Author Archives: Futures Broker

Passenger CoPilot Device for Cars

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AR glasses will come, but it is taking forever, so I thought about intermediate technology that might help it become real.

Imagine this:

A detachable large tablet for the front passenger of a car. It will not work unless attached to a special hinge which ensures that the driver will be unable to view the screen.

The screen shows the same view as the windscreen, but with AR elements overlayed.

The copilot then does what they have often done historically with paper maps. They help the driver. Useful for these scenarios:

  • Finding the house/building that is their destination
  • Finding out where the closest gas station is – or charging station
  • Checking alternate routes
  • Getting info on business and places that they are driving past – that restaurant has a lunch deal!
  • Ordering something before arriving

Why it works:

  • Technology already exists, and could be quite cheap
  • Avoids the dangers of similar in a HUD for drivers
  • Unique selling point for the car brands who offer it
  • A low-commitment entry into the AR space for Apple, Alphabet or Meta

It could also be used for audio playlists, car data, adjusting air conditioning, games, movies (with bluetooth headphones) – the latter uses for back seat passengers with a screen built into the back of the front seats.

Being built in is good for safety.

EmptyCoin

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EmptyCoinTM is token token.

I cannot say it is a token token, because that would imply that it is quantifiable, and it is not. You cannot count EmptyCoin.

You can gift EmptyCoin to someone else. It is a token of appreciation, it has no quantity or value. But it is acknowlegement.

EmptyCoin is real, it is just tricky to understand in a society where everything is assigned a value.

I have EmptyCoin is a way of saying that I grasp that not everything needs to have a numerical value, that existence is sufficient. Peace cannot be counted. You cannot double peace. My love cannot be worth 3x your love.

EmptyCoin is real, it exists. It is mined from dark energy by the self-transforming machine elves who reveals themselves to users of DMT.

Users of DMT are gifted EmptyCoin, that is how it has been seeded in our dimension. Those users are given instructions on how to distribute it.

Until now they did not realise that they were a delivery mechanism for a multi-dimensional crypto-currency that carries no value and cannot be enumerated.

It can also be found in nature, in our dimension, as a by-product of calculus. Whenever anyone attempts to multiply something by zero, EmptyCoin is released.

Just by reading this, you have been gifted EmptyCoin, you now have it, and you can gift others.

You do not need to tell someone you have gifted them EmptyCoin, but your life will improve simply by doing so. So will theirs.

AI and Private Data Training

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For conversational AI, there are many contenders for winner, and probably there will be a winner who rules all, because they are all being trained on public data (the Internet).

For using AI to create images in Photoshop, or spreadsheets in Office, they already have monopolies, and those abilities will simply cement the monopolies further.

But there is a world of potential uses that need to be trained on private data, and that will help one AI business rise to the top. First mover advantage from training on private data.

Example:

In business meetings with client I often need to recall data to respond to a question. It is far better for me to know it off the top of my head, than “excuse me while I look for it”. AI can listen the conversation, and based on its learning, know which data to surface for me, and present it on my screen or AI spectacles.

That takes training. A company like Zoom could (with permission) listen in on meetings and get a head start.

Don’t be surprised if Microsoft wins. They already have Office and Teams. They already have OpenAI. And they can easily buy the companies who can access the private data for training.

Google doesn’t have the same potential for data access. Far fewer people use their platforms for meetings.

The other angle is hardware. If Apple can get their AR glasses out there en masse in businesses, those glasses can listen in (with permission) and learn.

Amazon won’t even partake, thankfully. But they will go after home automation (a talking house), but never be sufficiently innovative to own that space, and hopefully do not buy the winner.

4-factor authentication & the vault

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For 3FA, the standard options are:

  • something you know – PIN or password
  • something you are – fingerprint or face scan
  • something you have – a phone or dongle

For most purposes that is plenty, but what if you need an extra level of security. It could be, for example, to access a Swiss bank account. Or, I propose The Vault:

The Vault is where you store documents that you would keep in a safe at home. Birth certificate, for example.

It can also be where you keep your BFF list. By mutual agreement, and retractable at any time, two people decide that each can always access the latest contact details of the other – phone, address, email, current location – when they access the vault. A good way of keeping track of relatives, for example.

The Fourth Factor is location. You select one or more physical locations that are not your work or home or family member’s home, and you are there when you set up the Vault, and you have to be there to access it.

