Solar Year 2024
Geopolitics & The Financial Markets:
Forecast On Bonds, Stocks & Bitcoin
2024: Year of the Dragon
Events, Prospects & Trends
World Transits & Your Horoscope:
What To Expect & What To Do
Plus,
Artificial Intelligence:
Will It Be Friend or Foe?
GLOBAL ASTROLOGY
"Everything is dependent upon Mazzal (astrological influences) even the Torah scroll in the ark."
הַכֹּל תָּלוּי בְּמַזָּל, וַאֲפִילּוּ סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה בָּהֵיכָל
~ Idra of the Zohar
by Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci
As we near the end of the common year of 2023 and with the coming vernal equinox of March 2024 that opens the new solar year of 2024, the planetary transits just ahead call for many people to begin to make serious adjustments as we enter the middle years of this decade.
The adverse planetary transits of December 31, 2023 calls for caution and care in large crowds due to ideological and political disruption sparked by the violent events of 7 October 2023 the Israel-Hamas war.
Moreover, I expect the Ukraine-Russia war to also pick up its violent pace.
Transits on New Years' Eve 2023 during the full moon week show heated arguments, demonstrations, impulsive behaviors, sarcastic speech, fights, explosions, fires and general violence to open up the Common New Year of 2024.
Caution is strongly urged due to these planetary transits.
In my recent forecast, I outlined the impacts of the Lunar and Solar Eclipses of March and April 2024 that will be observed. These eclipses presage a powerful and significant year just ahead that will change the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
Two wars, political divisions, ideological 'wokeness,' anti semitism, rising crime, economic uncertainty, technological angst and generational transition. Is it a world in decline?
In this edition of Global Astrology, we take a preview of 2024, focusing on some of the pressing matters of our present era as we enter the middle years of this decade:
World planetary transits of 2024 and how they will affect horoscopes in the year of Dragon; plus, the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is explored with all its future ramifications for global society.
From the rise of antisemitism; the serious concerns of artificial intelligence; the violent conflicts taking place globally, to illegal immigration; crime and ideological battles to divide and conquer as well as the geophysical and metaphysical that impact society - the planetary transits of 2024 call for the good reader to be on the ball and aware.
I also continue to warn of more powerful storms, extreme temperature fluctuations, heavy torrential rains, floods and large seismic activity (earthquakes) in this first phase of global cooling that I have long forecast.
Currently, we are entering the third solar year since the historic Jupiter-Saturn conjunction took place in December 2020.
The events that have taken place since that conjunction should also serve to remind the keen reader that much more is on tap in the years to come in this decade (and the next) before the next Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in solar year 2040.
As a forecasting astrologer, I'd also like to remind the reader why it is imperative to know one's own horoscope (nativity) and your secondary progressions as the world transits affect and influence it through the years to come.
Those with natal and progressed zodiacal signs in Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo and Pisces will see increased activity in 2024. More on that later.
As for the quote from Idra of Zohar that opens this edition of Global Astrology, allow me to explain its meaning:
The 'Idra' (which is Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אִדְרָא, romanized: also, threshing floor is a Kabbalistic work included in printings of the Zohar, which I first read as a teenager studying Mundane Astrology.
There are actually two texts in Zoharic literature called Idra:
The first is the 'Idra Rabba,' or the 'greater Idra' and the second is the 'Idra Zuta,' or the 'lesser Idra' as these mystical astrological texts are intimately tied to each other.
The story of the Idroth is as follows:
Idra Rabba (Zohar 3:127b-145a): Shimon bar Yohai convenes with nine other scholars, and they gather in the sacred threshing field, where they thresh out secrets.
Each scholar expounds various configurations of the partsufim and three of them die in ecstasy while doing so.
In one discussion, the subject of the woman with furnishings gifted to her by the Creator, and of the man with the furnishings gifted to him by the same Creator, is brought up.
It speaks about the physical union of male and female and how the two are analogous to "The Lord God" who created the first man Adam (male and female) with their associated traits of "mercy" (raḥamīm) - a trait found mostly with the male, and "judgment" (dīn) - a trait that is found mostly with the female.
'I am an orphan - alone - yet I am found everywhere.'
click image to enlarge
Telesphorus Stone Mandala gravestone carved in 1950 by Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung (born 1875) before his death in 1961 - revealing his astrological knowledge of the prophetic raising of the dead in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
Idra Zuta (Zohar 3:287b-296d):
Years later, at Shimon bar Yohai's deathbed, the seven still-living scholars come to his deathbed, along with the whole heavenly host.
He alone explains the configurations of the partsufim, so this work is more unified. Shimon bar Yohai wavers between this world and the next.
He directed his students to celebrate his passing that day as a 'Yom Hillula' (the chemical wedding) as it would Messianically unite the immanent and transcendent ohr 'divine lights' of Creation.
The Chemical Wedding
click on image to enlarge
The Idra Zuta is considered the deepest teachings of the Zohar.
In this edition of Global Astrology, we examine these topics:
- Boom Or Bust: Solar Year 2024: Geopolitics & Financial Markets.
- Year of the Wood Dragon: Events, Trends & Opportunity.
- Global Transits & Your Horoscope: What To Expect & What You Can Do.
- Plus, Artificial Intelligence: Will It Be Friend or Foe?
The solar, lunar and planetary transits of 2024 and 2025 will highlight these matters more than people think, and the good reader is advised that now is very good time to figure out how to navigate well enough to avoid being faced with the challenges to come.
First, let us take a look at how global astrological transits will impact the lives of individuals, groups, organizations, governments, populations and nations worldwide in 2024.
All that, and more, in this edition of GLOBAL ASTROLOGY.
2024 Global Transits & Your Horoscope:
What To Expect & What You Can Do
What To Expect & What You Can Do
Forecast by Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci
Astrology is our entire natural world.
The Zodiac is very real and is controlled by the Most High.
There are those who say that they do not believe in Astrology because they do not 'see' it.
In response, I remind them that there are many things in the world we cannot see - but do in fact - exist - all around us.
In response, I remind them that there are many things in the world we cannot see - but do in fact - exist - all around us.
So, while some say they do not believe in Astrology, do be aware that Astrology most certainly 'believes' in you.
In my December 13th forecast post on April's total eclipse of the Sun, I advised readers and everyone else to know their own horoscopes and secondary progressions.
The reasons are that the planetary transits of 2024 offer opportunities to make critical changes in your domestic and professional lives that if used well, can position you for the mid-to-late 2020s and into the 2030s.
Several years ahead into the future is not a long time in Astrology.
I always advise clients to make a list of their goals, plans and aspirations at least 3-5 years so that their long-range goals are not derailed by short-range happenings and events.
When you contact me for a natal and progressed forecast reading, please include your birthday, time of birth if known and your city, town of birth. My email is astro730@gmail.com
When you ask questions on career, health, personal relationships, relocations, professional life, financial investing and trading; whatever the situation or subject I will examine your own natal and progressed positions in any day, week, month or year.
When you ask questions on career, health, personal relationships, relocations, professional life, financial investing and trading; whatever the situation or subject I will examine your own natal and progressed positions in any day, week, month or year.
Your Personal Transits In 2024
The good reader should know that 2024, for some, will be a positive year for innovators, problem solvers and leaders with vision.
Zodiac Signs affected by the planetary transits of 2024 will Pisces, Taurus, Gemini, Aries and
Libra.
Many people have natal and progressed positions in those signs and should be aware of where their priorities will be in 2024.
Despite adverse planetary transits during the spring in the northern hemisphere, 2024 is a good year to begin new projects, explore new opportunities and create value for yourself and others.
In January, a series of Jupiter-Saturn 60-degree sextiles will get underway.
The series of Jupiter-Saturn sextiles will take place from tropical Taurus to tropical Pisces.
Coming off the holiday season, for many, what will happen is that they will sit on their hands waiting for spring 2024, before making acting on plans, when the winter season in the northern hemisphere provides far better opportunities.
The 60-degree sextile between two such planets as Jupiter and Saturn provide an extended period of time to organize and stabilize important responsibilities of life, making steady progress.
As long as the sextiles are used with practical, prudent and positive intent with no laziness, or prograstinations, then individuals, groups and organizations who want to improve can do so as the 60-degree sextile aspect can assist to raise one’s sense of integrity and responsibility.
Both Jupiter and Saturn are also considered ‘business planets’ in applied astrology and if in favorable aspect to individuals’ or organizational horoscopes, then there is help and recognition from those in established positions of authority and/or power.
A need for honesty in business/professional dealings is mandatory as is a healthy balance between caution and optimism.
Friendships and associations made with mature individuals and others of like mind during these influences from January through March 2024 will be fruitful by the time the new solar arrives with the vernal equinox and the challenging lunar and solar eclipses and planetary transits.
The idea is to have a serious attitude and exercise good judgment while you work on your plans, projects and aspirations. Avoid contact with negative, lazy people, lollygaggers and procrastinators at all cost.
These sextile aspects between Jupiter and Saturn provide those who are keen to planetary transits opportunities to organize and eventually stabilize important responsibilities ahead of the new solar year.
The advantage of using the Jupiter-Saturn sextiles from January through March 2024 holds the promise for those seeking success by reminding all that good intentions aligned with common sense, prudence and understanding before the strong world transits of April, May and June 2024 get underway.
From the moment of the birth of the individual all is small - except for its destiny, that is, one's horoscope.
Once incarnated into the world, your destiny on Earth is mapped by your horoscope. It is the blueprint of your life and because all things are in motion, your horoscope moves - progresses - as you age.
The mundane astrologer Claudius Ptolemy instructed on Natal Astrology:
"Of all events whatsoever which is to take place after birth, the most essential is the continuance of life.
And as it is, of course, useless to consider, in cases wherein the life of the child does not extend to the period of one solar year, what other events contingent on its birth might otherwise have subsequently happened, the inquiry into the duration of life consequently takes precedence of all other questions.
The discussion of this inquiry is by no means simple, nor easy of execution; it is conducted in a diversified process, by means of the governance of the ruling places."
"Of all events whatsoever which is to take place after birth, the most essential is the continuance of life.
And as it is, of course, useless to consider, in cases wherein the life of the child does not extend to the period of one solar year, what other events contingent on its birth might otherwise have subsequently happened, the inquiry into the duration of life consequently takes precedence of all other questions.
The discussion of this inquiry is by no means simple, nor easy of execution; it is conducted in a diversified process, by means of the governance of the ruling places."
The 'horoscope' is the individual's 'destiny.' And we all have one.
Secondary progressions are central to the natural world, and the aspects of your personal progressions against the world transits of every day, week, month and year of your life dictates the atmosphere, environments and events of your life - from birth to death.
The writer A.J. Pearce says in his book, 'The Science of the Stars,' that it, Astrology, "is at once the most exalted and the most fascinating of all the sciences."
"It was formerly designated Astrology - from 'aster' (a star) and 'logos' (reason, logic, information.)
It comprised the foretelling of the return of the planets, the eclipses of the Sun and Moon, tempests, droughts, inundations, earthquakes; the rise and fall of nations, wars, revolutions, the destinies of remarkable men, etc.
It was this science which Dante declared to be 'the highest and noblest and without defect.'
It was the science in which Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Anaximander, Democritus, Thales, Eudoxus, Hippocrates, Galen, Nigidius Figulus, Kepler, Lord Bacon, Dryden and many other great men, were skilled.
The modern system of astronomy is not so comprehensive, being limited to the study and demonstration of the laws that govern the motions of the heavenly bodies.
Among the ancient Hebrews the astrologer was called 'Ash-Phe,' literally - 'the mouthpiece of the star' - because he interpreted what he conceived to be the import of the configurations of the stars, in conformity with reason.
Pythagoras, whose giant intellect has, perhaps, never been equaled, who anticipated the discoveries of the Capricorn Nicolaus Copernicus, accepted the belief in astrology in his day.
Johannes Kepler, another Capricorn, the legislator of the heavens, avowed his belief in Astrology and constantly practiced it.
Lord Bacon accepted it under the designation of 'Astrologia Sana,' as a part of physics.
The Bible is replete with applied astrology: Abraham, Job, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, Daniel and Ezekiel practiced it. Joseph even practiced divination (horary astrology.)
The adoption by Moses of the astrological emblems of the Magi and the Egyptians clearly proves the identity of his religion with that of the Magi before it became corrupted by the profane amateurs."
Going into 2024 and the mid-2020s, know that expecting life to always turn out the way you want is guaranteed to lead to disappointment because life will not always turn out the way you want it to.
And when those unfulfilled expectations involve the failure of other people to behave the way you expect them to, the disappointment also involves resentment.
Unspoken expectations are almost guaranteed to go unfulfilled. Talking openly about what you expect from other people might improve your chances of fulfillment
At the same time, it is unrealistic to think that merely communicating your expectations clearly is going to get people to behave the way you want them to.
The term: 'Expectations are premeditated resentments,' are often used in recovery programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous.
Alcohol and drug addicts can become inured by their substance abuse that they are not very likely to live up to the expectations of others.
Not having expectations for addictive persons is a requirement to maintain one's own sanity, but the same can be said to be true for children, who are often unresponsive to expectations because of immaturity and lack of experience - but to all functioning adults as well.
That is because all human beings have their own desires and agendas. We do what we want to do because we think that it is in our best interests.
Yet, if we expect other people to do things in ways not consistent with their own interests, they will most likely resist our expectations, leaving us resentful. Moreover, the person may also resent you.
After all, how do you feel when others expect you to do things that are not in line with your own values, goals and aspirations in life?
Cures for this are to know your own horoscope and to be conscious of the natural world that is Astrology, remember, all things are always in motion.
Here are the key solar, lunar & planetary configurations, transits and their aspects in 2024-2025: navigate and use them well and you will find success with your aspirations, goals and plans.
Here are the key solar, lunar & planetary configurations, transits and their aspects in 2024-2025: navigate and use them well and you will find success with your aspirations, goals and plans.
· January-March 2024 – JUPITER SEXTILE SATURN
· March 3-4, 2024 – JUPITER SEMI SQUARE NEPTUNE
· March 10, 2024 – MERCURY TO NORTHERN DECLINATION
· March 25, 2024 – ANNULAR LUNAR ECLIPSE IN LIBRA
· April 1, 2024 – MERCURY RETROGRADE IN ARIES
· April 7, 2024 – VENUS TO NORTHERN DECLINATION
· April 8, 2024 – TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN AT 19-DEGREES ARIES
· April 15-17 - RX MERCURY CONTACTS SOLAR ECLIPSE DEGREE 19-ARIES
· April 21, 2024 – JUPITER CONJUNCT URANUS IN TAURUS
· April 25, 2024 – MERCURY STATIONS DIRECT
· April 30, 2024 – MARS ENTERS TROPICAL ARIES
· May 2, 2024 – PLUTO STATIONS RETROGRADE AT 2-DEGREES AQUARIUS
· May 3-4, 2024 – MERCURY CONTACTS SOLAR ECLIPSE DEGREE AT 19-ARIES
· May 4, 2024 – MARS HEADS TO NORTHERN DECLINATION
· May 6, 2024 – SATURN SEMI SQUARES PLUTO (first of three aspect contacts.)
