Advocacy & Outlook
The closing of rural hospitals due to rising costs is concerning. I'm excited to see what comes out of ARPA-H's PARADIGM program. I've been reading research trying to learn how to bring personalized medicine to people with cancer. I think modern technology allows a researcher to discover a drug target with patient genomic sequencing (modeling the way genes [DNA] are transcribed into mRNA which are translated into amino acids that are folded by ribosomes to be expressed as proteins) → use in silico democratized computer assisted drug discovery tools for proteomics (modeling the topology and properties of those proteins which are often flexible and disordered [dynamic topologies that rigidly designed therapeutics may struggle to bind to], in order to design therapeutics [ligands] that fit their shape with binding affinity [even the sweetness of sugar has to do with the shape of the receptor proteins in our taste buds] to deliver pharmacodynamic effects that improve clinical outcomes. The topology of fusion oncoproteins is particularly challenging. I wish for better algorithms. I am very optimistic. With cancer vaccines and in silico pharma, I believe we can cure cancer. I've heard that that's impossible and we can only treat it. I disagree, but I’m not a doctor) + microgravity organoid cultivation (thank you José) + microfluidic devices + laboratory robotics (tractable probabilistic models are necessary to prevent automated laboratory accidents) experimental loop with just-in-time manufacturing in the lab to continually design therapeutics → in vitro (in the lab) to in vivo (in the body) translation modeling (e.g. MOBER, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, and tissue modeling [I've read it is difficult to permeate solid tumor tissues without using small antibodies/nanobodies. Delivering the nanobodies to the tumor tissue also appears to be a challenge that can perhaps be solved with "microbubbles"]) → Food and Drug Administration (FDA) collaboration via the Rare Disease Endpoint Advancement (RDEA) Program to define endpoints for rare population → Doctors prescribe via Expanded Access/Compassionate Use/IND for immediate life-threatening conditions and in pre-clinical trials on animals as described here (or computers) before applying for clinical trials with humans → Early data shared with FDA through the Real-Time Oncology Review (RTOR) Program → Accelerated approval for targeted therapy
Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) + Platform Technology Designations can make personalized medicine manufacturing affordable.
Combined effect:
- Manufacturing platform reduces per-unit costs through automation/scale
- Technology platform reduces regulatory burden for each new custom antibody
- Company can produce thousands of personalized antibodies using same validated infrastructure with streamlined FDA review
This creates the “biologics foundry” model - shared manufacturing with regulatory efficiency for mass customization.
Similar methods may also be able to be applied to neurodevelopmental disorder research (like DYNC1H1). Advocacy is important. Researchers don't know what to work on without clinical data and patient advocacy. Differential privacy, the LISTEN principles for genetic sequence data governance and database engineering, and the coordination of clinics with biobanks and researchers are particularly important to me. I am concerned with biosafety and our health system’s capability to respond to crises. We should be prepared with the public health infrastructure that enables us to know what to do so that we do not panic. It requires local organization and building trust with local communities. The Stanford Social Innovation Review’s article on India’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic is informative, and I agree with their call for cross-sector collaboration across governments, academia, civil society, philanthropists, and the private sector.
It doesn’t make sense to put every patient's organoids in space (it’s stupid to launch a rocket for every patient - I like ground-based methods but admit that orbital microgravity is better and may be useful when ground-based methods fail). I thought space data centers didn't make much sense, but I'm starting to see it useful as edge computing for satellites which produce far more data than they have the bandwidth to transmit. The raw data can be processed more efficiently in space, and the processed data, which is smaller in size, can be transmitted home. Nonetheless, I am concerned by Kessler syndrome where an orbital collision could create debris that causes more collisions in a chain reaction. The Space Force's Space Surveillance Network and collision avoidance is vitally important. I'm glad to see space liability and insurance, but there’s no binding international law that requires satellites to carry propulsion for collision avoidance (although some national regulators, like those in the United States, have good rules that can inform international policy). Can we pass a space law or something before it’s too late?
