After a run of pretty dense episodes ranging from TARTLE’s long-term goals to climate issues to brain scans, we thought it would be a good idea to revisit our lively TikTok community and respond to some questions and comments. Let’s jump right in, shall we? We got a couple of comments about ongoing issues with the user interface at tartle.co. First, those comments come from people who are already signed up, the early adopters and we owe you a debt of gratitude. Without people willing to take the leap of faith early on, none of this would be possible. People like you help blaze the trails that others will follow.&nbsp; To the issue at hand though, we should have TARTLE 2.0 rolled out any day now. In fact, it may already be out in the wild before this post is public. The new and improved site will make the process of signing up with and effectively using TARTLE much, much easier. The reason why it has been difficult until now is because when TARTLE was first getting started it was just Alex developing the site. When it’s just one person working on it, he knows everything backwards and forwards and assumes everyone else will find it just as intuitive as he does. With no one else to bounce things off of, to point out the flaws, something goes out that at first seems simple, until other people take a crack at it. Incidentally, this is why writers have editors. They exist to point out the areas of a story that people who don’t know all the off-page details won’t understand. In any case, we have a team in place now working on those details and filling the gaps that one person working alone just doesn’t see. In addition to having a new and much easier-to-handle website in place, we should be able to respond to new issues much faster than before.&nbsp; What about our name? We get questions about this pretty often. If you’ve been here a while you know TARTLE is originally a Scottish term that refers to the awkward pause when two recently introduced strangers are trying to remember each other’s names. This might seem strange for some, but it emphasizes the anonymity of both parties, the fact that in that moment, they don’t really know one another yet. It also points to the potential relationship to come. In that moment, you are both unknowns, after that awkward moment, the situation changes, you are known to each other and it could be the beginning of a wonderful new relationship.&nbsp; There was also an energetic discussion on the description of mortgage as Latin for ‘death grip’. Whether that was the exact meaning or if the origin is really French, and that sort of thing. The point is, be careful with going into debt, especially those sixty-year mortgages for a two-bedroom townhome in California. Almost no one will ever actually pay that off.&nbsp; Finally, while we have early adopters, we also have the skeptics, those who think – or fear – that TARTLE is fake in some way. There isn’t much to say to that except we encourage you to check us out. Do all the research you want into us. Sign up with us and you have the freedom to share as much or as little data as you like. Don’t worry, we won’t be pressuring you, we just ask that you give us a chance. Then perhaps, after we’ve gotten past that awkward phrase, we can form a relationship and you’ll join us and thousands of others in trying to change the world.&nbsp; What’s your data worth? www.tartle.co

The Ridiculous & Thoughtful TARTLE TikTok Comments Part 3

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is one of the greatest and most well-known pieces of classical music around. Nearly everyone (and I mean everyone) has heard at least some part of it whether they know it or not. The great composer wonderfully captures the feel of each season through sound. Spring is light and joyful, while winter is starker, more foreboding. It’s simply a masterpiece that orchestras around the world play on a regular basis. Now, several orchestras have taken on the task of interpreting Vivaldi’s great work in what can best be described as a novel approach.&nbsp; The approach was developed with the help of AKQA, a communications and design group working in conjunction with data scientists to reflect predicted changes to the climate in the next fifty or so years. However, rather than making one composition that would be played everywhere, they used the algorithms they specially developed for the purpose to create hundreds of new versions, each designed to evoke the climate changes in various locations around the globe. The one for Shanghai is actually completely silent. That’s because the computer models they were using show that city being underwater by then. No, I’m not sure how many tickets they plan on selling. Some sort of original introit describing the fall of the city might be more interesting, but they didn’t ask me.&nbsp; I digress. The point of the exercise is to alert people to the kinds of changes that might be coming their way, even within their own lifetimes. The team that developed these new renditions of The Four Seasons will be working with orchestras around the world to perform their work, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra having signed to perform the first public rendition. Where it goes from there is less important than any effect it might have on those who listen to it. Will it actually encourage the listeners to care about and take some sort of action on the environment? And if so, how? Very often, the way people take action on the environment is to vote for a politician or maybe take up a particular cause. Well, no policy is going to fix everything, no amount of money thrown at the problem is going to just make it go away. What will change things is changing your own behaviors. Want fewer carbon emissions? Keep your house a couple degrees cooler in the winter and ride your bike to the corner gas station ten minutes away instead of driving twenty to get to the grocery store for that gallon of milk. Or install geothermal heating. Worried about straws? Instead of switching to a paper one, don’t use one at all. After all, someone had to cut down a tree for the paper straw.&nbsp; Speaking of straws, if you are a restaurant, at least try to be consistent. Right when the straws were a big deal in the news I went to a restaurant that had signs proclaiming their commitment to not using plastic straws. And then they brought my drink in a plastic cup and when I got my food, I ate it with plastic cutlery. You can’t make this stuff up.&nbsp; What else? Encourage people to take care of the things that are right in front of them. It’s a lot easier to point out the landfill down the road, or the river you want to keep clean and get people to care about keeping that in good condition than it is to get them to take drastic action based on a computer model. It’s too abstract for most.&nbsp; In a way, that’s what the people behind this new interpretation of Vivaldi are trying to do, to make the abstract tangible. However, if you really want to change things, start with your own behaviors and help others to make better decisions on their own. With enough people changing their behaviors in that way, it will have a much bigger effect on global climate, while improving things in your local area, too.&nbsp; Naturally, one thing you can do is to share your behaviors through TARTLE. That way, businesses and researchers can determine what kind of policies are working, or might work, what products...

Vivaldi No Seasons. The Future of Climate Stability in One Song

Tic toc, tic toc, it’s time for TikTok again. One of our favorite things to do when there is a little bit of downtime at TARTLE HQ is to go through comments on our TikTok videos and interact a bit with our audience. This is our fourth go around with our TikTokers so let’s jump into it.&nbsp; Debt was a big topic of conversation this time around, with some calling for regulations on the amount of debt one should be allowed to take on, some taking issue with our stance against mortgages, and some pointing out that debt is actually a pretty important tool for business.&nbsp; First, let’s be clear, debt in general is not good. Anytime you owe money to someone else, they have something they can hold over you. When you have a debt you have to pay, that means you are tied into making enough money to ensure you can pay it. That’s true whether you have $4000 in credit card debt, a $400,000 mortgage, or a $4,000,000 loan to start a business. It’s just a good recommendation for people and businesses to have as little debt as possible. That applies to countries as well but that’s a whole other ball of wax.&nbsp;&nbsp; As for regulations on the amount of debt you can have, that would be a huge knot of legislation. Different people can afford different levels of debt, and as someone pointed out debt is actually a tool used in business. Whether that’s good or not is, once again, another conversation entirely. Not to mention, too tight a regulation would get in the way of the person who has a great idea to get a new business started and just needs a start-up load to get it off the ground.&nbsp; Mortgages are a bit different. Renting lets you be flexible, but owning a home is still preferable for a lot of people who want their space for their projects or those with families. Again, just don’t take on more than you can handle. It’s undeniable that a lot of people take on far more house debt than they can really manage. The powers that be suggest up to 25% of your monthly income for a house payment. That’s nuts. One, that doesn’t necessarily take into account property tax, two, that’s just too much of your income when there are still other bills and emergencies. Aim for a lot lower and get that thing paid off as quickly as possible. Then, in addition to all the benefits of owning a home, you get most of the benefits of renting since you can sell for a lot less if you need to pull up stakes quickly.&nbsp; The point is, don’t take on debt unless you need to. Definitely don’t do it just so you can have stuff that you don’t need. Are you taking out a loan for a $50,000 car when you could pay $8000 in cash for a used one that will do the job just as well? If the answer is yes, definitely reconsider.&nbsp; Enough on that. Another commented on automation being big in the future, especially in farming. Soon, the tractor will be going around the field on its own, harvesting crops without needing a bathroom break. We’re actually closer to that than many think. We already have Teslas with autopilot and other automated cars are well into the testing phase. Automated farm equipment is not a huge leap from there.&nbsp; Going back to money related issues, plenty of you commented on the scam known as the credit system. Could not agree more. It is something designed to incentivize consumerism and debt. It hurts individuals, families, society, and the planet. If you have a card – and you practically need one these days – pay it off every month. Trust us, it’s a lot better.&nbsp; That will wrap things up for this visit to TikTok. Keep the comments and questions coming and we’ll be back soon. What’s your data worth? www.tartle.co

Wild and Wacky TikTok Comments Part 4

Remember how during the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 Australia seemed like it was entirely on fire? Record wildfires spread throughout much of the continent, turning the skies red. In fact, at some point, it even rained fire. Then, back over in the United States, there were massive wildfires in Oregon, California, and Colorado. These also turned the skies red and I even saw video of a fire tornado. Yes, a fire tornado. It looked like something out of a movie. It also put enough smoke into the atmosphere that it affected the color of the sunrise and sunset as far away as Michigan for a week. I don’t care who you are, that’s impressive.&nbsp; Fortunately, there are some ways to bring at least a sliver of good out of all those fires. Researchers took advantage of the situation and studied how the smoke affected the light reaching the earth. Naturally, it was less. What was more surprising though was that the smoke didn’t so much absorb the light and thus keep the heat in the Earth’s ecosystem as much as it scattered the light. That allows the heat to dissipate, with some of it even going off into space. The net result of all those wildfires is therefore actually a net drop in temperature.&nbsp; One of the really interesting things that the researchers found was that fires in different areas of the world created different kinds of smoke and therefore different scattering effects. For example, the fires in Oregon created darker smoke that scattered more light than the fires in Australia which was mostly burning dry brush.&nbsp; This data is important in that it helps us refine our climate models. The net cooling effect was something that was unexpected, meaning that our climate models were off and needed to be refined based on the new data. That discovery points to one of the more important philosophical underpinnings of science in general – the concept that we should question what we think we know, that we should always be searching for better data to improve our understanding. Perhaps that is nowhere more important than in the realm of climate since we are basing policy off of our climate models. Given the importance of government regulation to the environment and to the economy, it is imperative that they continue to question what they think they know. In doing so, more research happens and people are able to find unexpected things, both good and bad, leading to models that more accurately reflect reality. In other news on improving our data sets, a different group of researchers were having a problem tracking smelt populations. As scientists tend to do when they want to track animal movements and populations they tag the animals. The problem was, when they would check up on their tagged tiny fish, they found there were far more of them gone than they had predicted, without a corresponding population decrease. They were puzzled until they looked in the belly of a heron and found some of their tagged smelt. It turns out heron loves the little fish and doesn’t discriminate based on whether or not the critters have a tag. The discovery solved the mystery of the missing tagged fish and helped the scientists better understand the local ecosystem.&nbsp; What does all of this have to do with TARTLE? What is something that both anecdotes have in common? They both involve researchers solving a problem by getting as close to the source of the information as possible. That’s exactly what we advocate here at TARTLE. We want people to be able to get to the data’s source, you. That way, they can correct whatever assumptions and biases they might be starting out with and in the end make decisions that will actually make things better for everyone.&nbsp; What’s your data worth? www.tartle.co

