The pop star YoungBoy has the real name of Kentrell DeSean Gaulden. That would make it harder to get equal opportunities in the US, because it is almost impossible that he could be white, asian or latino.
If we wanted to end this, it won’t happen from black people giving their kids white names, or vice versa. Few people care about equality to go that far.
But we could come up with totally new names – not so unusual these days anyway – that are deliberately not favoured by any race or social status.
DeSean is a good start, because white folk already have Shaun/Sean/Shawn with different spellings. So a new spelling could be adopted by all, equally. Shaurn. It can be used to name the kids of progressive types of all colors. As a statement that has fewer downsides. And once it got publicity – a name with purpose – watch it take off!
Alternatively, because of how many latinos are in the US, and they are kinda/sorta a less polarised (black and white) race, blacks and whites could start giving their kids latino names, like Rosa.
They will show us information about the places around us (especially stores).
They will show us the name and role of people at work.
But for strangers, there will be nothing. Privacy etc.
Unless… they choose to transmit something. It is unlikely to be anything personal because everyone, even criminals, will be able to read it, on their AR screen, when they look at you.
But it could be a status you set, maybe temporarily, more like what people adorn their cars with…
Go The 49ers!
Don’t Waste Water!
Single and Looking
DTF
They/them
Yes, it is a real Gucci bag
I am 6ft 7, no need to ask
I was born here, just like you
I just need $3 for some food
$75 for a BJ
Of course if this becomes a thing, expect it to be exploited by scammers as well.
As long as cryptocurrencies are related – in any way – to traditional currencies, they don’t have a chance.
They need to be able to stand on their own two feet, to work in isolation.
It is possible, we just need to find a set of services that form a circular economy. Here is a non-exhaustive starting point.
Platforms/Currencies that it can revolve around
Crypto Game Metaverse Advertising (Google/FB) Venture Capital Crowdfunding Equity Crowdfunding Peer2Peer Lending Services Platform (Fiverr)
Digital uses for the currency (must be primarily labour-intensive)
Web design Game design Graphic design Writing Journalism Guest Posting Translation Programming Tech Support Consulting Life Coaching Virtual Assistant Customer Care Tutoring Music / Voice Over / Jingles Video Editing Transcription Influencer Marketing Community Management
Offline (must be primarily labour-intensive)
Modelling Personal Trainer Gardening / Landscaping Driving / Delivery (not own vehicle) Hairdressing (for someone else’s salon, or from home) Massage Child care Cleaner Housesitter Photography Mystery Shopper Furniture Assembly
The above is literally a starting point. Somebody might need to intuit the system that works, for it isn’t easy to deduce. What is likely needed is degrees of separation that connect the above.
For example:
Game Developer pays Graphic Designer 1LC (LifeCoin) Graphic Designer pays Accountant 1LC Accountant pays Bakery 1LC <<< is not a primarily labour-intensive business, has real-world, fiat currency costs! Bakery pays SEO company 1LC SEO Company pays Game Developer (for in-app ads) 1LC
We effectively have a bartering system that uses a cryptocurrency. It works great on a simplistic level.
Major issue – the balancing act
What if the Graphic Designer gets more LC than they can spend? With a fiat currency, our entire world revolves around it, and finds a use for it. Not so with a fledgling currency that needs to be different and not convertible. (Why not convertible? Well, it renders it meaningless – why not just use the dollar anyway??)
So we need an extra mechanism, one that takes care of deficits and surpluses. A bank? With interest rates? That still doesn’t work – because you can’t cash out beyond what is available to buy with a LC. And, initially, that is limited.
And we cannot convert it to a fiat currency. So what else can it be used for? What has value and is open-ended?
Here are some random ideas, not to be taken seriously, just testing the water:
Status – hey look at me, I have many! Offspring – your great-great-grandchildren might need a personal trainer Capital Investment – there is value in ownership beyond dividends Charity – labor-intensive charity work could be paid
My Best Guess (so far)
Some Facebook-esque corporation will create an Augmented Reality overlay of our world (info, social and advertising), and link it to a virtual world of socialising and gaming. It will have an internal currency.
There are 2 ways a crypto-currency can launch, aside from speculation and ponzi schemes:
A major corporation with a digital product simply brings it into being:
Google – receives money for digital advertising, and digital entertainment products, and gives money in the AdSense network.
2. A circular economy, based on labour-intensive work:
It still needs a catalyst. A play-to-earn video game is my best bet. A game so good that is success drives the model.
Intelligent believers in democracy often have a conundrum – possibly the majority of voters are not smart enough to choose the right people. Yet they accept it, because everyone, regardless, should get to vote.
