Getting involved in crypto mining means you’ll be able to generate coins on your own with no need to purchase them from someone else. You’re going to need a powerful rig, and even then, there’s no guarantee to make money from this endeavor. Most cryptocurrency mining computers rely on very powerful GPUs, costing hundreds to thousands of dollars.You’ll need to spend money on the electricity that powers your computer. Depending on which coin you want to buy and the competition you have  ( + other variables), you could end up spending more money to operate your rig than you make with the mining.

Building a Crypto Mining Rig

Most people buy and sell coins through a marketplace. With the right market, you’ll have even hundreds of cryptocurrencies to choose from, and you can buy in tiny increments, sometimes securing a transaction for less than $100.Most cryptocurrency brokers charge money for this service, so you’ll pay a bit more than the total purchase price of your transaction (it's a negligible cost).If you’re interested in trading coins frequently and taking advantage of the small spikes and valleys that occur throughout the day, you’ll need a significant amount of capital, and you’ll need to be prepared to ma<warningtag>ke substantial transactions.</warningtag>

Purchasing Currency

If you have a powerful computer, you can set up a rig to mine cryptocurrency on your behalf, to generate the resources yourself. There are just a few problems with this idea.<ul><li> GPUs and other necessary computer components tend to be very expensive for starters, compromising your potential profitability. </li><li>Crypto mining is also highly competitive and energy-intensive. This means you may end up spending more on electricity than you make generating cryptocurrency.</li><li> Unless you know what you’re doing, you’re probably better off buying and selling crypto on the market.</li></ul>

The Rig Problem

You can purchase $20 of Bitcoin right now, but if you don’t have $20 to spare, that’s not going to do you much good.Small scale transactions like the one above shouldn’t be a problem for anybody. But, if you’re living paycheck to paycheck or if money is inordinately tight, you might struggle to save up enough to build momentum.There are several ways to handle this. For example, you could pick up a second job or a side gig to make some extra money. You could move to a cheaper location or cut expenses that are no longer relevant to you.

The Free Capital Problem

Just because you can invest in cryptocurrency doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Cryptocurrency is an uncertain investment wrought with volatility and regulatory complications. There’s never a guarantee that any cryptocurrency will increase in value or even hold its value. And, many new cryptocurrencies entering the scene end up being flagged as scams.If you’re interested in protecting your investment and maximizing your long-term gains, you shouldn’t invest all your money in cryptocurrency, especially if you don’t have much money to spare.

The Portfolio Balance Problem

Many people who delve into cryptocurrency are excited about the notion of turning a $1,000 investment into millions of dollars in wealth.While this is possible, it’s unlikely, and to the extent possible, it will take a long time to unfold. For example, even if you saw an average return of 10% per year, it would take 73 years to turn $1,000 into $1,000,000.

The Time Problem

Even if you spend months reading about cryptocurrency, studying historical trends, and doing your due diligence for each of several different currencies currently being traded and speculated on, you still might make some bad decisions.You could end up losing your initial investment, plummeting the principal back to zero. Or, you could make a handful of bad trades that completely negate whatever gains you made from your first trades. You could even end up holding onto a cryptocurrency with no realistic future. Even with a lot of money, becoming a competent cryptocurrency investor takes time.

The Learning Curve

It&#8217;s easy to write off cryptocurrency investing as a rich person&#8217;s hobby or an activity with a ridiculously high barrier to entry. However, the mechanics to invest in crypto are...

crypto

Cryptocurrency

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

How Much Money Do You Need to Invest in Crypto?

In reinforcement learning (RL), a software agent learns through trial and error. When it takes the desired action, the model receives a reward.Over time, the agent works out how to execute the task to optimize its reward.The technique can be applied to a vast array of tasks, from controlling autonomous vehicles to improving energy efficiency. But its most celebrated achievements have come in the world of games.

Reinforcement Learning

In March 2016, the Reinforcement Learning technique had a landmark moment. A DeepMind system called AlphaGo became the first computer program to defeat a world champion in Go, a famously complex board game.The victory was reportedly watched by over 200 million people.AlphaGo learns the game from scratch by playing against different versions of itself thousands of times, incrementally learning through a process of trial and error, known as reinforcement learning. This means it is free to learn the game for itself, unconstrained by orthodox thinking.

The AlphaGo Milestone

In AI systems, the rewards and punishments are calculated mathematically. A self-driving system could receive a -1 when the model hits a wall, and a +1 if it safely passes another car. These signals allow the agent to evaluate its performance.The algorithm then learns through trial and error to maximize the reward — and ultimately, complete the task in the most desirable manner.

How a Reward Function Works

There are still major challenges to overcome. RL agents struggle to maximize rewards in complex environments and assess the long-term repercussions of their actions. Nonetheless, the reward-is-enough proponents believe the algorithms’ adaptability could pave a path to AGI.