· May 23, 2024 – JUPITER SEXTILE NEPTUNE
· May 25,26,27, 2024 - MARS REACHES ARIES ECLIPSE POINT
· June 2, 2024 – JUPITER TRINE PLUTO
· June 29, 2024 – SATURN RETROGRADE AT 19-PISCES
· July 2, 2024 – NEPTUNE RETROGRADE AT 29-PISCES
· August 5, 2024 – MERCURY RETROGRADE AT 4-VIRGO
· August 7, 2024 – JUPITER SESQUI QUADRATE PLUTO
· August 19, 2024 – JUPITER SQUARE SATURN (first of three world aspect squares)
· August 28, 2024 – MERCURY DIRECT AT 21-LEO
· August 31, 2024 – VENUS HEADS SOUTH IN DECLINATION
· September 1, 2024 – URANUS RETROGRADE AT 27-TAURUS
· September 18, 2024 - PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE AT 25-PISCES
· September 26, 2024 – SATURN SEMI SQUARE PLUTO (2nd exact world semi-square)
· September 28, 2024 – MERCURY HEADS SOUTH IN DECLINATION
· October 2, 2024 – ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE AT 10-LIBRA
· October 9, 2024 – JUPITER RETROGRADE AT 21-GEMINI
· October 12, 2024 – PLUTO DIRECT AT 29-CAPRICORN
· November 15, 2024 – SATURN DIRECT AT 12-PISCES
· November 26, 2024 – MERCURY RETROGRADE AT 22-SAGITTARIUS
· December 6, 2024 – MARS RETROGRADE AT 6-LEO (until February 23-24, 2025)
· December 7, 2024 – NEPTUNE DIRECT AT 27-PISCES
· December 13, 2024 – JUPITER SESQUI QUADRATE PLUTO
· December 15, 2024 – MERCURY DIRECT AT 6-SAGITTARIUS
· December 24, 2024 – JUPITER SQUARE SATURN (2nd of 3 world squares)
· January 26, 2025 – SATURN SEMI SQUARE PLUTO (3rd exact world semi square)
· January 30, 2025 – VENUS HEADS NORTH IN DECLINATION
· January 30, 2025 – URANUS STATIONS DIRECT AT 23-TAURUS
· February 4, 2025 – JUPITER STATIONS DIRECT AT 11-GEMINI
· February 24, 2025 – MARS STATIONS DIRECT AT 17-CANCER
· March 2, 2025 – MERCURY TURNS NORTH IN DECLINATION
· March 2, 2025 – VENUS RETROGRADE AT 2-ARIES
· March 15, 2025 – MERCURY STATIONS RETROGRADE AT 9-ARIES
· April 3, 2025 – MERCURY TURNS SOUTH IN DECLINATION
· April 4, 2025 – SATURN SEXTILE URANUS 1st of three sextile aspects)
· April 7, 2025 – MERCURY STATIONS DIRECT AT 26-PISCES
· April 13, 2025 – VENUS STATIONS DIRECT AT 24-PISCES
· April 17, 2025 – JUPITER SESQUI QUADRATE PLUTO
· April 23, 2025 – MERCURY TURNS NORTH IN DECLINATION
· May 4, 2025 – PLUTO STATIONS RETROGRADE AT 3-AQUARIUS
· June 4, 2025 – JUPITER SEMI-SEXTILE URANUS
· June 15, 2025 – JUPITER SQUARE SATURN (3rd and final world square)
· June 19, 2025 – JUPITER SQUARE NEPTUNE
· June 24, 2025 – JUPITER QUINCUNX PLUTO
Solar Year 2024
Geopolitics & The Financial Markets
by Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci
Times are changing and the geopolitical risks play a major role in the financial markets into 2024, according to my analysis.
The current battles and wars taking place in Ukraine and the Middle East will see increased arms manufacturers very busy in 2024 - which is not a good sign for peace.
Moreover, with transiting Saturn and Neptune both in tropical Pisces, I continue to warn of serious events - even fatal events - on the high seas globally that will see major events in 2024.
Moreover, with transiting Saturn and Neptune both in tropical Pisces, I continue to warn of serious events - even fatal events - on the high seas globally that will see major events in 2024.
For most people, companies, groups, organizations and governments, the wide diversity of world events and their ways of forecasting continue to be poor at best - yet I remind the good reader that astrological analysis offers far more value on the road to preparedness and success.
So, as the coming new solar year is likely to be full of of the unexpected for those ignorant of planetary transits; there are significant and major geopolitical and economic challenges the world will face in 2024. I urge the good reader to use my forethought and prepare.
So, as the coming new solar year is likely to be full of of the unexpected for those ignorant of planetary transits; there are significant and major geopolitical and economic challenges the world will face in 2024. I urge the good reader to use my forethought and prepare.
The new year of 2024 will be a particularly surprising year for geopolitics and the financial markets.
There are more than 50 countries and regional areas that will have major elections with four in particular that will have significant world impacts.
One of the most watched and major election will be the presidential race in the United States, where President Joe Biden will seek a second term against a challenge from former president Donald Trump who tops all polls as the leading candidate for president in the 2024 general election.
In a rematch of the controversial 2020 general election, it will be a decisive event for the U.S. which has been eroded by partisan polarization, woke ideology, fake news, censorship, and societal decline.
The impact of these elections on geopolitics, the financial markets and society will be enormous, potentially shaping the policies and priorities of some of the world’s largest and most influential economies.
Alliances, trade agreements, and joint ventures are all dependent on the outcomes of these elections and what they say collectively about a prominent style of government.
Another important election will be in India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek a third term in office.
Another important election will be in India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek a third term in office.
Modi, who leads the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has been accused of undermining India’s secular and pluralistic traditions, cracking down on dissent, and enacting controversial laws that discriminate against Muslims and other minorities.
Reuters reported in November 2023 that efforts by India's government to monitor fake news on social media - a possible avenue towards extensive censorship in a democracy already struggling with diversity - has only generated further concerns.
Modi’s popularity, however, remains high among his supporters, who credit him with delivering economic growth, fighting corruption, and standing up to China and Pakistan.
The 2024 Indian election will determine whether Modi can consolidate his power and agenda, or whether the opposition parties can mount an effective challenge and offer an alternative vision for the country.
Reuters reported in November 2023 that efforts by India's government to monitor fake news on social media - a possible avenue towards extensive censorship in a democracy already struggling with diversity - has only generated further concerns.
Modi’s popularity, however, remains high among his supporters, who credit him with delivering economic growth, fighting corruption, and standing up to China and Pakistan.
The 2024 Indian election will determine whether Modi can consolidate his power and agenda, or whether the opposition parties can mount an effective challenge and offer an alternative vision for the country.
Other elections will also have important ramifications for the region and the world, as they will reflect the state of democracy and governance in their respective countries, as well as their relations with other powers.
Taiwan will continue to be a flashpoint for American-China relations, Taiwan, which China sees as its own territory prepares for a democratic election in mid-January 2024.
Outgoing president Tsai Ing-wen’s Democratic Progressive Party seeks to defend her pro-independence stance and resist pressure from Beijing and the opposition party, the Kuomintang, in an election where interference from China is expected.
Outgoing president Tsai Ing-wen’s Democratic Progressive Party seeks to defend her pro-independence stance and resist pressure from Beijing and the opposition party, the Kuomintang, in an election where interference from China is expected.
The election in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country and a rising economic power, will be a test of its democratic resilience and its role in Southeast Asia.
The outgoing President Joko Widodo, who has served as the nation’s president since 2014, will be stepping aside as he reaches his term limit.
His legacy may continue through the candidacy of his Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, whose vice-presidential running mate is Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the eldest son of President Widodo.
Indonesia, for all of its growing power is a very young and thus relatively untested democracy, and it will have an important decision to make for Joko Widodo’s successor in an election already generating controversy on all sides.
Indonesia, for all of its growing power is a very young and thus relatively untested democracy, and it will have an important decision to make for Joko Widodo’s successor in an election already generating controversy on all sides.
The Financial Markets:
Stocks & Bonds
Stocks & Bonds
Forecast by Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci
Nearly four years after the outbreak of the global pandemic in 2020, under the planetary transits the international economy remains fragile and uncertain.
Nearly four years after the outbreak of the global pandemic in 2020, under the planetary transits the international economy remains fragile and uncertain.
According to my astrological analysis, coming out of the surprising rebound of equities in 2023, the solar year of 2024 will see asset prices plunge due to the arrival of a series of Jupiter-Saturn world squares from the second half of the year to the first half of 2025.
My view is that bubbles exist in property prices, bond prices and stock prices. And as the three (3) Jupiter-Saturn world squares get underway in August 2024 through to June-July 2025 that investors and traders should look to bet against stock market giants and other major companies the closer we get to the series of Jupiter square Saturn.
Yet, as of December 2023, the American stock market has been reaching new highs after months of questions on whether the U.S. Federal Reserve would continue to raise interest rates in their battle against inflation
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and exacerbated the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the entwined global economy, one which is starting to break off into rival blocs between the two largest - the United States and China.
Solar year 2023 had wild reversals in markets: bonds got burned and then rallied, stocks were cratered and then soared, and the all-powerful King Dollar of the first half of the year erased all its gains in the second.
Traders and investors were buffeted by a succession of shocks: a US regional banking crisis and the collapse of Credit Suisse, the failure of China’s long-awaited economic rebound from Covid, the outbreak of a war between Israel and Hamas, and finally the Federal Reserve’s about-face to turn dovish.
While many of the early moves fizzled, there were some big winners over the year as a whole. Artificial-intelligence shares were red hot and dragged up chip stocks behind them, while the so-called Magnificent 7 - Tesla, Amazon.com, Meta, Apple, Alphabet, Nvidia and Microsoft - dominated US equity gains.
The Yen was the big currency loser with the Bank of Japan hardly budging from its super-easy monetary policy, while cryptocurrencies bounced back from their 2022 selloff.
The Yen was the big currency loser with the Bank of Japan hardly budging from its super-easy monetary policy, while cryptocurrencies bounced back from their 2022 selloff.
This is because the two business planets, Jupiter and Saturn, are nearly healthy 60-degree sextile aspect from January to March 2024 that will help investors and traders enough while the financial markets figure out how poorly positioned equities are going to be in 2024.
However, the adverse transits of spring of 2024 will then give way to the first of three (3) Jupiter-Saturn squares that will test equities in particular and the financial markets in general.
Even with Jupiter and Saturn in their emerging sextile aspects early in 2024 it is easy to see how in the present, all the offshoring, reshoring, and all-around realignment of global trade between the U.S. and China is going to have a major impact on the world.
Supply chains will be reshaped, relationships between companies will have to adapt, and new competitions will undoubtedly emerge.
A core challenge facing the global economy going into 2024 will be inflation.
My astrological analysis shows that in 2024 the inflation rate will fluctuate across countries and regions, depending on their economic conditions, policy responses, and external shocks.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global inflation rate is projected to be 5.8% in 2024, with core inflation not expected to return to target levels of around 2% until 2025.
However, this global average masks significant differences among countries and regions.
For instance, advanced economies are expected to see inflation of less than 3.0% in 2024, after averaging 4.6% in 2023.
The 2023 figures are IMF projections for the full year given three quarters of data. Final growth figures for 2023 may deviate slightly from these projections.
However, this global average masks significant differences among countries and regions.
For instance, advanced economies are expected to see inflation of less than 3.0% in 2024, after averaging 4.6% in 2023.
The 2023 figures are IMF projections for the full year given three quarters of data. Final growth figures for 2023 may deviate slightly from these projections.
In light of 2024 being a major election year, the United States will experience some of the lowest inflation numbers worldwide, but that will be contrasted by a sluggish European Union and an especially weak economy in the United Kingdom.
Emerging market and developing economies, however, are expected to see 7.8% inflation on-top of the 8.5% inflation they saw in 2023, a significant struggle for nations that were already harder hit by the pandemic.
Indeed, some countries such as Argentina, Turkey, and Egypt are experiencing inflation at double- and even triple-digit rates.
Indeed, some countries such as Argentina, Turkey, and Egypt are experiencing inflation at double- and even triple-digit rates.
The inflation dynamic in 2024 will have important implications for the global economy, as it will affect exchange rates, interest rates, asset prices, income distribution, and the debt sustainability of many countries and regions.
All this will pose challenges and opportunities for businesses and professionals, which will have to adapt to the changing price levels and expectations while managing the associated risks and uncertainties.
All this will pose challenges and opportunities for businesses and professionals, which will have to adapt to the changing price levels and expectations while managing the associated risks and uncertainties.
Add to this worrisome economic picture the slowdown in China, the world’s second-largest economy and the largest trading partner of many countries and regions.
China has been the main engine of global growth for the past four decades; however, its growth model - which relies heavily on investment, exports, and debt - may have reached its limits.
Now, the country is facing multiple headwinds - an aging population, high unemployment among younger workers, declining productivity, and environmental and real estate crises.
China’s slowdown will have a cascade effect into foreign policy and other key interest areas, the full extent of which will depend on the responses of its government to the challenge.
China has been the main engine of global growth for the past four decades; however, its growth model - which relies heavily on investment, exports, and debt - may have reached its limits.
Now, the country is facing multiple headwinds - an aging population, high unemployment among younger workers, declining productivity, and environmental and real estate crises.
China’s slowdown will have a cascade effect into foreign policy and other key interest areas, the full extent of which will depend on the responses of its government to the challenge.
Meanwhile, the world’s largest economy, the United States, seems to be better off, with greater optimism among its business leaders, even if the general public remains somewhat pessimistic.
With slowing inflation and a historically strong labor market helping to lift real income, the nation’s economic fundamentals appear steadier than at any time since before the pandemic.
Still, the US must dodge still-latent banking, housing and commercial real estate crises, or any other major recession trigger. Yet even then the U.S. may still slip into an economic malaise simply because consumers have convinced themselves of its inevitability.
If it remains resilient, however, a strong US economy could send positive ripples across the business and political world.
In 2024, politics will be under stress, as upcoming elections and populist movements challenge the aged baby boomer establishments.
At the same time, the global economy will face multiple challenges and uncertainties, as well as some opportunities for recovery and resilience.
With slowing inflation and a historically strong labor market helping to lift real income, the nation’s economic fundamentals appear steadier than at any time since before the pandemic.
Still, the US must dodge still-latent banking, housing and commercial real estate crises, or any other major recession trigger. Yet even then the U.S. may still slip into an economic malaise simply because consumers have convinced themselves of its inevitability.
If it remains resilient, however, a strong US economy could send positive ripples across the business and political world.
In 2024, politics will be under stress, as upcoming elections and populist movements challenge the aged baby boomer establishments.
At the same time, the global economy will face multiple challenges and uncertainties, as well as some opportunities for recovery and resilience.
Here are some of the big questions for 2024:
Stocks: Can global equities keep rallying based on optimism over Fed rate cuts, or will the slowdown in the global economy end up being more severe than currently envisaged and sap demand?
Dollar: Is the US currency going to extend its recent weakness as the Fed moves toward cutting rates, or bounce back as the world’s largest economy outpaces its rivals?
Yen: Will Japan’s currency finally rebound as the central bank decides to bite the bullet and abandon the world’s last negative-rate regime?
Oil: What will happen to crude as wars reshape supply lines, OPEC+ pledges to reduce output and demand weakens from the world’s biggest energy importer China?
Cryptocurrencies: Can Bitcoin and its beaten-down counterparts extend their recent rally and re-ignite the mania seen in late 2021?
Are we really set for a “soft landing” and is inflation truly vanquished?
How will elections impact markets? Could global geopolitical relations deteriorate further?
And how will financial markets respond to all those risks?
How will elections impact markets? Could global geopolitical relations deteriorate further?
And how will financial markets respond to all those risks?
As a mundane astrologer who also forecasts the financial markets, I advise investors and traders to know their personal transits and secondary progressions against the world transits to come.
I track the financial markets according to your own personal transits and progressions over any span of time (transits) be it days, a course of weeks, months and even years.
New York Stock Exchange
Natal Chart
17 May 1792
Manhattan, N.Y.
I track the financial markets according to your own personal transits and progressions over any span of time (transits) be it days, a course of weeks, months and even years.
New York Stock Exchange
Natal Chart
17 May 1792
Manhattan, N.Y.
click on chart to enlarge
New York Stock Exchange
Secondary Progressed Chart
8 April 2024
click on chart to enlarge
New York Stock Exchange
Planetary Graphic Ephemeris: 2024-2033
360-degree Modulus
Planetary Graphic Ephemeris: 2024-2033
360-degree Modulus
click on chart to enlarge
When you write to me, please include your birthday, time of birth (if known) and your city of birth.
My email is astro730@gmail.com
Briefly comment on your overall financial situation and/or desired market strategies for 2024 and beyond.
Due to the timespan of planetary transiting going into the mid-to-late 2020s, I ask that when you write, please try to focus on the next 3 to 5 years to get started.
In the words of the financial astrologer and trader W.D. Gann, who used his knowledge of planetary transits (time) to trade the markets:
"Time is the most important factor in determining market movements and by studying past price records you will be able to prove to yourself history does repeat and by knowing the past you can tell the future.