Wildfire Smoke Data Research. Solving Wildfires Through Data

What is a referral? A referral is when you invite friends and family to join TARTLE, and when 11 sign up and link their Facebook account, TARTLE pays you! How do I earn money and TARTLEcoin from referrals? To earn money from referrals, you must share your personal referral code to your friends and family which they will use to sign up. When the code has been redeemed 11 times, and they have linked their Facebook account, we will pay you $3 USD and TARTLEcoin. * How do I get started inviting friends and family now? In order to start earning money and TARTLEcoin, you must go to the INVITE FRIENDS tab in the app. You can enter the email address of your friends or family and share directly to your Facebook Feed. Facebook is most times the best option for getting paid quicker. www.tartle.co

Get Paid Now. Earn Money. Invite Friends and Family to TARTLE! (Refer to Earn USD and TARTLEcoin)

No doubt you have heard a lot about what is going on with the world’s oceans, especially all the junk floating around in them. Perhaps the most famous example in recent memory was the sea turtle with the straw sticking out of its nose. I’m also old enough to remember concern over fish and other ocean critters getting caught in the plastic six-pack holders that were almost all over the place. Now you hardly see them anymore, showing that sometimes you can get something changed, even if it is something small.&nbsp; Marcus Eriksen is one of those people trying to get a whole lot changed. Marcus is an environmental scientist who has been working for years to not just bring awareness, but actual change that will reduce the number of plastics in our water. While there are many accomplishments we could list here, his most well-known endeavor was sailing from California to Hawaii back in 2008 on his homemade raft, lovingly named JUNK. Why? Because it was literally made out of junk, including 15,000 bottles and a Cessna fuselage for a cabin. He published a book about the experience named Junk Raft, published in 2017.&nbsp; When asked why he does unusual things like that, the scientist points out that just the science, the raw data, doesn’t reach as large of an audience as art, or a good story like sailing across the ocean on a raft of junk. Those things have a much larger impact on people. There is a reason Plato wrote dialogues. Aesop wrote fables, and the Bible is full of parables instead of systematized theology, these things hold the attention better than numbers, graphs, and syllogisms.&nbsp; Speaking of things that get attention, when asked why he cares so much about the ocean, Marcus brings up a video he made during his Pacific voyage. Having fished a fish, he was getting ready to clean it and noticed the stomach was weird. He touched it with his fillet knife and the stomach popped open, revealing seventeen bits of plastic. Yes, that’s a bit gross. On the subject of plastic in stomachs, he has also examined camels with plastic bags in their guts just outside of Dubai. A local vet had a lot to say about the suffering of the camels. It doesn’t matter who you talk to, that is not a good thing.&nbsp; What kind of plastics are getting found in the oceans? Where do they come from? Not surprisingly, they largely come from fishing activities. Buoys, nets, bottles, fishing line, and anything else associated with fishing is found in abundance in the ocean. Now, that doesn’t mean that those things are just carelessly tossed overboard, but lines break, a bleach bottle bounces out in rough seas, and things get lost. There are plenty of other things out there too, car tires, textiles, and more are currently littering the oceans of the world. How much of it is actually out there? Up to a quarter-million tons according to a 2014 study. What is it now? Marcus doesn’t have another weight estimate but the trends are that the problem is getting much, much worse.&nbsp; So, what do we do about it? The standard response has always been to just go clean it up. However, that is not necessarily the best use of resources. The best bang for the buck, and where the trend is finally heading is to focus on prevention. If we can convince people not to use so much plastic in the first place, or dispose of and reuse it in a responsible way, then we don’t have to worry so much about cleaning them up at all. That reflects a circular economy, one that has little waste, instead of our highly inefficient linear economy. Fortunately, there is a lot of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking going on that fits in the circular mindset. That is happening on the corporate and the individual level. Just think of the brisk second-hand business that happens on Craigslist. Or I just saw a backpacking video where a company is repurposing gelato containers as cold soak jars. Make the space for some innovation and a little profit and it’s amazing the...

Global Impact of Plastic Marine Pollution with Special Guest Marcus Eriksen

Guess what? A chunk of ice bigger than New York City recently broke off the ice shelf in Antarctica. The continent has been recording some of its warmest days ever and that ice seems to be breaking off at an alarming rate. Before you ask, yes, we are talking about net loss.&nbsp; If you are thinking about the potential effects of that if the trend should continue - good. There is so much ice on the massive continent that if all of it melted, it would raise sea level by 180ft. Not quite the way the world looks in Waterworld, but certainly there would be a lot less land. Of course, all of that ice is highly unlikely to melt and certainly won’t do so overnight. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some immediate effects that we should concern ourselves with. One aspect is all of the freshwater that is getting added into the ocean. As that melts, the ocean’s salt and minerals are diluted, potentially disrupting sensitive ecosystems.&nbsp; It actually reminds me of another movie, The Day After Tomorrow. While the scenario in the film is outlandish, its premise is founded in a grain of truth. There has been a concern in the past that melting ice at the North Pole would disrupt the Trans-Atlantic Current (TAC). All the freshwater, being lighter than salt water, would in effect submerge the current, interrupting the flow of warm water the TAC brings up from the Caribbean. Some scientists believe that may be what caused the Little Ice Age from roughly 1300 – 1850 AD. This makes sense as immediately preceding that time frame was the equally well-known Medieval Warming Period.&nbsp; The water from melting Antarctic ice is not terribly likely to directly affect the TAC, yet it could have an effect on weather in Australia by disrupting local water currents. The warmer water, in general, could also weaken the polar vortex at the South Pole. The vortex is created because of the difference in temperature between the water immediately around the frozen continent and the warmer water that comes down from the equatorial region. Less temperature difference equals a weaker vortex, which could lead to warmer and drier weather in Australia. If you remember the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, large swaths of Australia were a blazing hell-scape that at one point even rained fire. I’m sure they would like less of that, not more.&nbsp; That begs the question, how does one make that happen? Most of us lack the resources to have any significant impact all by ourselves, positive or negative. However, when a large number of people all take action in a particular direction, the results can be astonishing, even though the action taken by one person seems insignificant. For those who fly, maybe the business can have their meetings on Zoom instead. Yes, the Davos crowd would do well to put their money where their mouths are on this one. Don’t fly? Maybe one less steak a week. How does that affect anything? Cows take up a lot of land. A whole lot. That usually leads to the cutting down of lots of CO2 processing trees to make room for the bovine methane generators. A little less consumption on the part of everyone can save acres of rainforest. You most likely drive. Make your next car something more fuel efficient. In the meantime, getting all of your shopping done in one shot and cutting down on those trips to town wouldn’t hurt.&nbsp; Yes, these are all individually insignificant. But if a billion people around the world did it, it would add up to a big gain. You could then share the changes you’ve made via TARTLE, making it possible to track the effects, and determine what had the biggest net gain so people can actually see the results and use them to determine their own course of action. And maybe, that ice will melt just a little bit slower. What’s your data worth?  &nbsp; Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while...

Antarctica Polar Vortex Data and Climate Change

Sometimes, it takes a long time before you are proven right. Not that too many people seriously doubted Einstein’s prediction that gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of space – existed. However, it wasn’t definitively proven until 2016, nearly 100 years after the Jewish scientist first posited their existence. Even in 2016, with the technology available, it took a major event to trigger waves large enough to be detected. That event was the collision of two black holes over a billion light-years away.&nbsp; In 2012, the Higgs boson particle was finally discovered. Predicted back in the 1960s, the subatomic particle was needed to complete the Standard Model. Once the Large Hadron Collider finally proved the particle’s existence, physicists could say that they had a solid grasp of the fundamentals of how subatomic particles behave.&nbsp; It would be easy to go from these and other discoveries and say that everything is going perfectly smoothly in the world of physics. However, that would be to ignore all of the crazy things going on that we have no clue how to explain. Just take dark matter. There is a lot more of it in the universe than there is visible matter. The ratio seems to have gone down, from 10/1 to 6/1 likely thanks to more accurate analysis as well as people just getting better at detecting normal matter. How much of the change in the ratio is taken up by the discovery of extrasolar planets, or that neutrinos actually do have a tiny bit of mass? Yet, there is also a large amount that we can’t account for. There is also dark energy, which has no relation to the concept of dark matter. It’s just a term for the energy that might be causing the expansion of the universe to speed up. Yes, that’s a thing. And let’s not even get into quantum mechanics where things get really weird. Pretending everything is chugging along smoothly would also ignore the fact there are issues that are more political than scientific to be dealt with. That comes into play especially when scientists are delving into those strange and mysterious elements, the places we don’t understand. That’s because the discoveries that come from research into those poorly understood fields sometimes have implications for what we consider to be established science. Those who have made their careers on things like orbital mechanics, star formation, how gravity works, and so forth don’t much like people telling them their theories are wrong.&nbsp; Einstein himself fell prey to this. When he was still working out his theory of relativity the common understanding of the universe was a steady-state model. It had always been here much as we see it today. He and others were resistant to the Big Bang Theory that was getting peddled by one Fr. George Lemaitre. Einstein was so resistant he actually added a fudge factor into his equations called the cosmological constant that would make the answers compatible with a steady-state model. Einstein later removed it, calling it his greatest blunder.&nbsp; If Einstein didn’t care about having his preconceptions challenged, it’s no wonder that scientists today struggle with the same impulses, though now, it is perhaps even worse. There are various incentives to not rock the boat. Too many are primarily interested in getting tenure at their universities or getting their grant money from the government. Pursuing those goals rather than the truth means that new ideas aren’t just treated with suspicion, they can be flat out suppressed, holding back not just a particular scientist, but science as a whole, thus limiting our ability to understand the world around us. That is precisely why we need more openness, more transparency in our data so that others can go into it and research things for themselves and hopefully learn to be open to whatever the truth may be. What’s your data worth?  &nbsp; Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell...

The Cosmic Data Chasm. Why the Answers Lie in the Universe

How many of us live our lives locked in the rat race? Despite the belief that money can’t buy happiness, we can’t deny that a surplus of income can give people the opportunity to live comfortable lives. It is this driving force for a stable future that has pushed many bright-eyed graduates into corporate positions, where they are gridlocked into a specific routine or career path. Younger generations are working on introducing exciting new alternatives, such as increased work-life balance, remote jobs, and the rise of the gig economy. Conversely, corporations are also looking into new ways to accommodate this change in priority; interesting new policies such as a liquor room are briefly touched upon in the podcast. In this episode, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby are joined by Tania Katan as they discuss issues adjacent to the meaning of work, the value of money, and the opportunity to enliven the monotony of day-to-day life. Life Is A Stage: Alexander made interesting parallels between theater and office culture, in that everyone has a role they should play. One thought-provoking question he asked was whether people should sit within the confines of that role, or “add the nuances of you that makes you special.” At this point, Tania shared her roots in theater and how she eventually diverged from the path. She was excited to use her training as a writer in theater, but found a disconnect between the work she trained for and the work she actually ended up doing. This prompted her to work odd jobs on the side, such as telemarketing and bagging groceries. These diversions led to a big discovery: inadvertently, she had started inserting things she learned from theater into the routine of day-to-day life, to keep her and her colleagues entertained. The Suspension of Disbelief: According to Tania, the foundation of theater is the suspension of disbelief. Throughout the podcast, it’s a recurring motif as well: what if straight-laced professionals in rigid industries like business and finance learned to approach their work with the suspension of disbelief? It’s easy to slip into a certain persona when you dedicate yourself to a certain station and work routine eight hours a day, five days a week. The process can be comforting; but it can also be mind-numbing, and eventually restricting. This metaphorical carry-over between broadway and work is the same individuality that helped Tania find the inspiration to write her book and share her experiences. She discovered that there is always an opportunity to transform the environment and make an audience out of anybody, anywhere; whether it’s racing to make the largest number of customers smile, paying it forward amongst your workmates with a cup of coffee, or just taking a ten-minute break to stretch with your crew. It’s this attempt at bridging a connection and breaking the routine that can help everybody feel more alive. Creative Trespassing: In the podcast, Tania revealed that her book was entitled “Creative Trespassing” because she wanted to encourage creatives to encroach in spaces they are not necessarily welcomed in—or at least, where they are not invited through the front door. One particular salient point in their discussion included the issue of toxic workplaces, and where there is still an opportunity for this to happen. A call for structure and order means that businesses may not handle creative people very well; as a result, plenty of innovative minds become “lost” in the woodwork. To this, Tania explained that humans do have an innate ability to solve practical problems in new ways. Like any other skill, creativity requires active participation and engagement — it’s not just about companies finding ways to create comfort zones, but also about employees looking for ways to break out of that comfort zone. This means that there is definitely still a chance for creatives to flourish in high-pressure workspaces, and even be the reason for positive...