The Bottom Line

The "reward-is-enough" hypothesis suggests that reinforcement learning alone could lead to AGI.

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

How rewards teach reinforcement learning agents to behave

One of the feelings of the age is a kind of anxiety or unease about things.One reason is that we’re on our phones all the time, we’re consuming more information than ever. Technology has enabled us to do everything on demand. We never get downtime between moments.We're exhausted because of social media and keeping up with the Joneses. In short, we have sort of merged with our phones.

Hooked on technology

A transformation has taken place that is not well documented. We can’t figure out why we can’t read a book. We can’t consume long-form complex ideas. During the Lincoln Douglas debates, Lincoln talked for three hours, Douglas for three hours, then after a break, everyone returned for another three hours. Now democratic debates are one hour and 20 minutes in total, and there are eight candidates. Yet, when we consume long-form stuff such as hours of television, we consume entertainment that doesn’t require us to engage deeply and robustly with it.

Technology is diminishing our capabilities

Previously, media houses were the only trusted sources. Now, almost anyone can create podcasts, books or YouTube videos.  Traditional media institutions are becoming empty shells. Their only value is in their brand's reputation, but their content is decreasing. They seem to only talk to each other and themselves. Focusing on themselves could lead to being irrelevant and wrong or misleading. Yet they still have a measure of coherence that the wild west lacks. On the one side, we have the interesting stuff that is incoherent; on the other, we have stuff that is coherent but meaningless.

The media landscape is shifting

We may watch stuff that doesn’t make sense and leave us fixed in a sort of hypnagogic state. We pay attention to the traditional media houses, but we completely miss important things because they are filtered out by whatever the dominant media narrative is.  We pay attention to the media narrative because our mind is looking for symbols to inform us what is the important narrative. Or that has been vetted. We’re unreachable by real art. The art created now that matters, that is appropriate to this time, and would genuinely pierce the cultural consciousness is mostly unseen.

Why we're fixated on the unimportant and miss the crucial things

People these days try to find meaning in things like polyamorous relationships, travelling, or being an influencer. We emptied our life of real meaning, then tried to replace it with nothing. We tear down marriage and replace it with nothing. We tear down the office, community, the small town square, and replace them with nothing.  If you want to have a meaningful life, get married, have kids, live within your means, find work that you find purposeful and fulfilling, participate in your community.

If you want a meaningful life, start a family

The baby boomers caught a wave that made it easy to prosper. But in their selfishness, they are more concerned about themselves than their children.  They hoard stuff they are not willing to give up. They think everybody will find their bliss and make their own way, just like they did, but they don’t know how expensive college had become relative to themselves or home prices than when they were young. Millennials experienced 9/11, the Iraq war, the 2008 financial crisis, huge student debt, and more. “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.”

The disconnect between the Boomers and the Millennials

Informed in an interesting fashion by his relationship to stoicism, Ryan shares that he cares deeply about the future, but always in a thoughtful and measured way. In this podcast, he shares what is really driving our current moment across many areas.

Ryan Holiday is a master manipulator with a cool head, and keen eye for social observation and a big heart. Eric sits down with the Author of "Conspiracy" and tries to get a self-confessed former manipulator and one of the top emerging millennial social analysts to tell us how he unweaves society's artifices to see what is really driving our current moment across many areas.   Ryan is a unique voice who uses stoicism to remain intellectually detached but without seemingly succuming to emotional or moral disinterest in the issues of our day. With a background in marketing and media. he has gone beyond mere vice signaling to try to help people see how open they are to having their own media and digital habits weaponized against them. In some ways, one could say that he has migrated from grey-hat mind hacker to a white hat analyst and conversationalist helping us to better understand ourselves using ancient wisdom in a modern moment.    This interview was recorded slightly before the quarantining and so is interesting to think of in light of what is about to happen.      Thank You to Our Sponsors:  Four Sigmatic: foursigmatic.com/portal  Personna: Amazing.com/personna and use the code RAZORS25   Blinkist: Blinkist.com/portal  Theragun: theragun.com/portal  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

podcasts

Podcasts

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Ryan Holiday is a master manipulator with a cool head, and keen eye for social observation and a big heart. Eric sits down with the Author of "Conspiracy" and tries to get a self-confessed former manipulator and one of the top emerging millennial social analysts to tell us how he unweaves society's artifices to see what is really driving our current moment across many areas. Ryan is a unique voice who uses stoicism to remain intellectually detached but without seemingly succuming to emotional or moral disinterest in the issues of our day. With a background in marketing and media. he has gone beyond mere vice signaling to try to help people see how open they are to having their own media and digital habits weaponized against them. In some ways, one could say that he has migrated from grey-hat mind hacker to a white hat analyst and conversationalist helping us to better understand ourselves using ancient wisdom in a modern moment.  This interview was recorded slightly before the quarantining and so is interesting to think of in light of what is about to happen. Thank You to Our Sponsors:Four Sigmatic: foursigmatic.com/portalPersonna: Amazing.com/personna and use the code RAZORS25 Blinkist: Blinkist.com/portalTheragun: theragun.com/portalSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Portal is an exploration into discovery, including conversations with thought leaders. Host Eric Weinstein, Managing Director of Thiel Capital, brings his unique expertise and diverse roster of guests for a wide range of discussions, including science, culture, business, and capitalism. The show will feature people whose lives demonstrate that portals into what we would normally consider impossible, are indeed possible.  Guests include presidential candidate Andrew Yang, NY Times bestselling author Sam Harris, and retired Navy Seal and creator of the hit business podcast Jocko Willink.

