Remote controlled bot with integrated with Skype anybody?
I'm picturing a thousand roombas with tablets fixed on top cruising around a gymnasium floor, with one human with a broomstick to nudge the ones that get stuck in a corner.
]]>I am surprised how well power, water and network infrastructure has held up. I'm about a block away from the new extent of Buffalo Bayou, and still have power, land-based internet, cellular voice and data, clean drinking water and sewer. We lost all of that for a week during Hurricane Ike some 8 years back with far less flooding. My mother in the Houston suburbs has water in her house but still has power and data. The toilets are gurgling, and she's drinking bottled water, but she can contact me with no problems.
]]>Imagine if Bitcoin were "The Coin of the Realm", that is, you are paid in it and you use it for most of your purchases. My government would simply require my employer to withhold a percentage prior to the delivery of my pay and to provide accurate payroll books to the revenue service on pain of legal action. Far easier for a government to regulate a thousand companies than audit a million taxpayers.
This is exactly as it is done today with government-issued currency.
And for the minority that work "off the books", a system of self-reporting, audits and penalties for tax cheats will suffice.
Exactly as it is done today with cash-only workers.
]]>I know of no study that measures the real Gini coefficient of the Bitcoin economy. I have no doubt that there are individuals with great personal Bitcoin fortunes, but have no way of knowing how that compares with the traditional economy. I am also sure that there are a multitude of Bitpaupers, folks who, wanting to see what it was all about, went to a Bitcoin faucet and solved captchas for a pittance.
Just to say where I come from on the Bitcoin issue: I'm a practical, selfish American lefty, that is, I prefer some collective social welfare to the idea of having to defend the homestead myself against the hungry masses. I generally favor Bitcoin. I can find nothing in Bitcoin that is incompatible with modern finance and governance except that it removes the capacity of a government to print more money. And it provides a benefit of a fully transparent ledger of all transactions everywhere.
There is a significant segment of the Bitcoin culture that runs libertarian, but that doesn't make Bitcoin a libertarian tool. For comparison consider the substantial intersection between libertarians and proponents of Universal Basic Income.
]]>Easy...
Climate change. It will be too hot to wear anything more substantial than a loincloth soon.
Seriously though... I wonder if printed clothing like this will encourage a re-evaluation of styles of clothing worn in certain climates? I live in Texas and we wear Northern-European descended business suits in heat and humidity better served by shorts and sandals. But since there are no business-formal shorts, we carry on with a stupid tradition and just turn down the thermostat in the office. Somehow this is a signal of our suitability as business partners.
But if the key indicator of clothing quality (tailored fit) is now available for all clothing, for cheap, maybe other factors will determine business suitability. Maybe just wearing company colors is good enough, so long as you cover up your primary sexual characteristics.
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