Just to round out the awesomely interesting links, here's one more to give you something to consider!

http://localroger.com/prime-intellect/mopiidx.html

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

Enjoy 

Bigger geekgasm.

I wonder though if maybe we - and by we I mean scientists that aren't us per se - are working on AI and BMI backwards and instead of trying to put brains on chips or the block chain it might be easier and more probable to put the blockchain in the brain, adapt the brain itself to a blockchain esque function.

The idea of mind uploading is incredibly cool in concept but either they're describing it incorrectly or they're going about it incorrectly because the mind isn't a thing that has tangible properties that can be digitized or moved. Thoughts, feelings, desires, ideas, emotions, actions, are all end results of brain activity. There is nothing causal in a thought or feeling or emotion (and it irks the hell out of me when people go "he makes me happy" or "she made me mad" because we don't cause these end results in one another, there's no mechanism in a feeling or thought or desire to manipulate the recipient or perceiver). It begins and ends with the brain. Anything we feel, think, say or do is a direct end result of our brain and how we interpret what we've perceived, and the reaction/response is rooted in our own paradigm - our collection of perceptions and understanding of our environments and our places in it. Our own brains "make" us mad or happy, but we blame it on other people. If it was possible for us to cause states in others, the world would be markedly different than this one. We wouldn't need self help stuff and there wouldn't be a seduction market because we could just 'make' someone dig us and 'make' someone hate someone else.

I like to look at the paradigm as the equivalent of our own customized user's manual. Anything we perceive that's compatible with what's been established and accepted by us as true will be accepted. Anything that's incompatible will result in an endless debate that goes nowhere. It's why people at odds can't ever find common ground.

Anyway, since it's all end result and intangible, there's no possible way to move or upload a 'mind'...mind is the end result of brain behavior/functioning so unless it's just an inaccurate way of talking about it and they're doing something else, mind uploading isn't going to happen because it can't happen.

My understanding of what they're looking to do, with regard for AI and digitizing "mind" is actually that in learning the brain behavior/functioning and modifying it to a digital format which is then a mirror copy of our brain's activity that cause these end results we can find a better substrate to hold it, move it, download it into some other form - all that is largely doable and then gives rise to the big paranoid question of "is it us or a copy of us or something else"?

Adding to the problem in the example above using the blockchain as a memory store, what sort of interface would be required? How would it likely need to work to store it from the brain to blockchain?

It seems to me it'd be easier to figure out a way to modify our brains to work in concert with the blockchain or blockchain like in a figurative sense than literally. Or, at the very least, figure out a way to use the brain power as the processing power for AI.

Damn, I love the future. I love this topic, I love AI, bitcoin, BMI - all of it. I hope I am still around when these problems are solved and the first technologies erupt.

Oh wow...this thread just gave me major geekgasm. Love the concept of bitcoin singularity.

Surely I'm not the only transhumanist around here, huh? Anyone else?

I love the idea of the "votecoin" - but I doubt very seriously any world government will ever adopt it because it will thwart them in their habitual corrupt election rigging. If it's proposed in the most reasonable manner and the government rejects it, it's absolutely a confirmation they do't want the oversight and want to keep rigging elections and faking votes.

That said, if someone with the ability could set it up independently, even as your illustration so people could "vote with their wallets" (see what I did there!) it could be used, at the absolute least, as an "un-corruptable" mirror election to contrast whatever usual one is taking place. If Candidate A wins on the blockchain but candidate B wins real time, it'll go a long way in exposing election fraud. Or at least point a spotlight at it for further investigation.

The problem would be getting the masses to do it...after getting them to understand it to begin with. 

This here is the sort of drama and nonsense encountered in SL...but people who had much more to offer left SL for OpenSim and the griefers basically faded into oblivion because they were the no life having losers with no real creativity to speak of just causing drama. Real content creators saw the point of the entire platform, dug out a niche, and went on their ways to earning thousands of dollars a month from content sales.

So the losers without a life are the trolls and griefers...not the ones with the financial capacity to spend 1600 bucks on a glorified chat room.

