Ep

Is there a role for entrepreneurs in wars and situations of global unrest?

Recorded 16 April 2017.

Today’s topic is the role entrepreneurs and technology can play in wars and situations of global unrest.

The Syrian civil war is the deadliest conflict the 21st century has witnessed thus far. To quote Al Jazeera:

As the Syrian conflict enters its seventh year, more than 465,000 Syrians have been killed in the fighting, more than a million injured and over 12 million Syrians – half the country’s prewar population – have been displaced from their homes.

As conflicts like the Syrian one rage, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have tended to focus on solving problems closer to home.

While the world’s best minds are busy building apps for sharing pictures of food and cats, the world’s most pressing issues seem not to draw much attention from innovators.

Here are some of the Y combinator finalist ideas:

• 3D game authoring tool
• Keurig for Smoothies
• Office-management commerce platform
• Voice analytics for sales calls
• Automated Genetic Counselling

What moral obligation do the world’s innovators have to help the most vulnerable? And what opportunities for making the world a better place might exist if we expand our perspective to include the people of Syria and other conflict zones?

Episode Machine Transcript (unedited and uncorrected)

Yes.

We have all that sure it’s not scripted OK I just hope you can take it all.

Back down to let me make the future and I discussed it with python that’s taken out of weeks and then negation for human society we are talking to you from all over the word why don’t you guys even but that’s not bias that I’m Michael Carey independent software developer entrepreneur from Canada currently living in Thailand I’m Daniel violence with a mathematician and social impact computers Yes currently base of Munich Germany and Karen and I entered her America’s interest in that decentralized organization and going it Global Brain frankly I’m leaving.

And I’m from there and I’m just at. TIME BECAUSE I’M baseball fan and I’m interested in a model for a new board and specifically materials that can convert heat.

I’m Hosain to honey take no pain or walking on by medical devices and side work take knowledge of I’m from Iran and current debate in Michigan so here’s the format of our show first talk about the latest future related to use then we’ll discuss a particular future in topic for about thirty minutes the final ten minutes cruiser for an elevator pitch battle let’s get started early hostie want to give you news item considering refugee camps and how technology can help there’s new company a new platform that started in just last year settle in settling is a platform that helps refugees to get connected and marriage through to society and getting information from anything they need from shelter from food from education and skills that they can get internships that they can find and anything about health care medication settling started in September two thousand and sixteen day launched their website and see what a website you can connect through so many different organizations. And groups they help and give services for Refugees settling is a landmark for how technology. Social media can transform the lives of a few G.’s and new countries so he didn’t know right now a pioneer in this field and they’re working to how to take knowledge he is helping out refugees and their impacted by the war zone that’s really cool I’m surprised there aren’t more we’re going isolationists doing this I mean I’m sure there are but this one is special because it’s based on it’s like a start up so it has a mobile app or something yeah they started like a website it’s a platform and it connects it well lot of different services and organizations they have their own each have their own applications so for example you go through the health care part and it connects to the organization called doctors of the wall and this is an app called clinic finder the Quink fighter is a more well Web is provided by doctors of the ward U.K. designed to provide simple and clear information about free primary health care and medical surfaces for if you choose a migrants across Europe so use your phone’s G.P.S. location to show on map the nearest free health clinics and what services can be accessed it also allows you to search by location and by a specific service required by language options Kerns Inc We’re English and have big Farsi and French you know the language thing I think would be huge because from what I’ve read that’s kind of obvious that’s one of the biggest barriers to integrating when you’re in country B. Canada for example there are lots of Syrian refugees and many of them of course don’t speak English and so they need sponsors who are comedians to help them help guide them through society and you know getting very basic things out of the Canadian government and finding schools for their kids and imagine how great it would be if they had an app like this one I guess that could point them to all these things in their native language so it wasn’t quite so intimidating basically. I want so I think what’s called these a bot or something like a chess board for for that reason related and related issues point us might have or like record this might have to enter the USA for both for the Miami My only concern about how they’re going to go bother to connect to these up for example if not to service providers look and provide the same service to different features how they compete with each other or the get bored at the same time and so I just want to make a point here that I’m not I don’t want to be here and I think. We all need to use them very important that you don’t.

Really. Want.

The best system and services can be used instead of having a service that just who are the more money into the OP in order to have higher visibility so I’m just trying to. Get a perspective of what happens from the other side what a fair idea I have like if the can be all the graphs that recognized for example oh sorry and refugees and I may select connect any single things that is related to that based on your location and then if you see similar people all then you can figure out like what types in front and they have.