There is a definite relation between price and time.
By studying time cycles and time periods you will learn why market tops and bottoms are found at certain times, and why resistance levels are so strong at certain times, and prices hold around them.
When you write to me, please include your birthday, time of birth (if known) and your city of birth.
My email is astro730@gmail.com
Briefly comment on your overall financial situation and/or desired market strategies for 2024 and beyond.
Due to the timespan of planetary transiting going into the mid-to-late 2020s, I ask that when you write, please try to focus on the next 3 to 5 years to get started.
In the words of the financial astrologer and trader W.D. Gann, who used his knowledge of planetary transits (time) to trade the markets:
"Time is the most important factor in determining market movements and by studying past price records you will be able to prove to yourself history does repeat and by knowing the past you can tell the future.
There is a definite relation between price and time.
By studying time cycles and time periods you will learn why market tops and bottoms are found at certain times, and why resistance levels are so strong at certain times, and prices hold around them.
The most money is made when fast moves and extreme fluctuations occur at the end of major cycles."
Saying that, with my knowledge of Gann's techniques, and going into 2024, one of paths for the investors into the new solar year will be to own precious metals. That is because they retain their value far better than other assets - especially during times of volatility or panic in the markets..
Solar year 2023 will go down as one of the most unusual ever in the financial markets - mainly because everything 'appears' to have come out looking good in December 2023, this, despite plenty of ups and downs as many predictions turned out to be wrong.
Take the equity markets.
World stocks are nearly 20 percent higher, this, despite the highest interest rates in decades and a mini-crisis that wiped out one of Europe's best known banks - Credit Suisse - and several smaller ones in the U.S.
World stocks are nearly 20 percent higher, this, despite the highest interest rates in decades and a mini-crisis that wiped out one of Europe's best known banks - Credit Suisse - and several smaller ones in the U.S.
In the bond markets, just a few months ago investors were expecting the Federal to raise rates and leave them there while the recession rolled in.
Now bond markets are looking to central banks to embark on a rate-cutting spree with inflation apparently beaten.
Other areas of the markets have experienced wild gyrations that are hard to explain.
For instance, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin is up 150% on the year. The most beaten up emerging market bonds have achieved triple-digit gains. The "magnificent seven" tech giants have seen a 99% surge in their shares over the year.
"If you'd told me at the start of year that we would have a U.S. regional banking crisis and Credit Suisse would cease to exist, then I'm not sure we would have guessed that we would see the year we've had for risk assets," said PIMCO's CIO for Global Fixed Income, Andrew Balls.
The result has been 3.5% - 6.5% returns from top government bonds and a $10 trillion rally in world stocks, although that has been top heavy.
Meta and Tesla have soared 190% and 105 percent.
The Nasdaq is on the cusp of its strongest year in two decades, while artificial intelligence's demand for semiconductor chips has catapulted Nvidia 240% higher into the $1 trillion dollar club.
The Nasdaq is on the cusp of its strongest year in two decades, while artificial intelligence's demand for semiconductor chips has catapulted Nvidia 240% higher into the $1 trillion dollar club.
But, despite all the earnings, it has been a very bumpy ride.
In March 2023, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, a mid-sized U.S. lender, and the rescue of 167-year-old Credit Suisse triggered a slide in world shares where they lost all of the 10% gains made in January 2023.
The scramble for safety pushed gold up 7% and U.S. and European government bond yields - the main drivers of global borrowing costs - recorded their biggest monthly drop since the 2008 financial crisis.
The steady climb in interest rates around the world kept investors on edge through the summer, and in October Hamas' attacks in Israel ratcheted up geopolitical tensions.
In the Forex markets, the dollar is down a barely-noticeable 1% on the year.
But Japan's seeming reluctance to raise interest rates and China's sputtering economy mean the yen and yuan are down 9% and 3.5% respectively.
But Japan's seeming reluctance to raise interest rates and China's sputtering economy mean the yen and yuan are down 9% and 3.5% respectively.
As usual, the big moves have been in emerging markets.
Turkey's efforts to tackle its economic problems following Tayyip Erdogan's re-election have not been made any easier by another 35% dive in the lira.
Egypt has devalued its currency 20%, Nigeria has cut the naira by 45% and Argentina's new president Javier Milei has just slashed the peso in half.
On the upside, Colombia and Mexico's pesos are up 23% and 14%.
Poland's zloty is up 11%, followed by Brazil's real which is up 8.5%. And of the major currencies, the safe-haven Swiss franc has been the strongest performer up 7.5%.
"Once the dollar starts to move down there could be a lot of fuel for that to continue," DoubleLine's Bill Campbell said, referring to a potential weakening of the dollar and also questioning what a potential return to power by Donald Trump might mean.
One of the most remarkable round trips is that the key 10-year U.S. Treasury yield will end the 2023 almost exactly where it started despite touching 5% in October.
BofA calculates that the battle against inflation has produced around 125 interest rate hikes globally this year versus 60 cuts.
If the previous 18 months are added the total is 510 hikes compared with just over 1,370 cuts since the global financial crash in 2008.
And cuts will start to dominate next year with roughly 150 now expected compared with 40 hikes.
And cuts will start to dominate next year with roughly 150 now expected compared with 40 hikes.
"Everyone expects a soft landing to happen, everyone expects bond yields to be lower and everyone expects Fed rate cuts," BofA strategist Elyas Galou said, highlighting the group think the bank's investor surveys showed.
The big discrepancy though is that the Fed has only cut rates when unemployment is as low as it now five times the last 90 years.
Japan's Nikkei has surged 17% in dollar terms, or 27% in yen terms, setting it up for its best year in a decade.
Property woes have continued to drag on China, which has had a knock-on impact on oil, which is down almost 8% on the year. Gold has jumped 11.5%.
Other standouts include El Salvador bonds, which are now battling out of default and have returned 114% on the year.
U.S. sanctions relief has seen Venezuela's bonds vault 150% and Pakistan and Sri Lanka's have made 97% and 71%.
Next year won't be quiet on the political front.
There are more than 50 major elections scheduled next year, including in the United States, Taiwan, India, Mexico, Russia and probably Britain.
That means countries that contribute 80% of world market cap and 60% of global GDP will be voting.
Taiwan kicks it off with elections on January 13, followed just a few days later by the New Hampshire primary for the 2024 U.S. Presidential race.
Other dates for the diary include the Fed's first rate cut, which is pencilled in for March 20, while OPEC and G7 meetings are scheduled for June.
"This is an era of boom and bust," BofA Galou said:
"We are not out of the woods."
To Be Or Not To Be:
Buy or Sell Bitcoin?
"We are not out of the woods."
To Be Or Not To Be:
Buy or Sell Bitcoin?
Forecast by Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci
Birth of Bitcoin
Secondary Progressions (15 years later)
3 January 2024
6:05 am
click on chart to enlarge
Bitcoin's Secondary Progressions from 2009 to our present time in January 2024 - some 15 years after its 'birth' shows that a critical time in its history is approaching.
Bitcoin's Progressed Capricorn Sun is at the anaretic degree of 28-29 Capricorn, aspected by transiting Pluto at 29-Capricorn. This indicates transformative events as well as increased criminal cartel and black market usage of the digital currency.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin's Progressed Saturn in Virgo posited at 20-degrees Virgo in its Progressed Second House of money is semi square to Bitcoin's Progressed Moon in tropical Scorpio calls for patience through the first half of 2024 dealing with the ups and downs of the cryptocurrency into the new year.
Bitcoin's stellium in Aquarius, a fixed Sign are being squared by its Progressed Moon in Scorpio which shows 2024 will see months of declinevolitile action that could lead to serious losses during late winter/early spring before a rebound occurs. I know those dates and times.
And along with Bitcoin's Progressed Mercury-Jupiter conjunction, I advise calls for patience due to errors in judgement, scattering of resources and Bitcoin's prices promising more than it can deliver.
Bitcoin
Synastry Chart
January 2009 to January 2024
click on chart to enlarge
Those who want to know how their own personal horoscope and Progressions match up with Bitcoin's synastry, transits and secondary progressions in our present and/or future time can contact me at astro730@gmail.com
Anyhow, after Satoshi published that eight-page white paper for a new digital cash system on a mailing list on October 31, 2008, the project was opened up to discussion among the online group of cryptographers, computer scientists and digital cash veterans.
So while Satoshi wrote most of the Bitcoin codebase before posting the white paper, they sought public scrutiny among an online community of peers.
You see, it is important to observe that public key cryptography was discovered in the 1970s by the United Kingdom’s Government Communications Headquarters along with two independent American researchers named Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman.
At that time in the 1970s, there was no way that governments would ever dare to give the general public access to privacy-preserving technologies such as public key cryptography. It was the Cold War at the time, and governments knew that it would fundamentally shift the balance in power.
As a journalist in the late 1980s, the cold war was thawing - and fast.
Privately, I was monitoring the emerging historic planetary conjunctions of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in tropical Capricorn in late 1988 into all of 1989.
Ever since its start in 2009, Bitcoin, the world’s oldest cryptocurrency, has attracted legions of fans, investors, promoters, scammers and now - regulators.
For many, Bitcoin is not just a new form of currency but a groundbreaking technology that introduced the world to the concept of decentralized currencies and established the bedrock for an entirely new type of economy - the cryptocurrency market.
For others, it was a way to make a quick buck, and while some of these early investors did manage to join the coterie of Bitcoin millionaires, many more lost hundreds or even thousands of dollars trying to predict its price movements.
In autumn 2008, in the midst of the Great Economic Crisis that I forecasted back in 2006, the headlines were full of negative financial news.
Across the board, values plummeted worldwide and entire commercial banks and mortgage houses went bankrupt.
In autumn 2008, in the midst of the Great Economic Crisis that I forecasted back in 2006, the headlines were full of negative financial news.
Across the board, values plummeted worldwide and entire commercial banks and mortgage houses went bankrupt.
During that desperate financial markets panic time in autumn 2008, I picked up a curious announcement from overseas.
On Halloween 2008, an anonymous individual by the name of 'Satoshi Nakamoto' published a white paper on October 31, 2008 with a design for a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system."
It promoted a digital currency called BITCOIN based on cryptographic proof rather than banking or institutional trust.
On Halloween 2008, an anonymous individual by the name of 'Satoshi Nakamoto' published a white paper on October 31, 2008 with a design for a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system."
It promoted a digital currency called BITCOIN based on cryptographic proof rather than banking or institutional trust.
Birth of Bitcoin
Sunrise Chart
3 January 2009
London, United Kingdom
3 January 2009
London, United Kingdom
click on chart to enlarge
Event Chart:
Birth of Bitcoin
3 January 2009
Birth of Bitcoin
3 January 2009
London, England
6:05 p.m.
click on chart to enlarge
click on chart to enlarge
Birth of Bitcoin
Secondary Progressions (15 years later)
3 January 2024
6:05 am
click on chart to enlarge
Bitcoin's Secondary Progressions from 2009 to our present time in January 2024 - some 15 years after its 'birth' shows that a critical time in its history is approaching.
Bitcoin's Progressed Capricorn Sun is at the anaretic degree of 28-29 Capricorn, aspected by transiting Pluto at 29-Capricorn. This indicates transformative events as well as increased criminal cartel and black market usage of the digital currency.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin's Progressed Saturn in Virgo posited at 20-degrees Virgo in its Progressed Second House of money is semi square to Bitcoin's Progressed Moon in tropical Scorpio calls for patience through the first half of 2024 dealing with the ups and downs of the cryptocurrency into the new year.
Bitcoin's stellium in Aquarius, a fixed Sign are being squared by its Progressed Moon in Scorpio which shows 2024 will see months of declinevolitile action that could lead to serious losses during late winter/early spring before a rebound occurs. I know those dates and times.
And along with Bitcoin's Progressed Mercury-Jupiter conjunction, I advise calls for patience due to errors in judgement, scattering of resources and Bitcoin's prices promising more than it can deliver.
Bitcoin
Synastry Chart
January 2009 to January 2024
click on chart to enlarge
Those who want to know how their own personal horoscope and Progressions match up with Bitcoin's synastry, transits and secondary progressions in our present and/or future time can contact me at astro730@gmail.com
Anyhow, after Satoshi published that eight-page white paper for a new digital cash system on a mailing list on October 31, 2008, the project was opened up to discussion among the online group of cryptographers, computer scientists and digital cash veterans.
So while Satoshi wrote most of the Bitcoin codebase before posting the white paper, they sought public scrutiny among an online community of peers.
From the early days, Bitcoin was an open-source software project built and maintained by a community of developers and enthusiasts.
Bitcoin was registered on the open-source software development platform SourceForg on November 8, 2008. That was when Bitcoin became a team project.
Bitcoin was registered on the open-source software development platform SourceForg on November 8, 2008. That was when Bitcoin became a team project.
On 3 January 2009, the genesis block for Bitcoin - called ' block zero' - was mined by Satoshi over a course of a week.
In that first transaction, it was referred to as a generation transaction, or 'coinbase.'
Online, Satoshi posted the following message:
In that first transaction, it was referred to as a generation transaction, or 'coinbase.'
Online, Satoshi posted the following message:
“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”
On that day I cast the astrological charts for Bitcoin.
On that day I cast the astrological charts for Bitcoin.
Anyhow, in the middle of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, to methe message was a clear siren call of Bitcoin’s intentions.
On 12 January 2009, the first post-genesis Bitcoin transaction took place.
Now, here 15 years later, Bitcoin has been the subject of many price predictions, some of them extreme.
Bitcoin Mining
Notably, Cathie Wood, the CEO of Ark Invest, predicted that Bitcoin could reach an astounding $1.48 million by 2030.
Senior analyst Nicholas Sciberras from Collective Shift points out that this prediction reflects widespread surprise at Bitcoin’s meteoric rise.
Senior analyst Nicholas Sciberras from Collective Shift points out that this prediction reflects widespread surprise at Bitcoin’s meteoric rise.
“It’s difficult to put any price target out there, as the sky could become the limit depending on the level of adoption and external factors in the market,” he says.
Bitcoin has come a long way since its first recorded price of less than a cent.
As of December 30, 2023, one Bitcoin was worth roughly $42,000. The idea that Bitcoin could one day be worth a million dollars per unit, as Sciberras points out, “really shows how far we’ve come”.
As of December 30, 2023, one Bitcoin was worth roughly $42,000. The idea that Bitcoin could one day be worth a million dollars per unit, as Sciberras points out, “really shows how far we’ve come”.
However, while great highs are possible, but so are catastrophic lows.
As I read the Bitcoin white paper during that tumultuous time for the financial markets in 2008-2009; it reminded me of the technological history and then technology-transfer events I covered as a journalist in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
You see, it is important to observe that public key cryptography was discovered in the 1970s by the United Kingdom’s Government Communications Headquarters along with two independent American researchers named Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman.
At that time in the 1970s, there was no way that governments would ever dare to give the general public access to privacy-preserving technologies such as public key cryptography. It was the Cold War at the time, and governments knew that it would fundamentally shift the balance in power.
As a journalist in the late 1980s, the cold war was thawing - and fast.
Privately, I was monitoring the emerging historic planetary conjunctions of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in tropical Capricorn in late 1988 into all of 1989.
I was taught and trained to look for these outer planetary conjunction as they are directly connected with revolutions in world history, according to the observations of mundane astrologers over centuries.
Mundane Astrology, essentially, is the forecasting and study of the revolutions of the planets and how they correspond to events on Earth.
As transiting Saturn entered tropical Capricorn in November 1988, the ringed planet would soon meet Uranus in Capricorn, and then Neptune, also transiting in Capricorn.
As I tracked these conjunctions, I kept my eyes on events in Europe and the Soviet Union; telling my colleagues and other people that revolutions were about to start; that the Berlin Wall may fall and that even the Soviet Union could cease to exist. I was saying this because of the major planetary conjunctions were about to begin.
I was 25 years old at the time and from these planetary signatures I believed that the Cold War was about to come to an end - all in just 2.5 years.
I was laughed at.