As an aside, NASA's nuclear spaceship is very cool, and I am blown away by the National Reconnaissance Office satellites that were donated to NASA. To think those were old and obsolete. Who knows what they have now? Not this guy. I only suspect synthetic-aperature radar (I got the answer key from this YouTuber Noise In Space. I don't think it's a secret).
I love ethnobotany and the Biodiversity Heritage Library. I find it fascinating that it is used by pharmacologists to help identify natural product sources for the organic compounds that are used in the synthesis of modern medicine (I personally use it for art and greeting cards. I want a Siser Juliet to do creative things like automate white ink markers on red paper). They need support to keep the library going. I donated money and encourage you to find ways to help as you can.
Black box artificial intelligence models often produce errors. I encourage using tractable probabilistic models for explainability in all industries. If a mistake is made it needs an explanation not a shrug and excuse. I also encourage the use of compressed sub-quadratic models for efficiency.
There's a lot of value that isn't pecuniary. We try to measure it with money. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" as Carl Menger said with the subjective theory of value. Veblen goods are an example of how subjective value can be. Christian Louboutins (red bottoms), Hermes ash trays, Birkin bags, and Labubus are not valuable because of their utility or the labor that went into them. They are valuable because we have subjectively assigned luxury status to them often solely because they are exorbitantly priced, artificially scarce, and mimetically desirable. Keeping value subjective, I still recognize the exploitation of labor that is prevalent in our economy. I don't think that labor is the sole determinant of value, I think that labor is factored into our subjectivity. Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk tried to bury Karl Marx and accidentally built the bridge back to him. Workers, who need income now, have higher time preference than capitalists who can wait, invest, and defer returns. Workers need to pay rent, and capitalists invest in real estate. That asymmetry diminishes workers' bargaining power. That is the exploitation mechanism Marx was describing, just restated. Ludwig von Mises further formalized subjectivism into praxeology, and in doing so, gave us the tools that explain why labor markets produce exploitation. Marx was not defeated by the Austrian School, his core observation is real. I believe that his concerns are mitigated by public benefit entities (PBLP, PBLLC, PBC) with measurable purpose statements that are managed equitably with triple bottom line accounting that follows the Global Reporting Initiative and International Financial Reporting Standards with life-cycle assessments. I heavily disagree with the authoritarianism of central planning. I am an advocate for the democratic republic model of state governance and free market capitalism. Feeding America's market for food banks proves Ronald Coase's rebuke of Vladimir Lenin's "one single factory"/central planning in The Nature of the Firm, though social services are necessary as philanthropy and mutual aid lack the legal authority of governments to address the needs of people — "Scale is the responsibility of the state". Civil society organizes what neither markets nor states can mandate: the voluntary alignment of purpose, capital, and community. The market prices value. The state legislates and scales public and merit goods. Each layer does what it's good at.
In the United States, I'm too pro-market for the left and too skeptical of capital concentration and economic inequality for the right.
I think we need accessible education and collective narrative infrastructure. I am wary of sabotage and attempts to use terrorism for narrative power. I'm curious about SIGNAL Magazine from AFCEA. As a dual citizen, I am interested in international relations. I'm saving up for a Chatham House membership which includes their eLibrary and a Philanthropy.com membership which includes GrantStation. I strive to be receptive to learning and using respectful terminologies.
Inspired by Renaissance Technologies, I may sit for the Series 65 exam, and I have been studying to write quantitative financial algorithms. I disagree with restrictions on investment advisers preventing them from factoring in anthropogenic environmental risk and non-shareholding stakeholders. I advocate for pass-through voting as an option to give individual investors a voice in corporate governance, though executive boardroom decisions require careful consideration. Individuals and families often are too preoccupied with other work and may lack access to resources that help make effective corporate governance decisions. I think proxy advisers have a reasonable place in the market, but I am wary of over-consolidating governance. I like a diversity of voters. I'm open to automated voting and voter assistance software, but I encourage using tractable probabilistic models for explainability.
