For years, writers, scientists and entrepreneurs have shown us visions of our future relationships with computers and robots.Should we aim for total automation with the target of greater safety and higher efficiency? Or should we aspire to augmentation – using technology to enhance our abilities without replacing us? As <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/artificial-intelligence-ai/">artificial intelligence</a> and robotics mature enough to become integrated into everyday life, we need to start making this choice. We need to choose wisely, or we might just automate ourselves and the natural world out of existence.

Making Computers Better Vs Using Them To Enhance Ourselves

Humans have always been fascinated by automation. Centuries ago, mechanical creations called automatons were constructed to mimic musicians playing, birds singing, or animals moving. Much of the Industrial Revolution was premised on the idea that automation is better: fabrics could be woven faster and cheaper. Never mind the pollution or the awful working conditions – the products are so much more affordable!

People Love Automation

We can use artificial intelligence to drive our vehicles, to design products, even to compose music or make art. Artificial intelligence will soon be able to imitate our images and sounds in an almost perfect way, meaning that actors and performers can be computer-generated. Artificial intelligence can generate text in any style and content, so writing can be automated. It can understand our patterns of behaviour and influence us automatically – enabling the marketeers’ dream of encouraging us to purchase or vote in ways we otherwise might not.

Automating Vs Assisting

The whole philosophy of augmented intelligence is to put humans first, and technology second. However, we are currently biased towards complete automation as it pushes the frontiers. When we fully automate systems, we put technology first and humans second. A fully automated factory is designed to make the robots work optimally, not necessarily to be safe or comfortable for human workers.

Augmented Intelligence

Those who favour automation are increasingly squeezing the augmented intelligence solutions out. We’ve now got the technology to do it. If my word processor can check spelling and grammar, why not let it reword the whole sentence? Or write the entire piece? If my car can avoid a collision, why not let it drive? If my art package can blur the background of an image, why not let it create a new background? Or a new image? If my medical software can suggest drugs, why not let it diagnose and treat me? it’s cheaper, more efficient, faster and better.

Pushing Automation Not Augmented Solutions That Assist

People are the most flexible and adaptive part of any factory, so instead of trying to replace them with difficult-to-program and complex robots, perhaps it would make more sense to enhance the capabilities of experienced workers with robotic tools that they can control, combining the speed and efficiency of robots with the adaptability of people.

People first, technology second

Everything changes if we put people first. Instead of aiming for fully autonomous vehicles, why not aim for superhuman drivers? Technology that makes drivers better, safer, more aware and makes the task of driving more engaging?The same artificial intelligence tech used in autonomous vehicles can be used to achieve this, providing drivers with more multisensory feedback. See the accident two miles away on a heads-up windscreen display long before your eyes could. Be alerted to invisible black ice on the road. See the cyclist dressed in black on a dark country road with no lights.

Better Human Driving: Assisting Not Replacing

Artificial intelligence can, in theory, enable us to replace all actors, singers, musicians and composers. But while this might be cheaper than paying their salaries, it’s putting the technology before the people. Wouldn’t it be better to ensure that all our art is created by artists, but that those artists have high-tech tools to help them create their works? Don’t replace the actor or disguise her skill through post-production; give her the ability to fine-tune her image as she performs, digitally altering her appearance and sound to suit her performance.

Enhance, Not Replace

Artificial intelligence can already design for us automatically. It can do everything from creating radical new architecture from scratch, to optimising angles on wind turbine blades. It is better to amplify designers’ creativity by using artificial intelligence to assist them with the tedious, routine and constraint-based aspects of their work so they have more time to focus on the art of designing.

Amplify Human Creativity

The misuse of some artificial intelligence methods has already caused major problems. Automated news curation has been designed to feed us more of the things we like, and sometimes prioritises messages that are more likely to cause upset, such as Facebook’s automatic policy that prioritises messages that provoked bigger reactions. These automated learning systems result in <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/social-networks-are-built-to-turn-us-against-each-other-can-we-fix-them/">our societies polarising around certain views</a>, leading to radicalisation and distortions in the democratic process.

