Page 11211
Aug 27, 2013
On the ‘Evil’ of Hoarding
Posted by Daniel Shafrir in categories: bitcoin, economics, ethics, finance, policy
Originally posted as Part III of a four-part introductory series on Bitcoin on May 21, 2013 in the American Daily Herald. See the Bitcoin blog for all four articles.
With gold prices back in the $1,300-$1,400/oz range it is sometimes difficult explaining to non-gold bugs why owning physical gold is still a good long term strategy. Some define buying gold as ‘an investment’, and others as ‘a hedge against inflation’. I tend to look at it as an insurance policy against hyper-inflation or just simply as sound honest money. However, when describing a strategy of accumulating money (in gold form) in some far-away vault, only to be used in some end-of-the-world scenario, it goes without saying that an image of a miserly old man replaces my likeness in the eyes of my conversation partner. Few people stuff dollar bills in their mattress any more, but hoarding of gold and silver when these were de-facto money was not unusual. Commodity money, which tends to increase in purchasing power over time, is predisposed to this ‘problem’. When you ‘love money’ so much that you hold on to too much of it or for too long a time, then you are hoarding.
Can ‘hoarding’ be defined?
Robert LeFevre once joked that while he was courting his soon-to-be-wife, he was impressed when she told him how much she loved money. Yet after they were married, it turned out that she really didn’t love money. In fact, she would try to find any excuse to get rid of it… in her shopping sprees, of course! Apparently money is no different than other goods and services; you trade one for the other. You trade the lesser valued good for the more valued good. When you make a purchase, you make a choice. You value your money less than the good you are buying. Similarly, when you refrain from purchasing an item, the indication is that your money is of more value than the foregone good. This is the basic premise in anticipation of a transaction, that both sides benefit – otherwise the transaction would not take place.
Continue reading “On the ‘Evil’ of Hoarding” »
0 comments
Aug 27, 2013
The Benefit of Specialization – Bitcoin as an Invented Currency
Posted by Daniel Shafrir in categories: bitcoin, economics, engineering, finance
Originally posted as Part II of a four-part introductory series on Bitcoin on May 7, 2013 in the American Daily Herald. See the Bitcoin blog for all four articles.
The emergence of money and its importance in enabling trade between people has been well researched and documented in the literature of the Austrian School of economics – Theory of Money and Credit by Ludwig von Mises and Man, Economy and State by Murray N. Rothbard being prime examples. The contribution of the Austrian greats to the understanding of money and its origin made clear exactly what money is (e.g. the most marketable commodity), the different types of media that are employed in exchange between people (e.g. commodity money, credit money, fiat money and money substitutes) and a theoretical explanation for their origin (the Regression Theorem). The Austrian School has also given arguably the most convincing analysis of the relationship between the money type in use, the manner by which it is controlled and the business cycle – emphasizing the importance of sound money. But except for a few sparse outliers, what the Austrian School has yet to do is fully recognize Bitcoin as a valid scholarly and academic topic. With this article, I hope to contribute to its recognition.
Money’s characteristics
Money enabled people in early stages of civilization to go from direct exchange, with difficulties such as the double-coincidence of wants, to indirect exchange. This improved mechanism paved the way for facilitating man’s specialization in his tasks, thereby enabling division of labor within society since each specialized laborer was able to trade his goods for others indirectly with the use of a medium of exchange. Money has taken many forms but there are certain characteristics all forms should have. Aristotle, for instance provided the following four:
Continue reading “The Benefit of Specialization – Bitcoin as an Invented Currency” »
Aug 27, 2013
Bitcoin and its Value
Posted by Daniel Shafrir in categories: bitcoin, business, economics, finance
Originally posted as Part I of a four-part introductory series on Bitcoin on May 1, 2013 in the American Daily Herald. See the Bitcoin blog for all four articles.
The last couple of months proved a very exciting time for Bitcoin and its new owners, with values increasing from $30 to $260 within a month only to come crashing down in days. It went from virtual anonymity to virtual ubiquity and back again — the only constant being that it’s virtual. The dust has now settled and the talking heads have changed topic, and Bitcoin is slowly regaining strength. But does this mean we can finally, in a quiet and rational way, contemplate what this Bitcoin really is and where it has room to fit into our lives? The answer to that is no, because the concept of Bitcoin is so strange, unintuitive and foreign, no matter when you discuss it and with whom, it will lead to very divisive arguments. So I say now is as good a time as any to dive in and discuss it.
So what is Bitcoin, anyway?
