Peter Diamandis: Abundance is our future | Nouveaux paradigmes A billion-year storage medium that could outlive the human race A QR code etched in tungsten and embedded in graphene oxide on an optical disc Credit: University of Twente) Researcher Dr. Jeroen de Vries from the University of Twente MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology suggests we could store data for one million to one billion years, using a new storage medium based on tungsten and graphene oxide. He imagines two possible scenarios: Disaster has devastated the earth and society must rebuild the worldWe need to create a legacy for future intelligent life that evolves on Earth or comes from other worlds. Optical-disc information carrier de Vries has developed a novel optical-disc information carrier that he says can store such information for extremely long periods of time, using etching techniques. Left: scanning electron micrograph of the cross-section of the encapsulated lines in the disc test sample; right: scanning electron micrograph of the sample after 1 hour at 200 degrees Celsius (credit: Jeroen de Vries et al. The ultimate aging test References:
Money is Not Wealth This is a guest post by Greg Linster, a graduate student studying economics at the University of Denver. He blogs at Coffee Theory about things philosophical and shares aphorisms (almost daily) at Aphoristic Cocktails. The father of modern economics, Adam Smith, once wrote: "All money is a matter of belief." The question I want to pose (and hopefully answer in this article), then, is: Should we believe? I’m afraid, however, that the answer is a rather tricky one. Since Kent’s blog is called The Financial Philosopher and since I'm an economics graduate student with a philosophical proclivity, it seems only fitting that I attempt to tackle a philosophical question about the nature of money. Most of us wake up in the morning and go to a place called 'work' in order to earn money. It seems fairly obvious that most of us would prefer to have more money as opposed to less. As such, I think most of us, when we say we want money, really mean that we want wealth. Notes: Related:
TAOA | There Are Other Alternatives Chaîne de TEDxTalks Musician Scott Mescudi, aka Kid Cudi, returns to his high school to talk about growing up and his career path in the music industry. Born Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi in Cleveland, Kid Cudi began rapping while attending Shaker Heights High School and later Solon High School. In 2004, Kid Cudi moved to Brooklyn, NY to pursue his rap career. He released his first mixtape, “A Kid Named Cudi,” in 2008. The mixtape earned Kanye West’s attention, leading him to sign Cudi to his GOOD Music imprint. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Susan George: poteri occulti, la Terra è sotto scacco Se avete a cuore il vostro cibo, la vostra salute e la stessa sicurezza finanziaria, la vostra e quella della vostra famiglia, così come le tasse che pagate, lo stato del pianeta e della stessa democrazia, ci sono pessime notizie: un gruppo di golpisti ha preso il potere e ormai domina il pianeta. Legalmente: perché le nuove leggi che imbrigliano i popoli, i governi e gli Stati se le sono fatte loro, per servire i loro smisurati interessi, piegando le democrazie con l’aiuto di “maggiordomi” travestiti da politici. La grande novità si chiama: “ascesa di autorità illegittima”. I nuovi oligarchi, spiega la George nell’intervento pronunciato al Festival Internazionale di Ferrara, ottobre 2013, possono agire attraverso le lobby o oscuri “comitati di esperti”, attraverso organismi ad hoc che ottengono riconoscimenti ufficiali. Negli Stati Uniti, le lobby devono almeno dichiararsi al Congresso, dire quanto sono pagate e da chi. danneggi il suo presente, o anche i suoi profitti “attesi”».
Emperors, clothes, money BBC Radio 4′s documentary series Analysis has a fascinating programme that explores the little-asked question ‘What is Money?’ – and the answer turns out to be scarily psychological. In fact, the definition is very close to William Gibson’s description of cyberspace as a “mass consensual hallucination” because money relies on us to believe in it for it to work. In other words, it’s largely a social concept we all sign up to and this episode of Analysis looks at the economics of how (or rather how not) money is tied to actual goods and services in the world and what this means in times of financial crisis. It also turns out that the BBC are now linking to podcasts directly from the programme pages so even though we live our lives in the grip of a self-imposed imaginary power at least the Radio 4 website is now easier to use. Link to Analysis episode ‘What is Money?’
TEDxNewWallStreet - 03/11/2012 TEDxNewWallStreet explores moving banking from the Industrial Age, into the Information Age. In 2009, Marc Andreessen remarked "banking is just information science." Inspired by Marc's words, Bruce Cahan and the Team set out to organize TEDxNewWallStreet to explore a banking system different than the Industrial Age system we inherited. What if Silicon Valley or other technology clusters grew New Wall Streets, on quite different terms than exist in New York? How would they spearhead technology in faster, cheaper, more transparent and accountable ways that contrast with the recent (and recurring) issues of the game as defined and played on old Wall Street? Let's move beyond pundits who deflect true innovation and reinforce a cynical inevitability by portraying bankers and banking as forever unhealthy or worse. Such a paradigm is not inevitable.