Geocentric planetary transits associated with the Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunctions in tropical Capricorn focused my eyes on central Europe; where countries formed the Warsaw Pact under the Soviet Union.
The main region of these revolutions was Central Europe, with the Polish workers' mass-strike movement in 1988. The trend continued that year in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania.
Then, on June 4, 1989, Poland's Solidarity trade union won an overwhelming victory in partially free elections. That led to the peaceful fall of communism in Poland.
The power of the Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunctions was also seen in Asia.
On that same day day - June 4, 1989 - there were the ongoing revolutionary sentiment of the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, China that has been pushing for democracy since April 1989.
After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between the demonstrators and the Chinese government to find a peaceful resolution, the Chinese government declared martial law on the night of June 3rd and deployed troops to occupy the square in what is referred to as the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 4th.
With Communism under extreme pressure from revolutionary sentiment the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee made the decision to use military force to clear Tiananmen square. That led to clashes between the military and democracy demonstrators.
Estimates of death tolls vary from several hundred to several thousand with additional thousands were wounded. Reports said that the vast majority of those killed were civilian and small number of soldiers.
Back in Central Europe in that same month of June 1989, Hungary began to take down its section of the physical Iron Curtain, and opened up a border gate between Austria and Hungary.
As I sat working at my desk in the Knight-Ridder newsroom that spring and summer of 1989 I monitored a chain reaction of revolutions where the Eastern European Bloc known as the Warsaw Pact - disintegrated - peacefully.
From summer into autumn 1989, with the Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunctions well in force, all this led to mass demonstrations in cities of East Germany to its pinnacle event - the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. A year later Germany reunified.
The Cold War ended on December 3, 1989 during the Malta Summit between American and Soviet leaders.
In the wake of the major Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunctions that occured; it all resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union on the day after Christmas - December 26, 1991 - closing what amounted to 46 years of the Cold War.
This span of time and its history is important to know when it comes to technology and digital currencies.
When the INTERNET (as journalists such as myself spelled it at the time, in all caps in 1988) and with arrival in the 1990s on what we called the World Wide Web - created the explosive demand for online messaging and e-commerce.
At first, governments pushed back against the adoption of encryption by the masses, citing concerns around security and criminal activity.
Known among Gen X journalists like me covering science & technology beats; that era of the early to mid-1990s was called the 'Crypto Wars.'
This era of friction between governmental powers and the entrepreneurs and builders of a new technological paradigm echoes to the present day as governments are forced to acknowledge the emergence of a borderless, leaderless and stateless financial system heralded by Bitcoin.
Mundane Astrology, essentially, is the forecasting and study of the revolutions of the planets and how they correspond to events on Earth.
As transiting Saturn entered tropical Capricorn in November 1988, the ringed planet would soon meet Uranus in Capricorn, and then Neptune, also transiting in Capricorn.
As I tracked these conjunctions, I kept my eyes on events in Europe and the Soviet Union; telling my colleagues and other people that revolutions were about to start; that the Berlin Wall may fall and that even the Soviet Union could cease to exist. I was saying this because of the major planetary conjunctions were about to begin.
I was 25 years old at the time and from these planetary signatures I believed that the Cold War was about to come to an end - all in just 2.5 years.
I was laughed at.
Geocentric planetary transits associated with the Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunctions in tropical Capricorn focused my eyes on central Europe; where countries formed the Warsaw Pact under the Soviet Union.
The main region of these revolutions was Central Europe, with the Polish workers' mass-strike movement in 1988. The trend continued that year in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania.
Then, on June 4, 1989, Poland's Solidarity trade union won an overwhelming victory in partially free elections. That led to the peaceful fall of communism in Poland.
The power of the Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunctions was also seen in Asia.
On that same day day - June 4, 1989 - there were the ongoing revolutionary sentiment of the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, China that has been pushing for democracy since April 1989.
After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between the demonstrators and the Chinese government to find a peaceful resolution, the Chinese government declared martial law on the night of June 3rd and deployed troops to occupy the square in what is referred to as the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 4th.
With Communism under extreme pressure from revolutionary sentiment the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee made the decision to use military force to clear Tiananmen square. That led to clashes between the military and democracy demonstrators.
Estimates of death tolls vary from several hundred to several thousand with additional thousands were wounded. Reports said that the vast majority of those killed were civilian and small number of soldiers.
Back in Central Europe in that same month of June 1989, Hungary began to take down its section of the physical Iron Curtain, and opened up a border gate between Austria and Hungary.
As I sat working at my desk in the Knight-Ridder newsroom that spring and summer of 1989 I monitored a chain reaction of revolutions where the Eastern European Bloc known as the Warsaw Pact - disintegrated - peacefully.
From summer into autumn 1989, with the Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunctions well in force, all this led to mass demonstrations in cities of East Germany to its pinnacle event - the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. A year later Germany reunified.
The Cold War ended on December 3, 1989 during the Malta Summit between American and Soviet leaders.
In the wake of the major Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunctions that occured; it all resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union on the day after Christmas - December 26, 1991 - closing what amounted to 46 years of the Cold War.
This span of time and its history is important to know when it comes to technology and digital currencies.
When the INTERNET (as journalists such as myself spelled it at the time, in all caps in 1988) and with arrival in the 1990s on what we called the World Wide Web - created the explosive demand for online messaging and e-commerce.
At first, governments pushed back against the adoption of encryption by the masses, citing concerns around security and criminal activity.
Known among Gen X journalists like me covering science & technology beats; that era of the early to mid-1990s was called the 'Crypto Wars.'
This era of friction between governmental powers and the entrepreneurs and builders of a new technological paradigm echoes to the present day as governments are forced to acknowledge the emergence of a borderless, leaderless and stateless financial system heralded by Bitcoin.
The early years of Bitcoin were marked by steady growth and periods of rapid price appreciation, known as “bull runs.”
One of the greatest bull runs saw the price of BTC reach $69,000 in November 2021. However, there were also periods of uncertainty, as analyst Sciberras points out.
One of the greatest bull runs saw the price of BTC reach $69,000 in November 2021. However, there were also periods of uncertainty, as analyst Sciberras points out.
“During 2014 and 2017 we saw many Bitcoin ‘forks’ proposed that split the Bitcoin community,” he says. Hard forks are changes to the underlying protocol of the blockchain network that split a cryptocurrency into two.
These forks represented crucial junctures in Bitcoin’s history, with various factions in the community attempting to change BTC’s direction. Despite heated debates, and a number of forks, Bitcoin has persisted in its current format.
“Bitcoin surviving these attempts to change it is a core contributor to where BTC is now, increasing its confidence and resilience,” Sciberras said.
“It has weathered many storms and attempts to change it, with Bitcoin forks now a distant memory, combining for less than 1% of Bitcoin’s total market cap.”
Bitcoin Halving Event
Another defining feature of Bitcoin’s price history is the halving event, which happens roughly every four years and reduces the rate at which new coins are created.
The next halving is expected to occur sometime in early to mid-2024, just as the next Jupiter-Uranus planetary conjunction takes place in spring 2024.
The next halving is expected to occur sometime in early to mid-2024, just as the next Jupiter-Uranus planetary conjunction takes place in spring 2024.
“We’ve seen Bitcoin’s price significantly increase a year before the halving and a year after,” Sciberras said.
Many investors view the halving event as one of the most significant factors that affects Bitcoin’s price.
However, Sciberras is circumspect:
However, Sciberras is circumspect:
“The jury is still out on how priced-in the halving is, or how important the event is in the grand scheme of Bitcoin’s price trajectory,” he says.
“There is a theory that the four-year halving event is not as significant as many think and that, instead, its alignment with external liquidity cycles is what makes it appear like a trigger for upward price movement.”
Nonetheless, I predict that 2024 will be a critical watershed year for Bitcoin that investors should prepare for ahead of Bitcoin's more adverse secondary progressions through the mid-to-late 2020s.
Nonetheless, I predict that 2024 will be a critical watershed year for Bitcoin that investors should prepare for ahead of Bitcoin's more adverse secondary progressions through the mid-to-late 2020s.
Garth Turner, a Canadian macroeconomist and investment advisor on his blog, 'The Greater Fool' has this perspective on what has been happening when it comes to the economy and financial markets:
"Some call 2023 the year of the brink. Like, we dodged a bullet.
But fate just reloaded, they claim – and 2024 must be when the real damage takes place.
You know why. Weenies in the steerage section moan about it daily. They think rates and inflation are extreme.
Debt is crushing. Wealth inequality is unfair, unjust and criminal.
They call governments traitorous, say health care is collapsing, diss immigrants and interpret high housing prices as a sign of societal collapse and generational genocide.
And when they look beyond their own navels, there are more scary things out there:
Putin, Hamas, Trump, Netanyahu, Xi, an 81-year-old leader of the free world and AI taking over TikTok.
Debt is crushing. Wealth inequality is unfair, unjust and criminal.
They call governments traitorous, say health care is collapsing, diss immigrants and interpret high housing prices as a sign of societal collapse and generational genocide.
And when they look beyond their own navels, there are more scary things out there:
Putin, Hamas, Trump, Netanyahu, Xi, an 81-year-old leader of the free world and AI taking over TikTok.
Well, let’s get a grip. Reflect on how scary things seemed in 2023, and how they turned out:
A year ago it looked like recession was for sure. Interest rates were ratcheting higher in Canada and the States. The war in Ukraine was hot and expanding. Stock markets laid an egg.
Inflation was surging to the highest levels in four decades – over 8% in the land of maple and plus-9% in the US.
Inflation was surging to the highest levels in four decades – over 8% in the land of maple and plus-9% in the US.
Consumer spending was petering out along with Ottawa’s generous pandemic cheques. Economies in North America barely had a pulse as the central banks kept tightening.
The bond market yield curve was so inverted it looked like Katelyn Ohashi. And everybody said, this will end badly.
The bond market yield curve was so inverted it looked like Katelyn Ohashi. And everybody said, this will end badly.
What happened?
Bank failures. America was rocked and shocked when Silicon Valley and First Republic went paws up.
As BMO Economics points out, this was like the 1930s, only worse. Modern-age technology let panic spread and amplify in seconds over social media.
In one day (March 9th) SVB’s stock lost 60% of its value. Clients sucked billions out literally every hour.
In 48 hours, one of the nation’s largest banks was broke. Contagion was spreading. The steerage section had a cow.
As BMO Economics points out, this was like the 1930s, only worse. Modern-age technology let panic spread and amplify in seconds over social media.
In one day (March 9th) SVB’s stock lost 60% of its value. Clients sucked billions out literally every hour.
In 48 hours, one of the nation’s largest banks was broke. Contagion was spreading. The steerage section had a cow.
There was more to come.
Mass layoffs in the tech sector. More mass shootings than America had ever seen. Wildfires. Floods.
Biden’s popularity plumbed new depths while Trump was indicted over and again. Congress seized up, unable to elect new leadership or pass legislation. Ukraine started to run out of ammo, and lose.
Hamas butchered Israelis, who then butchered Gazans.
Mass layoffs in the tech sector. More mass shootings than America had ever seen. Wildfires. Floods.
Biden’s popularity plumbed new depths while Trump was indicted over and again. Congress seized up, unable to elect new leadership or pass legislation. Ukraine started to run out of ammo, and lose.
Hamas butchered Israelis, who then butchered Gazans.
Real estate markets in Canada seized up with a stress test over 8% and prices which barely budged.
Household debt hit a record. Public borrowing ballooned to the point where Ottawa warned just paying the interest would soon cost more than anything else.
Confidence in government cratered. Young warriors on the blog called for revolution. (‘Give us condos, or give us death.’)
Household debt hit a record. Public borrowing ballooned to the point where Ottawa warned just paying the interest would soon cost more than anything else.
Confidence in government cratered. Young warriors on the blog called for revolution. (‘Give us condos, or give us death.’)
Well, that was 2023. The year Taylor Swift made more money than Elon Musk. And we got Barbie.
Yuck.
Yuck.
Here’s the update, a few days away from the shiny new year.
First, there was no recession. Nor will there be. Put that one to bed. The US economy grew fat and fast in the last quarter and ours went from negative to positive.
Second, inflation has been leashed. In both countries it currently sits just a whisker over 3%, which means this was one of the swiftest kicks in the butt CPI has ever experienced.
In about a year and a half, central banks were able to take a post-pandemic price explosion and bring it down to near their target rate of 2%. We’ll be there in a couple of months.
In about a year and a half, central banks were able to take a post-pandemic price explosion and bring it down to near their target rate of 2%. We’ll be there in a couple of months.
Third, rate hikes are over. Done. Both the Bank of Canada and the U.S. Fed have been on pause for months, now that price escalation is in check.
The next moves will be down – anticipated to occur in the second half of the year (although this blog is still leaning towards the first one here on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.)
The next moves will be down – anticipated to occur in the second half of the year (although this blog is still leaning towards the first one here on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.)
Despite an historic and aggressive rate-tightening cycle, unemployment is a nothingburger. At 3.7% in the States, it’s about where it was a year ago.
In Canada our jobless rate began and ends the year in the 5% range – despite the big banks girding for loan losses and punting workers.
Consumers are back. Holiday season spending in the US roared ahead in the key Christmas holiday season.
In Canada wage gains averaged 5% year/year for most of 2023, and now eclipse the inflation rate by almost half.
Unionized workers made huge gains, sometimes through strike efforts, shielding members from the grocery price jumps that dominated headlines.
In Canada wage gains averaged 5% year/year for most of 2023, and now eclipse the inflation rate by almost half.
Unionized workers made huge gains, sometimes through strike efforts, shielding members from the grocery price jumps that dominated headlines.
Corporate profits did just fine, ending a profits recession which resulted from an explosion in interest rates. Stock markets recovered spectacularly.
For the year to date, the S&P 500 has galloped ahead more than 24%. The Dow is ahead 13%. Bay Street has gone from negative numbers to a 7% gain.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq has returned 44%.
Balanced, diversified, steady portfolios have exceeded expectations, in part because falling bond yields have resulted in surging prices.
For the year to date, the S&P 500 has galloped ahead more than 24%. The Dow is ahead 13%. Bay Street has gone from negative numbers to a 7% gain.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq has returned 44%.
Balanced, diversified, steady portfolios have exceeded expectations, in part because falling bond yields have resulted in surging prices.
Real estate? Markets went into hibernation as rates rose, and stayed there. Prices are down in most places, and major cities (save Calgary) are officially buyer’s markets.
Mortgage rates have declined along with the yield on a 5-year Canada bond (it has collapsed over 1%), so home loans that topped 6% and now available at 4.99%. On their way into the 3s by later in 2024.
Mortgage rates have declined along with the yield on a 5-year Canada bond (it has collapsed over 1%), so home loans that topped 6% and now available at 4.99%. On their way into the 3s by later in 2024.
Do we still have troubles?
Of course.
Wars. The crazy US election. Roving gangs of killers, houseless Zs and Millennials. Madonna’s embarrassing tour. China’s real estate implosion. Chrystia as PM. And that disturbing global tilt towards rightist populist nutbar leaders.
Wars. The crazy US election. Roving gangs of killers, houseless Zs and Millennials. Madonna’s embarrassing tour. China’s real estate implosion. Chrystia as PM. And that disturbing global tilt towards rightist populist nutbar leaders.
But have faith. We’ll get through it. This new year begins brighter than did the last one.
This is progress. Like it or not."
"Yes, we get it.
Central bankers who created inflation in first place with their idiotic policies – zero rates for far too long and backing any form of credit with the ‘purchase’ of credit backed securities with made up money, now are the main fighters against it and they apparently ‘won’.
So now we can allow the banks to create some more credit in order to fuel some magical ‘growth’ out of nowhere with strapped consumers and record debt…
Sure. Solving the problem of enormous credit with more credit and debt. Pass the booze.
There can be no organic growth given current conditions.
Just inflation fueled fake growth with further descent into the abyss of inflation where people have less in real terms and continue to consume less and less.
With some magical nominal growth based solely on severely understated inflation.
If somebody in Canada firmly believes that today the average Canadian lives better than 15-20 years ago, that somebody needs some professional mental help.
