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Nowadays people go to cafes to have some snacks, enjoy the coffee, or take a short break. Yes to all that. But an important function of cafes is to provide a space where people can talk without interference. Of course, people talks about all sorts of things… gossips, complaints about jobs and family, sharing one’s recent experience… anything is possible. But in a fast changing society, cafes are very important to the exchange of ideas between people. Therefore, by providing a physical venue, cafes have become a platform or a marketplace for people from diverse professional backgrounds to engage in valuable exchange of information. No wonder cafes are an important part of life to many entrepreneurs…
Well, I am not an entrepreneur and nor is my friend Stanley. Stanley came to Taipei yesterday for a meeting and after that we went to a cafe nearby so we can catch up. The photos here was the cafe latte I had and it was pretty nice. We talked about lots of things and mostly was about how technology nowadays has flourished and evolved so quickly that makes us so excited but at the same time dizzy as well…
He told me about his meeting, during which Nvidia, a top fabless IC design company based in Santa Clara, California who specialized in graphics IC (GPU), has now transformed into one that focuses on AI/Machine learning/Deep learning IC. They are now going to apply their products to implement self-driving cars. Yes, the chip will learn from real drivers and not for long, it can drive the car as well as you do, or even better in most cases. Somehow, as he told me, that Nvidia’s advantages in graphics works well in this new AI, learning technology… (if you are interested, see here).
And, what can I share with him? Of course it must be blockchain and cryptocurrencies. I won’t elaborate on that as you are mostly familiar with that subject. I did mention about Steemit, or just the conceptual framework behind it. He didn’t seem to buy it. Or, to be more precise, he didn’t seem to believe that one day those digital currencies will be our daily life. It is always a pleasure to talk to someone who thinks otherwise - it is so precious to know how others will challenge what you believe in a candid way. Again, I am not gonna elaborate on our discussions. But he kept mentioning one issue which can be generalized to be: how can we exchange something virtual, or something created from digital space, with something concrete and real like the coffee we were drinking? This might hold for a while, but definitely cannot be sustainable in the long run. I, of course, offered my explanations on this point like values are and forever will be the product of human perception, which is as virtual as it can get… but again I will skip it for now…
What I learn from this cup of coffee is… If we are to embrace the coming virtual economy, we need to first take off the glasses through which we have been observing the world and how it works. One hallucination for another. Neither is more real than the other and neither is less illusive. If only we know it all comes from our very minds, it is all good and we can just enjoy the ride.
Back to the subject. A cup of coffee and the exchange of ideas… which is more real? and which is less? Somtimes, it is really hard to tell.
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