Creative Trespassing: How to Put the Spark and Joy Back Into Your Work and Life With Best Selling Author Tania Katan

Hot on the heels of our last article seems like a good time to think just a bit more about FOMO and its effects and how it is often used against us. For those just jumping in, FOMO is the Fear of Missing Out, a sense of anxiety that comes from being aware of or even just thinking there are cool things happening that you aren’t a part of. It’s fear that you are being left out and left behind by everyone around you. Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby discussed it in depth with the person who coined the term, Patrick McGinnis. I highly recommend you head over to T-Cast to check it out.&nbsp; FOMO is normally associated with social media but it certainly exists outside of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. FOMO in a sense is just another term for good old-fashioned peer pressure. If you think everyone is going to a party every weekend, you naturally think you should too. If you don’t you’re missing out and if you are worried about what people think about you (and let’s be honest, pretty much everyone does to some degree) then that will cause some anxiety. So most people will go out for some heavy drinking every night on the weekends. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good beer or whisky but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Indulging too much will not only lead to you doing a bunch of stuff you might not remember the next day, it also means you will likely need a couple of days to fully recover and be productive again.&nbsp; Chris Williamson, podcast host and motivational speaker was in a similar cycle when he realized that he was wasting a lot of time. He made the choice to quit drinking for a thousand days and upped his productivity by orders of magnitude, just by not giving in to the pull of the crowd, by not giving in to FOMO. It allowed him to stop and think about what he wanted to do, independent of everyone else. Suddenly, Chris had the freedom to exclude himself and be happy with that.&nbsp; Those kinds of situations are also exacerbated by social media. People post pictures of themselves having a great time day after day but never post the aftermath. They leave out the puking in the toilet, the crashed car, the stressing over bills, and everything else. It’s a distorted view of reality and a lot more people should probably take the Williamson route and step away a bit.&nbsp; Plenty of companies naturally make use of FOMO. Nearly every ad for every product or service is built on making you think you need something to be cool. Every cigarette ad back in the day had some ridiculously good-looking model taking a nice long drag on a lung dart. It was designed to make you think all the cool kids were doing it. It’s not much different from anything else, they want to get your attention and FOMO is an incredibly powerful tool for making that happen.&nbsp; Even if you don’t quite fit into the algorithms they will still be gunning for your attention and your wallet. It isn’t like the marketers stop sending you ads, they just spam you with random stuff until you click on something. Suddenly the algorithm has a hook and you might just find yourself with more ads related to that one thing. They’re trying to draw you into the way they see the world and get you to spend your money and time on what they want.&nbsp; How do you fight that? You realize what is happening, that these companies, while useful, are not your friend. They don’t want to be, they just want you to think so. Realizing what is going on enables you to make a choice, then change your behaviors and step away from the crowd, to choose your own path with your money, your data, and your time.&nbsp; What is your sovereignty worth? www.tartle.co &nbsp; Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe. &nbsp; The show is hosted...

Reflecting on FOMO and the Mindset of Patrick McGinnis

Is the granddaddy of crypto actually a currency? That’s one heck of a question, especially since many have touted it as exactly that. Bitcoin was supposed to be this decentralized thing that would allow regular people to buy and sell independently of any government system and its fiat currency. However, the way things have developed have prompted many to ask what Bitcoin actually is. Is it a currency, a commodity, or an asset?&nbsp; Well, it definitely is not a commodity. A commodity is a tangible good that can be used to actually make things. Its value comes from its usefulness and how much value society places on that use. Bitcoin by its nature is not tangible and can’t actually be used to make anything.&nbsp; What about currency? It is called a cryptocurrency after all. Yet, what makes something a currency? It has to be easily transported and transferred to another party at little or no cost. In a sense, Bitcoin is easy to transport because it is strictly digital. You can carry the code or the password to your Bitcoin account around with you in your pocket. However, transferring it is difficult. It actually costs far too much money in electricity and fees to move it from your account to another to justify using it to make purchases. Imagine buying a $1.50 cup of coffee for two hundred dollars just because of all the transfer costs. Not that buying such a small item with it is even possible. Bitcoin can only be divided so much, and given the value of a single Bitcoin, even a Satoshi (the smallest Bitcoin unit) is worth over three dollars as of this writing. That leaves its value as an asset. Anyone who bought Bitcoin ten years ago, or even two, and seen the value of their investment skyrocket in the time since will definitely attest to the currency’s value as an asset. If you dropped two hundred on it ten years ago and cashed out today, you would definitely be a millionaire several times over. In a way, it is even better than gold. This is because while that shiny rock does a great job storing value, it doesn’t really increase in value. What does that mean? Basically, you can use the same amount of gold to buy a suit today as you would have used fifty years ago. While it is worth more dollars than it was then, that’s only because the dollar is worth less. Yet, the value of gold remains the same, with minor fluctuations.&nbsp; Bitcoin however is currently increasing in dollar value at a pace that far exceeds inflation, making it a better investment for growth. At least for now. It has proven exceptionally volatile, increasing or decreasing in value by tens of thousands based on tweets from certain high profile people, or a government policy change.&nbsp; How did we get to that point? Why did Bitcoin reach a point where it isn’t a currency, and probably never will be? How did it become a valuable but volatile digital asset? Because it wound up being tied to the U.S. dollar. It didn’t necessarily need to be tied to the dollar but the investment behavior of many drove the public perception in that direction. As soon as people started talking about it in terms of dollars, the die was cast and now the coin that started it all is inextricably linked to a centralized fiat currency. Which in turn means that Bitcoin is now a centralized asset, though it is supported by a decentralized network.&nbsp; Perhaps the people behind Bitcoin dreamed too big. Maybe they didn’t understand the dangers of putting it out for everyone right away. It might have been different if that had begun smaller, in a specific ecosystem.&nbsp; TARTLEcoin for example is meant for use within the TARTLE ecosystem. It is something that anyone can earn through simple actions and can be easily transported and transferred in a matter of seconds at extremely low cost. It even has a specific value in that each one grants you priority when buyers are looking for data too. Everyone can access and use it and everyone knows exactly what it is for....

Bitcoin Is Not a Currency

When we’re so used to just following instructions, it can be tough to try and question who truly benefits in the grand scheme of things. We barely give a second thought when it comes to paying off our monthly dues to Netflix, Spotify, and whatever subscription business models we use to entertain ourselves. &nbsp; However, we need to start digging deeper. If we don’t start asking the right questions, we continue to feed a system that will shamelessly continue to take our information so that the nameless entities at the top will benefit.&nbsp; &nbsp; We also need to start looking into mobilizing on the grassroots level, looking for the right tools and equipment to empower our journey in reclaiming our data. &nbsp; In this podcast, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby engage in a quick question-and-answer style discussion on micropayments, data rights, and how we can use TARTLE to better humanity. &nbsp; Making Micropayments Possible &nbsp; We have plenty of payment platforms that allow us to send money to our loved ones and pay for services, regardless of location. However, they often come with hefty fees. This makes it difficult to send micropayments. &nbsp; As Alexander McCaig pointed out, micropayments are incredibly important in a world where most people live on less than two dollars and thirty cents a day. The fundamentals of this system do not work; online banking methods, and even bitcoin do not handle the process in a way that is fair for the user. Imagine paying more in fees just to pay for your streaming service, or send money to your family in your home country.&nbsp; &nbsp; The world needs a platform where people can send both small amounts and large sums as they need to, without any strings attached. No subscriptions or fees needed, nor personal data exchanged. &nbsp; And speaking of data… &nbsp; What’s With the Data Farming? &nbsp; Jason Rigby shared how, in the past, glass beads were used as a form of currency in Africa. However, other people saw an opportunity to mass-manufacture these beads in factories across Europe. On the surface, they looked like generous benefactors with plenty of beads to help the local economy— but behind the facade, they were not sourcing it economically nor considering the user at all. They successfully squeezed everything they could out of the locals. &nbsp; Fast forward to today and we find ourselves trapped in a similar situation. The monthly subscription business models offered by our favorite entertainment apps, like Spotify and Netflix, give us the opportunity to access all the music and shows we want—but at what cost? &nbsp; In this exchange, these companies get away with farming millions of people around the world for their data. It’s not just a hit to our privacy. It’s an avenue for them to earn at our expense. The underground data collection and massive aggregation of information. &nbsp; It’s time for us to mobilize and start the clamor for more equal rights. To do that, we need a platform where we are all treated as equals. &nbsp; That’s where TARTLE comes in. &nbsp; TARTLE: The Great Equalizer &nbsp; The TARTLE platform gives you the opportunity to earn at your own pace, with complete knowledge of what you’re getting into. No smoke and mirrors are attached to our offer; all you need to do is sign up, fill out data packets, and put it up for sale.&nbsp; &nbsp; In this way, you can make sure that you are earning money for causes that support humanity’s next step forward. On TARTLE, we are all sharing in the wealth of information. &nbsp; What’s your data worth? &nbsp; It’s time for you to find out.  &nbsp; TCAST is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe. &nbsp;  The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig...

