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Category: finance – Page 135

Over the past week, the White House appointed five new senior National Security Council staff officials. Two in particular signify the emerging and disruptive influence Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel could have on U.S. national security and how he might bring his venture capital perspective — visionary but unconventional leaders, big bets on disrupting established industries — to national security.

Kevin Harrington, a Thiel acolyte, has been named Deputy Assistant to the President for strategic planning. Since early December, Harrington served on the Trump “landing team” at the Commerce Department, where his job was to help hire people for open positions and identify policy priorities. Before that, he worked at hedge funds started by Thiel. Michael Anton, a former executive at an investment management firm and speechwriter, was named Deputy Assistant to the President for Strategic Communications, virtually the same job that Obama advisor Ben Rhodes held. POLITICO reports that he received the position “thanks to an entree from Thiel.”

The Harrington appointment is unusual for a couple of reasons. First, the elevation of this position to “Deputy Assistant to the President,” the second highest rank within the White House, suggests that Harrington will have a larger role than his predecessors. Although the strategic planning office is one of the most important at the NSC, it is typically staffed by a lean team of forward thinkers and the head of the office is ranked accordingly.

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The bottom-line why folks are investing so much in QC is frankly because it means you will be behind everyone else who has adopted a superior infrastructure. As a consumer, if I can use my private information to secure a loan or access my medical information without fear of exposure of my information as well as performance of my online media and other online services are 100 times faster than any known network service to date; it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know what I will do,

And, banks, trading houses, etc. know this.

Thanks to the collaborative effort of an international team of scientists led by Professor Winfried Hensinger of the University of Sussex in UK, the world may have gotten one step closer to building the most powerful computer ever — a large-scale quantum computer capable of solving ultra-complex problems that will take a regular computer billions of years to solve.

Quantum computers work quite differently from conventional computers. Instead of typical computer ‘bits’ that can represent either the value ‘0’ or ‘1’, quantum computers use ‘qubits’ (short for quantum bits) that are capable of representing either ‘1’ or ‘0’, or both at the same time. This is made possible by the extraordinary property of qubits known as ‘superpositioning’ — the ability to exist as two different states at the same time.

Superpositioning is what allows quantum computers to effectively handle complex calculations simultaneously. But it is also this particular state that makes quantum computers difficult to build. That’s because an ion in superposition cannot be allowed to come into contact with anything from the outside given the fact that as soon as it does it loses its superposition state, reverting into just one state and consequently removing its ‘quantumness’ and its ability for super-computing.

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Nice write up. What is interesting is that most folks still have not fully understood the magnitude of quantum and how as well as why we will see it as the fundamental ingredient to all things and will be key in our efforts around singularity.

When it comes to studying transportation systems, stock markets and the weather, quantum mechanics is probably the last thing to come to mind. However, scientists at Australia’s Griffith University and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University have just performed a ‘proof of principle’ experiment showing that when it comes to simulating such complex processes in the macroscopic world quantum mechanics can provide an unexpected advantage.

Griffith’s Professor Geoff Pryde, who led the project, says that such processes could be simulated using a “quantum hard drive”, much smaller than the required for conventional simulations.

“Stephen Hawking once stated that the 21st century is the ‘century of complexity’, as many of today’s most pressing problems, such as understanding climate change or designing transportation system, involve huge networks of interacting components,” he says.

Continue reading “Quantum RAM: Modelling the big questions with the very small” | >

When it comes to obtaining new energy, solar energy now costs less than fossil fuels, according to a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) also show decreased prices, with the mean price of solar power in about 60 countries dropping to $1.65 million per megawatt, closely followed by wind at $1.66 million per megawatt.

Michael Drexler, Head of Long Term Investing, Infrastructure and Development at the World Economic Forum, found the downturn in prices to be an encouraging sign.

“Renewable energy has reached a tipping point—it now constitutes the best chance to reverse global warming. Solar and wind have just become very competitive, and costs continue to fall. It is not only a commercially viable option, but an outright compelling investment opportunity with long-term, stable, inflation-protected returns.”

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KOCHI: HDFC Bank has deployed an interactive humanoid at its Kamala Mills branch in Mumbai. Intelligent Robotic Assistant (IRA) was developed in partnership with Kochi-based startup Asimov Robotics. IRA will be used for customer service.

With the launch of IRA, HDFC has become the first bank in the country to deploy humanoid for customer service. “Our first humanoid is unique and will serve as a technology demonstrator in the field of artificial intelligence and robotics,” said HDFC Bank digital banking country head Nitin Chugh.

Developed using robotics and artificial intelligence technology, IRA will be initially positioned near the bank’s welcome desk where it will display the services, greet customers and guide them to the counters — cash deposit, foreign exchange, loans etc.

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This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Karl explains how the wisdom of crowds can be harnessed in powerful new ways.

Karl is the Founder of slowXchange a London based Internet platform that crowdsources forecasts on the financial performance, creditworthiness and management quality of the world’s top 2,000 listed companies. A CPA with an MBA [Deans List] from Columbia University, he is an inveterate optimist when it comes to the capacities of people and technology to solve today’s problems.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

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No other metric of the state of #transhumanism (or science) says more than a healthy technology stock market. Complain all you want, but the smart money knows what’s happening. And smart money begets innovation—and innovation improves lives. Also, Obama in his 2nd term was a poor ad seller for media—it’s because he was stable and offered few surprises. However Trump (and his dramatic actions) might save and transform the entire media industry, as press bash and explore him relentlessly (and make a fortune in ads doing so as liberals and conservatives eat it up and fight over it all). However, always remember, media companies, whether they’re liberal or conservative, do not exist to serve you and deliver news, but to sell ads to shareholders (like Facebook too which is also near an all time high in stock price) so they can get richer. Media companies that were once struggling are doing better now. I’m not taking sides on any of these issues…I’m just reminding you of a few simple truths on how the world works. Have a nice day!

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Too many people spend their whole life on a treadmill striving for financial success and/or fame.

People often take a job or start a company because they think it’s a quick way to get rich or get noticed, i.e. to be successful.

Throughout my career, whenever I’ve started a company just to make money, it’s been a mistake. Starting any successful company is always hard work, and if my heart isn’t in it, the effort becomes hard, unfulfilling work, and I give up before the job is done.

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Daniela Rus loves Singapore. As the MIT professor sits down in her Frank Gehry-designed office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to talk about her research conducted in Singapore, her face starts to relax in a big smile.

Her story with Singapore started in the summer of 2010, when she made her first visit to one of the most futuristic and forward-looking cities in the world. “It was love at first sight,” says the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). That summer, she came to Singapore to join the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) as the first principal investigator in residence for the Future of Urban Mobility Research Program.

“In 2010, nobody was talking about autonomous driving. We were pioneers in developing and deploying the first mobility on demand for people with self-driving golf buggies,” says Rus. “And look where we stand today! Every single car maker is investing millions of dollars to advance autonomous driving. Singapore did not hesitate to provide us, at an early stage, with all the financial, logistical, and transportation resources to facilitate our work.”

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