The Portal

31: Ryan Holiday - Conspiracy, Manipulation & other Pastimes

Tech companies still try to figure out how to make a bigger bet on the metaverse. While some think it will be a copy-paste of the current digital landscape with 2D ads becoming 3D ads in a privately owned virtual world, others hope for something more. Those brands who actively try to improve what the social web got wrong and embrace the new medium's unique attributes will create winning strategies.

What it will take to win in the metaverse

In the real world, it is vital to have a sense of belonging to create lasting communities. The same will be true in our digital identities. The real winners will build experiences that attract real community and engagement. On the current social web, companies don't engage diverse audiences when they focus on mass appeal instead of investing in creating unique content. Brands that use representative content generate 40% more ROI than those that don't. Companies who enter the metaverse embracing cultural differences, nuances, expressions and tastes can win big.

Design for diversity

Companies need to design for it. Designers and content creators will play a significant role in building these new virtual worlds. But we have to actively look to diversify talent as we create these new worlds. Companies need to commit to prioritising diversity when recruiting and training. They need to see where they might fall short, implement demographic targets, conduct audits to identify gaps, and set goals to ensure everyone is aligned to equity.

It's not enough to hope for a representative community

Web 3.0 will introduce new forms of 3D and other content. A mid-size business must create over 500 videos a year, and large companies need to generate thousands to remain competitive. Businesses with an effective video strategy see 49% revenue growth over businesses that don't. As the metaverse develops, we're likely to find a new generation of content and tools to help generate high-quality content.

Provide a rich and immersive experience

The metaverse winners will provide a clear path for community builders and participants to share in the economic upside. The combination of digital property rights and token distribution opens up an opportunity for new business models that enables metaverse companies to share ownership with employees and active members. Companies that engage in a two-way relationship and share the wealth created through the virtual worlds with the communities that use them will flourish.

Share economic benefit with your community

The CEO of Storyblocks discusses three considerations for companies that want to compete in this immersive new world—one of which is to spread the wealth.


career

Career

business

Business

How to create meaning and value in the metaverse

<ul><li>The end of passwords. New forms of more secure authentication will replace passwords, such as a link sent via email, push notification, or a biometric scan.</li><li>Proof of stake. It offers a way to verify cryptocurrency transactions and cut energy use by 99.05%.</li><li>Synthetic data for AI. Training AI requires a massive amount of data that is messy or reflects biases. Companies are creating and selling synthetic data to train AI.</li><li>Covid variant tracking. Better surveillance allows scientists to track the spread of the virus.</li></ul>

Breakthrough computer technologies

<ul><li>AI for protein folding. The body uses proteins for nearly everything, The way protein folds determine its activity, yet it can take months to figure out its structure. An AI called AlphaFold2 has figured out how to quickly design drugs for various diseases.</li><li>Malaria vaccine. The new malaria vaccine is the world’s first vaccine for parasitic infection and is approved by the World Health Organisation.</li><li>A pill for covid. Pfizer developed a new drug to provide broad protection against Covid-19 when combined with vaccines.</li></ul>

Breakthrough biological technologies

<ul><li>Long-lasting grid battery. New iron-based batteries are made using cheaper and more abundant material that is more practical for grid storage.</li><li>Practical fusion reactors. A startup plans to deliver limitless, carbon-free electricity to the grid by the early 2030s, using a powerful new magnet to build smaller, less expensive reactors.</li><li>Carbon removal factory. The world’s largest carbon removal factory recently opened in Iceland to mitigate climate change.</li></ul>

Breakthrough physics technologies

This list represents a glimpse into our collective future.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

creativity

Creativity

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2022

Tim O’Reilly has been a conversation starter within the tech industry for more than three decades. The company he founded, O’Reilly Media, launched the first true commercial website in 1993, and remains a tech-industry staple that publishes tech books, offers online education, and holds virtual events.O’Reilly saw firsthand the first wave of big dot-com companies swell, crest, and crash in the late 1990s. He was the one who popularized a collective term for that next wave of early-2000s companies: Web 2.0.