To get at the connection sorry Pani your point sounds great but we just get it keeps coming out track so I’m not sure how long are you going to be OK She’s next.

Me and my D.S. and some thoughts about the app the hospital the refugees have some cell phones I think they do right that’s one of the basic things that everybody seems to have these days no matter how you know that sadly enough you are that’s also something people are driven to like it was so weird when some of the lot. Refugees came here everybody was criticizing Oh Oh there have smartphones that can’t be you know in such a bad position which is completely unrelated to the situation they’re having until I open so most of them actually have smartphones because they also want to being called that same contact with really so it’s a very important item for them but do you have a good infrastructure in the home country I’m just one of these well I guess the purpose of this app is to help people who have immigrated to different countries where presumably the infrastructure is better otherwise they wouldn’t have gone there so.

Because it’s orienting refugees to you their new country yes so what I was about I was actually supporting refugee camps to equip them with white five because Germany’s one of the worst countries in terms of why five or Internet providers in general but yeah it’s I think it’s one of the most important things which people actually don’t see as a right for them to or don’t want to like primarily or usually don’t want to invest in Internet provision for them that’s a really good point it does seem like he’s days having a cell phone is is sort of something that needs to be considered not a right but a very basic good day is needed for almost anything if you need to have access to like the banking system or to get a job that you absolutely need a cell phone to be able to connect to people so yeah I mean if you don’t have a cell phone you can’t participate in the modern economy the way that you would need to to become a success to successfully integrate into a new society you know let’s say for example like you’re there and you still like your papers and your shelter and food but the next thing you want to find a job so how do you do that you want to use Linked In right so how can you use Linked In You need a cell phone and then on an idea side of it once you’re at I think like there are a lot of basic infrastructure that already are there to address similar inquiries. Similar needs for the citizens but the only thing they need is to specialize and have initiations specialize for refugees for example linking. The initiative which aims to create a platform where new here I refuse is located in Sweden as part of the settling project and they can meet employers and have Ferrers and that they can specialize their specialize for the people for the refuges So I guess this kind of add just meant to the already existing infrastructure is something which is pretty much working I think one other problem is accommodation and I heard that the that had been some initiative from popular home sharing services to provide a conditional refugees and this I think should be connected to sound government other services for example I am presently feel like if you are from a government we can get we can demand to put the Haast in order to accommodate it if and I think this could be a game changing and I think any I thought about that already but without government incentives so about I see a point so when something that is there and sobbed and has to be within an extension to happen if that is the real tragedy here is that we’re coming up with all kinds of great ideas Air B.N. B. for Refugees sounds fantastic the business that hospice introducing also sounds great but these are all predicated on the idea of refugees coming over to the ballot countries that are not conflict torn and most of the time the issue is there even getting to that point they’re blocked by the physical danger of getting over there making the trip there also blocked by laws that say that you’re not allowed to come to our country F.. You’re a refugee and so it seems like we’re fighting to help these people where we’re trying to help refugees but we’re being blocked by laws and rules that really keep us from helping the people that are most in need now the question of whether or not it’s good to bring refugees into a country I think is way beyond the scope of this conversation but I think it’s worth pointing out that we’re sort of cleaning up and helping at the margins whereas the main story I think still seems to be in the original country where these conflicts are taking place and so I wonder if we’re sort of again taking the easy cases here by focusing on how to help the refugees that have arrived in safe countries what about the people that are left in these conflict zones wherever it is in the world and so I wonder if we could move the conversation to talk about that.

