It’s a very exciting area of research for many scientists and professional enthusiasts in the health, sound and water domains, providing incredible value in experimentation and replicating scientific processes and mechanisms previously not possible.

During the launch of the Vedience community at the MSVP Institute in Hyderabad (India) in November 2023, John Stuart Reid — the Inventor of the main scientific instrument named “CymaScope” — provided a very insightful presentation with incredible insights from his decade long research that he has graciously given permission to be shared to the Founding Members of Modern Times Opportunities.

Enjoy!

Read more

• Why is that and what else is happening in global finance?

• How can you prepare for the financial disruptions coming our way?

• What are meaningful ways to preserve family wealth and personal assets?

I wrote this article to help my family and friends understand the current geopolitical chaos and how it affects major shifts in global finance and hope it also helps you in navigating certain risks and opportunities which are now unfolding:

1. De-Dollarisation

2. Rise of the Middle East

3. Fortification of BRICS

4. The Revival of Gold

5. Crypto and CBDC

6. Inflation, Cash and Liquidity

De-Dollarisation

When countries receive dollars for the oil they sell, it benefits the US as they recycle those dollars back into US investments — providing liquidity to financial markets and keeping rates low in the US. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is still the world’s largest oil exporter and has been using the petrodollar system since the 1970s.

Since signaling the end of the petro dollar status earlier in the year and announcing that they’re officially open to settling trade for oil and natural gas in currencies other than the US Dollar and the Euro, this is a big deal.

If other countries along with the KSA begin to transition away from the dollar and look for alternatives, it reduces the overall demand for USD and increases borrowing costs for consumers and businesses in USD among other effects.

The Rise of the Middle East

When I attended the inaugural Future Investment Initiative (FII) in the KSA in 2017, it was clear that this “Davos of the Desert” wasn’t just a one time event.

The big announcement was the launch of NEOM — an architect’s dream in the form of a $500 billion dollar city starting with a blank canvas. It was initially received with quite some skepticism, but look at what has transpired since:

After speaking to several friends who now live in NEOM and work for materializing this venture, I can all but confirm how real it’s becoming.

Also take a look at the 10 biggest sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East by assets*:

1. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) — $708.75 billion

2. Kuwait Investment Authority — $708 billion

3. KSA’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) — $607 billion

4. KSA’s SAMA Foreign Holdings — $490 billion

5. Qatar Investment Authority — $461 billion

6. Investment Corporation of Dubai — $299 billion

7. Abu Dhabi Mubadala Investment Company — $284 billion

8. Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company PJSC — $159 billion

9. Emirates Investment Authority — $87 billion

10. Oman Investment Authority — $17 billion
    *Numbers from the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI)

Note that these are not banks, they are actual sovereign wealth funds representing over $3.8 trillion in assets. Compare this to JP Asset Management which has $2.5 trillion AUM but it was founded 50+ years before any of these.

Fortification of BRICS

Russia and China are actively courting the Middle East. None of the Gulf nations sanctioned Russia after the Ukraine war started and it’s unlikely they’d break with China if it invaded Taiwan. It’s clear that the world is changing dramatically.

But it’s not only Russia and China. Take a look at the dynamics of India’s transformation and see some mind boggling statistics unfold:

Indian oil refiners have also started to pay for Russian oil in Emirati dirhams and the State Bank of India has started to make payments in UAE local currency.

Meanwhile Russia's finance ministry will reduce the euro's share in its national wealth fund to zero later this year. The fund will only hold gold, Chinese yuan and rubles which will likely internationalize the yuan to higher levels and could also lead to further de-dollarization.

In fact, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, India and others have been strengthening relations and trade at a dramatic pace over the past year. The KSA is open to joining BRICS along with Turkey and Egypt.

Along with members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) these countries have stated intentions for a “roadmap for the gradual increase in the share of national currencies in mutual settlements" and agreements to “ramp up coordination on energy (oil, natural gas, nuclear) exploration and policy” among other things, which sets the stage for a potential commodity backed reserve currency to rival the U.S. dollar.

Read more

In fact (and contrary to the popular and quite religious belief that infectious diseases were beaten by mass vaccinations or modern medicines), it was actually the rise of good hygiene as the single biggest cause for the eradication of such diseases in the 20th century.

However, it should be pointed out that even today at the beginning of the 21st century, 2.5 million Europeans die of hospital infections every year, of which up to 50% could have been avoided through optimized hygiene measures.

Hygienic hand disinfection therefore is still of outstanding relevance and an essential part of the foundation on which the care of patients and the therapy of diseases is based through clinical measures.