The Background

Web 3.0 companies eschew the centralized power of Big Tech platforms and propose to build apps that store data and transactions via blockchains. The Web3 movement seems to speak to the public’s growing unease with entrusting data and currency to powerful corporate or institutional platforms that may have financial and political interests of their own.But the Web3 wave has a long way to go before proving it can produce technology with the functionality, reliability, security, and scale needed to disrupt the internet we have now.

Web 3.0: The Sequel

It’s great when the economy becomes more efficient. But the curse of efficiency is that it goes to the lowest common denominator. So if we want a diverse economy, we have to value something other than pure economic efficiency.The monopoly of IBM was replaced by the personal computer, which was putting a computer on every desktop in every home. That was decentralization. Hardware became a commodity. Very quickly, Bill Gates figured out how to monopolize the software in the same way that IBM had monopolized hardware. Software became the way that you could aggregate power.

Just Being Economically Efficient Isn't Enough

Even in terms of this decentralized crypto, who did we reward? We rewarded the big, centralized crypto trading platforms. We rewarded the people who initially minted all the crypto currencies and ended up with the pyramid scheme where they were the ones at the top who built the NFT (nonfungible token) marketplaces. There are stories about somebody who sold an entity for a lot of money, but mostly the really big rewards have gone to the people who are able to centralize the new market.

Crypto Is Not Decentralized

Web 2.0 was not a version number, it was the second coming of the web after the dot-com bust. We’re not going to be able to call Web3 “Web3” until after the crypto bust. Because only then will we get to see what’s stuck around.All anybody ever talks about is valuations. And valuation has very little to do with actual economic impacts. There were all these companies that had enormous valuations (for the time—they’d be small valuations today) that weren’t real businesses. And as soon as the capital dried up they went away.

A New Period Of Consolidation

Let us contrast the betting economy and the operating economy. The operating economy is the one that delivers goods and services and people pay for them. And the betting economy is where you guess at what the value might be, or what other people think it might be.

The Betting Economy Vs The Operating Economy

There are way more interesting decentralization stories than cryptocurrency. And the biggest one is the potential for the decentralization of big data and AI. Google used to have this secret sauce. It only came from Google. And now that’s been encapsulated in these models that know a lot of stuff. <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/computers-are-learning-to-read-but-theyre-still-not-so-smart/">BERT</a> [Google’s breakthrough <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90422132/google-just-got-better-at-understanding-your-trickiest-searches">natural language model</a>] was open-sourced. <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90554974/this-extraordinary-ai-has-stunned-computer-scientists-with-its-writing-ability">GPT-3</a> (OpenAI’s even larger natural language model) isn’t open-source, but it’s a big enough model that you can call on it [via] an API.

The Wave Of De-Centralization

The patterns of centralization and decentralization are everywhere. And the idea that it’s just about this blockchain technology is something we could easily do away with.  There’s something really interesting there, but we are not going to know until all the underbrush that’s growing up because of all of that indiscriminate funding. Then we’ll be able to see what’s left. It’s not like we shouldn’t be engaging with these technologies, but we should not believe the hype.

Enter The Blockchain

The open-source movement is quite old. We got the World Wide Web, which is put in the public domain. We got the original TCP/IP implementation that Bill Joy wrote made part of Berkeley Unix so that anybody could do the internet stack. We had the DNS, or Domain Name System. We had Sendmail, which is routing all the email. We had Apache, which has become the dominant web server.

The Origins Of The Web Were Open-Source

There are things that we centralized unnecessarily.  During the centralization phase, bad behaviour happens. A good example of that is your laptop. This is the end game of the personal computer revolution and today your laptop is becoming less and less your laptop and more and more Apple’s laptop or Microsoft’s laptop. Earlier in iTunes software, you used to be able to rip your CDs and you had your music library. And now Apple says no, you don’t: You have to sign in to your Apple account to use your music. You have to sign in to your Apple account to use your PC.

Bad Behaviour Happens At Centralization

So here’s the centralization overreach, because everybody wants to be a subscription service. Everybody wants to have lock-in. The shift towards decentralization is inevitable, but it is part of a cycle that is in its third iteration.

Centralization Is Subscription

Is tech history repeating itself? O’Reilly believes we’re now in the ‘irrational exuberance’ phase of crypto and Web3, and that a reckoning is coming.


Tim O’Reilly helped bring us Web 1.0 and 2.0. Here’s why he’s a Web3 skeptic

The Californian auto brand is set to challenge Elon Musk and Tesla's electric vehicle empire with its stylish zero-emission family model, which has a range of 275 to 390 miles, depending on specification.

The entry version of the Fisker Ocean - called the Sport - links a 'Touring Range' battery to a 275bhp electric motor powering the front wheels, meaning a 0-to-60mph sprint time of 6.6 seconds and an estimated range of 275 miles. It will start from £34,990, meaning it does not qualify for the <a href="https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-9377363/EVs-Government-subsidise-slashed-plug-car-grant.html">Plug-in Car Grant of £1,500 </a>. That said, it is some £8,000 less than the cheapest Tesla Model 3 saloon and a massive £20,000 under the least expensive Model Y SUV - though lowest-spec versions of both Teslas offer better ranges and performance stats.