Automatic News Feeds: The Dangerous Echo-Chamber

The use of augmented intelligence enables people to make these decisions in a safer and more informed manner. Instead of automated news curation, artificial intelligence can be used to present us with a balanced choice of different topics and opinions. if we use artificial intelligence to help provide varied and balanced online media content, then the minds and education of populations become healthy and strong.

Artificial Intelligence Used Wisely

Artificial intelligence and robots aren’t evil or inherently bad technologies, any more than were the machines of the Industrial Revolution. When misused for poorly conceived automation, often in the name of efficiency improvements, profitability, or even safety, they cause great harm. But when applied for the good of people, these new, advanced technologies have the power to make us better than we have ever been.

Tools Are Not Good Or Bad

Dumb automation is for the short-sighted. Augment your intelligence – use tech to make you better at what you do. The trick is to be aware that what you use will change you. So use solutions that put people first, solutions that enable you to make your own, more informed, decisions. Don’t be a victim of bad tech. Choose technologies that make you a superhuman.

No To Dumb Automation

Why are we working so hard to make computers that compute better, when we could be using computers to help us think and act better?

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

computerscience

Computer Science

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

Augmented Intelligence: What it is and why it will be smarter than AI

Ransomware has hit new levels of sophistication, with demands for payment skyrocketing into the tens of millions of dollars. Vulnerabilities posed by pandemic-weary organiza­tions and workers logging in from unsecured home networks; others are highly complex, such as ever-increasing connectivity driven by advancing digitization. Rather than the “smash and grab” approach, hackers are now “dwelling” undetected within victims’ environments to better understand where the highest value data and information lies.

Sophisticated Ransomware Hacking

With the use of low-cost ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) campaigns, this cyberthreat has surged beyond the quiet confines of the C-suite to where boards of directors, regulators, law enforcement, industry associations, insurance providers, and the cybersecurity vendor community all need to be a part of the solution.While governments, law enforcement, and regulators continue to grapple with ransomware issues such as transparency and oversight of cryptocurrencies, companies need to ensure they remain resilient by focusing on ransomware prevention, preparation, response, and recovery strategies.

The New Threat

To achieve a secure work environment, you need to know what technology you have, what and who it is talking to, and then watch it like a hawk. Vigilance is key. To get there, everyone from the board and C-suite to down the line must be on the same page and treat security as a continuous endeavour that balances technology with people and processes to ingrain security into an organization’s DNA.To achieve a secure work environment, you need to know what technology you have, what and who it is talking to, and then watch it like a hawk.

Prevention Of Ransomware Attacks

COVID-19 saw workforces shift to work from home—and home networks are often rife with poor security. Solid basic hygiene would include strong passwords, multi­factor authentication, software updates, restricted access, and network-level authentication.Multifactor authentication(MFA) for critical assets and high-risk users is strongly recommended. This tactic can be a strong barrier for attacks that leverage credential-based access or privilege escalation like ransomware.

The Tactics Companies Can Use: Securing Remote Desktop Protocol

Legacy systems, be it OT or IT, chug along on old software with security gaps. After RDP and phishing attacks, vulnerable software is the next largest attack vector, which is why securing communication channels and patching Windows operating system exploits remain vital.

Patch Management

Ransomware threat actors run free or low-cost software and scanning tools, searching for things like credential harvesting and internal unsecured port discovery from command-line prompts. If command-line capa­bilities end up disabled, the company becomes a more difficult target. Additionally, blocking port TCP 445 on external-facing infrastructure and internal firewalls also helps reduce the attack surface.

Disabling User-Level Command-Line Capabilities

Active Directory is a database and set of services that connects users with the network resources they need to get their work done. The database (or directory) contains critical information about your environment, including what users and computers there are and who’s allowed to do what.

Protect Active Directory

Cyber awareness training and education should be mandatory. You don’t need to be a highly trained and skilled cybersecurity professional, but basic changes in behavior and awareness of where and how threats can enter your organization can further reduce risks.