The same goes for religion. It does a lot of harm and tends to trend towards telling others how to live. But atheists allow it, because everyone should have the right to their own beliefs.
Yet as society becomes more informed, and in many lands the left and right are not getting on so well – the right tend to be religious, because they don’t like change, and Christianity is 2000 years old – there is significant tension.
The atheists, not so blindly self-righteous, and not backed by a god, are not the type to take arms. And yet they are losing, whether they are in Kashmir, the southern US, or Saudi Arabia. So what can be done, to not have the religious dictate the lives of the non-religious?
Separatism – in the US, while not easy to achieve, many will shift where they live to somewhere that does not have a majority of religious people. Meanwhile someone in Portland might move to Texas to ensure they have lots of grandkids.
Damnation – shame the wrongs of religion in social media, and out any religious hypocrites (like the many fans of banning abortions who actually had one…)
Ridicule – suggest that they adhere to everything the Bible decrees
But whatever we do, don’t take arms. We would lose a war, and the other team gets off on martyrs.
But here’s the reason I wrote this:
Parallel Societies
We all know that apartheid was bad, but that was one-sided. What if both sides decided they didn’t want anything to do with each other?
I’m not joking. Let’s have schools and buses and shopping malls and football leagues and banks that are either for the righteous or the damned.
Let’s start with an absolute schism, everything cut in half. And then let folk decide that (in most of society) they would rather live and let live, because it is easier. Learn to love and respect our differences.
OR…
Maybe start excluding religious people?
(legally)
A business could ask customers to promise to be pro-choice. That is not religious discrimination… Not any more than Chick-fil-A not opening on Sundays.
While personally I am disgusted to anyone who sells their souls to the Saudis, the oft-mentioned reason given by the pro golfers is that they don’t want to play a tournament every week of the year. Fair enough too, given that high performance athletes need breaks, and people who have earned 10s of millions might feel like they deserve breaks.
Yet, for golf especially, where results of the even the top players can be very uneven, the more tournaments there are means better data to work out who – on average – is the best. We know that the #1 player can go all year without actually winning…
The thing is, to get the maximum ranking points, you need to play 20 tournaments per year. One you factor in that they last 4 days (if you make the cut), and there are important practise rounds. Pro-Ams are on Wed, so the tournament is actually Mon-Sun, 7 days. Add one day for travelling and you can see why 20 tournaments is the most you would want to play…
Once you appear in 20+ tournaments, the average result of all of those is used for your rank. Results are used for your rank for the following 2 years, and they throw in recency bias as well. The major tournaments are worth more points, because they know that everyone will be there.
There is a solution, although it makes it harder for the average fan to understand.
Reduce the required tournaments to 10 (the negative being that fans get to watch the stars less often, potentially)
Base the weighting of tournament scores based on the average rank of who plays in it
Two things will happen:
Players will play as often as they want, so no more complaining. Quite likely the money, and the need to actually have tournament fitness, will mean they mostly keep the same schedule as they currently do.
There will be more variety in who plays which tournament. Lower ranked players can choose between lofty ambitions or achievable goals, as they already can do with the different tours (same goes for tennis).
The top players will trend towards the prize money more, tournaments that suit their majors preparation more, and tournaments that will get them the most points more.
Somehow or other, the top players will cluster more in the same tournaments than they do now. They will evolve things, not the PGA.
Around the world we have major problems with the integrity of democratic elections, almost always because those in power are maybe being dishonest or illegal in how the election is run, and how votes are counted.
While there are numerous efforts made, and international oversight, and so on, perhaps this is a new idea that is a partial remedy, yet still helpful.
Very generally, people in a local community trust each other more than they trust strangers and governments, even if the individuals disagree on politics.
At the community level we can create trust that the electoral votes in that community are counted correctly. Full transparency of the people and processes at the local level. Scrutiny available to anyone (to a degree anyway).
Then, when votes are tallied up regionally or nationally, the totals for each community is detailed. Each community can then be assured that their votes were recorded correctly, and have the ability to order a recount if they disagree.
If every community accepts that their count is correct, then the total count and election results become indisputable.
Obviously this takes a lot of organising, and will involve thousands of communities – I suggest a maximum size of 10,000 people. So, 100 communities per million.
The communities should decide what their community consists of, and (with NGO guidance) how to verify things. At no stage are individual votes ever known, at issue, or used in decision-making around the integrity.
Possibly the main factor in adopting electric vehicles is the purchase price – they cost more than their fossil fuel equivalents. The countries with the most sales also have the strongest subsidies.
Because it is quite new technology, and in the west the early models have been on the premium side of things, expect the price to gradually come down. Don’t be surprised if a $10K (USD) entry-level car is available in the next few years.