Inside, the cabin is 'fully vegan', with cloth materials made from reclaimed fishing nets, T-shirts and rubber The Fisker Ocean has a number of party pieces up its sleeve. Among these is a rotating 17.1-inch infotainment screen that can swivel from landscape to portrait view at the push of a button when at a standstill

UK Fisker Oceans, which will be produced in Austria, are set to arrive from the second quarter of 2023 with performance to rival Tesla's vehicles.

Tesla's new EV rival coming to the UK: Fisker Ocean to start from £35k

The first step of the FAST Method is to find an initial brute force recursive solution. This is something that you need to be able to do on your own for the FAST Method to be of any use to you. If you don’t know how to implement a linked list, then it doesn’t matter how many tricks you learn for solving linked list problems. your first step should be to dedicate yourself to learning all of the fundamental data structures and algorithms.either the <a href="https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-006-introduction-to-algorithms-fall-2011/index.htm">MIT</a> (Python) or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mYfZeHtdNc&list=PLxc4gS-_A5VDXUIOPkJkwQKYiT2T1t0I8">Princeton</a>

Develop a strong foundation

The key here is simply to get more practice coding, and ideally do so in an environment where you are getting good feedback on your code. One of the best ways to do this is by contributing to open source projects. Not only is this a great way to show off your experience, but you will get the benefit of thorough code reviews and learning how to work in a production environment. If you’re new to working with open source, <a href="http://www.firsttimersonly.com/">First Timers Only</a> is a great resource for those looking to get started.

Get more coding experience

[0:00–0:05] Get settled & fully understand the problem. Work through example inputs.[0:05–0:10] Find a <a href="https://www.byte-by-byte.com/brute-force/">brute force solution</a>.No coding, just talk & draw pictures. If stuck, try by hand and translate process into an algorithm.[0:10–0:15] Optimize your solution. Take these 5 minutes to figure out the absolute best solution you can in this period of time.[0:15–0:35] Code up your solution. Even if it’s not optimal, it is better.[0:35–0:50] Test your code and fix any issues.[0:50–1:00] Questions for your interviewer.

Strategically approach each interview question

The key here is that while in some cases there may be one “best” solution, there are way more problems where you can make different trade-offs and you have to decide which ones to make. As an interviewer, I love to see candidates who weigh the different possibilities. You should always consider the space and time complexity of every solution you come up with. This gives you an objective way to evaluate which solutions are better than others and helps make a way more informed decision.

Consider different possible solutions

I’ll tell you that finding a brute force solution is 1000% better than not finding a solution at all. And if you start by immediately trying to find the optimal solution, it is easy to get stuck and end up without a complete solution by the end of the interview.This accomplishes two important things:<ol><li>It gives you a fallback plan. </li><li>It helps you clarify the problem. </li></ol>

Start with the brute force solution

Often, people dive right into writing code as soon, until you’ve fully worked out the solution. Writing any more code than just for thinking is a critical mistake for two reasons.<ol><li> if you want to move lines of code around, you have to either erase and rewrite them or draw arrows going all over the place.</li><li>issue with starting to code right off the bat is that it can lock you into a specific way of thinking about the problem. </li></ol>

Plan out the full solution before you code

Your thought process is non-linear when you’re solving problems, so you may have thought you needed a HashMap because of some other line of thinking that you have since abandoned. This is why it is so critical to stop every so often, especially if you start doing something that seems challenging, and look back at the big picture of what you’re trying to do. Whenever you’re doing something that seems unnecessarily complicated, look at your end goal and see if you can simplify your approach.

Keep the big picture in mind

I love asking complicated interview problems. If a problem involves several different components, you as the interviewer get such great insights into how a candidate manages their thinking when there is so much to deal with all at once. The key to successfully solving these problems is to use abstraction. At its core, this means breaking out your code into smaller functions with more specific purposes.

Use abstraction to your advantage

I find that many students forget to apply the best practices they know from real-world coding to their interviews. They assume that coding interviews are totally different, so the things they’d do normally don’t apply. One of the things people forget all of the time is to test their interview solution. But would you ever commit code in the real world without testing it thoroughly first?

Test your code

While test interviews has merits, there is one fatal flaw: Companies are notoriously bad at giving you any meaningful feedback. “So,” you might say, “Who cares? I can just judge my own performance.” Well yes, that’s true, but it can be really hard to judge yourself. You don’t know what criteria your interviewer is looking for (just getting an optimal solution to one problem may not cut it). And if you’re struggling to succeed, chances are there’s something that you’re not seeing.