Bitcoin is a virtual currency. It is a string of 1s and 0s, much like a lot of what we interact with in this day and age. It’s something new. It’s unique. It’s controversial. The detractors say it’s only useful for terrorists or drug lords who want to move money around undetected, which no doubt they do. But much like the Internet is so much more than p*rnography, so is Bitcoin so much more than drug money. E-mail liberated the letter from the postage stamp, Skype liberated telephone calls from crippling AT&T long-distance rates, Facebook liberated photos from the dusty photo album sitting on your shelf unopened. You can think of Bitcoin as what will liberate financial transactions from the grip of the financial institutions and the state.
Continue reading “Bitcoin and its Value” »
3 comments
Aug 26, 2013
From New Physics to New Weapons Technologies
Posted by Benjamin T. Solomon in categories: cosmology, defense, engineering, general relativity, military, particle physics, physics, space
My paper “New Evidence, Conditions, Instruments & Experiments for Gravitational Theories” was finally published by the Journal of Modern Physics, Vol. 8A, 2013. That is today Aug 26, 2013.
Over the last several years I had been compiling a list of inconsistencies in modern contemporary physics. This paper documents 12 inconsistencies. If I’m correct there will sooner or later, be a massive rewrite of modern physical theories, because I do not just criticize contemporary theories but critique them, i.e. provide positive suggestions based on empirical data, on how our theories need to be modified.
The upshot of all this is that I was able to propose two original, new experiments, never before contemplated in physics journals. Both involve new experimental devices, and one is so radically new that it is unthinkable. This is the gravity wave *telescope*.
The new physics lends itself to a new and different forms of weaponizations achievable within the next few decades, with technologies *not* predicted in science fiction. How about that?
Continue reading “From New Physics to New Weapons Technologies” »
Tags: Baking Bread, Cloaking, Electromagnetism, entanglement, Exotic Matter, gamma-ray burst, Gaussian, General Theory of Relativity, Gravity Modification, Invisibility, Near Field Gravity Probe, Photons, Quarks, relativity, Separation Vectors, Shielding, Special Theory of Relativity, Strings, Transverse Wave, wave function
0 comments
Aug 26, 2013
RE.WORK Technology Summit
Posted by Eric Klien in categories: events, futurism
The Lifeboat Foundation is Media Partner of the RE.WORK Technology Summit which will be held September 19th in London. This summit is a one day event that brings together entrepreneurship, science, and technology to re-work the future and tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges. Our Rachel Armstrong, Stuart Armstrong, Aubrey de Grey, and Randal Koene will be speaking. RE.WORK is led by our Nikita Johnson. Use the discount code lifeboat25 to receive 25% off standard passes or startup/student passes.
More info:
The RE.WORK Technology Summit is a one day event that brings together entrepreneurship, science, and technology to re-work the future and tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges. The event will showcase the opportunities of breakthrough technologies and their potential for a positive impact on business and society. Emerging technology is providing an unprecedented era of opportunity for entrepreneurs and scientists to progress business and solve global challenges. By 2050 there will be around 9 billion people on the planet, so understanding, knowledge and collaboration is vital to help steer the way to a better world. RE.WORK is focused on generating innovative ideas and encouraging collaboration to solve big, global problems in areas such as increased urbanisation levels, efficient healthcare, sustainable energy solutions, and equal opportunities for all. Technology can have a revolutionary impact on these issues and some of the new products and advances explored at RE.WORK will include progress in the internet of things, sensors, 3D printing, wearable technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
0 comments
Aug 25, 2013
The stainglass of the UNIVERSE
Posted by Orenda Urbano Hernández in category: neuroscience
“In short, apophenia is the human tendency to visualize what isn’t really there. Our pattern-obsessed minds–born from an evolutionary need to make predictions related to survival–see meaning in patterns, objects, sounds, and life events that aren’t tied together by anything more than chance.”
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/playing-apophenia-wi…icrography
0 comments
Aug 25, 2013
If we had the technology to make this fractals real, how would it be the world?
Posted by Orenda Urbano Hernández in category: philosophy
0 comments
Aug 25, 2013
Moving Beyond Ubiquitous Sheepishness
Posted by Rick Smyre in category: futurism
My last twenty-five years as a futurist have conditioned me to search for weak signals of what may be emerging in all areas of society that will impact our Communities of the Future work seeding transformational ideas and methods in local communities to help leaders and citizens prepare themselves for a future that will be increasingly fast paced, interdependent and complex. I always look for some gem of a new idea that is hidden in the context of an article, novel or web journal that causes me to go hmmm? and think about how this new idea connects with our COTF approach to community transformation.
