Technology – Solving Citizen

Will the dream of self driving cars be replaced by flying cars?

Have you seen the new commercial where the car drives itself? It’s so exciting to see the future unfold. I remember watching George Jetson fly around in his car thinking “that’s what my future is going to look like”, but as time ticks on, my future seems to look more like the matrix (or some other post apocalyptic movie) than the cartoon of my childhood past.

While I don’t see myself becoming a car battery in the distant future, I do think that things won’t be the way I always thought they would. Now keep in mind I am presenting you with my wild speculation, but hear me out. Self driving cars have much anticipation and analysts think that within a decade our economy will be hit hard by self driving automation, but I’m not seeing it come from automobiles.

Already we’re seeing homeowners insurance being reduced because of automation and the LA Times has mentioned that self driving cars could flip the auto insurance industry on its head. But that’s not all automation is doing. It’s also giving us software to help on a global scale. A farmer can deploy a drone that will fly over an area miles wide, run the images through an algorithm, and tell the farmer what course of action he must take. Throw that software into a network of drones like they did in the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, and the sky is the limit!

Amazon has already invested in infrastructure for an air delivery system, including airplanes and even a company to develop their drone delivery service. In addition their ambitious projects are helping to develop regulation that will likely evolve and reshape the aviation industry.

Right now the closest I can get to my dream of flying around the skies like George Jetson is to jump in a helicopter and fly around, but such a dream would be too costly for the average person to achieve. Although they are coming out with automated systems for Helicopters, insurance prices are too high for the technology to make an impact on the aviation industry to favor the consumer. Also, we are a long way off before drones can carry people off into the sunset, but that’s not stopping companies like Ehang from trying.

Now back to my wild speculation. Automated driving systems will make a big impact on our economy and our future, but they will only last a short time. It will be like that 5 minutes you had a pager, and then the cell phone came out. When the line between helicopter and drone disappears, and insurance prices fall (which is a major reason for high aviation costs),we will see prices in aviation fall. Finaly we will see insurance liabilities transfer from the driver or pilot to the automated network provider. We will see the flying car become a reality.

So. Is it a far-fetched childhood dream to have a flying car? No. I may even see it in my lifetime.

-Brandon

Defining the Truth

We hear many phrases today like “alternative facts” “bias media” or “false flag” and the more we hear that kind of noise the more it seems the truth is slipping from our grasp. The truth is tricky to define because it is literally different from person to person. So where do we look to define it? You compare it to a known standard.

History reveals that governments do a poor job of defining the truth for us. Laws are a great comfort zone for many people to define what is right and wrong, but just because something is legal doesn’t make it right. Oscar Schindler was somebody who frequently broke the law to do what we all know is right, but his society deemed wrong. That does not necessarily mean that laws are bad, there is a standard dictated by Natural Law. Natural Law was used by the founding fathers of the United States to shape the constitution. In fact Thomas Jefferson helped define the nonaggression principle.

The nonaggression principle or NAP was started by John Locke during the Age of Enlightenment. The NAP can essentially be defined as: don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff. Even the United States constitution uses the NAP as a Standard to define the truth in their laws and morals.

Now let’s get the most value out of the truth and move from what we should do with it to what we can do with it. While running a business, there are many different universally excepted standards such as ISO or ASME.

Probably one of the most valuable tools you can use to analyze data and look at the facts is statistics. With statistics you use tools like Lean and Six Sigma. Six sigma was first used by Edward Deming. Collecting data and using facts to operate business quickly got him notice because it reshaped manufacturing. we moved from the industrial age to the information age.

Deming’s 14 points are used today in the most successful organizations around the world. The truth is a powerful tool that cannot be ignored when it is used properly. Whether you use it for politics or for business knowing the truth will separate you from your competitors and make you very successful in your ambitions. No matter what people think the truth is, we all know what the truth is we see it.

-Brandon

ISO

Navigating your business in different political environments

Companies exist in all countries with many types of government where the political narrative ranges from mostly capitalistic, to communist. No matter what political environment people live in there are ways to make sure you and your company are successful no matter what roadblocks are put in front of you.

If you live in a mostly capitalistic society then your worries should be focused on your competition. Humans will always look after their own self-interest, and this is no acceptation with capitalism. You will always need to find ways to cooperate or compete with everyone under capitalism. Technology will be something you have to be current with because of constant innovation. Just recently Warren Buffett parted with Walmart because he felt they drug their feet while building infrastructure while Amazon has been steeling the lead in the market.

If you are located in an area corrupted by crony capitalism then you might start to deal with government regulation controlled by corporations that are too big to fail. In this political landscape you have legislation written by major corporations approved by government officials or court rulings in favor of the biggest bankroll. We saw this most recently with strict federal regulations favoring the EpiPen over any other competitor. This caused an unnatural price increase in the product because the company had an illegitimate monopoly.

The more a government controls the more things will be subsidized. Under socialism there are many subsidies given out. Roads are almost always government subsidized, along with food, and alcohol and things like green energy. There is an abundance of cash flow that can move into any organization that position themselves around such subsidies. While technology will make things efficient for every society it is wise to exercise caution and not to keep all your investments tied up in it. Last week Bill Gates said that government needs to put extra tax on innovation to keep people from loosing their jobs to robots.

I’m sure most reading this will agree that communism or even extreme cases of socialism are the most restricting form of government and makes it hard for almost anyone to succeed. Fortunately progress cannot be stopped no matter how hard people try. Currently in Venezuela there is a thriving industry around mining Bitcoin. Mining Bitcoin uses a massive amount of electricity that would be too costly for someone to mine under capitalism, but because electricity is subsidized in Venezuela people are able to mine it with little cost.
Companies and innovation will drive progress in a direction that others will try to hinder, but ultimately those obstacles will be overcome. Right now Spacex is putting up satellites to give the world access to internet. Imagine what this will do for the people in countries like North Korea? The people of the world will have access to education resources online outside of the bubble they live in. The will have access to articles like this explaining to them that they can climb out of the rut they are in and find success where ever they are. If you look hard enough you can find success in any political environment.

-Brandon