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Archive for the ‘economics’ category: Page 173

Apr 4, 2017

Futurist Speaker Gerd Leonhard at SAP Executive Summit 2017: Exponential technological ®evolutions

Posted by in categories: biological, economics

Thanks for your interest!

Thanks to SAP Italia for making this video available, the original video is at https://youtu.be/PLS5wGAM3R8 You can download all my slides at www.gerdcloud.net; direct link to the slides used here is gerd.fm/sapitaliagerd

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Apr 3, 2017

Redefining Work, Income in the AI Economy

Posted by in categories: economics, robotics/AI

By Paula Klein

Is work becoming obsolete? Will Americans learn to love their leisure time? As the spotlight focuses on AI and its various implementations, former Harvard Professor Jeffrey Sachs, now at Columbia University and a special adviser to the United Nations, has some strong and diverse opinions about the macroeconomic impact of robots on the role of work in the future.

At a Mar. 24 seminar hosted by MIT IDE — the same day Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin amazed the tech community by saying AI wasn’t even on his radar — Sachs described AI developments as a “huge” with implications as vast as any previous seismic technology wave. “We are in the midst of a major transformation” that will fundamentally change civilization from the past, he said.

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Apr 2, 2017

This Futurist Wants a Future Without Money

Posted by in categories: economics, transhumanism

I’m excited to share my interview and footage I took of Jacque Fresco and Roxanne Meadows at The Venus Project for Now This. This video is really doing well! https://www.facebook.com/NowThisFuture/videos/1500983249942850/ #transhumanism #future


This man is trying to create a world without money.

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Apr 2, 2017

The Next Economic Revolution Just (re)Launched: Congratulate SpaceX, Thank NASA

Posted by in categories: economics, policy, space travel

Reusable rockets will drive down the cost of space access and power America’s economy into the 21st century. Entrepreneurs, investors and policy makers should take note of what SpaceX has demonstrated.

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Apr 2, 2017

Customized babies are closer than you think

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics, genetics, health, policy

The race is on to edit genes and prevent disease. But this technology is ripe for abuse.

Economic inequity already exists in the reproductive industry. IVF, for example, is not covered by insurance in most states (Massachusetts excepted), setting up a situation in which only infertile people with well-padded pockets can afford the treatment. And of course the well-off have easier access to good health care via quality private insurance — or their own bank accounts. Steve Jobs, for example, spent $100,000 in 2011 to sequence his genome and that of his pancreatic tumor — a bill not many could hope to afford.

“The beautiful thing about this [gene-editing] work is it offers an opportunity to intervene around the moment of birth,” says Katy Kozhimannil, an associate professor in the Division of Health Policy at University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. “That said, as we pay attention to the opportunity of that moment, it’s important to bear in mind the value of liberty and justice for all.”

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Mar 31, 2017

Exponential Series — Nathan Waters

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, economics, education, robotics/AI

ES Emerging Technology are delighted to invite you to the second event in our Exponential Series!

Nathan Waters is a futurist, decentralist and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the monthly Ethereum blockchain meetup (SydEthereum) and Australia’s largest independent hackathon (Hackagong).

In this discussion Nathan will be presenting a new project for a blockchain-based economic protocol intended to transition humanity to a post-Capitalist future. We’ll be covering topics such as: runaway automation, technological unemployment, future of work and education, wage slavery, wealth inequality, rising precariat, universal basic income, peer production, platform co-operatives, post-scarcity and decentralised autonomous organisations.

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Mar 28, 2017

Robots do destroy jobs and lower wages, says new study

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

The fear that automation in the form of robots or artificial intelligence is going to destroy jobs is widespread. But it can be difficult to gauge just how serious to take the threat. Different reports offer different estimations of how many jobs will be lost, while politicians and economists argue that technology creates as many jobs as it destroys, maintaining an equilibrium in employment over the long run.

But is this really true? A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research aims to add some solid numbers to the debate, looking at the historical effects of robots on employment in the US. Economists Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo studied the US labor market between 1990 and 2007, looking at employment rates in different areas and industries while controlling for the influence of factors like increased imports from China and the offshoring of jobs.

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Mar 28, 2017

Why Aging Is a Disease

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics, ethics, policy, robotics/AI, space, transhumanism

The first of my major #Libertarian policy articles for my California gubernatorial run, which broadens the foundational “non-aggression principle” to so-called negative natural phenomena. “In my opinion, and to most #transhumanist libertarians, death and aging are enemies of the people and of liberty (perhaps the greatest ones), similar to foreign invaders running up our shores.” A coordinated defense agianst them is philosophically warranted.


Many societies and social movements operate under a foundational philosophy that often can be summed up in a few words. Most famously, in much of the Western world, is the Golden Rule: Do onto others as you want them to do to you. In libertarianism, the backbone of the political philosophy is the non-aggression principle (NAP). It argues it’s immoral for anyone to use force against another person or their property except in cases of self-defense.

A challenge has recently been posed to the non-aggression principle. The thorny question libertarian transhumanists are increasingly asking in the 21st century is: Are so-called natural acts or occurrences immoral if they cause people to suffer? After all, taken to a logical philosophical extreme, cancer, aging, and giant asteroids arbitrarily crashing into the planet are all aggressive, forceful acts that harm the lives of humans.

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Mar 27, 2017

The lessons of violence and inequality through the ages

Posted by in categories: economics, neuroscience

History has shown us that only violence or huge disasters tend to reduce inequality. Which is frightening on it’s own.


The Great Leveller: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century By Walter Scheidel. Princeton University Press; 504 pages; $35 and £27.95.

AS A supplier of momentary relief, the Great Depression seems an unlikely candidate. But when it turns up on page 363 of Walter Scheidel’s “The Great Leveler” it feels oddly welcome. For once—and it is only once, for no other recession in American history boasts the same achievement—real wages rise and the incomes of the most affluent fall to a degree that has a “powerful impact on economic inequality”. Yes, it brought widespread suffering and dreadful misery. But it did not bring death to millions, and in that it stands out.

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Mar 24, 2017

Why American jobs are more at risk of automation than jobs in Germany or the UK

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

PWC predicts 30% of jobs to be automated by 2030s.


You’ve been warned before—robots are coming for your job. The speed of technological advancement, particularly in smart automation, has sprung countless economic studies and political warnings about how many people are likely to lose their jobs to this rise of the machines. But it’s not an easy number to peg down; estimates range from 5% to 50%.

The latest predictions from PricewaterhouseCoopers (pdf) survey the damage for specific countries. Analysts at the consulting firm said that by the early 2030s, 38% of US jobs are at a high risk of automation, more than in Germany, the UK, and Japan.

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