Micro-Benefits With Micropayments: How to Get Your Money’s Worth

The bigger your dreams and ambitions, the tougher your setbacks and critics. Those who have followed the podcast or invested in the TARTLE platform since the start know that the marketplace is a product of years of hard work, research, funding, and more.&nbsp; &nbsp; It’s the brainchild of a group of people who want to use modern technologies for a noble goal: the evolution of humanity. &nbsp; In a world where we are becoming increasingly isolated from each other and individualistic in our movements, TARTLE is an opportunity to reconnect to the common thread that holds us together through the digital medium.&nbsp; &nbsp; Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby take the opportunity to take the internet trolls head-on and discuss: is the marketplace scamming us? &nbsp; Is TARTLE A Scam? &nbsp; Without wasting any time, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby jumped straight into the heart of the issue: some users may not have realized that to earn from the platform, time and effort is involved. &nbsp; Yes, the TARTLE marketplace aims to make data champions out of today’s netizens. But as netizens, you also have a responsibility to put in the work so that you can earn. The minute you register and connect your Paypal to your account, you can start filling out the data packets immediately.&nbsp; &nbsp; We don’t offer a get-rich-quick scheme for people looking to make easy money. Taking back control of our data is difficult. It does not just call for us to put in the physical work, but the mental work of changing our perspective as well.&nbsp; &nbsp; The power to earn comes with the responsibility to fill out data packets, put them up for sale, research on causes that we identify with, and wait for buyers from these causes to pick up the packets that have been filled out. &nbsp; It’s an opportunity for important causes to retrieve data directly from the source, and compensate you for your hard work as well. &nbsp; What TARTLE Stands For &nbsp; TARTLE hopes to become a platform that fosters data champions. The simple act of filling out a data packet is one step forward in empowering yourself to become more accountable and responsible over your data.&nbsp; &nbsp; At every step, you have full control over the opportunities given to you. Once you sign up, you choose the data packets you want to fill out. Once that’s over, you can sell it to companies or causes that are dear to you. &nbsp; It sounds simple because we’ve worked on making the platform as intuitive as possible. But being completely responsible for your data is a heady, empowering feeling. Imagine all the time and effort you put in Facebook, Twitter or Instagram is converted into payment and valuable data for the companies, organizations, and causes that you believe in.&nbsp; &nbsp; That’s what TARTLE can do for you. &nbsp; Closing Thoughts: The World With Big Data &nbsp; Technology is becoming increasingly complex, efficient, and all-encompassing. It’s evolving and we need to evolve alongside it as well. The question is, how involved are we in the progress of modern machinery? If we look at the entire process of logging onto the internet and interacting with our favorite websites and applications, do we still derive some benefit from our work at the end? &nbsp; Everybody deserves to be compensated for putting plenty of time and effort into a certain endeavor. When it comes to the internet, we deserve to be compensated for crafting a unique user identity. We currently live in a world where big tech corporations take our data and profit on it themselves. Doesn’t that sound more like a scam than the work done on the TARTLE platform? &nbsp; Don’t let the comfort of modern living distract you from asking: &nbsp; What’s your data worth?  &nbsp; TCAST is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on...

Is the TARTLE Marketplace a Massive Scam? Find Out Now

In this episode, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby compare gold, Bitcoin, and TARTLE. We’re looking at the evolution of money happening as we speak. To start the discussion, Jason Rigby introduces a Twitter thread written by a user with the handle @SovereignSaxon, on  of The Saylor Series. This episode covers how Bitcoin is a “harder, smarter, stronger, and faster technology,” and compares it to gold.&nbsp; Evaluating the “Hardness” of Gold vs Bitcoin Relative to other metals, gold is a little soft. But as an individual, it does have some hardness to it. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is harder because of its 21 million cap and stock to flow mechanism.&nbsp; Beyond this, Bitcoin is also more antifragile because its network becomes stronger when more machines process it and more people own it. With gold, the amount of machines working on the earth, as well as the labor that goes into processing it, is what determines the cost of gold. But increasing the manpower and labor won’t make that network of mining and logistics any stronger. In addition, gold is not as fast or as smart as Bitcoin. After all, Bitcoin doesn’t weigh anything—so nobody has to worry about the logistics of physically transporting gold from one place to another.&nbsp; Gold isn’t smart, either. It’s just rock, or as Alexander McCaig puts it, “a crystalline structure doing its thing.” This means that gold does not have the capacity to evolve to fit the needs of humanity, unless we change the system in which it operates ourselves. A Comparative Analysis Between Bitcoin and TARTLE What’s one way that TARTLE and Bitcoin are alike? TARTLE is flexible because the network evolves based on how people are using it. Bitcoin is composed of several elements: the software running on hardware, the hardware running in facilities that are plugged in the firm, the people operating and writing that software, and so on.&nbsp; The people within the Bitcoin ecosystem work on improving branches of the cryptocurrency on multiple levels. They’re improving the Square wallet, Binance exchanges, backend server exchanges, front-end client softwares, and more. Educators, communicators, analysts, and other experts from a wide variety of fields get to participate in the evolution of the network.&nbsp; The TARTLE Marketplace functions in a similar manner. It’s the same thing. That’s why our users are called data champions. But what elevates TARTLE is its structure: the platform is instantaneous, completely feeless, and ultra low-energy. This means that the processing power required to run our software is minimal, even across millions of apps.&nbsp; Closing Thoughts TARTLE is capable of adapting to whatever humanity needs it to be. The platform was built to be flexible. Creating data and putting value in that data will always be an important aspect of technology.&nbsp; The TARTLE Marketplace is different from Bitcoin because with the latter, there is only value in one area, which is the Bitcoin itself. In TARTLE, however, there are many millions of assets of different values. And people are free to change that as they see fit. What’s your data worth? &nbsp; TCAST is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe. The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby. What's your data worth? Find out at: https://tartle.co/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TARTLE Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial Spread the word!

Money, Work, Progress: How You Can Put More Meaning in Tech

All the data we can gather about a person can be used to create a map on the progression of debilitating diseases.&nbsp; How do we get genes to mutate for a positive benefit? How do we use machines to splice proteins and work on genetics? How can we improve our quality of life by removing the things that debilitate us, at the source code level? While we don’t have the answers to these questions just yet, we do have the data and resources to start searching now. We need to create a world where genetic engineering is a possibility for the people who need it the most. Unfortunately, our data isn’t being utilized for these pursuits. Stop Putting Profits Before People Your healthcare data is priceless and the fact that other companies are making you pay to submit it is absurd. Imagine what you can do with your genome data if it’s in the right hands. Instead of being used for a one-time service, your personal information can be a part of research trials for the cure to cancer.&nbsp; Aside from that, these companies are taking your money and your data, turning around, and using it for their own profit. For example, you pay $99 or $149, whatever the amount is, to get a DNA swab done. Those companies are turning around and using your data to generate 6-digit, or even 7-digit profits. In our current economic system, we’re letting the bigwigs get away with putting profit before people. And it’s time that we change how it works, while it’s not too late. Make Data More Accessible Even when scientists do make progress in the medical field, the effects are not always felt immediately. This is because we may not have adjusted our social infrastructures to accommodate these new technologies.&nbsp; One example is crime and justice from the 1980s to the 1990s. Since all the information on a certain location’s serial killers and murders existed in data silos, these criminals were free to just skip town once they started getting attention. Data shouldn’t be someone else’s cash cow. It’s a reflection of who we are—our habits, preferences, and individual history. Conclusion TARTLE was created to allow people to share their data and earn from their hard work. You are free to choose how much information you put up for sale, and who gets to buy them from you. At every step of the process, you are in charge. This is a stark difference from what you experience from big tech and genetics companies. We bet you never knew you could earn from the data you were giving them. It’s time to change how things operate. What’s your data worth? TCAST is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe. The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby. What's your data worth? Find out at: https://tartle.co/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TARTLE Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial Spread the word!

How TARTLE May, One Day, Save Your Life

When was the last time you had the freedom to pursue things you were curious about? These activities are key to unlocking our peak performances. Find out more in this illuminating episode with our special guest, Steven Kotler. &nbsp; What motivates you? &nbsp; It’s a simple question that can be answered in a variety of ways. You can look at extrinsic motivators, which are things in the world that you work hard to get. Examples of this include money, sex, fame, a new house, and car. &nbsp; And then you can also have intrinsic motivators. This includes goal-setting, grip, passion, curiosity, purpose, autonomy, and mastery.&nbsp; &nbsp; When we discuss cultivating motivation, we’re discussing how we can align and tune-up that entire stack of skills. Steven Kotler concedes that this isn’t an easy feat—but when you finally get the hang of it, the benefits are extraordinary. &nbsp; You may think that this isn’t something you’re capable of doing. Maybe you feel different from the “greats” of this world. But in this episode, Steven Kotler and Alexander McCaig disprove that mindset. The reality is you are just as capable of peak performance as any other athlete. &nbsp; It’s the first basic point of Steven Kotler’s book: all human beings are foundationally hardwired for peak performance. Our biggest challenge is learning how to work with our natural biology so that we seamlessly enter a flow sequence that empowers us to become our best selves. What Happens if I Just Push Through? What’s our instinctive response to getting something done? We try using raw grit to push ourselves through the task. And grit is trainable, but you have to work at it by pushing yourself slightly harder than you want to every single day. Grit without flow is a recipe for burnout. &nbsp; The way our system is wired, we need to get some flow from an activity before we’re comfortable enough with learning how to get gritty. &nbsp; Extrinsic motivators can only do so much in propelling us forward. Once we get what we want, we need to start asking ourselves: what else can we look forward to?&nbsp; &nbsp; This is where intrinsic motivators come in. And Steven Kotler believes that it’s best to start with curiosity. Look for different curiosities that introduce more passion into your life. Learn things that catch your eye: read some books, watch a movie, listen to a lecture, take a quick class…there are so many ways to feed your curiosity. &nbsp; Once you start cultivating them, you can really start looking for where they overlap and intersect. And then you can start building something that’s uniquely your own from these intersections—something that fuels your passion because it gives you all the dopamine you need to focus. &nbsp; It’s important to think of achieving peak performance as a marathon, not a sprint. This won’t happen overnight.&nbsp; It’s all about getting a little today and a little tomorrow, until everything compounds into the peak mindset we’re looking for. The Role of Autonomy in Motivation What does our personal autonomy have to do with cultivating motivation? This was a salient part of the discussion, as TARTLE is an advocate for human rights. &nbsp; If you have to do something that is not of your own choosing, Steven Kotler believes that the best way forward is to find something in the task that affords an opportunity for mastery. &nbsp; At this point, Alexander McCaig shares his personal experience with rowing. Sure, it helped him get through college and he was pretty good at it. But he did not have any motivation for the sport.&nbsp; &nbsp; “My life became a function of how low can you get a specific number over a set distance. That was the mastery, right? How do I get there? How do I get there the most efficiently?” Alexander McCaig shared, “Everything else, it paid for me to go to university at the time and all that other good stuff. But it wasn't truly something I had any passion towards. I...

Does Tested Neuroscience Have Anything Useful to Say On Performance? With Steven Kotler

Do you think you have a healthy relationship with money?&nbsp; It’s true that money can’t buy happiness. However, it does give us the security and stability we need as humans to better pursue it. So let’s take a look at the process of distributing money, our relationship with the government, and how we can improve it. Money as a Social Construct Why is money valuable? It’s only because we decide it is. In the past, we’ve turned to other stores of value to determine what we should use as a currency. We’ve used glass beads, salt, and even speckled granite. &nbsp; So, who has the power to control our money—and by extension, an important aspect of our society? By virtue of our inaction, that responsibility falls in the hands of central bankers. The problem is that this has become the reflection of a society’s worth. Regardless of where you are from, someone else is in charge of controlling the flow of money.&nbsp; &nbsp; But with TARTLE, we have the power to invert that model. You decide how much your information is worth, and no one else. How Does Liquidity Affect Us? It’s like a dam: when somebody controls the flow of a certain asset, then it affects its liquidity and volatility. Someone is manufacturing demand and supply for it. This makes people feel like they constantly have to be on guard, in case there are market changes that affect their standing. &nbsp; With TARTLE, the liquidity of data is instantaneous.&nbsp; &nbsp; With TARTLE, you don’t have to worry about running out of information. Regardless of whether you are a buyer or a seller, information is being created every single day. It’s not valuable because you have to bulk up ahead of a shortage in supply. It’s valuable because inherently, information is power. There is no reason to act in fear or to try to pre-empt anything because everybody has all the information and opportunity they need to participate. And there is no limitation to the amount of information you can have—especially on TARTLE. What Does Trust Have to Do With It? The younger generation does not trust the government. Alexander McCaig clarifies that he isn’t trying to create a problem with this statement. There’s no need to open a new government or anything drastic. The reality is just that people want choice—and when their work has been devalued, they will merely find the path of least resistance. Better options to fund a good quality of life. &nbsp; When the government is asking its citizens to place its trust in the dollar, it’s asking them to have faith in the market even if they do not have all of the facts. To let them control it for you.&nbsp; &nbsp; But trust implies that both sides are open with their decision-making, and transparent about everything.&nbsp; Closing Thoughts Everybody deserves a platform where their personal autonomy, capacity for choice, and need for consent are respected. A marketplace built on transparent reciprocity, where everyone is rewarded for their hard work. &nbsp; What’s your data worth? https://www.tartle.co

Money, Society, and Choice: What’s Trust Got to Do With It?

