another wave of open source at this point.

“What is a blockchain?” It’s a distributed, decentralized, community-based computing system that has trust incentives, contracts, structure, ownership, portability built in.

That gets you DeFi [decentralized finance]. So this is crypto two, it’s distributed finance. You could build a lending application on this.

But it’s a public database, which is important. It’s not just a database, it’s a public trustless distributed database.

“the Holy Roman Empire is neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” Which was true. It wasn’t any of those things. Cryptocurrency is not cryptography, and it’s not a currency, or not only a currency.

the first wave of crypto

the hardware was good enough to show that this would be cool if we had vastly better hardware.

We tried to do VR in the early ’90s, late ’80s, early ’90s.

So there’s this technology determinism which also applies a bit to Web3, which is to say, look, smartphones, PCs, the internet, cars, aircraft—it starts out looking like a toy and it gets better.

It doesn’t matter how amazingly cool a games console is, it’s still basically not a universal device.

And the same thing now with metaverse—you write a whole bunch of words on a whiteboard. You write “games” and “virtual reality” and “popular culture” and “self-expression,” and maybe “NFTs” and “Web3” as well, maybe. And “augmented reality” and “glasses” and “3-D” and “spatial internet.” You write all this stuff on the board. And then you call it metaverse.

Maybe, but that’s not necessarily what’s going to happen. It may not play out like that.

“All models are wrong, but they’re all useful.”

“History teaches us nothing, except that something will happen.”

there’s a lot of value to looking and seeing, what happened the last time this happened?

there’s always patterns in technology.

this Danish proverb

decacorns (private companies that are worth over $10bn)

“television” and “monolingual”, which mix up Greek and Latin roots

femto- and atto-

pico-

nano-,

It would be the first of the prefixes for huge numbers not to come from the classical languages. “Hell” is a Germanic word.

a new prefix, hella-, for 1027

to zetta- (1,0007) and yotta- (1,0008)

septa- and octo- for 1,0007 and 1,0008

peta- and exa- come from Greek penta (five) and hexa (six), representing 1,0005 and 1,0006

As billions become workaday, tera- will become the new giga-.

teras means “monster”

A megalomaniac has delusions of greatness

Megas, too, was generic in Greek, meaning “great”

Giga- is a prefix meaning “a billion” of something.

a gigafactory in Sunderland

“gigafabs”.

a “gigafactory”

To Russian entrepreneurs living abroad, these workers were a known quantity, and they were not as expensive as specialists in Silicon Valley and other parts of the United States.

And like other tech workers globally, they could continue their work from anywhere with a laptop and an internet connection.

Eventually, Russia has to diversify its economy away from oil and gas, and it has to accelerate productivity growth. Tech was a natural way of doing that.

Tech is a small part of the Russian economy compared with the energy and metals industries, but it has been growing rapidly.

An industry once seen as a rising force in the Russian economy is losing vast swaths of its workers.

By March 22, a Russian tech industry trade group estimated that between 50,000 and 70,000 tech workers had left the country and that an additional 70,000 to 100,000 would soon follow.

“Believe me, we have a decent sense of what is in our interest and know how to protect it and advance it.”

Although overall trade between the countries is puny, Russia is South Africa’s second-largest market for apples and pears and its fourth largest for citrus fruit. Even as Russian-flagged ships were being turned away from European and American ports, the Vasiliy Golovnin, a freighter, docked in Cape Town on April 4th. South Africa is also reportedly pursuing a $2bn-a-year deal to buy gas from Gazprom, a Russian state-owned energy firm.

Almost half of African countries—25 of 54—abstained or stayed away from the first UN vote. The history of colonialism makes some reluctant to throw support behind what is seen as a Western cause. But others are acting out of growing affinity with Russia. That is true of South Africa, the other big democracy to shrug off the West’s call for unity. It has abstained in all the UN votes.

Citing Argentina, Brazil and Mexico among others, he added, “These countries do not want to be in a position where Uncle Sam orders them to do something and they say, ‘Yes, sir.’”

certain countries “would never accept the global village under the command of the American sheriff”

Signalling independence from the West is an old game in Latin America

“Every time I turn on the television, there’s a Russian making the case for the war,” says a Western ambassador in Jordan. While the big Arabic channels, which have reporters on the ground in Ukraine, have not shied away from recounting the war’s horrors, their coverage is often interspersed with pro-Russian or anti-Western takes.

In the Middle East, only Israel and Libya voted to boot Russia off the Human Rights Council; the abstentions by the Gulf states were a particular disappointment to Western diplomats.

The warm European welcome granted to Ukrainian refugees, compared to that accorded Syrian refugees, prompts eye-rolling. These sorts of concerns are of long standing among Arab states. What has been surprising is the degree to which even American clients have felt free to act on them.

