, I think Spider-man. Drip feeding consumers with stories of scarcity and production line problems fan the flames of fear, the fear of missing out. I knew the X’s production would be fine and prepared to wait. Supply problem stories come out before every iPhone launch. In terms of missing out, of all features, only Face ID and Animojis were absent from the 7 Plus. So, FOMO can’t be why I wanted an iPhone X. Prize Value £1000 is scary for a phone but it’s not £1000 more than we’re used to paying. Prices have crept up for years, and be honest, if you can afford £700 or £800 for a phone, you can also afford £1000. Apple know it too. It may be borderline out of reach but it’s also borderline within reach. A high price is one tactic marketers use to put the quality of a product in the mind of consumers. The high price tag of the X may set it apart from competitors but cost definitely isn’t the reason to want the X. Here and Now and Why My late Dad used to say there’s no such thing as a bad car. In the 1970s, cars looked good in the showroom but once you drove one and it rained, they rusted and fell apart before you got home. Cars are not like that anymore. Like cars today, there’s no such thing as a bad phone. Most brands have caught up. You’ll not do anything different on the X than you could do on many of the latest smart phones. The X may not be the future, just a brilliant phone that perfects what others have already done, while leaving room for development. Over a year I’ll pay £677 to hire Apple’s latest palm-top computer. The device I use everywhere to read, write, take pictures, research, web browse, meditate, enjoy music. Oh and make phone calls. Why do I want one? It’s not brand loyalty, decoys, scarcity or the features. In 1923 when asked by a New York Times reporter why he wanted to climb Everest, George Mallory said “Because it is there”. I want the iPhone X for the same reason you do — because it is there.

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