Today’s topic is the role entrepreneurs and technology can play in wars and situations of global unrest the Syrian civil war is the deadliest conflict the twenty first century has witnessed far to quote at length Al-Jazeera as the Syrian conflict enters its seventh year more than four hundred sixty five thousand Syrians have been killed in the fighting more than a million injured and over twelve million Syrians half the country’s pre-war population have been displaced from their homes initially lack of freedoms and economic woes fueled resentment of the Syrian government and public anger was inflamed by the harsh crackdown on protestors successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt energized and gave hope to Syrian pro-democracy activists many Islamist movements were also strongly opposed to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s rule although the initial protests in two thousand and eleven were mostly nonsectarian armed conflict led to the emergence of starker sect. Hereon divisions minority religious groups tend to support the Assad government while the overwhelming majority of opposition fighters are stony Muslims most Syrians are Sunni Muslims but serious security establishment has long been dominated by members of the owl of wheats act of which Assad is a member has conflicts like the Syrian one we just described raged Silicon Valley entrepreneurs the kind that we like to talk about on this podcast have tended to focus on solving problems closer to home while the world’s best minds are busy building apps for sharing pictures of food and cats the world’s most pressing issues seem not to draw much attention from innovators and investors here are some of the Y. Combinator finalists ideas guys three D. game author into Will Carrick You know those K. caps for coffee so caring for smoothies office management commerce platform voice analytics for sales calls and automated genetic counseling what more are we gave to the woods innovators and investor have to have the most movement and what opportunities for making the world a better place might succeed if we spend our perspective including people Syrian and other conflict zones so I was thinking following up with Michael’s point I think when refugees are settled in the host country the most important thing that affects all businesses all ideas and all innovations usually is around matchmaking match making talents that people can have deals they can have trainings between their skills and they can have trainings between the values that they can offer to the host country and they can benefit from host country so when I go through all the businesses through the website settling in Sweden I see most of it is all. Interested in this concept for example there is this and other website that is linked from the settling website its organisation is called refugees Wellcome their website is refuges that welcomed you when you go through that you can see that their first main page is address in the problem of housing and on a berry open source half or. You can go and register every room of your house to host a refugee so that they can diffuse the refugees acro us the town across the city so they don’t get centralize in a refugee camp so the housing that can spread there if you use across the city so they can merge to the culture and leave with the locals so you can go register your house or you can be a client looking for a house so this is the main page of this website and they also have another part that gives directions to find employers and connect businesses and it’s interesting this is a very interesting part that when their address in who can apply here are the items first is that you have a degree in engineering science or business finance you have proficient English language skills and then the third one is you are an asylum seeker at migrations where kit which is a website official website of the government in Sweden and you’re a newcomer academic registered at our best form in Dillon which is an other website in Sweden that you go and register your name so two items out of four it actually what it’s doing great psychological impact is that it is legitimising this situation that those minority refugees are at I think it’s a really big concept to give defeating of that you are legit the state you are at we official is it and we accept it and we. We walk around in the services are targeted boredom I think it is really helpful for refugees I think those are all cool ideas and there are certainly many of them also in Germany like drop boards for refugees like also this improve integration by mixing them together with locals and the things some places already again in the safe countries so what if we could maybe learn from that and try to bring that more in or closer to the critical zones but it’s always for us you know like being here a safe place I think there’s no way we can actually imagine what it’s like there and what their real problems you know are like what actually would help them so it’s really hard to talk about it and everything would come up with might be complete bullshit in the end but if we could I don’t know like if I met some radius very closely for example refugee shelters which are boarding to the critical zones for example we could or one could ensure the safety there and also have like kind of an accelerator program there were where you came and able the refugees who are still kind of course to their home to gather their ideas to learn from them on what to do about there and let them also develop stats I think that’s a kind of good idea as I wanted to add that if you have a problem in those areas is the lack of Internet infrastructure they have to have them coordinate.

They you might have it’s it’s really crucial to get something like a level communication and just look at what is the most that is more than just and of lucidity just that so that they don’t go together so just look at up their smallest satellite phone and it is it is simply economic. When you hand it to you can usually you can use it very easy because one thousand so I think that the development of that that I made the country can really have the innovation at least relief that those who need so much then. Unfortunately for example they put before the have to somehow get enough so that I system was planned by Facebook actually about Unfortunately a masked Space X. rocket went on fire as you remember a few months ago and I had hoped that initiatives like those would be even more would be for if would be even more frequent in the near future so once we have an interface infrastructure about the Internet once we have the Internet and we can reconnect to those people we can really be nation because then our most innovation East but no to the Internet that that kind has to be fixed first but just isn’t that again in that Silicon Valley mindset where we’re thinking in this box that all innovation takes place on the Internet that we’re going to improve these refugees or these people in conflict zones their ability to submit pictures of their cats online or something like Sorry I don’t mean that to trivialize your point of course the internet gives people access to a lot more than just pictures of cats but they’re farther down the hierarchy of needs than just the needing to connect to the Internet I mean it seems to me like water power food security these very very basic things seem like things that people in in the worst parts of the world need this is kind of the point I think is art entrepreneurs letting these people down like these are the best minds in the world and work everyone’s minds are focused on the internet everyone’s minds are focused on these like abstract ideas but they’re forgetting that not everyone on the planet has reached the point where we can use the Internet to make our lives better of these people are in their hearts worried that that gang over there is going to come in and rape their women like they’re worried that they don’t have enough food to eat the next day like the internet’s not going to help them for the stuff. Or maybe I’m missing something you’re right is not what I think you meant that they should.

