If someone is interested in 1:1 USD crypto assets, I recommend looking into the mechanics of smart-assets such as bitUSD [1] on the Bitshares DEX. These are backed by at least 175% of equivalent value of Bitshares. Thereby these smart-assets achieve a stable 1:1 USD value in a decentralized way [2]. If the value of the collateral of a short position falls below 175%, the position is margin called automatically by the blockchain. Another advantage is that you can trade them within the blockchain without any central party [3]. In my opinion this decentralized bitUSD is much better in comparison to Tether, which is intransparent and centralized. In recent months trading volume really picked up esspecially in bitCNY/BTS, but also for bitUSD/BTS. I would be happy to hear other opinions about these decentralized alternatives.

Disclaimer: I own some bitUSD, bitCNY, BTS, but I am not involved in other ways with the project.

[1] https://wallet.bitshares.org/#/asset/USD

[2] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitusd/

[3] https://wallet.bitshares.org/#/market/BTS_USD

Is there sufficient incentive to issue bitusd if you hold bitshares ? I guess you can loan yourself about 60% of the value you hold in bitshares if you issue yourself some bitusd. but is it any more than a leveraged position in bitshares ? Could be risky for the issuer unless they are prepared to really support the price of bitshares.

Yes, that is how I understand it. But I am also still learning about it. It was interesting to see the margin calls during the 40% price drop of the crypto market two weeks ago. Basically, before the drop some people had enough collateral above the 175% threshold, but during the drop these positions entered the margin call area and the orderbook of the decentralized exchange was automatically filled with USD buy orders, so that they were forced to close their position.

> Censorship is horrible, but do you have proof that Blockstream supports it?

Here is some very strong evidence for it: http://telegra.ph/Inside-the-Dragons-Den-Bitcoin-Cores-Troll...

Obviously, people could always say that there is no proof, because "supporting" is such a vague term. It is hard to come up with a mathematical proof. But I would say, it is already a proof that they participate mostly in /r/bitcoin and not in /r/btc. Reddit depends on participation. Therefore with their participation in censored forums in contrast to uncensored forums they at least indirectly support the censorship.

What I remember from my neuromorphic engineering course (or analog VLSI course) is that we designed the silicon layout (with n and p doping regions) in a way that the transistors are operating in the subthreshold regime in the IV characteristics. If I remember correctly the IV characteristic is linear in the subthreshold region? In contast in normal digital chips only the super-threshold region is used (voltage above a certain saturation threshold switches the transistor completely on). Using the subthreshold region it is possible to implement spiking neuons with only very few transistors. It works completely different than digital circuits. The connections between the transistors don't transmit just 0's and 1's. Instead all wires transmit analogue signals where the exact voltage matters. This makes these chips extremely energy and space efficient. These chips can also work much faster even in comparison to biological neurons (obviously using some assumptions and simplifications, such as neglecting certain special kinds of ion channels found in real neurons).

Theoretically , Analog is by far the best for neural networks. But why aren't we starting to see chips offered ? Heck even an old process like 130nm could have some practical uses .

Could you implement an approximate matrix multiplication in a direct analogue way? If so, I wonder why it hasn't been used for graphics cards.

Yes: https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.02091

Interesting. The concept seems to be very similar to this one: https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.01578

For me it is not just about being comfortable in writing the same language for aerver and client. It has also a technical aspect to it:

I can directly run my application code, which is a single page application in js, also on the server. I have complex datamodels in my js application. It would be very much work if I need to use some of these datamodel functions on the server if I wouldn't use js there.

Why not buy one of the cheap aftermarket Chinese Android head units? When I was looking to buy a car I specifically looked for double DIN compatibility so that I can later easily install my own head unit. I would not want to support a car manufacturer who is abandoning the DIN standard for aftermarket head units. I want this central piece in the car to be upgradable. A car without double DIN is like a computer case without any slot to put an HDD.

There are very nice units with native Android experience. They usually have either a 7" or 10" screen. There are also some discussions of the various chinese units on xda forums in case someone is here interested...

Don't waste your money on a cheap Chinese unit. It's hard enough to justify buying the name brand units that cost way more and run worse than a $50 Walmart phone.

The aftermarket head unit market has been in shambles for a few years now. Demand has dropped dramatically and units have stagnanted for years, in some ways even moving backwards.

I would love to see DINs make a comeback in cars, hopefully it would breath some fresh life into the HU market.

I tried VSCode shortly but switched back to Webstorm mostly because I couldn't find comparable refactoring/renaming options in VSCode. Also js debugging options were not as feature rich as in Webstorm.

That is why there are metrics like inter rater reliability and significance tests and confidence intervals, which seem to be all missing in paper...

In addition to that, there might be an effect due to the media hype around investments of Warren Buffet. People see in the news that Buffet invested in companyXYZ so they think that must be a smart idea and also invest in the same company and therefore driving the price higher...

> My basic intuition is that consciousness arises as a byproduct of any sufficiently interconnected (i.e. Complex) network which processes input from the outside world.

I think you are underestimating the importance of the motor/action system for the development of consciousness. Many neuroscientists and robotic researchers think that the sensory-motor-environment-sensory loop plays an important role for consciousness. This loop allows you to unsupervised learn all sorts of laws of physics and allows you to think that your body actually is you and not just an extension of your mind and therefore also allows the development of the concept of self awareness. Some researchers might call this sensory-motor-contingencies or embodiment. I think when talking about consciousness there it is very important to take into account this loop and not only the sensory perception and building a neural representation of the world...

I definitely agree with you — I think interacting with the environment is an important part of "processing" it. The motor/action feedback loop (cf. artificial motor control in monkeys) is exactly what I had in mind when I said that "touch" is a big one.

I definitely should have clarified that point, though, as it's a huge one, I agree!

Agreed.

The only proof of consciousness case we have (i.e., consciousness arising from Big Bang gases and getting to this conversation) incorporated sense-motor-environment-sense loops. Don't know if it can happen without such interactions, but the one route we know worked, used them.