Transhumanist Party of Bexar County, Texas

01/08/2021

Elon Musk, world’s richest person.

06/24/2020

Why Elon Musk is my favorite entrepreneur:

Here's a couple of tweets he posted on 6/21:

"We must pass The Great Filter"

"That is our purpose"

For those who don't know, The Great Filter is the idea that the majority of technological civilizations may have difficulty avoiding extinction. This concept was devised by Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev – who famously also defined 3 “Types” of civilizations based on the amount of energy available to them:
Type I: harnessing the total energy of a planet;
Type II: harnessing the total energy of a star (this would be a civilization that had built a "Dyson Sphere" - or more likely, a "Dyson Swarm");
Type III: harnessing the total energy of a galaxy.

Humanity is currently set at Type 0.73 on this scale.

Elon's next tweet consisted of his solution to The Great Filter problem:

"Ensure future of Earth & extend life sustainably to other planets"

Elon has said that contained in the sentiment above are essentially the "mission statements" of Tesla and SpaceX, respectively.

Later on 6/21, there was a (semi-) humorous exchange between Elon and Twitter account user . The latter tweeted the following:

"Maybe the invention of social media is the Great Filter of the Fermi Paradox, because it poisons a culture’s discourse so much they can’t progress any more."

The Fermi Paradox is based on the famous question by physicist Enrico Fermi during a casual conversation in the summer of 1950 with fellow physicists Edward Teller, Herbert York and Emil Konopinski, which concerned then-recent UFO reports and the possibility of faster-than-light travel. Fermi is said to have suddenly uttered, "But where is everybody?" (although the exact quote is uncertain).

Elon's response:

"Social media is a limbic [emotional] amplifier, which inherently destabilizes civilization."

Based on a cursory review of the mainstream media at the moment: THAT'S the understatement of the Century! 📷

02/20/2020

"The Holy Global Empire" turns-out to be a PERFECT title.
Why?
Because the main point of the video, IMHO, is that corporate valuation, stock market volatility, etc., are all "faith-based."
Just like money itself - which, according to the current, widely-accepted theory of monetary policy ("credit-creation theory"), is created out of debt.
“The banking system as a whole can do what each small bank cannot do!” (Samuelson, 1948) - namely, "create" money.

On September 4th 2018 amazon briefly become the first public company in history to be worth 1 trillion dollars, It was only for a brief moment, of about half...

02/19/2020

My second response to Yang dropping out of the Democratic Presidential candidacy race:

I hope he spends the next 4 years continuing to devote his time and energy to widely publicizing the inevitably growing problems - and opportunities - which face us. As I've said before: IMHO, Yang is the only current spokesperson, within the existing political party framework, for solutions which can effect a successful transition from today's socioeconomic structure (which appears as though it has about run its course), through what he calls the "Fourth Industrial Revolution."

The video referenced below does an EXCELLENT job, IMHO, illustrating the "Tale of Two Worlds" - two directions in which we might go. Be advised: there's lots of dark, cynical, even profane humor sprinkled throughout - so if you want to jump to the most relevant sections:

7:41: The possible worldwide collapse, if current trends occur without informed, rationally planned, scientific and social structural intervention.

18:15: The possible - dare I say, Utopian - results if we apply outside-the-box thinking to achieve "The Great Transition," using the wondrous possibilities of technological innovation in unfettered ways.

27:43: Final Thoughts

31:30: A GREAT quote by Arthur C. Clarke!

Culture in Decline | Episode #6 "Tale of Two Worlds" by Peter Joseph UPDATE: *Season One, Two DVD Set now available. Help support future episodes: http://www...

02/19/2020

See? We really need to have these tech companies pay their fair share of tax revenue - but without killing their potential for continuing to fuel innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity.

The trial, which Facebook expects will take three to four weeks, could see top executives including hardware chief Andrew Bosworth and Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer called to testify.

01/30/2020

Power plant engineers have loaded 18 mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies in Unit 4 at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia.

01/29/2020

A newly published study reports a successful, first-ever open-field release of a self-limiting, genetically engineered diamondback moth, stating that it paves the way for an effective and sustainable approach to pest control.

01/29/2020

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is one of the most common and most devastating muscular diseases, greatly reducing patients’ quality of life and life expectancy. Now, researchers in Germany have managed to use the CRISPR gene-editing tool to correct the condition in pigs, bringing the treatment....

01/27/2020

Scientists are racing to stop the new coronavirus by sharing their results in real time around the world. The effort shows how the speed of collaboration has improved with technology.

12/24/2019

Only percent of human DNA codes for proteins, and approximately half of the rest of the genome is made up of what used to be called "junk" sequences that can copy themselves into RNA or DNA and jump from one location to another. Previous research led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospita...

10/11/2019

Design Challenges part III. The last video of Von Braun Station system operations and design series with announcements of Orbital Assembly's initiation of fa...

10/08/2019

"A man may die yet still endure if his work enters the greater work. Time is carried upon a current incepted by forgotten deeds. Events of great moment are but the culmination of a single carefully placed thought. As all men must thank progenitors obscured by the past so we must endure the present that those who come after may continue the greater work."

10/08/2019

An Alabama man is free of sickle cell disease after receiving gene therapy for two years as part of a clinical trial.

08/03/2019