Work in China for example let’s say a new food center is in that time in that place Harlem and not they can just pull up their map and they can go to those one site food dispenser right instead of choosing a random act and then maybe you know what happens to their from yesterday advent of the track that was supposed to bring forward just a coming. Into it kind of help can not only have to connect qualify for dispense it to those people and this is one example for example you had a right we need to do it and different levels and it’s maybe just fix one of the problems of half of it you always have to think you can just approach this with an Utopian view of the Internet I agree there with Michael you always seem to think what will they do with it and how might it be abused because very often actually it will be abused instead of used for a good thing and that Internet particularly social networks just due to an efficient information transfers can be very very valuable outside trying to communicate among yourselves so you think it will be a good idea to have internet there but you need to ensure that it’s going to be used for the right thing when you think about the idea you said earlier about implementing kind of accelerator programs close to the war zone like maybe first or second refugee camp do you think this might be something which might be interesting I think in terms of the people who are there and what they know it will be probably much more useful the the ideas which about there but in terms of shark maybe you keep our Citroen the ties do you think there will care for this because it will still be something which will help their whole country and help them to go back potentially but I don’t know what do you think that’s an intriguing idea I certainly agree that asking people that are close to the situation the actual people that would be consumers of the technology would make the innovations more likely to be correct this is the lesson. That I have to keep learning myself and this is what I keep reading is the most important thing is to get out there and test with real users and so having an accelerator close to a conflict zone would certainly come up with much better ideas than Unfortunately the five of us in our relatively comfortable surroundings so i can happen is that it can be softest.

There touch after that for kind of an effect sample itself and text.

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Terrible Could you try to maybe I don’t know any better I know it in your microphone or something problem it does seem like decentralized technologies help to dilute the power of the state and they also help people who are in vulnerable situations that don’t have access to infrastructure that would normally be there in a developed country so if you have a solar panel that charges your cell phone and that cell phone is connected to satellite internet then the solar power part is decentralized and certainly that would help you to have access to information independent of any power grid or some sort of state actor needing to maintain the power infrastructure in the same way if you have a way to decide on a water or otherwise purify water if you have a way to three D. print weaponry so that you can defend yourself it seems to me like innovations along those lines are also going to help people disproportionately in conflict zones because those are the very people that are literally decentralized there is no center because the state is in a state of distress Yes I agree with your buying having a soft power device either by heat.

To have the engine dependency and the needs of these works in both those countries can depend at the review and that has been a lot of innovation on the sort of side heat her. Ever seen Mr Khan.

But I hope that the country can catch up at the end of going to heaven hungry having a cure that can harvest she sort of and they perish too but to set this event put a point and I think. We know and scientists we have a huge concern in the bombing forward that action I’d be interested in hearing from the two people in this podcast that spent time living in the Middle East is specifically with this conflict in Syria do you see is there some like specialist to it related to the religious conflict is taking place there or is there anything else that you can share from your sort of more unique perspective having lived closer closer to that area than any of us are well I think alternative sources of. Order is always a good thing I guess when I picture to people in Syria especially the new generation when I see kids that are growing are seeing nothing but I see Sarah on them so propaganda is a big thing in the those parts of the wall. There’s lack of access to a lot of information resources so that people if like one kid has a one Clance at a Disney cartoon or animation for like five minutes it’s going to have a huge influence and impact on him that he’s not going to buy wide like he’s big broader is telling him that he needs to blow himself to go to heaven or sick and he’s like he gets two minds to think that he has other options in life and there’s more to life than what he’s been told so that I’m Thanks thinking very extreme environments that are creating kind of extreme terrorists that in large population maybe they’re not more than like three thousand and the whole planet that’s like the most concern because those are the big most problematic problems like those that three thousand is enough to a bring chaos to the whole region so I feel like big protagonists in a way that we could sort of like. If you use into other people’s space of information I don’t know how really but I think that the social aspect of it how you can just get stuck in the bubble of consciousness through a very local and closed societies that’s a thing what do you think I don’t I don’t really have a big opinion on it it’s just a big wake idea in my mind I guess that speaks to how important the Internet really is for preventing conflict in the first place if that conflict is driven by ignorance whether it’s religious ignorance or misunderstandings that more education or information or communication that’s a really good point and I guess that speaks to just Seppi this point that the Internet is it’s a driver of so much in our lives these days it’s important to to think of it as a really basic need because if it’s not there then people will stay in ignorance I mean the thing about the Internet is that it makes information travelling much more efficient it’s your fastest news source if it’s about global news it’s about your friends or whatever so I think that’s basically where we are so dependent or why we are consuming it so much because it will be a process channel but the thing is the information that is transported through the Internet I mean we’re talking about good cases and that’s what’s the combat it’s very often talking about it but well people you know like about education will cure everything but also what you see is that pretty simple ISIS is recruiting so many people most of the people are actually recruited through the internet so I mean that’s also crazy I mean the question is how will you control what behavior the Internet or provision of Internet will have those countries what do you think yeah I think that it’s a risk that that up his were thinking I don’t have numbers but I think that even though a few as this terrorist group we Internet by the millions of people on that side that can show the paint loss so it’s it’s a double think you’re right and it’s not.