FTFY...

I have to chime in on this one and hopefully offer a bit of clarification to the misconceptions.

Philip Rosedale's HiFi project is positioned to be far more awesome than Second Life ever was. As of now, because they're still on a beta level, and even though I've followed the progress since I heard about it, even I am not entirely sure what they're doing beyond developing a true multiverse platform. Philip Rosedale is a big proponent and supporter of bitcoin, he's as much an eager transhumanist as I am, and if you follow him and his ventures then you'd understand better what the point of Second Life ever was.

Firstly, it's not and never was a game. It's a platform for building in 3D, and while the viewer is still limited by the technology's current stage in the overall evolution of technology, it is a superbly easy (however basic) method of creating 3D virtual reality. But unlike the more graphically appealing 3d content used in video games that are static and preprogrammed, what makes SL phenomenal is the fact the technology renders the environment 100% live. You literally watch the world or environment being created before your eyes via the viewer you use. Nearly a decade ago the viewers were coded to render 3d mesh and in fact, all of the components are low poly mesh anyway and that changed things tremendously as 3d modeling is a huge money making industry now. If you've ever wanted to jump into 3d, there's a totally free way to do so and learn the ropes (small learning curve) that's much more appealing than the learning curve for learning Blender or Maya or the high end, expensive 3d modeling platforms.

The other phenomenal thing about the platform running SL is the built in social network option that allows you and others to enter the same environment real time, build or play or whatever you're into, and not even Unity or Unreal can pull that off effectively without enormous costs.

Add to the above the built in economy - Linden Lab already incorporated micro payments and digital currency, and was a pioneer in the whole thing so millions of people are now well primed to embrace things like bitcoin and Square Cash and micro payments. This is a good thing. I don't know today what the exchange rates are in SL but about a decade ago about 250 Lindens was the equivalent of a dollar.

A simulated plot of land was being sold - and still is, apparently - through Linden Lab for a whopping $1600 set up fee and another 295 bucks a month...and you might think people who paid that had no first lives but you'd be oh so wrong. There were millions of people across the world who had several sims - meaning they forked over 1600 bucks per set up and were paying nearly 300 a month for each one...so losers with poor first lives they were not...they had a shit ton of money to even be able to afford one region, let alone dozens. Losers with no lives don't have the ability to fork over nearly 10 grand a month on a glorified chat room just so they can pretend to be a furry.

There's a bit more going on here than the superficial accusations leveled seem to bear out.

Oh, and bitcoin's already been traded in SL and has been for a few years already. Dollars exchanged for Lindens that are then exchanged to bitcoin. The problem is with Linden Lab's current CEO - they want to be a virtual world facebook, they are a closed system and started locking down on third party systems so they can be proprietary. They are losing their asses these days because of it.

Second Life also provided content creators the option to make money and keep their money, so these 'no life having losers' were more along the lines of clever entrepreneurs, creating remarkable textures, builds, clothing, skin/shape, hair and accessories for decorating the avatars, scripting and all sorts of components to make the environment more immersive than a glorified chat room.

In a decade, though it's all still "cartoon like" (not SL's fault, it's current technology's fault), the graphics capabilities have gone from this:



to this:



and there's been an amazing upgrade in the physics engines so that warfare, combat, transportation/movement, and other effects become seamless and realistic.

But it's still not a game. You can create games to play in the environments but the platform isn't a game. It's a 3d environment builder.


Now...the point of it was inspired by the book Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) and you can find details on all that in various videos from/of Philip Rosedale but the bottom line was 3D Internet itself. The "multiverse" in 3D...websites in 3D...the world wide web in 3D but each hosted independently and peer to peer instead of a central location allowing or disallowing access to the interwebs.

With 3D tech exploding and evolving, getting into 3D world building is a lucrative business to venture into. There is at least one viewer that has been developed to work with Oculus Rift when it's officially released to the consumer so these very virtual worlds can be accessed as an experience. With the evolution of WebGL and HTML5, and the modification of this very platform (and the intro of new tech), the day is coming soon where instead of static, flat, one dimensional web pages, your online experience will be an offline experience, porting into whole environments, grids of worlds in the metaverse, but with the ability to interact and engage with others also there at the same time, to trade information, currency, goods and services, do business, learn, and even create things that can be ported directly to your 3D printer that you'll inevitably end up getting.