That said, we may have overdone it a bit with hygienic measures in recent history, especially when it comes to so-called disinfectants. Their overuse can lead to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. When disinfectants are used excessively, they can kill off the weaker microorganisms while allowing the stronger ones to survive and multiply. This can lead to the evolution of bacteria that are resistant to the disinfectants being used, making it more difficult to control the spread of infections.

A bit of History

When looking at the history of disinfection, chlorinated lime was used as an active ingredient in the first tests by Ignaz Semmelweis in the 19th century, but because of its (understandable) skin-damaging effects, shortly after phenol solutions (carbol) were used instead of chlorine compounds. This was the beginning of aseptic work, which leads to the state of absence of infectivity, known as asepsis. Because of its toxic nature however, phenol was replaced with alocohol in the beginning of the 20th century and so now for more than 100 years, alcohol has been the main active ingredient in practically all means of hygienic hand disinfection.

The problem with any kind of liquid disinfectants (i.e. alcohol based) is the proper usage. Hands must be completely dry before an application and if used frequently, skin irritations are a given for the vast majority of people. Not to forget that in order for your alcohol rub to be successful, you’re actually supposed to perform the “6-step scheme" according to EN 1500 — which most people just don’t do.

Other concerns are the toxic effects of various disinfectants on human health. Certain disinfectants contain additional chemicals which can cause irritation and damage to the skin and eyes. Some release harmful fumes (especially when mixed with other cleaning products), leading to respiratory problems and other health issues and are harmful if ingested or inhaled.

Prolonged exposure to such disinfectants can even cause long-term health effects, such as cancer and neurological damage. For instance, some disinfectants contain quaternary ammonium compounds (QUATs) that are known to be toxic. Other common disinfectants like triclosan and triclocarban have also been linked to health issues such as antibiotic resistance, hormone disruption and other toxic effects.

Modern Times and Opportunities

Silent Invisible Killers

A few years ago I was scanning receipts into my computer. Touching them with my bare hands, a friend who was watching me pointed out that I should wear gloves when handling thermal paper. I had no idea why. Turns out these receipts are often coated in Bisphenol A, or “BPA”, a hazardous environmental toxin…

Read more

3 years ago · 5 likes · Toby Ruckert

Where’s the innovation when we most need it? Turns out, there is plenty.

Plasma — Ozone

At first, I found my new inventor friend “Timon”. His approach is using the germ-inactivating effects of reaction products (primarily hydroxyl radicals) from oxygen and water vapor, which has been known since the 2000s.

They have an interesting property — their oxidizing and thus destructive effect on microorganisms (mainly bacteria, fungi and enveloped viruses) doesn’t affect higher cell structures (tissue) and higher organisms (plants, animals and humans) and no acutely toxic or chronically toxic effect on humans is known. But watch the video and meet this wonderful young inventor yourself:

As you can see, these hydroxyl radicals are generated from ambient air by a low-temperature atmospheric plasma. This ambient air contains all the necessary educts for the plasma reaction in the form of oxygen and water vapor — it’s really that simple! So why isn’t it available for use everywhere?

Well, the plasma disinfection approach is a physical-chemical process that primarily takes place in the gas phase. Since hand disinfection has always been liquid / chemical, such a procedure is not easily comparable to and mostly not even provided for the appropriate reference lists at governance and compliance levels. Yet the following expert assessment report re-affirms what science already knows for well over two decades.

Gutachten Alkoholdesinfektion

630KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

“The disinfection process in the Plasma Hand Sanitizer is equivalent to the alcohol-based disinfection process according to the RKI list. Since the germ density of the hands in cohort B is not higher than the germ density in cohort A, but rather lower, this shows that the effectiveness of the plasma disinfection process in terms of disinfection from a microbiological specialist point of view is certain.” — Dr. med. Ulrich F. Schmelz, expert specialist in medical microbiology and infection epidemiology

In addition to its mere effectiveness, there are other process-related advantages when using this plasma based hand sanitizer technology:

• It works independent of the moisture content of the hands. Hands that have just been washed can also be disinfected.

• No irritating or barrier-disrupting effects have been observed. Former “skin disinfection” could now be referred to as a "skin care" process.

• The uniformal way of wetting the hands is gapless, which isn’t the case with alcoholic or other liquid hand disinfectants.

The same technology can be used in many different applications — i.e. in rooms, cars, gondolas, etc. — so it’s not just for hand sanitization, but for larger areas in public spaces as well:

If you’re interested to learn more about this invention, or would like to take part in a podcast with the founder and inventor, please express your interest here and I’ll be happy to arrange.