Good. The balance of things having to empowering those people within my have a huge effect on offensive but I think the Western world for example if we have friends from those countries and we are able to see their pain we are most likely to help them but if you don’t have friends from this country if you don’t see them if they have to even understand what’s going on right so this is also a problem that we don’t we don’t happen because we don’t see them if they have to but all the families that have to accept it’s now a new human natur and that’s why I never want to go to those days even to help because I might be trapped make games and I will never come back so a lot of hope that but we think that we can shorten the distance between them and that yeah it is worth pointing out that the secular trend over the past two hundred years or over the course of human civilization has been fewer and fewer deaths I shouldn’t say over the course of human civilization we had terrible conflicts in the twentieth century but it sort of reached a peak I would say after World War two and it’s impure a CLI we can see that it’s declined in the number of deaths as a proportion of population due to conflict have declined every year since World War two I could be slightly wrong in that statistic but basically that’s the case and I wonder if a lot of that has to do with the greater availability of information whether it’s the Internet or whether it’s television just imagine something like World War one happening today like the media goes crazy if even one or two soldiers from a developed country get killed in an operation Canada was driven to reduce its involvement in the conflict in Afghanistan because of a few dozen deaths can you imagine Australia committing its troops to the glibly campaign which in World War One killed thousands upon thousands of its soldiers in this vain attempt to capture like one mighty bank that led to Istanbul like there’s no way that would happen today right so I feel like the kinds of. Likes That could cause millions of people to die maybe those at least are in our past because of information making it impossible to do that kind of thing now a conflict still exists today in suite just need better and better communication to further that trend I given you don’t have the numbers at hand but I heard from the from the Gates Sr recently and Asian is that the statistics understand Hughes was referring to that poor.

Innes that yes the ten is going down still there is a lot of things that can be done right and yes I’m just worried about this you know the fact that in certain areas only satellite communication works that empower only rich people to communicate with each other so this is also a problem in a bit of trees but anyways it is a side point and I don’t agree with you on this I’ve heard similar stuff that are actually right now if the general well being of words of elation is no better than ever before but I wonder if how that’s to six also just include like now curable diseases or treatable disease which were not so so are you sure about the facts just regarding war I mean like you do do you think the major driver of this is really the Internet that’s my question because if yes I think it’s a pretty cool implication that will get better with more Internet yes I think that is crucial if you look at how it changed our society and is crucial because it allows us to see them and as events so just think about North Korea now if those people from of Korea know what’s going on here they are free to chill with everyone we want those people of good not go against it they will start to talk to each other right and the important Here’s another question because I also think that as a society or more in different societies that also the morals are kind of changing you know like what do you consider is good or bad or ethical and have you think Internet impacts that because I feel like that might be actually related a culture’s ethical viewpoints I think is something that really changes over time. It’s depended on.

