Lifeboat Foundation

At Quora, I occasionally play, “Ask the expert”. Several hundred of my Quora answers are linked here. Today, I was asked “How much of Bitcoin’s value is driven by speculation”. This is my answer…

This is a great question! While the value of any commodity is determined by supply and demand, speculation is one component of demand. Another is the unique utility value inherent in a product or process. This is sometimes called ‘intrinsic value’.

It’s ironic that when a high fraction of value is driven by speculation, short-term value becomes volatile and long-term value becomes less certain—and less likely to produce returns for those same speculators.

Editor’s Note: In the past few weeks, a significant spike in Bitcoin’s value and trading volume relates to a pending regulatory decision expected at the end of next week. This activity is certainly driven by speculation. But for this article, I am considering periods in which the demands of individual events are less clear.

Continue reading “What Fraction of Bitcoin Value is Driven by Speculators?” »

One thing is clear: the way in which we organize the economy and society will change fundamentally. We are experiencing the largest transformation since the end of the Second World War; after the automation of production and the creation of self-driving cars the automation of society is next. With this, society is at a crossroads, which promises great opportunities, but also considerable risks. If we take the wrong decisions it could threaten our greatest historical achievements.

We are in the middle of a technological upheaval that will transform the way society is organized. We must make the right decisions now.

• By Dirk Helbing, Bruno S. Frey, Gerd Gigerenzer, Ernst Hafen, Michael Hagner, Yvonne Hofstetter, Jeroen van den Hoven, Roberto V. Zicari, Andrej Zwitter on February 25, 2017

Gets too advanced for me, but still interesting.

As the world transitions to a low-carbon energy future, near-term, large-scale deployment of solar power will be critical to mitigating climate change by midcentury. Climate scientists estimate that the world will need 10 terawatts (TW) or more of solar power by 2030—at least 50 times the level deployed today. At the MIT Photovoltaics Research Laboratory (PVLab), teams are working both to define what’s needed to get there and to help make it happen. “Our job is to figure out how to reach a minimum of 10 TW in an economically and environmentally sustainable way through technology innovation,” says Tonio Buonassisi, associate professor of mechanical engineering and lab director.

Their analyses outline a daunting challenge. First they calculated the growth rate of solar required to achieve 10 TW by 2030 and the minimum sustainable price that would elicit that growth without help from subsidies. Current technology is clearly not up to the task. “It would take between $1 trillion and $4 trillion of additional debt to just push current technology into the marketplace to do the job, and that’d be hard,” says Buonassisi. So what needs to change?

Continue reading “Mechanical engineers leading effort to detect defects that reduce efficiency” »

From digital currency to machine learning, the financial industry is being rocked by exponential technologies. Blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, quantum computing, crowdfunding, and computing systems are allowing startups to solve consumer needs in new ways.

The downfall of the world’s largest institutions may not be imminent, but these new technologies are breaking up the previously rock solid foundation of finance, and allowing the fintech world to spring through the cracks. What’s happening now will rewrite the future of finance for years to come. By recognizing this reality and planning for it now, financial professionals can learn to thrive in an increasingly uncertain global economy.

Continue reading “Financial Leaders: Make Your Mark on the Future at Exponential Finance” »

My apologies ahead of time everyone. LifeBoat is about awareness, discovery, history, social and economics and healthcare. And, I never ever post social situations on our site; however, I must raise this as it is all about humanity, being civilized, showing empathy, and respecting each other for, our passions in tech, science, medicine, etc., and simply for being humans with empathy.

Yesterday, I saw a disgusting report on how an innocent husband and wife who are US citizens and of Pakistan descent where verbally attacked by a horrible man on a flight to Houston, TX.

And, Wednesday a fellow techie lost his life in Kansas for being of Indian descent and his features. The person who shot and killed the young man didn’t even know if the engineer was born in the USA, or immigrated here or a citizen, etc. He just killed him as he verbally attacked him.

Continue reading “Garmin engineer shot and killed in Kansas” »

Bill and Melinda Gates say “the future will surprise the pessimists.”

They discovered childhood mortality is a symptom of other issues

Children’s deaths are often a result of lack of birth control, gender inequality, and poor women’s health. Melinda wrote, “Virtually all advances in society—nutrition, education, access to contraceptives, gender equity, economic growth—show up as gains in the childhood mortality chart, and every gain in this chart shows up in gains for society.”

Continue reading “Melinda and Bill Gates’s Letter to Warren Buffett Reveals the One Thing Successful People Value Most” »

The Los Angeles Times covered my libertarian campaign for CA governor. I do still support a libertarian version of a basic income due to coming automation—and the fact it will swallow welfare and other government programs, essentially reducing the size of government while distributing money to all residents.

Essential Politics: Lawmaker says California needs an estate tax if the federal version is scrapped, Sanders thanks supporters in Los Angeles

This is Essential Politics, our daily look at California political and government news. Here’s what we’re watching right now:

Continue reading “This California gubernatorial candidate wants state-funded ‘universal basic income’ for everyone” »

It’s all fun and games, until Jose Canseco becomes the leader of the anti robot/AI resistance.

Jose Canseco is all juiced up about robots and their existential threat to humanity.

The steroid-tainted former slugger took a few Twitter swings at the human race’s blatant disregard of the current droid danger that is bringing the world toward an economic catastrophe.

Continue reading “Jose Canseco says humans need to crush the robot uprising” »

The wave of automation that swept away tens of thousands of American manufacturing and office jobs during the past two decades is now washing over the armed forces, putting both rear-echelon and front-line positions in jeopardy.

“Just as in the civilian economy, automation will likely have a big impact on military organizations in logistics and manufacturing,” said Michael Horowitz, a University of Pennsylvania professor and one of the globe’s foremost experts on weaponized robots.