Simple, and easily done via any phone, and to steal that fourth factor would take a lot more effort from the bad guys. 3FA should be highly safe, but 4FA feels safer, and is fine for things you only very occasionally access.

Note – location-based authentication has been invented, it just doesn’t seem to be used, or imagined to be used as above. It has been about basically being physically present at work.

Augmented Reality and Supermarkets

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So I came across this image and it got me thinking. I belong to several supermarket loyalty programs, something they are quite good at is remembering products I have bought and telling me (in emails) when they are on sale (on special as we say in Australia).

So, forget about fridge apps, and online ordering. I’m thinking purely of an enhancement to what I already do as an in-person supermarket shopper who uses their loyalty program.

It works best if you only use one supermarket…

  1. Open the loyalty app
  2. Photograph the box or barcode of a product that you had bought and just used
  3. Speak your opinion – Growly likes this dog food

In a multi-person household, or even if you are scatter-brained and single… it means that you have a system that remembers which brands you like, or dislike. Per person.

So not only does your emails about sale items become more enhanced (things you prefer, not just things you bought), your AR experience in the supermarket can be awesome. The AR glasses and show you, like the image above, the products you like and where they are. For example, Oliver’s favourite muesli bars, or Maria’s preferred variety of apple. You could walk down every aisle and let the AR do most of the thinking for you. Faster and fewer mistakes that get you yelled at when you return home.

Lab-Grown Human Eggs and Human Sperm

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While scientists can behave ethically, few let ethics get in the way of advancing knowledge and techniques. If they can do it, typically they will.

Which means that now or in the future, someone is going to create a human baby completely outside of the human body. And by using stem cells, it can happen without the permission of the genetic parents. Crazy!

Mice have already been born from real mouse sperm and lab-created mouse eggs. They were healthy and soon became parents themselves, so they passed the hybrid burdle.

2009: Human egg cells grown in a lab.

2016: Lab-created mouse sperm makes babies

2016: Lab-created mouse egg makes babies

2022: Lab-generated human sperm

2022: First synthetic mouse embryos

You can see the trajectory… it will happen – synthetically made humans – it is simply a matter of who and when. China is an obvious bet.

And factor in that declining populations are a problem for capitalist societies, and we could be making artificial kids purely to be worker consumers.

Closial: Slow, Real, Local Social

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Something lacking in social media is the ability to follow people or see posts based on how close they are to your location.

  • Real News – by joining forces with local news media, the sort that only has 10 or less stories per day
  • Local Organisations – like local government announcements, and elected officials can have verified accounts
  • Local Sports – we can offer league tables etc for local and youth sports comps
  • Local Weather
  • Local Radio/TV – quick, easy access
  • Local Users – anyone can join, but they must nominate a location in the local area (it need not be your home)
  • Prioritising Local Posts – the closer to you physically, the more prominent the post/story. Like a burst waterpipe on your street
  • Crime/Safety – discussions and the ability to directly report anything – like potholes or stray dogs – to the appropriate people
  • Marketplace – garage sales etc

Self-moderating via Real accounts

This is important, because moderation is a huge cost for social networks. All users must use their real names, and consequently any borderline illegal behaviour is unlikely

Ads only from local business. Perhaps sections are sponsored by, a week at a time.

The No ID Option in a Digital ID Nation

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Here in Australia we have a general fear of a “one ID to rule them all”, and instead we have a hodge podge of pseudo national IDs – Medicare card, passport, driver’s license, which combined get us the 100 points of ID we need. Kinda painful to achieve the same thing, with all the same drawbacks.

When a One ID comes along, there will be backlash from many, especially the sovereign citizen / anti-vax types. So perhaps we could appease them with the option of opting-out?

If we go way back to where being identified was first needed, it was for taxation. And it still revolves around that. Without taxation, nations fail.

We can look at how backpackers are treated, and come up with a similar option for residents who want to be without an ID.

Reduced pay – you can be employed, without ID, but the pay rate will be discounted to what the after-tax amount would be for anyone with ID.

Can’t get married officially – most of us don’t now anyway…

Can’t travel overseas – no passport

They do get the same public schooling and healthcare – because they are effectively paying tax, and they are still living in our country

No driver’s license – but when self-driving cars arrive, it won’t be needed

Cannot be a company director, or operate a tax-paying business – but that leaves plenty of self-employment possibilities

And guess what – aside from taxes (all you need is a birth certificate to get a TaxFile number), all of the above can already be achieved with just a birth certificate.