My view because if I don’t know hundred years ago you’d have the internet maybe people would be still like oh yeah just kill them or whatever can know I think that it was the absence of video of the frontline that kept World War one going if people could see the gory footage of their sons being killed in no man’s land and just mowed down by machine guns as they try to do you know massed attacks on little hills in in rural France like there is no way the public mood would still remain on a war footing I feel like every time there’s a war even in developed countries there’s a clampdown on information because they know that if find out about that the terribleness of war there they’re not going to want to do it there’s a reason why two democracies have never gone to war and that’s because you really need to restrict information to get people to be willing to die in that way and I say this though there’s a two edged sword here because the Internet it’s true as allow people to communicate and share information in ways that have not been possible before but it’s also made it possible for the state to control people’s access to information and to ship their view of the world in unique and different ways today people thought that China could never maintain its fire wall because it would be too difficult but as it’s turned out actually they’ve been able to create this technology or to innovate and have this great Internet Wall of China that’s kept its people from having full access to information at billion people are unable to have unfettered access to information and so what worries me is which trend is going to prevail in the future will it be a greater concentration of control over information like the Chinese model where some people at the top will have ultimate control over what information people can share and disseminate or will it be. You know ultimately decentralized model where people have control and the state really doesn’t have control and it seems like it can’t really have both needs to be one or the other and I honestly don’t know which it will be and just to say one last thing about that it’s really scary to imagine technologies that will make dictators impossible to topple like Already they’re testing robots that have guns right so if you can imagine an invincible robot army you’re not invincible but if you can imagine a robot army that has guns and is loyal to Bush are Assad like there’s no way he could ever be toppled by the people because his troops are infinitely loyal to him considering about the Internet and the freedom through Internet and the control factor from the state I think the politics of it is so important for example if you have a to radical state it doesn’t matter if it’s internet if it’s newspaper there’s always going to be oppression is always going to be lack of freedom no matter if it’s internet or find the technology found a way to press people so Internet is just an outer tool it’s another tool that can be many put it or cannot so if it’s a democracy that people have more freedom of access to resources then the factor to Internet can control people it gets molests less and less probable so that law making is important how the lawmaking is taking place is through democratic processes for example in mind was a couple of years ago and I was giving more and of it to Netflix in the U.S. and a bunch of other businesses and it was rejected it was rejected and it did not decrease the freedom of Internet because of how the democracy played its game right you know so I think it’s always an ongoing struggle between power how power is shaped through time and space so I don’t think it’s an intrinsic feature of the Internet either. Can be stubborn or not to keep its freedom or not it’s up to the people of how they perceive the war how are beliefs are shaped and how much they think they need freedom to have and how much they think they need not to have just a quick look at it from a professional here I was talking last week to somebody doing a Ph D. in law theory and she’s actually trying to figure out what changes do we need to consider in making the laws for bringing politics to the internet’s official politics and government to be Internet and she was saying that basically it all states the same thing so kind of like agrees with what you’re saying so basically everything she’s just like doing all the old stuff again the rush really argument to from the from the ground principles the same principles everything basically states the save it just gets more efficient so maybe just to a pair of two or three will be it’s obvious what do you think will be the future or will there be wars and I don’t know fifty or one hundred years and I think they will look like well in a way it’s surprising that there is war today given that we can now destroy the entire planet and turn the crust of the earth into hot magma and yet for fifty years people have still been prosecuting wars just ones using conventional weapons so it seems like technology has made war impossible for certain countries but for others it doesn’t seem to have made that much difference and that worries me it makes me think that unless countries become sufficiently developed they may continue to have the same sorts of conflicts that they’ve had over the last fifty years like I’m thinking about Africa especially but even in the Middle East as well hi guys can you hear me you sound fantastic Oh what a great so yes I have couple of thoughts I was unable to say any after I quit just listen to one of them in this context and yes the reason we have Internet is banging the idea and sharing information to get buttoned the problem makes sense right now that that center on the its top they are not explore so they information. It is closer to us so that’s one of the issues that need to be address even with a internet because same permission flows because a lot scattered it is pretty hard to figure what types or what type of events that can affect us and we done really understand the things that they’re not close to us and then there are other thoughts I had also based on what we discussed was that lots of information that we do have there are not connected with a new U.S. channel that is officially in a regular developing countries because we do not have access to does problems that those people face we cannot really understand those problems can’t understand the evidence of those problems and then one of the things I was thinking about it was how we can connect news channel to their first have it can connect people in emerging market to get or are there from places that they have they face here it’s similar issues and that how we can have a news channels on top of that that they can recognize the evidence that happening in other countries and emotion market then they can broadcast owes me to the Brotherhood or to the people are able to solve those problems I have the road map for an attitude and kind of explain it later. In terms of Internet connectivity I guess two days many Bay that weekend resolved this issue for example by taxing mass edges like if days a greater networks that could or connect but they can also connect your problems or your issues through text messages also that would be a market share be necessarily in the format of internet but the contrasts are dose into that networks No other things I was thinking of blood it was based on the technology policy that we discussed I was. Being with one of Professor as me Insitute me is mushing Turgeon strip search Institute and one of the concern he had at that especially with that. AI then he gave go to certain AI and for example he set a goal is to maximize for example paperclip right and if the goal is maximize Kapor cliff then there is at infinity maximizing pepper crush and they don’t know what types of resources or what will be the F.X. that would be happen being the other part of the word so one of the examples Michael wrote brother of like for example if terrorism may after example access to that the goal is to ban threat to kill those that wild would be incentivization off them and have much to resources could destroy.

