Shenzen

Behind China’s Success

Technology, , ,

Like pretty much everybody that is up to date with current events, I’ve been following China’s rise as a high-tech superpower with great interest. The article touches on some very important points concerning innovation while showing some interesting statistics about one of China’s innovation hubs, Shenzhen.

But there’s more than patent applications that will power China’s success. The country’s social system is more competitive than many of its Western adversaries. Many Westerners (including me) would have ethical qualms in toying with genetically engineered human embryos. I’m quite sure that China is willing to go further and faster with such experiments. It is quite possible that this is an even greater game-changer than our so-called efforts into artificial “intelligence”.

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RoboMasters China

China’s Awesome Robotics Challenge

Recommendations, Science,

It’s called RoboMasters and it’s more important than it may seem. At first sight it could be classified as a nerdy game show. It is much, much more than that.

This has seriously impressed me. I’m seeing a fascinating amount of innovation and initiative arising from China in the past few years. The country is on the rise in a deeper, more meaningful way than in the “manufacturing powerhouse” decades.

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World Peace

Amid Souring Relations, Russia Pulls out of Nuclear Treaty

Conflict, Recommendations, , ,

During the past few weeks and months, there have been some worrying rumblings among the world’s superpowers. We’ve witnessed a serious degradation of relations between Russia and the USA, while China is slowly but surely pursuing its own agenda.

Part of a process of rebalancing itself in the planetary power-play, Russia has recently been involved in military exercises together with China. This sends a clear message that the Eurasian superpowers are waking up to the fact that they share more points in common than just the massive landmass they occupy. These military drills were held in the contested waters of the South China Sea. There, the USA has been involved in arbitration between other claimant nation-states. But the balance is quickly shifting, even as Philippines’ human rights violator and political wildcard Rodrigo Duterte cares little about the meddling of far-away USA in regional matters.

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China Quantum Satellite Launch

China Invests in Quantum Cryptography and Not a Moment Too Late

Recommendations, Science, ,

In the past years, a steady stream of revelations has shown the extent at which governments spy on us. This shocked nobody in the know. We’ve suspected it all along.

China is moving towards ensuring secure and private communications for itself and, I suspect in the near future, for any entity that pays a hefty fee. Large corporations will definitely be interested in having access to a spy-proof communications network.

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France & Australia War Buddies

Best War Buddies Australia & France

Conflict, Recommendations, , , ,

Fans of the military industrial complex, rejoice. There is a new romance on the block. Australia and France are deepening their military relationship, under the auspices of a fat ship-building contract.

Contemplating world peace, the Australian decision-makers thought that a dozen submarines are totally worth $50 billion of their people’s work. On the other side of the world, the failing French economy is in dire need of a stimulus.

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