We are used to thinking that the universe revolves around us. That nothing superior to humanity could ever exist. But realistically, our time is only a small fraction in the billions and trillions of years that the universe has been in existence. &nbsp; In this episode, Dr Avi Loeb returns to the podcast for a deeper dive into what the universe has to offer—and how human ego is preventing our capacity for human progress. You Are Not That Special Once upon a time, the biblical story of Abraham and Lot was written. The lives of these two coincided with the arrival of a meteor that obliterated the entire region.&nbsp; &nbsp; Religious narrative explains that this was a manifestation of God’s wrath. The city of Sodom was destroyed because of the sinfulness of its inhabitants. But the alternative is that it could have just been about a meteor that happened to hit that city. &nbsp; Dr Avi Loeb’s point is that the narrative does not necessarily put humans at the center of a big event. This rock was heading for a collision course with Earth long before Sodom was constructed and inhabited by people who sinned. &nbsp; For people to deserve punishment, we must assume that free will is a possibility. But how does this align with the reality that the meteor was already on its way to Earth millions of years before these people were even conceived?&nbsp; &nbsp; These are interesting contradictions to think about. They are borne out of humanity’s desire to assign meaning and purpose to these events, with us at the center of everything. A Small Blip on an Infinite Timeline Consider this: our recorded history only covers the past 10,000 years. &nbsp; The amount of time it took for humans to create, develop, and launch rockets to the nearest star spans 50,000 years. &nbsp; And stars were formed billions of years before the sun. &nbsp; What does this tell you? It means that humanity is grappling with vast distances and incredibly long time scales. If there are other alien civilizations out there, it’s presumptuous to assume that they are the same as us. &nbsp; What’s likelier is that they may not be synchronized with our progress, not just temporally but in terms of tech advancement as well. It wouldn’t be wise to assume that our existence has a massive impact on the entire timeline of the universe. Is Superiority the Root of All Evil? Human history has shown that groups of people are consistently trying to become superior over others. You only need to look at the results of the Second World War and the Nazi regime to see how destructive it can be to feel superior.&nbsp; &nbsp; So what would help unite us and prioritize our equality? &nbsp; Dr. Avi Loeb believes we need to accept that we are not the smartest kid on the block. If there are alien civilizations, it’s more than possible that they have progressed faster and further than we have.&nbsp; &nbsp; All our genetic differences are insignificant and meaningless. The Nazi doctrine, and other radical ideologies that seek to discriminate, will lose meaning. &nbsp; “We will perhaps have more respect towards each other and regard all of us as equal members of the human species because there is a smarter kid on the block. How can you brag if there is someone much better than you are?” Dr. Avi Loeb points out. Closing Thoughts What good is our technology if we only use it to advance a particular niche that does not help the totality of human understanding? Take a closer look at what’s being developed and you’ll notice that the benefits of these innovations are not always aligned with humanity. We need to stop advancing technology just for the sake of making bigger and better-looking technologies. &nbsp; To guarantee our preservation, we need to humble ourselves and bring our focus back to humanity. We won’t progress if we don’t unite. We won’t know more if we’re too afraid to disprove the theories we hold so close and dear to ourselves. And we won’t know how to...

The First Step to Helping Science and Human Progress with Dr. Avi Loeb

This episode explores the concept of universal basic income. What if we were given a standard amount to afford our basic needs? How would it affect us, especially individuals in dire situations? And how can we make it a possibility? Restoring Human Dignity Plenty of people across the world struggle to secure their day to day needs, even in developed countries. Poor living conditions, unstable and unsteady income, and an uncertain future—all these factors combine to create a state of fear that makes it impossible for individuals to evolve. Universal basic income is an opportunity to give people a basic energetic need. It allows people to uplift themselves. It respects their inherent human dignity and liberates them from the struggle of fulfilling basic needs, which is something no human should ever have to shoulder on their own. Financial Security as a Right, Not a Privilege We may not realize it, but so much of our success depends on the luck of the draw. Isn’t it unfair to think of how the birth lottery determines a significant part of our personalities, environment, and future? With universal basic income, we give everyone access to one of the simplest, yet most important determinants for success: money. The emotional and mental stability you get from knowing that you can afford three meals a day and a roof over your head is often understated. It is only when our basic needs are fulfilled that we can hope to evolve. TARTLE’s Advocacy for Universal Basic Income “We are at the beginning stages of the greatest use case from mankind on universal basic income.” - Alexander McCaig All TARTLE participants receive daily cash rewards from the platform. And as more people sign up, we may see these daily payouts increase as well. This is possible because as more data enters the platform, and more information becomes protected, the value of this information increases. Each individual that signs up for TARTLE increases the overall marketplace value of the data that they submit.&nbsp; So you don’t just get the opportunity to finally take control of your data. You also have the chance to make basic income accessible for yourself and your loved ones. Sign up for TARTLE .

How You Can Benefit from Universal Basic Income

Big tech is making some big moves on your personal information. Now, they’re making it look good by dressing it up with some fun statistics. For example, Spotify Unwrapped gives you a list of all the music you’ve listened to the most in the past year. Google Maps has a similar function. It compiles a neat list of all the countries, cities, and places you’ve visited. It’s time to call this out for what it is: they’re showing you all the personal information they’ve gathered from you, and are keeping it in their systems.&nbsp; The Crown Jewel of Data: Location Your location data is critical information. We’ve seen journalists, politicians, and gamers doxed for one thing or the other on the internet. In this episode, Alexander and Jason discuss how a Catholic priest was . This happened because they tracked his location using Grindr, and found that he was visiting gay bars and private residence from 2018 to 2020. They concluded that it was his phone based on the location data as well. “A mobile device correlated to Burrill emitted app data signals from the location-based hookup app Grindr on a near-daily basis during parts of 2018, 2019, and 2020 — at both his USCCB office and his USCCB-owned residence, as well as during USCCB meetings and events in other cities.” - The Pillar That’s highly specialized location data. Three years of the priest’s whereabouts, being logged and stored by the app. And a data vendor was all it took to ruin his entire life. Getting Something for Free? Then You’re the Product Should he have been a priest if he was a closeted homosexual? That’s not what we’re trying to answer here. The core of this issue is that someone tracked this individual’s private choices and exposed them without their consent, without them even being aware that they were tracked in the first place. Those fun end-of-the-year summaries on your app activity aren’t for free. They are blatantly telling you that you are the product, and you can have your data weaponized against you without your knowledge. That’s the kind of chaotic world we can expect with the inevitable weaponization of data. Protect Your Data. Join TARTLE. This is a wake-up call for you to start being more vigilant about who and where you share your data. You need to own the information you create on your gadgets. Those are your personal assets and you worked hard to create them. With TARTLE, you can take that information into your hands and choose to share it on your time, at your pace. Stop letting third parties and vendors take that away from you. Your choice, your time, your data. Sign up for TARTLE . - Tcast is brought to you by TARTLE. A global personal data marketplace that allows users to sell their personal information anonymously when they want to, while allowing buyers to access clean ready to analyze data sets on digital identities from all across the globe. The show is hosted by Co-Founder and Source Data Pioneer Alexander McCaig and Head of Conscious Marketing Jason Rigby. What's your data worth? Find out at ( https://tartle.co/ ) Watch the podcast on YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC46qT-wHaRzUZBDTc9uBwJg ) Like our Facebook Page ( https://www.facebook.com/TARTLEofficial/ ) Follow us on Instagram ( https://www.instagram.com/tartle_official/ ) Follow us on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/TARTLEofficial ) Spread the word!

What Big Tech is Doing With Your Data and Why You Should Be Afraid

How long have you been waiting for your life to begin? How much control have you given other entities over your future? We’ve created an economic system that judges the worth of entire societies based on their money. And for the longest time, we’ve confirmed that value. We continually accept this judgment and place our faith in it.&nbsp; But really, we’re all living in a shared fiction. The one percent we’re trusting to create a better world for humanity, composed of central bankers and larger regulators, is crippled with red tape, bureaucracy, and even corruption.&nbsp; Preparing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution The fourth industrial revolution is a pivot towards intensive, data-driven measures. We’ll be moving from the physical world to the digital. The internet of things, the metaverse, Web 3.0—all these initiatives involve more data. It’s important that we have the tools we need to position ourselves strategically as this change occurs. So let’s talk about how TARTLE helps individuals secure their economic privacy and economic liberty. On TARTLE, you are capable of choosing between sharing your information and keeping it to yourself. Conversely, you can also fine-tune your data packets so that you only get the information you need for your business. No bloatware involved. Both paths create value for you—even when you decide that you want to limit the data you’ll be giving, you create an environment of scarcity.&nbsp; With economic liberty, TARTLE acknowledges that your data is your right. By extension, your decision to use it creates economic gain for yourself. You have the choice over how much financial gain and economic empowerment is possible, regardless of whether you are a buyer or a seller on the platform. TARTLE safeguards your economic privacy and economic liberty by providing a place where you are in complete control of your information. You can trust that every transaction you make is fair on both ends. Closing Thoughts Our current system calls for us to believe that other entities have your best interests at heart, so there’s no need for you to take any action. But there’s no proof that they do. And you’re giving up so much of your freedoms in exchange for their participation. This must be a significant factor in why people love cryptocurrencies. Despite the steep learning curve and risk, you are the sole owner of your wallet and key. No-one else can take control of it, and nobody needs to ask for the bank’s permission to do anything. We deserve a system that shows us an immediate outcome for our hard work. This is where TARTLE comes in.&nbsp; We built this platform so humanity could determine the value of society by their work, and give individuals an opportunity to learn how to monetize their own information. Let’s take back our information. On TARTLE, we are in control. Let’s learn to say this: What I do is my business. Find out more about how TARTLE helps you connect to your data and other important causes through this link .