Their countries discuss also about how but there are an insecure.

It’s really interested in top set up.

With the PA for but organization got to Internet a thing over when that were the Palmer many and that century Palmer disable Ostrander standing get POV or into different places or for example different Khalidi or different networks and I think that language between net number again is completely missing and have we can actually trying to create detours that the Ephesians say that language between those networks and we’d use the pub or in some sense I’m talking really abstractly I’m not too sure if neither are a few file but those are my thoughts so I pointed you when you did I didn’t hear any of that.

Just being OK cool so let’s just go to the show notes the elevator pitch.

In this it will be a pitched battle each of us will get the business idea in less than thirty seconds then we will each vote on the best idea all right let’s begin wrong Michael this weekend is the tiny New Year and many Buddhists pay twenty back to release a fish into the river or a bird into the air setting a creature free is supposed to give them good karma but I doubt such actions are more than marginally good for the environment overall app where you pay a small price and click a button to release quote unquote a virtual bird or virtual fish but the money you donate goes to a real environmental organization that works to set aside real habitat for species and that would be real karma Plus real convenience OK cool thanks for the idea wrong too Dan you know.

I have various ideas actually I want to talk today about the idea of Pani sketched earlier about efficient information coming from war zones to first world but another idea so we want to calculate distances between you and other people on Facebook and other topics distances not in terms of physical distance us but in terms of see yourself in a graph so you can always decide what information you want to consume is it information that you’ve never heard of before is it information that don’t will not agree with and this way In truth if you can have a complete you know three sixty view on what is going on around you and not of you.

OK let’s go with Round three Daniel Can I Just so how is this different from say Linked In which tells you how many degrees you are away from somebody else I think the distance should be more code in terms of you know like Facebook for example what stuff you enjoy what you’re probably coping in this and I think will be more about OK here is a topic that you have never heard of which maybe like will crush your you know like political views or something. Or here is the feat of a person that you totally disagrees with you and I thought more in that direction I totally didn’t prepare a pitch but that’s that is so creepy that is so creepy imagine if Facebook and its algorithm could predict your opinion about a given news item before you even look at it right I’m sure you can do that right now I’m sure it know has told me.

Some political item what your opinion is before you even read it fascinating I think that’s already something that actually is in the back and you know in Flint that they have you ever considered to look at your Google at profile will say something like Yeah this is Michael Hughes probably e-mail you know twenty five years old and I think Facebook knows this much better than Google ads or actually maybe I don’t know but yeah I guess so because you because of likes you actually evaluate content and instead of just searching for it but I guess both would have a lot of information and enough to say how much he would know about a certain from ational what he would think of an information you have Facebook knows all my preferences but Google knows all my dirtiest darkest secrets for the OK that’s a confession from Michael thanks for that let’s go with our three. Wants to. Have you guys here but. I think I’m highly recommend what you mean a citizen for I think is this and read Snowden’s documentary Yes I have not but OK I definitely. We should all right we should at a movie say Oh my dear but I also.

Hear one of the guys in Poland here one of two things they’ve said but I’m also those who are on person that it was actually a good American the base what she described just her Facebook character goes there.

And then they have their mission and when you are as the person and then base and category a few then they figure out exactly OK what type of mention.

They have friends that they can have your friend.

They don’t like if you have thousands of friends your only access to a few of the that there are in Europe and in your are similar to you so they connect people with similarities and not differences and I guess one of you take issue right now that legal hat because everything every networks are all the things they try people connected similar of these and that connecting with similarities the stainless many differences so they need great people big differences in them that wrecks in order to be that they’re in for and that’s a huge problem that exists in our society.

