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Tegmark, Life 3.0 -Book Review

We don’t know whether artificial intelligence will ever attain the level of artificial general intelligence, with the ability to accomplish virtually any goal, including learning. That is, as the title of Max Tegmark’s illuminating book (Knopf, 2017) puts it, we don’t know whether we will ever reach Life 3.0. Even so, as we enter the age of AI, it is important to think about what sort of future we want so “we can find shared goals to plan and work for.” “If a technologically superior AI-fueled civilization arrives because we built it, … we humans have great influence over the outcome—influence that we exerted when we created the AI.”
Tegmark posits three stages of life: biological evolution (Life 1.0), cultural evolution (Life 2.0), and technological evolution (Life 3.0). In Life 1.0, with bacteria being a good example, both the hardware and software are evolved rather than designed. With Life 2.0, our current status as human beings, the hardware (DNA) is evolved but the software is largely designed, through learning. Life 3.0 will design both its hardware and software. “In other words, Life 3.0 is the master of its own destiny, finally fully free from evolutionary shackles.”
Tegmark is a professor of physics at MIT and president of the Future of Life Institute, which advocates for beneficial AI and AI-safety research. Both projects involve a heavy dose of ethical debate and decision making. For instance, should we have autonomous weapons, which select and engage targets without human intervention? The author and a colleague wrote an open letter in 2015 arguing against autonomous weapons, a letter signed by over 3,000 AI and robotics researchers and 17,000 others.
Life 3.0 engages the reader in a wide range of future scenarios, from those where superintelligence peacefully coexists with humans (even if, in one scenario, as a zookeeper) to those where humanity goes extinct and is replaced by AIs (or by nothing, if we self-destruct). Tegmark admits that “there’s absolutely no consensus on which, if any, of these scenarios are desirable, and all involve objectionable elements. This makes it all the more important to continue and deepen the conversation around our future goals, so that we don’t inadvertently drift or steer in an unfortunate direction.”

7 rules for dealing with risk

risk71. Overcome Fear. Fear clouds judgment.
2. Remain Flexible. Surprise outcomes may require a change of plan.
3. Take reasoned risks. Risk can be good if the odds are in your favour.
4. Prepare to be wrong. Plan in advance how to deal with unfavourable outcomes.
5. Actively seek reality. See the world as it is rather than as you want it to be.
6. Respond quickly to change. If your plan calls for some action in the face of unfavourable outcomes, don’t delay.
7. Focus on decisions, not outcomes. In the face of risk, good choices can have bad outcomes, and bad choices can have good outcomes.

From :Inside the Mind of the Turtles :Curtis M Faith

The Trading Beast

The markets are no place to be unsure of yourself and wishy-washy, it is not a place for 2nd guesses, wishing, hoping, or gambling.  If you want to win in this jungle you need to be an unstoppable beast .

 Complete confidence in your system and method. You do not jump around in your trading or doubt yourself, it is not about you, it is the system.  Either it wins long term or it doesn’t. Either you have confidence in it or you don’t, make up your mind.

  1. You control risk. You do not expose yourself to being ruined because your bet size is consistently what you are comfortable with. Ten losses in a row is only a small draw down. If you are not afraid of ten losses in a row, what is stressful? NOTHING.
  2. You play follow the leader. You are not the lone wolf, you are going with the market not trying to predict it. Your entries and exits are based on historical patterns not your personal opinions, you are not trying to beat the market you are trying to be on its side, it always wins.
  3. You will not quit.Your exit strategy for your trading career? Never. You plan to never quit playing the greatest game on earth. You are a trader, that is what you do. Not quitting in most areas of life means that you eventually win big, the market is no different.
  4. You don’t need a guru. Your winning system is your guru. You don’t need to ask for a fish, you know how to fish. You only listen if you can learn how to catch more and bigger fish and somebody is a better fisherman than you.

The markets eat up lambs, chickens, pigs, and sloths. However beasts eat well off their prey.

Just watch these 4 things to get success in Trading

  1. Trust your gut If something looks like crap and smells like crap, then chances are, it is crap. Listen more to your gut to tell you when to cut a loss and move on.
  2. Keep it simple If something is working, keep doing it. There aren’t any bonus points for being clever. The money is the same color no matter how you make it. So do the simple things and chip away at the profits. I once had a client who felt he had to do complicated trades in order to make money. Bottom line was, he was wrong. Keeping it simple is the proven strategy for success.
  3. Probabilities don’t lie If you’re not carefully tracking the metrics on your trades, you might as well be gambling at a casino. Make it a point to track the data on your trades and study them. That way, you can do more of what’s working and less of what’s not.
  4. Avoid speculating and predicting I can’t begin to tell you how many times I see traders blow up their accounts because they try to speculate or predict what’s going to happen in the future. The simple fact is, no one knows. Even the best traders have a winning percentage of around 50 percent. That means successful trading is not about being right, it’s about what you do when you’re wrong. The bottom line is, trade what you see, not what you think.

"Your Special Unique Trading Strengths and Weaknesses"

Each one of us is born with special unique abilities and we are naturally drawn to them and develop them along the way.  They manifest themselves in all areas of our lives.  There are also things we don’t like to do or that are difficult for us to do.  It simply makes sense to focus on what we like and what comes easily to us and avoid or delegate what we don’t like or find hard and stressful to do.

The same is true with trading. There are parts of your trading that you’re naturally good at.  There are aspects of trading that you love, that excite you, and give you passion.  The more you trade the better you seem to get in these areas. 

What is your special trading or investing capability?  Pause and think about it.  WRITE IT DOWN.  I can’t guide you or even suggest what is uniquely easy and effective in your trading.

The best part of my trading is ______________________________________.

The part of trading I most enjoy is___________________________________.

You can build on these and exponentially improve your trading results and your trading ease and enjoyment.  It also makes sense that your methods and time frames are compatible with these strengths and tendencies.

Now we need to acknowledge the opposite.  Each of us has innate limitations and vulnerabilities that also affect our trading and investing.  There are parts of the trading game that are hard for us, that we don’t like, may even hate.  As much as we try to overcome these areas we frequently relapse into these frail deficiencies.  We say we’ll never do that again, and then, of course we do.