I really appreciate that one of the richest (sometimes the richest) humans on the planet takes the time to read about the experience of poverty in depth. Hopefully that continues to influence his philanthropy, and his influence on what other wealthy individuals and other policy makers do.
To me the biggest problem isn't 'evil' AI (SkyNet/Matrix scenarios) since I don't think it is possible to predict the intrinsic motivations of non-biological intelligence (no evolved neurochemical dependencies like we have/infinite capacity to grow beyond our limitations). That makes way too many assumptions about AI continuing to remain like us (curious, jealous, afraid, etc.) when all our behaviors evolved in us and are limited by biology. I'm more worried about something emerging unintentionally that does harm (as in the overused 'paperclip maximizer'). In that instance, not about being on 'our side'.
Education is a great long-term solution, but we need a PSA/Marketing solution for rational thought today. Similar to the TRUTH anti-tobacco campaign. Make it 'cool' to use logic and base your decisions on rational thought. I'm not advocating any particular policy issues, but a lot of problems can arise if people can't tell the difference between real and fake news, and don't bother to. They don't bother because thinking rationally is not something we encourage.
I can attest this problem is insidious and pervasive through-out society. Not just in the U.S., but globally. Separate from the moral issue of children growing up in disadvantaged environments, this is an economic problem, and a problem for the advancement of humanity. There is so much hidden value in masses of people that have no way deliver this value due to circumstances. I know anecdotally, you can point to individuals who made it despite these setbacks, but this is not the norm statistically by far.
What would happen if we found a way to lift these people up?
How much better off would everyone be economically by the value these hidden 'diamonds' create? (and by everyone I mean even the wealthy)
How much faster could humanity be advancing in general?
From a practical and factual perspective, ignoring this, or just waving it off as 'the best rise no matter what', is so damaging and counterproductive that it is actually holding back everything.
While they may one day be 'creative', I feel this will be the last bastion of human capability beyond AI. Luckily, the interesting thing about creative endeavors is that they are often a unique synthesis of many things. AI may create wonderful art, music, entertainment, etc., but this does not mean things created by humans won't still be valuable to other humans. Things would just be created in parallel and in communion with AI. That being said, the percentage of the population that can 'create' for income/profit may be very small. Hopefully by that point, we will create for the intrinsic value of creating and sharing, and not for money.
The best possible brand connotations are an interesting way of putting it. When you are trying to get a company off the ground (figuratively) that is experimental in nature and will require a lot of capital investment, why hinder yourself with this 'bad' name right out of the gate? There are any number of edgy names they could have picked that people didn't associate with the last thing you want to have happen on an airplane. It is just unnecessary, and not well thought out. Even if the intent was to get attention, I wonder how many people at Boom talked to the founders and said: "Are we sure about 'Boom'?"
I agree. Of all the options, quite possibly one of the worst names you could have picked. I'm surprised the negative associations weren't obvious to them.
Search is not a product for Google since they do not sell it. No matter how much everyone in the world might (including Google) categorize it as such. Products are sold. The only product they sell in relation to their search engine is an advertising platform. That is by definition the product.
Keeping guns stored in a vault with children present is generally a good idea if you have one or more weapons that you occasionally use. However for self defense purposes, you typically don't want to be fiddling around with a vault if someone is invading your home. I'm not commenting on the likelihood of that scenario, but it is something people consider when they own firearms.
The market could be for families with children in the house who want self defense, but haven't yet taken the plunge for safety reasons. I'm not sure how large this market would be.
Yes you can, if your primary motivation is making money and having a successful 'business' (business type or market is irrelevant to people with that motivation). You can definitely be successful with that strategy. But for many, loving the idea, or 'passion', is requisite for the amount of time and hard work it will take to succeed.
Why do crops need to be grown in California or 'shipped' to China? Can't these crops be provided by other states in the U.S. that are more conducive to farming? It seems California is not a great state for farming, and was engineered to be suitable. I understand the economic value to the state, but using 80% of the water during a drought? It seems like an incredible waste of resources for the financial gain of a single state.
This is the most obvious explanation. It compares your email to the list of contacts that other people have imported. If you were on their list, you may 'know' them. Pretty simple.
Artists are the key. Can we offer them something better than the existing system? The answer would suggest content production, but how is it funded initially? Is it crowd sourced? Do investors take on the initial risk? Do we make it easier for people to purchase subscriptions to the (new) content they enjoy while giving artists a much higher percentage of revenue?