“There’s been an underlying trend that I’ve observed around the UN in the last couple of years, which is that a lot of the countries from the global south have been increasingly co-ordinated in articulating criticisms of the West,” Mr Gowan says. These countries, he continues, “have been feeling more a sense of unity and common purpose than was the case in much of the post-cold war era.”

A related objection is that the West is obsessing over a European conflict that is not a true global concern, while downplaying or ignoring conflicts and human-rights abuses elsewhere.

There’s a big attack from many sides on sanctions being the problem, not the aggressor in this war.

The pattern of abstentions speaks in part to concerns that sanctions on Russia are driving up food and energy prices.

93 to 58, with 24 abstentions

But considered as a bloc, the 40 countries that opposed or abstained from the UN resolution condemning the invasion will probably matter more in terms of geopolitics than economics.

For its part, India has a number of reasons to avoid antagonising Russia: its tradition of neutrality in global conflict, its strategic priority of confronting China, its dependence on Russian military equipment.

he called for “an independent inquiry” into the horrors reported from the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

Click here to view original web page at www.tehrantimes.com

SDS not only affects people’s health but also has a psychological effect, it also has a great negative effect on agricultural products, and on the reproduction of plant species and activities such as beekeeping, he further noted.

In fact, the dust is raised from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in the northeast; Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan in the south, southwest, and west.

Controlling sand and dust storms (SDSs) requires strengthening diplomacy, and it will never be eradicated unless international institutions reach a consensus.

The European Union went still farther, ordering Google and other search engines to delist RT and other Russian state media in addition to blocking the sites themselves from its constituent countries.

The decision is bad news for the Ukrainian government, which has sought to impose a de facto digital iron curtain by revoking Russia’s access to the Domain Name System.

Businesses involving “services, software, hardware, or technology incident to the exchange of communications over the internet” will no longer be subject to the heavy-handed sanctions the US imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine in February, according to an order issued last week by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

As per Zoom, Anywhere Polls will allow polling content to live in a central repository that can be accessed from any meeting on an account, instead of being associated with a particular meeting.

The only gas pipeline to the East now is the Power of Siberia to China, which is not physically connected to a unified gas supply system, so it is impossible to transfer the gas produced in Yamal to China through the extant gas pipeline system. This means that we need to quickly negotiate with China on a Power of Siberia-2. While the concept for this already exists, it is still at the design stage and no specific agreements have been reached,”

The EU is very dependent on Russian gas, but this also means that Russia is very dependent on the European market.

a manifold increase in energy costs due to the high cost of LNG and an inadequate supply of it. In addition, there is insufficient capacity and terminals for LNG storage and receipt in Central and Eastern Europe. There is one relatively large one in Lithuania (Klaipeda), but it will not be enough for all the Baltic countries,” he notes.

“Green energy is good, but we should not forget that it isn’t possible to produce the needed amount of energy with current technology,”

Especially if Russia suddenly stops supplying coal as well.

“This is not a game, but a scenario that needs to be taken very seriously, as it can potentially create deep divisions in the economy and society. From my point of view, it was correct not to immediately start the process of terminating relations with respect to supplies,” German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said, explaining the consequences for his country.

“These simulation engines and the data and everything that goes into them are incredibly important for us to act in these complex environments when it’s not just one crisis but it’s a set of compounding crises,”

to create a complete replica of Earth’s systems over the next decade.

run simulations to see whether that infrastructure is vulnerable to future climate extremes or severe storms,

It’s leading the initiative in partnership with the European Space Agency, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.

“Destination Earth,” will draw on a host of environmental, socioeconomic and satellite data to develop digital “twins” of the planet that aim to help policymakers — and eventually the public — better understand and respond to rising temperatures.

it was mysteriously absent from the “Summary for Policymakers” – traditionally the first part of the report that’s released and often attracts the most media attention.

the Summary for Policymakers must be approved by government representatives from 195 countries around the world; the approval process for this year’s mitigation report was the longest and most contentious in the history of the IPCC.

Neal Stephenson famously coined the term “metaverse” in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, where it referred to a 3D virtual world inhabited by avatars of real people.

the metaverse is tough to explain for one reason: it doesn’t necessarily exist.

such narrative-building efforts are likely to intensify further

highlighting that U.S. partners were also victims of malicious cyber activities.

a broader global audience.

new strategy for responding to Washington.

all three reports by Qihoo 360, the report from the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team (CNCERT), and the report from Qi An Pangu Lab,

the separate remarks for its spokesperson on U.S. cyberattacks.

Pangu Lab released its report on U.S. cyber espionage,

These reports and testimonies have taken discourse on China’s cyber activities to a global audience, making everyone aware of possible cyber threats arising out of China.

