Bitcoin, FOMO, ETH and all the other 2021 slangs.
What do these strange letters, symbols, words mean? What is cryptocurrency?
Move over AI, you’re old news.
There’s a new kid on the block. Like a secondary school nickname for that one guy who’s always coming late, or always getting in trouble. Crypto.
But unlike that dude nobody wants to invite home during the holidays, everybody wants to associate with Crypto.
The crypto craze is so real that it’s turned virtually all of us into side-hustlers. Giant organisations who wanted nothing to do with it are now tripping over themselves in excitement, some concern and major trepidation. FOMO – the Fear Of Missing Out.
FOMO is a present concern in practically every aspect of life – tapping you and pointing in the direction of a blossoming venture; waking you up in the middle of the night, reminding you just how much time you are wasting and how you just might never catch up. When the excitement for cryptocurrencies began, most of us ignored it like it was just another hype that needed a firm hand, hammer or event to “calm down.” But if you are an attentive person, or spend any amount of time at all on social media, then at some point, lately, you might think: but this thing really isn’t slowing down – and what if I’m missing out on what could potentially change my life forever?
To put this in context, at one point in 2018, Bitcoin traded at $3,000. At its highest points so far this year, it’s topped over $60,000. Forget the current dip, it is projected to hit $100,000 before the year runs out. Some Bitcoin enthusiasts estimate it might hit a million dollars at some point in the future. That’s $1,000,000!
Are you starting to pay attention?
Do you understand the language FOMO speaks now? No? Yes?
We must admit it’s got us all right where it wants us. You could be in the middle of Lagos traffic, displaying periodic Nigeria-type driver drama and plotting graphs on your windscreen. A thought could hit you right in the midst of reviewing a critical contract, leaving you to wonder “so what exactly does p2p mean, and how can I double my investment by August?”
ETH is a short form for Ethereum, an alternative to Bitcoin the Adam and King of Cryptos.
So why exactly is everyone getting on the cryptocurrency train? And should you? Is the momentum sustainable? What do these all even mean?
I explore in another post.
Read some more of my writing here.
The future is simply history being played backwards.
The future is simply history being played backwards.
Here's some mystery to boggle your mind today. God wasn't just in the past and isn't just in the present. He's also in the future. He's already in 2040 looking over His shoulder to see how well we are catching up with our scientific, technological, psychological and economic baby steps. Once in a while, he lifts humanity's legs, opens a door wide, drops some astronomical discovery...and must laugh when we suddenly scramble over the drawing board, cancelling equations, revisiting theories, discovering things.
Think about it this way. Birds perch unperturbed, unharmed, confidently on electric, naked lines without being electrocuted. Whether you believe in billions and millions of years of evolution [I'll humour you], or in the Biblical Young Earth Age of only thousands of years, birds arrived waaaaaaaaay before electricity was discovered, before the first poles and wires were manufactured. Birds don't get shocked when they sit on electrical wires because they aren't good conductors of electricity. In short, when God created them, He had their safety in mind. Wouldnt it be a mess to have to recall the birds after electricity was discovered, and have to configure them to new realities?
God was watching out for them, from scratch. Think on that. In terms of yourself.
He wrote a script, ushered in all its actors, produced and directed it, published it, then rewound back to the start, crossed His legs and pushed "play".
We will never surprise Him.
He's the boss.
Our present is His past.
Mind-boggling.
Read Isaiah 57.15
Check out some more of my writing here.
The Rise of AI: are we in a fight for our future?
“By far the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.”
― Eliezer Yudkowsky
The rise of AI and the fight for our future.
There's a new kid on the block. An elitist, hardly smiling loner we didn't really know much about until recently. A changer. A shapeshifter. A disruptor who cares little for the council of industrial 'elders' or the traditional waters of Status Quo. Unlike any character the ancients ever studied, he does what he wants, goes where he wants.
You see, from when man discovered how to make tents from bent iron, or how to make fire from cracked stones, we have come a long way. Today, there are million-dollar-a-piece drones, flying cars, self-driving bikes, gene-editing technologies, technological feats too amazing to believe.
But not all advancement is positive. As we continue to record major strides in the health sector, and we begin the countdown until Cancer is no longer a health threat, we must face our realities squarely.
Some believe that humanity's embrace of artificial intelligence is the action which eventually activates our extinction as a human race. Extremely intelligent systems trained to process exabytes of data in minutes don't have to do much to deactivate our defences, should they choose to. Some of the remarkable among the AI naysayers are the late esteemed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk who have expressly cried out for the future threat AI poses.
But is there any merit to their fears?
A recent research project concluded by Google's DeepMind has revealed that as AI advances, it becomes more aggressive in its workings.
Here's what happened. DeepMind created a simple AI game called Gathering. The goal of the game was to gather apples. The AI agents were also armed with lasers to be used where necessary. With an abundance of apples, they cooperated. However, as the apples diminished, the AIs' attitude gradually changed. Subsequently, they began to attack each other.
Quite interestingly, the more advanced AIs were less interested in "bonding" and attacked others frequently, regardless of the state of the game's economy - abundance or scarcity.
What happens where there are indeed no apples to even compete for?
The more crucial question is: should the same scenario play out in real life, what will be the response of these AIs where their main competition is humans?
Is Elon Musk right after all?
Do humans have an exit plan? Should we enact laws that mandate a failsafe protocol should all the conspiracy theorists suddenly turn out right? Do we have measures in place to ensure companies comply with such protocol?
And if it is the Governments' responsibility to make laws regulating these strides, who checks the Governments as they secretly pursue their own agenda to dominate the world?
The rise of AI and the fight for our future is as crucial as any discourse we are having today about global warming and climate change.
Thoughts?
This post first appeared here on February 8, 2019.
You can also read some more of my writing here.