Netizen

Friday, July 03, 2015

Digitizing Money For The Poor

I have an enormous interest in finance for the people at the very bottom. I think magical advances are possible. And there is also a lot of money to be made.

Exponential Finance: Who Will Be the Instagram or Uber of Finance?

Instagram was acquired for a billion dollars the same year Kodak went bankrupt. Though Kodak invented the digital camera behind Instagram’s business model—they failed to fully embrace it and paid the price. Uber is a five-year-old transportation company worth $40 billion, and they don't own a single car or bus. ....... relatively small organizations are rapidly rising up to take on big traditional players with little more than an app on a smartphone. So, what models are leading contenders to become the Instagram or Uber of finance? ..... As smartphones become ubiquitous in the developing world, it's possible many of the world’s unbanked billions in developing countries will skip traditional finance, a little like how they leapfrogged landlines for cell phones. ....... bank-free, digital cash will be a force to be reckoned with. ........ blockchain’s potential is massive—not just for cryptocurrencies, but anything of value. The same technology that records and confirms Bitcoin transactions can, in theory, do the same thing for “a will, a deed, a title, a license, intellectual property, an invention, or any type of financial instrument.” ...... Machines doing what machines do best, and humans doing what humans do best. Better together than either one alone. ...... By more fully digitizing finance (parts of it are, of course, already digitized), we can supercharge commerce and reduce the cost of doing business. ...... Even now, the digital camera market is shrinking as point-and-shoot cameras are replaced by smartphones. ...... Reality has surpassed science fiction.

Elon Musk And Tesla Shareholders

I think I would like to live past 100. What about you? I have seen pictures in newspapers of people who have done it without any Singularity type help. All of them were slim though.

If you do exercise, you can be as vibrant at 80 as you are at 40, almost.

How Computers Will Crack the Genetic Code and Improve Billions of Lives

Machine learning and data science will do more to improve healthcare than all the biological sciences combined. ..... the most epic challenge — extending the healthy human lifespan ..... Your genome consists of approximately 3.2 billion base pairs (your DNA) that literally code for "you." ..... Your genes code for what diseases you might get, whether you are good at math or music, how good your memory is, what you look like, what you sound like, how you feel, how long you'll likely live, and more. ..... Each person's genome produces a text file that is about 300 gigabytes. ...... The genome of the 100 trillion + microorganisms living in our bodies. There are 10 times as many microbial cells than human cells, and their effects on our bodies are enormous and massively understudied........ With millions and millions of documents/websites/publications online that were already translated, and a crowd of 500 million users to correct and "teach" the algorithm, GT can quickly and accurately translate between 90 different languages.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Elon Musk: Pando Interview

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Elon Musk: Funny Or Die

Elon Musk: Satellite Internet

15 billion is such a small amount for something this important. The US government should so angel invest.

Hyperloops And Self Driving Cars

They don't stand at cross purposes. Hyperloops are for long distances, and self driving cars are inside the city transportation, so you need neither drivers nor parking space. The two compliment each other.

With the Hyperloop, you skip that whole thing about building roads. They seem to need such little land, that maybe you don't even need to do land acquisition.

So you take 45 minutes to go from LA to NYC, and then you hop out and get into a self driving car, and it takes another 45 minutes to get to your home in The Bronx. The Hyperloop is going to make the self driving car look antique.

Hyperloop

New York to Los Angeles in 45 minutes is mind blowing. That might be the most popular track.

It takes an Elon Musk to save America the embarrassment of China and Japan outdoing it on bullet trains.

The Hyperloop could actually be producing excess energy. If there are solar panels on the top everywhere, that is more energy than it needs. Good thing.

The Hyperloop would be a great way to connect India's four largest cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata. Why are they still talking bullet trains in India? The Hyperloop is cheaper. Much cheaper. Just like India skipped landlines, and went straight to mobile phones, it should skip bullet trains and go straight to the Hyperloop.

Elon Musk has a Head Of State status. He is totally making impact. This guy will soon qualify for a membership of the G7.

The Money Is Not Actually Moving

Economic Growth and the Production Possibility Curve (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If all money is digital, and if M-Pesa is the future, not just in Kenya but also in the rich world, and if the blockchain technology does to money moving what the Internet did to information moving, as in bring the costs down to pretty much zero, then the money is not actually moving, is it? You are just managing accounts, you are adding and subtracting.

And that digitization allows for a potentially massive increase in the velocity of money. If the same dollar exchanges hands 200 times instead of 20, that is a ten times increase in economic activity and hence economic growth. Moving money should be instantaneous and free globally. Just like when you send email, there is no lag. In the old fashioned ways, it can take days for money to move. There is no reason why it should be that way. That "lag" is a tremendous drag on economic activity.

Twitter Making Second Big Mistake On Jack Dorsey

The first one obviously was when Jack Dorsey was ousted as Twitter CEO the first time around. Evan Williams, smart guy, shot himself in the foot. You shouldn't do something just because you can.

It is a DNA thing. Only the inventor can come up with killer features for the product. That person in this case is Jack Dorsey. The Twitter Board is in no position to decide.

If I were the Twitter Board, I would salivate at the prospect. Jack Dorsey is no longer a green horn CEO. He has now become really good at it. The first time around he was like, I should have held weekly meetings.

Twitter Board's problem should have been, maybe Dorsey is not available. Giving an ultimatum is bad manners. And it will hurt Twitter, which has been stagnant for a long time now.

I always thought Dick Costolo was more of a COO person. Evan Williams could have been Chairperson. But neither were cut to be CEO. And Twitter lost major momentum along the way.

A new direction would be to get much better at curate-and-display. Most people don't really want to tweet, they just want to consume.

This is not about whether Jack Dorsey is a Steve Jobs or an Elon Musk. This is about whether there is anyone better for the job, and there isn't. It goes with the territory.

Sorry Jack Dorsey, Steve Jobs And Elon Musk Are Exceptions

Currently, Musk serves as the CEO of publicly traded Tesla Motors and the private company SpaceX. Tesla is currently valued at about $25 billion and Musk has his sights set on a $700 billion valuation.