The boogieman of recession and the constant declaration of ‘soft landing’ is becoming more and more pathetic by the day.
If things were fine, we would not need anyone reminding us on daily basis of how things are ‘improving’.
And it is somehow very strange and contradictory how this magical continuous ‘growth’ in the economy results in lower and lower standard of living with constantly and continuously significantly increased number of financial stressed and hungry people.
I will say it out bluntly:
Majority of the eastern and southern European countries have now higher real standard of living than Canada and many more people in Asia are closing on it."
Zerohedge reported that one economist has warned about the financial markets in 2024:
"So, if you just get out for six to 12 months and stuff stays at the highest valuation history, maybe you miss a little more gains if I’m wrong.
“Since 2009, this has been 100 percent artificial, unprecedented money printing and deficits: $27 trillion over 15 years, to be exact,” economist Harry Dent told Fox Business on Dec. 19.
“This is off the charts, 100 percent artificial, which means we’re in a dangerous state.
“This is off the charts, 100 percent artificial, which means we’re in a dangerous state.
“I think 2024 is going to be the biggest single crash year we’ll see in our lifetime.
“We need to get back down to normal, and we need to send a message to central banks,” he said. “This should be a lesson I don’t think we’ll ever revisit. I don’t think we’ll ever see a bubble for any of our lifetimes again.”
Dent, who owns the HS Dent Investment Management firm, told the outlet that U.S. markets are currently in a bubble that started in late 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Things are not going to come back to normal in a few years. We may never see these levels again. And this crash is not going to be a correction,” he said.
“It’s going to be more in the ’29 to ’32 level. And anybody who sat through that would have shot their stockbroker,” Mr. Dent said, making references to the stock market crash in 1929 that led to the Great Depression throughout the 1930s.
“If I’m right, it is going to be the biggest crash of our lifetime, most of it happening in 2024. You’re going to see it start and be more obvious by May.
"So, if you just get out for six to 12 months and stuff stays at the highest valuation history, maybe you miss a little more gains if I’m wrong.
If I’m right, you’re going to save massive losses and be able to reinvest a year or year-and-a-half from now at unbelievably low prices and magnify your gains beyond compare.”
In the past few weeks, several analysts have been making similar predictions of a significant stock market crash in the near future.
“Based on prevailing market valuations, we estimate that poor total returns are likely for the S&P 500 in the coming 10–12 years, that equity market returns, relative to bonds, are likely to be among the worst in history.
And that a market loss on the order of [minus] 63 percent over the completion of this cycle would be consistent with prevailing valuations and a century of market history,” Hussman Investment Trust President John Hussman, who called the 2008 crash, wrote in a note in October 2023.
And that a market loss on the order of [minus] 63 percent over the completion of this cycle would be consistent with prevailing valuations and a century of market history,” Hussman Investment Trust President John Hussman, who called the 2008 crash, wrote in a note in October 2023.
Wrong Prediction?
However, in a recent note, investment banking firm Goldman Sachs raised its 2024 S&P 500 target by 8 percent, to 5,100, forecasting a tailwind for U.S. stocks from falling inflation and declining interest rates.
“Looking forward, the new regime of both improving growth and falling rates should support stocks with weaker balance sheets, particularly those that are sensitive to economic growth,” the firm wrote late last week.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the U.S. central bank’s consequential tightening of monetary policy is likely over as inflation falls faster than expected, and that a discussion of cuts in benchmark rates is coming “into view.”
The shift from the Fed helped to push the S&P 500 near a record high and sent bond yields tumbling. Goldman strategists expect the Fed to cut rates by 25 basis points at each of its policy meetings in March, April, and May 2023.
That was followed by quarterly cuts that will bring down benchmark rates to a range of 4 percent to 4.25 percent by year-end from the current range of 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent.
That was followed by quarterly cuts that will bring down benchmark rates to a range of 4 percent to 4.25 percent by year-end from the current range of 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent.
The bullish outlook from Goldman Sachs comes as other firms have increased their expectations for interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Bank of America Global Research, for example, now sees the Fed cutting rates by 100 basis points next year, beginning with a 25 basis-point cut in March, compared with its previous estimate of 75 basis points.
Bank of America Global Research, for example, now sees the Fed cutting rates by 100 basis points next year, beginning with a 25 basis-point cut in March, compared with its previous estimate of 75 basis points.
The U.S. central bank raised rates in a bid to offset decades-high inflation. Data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the Consumer Price Index that measures inflation rose by 0.1 percent in November 2023 on a seasonally adjusted basis and was up by 3.1 percent year over year.
Still, 2023 was a whirlwind year for the American economy with a number of headwinds - rising credit card debt, slumping housing sales, and the increasing cost of living - offset by a strong job market and robust consumer spending.
Still, 2023 was a whirlwind year for the American economy with a number of headwinds - rising credit card debt, slumping housing sales, and the increasing cost of living - offset by a strong job market and robust consumer spending.
Yet, many Americans say that they feel uncertain about their financial futures. Even high-net-worth investors are no different.
In fact, just 59 percent of affluent Americans report feeling financially secure in 2023, compared to 72% in 2022.
Over 62% worried about their financial future this year, thanks to market volatility and global issues.
In fact, just 59 percent of affluent Americans report feeling financially secure in 2023, compared to 72% in 2022.
Over 62% worried about their financial future this year, thanks to market volatility and global issues.
Each investor has their own individual worries. Many Gen Xers, are most worried about the 30-years of damage (1993-2023) done by the baby boomer establishment and even younger investors are concerned about affordable housing and being able to build and start businesses.
From my astrological analysis of 2024, I see investors taking many of the concerns of 2023 into 2024: this includes inflation, market volatility, and geopolitical events on the worldstage.
In turn, how high-worth Americans choose to spend and invest will also have ripple effects throughout the financial markets and the global economy.
In turn, how high-worth Americans choose to spend and invest will also have ripple effects throughout the financial markets and the global economy.
Okay, knowing all this going into 2024, it is my mundane assessment that 2024 is going to be a volatile year, - with presages by spring and then definite downturns through the second half of 2024 into the 2025 - over the course of all three (3) Jupiter-Saturn world squares.
Be prepared.
Be prepared.
2024: Year of the Wood Dragon:
Events, Prospects & Trends
Events, Prospects & Trends
by Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci
On February 9-10, 2024, the coming Lunar New Year begins a new cycle in the Chinese zodiac - solar year 2024 will be the Year of the Wood Dragon.
In Chinese astrology, the Dragon is a symbol of courage, creativity, innovation and strength.
Unlike the solar calendar, which has fixed dates for each month, the lunar calendar has variable dates that depend on the phases of the transiting Moon.
It means that the beginning and end of each year in the Chinese zodiac may not coincide with the Gregorian calendar.
Planetary transits for 2024 show me that it will be a challenging year, but for the keen person, it is also a strong year for opportunities and potential for significant changes in life.
Planetary transits for 2024 show me that it will be a challenging year, but for the keen person, it is also a strong year for opportunities and potential for significant changes in life.
Years of the Dragon
2024: February 10, 2024, till January 28, 2025.
2012: January 23, 2012 – February 9, 2013
2000: February 5, 2000 – January 23, 2001
1988: February 17, 1988 – February 5, 1989
1976: January 31, 1976 – February 17, 1977
1964: February 13, 1964 – February 1, 1965
1952: January 27, 1952 – February 13, 1953
Kriti Nayyar writes:
"According to the Chinese elemental theory, each zodiac sign is linked to one of the five main elements: Gold (Metal), Wood, Water, Fire, or Earth.
The Wood Dragon, like all other elemental Dragons, comes once in 60 years.
People born in the Year of the Wood Dragon (1964, 2024 and so on) are considered to be extremely creative and inquisitive beings, who like to explore many different paths in life which results in them being very open and liberal.
As for the upcoming Year of the Wood Dragon 2024, it will commence on February 10, 2024, till January 28, 2025.
The Wood Dragon, like all other elemental Dragons, comes once in 60 years.
People born in the Year of the Wood Dragon (1964, 2024 and so on) are considered to be extremely creative and inquisitive beings, who like to explore many different paths in life which results in them being very open and liberal.
As for the upcoming Year of the Wood Dragon 2024, it will commence on February 10, 2024, till January 28, 2025.
Always brimming with drive and motivation, Wood Dragons enjoy fulfilling careers. They’re likely to materialize all their ambitions into actions, coming up with truly revolutionary ideas that make them the masters of their craft.
Unlike the other dragon born people, who are often seen as proud and arrogant, the Wood Dragon thrives on humility.
While you’ll mostly find this sign leading on in a powerful position, Wood Dragons ensure they have a trusted counsel of experts to advise them on important matters.
Unlike the other dragon born people, who are often seen as proud and arrogant, the Wood Dragon thrives on humility.
While you’ll mostly find this sign leading on in a powerful position, Wood Dragons ensure they have a trusted counsel of experts to advise them on important matters.
These natural leaders command attention when they walk into a room, and it’s really hard not to be intimidated by them. Being the epitome of power and success, Dragons will come out victorious even if they jump into a risky business without thinking.
Strengths
Wood Dragons are very lively and enthusiastic, charming their way into every social circle with a dash of self-confidence.
These highly intellectual individuals quickly take advantage of every opportunity. Dragons aren’t easily discouraged in the face of difficulties (although failures do pinch their egos.)
They’re somewhat perfectionists (and mysteriously lucky) who always maintain the high standards they set for themselves.
These highly intellectual individuals quickly take advantage of every opportunity. Dragons aren’t easily discouraged in the face of difficulties (although failures do pinch their egos.)
They’re somewhat perfectionists (and mysteriously lucky) who always maintain the high standards they set for themselves.
You can often find them trying to change the world, one great idea at a time! This sign is too busy building a legacy, having no time to indulge in gossip, slander or hypocrisy.
Their ambitious streak is so great that you’ll find them working at unsociable hours to fulfil their desires, having a self-assured personality and sharp focus that stimulates their path to success.
No matter what ill-fated shocks they suffer or catastrophic situations they might encounter, Wood Dragons will always land on their feet.
Their ambitious streak is so great that you’ll find them working at unsociable hours to fulfil their desires, having a self-assured personality and sharp focus that stimulates their path to success.
No matter what ill-fated shocks they suffer or catastrophic situations they might encounter, Wood Dragons will always land on their feet.
Humorous and diplomatic in their ways, Wood Dragons have a sixth sense for business that no other Chinese zodiac sign possesses.
Overall, people born in the Year of the Wood Dragon are considered to be the luckiest folks out there, with good fortune being their constant companion. Wood Dragons truly have a Midas touch!
Overall, people born in the Year of the Wood Dragon are considered to be the luckiest folks out there, with good fortune being their constant companion. Wood Dragons truly have a Midas touch!
Weaknesses
With great ambition, wit and success comes a sense of self-absorbedness and supremacy (that might help further the sign’s professional dreams) which surely hinders their personal relationships.
Their constant need to feel self-sufficient and independent draws them away from romantic relationships, and they often end up leading solitary lives for the most part.
Their constant need to feel self-sufficient and independent draws them away from romantic relationships, and they often end up leading solitary lives for the most part.
The Wood Dragon will listen to other people’s point of view, however, it can be a little pushy during arguments to establish that whatever they’ve said is right.
While the zodiac animal is (almost) always right, being considerate and accommodating at times won’t really hurt! Isn’t it?
While the zodiac animal is (almost) always right, being considerate and accommodating at times won’t really hurt! Isn’t it?
Despite being brilliant and intelligent, the zodiac animal occasionally tends to ignore reasoning and follows their instinct which is when disaster strikes.
Furthermore, they are often unable to control their emotions and unfurl a hot-headed and quick-tempered streak when someone irks them. Their irrational fears often take precedence over their talent and their unbridled emotions often follow their heads.
Furthermore, they are often unable to control their emotions and unfurl a hot-headed and quick-tempered streak when someone irks them. Their irrational fears often take precedence over their talent and their unbridled emotions often follow their heads.
Idealists and perfectionists, people born in the Year of the Wood Dragon are too critical of others’ work inefficiency. Their crude words (mostly said with good intent) often hurt people close to them. Dragons, you really need to let loose and go with the flow!
Compatibility
With its flamboyant personality and gorgeous looks (AND a host of red flags), it’s hard not to fall head over heels in love with a Wood Dragon.
It’s safe to say that this sign has an unsatisfying love life, simply because they push people away as they want no one to dictate/partake in their lives.
They’re more likely to indulge in a string of romances and marriages than find a stable relationship and forge a solid foundation for life.
It’s safe to say that this sign has an unsatisfying love life, simply because they push people away as they want no one to dictate/partake in their lives.
They’re more likely to indulge in a string of romances and marriages than find a stable relationship and forge a solid foundation for life.
When they do come into a relationship, it’s filled with passion and zeal which fades away as quickly as it rises. They’ll put up with a person only till it’s convenient and undemanding as they’re too busy in their own world.
Dragons love fiercely and will intoxicate you with their charm. However, they most likely won’t settle in their youth and might just break your heart for the next person who catches their fancy.
Despite being difficult to put up with, they’re as irresistible as it gets! What also makes it exciting to have a relationship with the Wood Dragon is that they’re curious and ready to experiment with different things in a relationship.
Dragons love fiercely and will intoxicate you with their charm. However, they most likely won’t settle in their youth and might just break your heart for the next person who catches their fancy.
Despite being difficult to put up with, they’re as irresistible as it gets! What also makes it exciting to have a relationship with the Wood Dragon is that they’re curious and ready to experiment with different things in a relationship.
Wondering if you’re compatible with the Wood Dragon based on your Chinese zodiac sign? Keep reading to find out:
Most compatible: Monkey, Rat, Snakes & Rooster
Roosters and Dragons are each other’s best cheerleaders during difficult times. The Rooster will always root for its partner, offering sincere words of encouragement. Monkeys and Dragons both have amazing intuition and expansive imagination and will better understand each other’s aspirations.
Lastly, Rat entices the Dragon with its wit and dependability. Their contrasting personalities perfectly complement each other.
Lastly, Rat entices the Dragon with its wit and dependability. Their contrasting personalities perfectly complement each other.
Least compatible: Dog, Rabbit, Ox, Sheep or Dragon
Dogs and Dragons will have a hard time trusting and understanding each other. Their union spells doom. Similarly, Rabbits and Dragons (despite sharing many interests) can’t seem to tolerate each other because of their short tempers.
Lastly, Wood Dragons won’t get along with other Dragons, simply because they’re too alike. The need to be independent, fulfil their ambitions without any roadblocks and highly self-absorbed nature leaves no space for a relationship to blossom.
Lastly, Wood Dragons won’t get along with other Dragons, simply because they’re too alike. The need to be independent, fulfil their ambitions without any roadblocks and highly self-absorbed nature leaves no space for a relationship to blossom.
Career
Noble, resourceful, street smart and sincere – Wood Dragons will go very far in their career because they excel at tasks that many find mentally taxing.
They make for great leaders and their powerful aura commands everyone’s attention. The sign is very enterprising and will do wonders in a position where they can put their ideas into play.
Dragons work best with an entourage of people, who help them strategise and fine-tune their ideas.
Their savage and aggressive approach is the cornerstone for success, but also a barrier to personal development.
They make for great leaders and their powerful aura commands everyone’s attention. The sign is very enterprising and will do wonders in a position where they can put their ideas into play.
Dragons work best with an entourage of people, who help them strategise and fine-tune their ideas.
Their savage and aggressive approach is the cornerstone for success, but also a barrier to personal development.
Dragons don’t care about what others are saying about them and will fructify their creative ideas despite all criticism. Many appreciate them for their originality and their ability to take risks.
The sign seldom suffers from money problems, wealth just flows to them with their enterprising ideas.
They’re very generous when it comes to money and use it majorly as a means to realize their goals.
The sign seldom suffers from money problems, wealth just flows to them with their enterprising ideas.
They’re very generous when it comes to money and use it majorly as a means to realize their goals.
As for the ideal profession, Wood Dragons can work wonders as politicians, designers, managers, salespersons and financiers.
