Search Engines are Better Than Hogwarts
We live better lives today than the aristocracy and the richest of our forefathers did in the past. But in some ways, we also live better lives than the wizards and witches of J. K. Rowlings’ wonderful world.
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It’s Legal for Politicians To Text You Spam
Here’s the great irony: the law purporting to ban spam texts actually ends up permissioning the political class to break the terms of the law for themselves. Otherwise, technological innovation alone would likely have fixed this problem already.
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Venmo, The Public Version
As Vice reports, New York lawmakers want to create a “public Venmo.” Venmo, which is owned by PayPal, allows users to make person-to-person payments. Under the proposal, New York State would build and operate its own Venmo-like payments platform. …
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Alternative Non-State Forms of Governance
For many problems, though, non-profits have trumped governments and for-profits, including mutuals. People need to remember the non-profit option before turning to governments or for-profits for aid.
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Where are the Flying Cars?
We have good planes, good helicopters, good drones, and good cars. In the end, maybe they just need to be different things, for a while longer.
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Financial Services and Hate Speech
The battle over financial deplatforming isn’t going to go away. Before we act, let’s be sure we’ve thought things over.
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Manual Labor Will Be Revived
In fact, one outcome of AI and automation may well be a revival of manual labor and of the traditional working class — maybe becoming more like an artisan class again.
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Why Passenger Railways are Terrible and Freight Railways are Amazing
American railways are the envy of the world. Many might shake a collective head at that statement. In the case of passenger rail that is an appropriate reaction. Since it was pieced together – a government-constructed Franken-rail system built of …
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What’s Good and Bad about Automation
What automation of any kind does is to make work more productive and hence to free up time and resources by increasing the intensity of the use of resources.
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Hiding Likes Can Make Instagram Better Than Ever
Is the “popularity” contest that has become vanity platforms like Instagram contributing to the content experience? Or is it just introducing social pathologies?
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Don’t Hand Over Your Money to Uncompetitive Banks
Having lived abroad for most of the last seven years, I am painfully aware of the challenges that emerge from having incomes, assets, and costs in different currencies. Sometimes that yields you unexpected windfalls, like when the British pound (GBP) b …
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The Great Lesson of Vision Fund
A central plan is not a business plan. Even a private sector central plan is doomed to fail.
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