Get good feedback

These list down great points on how to approach a coding interview

by Sam Gavis-Hughson How to make progress while studying for coding interviews Getting stuck is never fun. Especially when you’re working really hard. And yet, I find that this happens to people preparing for coding interviews all the time. You put in consistent work. You’ve gone through hundreds of practice

computerscience

Computer Science

softwareengineering

Software Engineering

How to make progress while studying for coding interviews

The virtual world can seem more immediate and significant than the smelly, tasty, touchy 3D Real World. Its a place of anxiety and triumphant exhilaration which sweeps us into the social networking swirl of collective consciousness.It is a parallel world where you can be on the move in the Real World, yet always hooked into an alternative time and place.Many parents complain that they are unable to take their child away from screen time and back into the 3D world.

A Global Phenomenon

Sharing personal information about oneself, as promoted on social networking sites, activates the reward systems in the brain the same way as food and sex do.

Upon waking, you will be checking your phone within 15 minutes of consciousness.You will need stimulation, excitement and escapism. So you use technology to socialise, for online shopping, playing games etc.The Real physical world is becoming less relevant as traditional constraints of time and space fade.The time that could have been spent walking in fresh air or having a face to face conversation has been forfeited in favour of cyberactivity, which is a completely new type of environment where taste, smell and touch are not stimulated, being completely sedentary for long periods of time.

Unprecedented Times

We have always invented new things, we have always worried about new things and we have always moaned about the younger generations.

In 2000, brain scans showed that London cab drivers had developed physical changes in their brains as a result of their daily activity of constantly using their working memory. Their hippocampus was actually bigger compared to non taxi drivers of the same age. This is an example of the 'use it or lose it' principle.Plasticity is the term for this process, the brains ability to shape and mould itself in response to stimuli.Environmental enrichment has been demonstrated in studies showing physical changes in neural circuits through experience.

How The Brain Changes

The brain undergoes continuous physical change... the brain remakes itself throughout life, in response to outside stimuli to its environment and to experience.

The word 'ecstasy' in Greek means 'to stand outside' of oneself. It is this emotional, unreflective state that we seek out through a diverse range of pursuits - an absence of self consciousness, of being 'abandoned'.MINDLESS - sensation, strong feelings dominate, here and now, driven by external environment, little meaning, not self conscious, high dopamine, meaningless world.MINDFUL - cognition, thinking dominates, past-present-future, driven by internal perceptions, personalised meaning, robust sense of self, less dopamine, meaningful world.

Out Of Your Mind

Thinking is movement confined to the brain.

When you share personal information on a social networking site, you share it with a large immediate audience.Research shows that the lack of face to face communication leads to a corresponding rise in self disclosure. The absence of visual cues or body language to discourage us or make us second guess what we may disclose, has lead to a rise in self disclosure.Body language is an ancient evolutionary mechanism for not letting our defences down prematurely.

Social Networking

We decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.

Sometimes the real world is not the best place to be. Video games can provide a calming routine for people who are unable to cope with the uncertainties of the real world.Unlike traditional real world games, video games offer an escape from the dull, difficult world to one that is more exciting, appealing to the senses and where there are reassuringly definite and predictable outcomes in which the player can participate as a better self.Research shows unhappy people create avatars that are very different to themselves whereas happy people create avatars just like themselves.

Video Games

Without Google and Wikipedia, I am stupid, not just ignorant.

Research analysing reading behaviour in the digital environment has revealed that decreases in sustained attention are increasingly characterising peoples literacy skills. People inclined to browse, scan and read more selectively, will spend less time on in depth and concentrated reading.Paper books are of a fixed time and place, have permanence and therefore a reassuring security which an ebook will never deliver.Search engines offer an easy fast option as opposed to taking your brain for a work out, you will now run the risk of becoming mentally flabby. The display will be driving you.

The Display Is Driving You

Books stand for knowledge, new ideas and the inventiveness of the human spirit and imagination.

Social networking sites could worsen communication skills and reduce interpersonal empathy.Personal identities might be constructed externally and refined to perfection with the praise of an audience as a priority, an approach more suggestive of performance art than of personal growth.Obsessive gaming could lead to greater recklessness, a shorter attention span and an increasingly aggressive disposition.Heavy reliance on search engines and a preference for surfing, rather than researching, could result in quick mental processing at the expense of deep knowledge and understanding.

Summary

Firstly, the human brain adapts to the environment; secondly, the environment is changing in an unprecedented way; so thirdly, the brain may also be changing in an unprecedented way.

How digital technologies are leaving their mark on our brains.