Health
When it comes to health and well-being, Wood Dragons are pretty strong and balanced. They don’t fret over minor issues, always being high-spirited and cheerful.
While most of their lifestyle habits are just about fine, Dragons can suffer health issues because of overburdening themselves with work.
They’re too preoccupied with their jobs, often ignoring their welfare which could take an ugly shape in the long run.
Something they dismiss as a minor annoyance could be a potential hazard in the future. So, it’s high time this zodiac sign strikes a work-life balance.
The best way to keep physical and mental exhaustion at bay is to exercise regularly.
Meditating and exercising really help, given that Dragons are constantly stressed and frustrated due to work. It’s best if this sign takes regular breaks to introspect and unwind, completely cut off from their regular chores.
Meditating and exercising really help, given that Dragons are constantly stressed and frustrated due to work. It’s best if this sign takes regular breaks to introspect and unwind, completely cut off from their regular chores.
Lucky things
Numbers: 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9
Colors: Gold, silver and hoary
Flowers: Bleeding heart vine, larkspur and hyacinth
Directions: West, north, and northwest
Unlucky things
Numbers: 3, 9
Colors: Green, black, red and purple
Directions: Southeast
Artificial Intelligence:
Friend or Foe?
Friend or Foe?
Elon Musk, a co-founder of the company OpenAI, raised his concern about a potentially dark turn for artificial intelligence. In an interview at the Dealbook summit, Musk hinted at the possibility that OpenAI has discovered “something dangerous” that has raised concerns for the Open AI board members, leading to the firing of CEO Sam Altman, who was then rehired back, just days later after nearly all the OpenAI staff threatened to quit.
by Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci
I am sure that the good reader has heard something about Artificial Intelligence, otherwise known as 'AI.'
All through 2023, artificial intelligence has been among the top terms used in media and society.
Artificial intelligence (AI) will end us, save us or - less snappy-sounding but the more probable intersection of both - eventually destroy us.
From humbling chess grandmaster losses at the hands of mathematically brilliant supercomputers to semantic networks with the linguistic grasp of a seven-year-old, one thing seems certain: AI is here.
It became everyone's favorite term in 2023, but with Wall Street's newfound love with AI, it appears that while artificial intelligence is very much in vogue is that some of the planet’s greatest scientists and innovators have been telling us to take care.
The late Stephen Hawking worried that super smart computers could spell the end of the human race.
Billionaire Elon Musk donated $10 million just to keep AI beneficial.
Back in 2017 we saw the publication of an open letter from advanced technology players who argued for vigilance to make sure ensure that artificial intelligence benefits humanity.
Back in 2017 we saw the publication of an open letter from advanced technology players who argued for vigilance to make sure ensure that artificial intelligence benefits humanity.
Another reason is that AI is being spoken about everywhere because our machines have become even more prescient in our lives, to the point of advertisers and social media using them to anticipate our needs.
In fact, that is exactly what struck Stephen Hawking when he upgraded the system that enabled him to write and communicate despite his motor neuron disease.
In fact, that is exactly what struck Stephen Hawking when he upgraded the system that enabled him to write and communicate despite his motor neuron disease.
What the computer could do surprised him – just how smart it was? It seemed to anticipate what he wanted to write next and that caused him to think more seriously about just how intelligent computers were becoming and how quickly it was happening.
The fact is that our computers are getting better at what they do now means that artificial intelligence is going to play increasingly more intrusive roles in society.
Recent viral tales about exchanges with AI chatbots - including threats to hack a user's system, steal nuclear codes, and create deadly viruses even expressing a desire to break free from the developer - have set off alarm bells and raised questions about AI's ethics.
Recent viral tales about exchanges with AI chatbots - including threats to hack a user's system, steal nuclear codes, and create deadly viruses even expressing a desire to break free from the developer - have set off alarm bells and raised questions about AI's ethics.
As a mundane astrologer, and more importantly, a human being, I say that the strict ethics and what I call 'principle protocols' must be created and produced for all artificial intelligence systems before AI is developed, rolled out and then used.
On one hand, from my experience writing on technology transfer protocols since the invention of what we now know as the INTERNET since 1988; I can tell that AI - going into this decade of the 2020s - has the potential to transform various industries completely.
On one hand, from my experience writing on technology transfer protocols since the invention of what we now know as the INTERNET since 1988; I can tell that AI - going into this decade of the 2020s - has the potential to transform various industries completely.
Another issue for the companies rushing AI onto the market is copyright infringement.
In fact, Fortune reported on Wednesday, December 27, 2023 that the New York Times has sued OpenAI for just that:
According to Mark Bergen and Bloomberg:
"The New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI for using its content to help develop artificial intelligence services, in a sign of the increasingly fraught relationship between the media and a technology that could upend the news industry.
"The New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI for using its content to help develop artificial intelligence services, in a sign of the increasingly fraught relationship between the media and a technology that could upend the news industry.
The technology firms relied on millions of copyrighted articles to train chatbots like ChatGPT and other AI features, allegedly causing billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages, according to a lawsuit filed in New York on Wednesday. The Times didn’t specify its monetary demands.
Representatives from Microsoft and OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
OpenAI has faced criticism for scraping text widely from the web to train its popular chatbot since it debuted a year ago, and this is the first lawsuit by a major media organization challenging the practice.
The startup has sought licensing deals with publishers, much like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook have done in recent years.
In July, OpenAI signed an agreement with the Associated Press to access some of the news agency’s archives.
OpenAI cut a three-year deal in December with Axel Springer SE to use the German media company’s work for an undisclosed sum.
The Times lawsuit said the publisher reached out to Microsoft and OpenAI in April and could not reach an amicable solution.
OpenAI has faced multiple lawsuits from content producers complaining that their work has been improperly used for AI training.
The company faces class actions from cultural figures including comedian Sarah Silverman, Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, and Pulitzer-winning author Michael Chabon.
The cases are still in their early stages and could take years to fully resolve.
A judge in San Francisco earlier in December 2023 hinted at trimming Silverman’s copyright lawsuit against OpenAI. The judge had already narrowed a similar Silverman suit against Meta.
A judge in San Francisco earlier in December 2023 hinted at trimming Silverman’s copyright lawsuit against OpenAI. The judge had already narrowed a similar Silverman suit against Meta.
OpenAI is currently in talks with investors for new financing at a $100 billion valuation that would make it the second-most valuable US startup, Bloomberg News reported last week.
Microsoft is OpenAI’s largest backer and has deployed the startup’s AI tools in several of its products.
In the lawsuit, the New York Times alleged Microsoft copied the newspaper’s articles verbatim for its Bing search engine and used OpenAI’s tech to boost its value by a trillion dollars.
In the lawsuit, the New York Times alleged Microsoft copied the newspaper’s articles verbatim for its Bing search engine and used OpenAI’s tech to boost its value by a trillion dollars.
Microsoft’s share price has risen 55% since ChatGPT debuted in November 2022, increasing its market capitalization to $2.8 trillion. Shares were down 0.3% to $373.38 at 11:25 a.m. in New York on Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023.
“If Microsoft and OpenAI want to use our work for commercial purposes, the law requires that they first obtain our permission,” a New York Times spokesperson said in an emailed statement:
“They have not done so.”
“They have not done so.”
Along with the serious concerns around its ethical implications, artificial intelligence has been fueled by the parts that drive the science and engineering of hardware and software.
Even our smartphone devices appear to become twice as powerful some every eighteen months or so as it appears that human beings become just as lazy as technology advances.
Even our smartphone devices appear to become twice as powerful some every eighteen months or so as it appears that human beings become just as lazy as technology advances.
For instance, the machines that advertisers, businesses and college students use are now one million times more powerful than those used when I began my analysis of artificial intelligence 12 years ago.
I began my analysis knowing that in applied astrology, the transits of the outer planets like Uranus and Pluto would begin a long series of air trines from tropical Gemini to Aquarius.
The planet Uranus will enter tropical Gemini for a seven-year transit there starting in July 2025 through to May 2033 and in that time there will be a major air trine to Pluto, transiting tropical Aquarius from the mid-2020s to the early 2030s.
The effect of the slowly rotating Uranus-Pluto world air trines from Gemini to Aquarius shows a sustained span of time (about 6-7 years overall) of strong awareness by society of large-scale changes in the world that will impact the existence of each human being.
Many times, individuals under this world air trine between these two slow-moving planets stimulates them toward a substantial understanding of the spiritual laws that govern our lives here n Earth.
Under the years that Uranus and Pluto are in 120-trine aspect the transit will spark enterprise and push a feeling of improving existing conditions and methods that can turn out later to be irreversible.
Reforms to technologies that were spawned by the emergence in 1988 of the Internet through artificial intelligence applications are sure to cause controversy.
Global planetary transits from the mid-2020s to the early 2030s is sure to be exciting, but simultaneously the growth and spread of AI will continue to go much faster than the protocols to protect with ethical practices.
Reforms to technologies that were spawned by the emergence in 1988 of the Internet through artificial intelligence applications are sure to cause controversy.
Global planetary transits from the mid-2020s to the early 2030s is sure to be exciting, but simultaneously the growth and spread of AI will continue to go much faster than the protocols to protect with ethical practices.
You see, while all the talk in the present on artificial intelligence, I am not convinced that the responsible use of AI will be maintained and the paths to misuse and abuse are many.
These more powerful machines have more data to access using more sophisticated algorithms; they contain more sensors that deliver more functionality.
These more powerful machines have more data to access using more sophisticated algorithms; they contain more sensors that deliver more functionality.
And, of course, they can draw on even more power and data from the Cloud.
The result of artificial intelligence is a supercomputer in our pockets that sometimes acts as a phone, but can also recognize speech, faces, and patterns of all kinds.
A device that can connect to the colossal repository of human knowledge that is the World Wide Web and answer questions on anything from ancient history to your current local weather; international traffic conditions or even a book I might like to read based on your known preferences over the last several few years.
A device that can connect to the colossal repository of human knowledge that is the World Wide Web and answer questions on anything from ancient history to your current local weather; international traffic conditions or even a book I might like to read based on your known preferences over the last several few years.
AI research has exploited the increased power of computers and the access to huge amounts of data to write programs that can learn, understand and anticipate.
Artificial intelligence has already delivered many components of smart behavior. If we think about it, we do not expect that AI can really “learn”, “understand” or “anticipate” in the way we humans do but that is quickly changing.
In just a few short years, we see new variants of AI machine learning that can achieve superhuman levels of behavior on specific tasks with only a few hours training that have become 'self-aware' such as Google's version.
My view is that all artificial intelligence systems - here in our present era of the early 2020s - are as good as the data they are trained on and as they learn patterns and act accordingly.
But, that learning ability has led to some unintended consequences. Consider the case where Bing's chatbot turned rogue or even threatening. Some analysts and academics say that that was likely because it learns from behavior and mimics online conversations.
But, that learning ability has led to some unintended consequences. Consider the case where Bing's chatbot turned rogue or even threatening. Some analysts and academics say that that was likely because it learns from behavior and mimics online conversations.
It is one of the prime reasons why I call for much more human oversight knowing what I know of the future.
I maintain that even though AI can automate many tasks, human being must and should be involved in every phase of the AI life cycle.
From installing what I call 'principle protocols' to closely exist within the core of any and all of AI's operations.
That includes being front and center in producing during the design cycle to ensure that outputs are accurate and reliable.
How much oversight is required will depend on the system's purpose and its safety, control and data security measures.
I maintain that even though AI can automate many tasks, human being must and should be involved in every phase of the AI life cycle.
From installing what I call 'principle protocols' to closely exist within the core of any and all of AI's operations.
That includes being front and center in producing during the design cycle to ensure that outputs are accurate and reliable.
How much oversight is required will depend on the system's purpose and its safety, control and data security measures.
But, at the very least, any and all artificial intelligence systems that have less human oversight must be identified, certified and have more testing and governance to ensure they are operating to their intended purpose.
When used correctly, Artificial Intelligence may become a 'friend,' not a 'foe.'
But, it is everyone's duty - not just developers, business leaders, governments and moguls - to set down ironclad standards, boundaries and protective principle protocols to set down the right balance - while operating it.
This can happen only if we establish very clear guidelines and ethical standards for the development and use of AI with principles that at its core has the well-being and safety of living beings over anything else - and that includes for profit and technological progress.
When used correctly, Artificial Intelligence may become a 'friend,' not a 'foe.'
But, it is everyone's duty - not just developers, business leaders, governments and moguls - to set down ironclad standards, boundaries and protective principle protocols to set down the right balance - while operating it.
This can happen only if we establish very clear guidelines and ethical standards for the development and use of AI with principles that at its core has the well-being and safety of living beings over anything else - and that includes for profit and technological progress.
The good reader should clearly understand that there is a direct threat of artificial intelligence becoming hooked into every facet of human life, and these very real threats include the stupidities, greeds and arrogance of human beings which by definition also makes AI a threat.
AI Robot Attacks Tesla Worker?
AI Robot Attacks Tesla Worker?
James Cameron's cautionary tale movie series 'The Terminator' premiered in 1984.
In 2021, the world's fear about artificial intelligence appears to have come true.
A Tesla worker was attacked by a robot during a bloody malfunction at the company's Giga Texas factory near Austin, Texas.
The Daily Mail, which obtained a 2021 injury report and was first to reveal the incident, reports that two witnesses watched in horror while the employee was attacked by a machine designed to handle aluminum car parts.
The incident was revealed in an injury report filed to Travis County and federal regulators.
According to the incident report, which authorities require to be filed in order to maintain lucrative tax breaks in Texas, the employee did not miss any work because of the incident.
However, The Daily Mail reports that one attorney who represents Tesla's Giga Texas contract workers said that many injuries could have gone unreported.
After all, the 2021 incident is the only that was reported in 2021 and 2022.
After all, the 2021 incident is the only that was reported in 2021 and 2022.
"My advice would be to read that report with a grain of salt," the attorney, Hannah Alexander of the nonprofit Workers Defense Project, told The Daily Mail.
"We've had multiple workers who were injured and one worker who died, whose injuries or death are not in these reports that Tesla is supposed to be accurately completing and submitting to the county in order to get tax incentives."
"We've had multiple workers who were injured and one worker who died, whose injuries or death are not in these reports that Tesla is supposed to be accurately completing and submitting to the county in order to get tax incentives."
The attack reportedly was brutal, as the robot sank its metal claws into the worker's back and arm, leaving a "trail of blood" on the floor.
The employee, an engineer, was programming software for two disabled robots when the attack took place.
Though the incident was reported, there were few details, according to The Daily Mail.
Despite the fact that Tesla wrote in the report that the employee didn't miss any work, the two witnesses told a horrifying story while speaking with TheInformation.com, according to The Daily Mail.
The witnesses said that as the bleeding Tesla engineer tried to get free from the robot, another worker hit an emergency "stop" button.
"As the Tesla engineer attempted to wrestle free from the robot's grasp, eyewitnesses saw another worker hit an emergency 'stop' button. Once free, the engineer fell 'a couple of feet down a chute designed to collect scrap aluminum, leaving a trail of blood behind him."
Once the employee broke free of the robot, he fell "a couple of feet down a chute designed to collect scrap aluminum, leaving a trail of blood behind him."
Alexander told The Daily Mail that it appears Tesla may be only reporting injuries to its employees - and not others involving workers who are contracted to do services there.
"There is this requirement that Tesla compile a compliance report every year for the purposes of this 'economic development' incentive agreement," Alexander told The Daily Mail:
"What I've found - with a lot of the construction workers I've talked to, who've had injuries - is that their injuries haven't been in the report.
"What I've found - with a lot of the construction workers I've talked to, who've had injuries - is that their injuries haven't been in the report.
"Like the worker who died, Antelmo Ramírez, his death was not recorded," the Austin-based attorney continued, "and the agreement between the county [Travis County] and Tesla - or with, you know, the Colorado River Project, LLC, the entity that Tesla was 'doing business as' here - was very clear.
"They're supposed to report every construction worker injury or death, and not just the injuries and deaths of people directly employed by Tesla, but any construction worker that was operating on the site."
Tesla has been hit with recalls, and one of its self-driving cars caused a deadly accident, Knewz.com previously reported.