Recently I have read Zoltan Istvan’s novel, The Transhumanist Wager, and found myself often stopping and going hmmm? Although an oversimplification (with apologies to Zoltan), the central theme of the novel is the coming existential crash of science and radical technologies and religion at some point after my life that now registers 71 years on the ageometer.
Although I could present my thoughts about whether humanity should attempt god-like actions to evolve life extending discoveries leading to downloading consciousness into machines to live forever, I would not be objective…feeling the increasing need of a long rest from overactivity during 71 years (-:
There are so many “access” points in Zoltan’s book for thought provoking ideas, that I found myself moving from thinking about the impact of emerging radical technologies on our society and communities to wondering how society was going to be able to develop the resiliency required to be able to adapt to whatever emerges.…whether the mysteries of religion and our existence become encased within a deeper understanding of quantum theory as time moves exponentially, or whether we reach the point of singularity and beyond and become transhuman.
Continue reading “Moving Beyond Ubiquitous Sheepishness” »
2 comments
Aug 25, 2013
The World-wide Science Quiz
Posted by Otto E. Rössler in category: physics
Is there an error in the following 6-point result?
When looking from the height of a GPS satellite down onto earth, you will notice six Einstein effects:
E1: The clocks worn by the people down there tick slower by Einstein’s gravitational redshift factor
E2: The photons arriving up here from down there have correspondingly less energy
E3: These photons had their lower energy on departure already, despite appearing normal locally down there
E4: All masses down there are reduced in their mass-energy content by the redshift factor, despite appearing normal locally down there
E5: All charges down there are reduced in their charge by the redshift factor, despite appearing normal locally down there
E6: All objects down there are linearly increased in their size by the reciprocal redshift factor, despite appearing normal locally down there
Background: Points E1, E2 are accepted since Einstein first proposed them in 1907. E3 was described by Julian Schwinger in his book “Einstein’s Legacy” of 1986 (on page 142). E4 follows from quantum-electrodynamics (“creation-annihilation operator”). E5 follows from the universal rest mass-to-charge ratio; it is in the literature since 2008 (see http://www.academicjournals.org/ajmcsr/PDF/pdf2012/Feb/9%20Feb/Rossler.pdf ). E6 follows from the “Bohr radius formula” of quantum mechanics; it was first mentioned in a PhD thesis submitted in 2005 (quoted in http://www.nonlinearscience.com/paper.php?pid=0000000148 ).
So far, no specialist in general relativity agrees publicly to the three new Einstein effects E4,E5,E6, but no one objects publicly, either. One reason for the silence is that E4,E5,E6 have yet to be incorporated into general relativity (a mammoth task). The main reason, however, is that E5 and E6 affect the safety of the LHC experiment at CERN. This is why your help is vitally needed to either smash or confirm points E4-E6.
0 comments
Aug 22, 2013
There will always be a Moon over Tokyo: f*ckushima
Posted by Tom Kerwick in categories: climatology, engineering, ethics, nuclear energy, sustainability
News this past week on f*ckushima has not been exactly reassuring has it. Meanwhile the pro-Nuclear lobby keep counting bananas. Here I’ve gathered together some of the recent news articles on the unfolding crisis. Interested to hear some comments on this one.
f*ckushima leak is ‘much worse than we were led to believe’ / Aug 22, 2013, BBC NEWS http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23779561
Serious: Japan hikes f*ckushima radiation danger level / August 21, 2013 RT NEWS http://rt.com/news/japan-f*ckushima-level-three-762/
Japan’s nuclear crisis deepens, China expresses ‘shock’ / Aug 21, 2013/ reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/21/us-japan-f*ckushima…2B20130821
Worse than Chernobyl: The inner threat of f*ckushima crisis / Aug 20, 2013/ RT http://rt.com/op-edge/chernobyl-f*ckushima-crisis-catastrophe-715/
Japan nuclear agency upgrades f*ckushima alert level / Aug 21, 2013 / BBC NEWS http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23776345
f*ckushima apocalypse: Years of ‘duct tape fixes’ could result in ‘millions of deaths’ / Aug 18 2013 / RT http://rt.com/news/f*ckushima-apocalypse-fuel-removal-598/
f*ckushima’s Radioactive Water Leak: What You Should Know / National Geographic, Aug 2013 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/08/13080…ater-leak/
0 comments
Page 11,211 of 11,284First11,20811,20911,21011,21111,21211,21311,21411,215Last