Decentralization at its finest.

Granted HiFi domains are a little non intuitive and the avatars look like Saturday morning toons had sex with the homunuculus but they're just getting started. Philip Rosedale handed Linden Lab off after making a gazillion dollars and what he's working on now is an evolution of what he'd wanted SL to be...but SL ended up being a commercialized chat room with enormous drama from crackpots.

Don't underestimate it though...there is some serious creativity happening and a shit ton of money being made and traded in SL even now.


I got my feet wet in SL, I spent thousands of dollars myself but ended up leaving because of the reality that anything I created became sole property of Linden Lab and I couldn't take it with me or take ownership of it.

I moved to OpenSim - exactly the same platform *base* used for Second Life, but modified and evolved and 100% free. It's "hypergrid enabled" meaning I can run the server on my machine and others can "visit" the environments created...and this is the current foundation for independently owned and operated metaverse 3d web...bitcoin is just now being incorporated in creative ways by a number of people running OpenSim grids and within a couple more years when the VR headsets and tools have hit the market and people are developing their own world domains that are replacing web sites and static profiles, we'll all be doing things far differently than we're doing today, and with much more real privacy.


What sold me on Second Life back in 2006 was the rendering of these worlds before my eyes. I was hooked, and forking over hundreds of dollars my first month because I saw the potential, where this was going. It was like walking around in other peoples' dreams...and when you approach the platform that way, the world expands and you see all sorts of delicious opportunities for this technology.

OpenSim, the devs behind it, Rosedale and HiFi are all compatible with the entire foundation of the blockchain and bitcoin - peer to peer web experience, real time virtual and augmented reality that's under individual control, not a centralized agency.

Now...look at the potential applications from a fresh, better informed perspective

Thanks for sharing. I watched it too and it was really well done. Subscribed to the channel.

Is there a place that can give more info on tor and the safest way of using it, and is there anything like a personal net modem o wifi/mifi set up that doesn't require a connection to one of the carriers that you're depending on? No contracts, no being at the mercy of verizon or sprint, etc...but a free or affordable option for net access wherever you are?

I disagree this is a negative. It's pretty positive - it shows even the Feds see the value of bitcoin enough to steal them. It also illuminates the degree of corruption involved in going after Ross.

Nobody is oblivious to government and law enforcement corruption. But to see them stealing bitcoin is, unto itself, a positive for the true value of bitcoin. I would've thought it'd jump up a few points on this news 

You may be right. I'm disappointed in the forum seeing zero actual suggestions to help solve the problems with bitcoin. It is speculation at its core because of the counter points to any given suggestion.

Shame the forum community has nothing of value to offer. 

Hello again!

I swear I adore this forum, hard to stay away. But I see countless threads full of complaints about everything that's wrong with bitcoin - as a currency, as a concept, as everything under the sun. I'm not including the obvious trolls who knock it without cause though some troll arguments are still valid at the base.

How about an official Solutions thread on itemizing the actual problems with bitcoin with a community "think tank" kind of thing to share or develop ideas for ways to solve these problems.

When I hear all the doom and gloomers shouting RIP because it's not the world's mainstream currency "therefore failure" I think those people are nuts. I see the long term potential and recognize bitcoin's still a baby and there are problems now but I trust that there are enough clever sorts interested in it that solutions will inevitably come.

If you agree, suggest some solutions here. Maybe it'll inspire that one person out there to make things happen.





Or not. Just a thought!

I was checking out some videos about bitcoin being adopted on the local front and just wondered if there's a current, accurate list of US states that are pro bitcoin, where local merchants are set up and do transactions, pay wages, etc.

I'm moving to Maine soon but also heard New Hampshire is pro bitcoin. Any New Englanders up there able to give some helpful feedback on the bitcoin climate between both states?