How to See Beyond the Shared Fiction in Modern Economies

Here are some issues worth mulling over when it comes to the development of AI: data protection. Biased decision-making. Bias in employment. The social impact on the environment. The future of warfare.&nbsp; What are your thoughts regarding the impact of tech innovation on humanity? Don’t you think you deserve to have a say when it comes to how technology is being developed? In this episode, Alexander McCaig welcomes Bernd Stahl back on the TCAST. The pair navigate some important questions regarding the ethics of artificial intelligence, and the impact of its progress. The Trickle-Down Effects of AI One issue Alexander raised was regarding the top-down hierarchical approach that’s commonly been used in many different kinds of organizations, throughout the history of humanity. This approach usually backfires because all the power to decide is concentrated in the hands of an elite few. As a result, the people who form the base of the top-down approach are dependent on them. However, AI can be developed in a way that would enable resource-holders to directly analyze the general public, using ethically-sourced data to power their algorithms. Through direct interaction with the communities that they want to research and develop, the benefits of future technology can better tickle down to those who need it the most.&nbsp; But this system also poses risks, especially when the people who are being studied do not have a say in the amount of data that is taken from them. With this, Alexander raises the idea of allowing people to choose which data can enter these systems and be analyzed.&nbsp; Discussing the Deadlock in AI and Ethics To this, Bernd discusses the magnitude of this initiative. While the European Union is trying to achieve this through its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Bernd points out that it can be difficult for the individual data subject to communicate their desires to the data collectors. In addition, data regulation needs to account for changes in consumer’s preferences over time because as humans, we aren’t very consistent in what we want.&nbsp; Due to the complexity of this relationship, history has developed in a way that allowed companies to accumulate the resources and the power to benefit the most from AI. There is a strong recognition that this imbalance is problematic. It’s inequitable, it does not help humanity evolve or enforce equality, and it does not give the disenfranchised the best chances to succeed in life through technology. So Alexander raised the question: what if we could work towards a collective decision on how we define the ethics and outcome of AI systems? If we agree on our vision of the future and focus our efforts on that as a collective, we could better inform the AI algorithms and help direct them to a clearer path. One that is in favor of humanity.&nbsp; However, Bernd pointed out that vast differences in preferences and moral stances can make it difficult for us to agree on one clear direction.&nbsp; Closing Thoughts AI is capable of helping us. This is undisputed. One area that Bernd believes AI can be most utilized is in medicine. For example, personalized medicine can look into the genome sequencing and medical history of an individual, and run it against other samples. This would potentially empower scientists, providing the information they need to tailor a specific combination of pharmaceuticals so that individuals can get bespoke treatment. But are we maximizing the potential of our technologies, or allowing those seated in power to take a hefty cut of the benefits for their vested interests? Bernd likened the creation of AI to the discovery of fire. If we could ask the first person to figure out what fire was to predict how vital it would be to the evolution of humanity, they would have no idea how to respond.&nbsp; We can only work on what we know. This is why Bernd Stahl recommends looking at AI with continuous reflection and assessment. We need to...

Are We Really In Control Of Tech Development and Innovation? With Bernd Stahl

In this episode, we continue covering history’s biggest lessons.&nbsp; We now find ourselves in 1975, when the United States experienced its biggest population boom ever. This boom led to an increase in people looking for jobs—and a massive deficit in the government’s capacity to provide. From 1975 until now, the people on the ground faced two problems: first, wages stopped increasing; and second, the value of money was decreasing. This means that we are working twice as hard to earn only half as much. The advent of the internet connected people like never before. But at the same time, they’re getting left behind. The American Dream is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve, and people are still exposed to the same imagery of a Great America.&nbsp; The Rise of Debt How do you influence the favor of the masses? Thatcher’s answer was to give free housing to low-income individuals in the United Kingdom. After that, she decides to introduce mortgages. This effectively turns people into debtors. What started as something good turned into a new form of slavery. “You're paying with money that is continually worth less where you have to work more to buy yourself out of something you never even own,” Alexander explained. In the United States, Reagan decides to deregulate credit. This gave way for Wall Street to begin financing extensively. In turn, everything starts to become more expensive. Everything is just artificial building stimulated by artificial growth. At the end of the day, your wages aren’t going up. As an ordinary person, you’re still in the rat race all day long. It’s a vicious cycle of having to borrow more money to finance a standard of living that you are expected to maintain. All this is happening against the backdrop of world events like the rise of the Berlin Wall, the fall of communism, the Silicon boom, offshore manufacturing, and the rise of nations. Closing Thoughts Politics is downstream of economics. Throughout history, the system has been twisted to favor the welfare of the one percent. When we look toward the future, we have to start being proactive. This entails creating the tools and platforms that the people on the ground need to claim personal responsibility and free themselves from a vicious cycle of earning less, incurring debt, and working more. Start supporting these platforms now. Sign up for TARTLE&nbsp;.

Why're We Working Harder But Earning Less? Problems With the Economy

Let’s use history and the evolution of technology to talk about adoption rates. In the past, technological development was heavily associated with warfare. Private enterprise was the driving force behind the transformation of longbows and broadswords to trebuchets and siege engines. Notice how this meant that development was placed in the hands of the wealthy and the influential. Today, we ask ourselves: what happens when the tech advantage is given to individuals? What if the ordinary people are empowered, through technology, to rise above being pawns of the one percent? How Do We Avoid the Future of Warfare? One of the biggest concerns we face as a collective is the transition of warfare. In the future, the internet will be the platform upon which entities and governments wage war. This will continue to loom over us if the state continues to define for people what their data is and how it should be used. And this is a recurring problem in many aspects of our lives. Decision making is centralized. Most of the time, we’re waiting for somebody else to tell us what to do as part of an overarching system. “That's what's been happening. People have given up their freedom to external hopes and beliefs. And then they turn around, and then the outcome that they're promised, never happens. No matter who you are, whether you're Conservative, or Liberal, or Democrat, Republican, or Socialist Party, or Marxist Party, it doesn't matter,” Jason explained. Unless we decide to come together and use the internet for fostering human understanding, we won’t be able to change our path. Closing Thoughts Today, businesses are fundamentally supported by data. And in the future, it will only be supported by data. Unless you have the data to pre-empt your business decisions and stay ahead of the curve, you may not be able to keep up with these changes.&nbsp; This doesn’t hold true for businesses alone. Our digital identities as individuals will soon become a pivotal part of our freedom and autonomy. RELATED:  TARTLE is free to use. The platform was made to empower individuals and help them secure their rights. This is their opportunity to achieve financial emancipation through the sharing of their data. With high adoption rates and no barriers to entry, TARTLE is an opportunity for people to use a free technology that is capable of helping them gain financial stability. This is a symbol of hope, meant to help uplift the common man. Let’s make TARTLE the largest distribution of wealth recorded in history.&nbsp; Sign up for TARTLE .

Here's the Secret Behind Why TARTLE Grew Super Popular, Super Fast

What’s Your Money Worth? Today, we’re facing a money paradox. The cost of goods and services increase while your salary stays the same. On top of that, the quality of the goods and services that you can afford is decreasing. How many times have you taken a trip to the local supermarket and found yourself contemplating the cost of moldy fruits?&nbsp; When you look at global logistics and supply chains, it’s tough to think of how delays in one area can affect an entire ecosystem. But it’s the reality we live in today. The Suez Canal blockage of 2021 halted supply chains for a week, but the effects of that delay are expected to . Crop production and shipments affected by the Omicron outbreak and climate chaos have  of French fries around the world, particularly in Southeast Asian fast food chains. So what do we have to do? It’s time for the government to step in. Time to take out more debt to pay for these delays. But this is only a band-aid solution to a bullet wound. It’s one thing to have a shortage of good products in your local supermarkets and restaurants. But if your pay and purchasing power is not increasing alongside the price of goods and services as well, something is wrong.&nbsp; Stepping Into the Future This episode is scheduled for release on May 26, 2022. Here are Alexander and Jason’s fearless forecasts for the year ahead.  The global supply chain will continue to experience delays for the rest of the year.&nbsp; Prices will remain high. Inflation rates will rise to 10 or 15 percent. Asset prices increase. The world starts transitioning to micro manufacturing.  The last forecast is particularly noteworthy because it’s the start of a new system. People will stop relying on a fragile way of doing things and start creating smaller, more robust networks. One challenge to having an incredibly interconnected network was that people started relying heavily on others to conduct business. While this meant that products could be manufactured faster and cheaper, it compromised their quality.&nbsp; And beyond the products themselves, it also affected our capability for self-sustenance. The resurgence of craftsmanship isn’t coincidence. The idea is that today’s generation wants to feel a sense of community and identity. They want to know that when they purchase products, they were created locally and their decision to purchase is supporting local communities as well. It’s the same with TARTLE. You own 100 percent of your work and you are completely responsible for the creation and sharing of that information.&nbsp;If you want to be a part of the next wave of craftsmanship, community, and technology - you can sign up for TARTLE .

TARTLE's Big New Predictions on Money, Technology, and Society

Our pace of innovation comes at a heavy cost. The price of innovating new technologies has led to extensive environmental harm in the past few decades alone. So how can we come together and answer the climate emergency before it’s too late? Mark Jaccard has a keen focus on energy efficiency and systems. His work is dedicated to discovering how they should be used and engineered for our future. In this episode, Alexander McCaig discusses climate stability in the backdrop of Mark’s book, entitled The Citizen’s Guide to Climate Success. Making Climate Stability Possible Across Borders Awareness encourages political action. Policies that mitigate the emission of greenhouse gasses, for example, are going to be crucial in saving the environment. Mark Jaccard believes that this phenomenon is already happening in developed areas, such as Canada, the United States, and Europe.&nbsp; What’s important to consider is that we don’t have to make everybody agree. As Mark points out, the world has successfully acted on ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). While not everybody understood the full breadth of the problem, the governments of developed countries were prepared to act. However, Mark also believes that making climate stability a priority in developing countries will be one of the world’s most pressing issues. This is because while CFCs are mostly generated in developed countries, the bigger problem is in developing areas where inferior refrigeration technologies cause more harm to the environment.&nbsp; In addition, the level of awareness is much lower. It’s not just because of lower levels of education. The reality is also that people in developing areas have very different priorities. It’s difficult to tackle long-term and large-scale issues like the environment when your day-to-day welfare is constantly challenged. How We Can Ensure Climate Stability To effectively tackle the climate change issue, we need to address several realities. First, greenhouse gas emissions will continue to grow and will be especially prevalent in the developing world. Second, energy use on the planet will increase. Mark believes that preventing the worst of climate change calls for energy systems that don’t emit CO2, especially in the developing world. This is why, he explains, his book doesn’t just call for individuals to change their behavior. It’s also about how we can hold communities and governments, at large, accountable. To make this happen, Mark suggests global diplomacy. Tariffs and sanctions will send the message that the climate is a global problem, and you need to be a part of the solution. Since this kind of action takes place between governments, many view this as a top-down approach. However, Mark emphasizes that this approach needs to be paired with an effort to raise awareness on the ground. Fossil Fuels and the Growing Energy Crisis In addition, Mark believes that climate stability can be achieved when we refine our approach to fossil fuels. They produce plenty of quality energy (which Mark refers to as “exergy) and as we move away from fossil fuels, we can still use them by converting them into hydrogen and electricity, and capturing the carbon dioxide. For as long as humans exist, we will indulge in energy-intensive activities that hurt the environment. However, it is possible that as our quality of life improves, so does the rate of energy used per person. Mark points out that this is already occurring in Europe and North America.&nbsp; Also, we can invest in building additional infrastructures for fossil fuels so that we can still enjoy its high energy quality without harming the environment. This involves technologies that can capture the carbon dioxide out of the smoke stack and bury it underground. Closing Thoughts Preserving the environment for the generations after us is not an easy feat. We need to undo (or at least refine) several elements of our society that we’ve grown...