Prediction markets try to quantize and inference what the future will be. I believe it's impossible for us to be absolutely confident of what will happen, so we use statistics and probilistic models. Free markets try to democratize the calculation of risk. What the markets think is not always true. New technology brings new risk. Enron was conscientious exploitation and poor decision-making at the forefront of online energy market making, and Knight Capital was poor system design.
I personally like the looks of Interactive Brokers for international securities, Charles Schwab for payment-for-order-flow routing, Lightspeed brokerage for co-location (quantum clocks and the Open Compute Project’s Time Appliance are of interest for near real-time clock syncronization [genuine real-time signal processing is impossible. We cannot communicate signals instantaneously there is always some latency as the information travels. From what I understand, even quantum teleportation is limited by the speed of the light and thus has latency], though a Freedom to Operate [FTO] analysis is applicable as I don't want to infringe on RenTec's patent). Investors’ Exchange (IEX) and their speed bump is also interesting because Ultra Ethernet network interface cards, EDSFF data storage, and custom application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are expensive. Dark pools help market makers who provide liquidity to public markets so that, when we go to trade securities, our orders are filled by populated order books with optimal bid-ask spreads for efficient markets (meaning that there are bidders [buyers] who agree on the price of an asset with askers [sellers]). Dark pools help protect public markets from volatility (like flash crashes) by competing outside of public exchanges in alternative trading systems. I wish L3 data was more accessible and affordable — especially for open market surveillance purposes as algorithmic collusion in trading is emerging. OpenSanctions & fuzzy name matching, Plaid (KYC for investors), and Middesk (KYB for investments) are essential.
Robert Moses' top-down "urban renewal" displaced communities. Dudley Street, with the philanthropic charity of the Riley Foundation proved we can flip Moses' approach by giving residents eminent domain to control their own redevelopment.
Clemency is an important part of our society. When peoples’ lives are ruined by harsh punishments, what’s the point in trying to cooperate? It’s business leaders that reject people who have been convicted of crime. Managers and talent agents come up with various reasons for rejecting candidates, the risk of reputation damage included, but I argue it’s virtuous and good penology to assist in criminal rehabilitation by opening opportunities to and training people with criminal records. Daniel Diermeier’s book Reputation Analytics highlights the importance of strategic activism, and the Chicago Booth Review published the article Why We’re All Impact Investors Now. With authentic narratives and rhetoric built on collective social movements, there’s no need to spin messaging or manipulate the media (like sensationalist tabloids or fake politicians).
The problem of fast fashion is that the clothes are generally not of quality and contribute to environmental pollution when quickly discarded, and the problem with cheap clothes is the exploitation and cruel working conditions of the garment workers who manufacture them. I'm saving up for a quiet, ethical, wardrobe. Less is more. I like my Merrell Moabs from REI, algae (seaweed) fabrics, vegan leather, and sustainable packaging (made from PLA plastic and bio-based materials). The vanity of flagrant luxury and Veblen goods is annoying and looks stupid and tacky especially when I've had to help a woman who couldn't afford a phone find directions to a bottle return. I should have remembered to tell her about TruConnect and the Federal Lifeline program that helps people who don't make much money with discounted phones and internet. I know the U.S. government and corporate executives cannot always be trusted given the alleged scandals journalists have reported on (e.g. the use of classrooms to turn children into informants for the war on drugs, the Iran-Contra affair that put illicit drugs in cities, the cruel experiments on the Tuskegee Airmen and radioactive oatmeal in St. Louis, redlining's obstacles to having a voice in democracy and owning a home, environmental racism, etc.), but I think all of our phones are surveilled regardless if they come from the government or not.
I am concerned by the vulnerabilities in our infrastructure that are exploited to spy on us with the spyware being sold commercially to foreign nations and private companies. I am worried about environmental and biological warfare. I wish for the modernization of geospatial analytics (I love Cloud-Optimized Geospatial Formats and I have found Development Seed's zine to be very educational) and for our natural resources to be surveilled by seL4 & RISC-V equipment. I try to be attentive to the effects of pollution on our biological exposomes (the health effects of what we're exposed to). Knowing the requirements of AI, and the health consequences of PFAS "forever chemicals", I am a proponent of using hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs) for two-phase immersion cooling in data centers.