We live in a world unimaginable only decades ago: a domain of backlit screens, instant information, and vibrant experiences that can outcompete dreary reality. Our brave new technologies offer incredible opportunities for work and play. But at what price? Now renowned neuroscientist Susan Greenfield—known in the United Kingdom for challenging entrenched conventional views—brings together a range of scientific studies, news events, and cultural criticism to create an incisive snapshot of “the global now.” Disputing the assumption that our technologies are harmless tools, Greenfield explores whether incessant exposure to social media sites, search engines, and videogames is capable of rewiring our brains, and whether the minds of people born before and after the advent of the Internet differ. Stressing the impact on Digital Natives—those who’ve never known a world without the Internet—Greenfield exposes how neuronal networking may be affected by unprecedented bombardments of audiovisual stimuli, how gaming can shape a chemical landscape in the brain similar to that in gambling addicts, how surfing the Net risks placing a premium on information rather than on deep knowledge and understanding, and how excessive use of social networking sites limits the maturation of empathy and identity. But Mind Change also delves into the potential benefits of our digital lifestyle. Sifting through the cocktail of not only threat but opportunity these technologies afford, Greenfield explores how gaming enhances vision and motor control, how touch tablets aid students with developmental disabilities, and how political “clicktivism” foments positive change. In a world where adults spend ten hours a day online, and where tablets are the common means by which children learn and play, Mind Change reveals as never before the complex physiological, social, and cultural ramifications of living in the digital age. A book that will be to the Internet what An Inconvenient Truth was to global warming, Mind Change is provocative, alarming, and a call to action to ensure a future in which technology fosters—not frustrates—deep thinking, creativity, and true fulfillment. Praise for Mind Change “Greenfield’s application of the mismatch between human and machine to the brain introduces an important variation on this pervasive view of technology. . . . She has a rare talent for explaining science in accessible prose.”—The Washington Post “Greenfield’s focus is on bringing to light the implications of Internet-induced ‘mind change’—as comparably multifaceted as the issue of climate change, she argues, and just as important.”—Chicago Tribune “Mind Change is exceedingly well organized and hits the right balance between academic and provocative.”—Booklist “[A] challenging, stimulating perspective from an informed neuroscientist on a complex, fast-moving, hugely consequential field.”—Kirkus Reviews “[Greenfield] is not just an engaging communicator but a thoughtful, responsible scientist, and the arguments she makes are well-supported and persuasive.”—Mail on Sunday “Greenfield’s admirable goal to prove an empirical basis for discussion is . . . an important one.”—Financial Times “An important presentation of an uncomfortable minority position.”—Jaron Lanier, Nature

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Parenting

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Communication

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Science & Nature

We live in a world unimaginable only decades ago: a domain of backlit screens, instant information, and vibrant experiences that can outcompete dreary reality. Our brave new technologies offer incredible opportunities for work and play. But at what price?   Now renowned neuroscientist Susan Greenfield—known in the United Kingdom for challenging entrenched conventional views—brings together a range of scientific studies, news events, and cultural criticism to create an incisive snapshot of “the global now.” Disputing the assumption that our technologies are harmless tools, Greenfield explores whether incessant exposure to social media sites, search engines, and videogames is capable of rewiring our brains, and whether the minds of people born before and after the advent of the Internet differ.   Stressing the impact on Digital Natives—those who’ve never known a world without the Internet—Greenfield exposes how neuronal networking may be affected by unprecedented bombardments of audiovisual stimuli, how gaming can shape a chemical landscape in the brain similar to that in gambling addicts, how surfing the Net risks placing a premium on information rather than on deep knowledge and understanding, and how excessive use of social networking sites limits the maturation of empathy and identity.   But Mind Change also delves into the potential benefits of our digital lifestyle. Sifting through the cocktail of not only threat but opportunity these technologies afford, Greenfield explores how gaming enhances vision and motor control, how touch tablets aid students with developmental disabilities, and how political “clicktivism” foments positive change.   In a world where adults spend ten hours a day online, and where tablets are the common means by which children learn and play, Mind Change reveals as never before the complex physiological, social, and cultural ramifications of living in the digital age. A book that will be to the Internet what An Inconvenient Truth was to global warming, Mind Change is provocative, alarming, and a call to action to ensure a future in which technology fosters—not frustrates—deep thinking, creativity, and true fulfillment. Praise for Mind Change   “Greenfield’s application of the mismatch between human and machine to the brain introduces an important variation on this pervasive view of technology. . . . She has a rare talent for explaining science in accessible prose.”—The Washington Post   “Greenfield’s focus is on bringing to light the implications of Internet-induced ‘mind change’—as comparably multifaceted as the issue of climate change, she argues, and just as important.”—Chicago Tribune   “Mind Change is exceedingly well organized and hits the right balance between academic and provocative.”—Booklist   “[A] challenging, stimulating perspective from an informed neuroscientist on a complex, fast-moving, hugely consequential field.”—Kirkus Reviews   “[Greenfield] is not just an engaging communicator but a thoughtful, responsible scientist, and the arguments she makes are well-supported and persuasive.”—Mail on Sunday   “Greenfield’s admirable goal to prove an empirical basis for discussion is . . . an important one.”—Financial Times   “An important presentation of an uncomfortable minority position.”—Jaron Lanier, Nature

Susan Greenfield

Mind Change

Your computer comes preloaded with several applications that many people won’t use but that can eat up system resources. You can usually identify these when you see a pop-up prompting you to update a program you’ve never used before. Remove them from your computer and free up disk space

1. Uninstall unnecessary software:

Along the same lines, you can also determine which applications run when your PC boots up. Windows 10 has an updated Task Manager that makes it easier to determine what you want running in the background and what you can start on your own.