How to Succeed at Saving the Climate and Our Future With Mark Jaccard

The internet has become a massive, all-encompassing place for people from all walks of life to gather and share everything they’re passionate about. It can be a place to bond over hobbies like books, movies, music, and TV series. It could also be a tool for earning money. Stocks, cryptocurrency, forex, and other investment options have become more accessible to the people on the ground in this exciting new digital age. That’s why it’s no surprise to us, as Jason mentions, that creativity will soon run on the blockchain. The rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has allowed content creators and artists to publicize their work and create an unbreakable chain of ownership of their output. Take Your Phone Back Imagine we ask you for your phone and you give it to us. If you need to call, text, or access the internet, we’ll do it for you—all you need to do is tell us. We’ll type in your passwords, messages, and personal information. We’ll be your conduit to the internet. Sounds uncomfortable, right? But that’s what you’re letting big tech get away with today. With TARTLE, we turn that around. You get your phone back. We leave the room and give you the key to the door. That way, you can lock it from the inside whenever you want some time alone. We’ll knock to let you know if we’re coming in and if we do, we’ll give you the space and dignity you need as a fellow human being. Your rights are respected in our community. Make Good Choices, Get Better Outcomes According to Alexander, one of the most beneficial AI algorithms for a human being is one where people are allowed to say this: I made these choices. This is my outcome. And this outcome was not good for me. This gives us the power to analyze the course of our life, instead of just following where outside forces take us. On a wider scale, we could apply this concept of a digital ledger to government policy and trace the outcomes of its implementation.&nbsp; Alexander adds that humanity is bad at remembering. If we aren’t careful, we end up rehashing and slowing down our evolution. It’s time we endorse tools that help us pay attention, recognize patterns, and grow.Sign up for TARTLE through this link .

How We Benefit from TARTLE in Community, Memory, and the Future

The hardest thing for most human beings is to hold themselves responsible for their actions. If you can relate, there's no shame in that. It could be because it’s easier to ignore everything that didn’t work out in your favor, or because it’s easier to pass the buck to someone else. Maybe you’re used to delegating responsibility to other people. It can be difficult to strike a balance between fulfilling our tasks and making sure that we respectfully interact with the world around us. As humans, we have our limits—and our capacity to take on responsibility is shaped by the lives we live, the values we hold, and the people that we share our lives with. So what’s one way we can have a healthier relationship with responsibility? It doesn’t need to be this big problem you need to ignore or hand it to someone else. When we view responsibility as a burden instead of an opportunity, it can complicate our relationships with others and ourselves. We may find ourselves constantly on the offensive, rather than unifying and seeking understanding. Take Up Space. Reclaim Your Choices. Ironically, the choices we make to live an easy life make things harder in the long run. If we put off stretching because we feel lazy, our bodies break down faster. If we choose to binge on fast food and snacks because they’re delicious, our health deteriorates faster as well. This is also applicable on an emotional and social level. If we avoid voicing out our concerns or asking questions because we’re afraid of looking stupid or rocking the boat, we could bottle up assumptions and negative emotions until the situation becomes messy.&nbsp; It’s common to limit ourselves and try to take up as little space as possible. We’ve created technology and algorithms meant to run the markets on our behalf. But the reality is as humans, we’re built to experience much more.&nbsp; Closing Thoughts TARTLE is built to reward honesty, responsibility, and good decisions. When you reclaim your ability to inner engineer your actions, you can reorient your path in a more positive direction. You can use all that data you’re giving away for free to fund your lifestyle, track and improve your decisions, support causes that you care about, and more. It’s time to ditch the path of least resistance. Responsibility is empowerment. Informed choice is connection. You have final human freedom. Use it to sign up for a platform that respects your autonomy&nbsp;.

Empower Yourself and Benefit! Sign Up for TARTLE Now

Your government is a Ponzi scheme. Yes, we’re talking about all governments. Think of all the money being printed out by the central bank just to cover all the debt that’s being incurred, while they’re simultaneously encouraging more investors to enter the system. It’s a long cycle of paying earlier investors with funds from recent investors, and all that debt gets transferred to the shoulders of the general public. Yes, people like you. So much social engineering goes into making sure that you are controlled by money. The truth is it’s just a piece of paper. “It's no longer actual, like a certificate to trade it back in for gold or something else. It's a note. It's debt. We're just, we're throwing debt around, you work so someone else can print more and make your work worth less,” Alexander explained. As the system grows, more people join, earn debt, and pay back into it. The people issuing are the ones who get more funds. The ones at the top are earning big. The one thing that the government cannot regulate, no matter how hard they try, is trade. Trade is incredibly dynamic and grows alongside humans. It adapts and comes from all different areas. It’s a core human activity—one that TARTLE is passionate about preserving. Here’s the Key. Unlock Your Cage. Your existence is highly improbable. Imagine the long list of successful choices your ancestors make so that you could become a living, breathing, and thinking being.&nbsp; Going through the daily motions of working, eating, and sleeping can make it difficult to think of the bigger picture. But you deserve to have opportunities where you can connect, find meaning, and explore the world around you. No false sense of scarcity. No limits. TARTLE was made to allow that sense of independence and connection. On this platform, all transactions occur exclusively between a buyer and a seller. Everything on the platform comes with no strings attached and was made because someone worked hard to create it. Conversely, everything you bring to the platform is borne out of your own efforts. You will get paid for your hard work and no one else. Transact in truth. Act with power. It’s time to step out of that cage. Sign up for TARTLE through this link .

Expectations vs Reality on Human Progress, Experience, & Our Existence

If you are an entrepreneur, you can probably relate to that adrenaline rush or feeling of butterflies in your stomach when you first opened your business. Regardless of whether your business failed or succeeded or you’ve moved on to another venture, there was that one point where everything chaotic suddenly focused on one main target.&nbsp; That’s the beauty of entrepreneurship. It’s an opportunity to engineer new things, tinker with novel ideas, and contribute to the evolution of a product or service. Alexander likened this process to that of walking into a forest and finding the perfect flower. “I have to slowly change my path. I have to change the time of day when I go out there. When is the sun going to hit? Is it going to be in bloom?” he explained.&nbsp; “It's that tinkering. It's that acting over, and over, and over, and over through the randomness of everything occurring in this forest, in this total ecosystem. And I funneled through the entropy and found that just small changes have led me towards a solution.” Government Regulation is Pesticide One of the biggest reasons why entrepreneurs fail is a lack of cash flow. And as it turns out, the currency used plays a pivotal role in this problem. In the podcast, Alexander and Jason mull over Breedlove’s article, entitled&nbsp;, which discusses how Bitcoin can shift the store of value beyond debt and into a decentralized network. This would stabilize businesses and allow them to operate at incredibly low costs. In this scenario, Bitcoin isn’t just a store of value, but the system that your business operates in. A decentralized network allows businesses to take action on their own, instead of fighting everyone else for grants or struggling to come up with the capital to pay upfront. However, the value of Bitcoin can still be manipulated. When it comes to providing a platform where people know that their work is secured and is identified as their property. TARTLE is superior.&nbsp; Sign up for TARTLE through this link&nbsp;

How TARTLE is a Symbol of Hope and Change

How do you understand the metaverse? It’s on its way and it’s going to change the world. One day, you will have the power to load all of your senses into the online space. You’ll see, hear, and touch a digital landscape. And at the pace that this technology is developing right now, we may even be smelling and tasting things online as well. &nbsp; The pace of innovation we are experiencing today was first made possible with Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG), especially World of Warcraft (WoW). The opportunity to charge into battle as a worgen hunter or draeneian priest captured everyone’s imagination. This was your chance to train a highly customized character in an open world with its own economic system, political controversies, and social structure. A few years later, the next big step is taken: virtual reality headsets. You’ve effectively gone from a third-party perspective of another world to a first-person point of view.&nbsp; Preserving Humanity in the Metaverse Before the metaverse can happen, Alexander and Jason discuss the benefits of developing augmented reality even further. It’s the next natural step in the evolution of technology; the chance to “overlay our eyeballs.”&nbsp; We can swap out the physical world for a full immersion into a digital landscape.&nbsp; While this would be a massive step forward for humanity, a lack of people-centered foresight could mean that augmented reality (and subsequently, the metaverse) may become a place that brings out the worst in people.&nbsp; Imagine how emboldened trolls are on social media platforms, and then take it up a notch. Those trolls will have the same access to avatars and the metaverse that you do. They’ll hide behind the same tools that you use to connect with other people—and the scary part is that they might not have to face any penalties for their behavior. Closing Thoughts The TARTLE metaverse exists so that people have the opportunity to understand their self-worth. It’s a platform that treats people as empowered individuals instead of animals on a data farm. Eventually, we will be exploring a world without physical boundaries. Amidst all these changes, we need to ensure that the technologies we develop continue to put humans first. Sign up for TARTLE through this link .

Beware of the Avatar: TARTLE's Mission to Make the Metaverse Humane

Here are some things you need to know about the metaverse.&nbsp; First off, Alexander and Jason believe that the metaverse is an individual human’s choice on what they say is their reality. Second, it’s not some far-off end goal that your grandkids are eventually going to discover. The metaverse is already starting to happen in the here and now.&nbsp; Lastly, the lines between the physical and the digital have blurred significantly. When we rely on our perception to decide on our definition of reality, what happens to our values, beliefs, and relationships when we have the technology needed to simulate all the physical aspects of this world?

Are We Safe in the Metaverse? Why Only TARTLE Can Help

According to the World Bank, the global poverty line stands at $1.90. It’s the bare minimum people need to afford basic needs. Of course, there’s more to poverty than money. The lack of access to other non-monetary indicators like education, water, electricity, and sanitation, to name a few, all work together to create a multidimensional system that keeps people entrenched in poverty.&nbsp; But if we can eliminate at least one facet of such a complex system, then we will already have succeeded. The elimination of one crucial aspect of poverty can give people the foundation they need to go beyond. This is what TARTLE wants to commit to with the Data Packets for Good campaign. We want to help individuals living in a constant state of fear, who need the opportunity to empower themselves. Through intensive research and survey of our own users, we’ve discovered that we have the ability to move people above the global poverty line.&nbsp; In this campaign, you do not need to be a TARTLE user. For only $2.78, you have the power to move a family out of the poverty line for a day. Your entire contribution goes directly to these people who are in deep need of economic opportunity.&nbsp; You have the power to help someone secure their next meal and focus on improving other aspects of their life: education, livelihood, and moving out of poverty as a whole. Sign up for the Data Packets for Good campaign .