Thanks for any who reply.

I thought the purpose of the forum is to discuss Bitcoin and all things related? Seems to me a ticker would be quite useful so we could keep up with it while on the forum instead of multi tabs.

I'm very surprised, come to think of it, that Bitcoin Forum doesn't have a ticker at the top of the header...I mean really!

2 - 8 times a day - time involved with bitcoin 11 months

I'd imagine there's a correlation between the checking and time involved, in case you want to do a sub poll

I think if you're at all capable of grasping bitcoin, the whole concept, in the first place, there's little damn chance you're at risk of being mentally ill. The required level of intelligence to understand bitcoin, the foundation of bitcoin, the blockchain, the point, the nuances of economics, and the dynamics of bitcoin is not a sign of a weak mind susceptible to mental illness.

The idiots in comment sections who continually call people names, troll these and similar forums hollering bitcoin's end times and have nothing else to do but post over and over day in and day out trying to warn everyone against it, it's in its "death throws" as one put it in a comments section earlier - now those ones are soft in the head and could probably make do with a visit to a psychiatrist.  

I started a specific thread and asked this question about it dropping below 100...people keep insisting it can't get any lower and I wanted to know why can't it...what's the actual reason or reasons it can't and it appears there's not one other than they think "it just can't" because they say so.

I don't mind arguing or debating or speculating what bitcoin can and can't do but I'm still learning and would love it if the ones who make some definitive claim or assertion would kindly add a statement of fact or reasoning before they hit the post button.

That all being said, I find this little meme best describes bitcoin's price. Once you accept this, you can still play and ride the ride but also know when to step off and go get a corn dog for awhile and let it do what it's going to do without anxiety or "oh shiiiiiiittttt!!"




My buying strategy is that there's a certain amount of money I tend to spend on frivolous bs, entertainment or whatever each month. I forego all that and use it to buy bitcoin. It's not a sentiment that I can afford to lose it or not, it's more a sentiment I'd blow this on crap anyway, usually one time shot things out of sheer boredom so instead I'll spend it on buying bitcoin at an intriguing price. If it drops to 0, it would've been gone anyway. It if shoots up, depending on range, I'll spend some and hold onto the rest. Even dropping to 190 range recently didn't freak me out. I hoped it'd go lower so I could buy more for less.

Thanks to you guys for the USAA info.

For you guys who aren't pro coinbase do you think you'll be using Gemini when it launches? I mentioned elsewhere but will here, I'm not a trader and don't really understand all these charts or what the traders do to the value or price if anything but I have a question about the exchanges if anyone can answer. Is there a minimum amount to use to trade or a high amount, or can you trade with 1 or 2 bitcoins? Thanks.

Oh good, thank you. I was hoping that was the case but since it's digital (aka "magic internet money!") I wasn't 100% positive it wouldn't just evaporate back into a concept if the value/price dropped to 0. Again, I wasn't really asking whether it would drop to 0 but needed the scenario to frame the question that if it dropped to 0 and could go right back up shortly after, if I'd have to start over from "nothing" or I'd still have my bitcoins.

Now I feel much more comfortable that the prices can fall and it's not that huge of a deal because it'll go back up eventually.

Oh that does raise this question.....what would the price/value range be before the community/bitcoin users collective would call bitcoin over with and it isn't likely to go back up...need a red flag number to keep in mind if there is one.

Thanks!

Q1 - so have we found the bottom yet or is that still up in the air?

Q2 - might be a dumb question but please keep in mind I'm not a trader* so I don't quite understand most of this, but is there anything bitcoin users or "the community" per se can do to prevent or insulate the market from "pump and dumps"? It makes me think the market will always be at the mercy of traders so this can go on indefinitely keeping things volatile.

Q3 - is there somewhere I can go to learn how to understand all these charts like at bitcointicker.co/bitcoin tracker? I have this one bookmarked and check it daily just to see what the price is but the chart itself I have no clue.

Thanks!

Re the list of states, what if anything does it say for those of us banking with branchless entities like USAA?