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I’m an independent IT consultant and entrepreneur in the Internet and software business. I’m interested in design, enterprise applications, web apps and SaaS products. I design and develop business solutions and applications. I help companies in terms of software quality and knowledge transfer, e.g. with Angular and Spring Boot.

William Hertling on AI Risks

William Hertling, author of the Singularity Series books and the recent techno-crime thriller Kill Process earlier this year shared a few of his thoughts regarding artificial (general) intelligence (AI / AGI) and the hazards as well as ethical ramifications and quandaries that the emergence of AI / AGI might give rise to. In Ten Musings on AI Risks William broaches both pragmatic subjects such as risk mitigation and deeper moral questions. In his (and my ...) opinion rather than artificially slowing down ... Read more

Neil Harbisson: I listen to color And The Renaissance of our Species

Earlier this month I attended Reasons to: in Brighton. It's been a fantastic 3 days full of information, insights and inspiration, in addition to getting to know a lot of nice and interesting people. The talk that stood it in particular was Neil Harbisson's The Renaissance of our Species. Right after that talk I tweeted: Mind blown. By designing new senses cyborg Neil Harbisson is pushing the envelope of pushing the envelope Neil was born with achromatopsia or total colour blindness. In 2003 he ... Read more

Possible Brexit Fallout: Decentralization

While some things are still certain after the Brexit vote in June, most aren't. Though the argument that won the day was all about "taking back control" of the country, at least short term a quite likely result might be that nothing much will change in terms of control and the people will have merely exchanged one aloof, self-serving elite for another. I still think that Brexit is a royally stupid idea but in the end only time will tell. A crisis is ... Read more

William Hertling – Kill Process

I've recently finished listening to the audio version of William Hertling's latest novel "Kill Process" I think it's fair to say that I'm quite a fan of his novels and his writing. Kill Process is a bit of a departure from Hertling's Singularity series in that it doesn't deal with future events and science fiction technology but mostly takes place in the present day with a few exceptions for flashbacks to previous events in the protagonist's life. The novel has been described as ... Read more

Tiny but valuable life hack: Drastically increase the lifespan of disposable razor blades

Disposable razor blades are expensive and they usually need to be replaced after 4-5 shaves. Now, in the olden days men used special leather strips to sharpen those old-fashioned straight razors nowadays only barbers still seem to be using. These maintenance skills seem to have been lost over time leading to the current business model that's quite similar to the one for inkjet printers: The actual product is sold at a bargain price, sometimes even at a loss, while the consumables ... Read more

Expanding Human Sensory Perception

In this mind-blowing TED talk neuroscientist David Eagleman talks about his exciting work to extend and substitute human senses and even add completely new channels to the gamut of human sensory perception that will allow us to make more sense of an increasingly complex world more quickly and more readily: Can we create new senses for humans? Read more

Supporting the Idea of an Unconditional Basic Income

About a year ago Scott Santens - self-declared writer and advocate of basic income for all - wrote a highly recommendable piece on why should support the idea of an unconditional basic income. In this article he debunks common myths about less desirable repercussions a basic income might have (such as suddenly nobody wanting to do any work anymore ...). He makes a few salient points as to why a basic income is the right thing to implement both from a capitalist's ... Read more

Money is not a scorecard

Two weeks ago I came across an interesting article on the Mr. Money Mustache blog: "What I’m Teaching my Son about Money" As is usual for Mr. Money Mustache it's a very insightful post about money, financial independence, how to achieve it and what to do with it. I love his blog because he not just tries to educate people about personal finance or money as an end to itself but about money with a purpose. The single most important lesson that can ... Read more

The Turing Exception by William Hertling

About a year ago I wrote about the "Avogadro Corp" by William Hertling, the first book of his Singularity Series. A week ago I finished reading "The Turing Exception", the fourth and final instalment and a worthy close to the series. The Turing Exception follows common patterns of the series. Avogadro Corp was set in 2015 with its sequels taking place 10 years later each. With The Turing Exception we've now arrived at around 2045 and in a world that in some ... Read more

Email as a Personal API

Some time ago I came across a concept by Marc Bevand advocating email as a Decentralized API to Personal Information. In this post he outlines the idea that - email being such a pervasive tool to the extent that nearly everyone uses it - a personal, distributed and decentralized API layer could be built on top of it. The basic idea is this: Email could be used as a protocol for transactions and automatically exchanging information. Take these use cases for example: Automatically ... Read more
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