TARTLE's Secret Campaign to Stop Poverty Today is Out NOW

Virtual reality has come a long way from its inception. If you can think back far enough, back to when virtual reality (VR) was first breaking into the mainstream in the mid-1990s, it was solely the realm of video games. You put your head into some sort of gigantic helmet and grabbed a couple of glorified joy sticks and essentially stumbled around in an environment that looked something like Tron. Of course, as with many new technologies, a rough start was only the beginning of the story. There were those who saw the potential of where VR could go and they kept working at it. By the early two thousands, that gigantic helmet became a gigantic visor that still had a bunch of cables coming out of it but at least got you into a much better virtual environment. Now, in the popular mainstream there are the very small and light Oculus VR goggles that connect to your phone via Bluetooth. You still look like you’re in a video game but that isn’t really a pejorative anymore given what the modern video game is capable of. Of course, that is the mainstream affordable VR technology available today. What kind of a capabilities are available to entities like universities, corporations, and governments with massive budgets? Basically, they make the Oculus look like a Mr. Professor from the 1980s. One of the most interesting and undeniably cool uses of VR being explored right now is in training fighter pilots. Using VR to train pilots has a lot of advantages since flying a fighter is inherently dangerous, even outside of combat. The modern fighter jet easily costs tens of millions, with the most recent F-35 running around $80 million. That, plus the life of the pilot are big things to risk every time a new pilot takes it out for his first few solo runs. Being able to get tens or hundreds of hours of virtual time flying such a complex machine under a pilot’s belt before actually sitting in the real cockpit can minimize those dangers.&nbsp; How do they go about it? Project Avenger (under the auspices of the US Navy) uses state of the art equipment like traditional simulators but also lower cost virtual reality simulators that are much more available, giving pilots more virtual hours than ever before. They can also be outfitted with suits than have more sensors than the latest Mars rover, allowing analysts to track the pilots’ physical responses like temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and more – in addition to the specific data on how they are flying. All of that data can help make pilots better, analyzing when they are banking, how hard they are climbing, and relate all of that to the stresses that both the aircraft and the body are able to take.&nbsp; So, does it work? Absolutely! Pilots are getting to their solo flights up to 50% faster thanks to the integration of virtual reality and analysis of source data into the training program. That means as Project Avenger develops and becomes part of the standard pilot training for all branches of the military (let’s face it, Space Force is going to jump on this), trainees will get to their squadrons not just faster, but better pilots than they would have otherwise.&nbsp; Of course, there are plenty of other potential uses for VR-based training. Surgeries, underwater welding, and crane operating can all be practiced risk free in a VR environment, allowing people to make their mistakes and ‘work out the kinks’ before they put on the gear and go do it for real.&nbsp; All of this shows the importance of source data in developing new programs and products. The Navy is building better pilots by working closely with them and directly acquiring and analyzing their data, in turn making the Navy better. You can also better your business when you work with TARTLE to get source data from your clients. You will understand them better and be able to tailor your business to serve their needs and so improve the lives of both customer and business.&nbsp; What’s your data worth? Tcast is...

Virtual Reality Trained Fighter Pilots

Guest what? TARTLE has a Tik Tok account! It’s one of our favorite places to post and interact both with members of TARTLE and with people curious about us and what we do. Recently Alex and Jason sat down to answer a few questions from the TARTLE Tik Tok community. Below are some of the better or more fun questions and answers. Let’s deal with a serious one first, and one we get pretty often. Question: What does TARTLE do with your data? Answer: The answer of course is simple, we don’t do anything with your data. We don’t sell it, we don’t even use it for our own benefit without your consent. What we do is collect and store it in an encrypted format so that you can sell it when you chose, to whom you choose, for whatever reason you choose using the TARTLE data marketplace. That’s it, and yes, it is that simple. Q: Does big tech need to die? A: No, it doesn’t need to die. It does need to be reminded that it shouldn’t be using its power to manipulate people. That’s one of the goals of TARTLE, to provide a model of cooperation with users and other companies that shows it is possible to harness the power of data without taking advantage of others. Q: I tried to integrate my Facebook account but it wouldn’t work. What gives? A: In short, Facebook is constantly changing its rules and often that means we need to change things on our end. We are still small so it takes time to catch up to a company that literally employs thousands. We are working on it. Not every question is serious or technical though. Sometimes, they’re just fun. Q: Is Alex forty feet tall? A: Nope, a mere 6’5” which is tall but not tall enough to live at the top of a beanstalk.&nbsp; Q: What is up with the burlap sack? A: Hey, that was a cashmere sweater in that video. It is completely different than burlap.&nbsp; Let’s get back to some of the more serious and technical questions. Q: Do we need to give our data to TARTLE? A: Well, if you sign up with us, that’s what you are deciding to do. Of course, you decide how many accounts you want to connect with us. How much of your data you entrust to our care is entirely up to you. And again, we don't do anything with it except store and secure it for your own later use. We put all the power to control it into your hands.&nbsp; Q: How on earth do I use your site? A: This is one of the joys of being a new company, we have a few growing pains. We acknowledge our initial system was difficult to use. Fortunately, we are getting close to finalizing a redesign that is both inherently easier to use and set up to do a much better job of walking you through the process of signing up and getting started making use of TARTLE. Q: Are we a scam or spyware? A: No. We don’t work for anyone else, no company or government agency is pulling our strings. We encourage anyone suspicious of us to research TARTLE and see if you come away still having those suspicions.&nbsp; Q: What does TARTLE mean? A: It’s actually a Scottish term. When you are introduced to someone and realize a moment later that you forgot their name and have that awkward pause while trying to remember it – that’s a TARTLE. Q: We need some return on our loss of privacy. A: Yes we do. For too long, we’ve been giving up our privacy thanks to all of these companies taking and manipulating our data without our consent and getting rich off it. It is past time that we should both get some privacy back and some money on our end as well.&nbsp; Q: How can we stop the government from taking our data? A: To completely stop it is almost impossible. However, you can slow them down. Use a TOR browser, get a VPN, and stop pumping out all your data for all to see on the internet.&nbsp; Q: Do you use crypto/blockchain? A: Yes, we use crypto currency for payment, which allows our system to be global and unaffected by whatever happens with fiat currencies. The blockchain also allows us to be transparent with how much and the type of data being...

TARTLE CEO & CMO Respond to TikTok Comments LOL

Credit scores are a big deal in the modern world, especially in America. Here, banks, car dealerships, and others will literally judge you as a person based on your credit score. If you have a low score, then you are obviously bad, regardless of your situation. If you have a high one, then you are obviously good, regardless of your current habits. But it is actually far crazier than that. If you actually are a responsible person and pay off your debts, your score can actually go down. Yes, you read that right. Paying off your debts will actually make your credit score go down. This actually leads to the concept of the ‘credit building loan’. In this perverse concept, a person actually goes in debt to build a better credit score. Yes, this is completely nuts. It also keeps people in what amounts to financial slavery. Think about it. If you want to buy a car, you first have to go into debt for something else in order to get your score high enough to buy the car. Then the debt for the car helps you get your score high enough to go into even more debt for a house. If you want to go to college, or help your kids to go, you have to have a certain amount of debt in order to get any sort assistance. If you’ve been responsible and paid them off, you’ll be expected to shell out for college in cash. To put it simply, our current financial system encourages and rewards people for being in debt. Which, again, is insane. If the above isn’t enough to convince you, the word ‘mortgage’ comes from the Latin for ‘death grip’. Let that one sink in.&nbsp; Credit scores as they have been traditionally calculated rely on limited data, focused only on past behaviors. Now though, more data than ever is available and it is being used in new ways to calculate your ability to pay off a loan. Rather than just aggregating how often you pay off revolving debt, credit companies can now look at how fast you drive, how much money gets spent how often and where. They can even see where and when you take vacations. All of that behavior can be analyzed for risk in near real time.&nbsp; This marriage between big data and big credit can be beneficial in a number of ways. First, since the data is more recent, it is easier to track changes in behavior that indicate more or less risky behavior. If someone who has been at risk in the past suddenly finds a new job and starts paying an electric bill, while also cancelling their cable bill the chances of getting a desired loan go up. Rather than it taking a year to build up a credit score based on the changed behaviors, the increase in responsible behavior can be noticed right away. Similarly, if a person who has been responsibly paying off cards and loans for years suddenly starts going to the casino, the dealership has some reason to hold back on that new car loan. It becomes easier to take extenuating circumstances into account as well. If someone suddenly has trouble making a payment because of a recent job loss or divorce, that can be weighed against other data to see if it reflects a temporary circumstance or a real shift towards irresponsible behavior. That kind of information may not matter in regards to a new loan but can still apply when trying to rent a new apartment.&nbsp; Isn’t it a little scary though that the credit score companies can access all that data about you? A little, though in this case it’s easy to see how it can actually be used to benefit the company and you. However, if you are still uneasy about that, we don’t blame you. In that case, we recommend that you sign up with TARTLE and synch your various accounts. That will allow you to take back control of your data and only let even the credit score companies see it as you see fit. And when you do choose to share it, you can actually get paid for it.&nbsp; What’s your data worth? &nbsp;

How Big Data Can Help Credit Scores

TARTLE may be a young company but it already stretches around the world with users in many countries. One of the many countries you can find us in is the Philippines. So it’s time we gave a little shout out to the amazing people of that small nation and their culture.&nbsp; If you aren’t familiar with this little country, it’s a collection of islands in the Pacific, far off the eastern coast of Asia. It was ravaged by WWII and is covered in jungle with a volcano or two thrown in just to make things exciting.&nbsp; The culture there is an interesting one. On one hand, there are tent and shanty cities built right next to railroad tracks. On the other, everyone there has a smartphone and is constantly sending texts or scrolling Facebook. It’s a deeply religious and developing culture with one foot in the past and the other in the future. As such, it’s kept many of its older qualities like a strong and cheerful work ethic and generosity while showing a significant aptitude for learning new technologies to keep them connected across the islands and with friends and family who move to the USA.&nbsp; One of those people who made the journey across the deep blue sea is married to one of the people who work for us here at TARTLE. Alex (our co-founder for those just tuning in) went over there for dinner and was talking with everyone when he realized the wife was missing. Well, it turns out she was in the kitchen working on dinner, even after working all day. When it was time to eat, a veritable feast was laid out with mountains upon mountains of food. And yes, this is normal for them. It’s one of the admirable things about Filipino culture, the work never stops. Men and women are both constantly in motion, accomplishing something that needs to be done, yet few ever complain about it. That’s because they do it all out of a sense of service, a desire to care for others that leads them to really put themselves into their work.&nbsp; It’s exactly these kinds of people that TARTLE is striving to bring into the fold. Anyone who puts that kind of spirit and effort into just normal, daily life deserves to be rewarded for it. That’s true of their data use as well. When they are spending time on their phones, checking out the news, shopping or keeping up with people via Facebook, they are just generating profit for that company. The people of the Philippines deserve a little something back for that. After all, when you’re working on getting out of the tent by the railroad tracks and into something a little nicer, every little bit counts. By working through us, they have the chance to take that data they are generating and turn into a good subsidy for their lives and use it however they want. Though if Alex’s recent dinner is any indication, it just might go into helping make another mountain of food, which is no bad thing either.&nbsp; TARTLE welcomes everyone, wherever you are from to sign up with us. We want to help you, whether you are driving a cab in Moscow, roaming the desert in Libya, working in a cubicle in Des Moines, Iowa, or running a fishing boat in the Philippines to take control of your data. Whether you just want to be able to generate some extra income by selling your data or share your data to specifically help causes you care about, TARTLE is there to make it all possible.&nbsp; What’s your data worth? www.tartle.co

Philippines Shoutout

TARTLE is a global personal data marketplace. Free to join, free to use. It is where humanity goes to get paid for their data.

TARTLE

Popular tracks