Mandiant, a U.S.-based cybersecurity firm, has released multiple reports detailing Chinese cyberattacks in the United States.

intensifying its efforts at narrative-building by focusing on malicious cyber activities of the United States.

inequity through experimentation.

The central government does not seem to disentangle the merits of an innovative policy from the idiosyncrasies of the places that pilot it.

The more prosperous an experimental site, the better the chance the policy will be adopted nationwide

80% of experiments since the 1980s have taken place in localities that are richer than average, according to Messrs Wang and Yang

It is a “huge improvement” on a “counterfactual world” in which all central policies are implemented without any experimentation,

the central government has initiated over 630 such experiments since 1980

“Everything through experimentation,” Dewey declared on his tour. Chairman Mao would later repeat the line as China’s ruler.

China’s support for Russia is in part geopolitical, with Mr Putin seen as an irreplaceable comrade in a fight with America. But it involves domestic political calculations, too. Chinese ideologues see benefits in identifying Mr Xi’s brand of nationalism with Mr Putin’s. As long as that holds true, asking Mr Xi to disown Russia and side with the West is like asking him to break with himself.

Above all, the film helps Mr Xi by suggesting that intensely personalised rule is no bad thing, at one point showing young Russians kissing images of Mr Putin.

they believe in crony capitalism, not Marxism.

The film is revealingly odd

Mr Xi blames the Soviet collapse on “historical nihilism”, jargon for allowing ideological foes to dwell on dark episodes in history.

This says that Mr Putin attacked Ukraine in self-defence, after America encroached on Russia by pushing European nations into the NATO military alliance.

n special classes

Rule 8742 [127]

our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her.

by a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting.

competition and co-operation lead to the exchange of ideas, benefiting all

as long as CATL brought battery-manufacturing tech and know-how in order to foster technology transfer to American firms.

EVs encompass many of the strategic tensions that burden the trading system. They are heavily reliant on semiconductors, which has become a sore point in China, and on batteries, Chinese dominance of which is a bugbear for the West. They are hugely subsidised. The harvesting of personal information to improve traffic routes, charging and self-driving technology raises thorny questions about privacy, data storage and cyber-security. The EV industry is also exposed to trade wars: since 2018 America has levied 25% tariffs on Chinese battery cells, electric motors and other EV components.

The more high-quality Chinese products appeal to international consumers, the more of a stake China has in preserving global trade.

Yet they have their own built-in advantages, including access to the best battery supply in the world and in some cases more sophisticated software than European rivals. China is also taking international safety standards more seriously.

That means selling low-cost EVs where Western companies do not venture, in order to strengthen supply chains. Taxi fleets are a popular target for firms like BYD.

SAIC, a state-owned car company, is making inroads in Europe under the cover of MG, a classic British sports-car brand that it bought in 2007.

For years China led the world in production and purchase of EVs.

burnout is as much of a risk as slacking.

do-not-disturb protocols

Defining what kinds of work can be done asynchronously and what requires everyone to get together is a recipe for fewer, better meetings.

who they want in the office on which days of the week.

Things function best when everyone knows what is expected.

That depends on one ingredient above all: clarity.

the absence of a commute

the blend of in-person and remote work is a perk equivalent to an 8% pay increase.

It means “something essentially different from the past and the future”, yet “this important difference does not and cannot occur within physics”.

metaphysics plays a role in science

nature is described as if hesitating between a multiplicity of possibilities”

Bergson’s spiritualism seems to some not just wrong-⇔headed but dangerous.

Bergson “correctly pointed out that experiential time has more features than the time the physicists were talking about”

Bergson denied the consequence of the special theory illustrated by the “twin paradox”: if Peter remains on Earth while Paul rides a rocket into space and then returns, Peter will have aged more than Paul.

he “distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion”, Einstein famously wrote.

Relativity states that time flows at different rates—faster or slower—for observers moving with respect to each other, as most do.

Bergson thought that the universe was “a vast funicular railway, in which life is the train that goes up, and matter the train that goes down.”

People’s very identities are the “temporal synthesis that is duration”

It is duration that permits novelty,

“Pure duration is the form that the succession of our states of consciousness adopts when the self lets itself live, when it stops establishing a separation between its present and former states,” Bergson wrote.

“What is the relation between the subjective and the objective, and can we have a form of knowledge that includes both?”

more of them will come to use their phone as a kind of back office, primarily there to provide processing muscle for other gadgets.

As VR and AR glasses become lighter and cheaper, they could form the most powerful part of the wearable cluster.

a gradual movement by consumers towards a constellation of new wearable devices.

The current big idea is virtual-reality (VR) headsets, spurred on in part by pandemic lockdowns. More promising, but further off, are glasses for experiencing augmented reality (AR), in which computer graphics are overlaid on the real world. Most of America’s big tech firms—among them Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft—as well as Asian giants like ByteDance (TikTok’s Chinese owner) and Sony, are developing or already selling VR or AR headsets. What has so far been a niche market is about to become very crowded.