We still need to provide a path to ID, for when they come to their senses. So people will still have birth certificates. And their babies will as well, that is non-negotiable, they can’t assign their anarchy to their children as well.

So, unless the anti-people want to fight for no birth certificate, this is currently not an issue.

Posted in Gov

Reddit can be the Next Twitter

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Reddit already has everything in place that you need to replace Twitter. Actually, it is better than Twitter in all of these ways:

  • Self-moderation
  • Variety of post types
  • Better structure for discussions
  • Premium membership for $6/mo
  • Smarter crowd?

You can follow people on Reddit, so all they need to make it work as a Twitter-replacement as well is:

  • Short form posts than can be filtered for
  • User home pages that are their own communities (already exists, post to your profile)

In fact, anyone can make their own community. Famous people can “blue tick” themselves by simply linking to it from somewhere else they are verified. And short posts are already do-able.

Reddit can make this happen. The amount of coding is minimal, and they would get enough new users to get the valuations and users for an IPO that they are planning anyway.

You can post on Reddit and have it automatically share in on Twitter. It doesn’t look amazing, but you can use the Reddit title to be your “tweet”.

The Next Twitter Won’t Be Social

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What we consider to be “social networks” mostly aren’t.

Facebook is a true social network, where keeping up with and communicating with hundreds of actual friends and acquaintances is typical. You cannot leave FB for a rival social network, because your friends are not there – Catch 22.

Twitter is mostly for following what famous people and news sources say, and commenting. Or people of minor fame in a Ponzi scheme of acknowledgment and validation. You can DM people but it wouldn’t matter if that went away.

Instagram is similar to Twitter – easily replaced, with connections not being critical in the real world.

Musk has mused that Twitter could become like WeChat, a Swiss-army-knife social app (there are many reasons why that would fail). I suggest that it should go the other way, and have zero social applications.

The next Twitter, I think Pony Express is a good name…

Pony Express would be just a news aggregator. So, the same as Twitter is now, but:

  • Greater variety of post types – images, links, long-form, PDF, press release, scores, polls, products with “buy now” buttons.
  • Categories for posts that you decide, like folders in an email account
  • No video.
  • No DMs
  • Sharing is all external, like “share to Facebook”
  • No promoted posts

It will need to be a system that can expand to have whichever post types business want.

Pony Express will have verified and non-verified users. Only the verified can post or leave comments. Everyone else can still read posts and share externally.

Verification is free, via TripledChecked.com. Because of the verification, which truly knows who you are, people will be very wary of doing anything illegal on Pony Express, which means moderation costs will be significantly reduced. We could even reward users for moderating – easily done by ratios of reporting and others verifying that there is a problem.

There will also be different subscription types. Standard is similar to what Twitter has today, ads that are not tailored to you. But if you are willing to see ads for categories like gambling, crypto etc, then you can earn credits/points/crypto for that, regardless of your interactions with them, but do you need levels of general activity.

If you pay, then you get to:

  • choose which categories of ads you see
  • see far fewer ads
  • prioritise the users that you follow, how they rank in your feed

Also different, is that the famous people / news sources that you follow, have their own profile page that is much better than what the other services offer. A page that can be your home page you send everyone to:

  • Links to everything you have – other socials, online store, etc (Pony Express will not have any store function)
  • Photos
  • Archive of posts, sortable by category as well
  • Badges (like a charity you have donated to, probably NFT-powered)
  • Endorsements (essentially the other users that you like)
  • Background art if you want, but it will be just wallpaper down the sides.
  • Music playlist (via a 3rd party)
  • Recommended books (affiliate with Amazon or the like)
  • Bio
  • Contact form for businesses

And so on. Not dissimilar to what the other networks have, but making it a true feature. Regular people can use it instead of having a website. Businesses can use a template that makes it is a good landing page for ads.

And here’s the killer – GET THE NEWS FIRST

For a fee (probably a freemium model), there is a companion app that is for creating the posts, and sending them to other platforms as well. Not unlike existing 3rd party tools that schedule posts. What makes it special is that your posts will appear on Pony Express first, and the others via a time delay. That delay might only be a few minutes, but everyone will know where they can get the news first.