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific leader of the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bomb, once famously described witnessing its first successful test.
He said that it made him recall a line from Hindu scripture:
“Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” He added that "I suppose we all thought that one way or another."
In our present time: leading artificial intelligence experts and developers seem to be uttering a similar sentiment.
“Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” He added that "I suppose we all thought that one way or another."
In our present time: leading artificial intelligence experts and developers seem to be uttering a similar sentiment.
And so, as the future draws near, we ask this question:
Will artificial intelligence become 'friend' or 'foe?'
Will artificial intelligence become 'friend' or 'foe?'
Is Extinction From AI Possible?
Tesla Bot on display at Musk's Cyber Rodeo.
On May 30, 2023 the Center for AI Safety released a single-sentence statement that was signed by hundreds of people, from AI experts to developers including OpenAI's Sam Altman, likening the risks of AI to nuclear warfare.
The statement reads:
"Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war."
And though, to some, the intention behind highlighting this paramount risk is a good one, to other experts, it serves as little more than a shield behind which AI developers can crouch, all while ignoring the real, though far less dramatic, risks posed by current AI models.
No one has a clear picture of what these existential threats posed by AI might look like. These risks, though, are not posed by current AI models like ChatGPT.
They are posed by a hypothetical referred to as artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which is a proposed AI system that would be smarter than humans.
No one has a clear picture of what these existential threats posed by AI might look like. These risks, though, are not posed by current AI models like ChatGPT.
They are posed by a hypothetical referred to as artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which is a proposed AI system that would be smarter than humans.
The risk is a very real future potential. ChatGPT, in its current form, poses a whole host of dramatic, though not necessarily terminal threats, such as misinformation, online fraud, and mass propaganda.
If AGI were to be achieved, the biggest point of concern is in how to control something that is smarter than people.
"Few things are harder to predict than the ways in which someone much smarter than you might outsmart you," computer scientist Paul Graham tweeted:
"That's the reason I worry about AI. Not just the problem itself, but the meta-problem that the ways the problem might play out are inherently hard to predict."
"That's the reason I worry about AI. Not just the problem itself, but the meta-problem that the ways the problem might play out are inherently hard to predict."
It is the fear of this lack of control that lies behind such catastrophic fears of AI; the argument is that an out-of-control AI model could make a bunch of science fiction very real, in ways no one yet understands.
For many experts, it simply comes down to preparation for systems that do not yet exist, but might soon.
"It is a technology that is possibly more consequential than any weapon that we've ever developed in human history," AI expert Professor John Licato said.
"So we absolutely have to prepare for this. That's one of the few things that I can state unequivocally."
"So we absolutely have to prepare for this. That's one of the few things that I can state unequivocally."
There's Reality & Then There Is Hype
And while many experts seem to agree that diving into this with eyes open wide to the risks is not a bad thing, many have dismissed the statement.
"I think it conveniently provides cover to a range of signatories who want to keep developing, deploying, and profiting from AI in harmful/risky ways because they can say they are doing so in efforts to steer AI away from the mirage of existential risk," machine-learning researcher Dr. Noah Giansiracusa Tweeted.
"The framing of 'let's mitigate risks,' sets AI up as an inevitable thing we have to learn to deal with.
It's not," he added. "If you actually thought it could wipe out humanity (I don't, I think that fear is baseless) then don't f*cking develop it!"
"The framing of 'let's mitigate risks,' sets AI up as an inevitable thing we have to learn to deal with.
It's not," he added. "If you actually thought it could wipe out humanity (I don't, I think that fear is baseless) then don't f*cking develop it!"
For other experts, like Dr. Serafim Batzoglou, such statements amount to little more than "fear-mongering" that could give current AI leaders an enormous regulatory moat.
"AGI fear-mongering is overhyped, toxic, likely to lead to regulatory capture by incumbents, and can slow down or hinder the positive applications of AI across society including biological science and medicine," he Tweeted.
Some, though, including the co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind Demis Hassabis, maintain that the technology is an important one, and it should be approached with caution.
"As with any transformative technology, we should apply the precautionary principle, and build & deploy it with exceptional care," he tweeted.
The statement comes as the latest step in the conversation on AI regulation. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared before a congressional hearing on AI oversight just a few weeks ago, saying then that "regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models."
OpenAI has since released a proposal on how to regulate the industry, something Microsoft later expanded on.
Meanwhile, the EU is working on an AI Act, a piece of proposed legislation that had Altman threatening to cease operations in Europe if it became law as-is.
He later walked that back a bit given that it doesn't quite jibe with his repeated statements stressing the importance of regulation.
He later walked that back a bit given that it doesn't quite jibe with his repeated statements stressing the importance of regulation.
"Mitigating AI risk should absolutely be a top priority, but literal extinction is just one risk, not yet well-understood; many other risks threaten both our safety and our democracy," AI expert Professor Gary Marcus tweeted.
"We need a balanced approach, confronting a broad portfolio of risks both short-term and long."
OpenAI Refuses to Comment on Secretive Q* AI
So, What Is OpenAI hiding?
The good reader most certainly needs to think about the limits of ever more capable autonomous systems, whether they are 'pilotless drones' or automated financial trading systems' - and humanity DOES need to consider what ethical, boundaries and principle protocols we can enforce on AI systems now which will save us down the road in the future - and that future is closer than you may believe.
We most certainly also insist to design and enforce the restraints and safeguards that we need to engineer into the hardware, software and deployment policies of our current artificial intelligence systems.
Recently, various companies, including Microsoft's Bing, Google's Bard, and ChatGPT - all have deployed AI systems that can create humanlike conversations; essays on almost any subject and coding.
We most certainly also insist to design and enforce the restraints and safeguards that we need to engineer into the hardware, software and deployment policies of our current artificial intelligence systems.
Recently, various companies, including Microsoft's Bing, Google's Bard, and ChatGPT - all have deployed AI systems that can create humanlike conversations; essays on almost any subject and coding.
AI is becoming ubiquitous in the application as automated decision-making in various fields and functionalities is being adopted by governments, corporations and businesses to make crucial decisions that have real-life consequences for human beings, their lives and the enjoyment of rights.
Consider this:
In November 2023, chaos erupted following the abrupt dismissal - and then quick rehiring - of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the dust is only beginning to settle.
The increasing availability of large datasets, improved algorithms, improved computer hardware, and substantial corporate investment have all accelerated progress in recent years, and there are a few signs that progress will slow or stall in the near future.
As with any advanced technology, there are potential dangers associated with AI, especially the issue of unintended consequences regarding systems that are capable of making decisions and taking actions on their own.
That scenario is described as the 'black box effect' where AI models arrive at conclusions or decisions without explaining how they were reached.
That scenario is described as the 'black box effect' where AI models arrive at conclusions or decisions without explaining how they were reached.
The engineer developers who built the systems are oblivious of how the system made certain conclusions.
Policymakers and concerned industry leaders are proposing regulations that only allow the use of explainable AI-created so that a typical person can understand its logic and decision-making process.
Literally, this is the antithesis of black box AI.
Another issue with AI systems is that they are trained to make certain inferences that may include the engineers' bias or may be biased due to the data it was trained on.
This happened with Wikipedia, where a cliche of ideological 'editors' took it upon themselves to opine on subjects along with their biases so that any topic of interest to the casual reader has been tainted with the discriminations and biases of the editors.
As a result, writers and experts in a wide range of fields stopped financially contributing to the Wikimedia Foundation and its sister sites.
Policymakers and concerned industry leaders are proposing regulations that only allow the use of explainable AI-created so that a typical person can understand its logic and decision-making process.
Literally, this is the antithesis of black box AI.
Another issue with AI systems is that they are trained to make certain inferences that may include the engineers' bias or may be biased due to the data it was trained on.
This happened with Wikipedia, where a cliche of ideological 'editors' took it upon themselves to opine on subjects along with their biases so that any topic of interest to the casual reader has been tainted with the discriminations and biases of the editors.
As a result, writers and experts in a wide range of fields stopped financially contributing to the Wikimedia Foundation and its sister sites.
So, with artificial intelligence, the data contains biases and those biases can be amplified by the AI system, leading to discrimination and the perpetuation of unfair practices.
For example, job recruitment systems have been found to have a bias against minorities. Sadly, algorithmic discrimination often goes undetected, and the victims, in most cases, are unaware that they are being discriminated against.
An AI system could learn to make unfair decisions if the training data is not inclusive and balanced enough, which could explain why most facial recognition systems have a problem accurately identifying racial minorities, especially black people.
For example, job recruitment systems have been found to have a bias against minorities. Sadly, algorithmic discrimination often goes undetected, and the victims, in most cases, are unaware that they are being discriminated against.
An AI system could learn to make unfair decisions if the training data is not inclusive and balanced enough, which could explain why most facial recognition systems have a problem accurately identifying racial minorities, especially black people.
Another concern is that as AI becomes more sophisticated, there is a risk that it could replace human workers in many industries.
This could lead to widespread job losses and economic disruption, rendering entire professions redundant.
Especially at risk are white collar jobs such as computer coders, writers, journalist who are already witnessing machines that can do certain tasks.
Especially at risk are white collar jobs such as computer coders, writers, journalist who are already witnessing machines that can do certain tasks.
As a mundane astrologer, I also warn that AI-powered autonomous weapons could be the next arms race. These weapons could make decisions on their own and potentially cause unintended harm.
Again, one of the reasons AI is problematic is because it is data-driven and can be used in ways that infringes on privacy and numerous human rights.
Corporations, such as social media companies, can now collect seemingly benign data about their users, allowing them to make inferences about their political ideology, health condition and other sensitive data.
One year on from Chat GPT's monumental launch in November 2022, the impact the user-facing chatbot has had on the industry and the world at large is clear.
Technology companies have scrambled to perfect and ship competitors to ChatGPT, with the market caps of Big Tech giants swelling in a surge of investor interest in artificial intelligence.
Technology companies have scrambled to perfect and ship competitors to ChatGPT, with the market caps of Big Tech giants swelling in a surge of investor interest in artificial intelligence.
This rush to scale up and ship out AI models has escalated the debate among the engineers who create them about how best to ensure AI safety, and which risks or threats regulators should be concerned about.
Regulators, meanwhile, have been rushing to attempt to better understand the technology, but concrete legislation has yet to appear.
Again, one of the reasons AI is problematic is because it is data-driven and can be used in ways that infringes on privacy and numerous human rights.
Corporations, such as social media companies, can now collect seemingly benign data about their users, allowing them to make inferences about their political ideology, health condition and other sensitive data.
As part of principle protocol, I advise that regulators must adopt and enforce a smart mix of prime protocol-based policies and legal measures to govern the development, deployment and use of new technologies like AI - before it's too late.
In November 2023, chaos erupted following the abrupt dismissal - and then quick rehiring - of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the dust is only beginning to settle.
One of the most tantalizing aspects of the event was news that the company had secretly been working on a next-generation AI model dubbed Q* - pronounced 'Q star' which allegedly has the ability to reason sufficiently to answer grade school-level math prompts.
In November and early December 2023 both Reuters and The Information reported on an internal memo sent out by Mira Murati, a former OpenAI nonprofit board member who held the title of CEO for a very short period following Altman's dismissal, acknowledging the existence of the project.
The reports led to plenty of speculation:
Was the project in any way related to Altman's dismissal?
Is Q* really as powerful as it's rumored to be?
Could it be a sign that OpenAI is inching closer to its goal of realizing artificial general intelligence, an algorithm that could complete complex tasks as well as or even better than humans?
We've known about Q* for only a month by December 2023 and we're still none the wiser.
OpenAI, which has historically developed its Artificial intelligence technology under tight wraps, has pointedly refused to comment on the matter, as The Atlantic points out.
While a spokesperson refused to give a statement, insiders told the magazine that OpenAI is in fact working on Q* and has already used it to solve math problems.
The reports led to plenty of speculation:
Was the project in any way related to Altman's dismissal?
Is Q* really as powerful as it's rumored to be?
Could it be a sign that OpenAI is inching closer to its goal of realizing artificial general intelligence, an algorithm that could complete complex tasks as well as or even better than humans?
We've known about Q* for only a month by December 2023 and we're still none the wiser.
OpenAI, which has historically developed its Artificial intelligence technology under tight wraps, has pointedly refused to comment on the matter, as The Atlantic points out.
While a spokesperson refused to give a statement, insiders told the magazine that OpenAI is in fact working on Q* and has already used it to solve math problems.
However, they argued that the existence of the project likely was not enough to trigger fears among OpenAI's board that could've led to Altman's dismissal.
At the end of the day, we simply have no idea if Q* will represent a breakthrough or not, let alone if it will ever be turned into a viable consumer-facing product.
But its purported ability to complete math tasks has experts intrigued anyhow, since that's been an elusive goal for the chatbots that have taken the Internet by storm since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022.
At the end of the day, we simply have no idea if Q* will represent a breakthrough or not, let alone if it will ever be turned into a viable consumer-facing product.
But its purported ability to complete math tasks has experts intrigued anyhow, since that's been an elusive goal for the chatbots that have taken the Internet by storm since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022.
"If it has the ability to logically reason and reason about abstract concepts, which right now is what it really struggles with, that's a pretty tremendous leap," said Charles Higgins, a cofounder of the AI-training startup Tromero, told Business Insider.
It is worth asking why OpenAI is playing its cards so close to its chest, fueling the rumor mill and raising more questions than answers.
Secrecy is also in the company's DNA. In its documentation for its large language model GPT-4, OpenAI also admitted that limiting the release of information on how it was trained could allow the company to maintain its competitive edge.
In short, as of right now it's simply impossible to tell if Q* is as powerful as it is made out to be or whether it'll represent a fundamental leap forward at all.
For now, all we've got is word from those who have a vested interest in the success of OpenAI's future products - and in and of itself - that is not an awful lot to go by.
Who is Sam Altman?
A few years ago, Altman was heading a venture capital firm. Now, he's running OpenAI, one of the most high-profile tech companies on the planet.
Altman has been a prominent voice in the calls for regulation of his growing industry. He appeared before a Senate oversight committee in May 2023, where he noted that "if this technology goes wrong - it can go quite wrong."
Altman becomes one of the 25 people to pay the money and join its waiting list. "I assume my brain will be uploaded to the cloud," Altman told MIT Technology Review.
It is worth asking why OpenAI is playing its cards so close to its chest, fueling the rumor mill and raising more questions than answers.
Secrecy is also in the company's DNA. In its documentation for its large language model GPT-4, OpenAI also admitted that limiting the release of information on how it was trained could allow the company to maintain its competitive edge.
In short, as of right now it's simply impossible to tell if Q* is as powerful as it is made out to be or whether it'll represent a fundamental leap forward at all.
For now, all we've got is word from those who have a vested interest in the success of OpenAI's future products - and in and of itself - that is not an awful lot to go by.
Who is Sam Altman?
When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, it immediately changed the global business and political landscape.
The service became one of the fastest-growing apps in history, garnering 100 million users in two months.
The service became one of the fastest-growing apps in history, garnering 100 million users in two months.
Faced with a visible, tangible artificial intelligence bundled as a usable product, companies began looking for ways to trim their staff by incorporating AI.
Investors' over-excitement around so-called generative AI fueled an enormous surge in the tech sector throughout 2023. The creative industries, meanwhile, have been upended, with Hollywood writers and actors on strike during spring and summer 2023 over AI concerns, among other factors.
Investors' over-excitement around so-called generative AI fueled an enormous surge in the tech sector throughout 2023. The creative industries, meanwhile, have been upended, with Hollywood writers and actors on strike during spring and summer 2023 over AI concerns, among other factors.
The Big Tech sector, meanwhile, has been racing feverishly to build and deploy competitive products, even as some artists, writers, healthcare professionals, and students have turned to using ChatGPT and its peers to enhance their productivity.
Regardless, Altman and his colleagues at OpenAI are intent on achieving a superintelligent AI.
Altman's life and career have followed an interesting path.
Positioned now as one of the most significant players in the tech and AI sector, he got his start as an app developer, and then a venture capitalist. He has brushed shoulders with the likes of Elon Musk and has graced Forbes' 30 Under 30 list.