Concerning fusion power plants, I’m really optimistic for the future of this planet. All the energy we need (fusion for grid energy, omnidirectional wind by night and kesterite solar by day for off-grid [wood pellet heating and incinerator toilets are useful as well], and hydrogen fuel cells [perhaps made with the electrolysis of desalinated water by fusion power] and electric vehicles for transit) seems close and it is clean. I like TAE Technologies' ambitious plans. I think how it works is there is a particle accelerator that creates an ion beam that is neutralized to create heat (laser photodetachment neutralization methods from the Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore Laboratories seem promising). Containing this immense heat in a Tokamak, or in the case of TAE a Field-Reverse Configuration, creates magnetic pressure, and the neutralized gas transitions into a plasma where atomic nuclei collide and fuse. Because TAE is targeting aneutronic Hydrogen-Boron fusion, the reaction produces charged particles rather than neutrons. This allows them to use direct energy conversion—capturing the charged particles magnetically through Faraday's law of induction (the same law of physics that allowed Nikola Tesla's experiment on power transmission in his Colorado Springs laboratory), to generate electricity directly, bypassing the need for traditional steam turbines entirely to provide abundant, clean energy. I don't think we have to fear catastrophic atmospheric ignition even in the unlikely event of a containment breach of the plasma. From my limited understanding, the atmosphere isn't dense enough for catastrophy. I think the event would be localized to the area around the reactor, but I'm not an expert. Edward Teller explored making a nuclear bomb capable of splitting continents, but the potential energy of our planet is vastly greater than any kinetic energy of our machinations. Nonetheless, the explosions and fallout of nuclear weapons are devastating. They make for effective deterrance, and Iran has used the enrichment of uranium as leverage for negotiations (despite their fatwa), but I hate to see nuclear weapons used. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki first from the blast and then from the fallout. I would love to see a world without nuclear weapons, but it feels like Pandora's box has been opened and with the complexities of international relations we cannot seem to close it.
Having read Sarah Wynn-Williams critique of John Stuart Mill in her book Careless People (I try for physical media because it is easier to share), I agree that publishing should not be a utility and that curation is necessary. I support the Christchurch Call to remove terrorist and violent extremism from social media, Tech Against Terrorism, and I am thankful for ROOST.tools.
Examining the history of the Second World War, it was not the bankers that profited off of the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic that was imposed by the end of the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles. The bankers actually lost money. The industrialists like Hugo Stinnes, that borrowed money from the banks and consolidated German Mittelstand businesses into corporate conglomerates, were the ones who profited. Hitler, who consolidated the power of the government to himself as a fascist dictator, was assisted in his political and military campaigns by the industrialists, and the industrialists were assisted in their profiteering by the Nazi party. I agree with the United State's Office of Military Government's Decartelization Branch's statement at the time, "Political democracy cannot long survive the disappearance of economic democracy. ... The freedom of the individual consumer to buy and sell in freely competitive markets [is most suitable]". German academia and management acted complicit with their leaders. It was not a handful of people that carried out the Holocaust. There was the banality of evil as Nazi ideology permeated throughout Europe mimetically. I condemn the Ustaše and their perpetration of the genocide of Serbs, Jews, and Roma in WWII. Dispelling the Thule Society, I know Vril: The Coming Race to be a work of fiction that was misunderstood and weaponized and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to be a forgery. My understanding of the formation of the modern State of Israel is, given the existential threat of the Holocaust to the Jewish ethnicity, most of the Bund were unsuccessful, Bolshevism meant Atheism, and Zionism has prevailed with the philanthropy, advocacy, and mobilization of the Zionist Organization. Theodor Herzl imagined Israel in his diaries as a return to home for Jewish sufferers of global persecution. I don't think he intended more conflict I think he identified the anti-semitism of Europe and worked for Jewish prosperity.