2. Limit the programs at the startup:

In terms of memory usage, Windows 10 & 11 uses less RAM than previous versions, but increasing RAM memory has been a tried-and-true way to speed up devices for years. If you have a convertible or detachable laptop, you’ll likely need to settle for what came in the box. Some business and gaming laptops make it possible to add RAM, but it can still be tricky. It’s much easier to add more RAM to desktop computers, and it’s much cheaper, too. Anyone with a basic idea of the interior of a desktop tower is capable of installing more RAM in an hour or so.

3. Add more RAM to your PC:

It’s almost impossible not to pick up a virus at some point while browsing the web, but the new Windows Defender software has made it easier than ever to find malware that may be causing major issues on your PC. Third-party programs are also easy to install and can be just as effective in removing any spyware or viruses you may have picked up.

4. Check for spyware and viruses:

Every computer has many files and programs on its hard drive/ SSD that haven’t been used in a while or are unnecessary. Disk Cleanup allows you to find which applications and files can be deleted from your computer, freeing up drive space for the programs you will use. You should also schedule disk defragmentation on a semi-regular basis so you can be aware of how much hard-drive space you have. Windows has an Optimize Drives tool, which you can access from the Start button or your Cortana search box.

5. Use Disk Cleanup and defragmentation:

When you want better performance, a startup solid-state drive (SSD) can go a long way toward taking some of the pressure off the processor when your computer boots up.If you tend to run many applications at one time or use photo and video editing software, then a startup drive can go a long way toward making these programs run smoother and load faster. While they’re most commonly installed on desktop computers, SSDs can be used on some laptop models as well. When you don’t have the option of using an internal SSD,you can always purchase an external drive that connects to your PC with a USB 3.0

6. Consider a startup SSD:

Minor adjustments can often make a difference with the speed of your PC. Something as simple as which browser you use can slow down or speed up the rate at which web pages, videos, and images load. If you have been using a certain browser and notice that there is a lag time, consider an alternative to seeing if the loading speeds are better. The type of browser you use is not only the thing that may be slowing down your computer when you’re using the web. If you have a full cache that has not been emptied in a while, then you’ll want to visit your settings and make sure that it’s empty.

7. Take a look at your web browser:

Restarting your computer is probably the easiest fix for almost any PC problem, including general system slowdowns. When you restart your computer, you stop all running software, tasks, processes, and open pieces of data that are draining your computer’s processing power. When you boot back up, your computer will have a lot more free memory to operate, which is why it will likely perform a lot faster. Because restarting your machine is almost effortless (and pretty quick), you should always use this method first before trying anything else.

8. Restart Your Computer:

Most people delete files, but these files get moved to the Recycle Bin and are then forgotten about. It’s important to regularly empty the Recycle Bin to fully remove deleted files from your system. When you permanently remove your files from your PC, they’re gone forever — unless you’ve backed them up onto your external hard drive or to a cloud storage platform.

9. Empty Your Recycle Bin:

If your computer is severely slowed down, consider starting again with a fresh version of Windows. You can do this from home and you won’t need to pay for a new version of Windows if you already have Windows installed and activated. But installation can take up to a few hours, and you will need to reinstall all of your apps and settings (and maybe even your files).

10. Reinstall Windows:

Overclocking essentially means forcing your CPU components to run faster than they were designed to. This method can be a bit dangerous, as overclocking can cause processors to overheat and become damaged. It may not even be possible to overclock your CPU if the motherboard is locked. Overclocking can also be very time-consuming and expensive if you mess up the CPU in the process. I wouldn’t recommend this option for most users. But for advanced, technically-minded users who are experienced in upgrading their PC, this might be something worth trying.

11. Overclock Your CPU:

Therefore, consider upgrading some of your computer’s components to speed up your system. Desktop PCs will usually be easier to upgrade than laptops but always check with your manufacturer first.You have a few options here, depending on what’s causing your computer’s slowdown:<ul><li>Upgrade your computer’s RAM to handle more tasks at the same time.</li><li>Switch your HDD for an SSD for faster and easier access to files and shorter load times.</li><li>Upgrade your GPU (graphics processor) for a better experience with gaming and high-definition video.</li></ul>

12. Upgrade Your Computer’s Hardware:

Many of Us Face the issue of slowing the Computer & it is Irritating. So, to that Problem here are some ways through which you can speed up the Computer.

How to Speedup your Windows computer

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