Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: economics

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) constitute the leading global framework for achieving human progress, economic prosperity, and planetary health. This framework emphasizes issues such as public health, education for all, gender equality, zero hunger, adoption of clean and renewable energy, and biodiversity conservation. Yet, despite this comprehensive agenda, questions remain about how different nations navigate their own paths toward these goals.

A recent study, published in Nature Communications provides insights into the trajectories of 166 countries as they have worked toward the SDGs over the past two decades.

By applying and the Product Space methodology, commonly used in the field of complexity economics, the researchers constructed the “SDG Space of Nations.” The elaborate model shows that countries do not simply march in lockstep toward sustainable development; instead, they cluster into distinctive groups, each with its own strengths and specializations, sometimes quite unexpected.

Read more | >

Information has become increasingly important in understanding the physical world around us, from ordinary computers to the underlying principles of fundamental physics, including quantum theory. How can information help discern physics? What can physics contribute to understanding information? And what about quantum information?

Make a donation to Closer To Truth to help us continue exploring the world’s deepest questions without the need for paywalls: https://shorturl.at/OnyRq.

Free access to Closer to Truth’s library of 5,000 videos: http://bit.ly/376lkKN

Watch more interviews on quantum information science and quantum mechanics: https://bit.ly/3rs6ZVs.

Continue reading “Max Tegmark — Physics of Information” | >

Bloomberg on the Economic Singularity:

“If AI is about to get much cheaper, the path to an answer on its economic impact is going to get shorter. For workers nervously wondering if large language models will make their skills redundant, a lot is riding on which camp is right.”

For investors in artificial intelligence, the last week delivered a painful shock. The sudden appearance of DeepSeek — a Chinese AI firm boasting a world-class model developed at bargain-basement costs — triggered a massive selloff in Nvidia and other US tech champions.

What matters for the economy, though, is not the ups and downs of stock prices for the Magnificent Seven, but whether AI drives gains in productivity, and how those gains are divided up. For all the excitement, and the trillion-dollar valuations for AI firms, evidence of a boost to productivity remains thin on the ground.

Continue reading “AI Has Rocked the Stock Market, But What Will It Do for the Economy?” | >

s future, predicting a $10 trillion valuation driven by the launch of the Optimus robot and full self-driving technology, alongside ambitious plans for a Robo taxi service and significant production growth +# ## Key Insights.

S vertically integrated supply chains and in-house development of Optimus components make it difficult for competitors to replicate their success in robotics and AI. + Economic Impact.

S most valuable company, worth more than the next 5 largest companies combined, primarily due to autonomous vehicles and robots. + ⏰Autonomous Tesla vehicles are expected to increase car utility by 5x, operating 55 hours/week instead of the typical 10 hours, enabling 24/7 ride-hailing and delivery services.

Safety and Technology.

Continue reading “Tesla Robotaxi Launch in June: Elon Insanely Bullish” | >

Robotic companions address the male loneliness epidemic.

The rise of highly realistic humanoid AI companions, like Arya, aims to alleviate male loneliness and promote social interaction, but raises female concerns about their impact on relationships, societal dynamics, and their ability to interest men.

## Technological and Social Impact 1. Arya, a flagship humanoid AI robot, is designed to combat the male loneliness epidemic by serving as a highly realistic girlfriend capable of forming genuine human-like bonds. 2. Priced at $110,000 for a basic model and $175,000 for a full-body version, Arya is marketed as cheaper than a wife in the West, offering companionship and household assistance. ## Economic and Demographic Implications t get pregnant and men wouldn## Customization and Functionality s AI is customizable to learn about users and brands, making her suitable for promoting products at conventions and becoming a rock star attraction. ” +2. The robot can be programmed to cook, clean, and provide companionship on command, fulfilling traditional household roles without incorporating smart or self-aware features to avoid potential rebellion.

Continue reading “AI Robot GIRLFRIENDS are now REAL and Women are ALREADY COMPLAINING!” | >

According to management consulting firm BCG, only around half of all aluminum beverage cans are recycled in the United States, which is far behind countries such as Germany. What’s more, aluminum has one of the highest recycling rates in the U.S. — only around 19% of the durable goods sold in the U.S. are recycled, including only 14% of plastic containers and packaging. The rest is sent to landfills, where it leaches toxic chemicals into the surrounding soil and waterways.

New processes such as the one developed by the MIT researchers can hopefully make a difference in those numbers.

“We’re not just preventing waste,” said John H. Lienhard, another one of the researchers. “This membrane technology also enables a circular economy for aluminum, which could reduce the need for new mining and help mitigate some of the industry’s environmental footprint.”

Read more | >

On the positive side, some human entrepreneurs could become very wealthy, possibly trillionaires if they could tap into these AI’s wealth somehow. Additionally, super rich AIs could be a solution to the United States’ growing debt crisis, and eliminate the need for whether countries like China can continue to buy our debt so we can indefinitely print dollars. In fact, can America launch its own AI agents to create enough crypto wealth to buy its debt?

Naturally, the risk is that these AIs might eventually try to buy other financial instruments, like existing bonds and stocks. But it’s unlikely they’d be able to do so, unless more of the U.S.’ economy went into crypto and became blockchain based. Additionally, AI bots aren’t allowed to have traditional bank accounts yet.

Whatever happens, clearly there is an urgent need for the U.S. government to address such potentialities. Given that these AIs could start to proliferate in the next few months, I suggest Congress and the Trump administration immediately convene a special task force to specifically tackle the possibility of an AI Monetary Hegemony.

The real danger is that even with regulation, programmers will still be able to release autonomous AIs into the wild—just as many illegal things already happen on the web despite the existence of laws. Programmers might release these types of AIs for kicks, while others try to profit from it—and some may even do so even as a form of terrorism to try to hamper the world economy. Whatever the reason, the creation of autonomous AIs will soon be a reality of life. And vigilance and foresight will be needed as these new AIs start to autonomously disrupt our financial future.

Read more | >

In economics, the Jevons paradox (/ ˈ dʒ ɛ v ə n z / ; sometimes Jevons effect) occurs when technological advancements make a resource more efficient to use (thereby reducing the amount needed for a single application), however, as the cost of using the resource drops, overall demand increases causing total resource consumption to rise. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Governments have typically expected efficiency gains to lower resource consumption, rather than anticipating possible increases due to the Jevons paradox. [ 5 ]

In 1865, the English economist William Stanley Jevons observed that technological improvements that increased the efficiency of coal use led to the increased consumption of coal in a wide range of industries. He argued that, contrary to common intuition, technological progress could not be relied upon to reduce fuel consumption. [ 6 ] [ 7 ]

The issue has been re-examined by modern economists studying consumption rebound effects from improved energy efficiency. In addition to reducing the amount needed for a given use, improved efficiency also lowers the relative cost of using a resource, which increases the quantity demanded. This may counteract (to some extent) the reduction in use from improved efficiency. Additionally, improved efficiency increases real incomes and accelerates economic growth, further increasing the demand for resources. The Jevons paradox occurs when the effect from increased demand predominates, and the improved efficiency results in a faster rate of resource utilization. [ 7 ] .

Read more | >