Trauma feels like a recursive phenomenon, when we are wronged it feels natural to fight fire with fire, to give in to the proliferation of sin like the proliferation of nuclear weapons, but I believe not everybody who experiences trauma becomes a perpetrator of violence. When I watch and read reports from Gaza, which I think is important and we should be thankful for access to journalism, I see rubble and refugees, and before that I saw walls and checkpoints. I condemn Hamas' October 7th attacks, and I condemn Israel's response that has gone beyond holding Hamas accountable, into revenge enacted upon the innocent, having created a humanitarian crisis. It is one of our most important duties, for our dignity, to call a genocide a genocide, and Israel has committed genocide after years of collectively punishing Palestinians. I don't believe in good and evil people, just good and evil acts, with love for mankind and hatred of sins. Calling an evil act "evil", even when "speaking truth to power" comes with risks (lost deals and relationships, conflict, etc.), is the virtuous thing to do and have done before the death of our minds and bodies because our minds and bodies are mere aspects. Our souls carry the weight of our acts forever, and I don't want sink to hell. The freedom perpetrators may have from international prosecution by not signing the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is counterbalanced by free speech, the freedom to organize and associate with political parties, free and fair elections, and international trade. The better answer is peace in difference and universal dignity with participation of all in democratic rule of law. God's light refracts through the trauma of the Gaza genocide, October 7th, the Holocaust, and the Fall like a prism that polarizes us into difference. Now we see each other differently, but we are capable of peace.
Concerning the "Buy, Borrow, Die" tax strategy, the tax base erosion and profit shifting, liabilities, and globalized funds of offshore financial centers (Bermuda’s reinsurance, the Caymans’ open-end funds, Jersey’s closed-end funds, the Cook Islands’ asset protection trusts, the Magic Circle of international law firms), they can be useful to manage challenging geopolitical and financial risks but can be abused. The abuse of tax law deprives people of social services which some of us rely on just to get by. There is good and evil. I am particularly impressed with The Bermuda Monetary Authority’s innovation in insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bonds that fund natural disaster recovery efforts. With the ways that some politicians and leaders use the taxes that are collected, I can understand why some libertarians advocate against taxes, but without them philanthropy and mutual aid face challenges in scaling to the needs of nations of people and lack the legal authority of governments. I'm impressed by the success the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board has had as a non-profit in organizing state governments to meet the needs of small businesses who face compliance challenges meeting confusing tax obligations and I want the rest of the United States to adopt their policy.
In liberal democracies, it is commonly held that governments are responsible for enforcing the rule of law, while a free press plays a role in reporting on alleged corruption and abuses of power. The concepts of the fourth estate and fifth estate reflect the idea that press freedom helps ensure an informed public, supporting electoral processes that may lead to policy or leadership changes. In these jurisdictions, for legitimate reasons, businesses and individuals are often granted legal protections for confidentiality. Additionally, banks are mandated to protect client information. The police raid on Swiss journalist Lukas Hässig illustrates how these protections can come into tension with an investigative press. The International Press Institute has called for reform of Swiss banking law to “include clear public interest protections for journalists" when reporting on confidential bank information. If legislation introduced a public interest exemption to Article 47 of the Swiss Banking Act, a clear definition and procedural test to substantiate its use would be essential.
I’m interested in responsible financing. I’m suspicious about the opaqueness of some sovereign wealth funds and the possibility for them to be abused. The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a private company that was shut down by authorities. Sovereign wealth funds are controlled by the authorities. I support the adoption of the Santiago Principles.
To make sense of the world today, I recommend The Logic of Governance in China by Xueguang Zhou. The Chinese private space industry has been taking off, and I was curious if there was a way to invest, but Chinese exchanges are not designed for free market capitalism, the U.S. government doesn’t want our money there (pension funds are being told to divest), and I don't think the Chinese Communist Party wants us to be the recipients of their economic success. Venture capital firms like HongShan seem phenomenally successful, but have had to navigate complex international relations. From what I read in the news, it split off from Sequoia and is a fully domestic Chinese company. I purchased the book Sovereign Funds by Zongyuan Zoe Liu. It appears that the sovereign funds of China are structured and run very differently than, for example, the sovereign wealth fund of Norway.