There are now 25% tariffs on everything made in Canada and Mexico and this could increase to 50%. Trump promised to double the tariffs if Canada and Mexico retaliated and they did. There was a 2018 study of proposed tariffs in the 10-25% range. However, cars are now 34% more expensive than in 2018. The …
Elon Musk and Tesla spell long term goals in the Tesla’s proxy statement. These goals need to be completed by Aug. 18, 2022, in order for Musk to receive various option grant. The company goals set around Musk’s compensation package are: * Successful completion of the Model X Engineering Prototype * Successful completion of the …
A reader took offense with coverage of negative spin on the Microsoft Surface and Microsoft tablets. Seeking Alpha has an article with a positive view of the potential for the Microsoft Surface and Microsoft tablets in general. The positive spin is that these will be highly successful and double Microsoft tablet market share in 2013 …
Ben Goertzel has finished writing the last chapter of his co-authored two-volume book on how to create beneficial human-level AGI, Building Better Minds (expected 2011 publish date) This site had an interview by Sander Olson of Ben Goertzel last year The last chapter describes, in moderate detail, how the CogPrime cognitive architecture (implemented in the …
Robin Hanson forecasting the next mode of growth. Mode Doubling Date Began Doubles Doubles Grows Time (DT) To Dominate of DT of WP ———- ——— ———– —— ——- Brain size 34M yrs 550M B.C. ? “~16” Hunters 230K yrs 2000K B.C. 7.2 8.7 Farmers 860 yrs 4700 B.C. 8.1 7.5 ?? 58 yrs 1730 3.9 …
Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP) a small research and development company part way through a two-year-long experimental project to test the scientific feasibility of Focus Fusion, controlled nuclear fusion using the dense plasma focus (DPF) device and hydrogen-boron fuel. Hydrogen-boron fuel produces almost no neutrons and allows the direct conversion of energy into electricity. Success would …
Talk Polywell and IECFusiontech have uncovered details of the WB-8 contract [pdf]. Those details can give us some insight into how WB-7 has gone. The WB8 design shall use circular coils around each main face cusp axis. The device shall use emitter electron gun arrays and an ion beam drive. The machine will be operated …
IEEE article has another article where they pick some of technology’s winners and losers. I have left comments on some of their other articles asking them to more clearly define what a win for a winner would look like and what a loss for loser would look like. Also, there picks this year basically break …
Previously this site had speculated on using current and in development technology to create a Bolo supertank from science fiction. From Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends : Caterpillar engineers and computer scientists from Carnegie Mellon University have teamed up to develop an autonomous 700 ton mining truck. The super-large mining truck was a baseline from which …