Far-UVC Lights

In my day to day work with inventors around patents and intellectual property, it is hard to witness that some of the best innovations and most purposeful technologies never see the light of day, as is the examples with Far-UVC lights:

Ip Case Far Uvc Lights

305KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Potentially one of our best defenses throughout the pandemic hasn't seen the light of day. A consortium of companies has formed a coalition to protect America's right to innovate from the seeds of common knowledge. Those not aware of this Far UVC light technology can thank several frivolous lawsuits for suppressing and manipulating life-saving technology aided by patent trolls weaponizing the US patent office. — Katie Webb, Principal CEO at Quanta X Technology

But what exactly are Far-UVC Lights and what’s the technology behind it? Hear it from the inventor, Prof. Victor Tarasenko yourself:

You may be familiar with UV (ultraviolet) lights being used in solariums and with UV-”C” in particular when it comes to the aspect of disinfection. Conventional “germicidal” ultraviolet lights (UVC) have actually been used for decades to disinfect unoccupied spaces. However you may also have heard that too much or too strong UV light can cause cancer, so a direct exposure to conventional UVC lamps is not possible (especially in occupied public spaces) as it could be a health hazard due to its wavelength of 254 nm not being safe for human exposure.

To overcome this limitation, researchers at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center have been investigating Far-UVC light (at 222 nm wavelength), which cannot penetrate the tear layer of the eye or the outer dead-cell layer of skin — so it cannot reach or damage living cells in the body, making it safe for use in occupied indoor public spaces.

Why is it relevant?

Far-UVC lights are extremely effective at killing airborne viruses. They have been shown to kill more than 99.9% of seasonal coronaviruses present in airborne droplets, making them a promising solution for reducing the risk of person-to-person transmission of viruses. It’s quite feasible to use overhead Far-UVC lamps in occupied indoor public places to reduce the risk of person-to-person transmission of viruses.

The researchers further estimated that continuous exposure to Far-UVC light at the current regulatory limit would kill 90% of airborne viruses in about 8 minutes, 95% in about 11 minutes, 99% in about 16 minutes, and 99.9% in about 25 minutes. They used a misting device to aerosolize two common coronaviruses and then flowed the aerosols through the air in front of a Far-UVC lamp. After exposure to Far-UVC light, the researchers tested to see how many of the viruses were still alive. The results were remarkable, with more than 99.9% of the exposed virus being killed — even by just a very low exposure to Far-UVC light.

Despite these obvious successes in the research and development of 222 nm based far-UVC lights, regulations for AP-UVGI (Active Personnel Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation) applications have not yet caught up with science. This combined with the ongoing IP disputes is currently delaying a successful launch of this amazing technology.

Crowdfunding Gadgets

I found some great solutions at various crowdfunding campaigns over the course of the past years. The latest one I’ve actively supported is “Shelfy” — a really cool idea to keep your refrigerator clean and your food fresh and longer lasting:

It’s definitely worth checking out some of these campaigns as there are some very innovative solutions, not (yet) available in mainstream stores and online shops.

Read more

Most of my formative experiences with AI were good ones — from testing speech recognition software for IBM in the 1990ies to creating the world’s first chat and audio based Conversational IoT interfaces in 2015 with UIB in Singapore.

I started to question my otherwise friendly relationship with AI only after experiencing the overpowering use of algorithms in real life. Once I wanted to upgrade a flight during check-in after a staff recommendation. Despite plenty of space in business and a very helpful (but powerless) human on the other side, the computer simply changed its mind right in the middle of the transaction, even though there was no change in passenger numbers.

The consequences of flying coach vs. business are of course nothing, but whether a flight will be canceled or not has a bigger impact already, which is why I’ve grown more skeptical when data is making decisions that humans have lost control to overrule, a trend on the rise in most aspects of life.

Since ChatGPT’s launch last year, AI has become a mainstream topic. I was lucky to test OpenAI’s GPT-3 during its closed beta and could experience the consequences of AI (re-)writing content, but even if 90% of online content might be generated by AI in 2025, AI’s overall developments are way more profound than its mere generative aspects and continue to evolve more rapidly than anything I have seen over the past three decades.

To get up to speed with the subject of AI:

• Meet the ultrarealistic AI robot “Xoxe”

• Learn how a generative adversarial network (GAN) works by playing with “This Person does not Exist”

• Create images or art simply from a description in natural language using Midjourney or OpenAI’s DALL·E 2

• Try Microsoft’s VALL-E AI — with just 3 seconds of audio, it learns how to impersonate your voice

• Understand the maturity of “Deep Fakes” and the consequences in terms of security, marketing, branding and authenticity, i.e. by watching this video:

The person in this video is not a real person! She was created by Pantheon Lab but you can see how very natural face, voice, and lipsync now works using AI.

It’s easy to imagine a future where AI characters play a gaming counterpart in the Metaverse or an influencer on social media. In fact, there are already a couple of AI influencers on Tiktok with millions of followers and advertising contracts with luxury brands.

