= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
afterford comments on Look for the Next Tech Gold Rush? - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (113)
It's an uphill battle for an individual to catch on to these advances. I try to focus on two strategies, one of which you've mentioned which is to just "be aware" by reading, following twitter feeds etc. awareness of whats out there is a starting block. once you become aware of something you need to evaluate its potential for success. Ex. read an article on Bitcoin in 2010, is Bitcoin something that will be valuable going forward? Institutions can manipulate value through repression, over-buying, over-selling etc. Individuals can increase their odds through a form of higher-level thinking. Ex. relating a product to human values and attempting to place it on a futuristic timeline. Now, for an actionable example...
3D body imaging - lots of focus and investment around 3D printing to create concrete objects, however I am more excited with the scanning portion and the virtual representation possibilities of this technology. See Google's Tango project, or PrimeSense out of Israel. Now imagine the possibilities of having a 3D representation of your body and potentially the world around you. you could easily:
Track your BMI and your physical features (athletics, vanity, health) Try on clothing virtually (fashion, performance) Use your own body for online gaming avatar Virtual dating The list goes on and on..
Why would the above be successful? Because it decreases the cost of being inaccurate. (time, money, morale)
Now think about the value of the data to corporations that would exist from having information on everyones body size and type, the value would then compound the more they use the product to purchase new clothes, products, etc.
$$$$$
But then the follow-on to this, supposing one thinks that 3d body imaging is going to be big -- which I think is not an unreasonable guess -- is, how does one buy financial exposure to this technology?
Research - come on, you dont expect me to do all the digging for you? when you want to invest, learn the industry both linearly and laterally.
What does it take to scan a body? what will all companies that do it need? who are the current industry leaders? what tech are they using? who makes it?
you could spend weeks/months researching to get the right answers.
Sorry, in my head I somehow read the original post as "where are slots I can put money in to participate in a gold rush", where the actual text is clearly more broad than that.
EDIT: Although most often buying into a technology like this involves buying equity in companies, which is not normally a good way to get in on a high-velocity gold rush -- if you're a normal investor you can't buy into them until they go public, which is normally well-past the true "gold rush" stage. (This is less true if you're an accredited investor but it substitutes different problems.)
Things like bitcoin and domain names, the original examples, don't involve buying equities at all, but were other asset classes entirely, and so didn't have the same issue.