Education and training

The timing, urgency, and stress of an attack escalate when decision rights are unclear. Who will lead the response team? Is the CEO directly involved or deliberately removed from the tactical details of the response?Designate a person accountable for keeping the crisis response moving forward in a methodical and detailed manner and ensure decision trees end up aligned, from the chief information security officer (CISO) or chief security officer (CSO) to the CEO or response leader.

Preparing For An Attack: Know Your Decisions Right

Prior to experiencing a ransomware attack, the majority of companies say they will not pay a ransom. However, when nearly two out of three organizations ended up victimized by a ransomware attack over the past 12 months, over 80 percent paid the ransom demands, according to a 2021 report from ThycoticCentrify on the state of ransomware.Constraints can range from the level of insurance coverage to whether customers’ data are also at risk and premerger or pre-acquisition sensitivities. Given these will change over time, ensure this view is refreshed periodically.

Preparing For All Options and Understanding Negotiating Constraints

Generally, board members will want to help and bring issues to closure—the success of which all comes down to communication. That is why the board and executive leaders need to engage in a critical conversation detailing roles and how to activate them. This level of communication and advanced planning can facilitate faster decision making and collaboration. Resiliency becomes baked in when cybersecurity becomes a joint capability between the board and executives and through all levels of the organization.

Getting Your Board Up To Speed

Business continuity answers the question, “How do we operate this process if a particular technology or person is disrupted?” Whereas operational resilience targets the bigger question of, “How do we organize such that a particular event does not disrupt us?” Companies should have answers to both questions to prepare for cybersecurity attacks.

Enhancing Resilience

Approaching ransomware prevention and preparedness from a resilience perspective frames the requirements and outcomes differently:<ul><li>Know what assets are important (crown jewels, critical assets) and where they live.  </li><li>Know the backup process, which will help assess how feasible recovery is. It’s also good data hygiene to only keep what you need.</li><li>Recovery testing is always helpful. Testing in advance of disruption builds muscle memory, uncovers dependencies, and encourages creative thinking and problem solving.</li></ul>

Preparation: The Requirements

In a ransomware attack, time is of the essence, so collaboration and transparency prevail. When an organization becomes aware of a ransomware attack, it should not compartmentalize the challenges ahead. The CISO or CSO needs to ensure transparency and collaboration with internal stakeholders across the company, including the board, C-suite, affected business groups, compliance and risk, and legal and crisis communications teams.

Response

Your organization’s network of external stakeholders can provide valuable input and help expedite risk-based decision making.An organization’s first call should be to the FBI, or a regional and supervisory law-enforcement agency, for notification and disclosure. For very large financial institutions or <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk-and-resilience/our-insights/building-cyber-resilience-in-national-critical-infrastructure">companies managing and operating critical infrastructure</a>, there is a broad range of law-enforcement capabilities available.

Phone A Friend

The US Department of the Treasury’s guidance on ransomware payments requires organizations to consult with them if they need to pay the ransom. However, since ransom payments could violate sanctions against certain individuals or designated organizations, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network say organizations could be held liable for ransom payments, even if they were unaware or unable to determine the recipient is on a prohibited list.

Proceed Carefully

External counsel, as well as insurers, are significant partners to have at the table. From discerning who to notify and when to working through the finer points of negotiation and possible implications and thinking through the legal requirements for customers and partners—especially third parties—these stakeholders bring practical benefits.

Seek Counsel and Check Insurance Policies

Some RaaS groups have call centers that will proactively reach out to down­stream customers and activist investors to put pressure on a victim to pay. Expect this and have a plan to engage stakeholders, whether proactively or in response to their queries.Your response leader can serve as “air traffic control” to manage the responsibilities of all parties involved.

Expect Pressure

Dig into forensics and intelligence. In the earliest stages of the attack, use intelligence to determine who is behind the attack and how they were able to gain access and maintain persistence and detonate the malware. This knowledge will aid in understanding how bad the attack is and assist in decryption and negotiation.Attempt to locate or access known unencrypted shadow copies of data or even a decryption key using member institution initiatives to determine if their information can be decrypted without paying.