But it’s also quite clear that this technology (especially combined with the above list of written, audible and visual generative AI capabilities) could lead to a near perfect impersonation of any living human being.

Today’s AI Darling

Let’s come back to the darling of today’s mainstream AI discussions — ChatGPT. What are its capabilities and limitations? For a start, ChatGPT can actually pass Medical Licensing, MBA-level Operations and Bar Exams:

This comes at a time when just 50 years back, calculators were not yet allowed in most schools. But if everybody is cheating, why not adopt an open ChatGPT policy?

But not all opinions on ChatGPT are bullish. Meta’s Chief AI Officer for instance considers it 'not particularly innovative,' and 'nothing revolutionary' — of course he may not be perfectly neutral given his position, but I’d agree that it’s more of an evolution than a revolution.

Meanwhile the folks at Andreessen Horowitz (one of the world’s leading technology VCs) raised a simple question: “Who owns the generative AI platform?”

It’s a good point and their analysis is spot on. The only thing it’s missing in my opinion is the key ingredient AI will need in future to continuously evolve and grow, namely: “Contextual APIs”.

Contextual APIs — an opportunity to innovate for AI

Without access to (real-time) data and without the ability to perform (actual) actions, AI’s evolution will be limited and ultimately less useful. The moment you ask ChatGPT for your sim card balance or “what a rubber” is (it could be an eraser, a condom, or, refer to an actual rubber plantation business…) — it doesn’t really know what to do.

In any case, without “APIs” to access/act and without pointing it in the right direction in terms of “Context”, this type of conversational generative AI will not grow beyond a certain point. See more examples in this brilliant conversational exchange and detailed analysis of ChatGPT’s “Status Quo”.

AI’s limited advancements also pose an existential crisis for the humanities at large:

“The essay, in particular the undergraduate essay, has been the center of humanistic pedagogy for generations. It is the way we teach children how to research, think, and write. That entire tradition is about to be disrupted from the ground up.” — Stephen Marche in The Atlantic’s article The College Essay Is Dead.

It’s not surprising that new business opportunities emerge, i.e. GPTZero which detects whether content was actually created by humans or generated by machines. It spits out a score determining the likelihood of whether your text with AI generated or not:

Perhaps in future there will be a different value attributed to whether creative content is indeed “human genuine” made or “AI genuine” mixed. There should be fans on both sides. How to determine what’s “genuine” and how to prove it going forward (with an AI that’s continuously evolving) will be a task which is nearly impossible to stay ahead of.

For now, generative AI must rely on using “recycled creativity”, i.e. content previously created by humans. Which doesn’t mean that AI couldn’t be ahead of the game without realizing it and even exhibit “real intelligence”:

Top AI Tools

The whole world is talking about ChatGPT. But many are missing out on these great AI tools, many of which I use myself to be more productive:

Read more

It looks like even the FDA was deceived about the data from the new Covid-19 booster shot which wasn’t properly presented for review. Also the origins of Covid now have a clearly traceable background story which is easy to fo…

Read more

Today we’re constantly bombarded with information which keeps us “breathless”. The irony is, that we cannot control our mind and thoughts directly. Only by deep and proper breathing can we subject our mind and control our thoughts indirectly.

We neither control our thoughts, nor do we control our breathing very well, but this trend of hyperventilation1 not only causes stress, it also leads to many diseases both affecting our physical and mental health and wellbeing:

The website covers intensive medical studies including breathing retraining using the Buteyko breathing method which is still actively taught today after Dr. Buteyko’s 1969 Lecture at the Moscow State University.

But not only hyperventilation is a trend of concern. The oxygen levels in our atmosphere itself are dropping2:

So it’s time to remember our ability to adapt, and with it, re-adapt our breathing.

The world record for holding one’s breath in freediving is 24 minutes. Whilst this sounds like an extreme, we certainly have this inherent ability in our DNA. It's called a mammalian dive reflex. Whales, dogs, and humans have it. We just don’t use it.

With the launch of the movie “Avatar: The Way of Water”, many people asked themselves how Kate Winslet was able to hold her breath 7 minutes under water.

There is nothing abstract about it, no hocus pocus, but one thing is for sure: if you strengthen your breath, you strengthen your mind, you strengthen your body.

So don’t hyperventilate, remember to breathe:

What do I do to simply get more oxygen into my body?

Apart from the aforementioned breathing retraining with e.g. the Buteyko method, by doing Pranayamas (Yoga), Chi Gong, Meditation etc. - there may be some other quite simple and yet highly effective ways to get more oxygen into our bodies, quickly and effortlessly.

The following three ways I personally use regularly:

Read more