And I think that but.

The guy in politics here it was crazy like he was talking about all the information that government they got from people and all the actions item government or trust the government has.

Really recognized what society.

Thinks given the author of.

This.

What if in the war zones in order to prevent the terrorists to actively engage in violence instead of dropping bombs at them to diffuse their physical existence what if we could diffuse their minds by information for began using by dropping pop packets of cheap plastic made cell phones that they’re wrapped in small balls and then when like thousands of them are dropped they’re all with random Intrade taining small cell phones that they have it wakening information in these cheap cheaply made plastic cell forms over time changed your perspective toward the word and showing them alternatives that they could choose for their lives.

Where’s the business idea that the money comes from donations OK so it’s a nonprofit but how like what exact you know like information to get I think what has gone out what apps that how would you figure that out yeah like because at the here’s how the idea was generated right now those kind of groups they have every resource to many put information from their top parts of the hierarchy and the young people have no physical access to any source of alternative information so the only way to crack to their system to their intelligence system is to drop things and them so unfortunate right now what they want to think is drop that those communities bombs to just diffuse or physical existence so that they’re not active anymore what if we could diffuse their minds by dropping physical sources of information that have already occurred information that could be pending on a contacts that is all consulted with the locals and their counterparts selectively chosen to what to show them to those people what can trigger do emotions to ours choosing a better life choosing a better approach to life which is custom made based on each context certainly airdrop information is no it has a very long history in war the U.S. dropped millions of leaflets or released thousands of leaflets over Europe and over Japan during World War two And this was done in many conflicts before that I believe too however cell phones I think gives the two way communication and could potentially give people a better life in addition to that information that you’re talking about so way better than a leaflet and could be an interesting idea but yeah I think we’ll be more into it you ice through that because you could actually through two way communication could actually true so people could figure out what to inform you about OK but I feel like there’s a lot to discuss here about so for some help right now let’s go on from four party. OK I have to like yes one of them. I was thinking of my information so if I’m not sure about the physical the of this idea but if you have a software dad is a intelligence offer tell people what type off resource. They can use in order to protect themselves and be all tools to protect themselves.

Give order to people aquatic of tools they can beyond give order to people like what type of research they can use to better use the protection for Demps offs it’s kind of like instead of banking technology someone bringing technology to dam but they actually build a saw for it give order to people in able to build something for themselves this kind of the centralized solution structure their idea I have it’s based on my car idea which was about accelerator clueless to.

Safety get the top problems and then be exposed to top programs to say technology providers that are relevant so they can use kind of the networks to understand those type problems and connections between them so you can provide other solutions for them leveraging to actually.

So I mean generally there is no best although we will of course choose what would or which one do you want to put pressure on OK Usually we call with the wrong five and think you are really not among us anymore so true right did you.

OK Honey can you give us a five word some or any idea number one in the intelligence mind as tools and resources to have protect ourselves.

What type of technology can be based on our research.

Generally chemically ever app you can come after any and. Things but I do it and you do it yourself McGyver McGyver helper like when it can happen to be any things you want any technology you’re on to protect yourself so they figure out that you just have to make your problems and then Doris Jones Day tell you all the nice forces that you require to use air on you and people identified those people if they can protect yourself and for example if you need. Care to be on the has exactly if you need to make use of other brother about ever they tell you exactly what kind of gift is a superintendent might tell you exactly what to do to protect yourself you do make me realise how human survival is very much an information problem at at root isn’t it because you know almost any situation if you have access to it like in a messy end source of information and knows exactly what to do and prosper so really all these material questions are subsidiary to the basic need for information about us to the south in the nice OK let’s quickly sum up the different I.D.’s first was Michael with the app to release virtual birds in order to donate seconds was dead you know with leveraging degrees of separation of political opinions third was hoss with air dropping cheap cellphones into war zones so selectively informed and third was partly using too little Ok so let’s vote for the winner now that think there’s so many good ideas to vote about the most perfect with which to choose OK The first thing is everyone needs to decide who they think is the winner and it can’t be you everybody ready OK got their opinion ready I will call that one two three and then basically on four everybody will say the name of the person they think should win OK OK one two three Harley and Michael Michael we have a winner two votes for Michael one for housing one for part. So the winner for today is Michael. Thanks for the all some time today I had a really disgusting everything.

Thank you thanks everybody this was really fun I had a great time.

I thought that was a great thing only. Good buy.

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