Yet there is mounting evidence that the smartphone era is fading.

"Maybe the rules around a public space, like the Plaza, are different than private instances, or invite-only type spaces, where the intent on why you went there is different."

Game worlds or play spaces have one set of rules, but "once one sees virtual worlds as genuine realities, however, then the ethics of virtual worlds becomes in principle as serious as ethics in general."

because the rules of engagement are often looser.

"The most difficult things to do, programmatically, are the things that make us most human,"

It's no accident that Big Tech has left figuring out human interaction in the metaverse for last, because it's the hardest part to solve.

As Wirth explained, we assume our body language and expressions communicate in virtual spaces, and when they don't, miscommunications and alienation can happen.

a lack of proper safety settings to keep kids from mixing with random adults in virtual world apps.

Are these virtual spaces, often with cartoon avatars, an extension of real society, or are they their own unique spaces?

Wirth also reminded me that, as I spoke, my hands stayed too still. Moving my hands more, and animating, made my avatar more expressive.

And his filing suggested that he would be a passive investor, which seems at odds with his joining the board. Expect his Twitter habit to raise even more eyebrows now that he is no longer just a big user but a large shareholder, too.

Twitter has been a much bigger cultural success than a commercial one.

Twitter has been a much bigger cultural success than a commercial one.

he complained that Twitter “serves as the de facto public town square” but fails “to adhere to free-speech principles”

But the companies did announce a trio of principles they say will guide its creation: “protect children’s right to play by making safety and wellbeing a priority; safeguard children’s privacy by putting their best interests first; empower children and adults with tools that give them control over their digital experience.”

Epic has extensive experience creating virtual worlds, primarily through the enduringly popular Fortnite, while Lego has had an increasingly large focus on video games, most recently with the launch of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga this week.

to create a virtual space aimed at kids

the task for industry leaders will be to focus strategically on R&D, factories, and sourcing, and to apply the lessons of the modeling to unlock areas of opportunity.

about 70 percent of growth is predicted to be driven by just three industries: automotive, computation and data storage, and wireless.

semiconductor manufacturing and design companies would benefit now from a deep analysis of where the market is headed and what will drive demand over the long term.

He says that because he is a billionaire, his motives tend to be viewed with suspicion and that it is hard to get his ideas judged solely on their merits.

Rather than punishing these “outliers,” a better solution would be to let the rest of society benefit directly from their success.

We live in a “super result-oriented society,” Berggruen says, but “the one area you cannot measure” is that of fundamental ideas.

“this work requires patient capital.”

the Transformations of the Human project

to poke our nose into the unknown

The aim is to revitalize the democratic process while draining some of the rancor out of politics.

the organization is “more sympathetic to the left than the right” but strives to be “post-ideological.”

He wants to recognize work that has had a broad societal impact, but very few ideas emanating from the grottos of academic philosophy achieve that kind of mainstream influence

the power of the ideas they celebrate is what gives intellectual prizes their currency.

to make a mark in the realm of ideas.

some ideas gained traction

Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics,” Nietzsche’s “On the Genealogy of Morals” and Sartre’s “Existentialism Is a Humanism.”

he was introduced to Brian Copenhaver, who taught philosophy at U.C.L.A. Berggruen was looking for someone to mentor him in philosophy, and Copenhaver became his teacher and interlocutor. Copenhaver says he wasn’t paid but did ask Berggruen to donate to U.C.L.A.

a wealthy patron trying to stimulate a “philosophical and artistic renaissance or spring for our times.”

Noema (ancient Greek for “thinking”), that covers politics, technology, climate change, culture and much else.

what he half-jokingly describes as a “secular monastery,” a campus where scholars affiliated with the think tank that he founded, the Berggruen Institute, will live, work, cogitate.

an empire of the mind.

If they want to maintain a high level of support among non-Western countries for future votes concerning Ukraine and Russia in UN forums, they should look closely at how to mitigate the effects of the war on countries outside Europe as well.

Many NAM members dislike on principle the idea that the General Assembly would pass resolutions on an individual country’s human rights performance.

A significant number of EU members had wanted to abstain on the South African proposal, and had this bloc done so, the South African draft would have at least gone to a full vote – and most probably passed, although not by a great margin.

All involved admit that the General Assembly discussions were confused, with diplomats in New York and their superiors in capitals often struggling to keep up with each other as the debate evolved.

given misgivings about the West’s alleged failure to address the war’s global consequences

The French-Mexican text deliberately omitted any reference to Russia by name, but the United Kingdom and United States, which refuse to back a resolution that does not blame Russia, blocked it.