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Archive for the ‘economics’ category: Page 181

Dec 6, 2016

Evolution’s Brutally Simple Rules Can Make Machines More Creative

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biological, computing, economics, information science

Creative Machines; however, are they truly without a built in bias due to their own creator/s?


Despite nature’s bewildering complexity, the driving force behind it is incredibly simple. ‘Survival of the fittest’ is an uncomplicated but brutally effective optimization strategy that has allowed life to solve complex problems, like vision and flight, and colonize the harshest of environments.

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Dec 6, 2016

Conroy’s quantum warning: be ready

Posted by in categories: computing, economics, government, quantum physics, security

More folks warning others that you better be planning for a QC transformation as it is coming and is going to be probably the largest scale transformation the we have seen in the history of technology.


Former communications minister, Stephen Conroy has warned that Australian government technology decision makers need to start preparing for the development of quantum computing.

The former senator made the warning during a panel session at the Australian Computer Society’s Reimagination conference late last week. While still in its nascent development stages, the former minister for broadband communications and the digital economy said that it could have major national security implications.

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Dec 6, 2016

BERNSTEIN: China’s insane spending on robotics is fundamentally changing capitalism

Posted by in categories: economics, robotics/AI

‘The age of industrialization is coming to an end,’ due to the rise of robotics and China’s modernising economy, argues Bernstein.

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Dec 6, 2016

Artificial intelligence and the evolution of the fractal economy

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics, finance, particle physics, robotics/AI

Money makes the world go round, or so they say. Payments, investments, insurance and billions of transactions are the beating heart of a fractal economy, which echoes the messy complexity of natural systems, such as the growth of living organisms and the bouncing of atoms.

Financial systems are larger than the sum of their parts. The underlying rules that govern them might seem simple, but what surfaces is dynamic, chaotic and somehow self-organizing. And the blood that flows through this fractal heartbeat is data.

Today, 2.5 exabytes of data are being produced daily. That number is expected to grow to 44 zettabytes a day by 2020 (Source: GigaOm). This data, along with interconnectivity, correlation, predictive analytics and machine learning, provides the foundation for our AI-powered future.

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Dec 1, 2016

Thanks To ‘Fight For $15’ Minimum Wage, McDonald’s Unveils Job-Replacing Self-Service Kiosks Nationwide

Posted by in categories: business, economics, employment, policy, robotics/AI

Technological unemployment speeding up, and the elite types as always trying to get the poor and middle class to go at each others throats, rather than address the elephant charging at both of them, that robots and AI are coming for all the jobs in under 10 years now.


Other states are also learning the same basic economic lesson: Customers have a limit to what they will pay for service. Voters in Washington, Colorado, Maine and Arizona voted to raise minimum wages on Election Day, convinced of the policy’s merits after millions of dollars were spent by union advocates. In the immediate aftermath, family-owned restaurants, coffee shops and even childcare providers have struggled to absorb the coming cost increase—with parents paying the cost through steeper childcare bills, and employees paying the cost through reduced shift hours or none at all.

The out-of-state labor groups who funded these initiatives aren’t shedding tears over the consequences. Like their Soviet-era predecessors who foolishly thought they could centrally manage prices and business operations to fit an idealistic worldview, economic reality keeps ruining the model of all gain and no pain. This brings me to my last correct prediction, which is that the Fight for $15 was always more a creation of the left-wing Service Employees International Union (SEIU) rather than a legitimate grassroots effort. Reuters reported last year that, based on federal filings, the SEIU had spent anywhere from $24 million to $50 million on the its Fight for $15 campaign, and the number has surely increased since then.

Continue reading “Thanks To ‘Fight For $15’ Minimum Wage, McDonald’s Unveils Job-Replacing Self-Service Kiosks Nationwide” »

Nov 27, 2016

Video Of The Week: A Crypto Economy — By Fred Wilson | AVC

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, economics, finance

“It’s a fairly concise but expansive vision of what is possible to build with open public blockchains.”

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Nov 25, 2016

SynBio is gearing up

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, economics, internet

We’re only starting in this space.


Synthetic Biology (SynBio) includes a large field of applications. Within this area biochemists combine engineering concepts and techniques with biology to design new genes that produce a specific protein. When this protein is an enzyme, bacteria and yeast in which such a gene is implanted can produce specific chemicals through a fermentation process. A large and growing number of businesses is active in this field. This became apparent once again at the EFIB-conference in Glasgow, last October. The workshop was chaired by John Cumbers, founder of the American SynBioBeta, an internet-site dedicated to sharing information and news on synthetic biology.

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Nov 23, 2016

Ageing Societies 2016

Posted by in categories: business, economics, finance, health, life extension

Longevity a challenge or an opportunity?

This autumn, The Economist Events will bring global leaders from business, finance and health care together with policymakers to explore the opportunities of an ageing world.

Together they will discuss how best to adapt financial products and realign business and public policies in ways that will drive economic growth and mitigate problems that ageing societies could otherwise bring.

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Nov 22, 2016

What are Molecular Machines?

Posted by in categories: economics, evolution, food, information science, internet, nanotechnology, robotics/AI

Machines lace almost all social, political cultural and economic issues currently being discussed. Why, you ask? Clearly, because we live in a world that has all its modern economies and demographic trends pivoting around machines and factories at all scales.

We have reached the stage in the evolution of our civilization where we cannot fathom a day without the presence of machines or automated processes. Machines are not only used in sectors of manufacturing or agriculture but also in basic applications like healthcare, electronics and other areas of research. Although, machines of varying types had entered the industrial landscape long ago, technologies like nanotechnology, the Internet of Things, Big Data have altered the scenario in an unprecedented manner.

The fusion of nanotechnology with conventional mechanical concepts gives rise to the perception of ‘molecular machines’. Foreseen to be a stepping stone into nano-sized industrial revolution, these microscopic machines are molecules designed with movable parts that behave in a way that our regular machines operate in. A nano-scale motor that spins in a given direction in presence of directed heat and light would be an example of a molecular machine.

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Nov 22, 2016

Electric Cars Are About to Dent Global Gasoline Consumption — By Jamie Condliffe | MIT Technology Review

Posted by in categories: economics, energy, environmental

gasoline

“A new forecast by the International Energy Agency claims that global gasoline consumption for passenger vehicles will decrease in the next five years.”

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