Intelligence And Forensics

No matter what, recovery from a ransomware attack can be messy. If you decide to pay and get a decryption key—and if it works—there is usually a considerable amount of cleanup because the attackers shut down servers and databases not designed to shut down hard. If you don’t pay, rebuilding networks from backups is time consuming.Verify. For attackers, ransomware is a business, and they want to keep their reputations intact.Know what’s up for debate. For large and more mature institutions, forensic teams can generally figure out how to find or trigger the decryption key.

Recovery

Remember that you are collaborating with criminals, so the closer a company gets to pay the ransom, the more it needs proof that the attackers actually have what they say they have.Make no mistake about it, ransomware is ugly. But making your enterprise resilient by following prevention, preparation, response, and recovery strategies will allow a company to recover from attacks and not have to pay a huge ransom. Communication, advanced preparation, understanding and then minimizing risk is the best way to keep the operation up and running.

The Bottom Line

Ransomware has rapidly become one of the top cybersecurity nightmares. Strategies for prevention, preparation, response, and recovery can help.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

cybersecurity

Cybersecurity

Ransomware prevention: How organizations can fight back

How do you replicate presence?Mark says Meta wants to make the most human thing possible: visual presence, spatial audio, temperature, olfactory system, touch, etc.Meetings over Zoom are a great counter-example to some of the goals at MetaMany Meta product elements are developed based on basic functions of psychology: facial expressions, eye contact, and moreThere will be different use-cases for avatars: photo-realistic vs expressive identities. There is personal and functional utility in being able to customize your avatarThe market for creative commerce around digital clothing could be huge.

Metaverse

All the work that I do is at the intersection of Psychology and Computer Science

The goal of the metaverse is not to build technology for people to interact with; but rather, to build technology for people to interact with each other

What grabs someone’s attention in the near term is not going to grab it over the long term.Making a user angry isn’t going to retain that user, Facebook doesn’t have an incentive to do this. Products are not just their function and utility, it’s their feeling.Subscription products cater towards their audience, they don’t have an incentive to be in the middle–this fuels polarization. Advertising models at least make consumer services free, giving everyone an opportunity to have a voice. Greater polarization has been found in groups that are least likely to use the internet or social media.

The Social Dilemma

An accurate characterization would have been that teens using Instagram are generally positive for their mental health, but of course, that was not the narrative that came out. Mark argues that other tech companies don’t even bother to perform the researchThey want to do the research to improve, not to sweep it under the rug“Objectively speaking, there’s hunger [in the press] to say negative things about social media. And, I don’t understand how that leads to an open conversation about the positives and negatives of social media.

Instagram Whistleblower

You can only build Facebook/Meta if you have the idea that people having the right to express themselves is a good thingVoice + Connection = Opportunit.The challenging thing with free speech is that there is a line, the thing that everyone disagrees on is the definition of real harm. The blame for improper censorship should also be directed at the institutions of the United States that fail to define harm accurately and honestly.Balancing the AI system that proactively regulates harmful content is challenging. It’s no longer a technical problem, simply a philosophical one.

Censorship

I don’t think pressure from advertisers or politicians directly affect how we think about this, these are just hard topics

Think about what you’re excited about for the future. Always keep sight of things that bring you joySurround yourself with people you want to be like. Mark only hires people that he could see himself working for in an alternate universe.This advice expands to your friends and relationships.

Life Advice

All children are artists, the challenge is how do you remain one when you grow up

Mark Zuckerberg is CEO of Meta, formerly Facebook. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Paperspace: https://gradient.run/lex to get $15 credit - Coinbase: https://coinbase.com/lex to get $5 in free Bitcoin - InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex and use code Lex25 to get 25% off - ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/lexpod and use code LexPod to get 3 months free - Blinkist: https://blinkist.com/lex and use code LEX to get 25% off premium EPISODE LINKS: Mark's Facebook: https://facebook.com/zuck Mark's Instagram: https://instagram.com/zuck Meta AI: https://ai.facebook.com/ PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 5:36 - Metaverse 25:36 - Identity in Metaverse 37:45 - Security 42:10 - Social Dilemma 1:04:16 - Instagram whistleblower 1:09:01 - Social media and mental health 1:14:26 - Censorship 1:31:35 - Translation 1:39:10 - Advice for young people 1:44:58 - Daughters 1:47:46 - Mortality 1:52:19 - Question for God 1:55:25 - Meaning of life SOCIAL: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman - Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

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Marketing & Sales

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Business

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Videos

Mark Zuckerberg is CEO of Meta, formerly Facebook.

Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Mark's Facebook: https://facebook.com/zuck
Mark's Instagram: https://instagram.com/zuck
Meta AI: https://ai.facebook.com/

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4
Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41

OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
5:36 - Metaverse
25:36 - Identity in Metaverse
37:45 - Security
42:10 - Social Dilemma
1:04:16 - Instagram whistleblower
1:09:01 - Social media and mental health
1:14:26 - Censorship
1:31:35 - Translation
1:39:10 - Advice for young people
1:44:58 - Daughters
1:47:46 - Mortality
1:52:19 - Question for God
1:55:25 - Meaning of life

SOCIAL:
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Lex Fridman

Mark Zuckerberg: Meta, Facebook, Instagram, and the Metaverse | Lex Fridman Podcast #267

Lori Grenier is an inventor and multi-millionaire investor. She is known for her wildly popular ABC show, Shark Tank. She has over 500 inventions and 120 patents.  But she wasn't born a successful inventor. It all started nearly twenty years ago with the idea of an interesting jewellery box.

Lori Grenier was not born successful

There are two types of inventors:<ul><li>The one who creates one masterwork.</li><li>The serial inventor who thrive in coping up with one new idea after another and bringing them to life.</li></ul>

Know the inventor you want to be

Don't fall in love with your idea so much that you don't want to listen to feedback.  Business is business. Sometimes you will have to change your idea to match demand.

Don't be stubborn with your idea

You may have many ideas that don't work. That's okay. You just need one idea to take off.  However, to know which one is your million dollar idea, you need to come up with multiple ideas and test and experiment with what does and doesn't work. The idea you think is the best might not be what customers want. You need to be comfortable with failing and moving on.

It takes one idea

Beginner inventors and entrepreneurs should learn all the facets of their craft and business firsthand to enable them to make pivotal decisions. When Grenier had to create over 20,000 pieces of jewellery by hand for her in-store display, she put in the hours. There's no other way.

Put in the hours

Entrepreneurs will work 80 hours a week. Being your own boss is much harder work than working for someone else. If you have an idea, you'll be willing to work 80 hours because it is easier than working 40 hours for someone else's.

Do whatever it takes

With over 500 inventions and 120 patents to her name, Lori Greiner knows exactly what it takes to find success. Get social with Inc. on: Facebook: http://on.inc.com/ilqUryJ Twitter: http://on.inc.com/8FGInRj LinkedIn: http://on.inc.com/gt7KsIn Instagram: http://on.inc.com/wLObvE2 Pinterest: http://on.inc.com/8lPoT0r

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Entrepreneurship

creativity

Creativity

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Startups

With over 500 inventions and 120 patents to her name, Lori Greiner knows exactly what it takes to be a successful inventor. 

Inc. Magazine delivers advice, tools, and services to help business owners and CEOs grow their businesses more successfully. You'll find information and advice covering virtually every business and management task including marketing, sales, finding capital, managing people, and much more.  Visit Inc.com for the latest!

Get social with Inc. on:
Facebook: http://on.inc.com/ilqUryJ
Twitter: http://on.inc.com/8FGInRj
LinkedIn: http://on.inc.com/gt7KsIn
Instagram: http://on.inc.com/wLObvE2
Pinterest: http://on.inc.com/8lPoT0r

Inc. Magazine delivers advice, tools, and services to help business owners and CEOs grow their businesses more successfully. You'll find information and advice covering virtually every business and management task including marketing, sales, finding capital, managing people, and much more.  Visit Inc.com for the latest!

Inc.

5 Rules to being a Successful Inventor: Lori Greiner | Inc.

Lori Greiner’s 5 Rules to being a Successful Inventor | Inc.

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

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

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

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

This list represents a glimpse into our collective future.

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2022

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