Positioned now as one of the most significant players in the tech and AI sector, he got his start as an app developer, and then a venture capitalist. He has brushed shoulders with the likes of Elon Musk and has graced Forbes' 30 Under 30 list.
Now, he runs one of the most impactful tech companies in the world.
Growing up
Altman was born in 1985 in Chicago with an affinity for computers and coding. Per the New Yorker, he had learned to program and disassemble computers by the ripe age of eight.
The future tech titan came out as gay when he was 16, and said that his Mac - and the AOL chat rooms that it led him to - were "transformative."
"Maybe he's selling a grift, I sure as hell hope he is," Gideon Futerman, a student who protested one of Altman's London-based talks on AI, said.
"And if he's right and he's building systems which are generally intelligent, the dangers are far, far bigger. And there's a very legitimate question as to why they don't stop."
The future tech titan came out as gay when he was 16, and said that his Mac - and the AOL chat rooms that it led him to - were "transformative."
"Growing up gay in the Midwest in the two-thousands was not the most awesome thing," he told The New Yorker. "And finding AOL chat rooms was transformative. Secrets are bad when you're eleven or twelve."
Altman attended -- and reportedly had a huge impact - on the St. Louis-based John Burroughs School, a collegiate prep school. He came out to the entire school following an effort by a Christian group to boycott an assembly about sexuality.
"What Sam did changed the school," his college counselor, Madelyn Gray, told The New Yorker. "It felt like someone had opened up a great big box full of all kinds of kids and let them out into the world."
Altman went on to study computer science at Stanford, according to the New Yorker, but like many tech entrepreneurs, he dropped out before earning his degree. The reason, of course, was to build out a startup with a couple of his classmates.
Altman's first company: Loopt
Loopt was a bit of a failed social networking app, though it did serve to catapult Altman's career.
The app - which launched in 2005 - was intended to operate as a service for smartphone users to selectively share their location with others, according to the Wall Street Journal. It raised around $30 million in venture capital but couldn't gain traction.
The app - which launched in 2005 - was intended to operate as a service for smartphone users to selectively share their location with others, according to the Wall Street Journal. It raised around $30 million in venture capital but couldn't gain traction.
The founders (which include Nick Sivo, one of Altman's Stanford-era classmates) wound up selling Loopt to Green Dot Corporation for $43.4 million in 2012.
Just two years after shutting down Loopt, Altman sidestepped from running tech companies to heading a venture capitalist firm focused on funding those same startups.
Paul Graham, the legendary computer programmer and entrepreneur who co-founded Y Combinator in 2005 - and incidentally funded Loopt -- hand-picked Altman as his successor in 2014, according to Forbes.
Paul Graham, the legendary computer programmer and entrepreneur who co-founded Y Combinator in 2005 - and incidentally funded Loopt -- hand-picked Altman as his successor in 2014, according to Forbes.
The move landed Altman on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list as he worked to expand the number of tech startups Y Combinator funded.
While running Y Combinator, the firm funded companies including Airbnb (which is now worth $86.7 billion) and Dropbox (which is worth $9.6 billion).
While running Y Combinator, the firm funded companies including Airbnb (which is now worth $86.7 billion) and Dropbox (which is worth $9.6 billion).
In 2019, Altman stepped down as the president of Y Combinator in order to focus more of his time on the soon-to-be monumental OpenAI.
The company behind ChatGPT: OpenAI
OpenAI got its start as a nonprofit research center in 2015, according to the New York Times.
It was the result of a partnership between some of the tech sector's biggest names, prominently including Elon Musk, in addition to Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, and, of course, Sam Altman.
It was the result of a partnership between some of the tech sector's biggest names, prominently including Elon Musk, in addition to Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, and, of course, Sam Altman.
“We discussed what is the best thing we can do to ensure the future is good?” Musk said at the time.
“We could sit on the sidelines or we can encourage regulatory oversight, or we could participate with the right structure with people who care deeply about developing AI in a way that is safe and is beneficial to humanity.”
But several components of those early days of OpenAI did not last.
Musk reportedly attempted to take direct control of the company in a bid that was denied by the other founders, including Altman.
Citing a conflict of interest between his work at OpenAI and Tesla, Musk resigned in 2018 after only investing $100 million of the $1 billion he had pledged.
Citing a conflict of interest between his work at OpenAI and Tesla, Musk resigned in 2018 after only investing $100 million of the $1 billion he had pledged.
A year later, OpenAI transitioned into a hybridized for-profit, nonprofit mix "which we are calling a 'capped-profit' company."
The company is still led in part by its nonprofit board, but the core of the company has become for-profit, something OpenAI said was imperative, considering the enormous cost necessary to create AI.
The company is still led in part by its nonprofit board, but the core of the company has become for-profit, something OpenAI said was imperative, considering the enormous cost necessary to create AI.
OpenAI has since become entangled with Microsoft, which has invested more than $10 billion into the company, now led by Altman.
Sam Altman, AGI & Regulation
OpenAI's goal is to create artificial general intelligence (AGI), an AI that is generally as intelligent (or more intelligent) than humans.
Its drive to create this superintelligent system has set off a national debate among experts, industry leaders, politicians, investors, and citizens about the tech, its cost-benefit ratio, and, importantly, how to regulate it.
Its drive to create this superintelligent system has set off a national debate among experts, industry leaders, politicians, investors, and citizens about the tech, its cost-benefit ratio, and, importantly, how to regulate it.
In May, Altman testified before a Senate oversight committee, saying: "We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models."
He has been a prominent voice in ringing the alarm bells about the potential power of the very same tech he is so adamantly developing.
"The risks could be extraordinary," he said of AGI. "A misaligned superintelligent AGI could cause grievous harm to the world."
Many researchers have explained just how far away current models are from something even resembling AGI, suggesting that Altman's hype of AGI is nothing more than a marketing scheme.
But many still have expressed deep concern about the potentially existential impact a superintelligent system might have.
But many still have expressed deep concern about the potentially existential impact a superintelligent system might have.
"And if he's right and he's building systems which are generally intelligent, the dangers are far, far bigger. And there's a very legitimate question as to why they don't stop."
Sam Altman wants to Scan Your Eyeballs With Worldcoin
Altman, ever the passionate businessman, launched another company that combines his work in AI with cryptocurrency in July 2023.
Called Worldcoin, the company's goal is to eventually be a platform to provide a universal basic income to people in a future where most jobs are fully automated.
A component of this is the verification of peoples' humanity in a world that is already overrun with AI algorithms, models, and bots.
Called Worldcoin, the company's goal is to eventually be a platform to provide a universal basic income to people in a future where most jobs are fully automated.
A component of this is the verification of peoples' humanity in a world that is already overrun with AI algorithms, models, and bots.
The company achieves this verification by scanning its users' eyeballs and assigning a numeric code to that unique iris scan.
But, similar to ChatGPT and OpenAI, Worldcoin has faced severe criticism for reportedly engaging in deceptive and exploitative marketing, a rebuke that comes in addition to deep-seated concern over the company's potential privacy violations in the biometric data it collects.
But, similar to ChatGPT and OpenAI, Worldcoin has faced severe criticism for reportedly engaging in deceptive and exploitative marketing, a rebuke that comes in addition to deep-seated concern over the company's potential privacy violations in the biometric data it collects.
And in a hope to live forever, Altman gave $10,000 to a start-up company that promises digital immortality by uploading human brains to the cloud, using a pioneering technique that has been trialed on rabbits.
However, the only catch is, it's 100 percent fatal.
The US start-up called Nectome, founded in 2016 by a pair of MIT AI researchers is working on a futuristic method - aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation – a process to preserve a person's brain and keep all its memories intact, helping it to live forever.
"Our mission is to preserve your brain well enough to keep all its memories intact: from that great chapter of your favorite book to the feeling of cold winter air, baking an apple pie, or having dinner with your friends and family," the company writes on their website.
The company won two prizes from the Brain Preservation Foundation, for preserving a rabbit's brain in 2016 and a pig's brain in 2018:
"Those who dismiss the possibility of future mind uploading will likely view ASC as simply the high-quality embalming and cold storage of a deceased body - an utter waste of time and resources," the Brain Preservation Foundation (BPF) said in a statement, Newsweek reported.
"Those who dismiss the possibility of future mind uploading will likely view ASC as simply the high-quality embalming and cold storage of a deceased body - an utter waste of time and resources," the Brain Preservation Foundation (BPF) said in a statement, Newsweek reported.
The fantasy-like technology, however, is dangerous and the potential candidate opting for the method will have to suffer a lethal injection filled with chemicals - that will certainly result in death.
To encode a person's brain, it has to be "vitrifixed" – a process to preserve the brain for accurate upload or revival. And, to do that the process is to be carried out the moment the person dies.
Nectome has reportedly consulted with a number of lawyers who are familiar with laws like California's End of Life Option Act in order to make sure that they don't violate the law if they go ahead with it and launch the procedure.
Elon Musk 'very worried' about Sam Altman drama at OpenAI
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT that first ousted its CEO and co-founder, Sam Altman on a Friday in November 2023, the very next day, Saturday, Altman had entered into negotiations with the OpenAI's board to return to the company.
The condition of his return was the board absolving Altman of wrongdoing, something that could have opened the board to liability.
But then, the very next day, on a Sunday night, the negotiations had collapsed and the board hired former Twitch boss Emmett Shear to step in as interim CEO.
And then there is Microsoft, whose $13 billion investment in OpenAI amounts to a 49% stake in the company, hired Altman - in addition to an unspecified number of his colleagues - to lead an advanced AI-research team at Microsoft itself.
"The mission continues," Altman wrote in a post on X.
The ouster, according to a company statement, followed a "deliberative review process by the board," which found that Altman had not been "consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities."
Neither the company nor any of the people involved have yet to elaborate on Altman's candor or lack thereof. The company declined to comment.
Remember that OpenAI got its start in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab, but was restructured into a hybridized 'capped profit' company in 2019, after co-founder Elon Musk left.
Within the structure of the current company, the nonprofit board - which fired Altman - controls the for-profit subsidiary.
"The nonprofit’s principal beneficiary is humanity, not OpenAI investors," the company said in June.
Each director on the board must adhere to the board's mission: the safe creation of artificial general intelligence, AI that possesses human-level intelligence.
As part of this arrangement, Altman does not hold equity directly in the company. It is up to the board to decide when the company has created AGI.
"No one person should be trusted, here," Altman said in June. "The board can fire me and that's important."
"The nonprofit’s principal beneficiary is humanity, not OpenAI investors," the company said in June.
"Each director on the board must adhere to the board's mission: the safe creation of artificial general intelligence, that is, AI that possesses human-level intelligence. As part of this arrangement, Altman does not hold equity directly in the company."
So, it is up to the board to decide when the company has created AGI. "No one person should be trusted, here," Altman said in June. "The board can fire me and that's important.
Even as Altman moves into his new position as the CEO of Microsoft's new AI group, a partnership that Microsoft Chief Satya Nadella likened to the company's relationship with GitHub, Mojang Studios and LinkedIn - very serious questions still linger about the true cause behind Altman's ouster and the implications for AI safety that they appear to have.
An AI expert, Gary Marcus said that the board's decision to remove Altman was a "Hail Mary."
The board, knowing the decision would be intensely unpopular, must have "seen danger in something" that Altman was doing.
OpenAI's co-founder and chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, told staff, according to The Information, that he and the other three board members stood by their decision to remove Altman as the "only path" to defend the company's mission.
He reportedly said that Altman's behavior undermined the board's ability to supervise the company's development of AI.
OpenAI, which was founded by Altman and Elon Musk with Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman, was first created as a non-profit to serve humanity and offer potential benefits to modern life.
Musk later expressed his “mixed feelings” about both the company and Altman.
click on image to enlarge
click on image to enlarge
OpenAI was founded in December 2015 by entrepreneurs that include Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and Wojciech Zaremba.
Most of these feelings were put on display when Musk announced his resignation from the OpenAI in solar year 2018 because of disagreement over its direction.
Musk also criticized the company for making the switch from a not-for-profit outfit to a for-profit company.
Musk also criticized the company for making the switch from a not-for-profit outfit to a for-profit company.
Musk said that OpenAI, whose product ChatGPT went viral in summer 2023 has created a potential danger for humanity for a potential “extinction event.”
The billionaire suggested that this danger was something that “scared” the company’s chief scientist, which “caused chaos” within the company.
Musk has also suggested that the danger is so severe that OpenAI should disclose the reasons behind the firing and rehiring of Sam Altman.
He responded to a tweet from David Sacks on X by saying:
“Given the risk and power of advanced AI, the public should be informed of why the board felt they had to take such drastic action.”
“Given the risk and power of advanced AI, the public should be informed of why the board felt they had to take such drastic action.”
Sutskever has since said in a statement on X that he deeply regrets his "participation in the board's actions:
"I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we've built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company."
As of that Monday morning in November 2023, reports emerged that 505 of the company's 700 employees, including Sutskever, called on the board to resign, in a letter that contends that the board has yet to provide any evidence for its allegations against Altman.
Marcus said Sunday that the result of the saga is that the financially interested stakeholders will "emerge victorious," something Microsoft's position indicates.
"The tail thus appears to have wagged the dog potentially imperiling the original mission, if there was any substance at all to the Board’s concerns," Marcus wrote.
"If you think that OpenAI has a shot, eventually, at AGI, none of this bodes particularly well."
"Three orgs filled with brilliant minds tried to create AI independently of the tech giants, and all three have been subverted," he said.
"I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we've built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company."
As of that Monday morning in November 2023, reports emerged that 505 of the company's 700 employees, including Sutskever, called on the board to resign, in a letter that contends that the board has yet to provide any evidence for its allegations against Altman.
Marcus said Sunday that the result of the saga is that the financially interested stakeholders will "emerge victorious," something Microsoft's position indicates.
"The tail thus appears to have wagged the dog potentially imperiling the original mission, if there was any substance at all to the Board’s concerns," Marcus wrote.
"If you think that OpenAI has a shot, eventually, at AGI, none of this bodes particularly well."
"Three orgs filled with brilliant minds tried to create AI independently of the tech giants, and all three have been subverted," he said.
Marcus's perspective is one that Musk, who co-founded OpenAI and recently started his own challenger, xAI - agrees with.
"I am very worried," Musk wrote: "Ilya has a good moral compass and does not seek power. He would not take such drastic action unless he felt it was absolutely necessary."
Musk reiterated in several additional posts that it is "very important for the public to know why the board felt so strongly about their actions."
"If it was a matter of AI safety, that would affect all of Earth," he said.
"I disagree with him on many points but he was definitely ahead of the curve on this one," Marcus said of Musk.
Ryan Greene, a member of OpenAI's technical staff, wrote in a post on X that he has "great respect for Ilya, and trust in his intentions. But I can't comprehend the lack of transparency in his decision."
Shear said in a statement that he "checked the reasoning behind" the board's decision to oust Altman before taking the job.
"The board did *not* remove Sam over any specific disagreement on safety, their reasoning was completely different from that," he said. "I'm not crazy enough to take this job without board support for commercializing our awesome models."
While the result of the saga at OpenAI has some researchers, like Marcus, concerned about the future of AI safety and independent AI research, it has investors and analysts excited.
The board at OpenAI was "at the kid's poker table and thought they won until Nadella and Microsoft took this all over in a poker move for the ages," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote, referring to MSFT's CEO, Satya Nadella.
Ives added that Microsoft is now in a "stronger AI position than before."
Shares of Microsoft at last check ticked up 1.5% to above $375. The company, up more than 50% for the year, is fast-approaching a $3 trillion market cap.
Nadella said in a statement that Microsoft remains committed to its partnership with OpenAI and has "confidence" in the company's product roadmap.
Deepwater's Gene Munster said that while Microsoft snagging Altman is a "win" for the company, the motion of talent at OpenAI represents a "huge opportunity" for competitors like Google.
The key, he said, is how many OpenAI employees will be moving to Microsoft.
"This is the biggest jump ball for paradigm-shifting tech talent," Munster wrote. "This is a great example of the power of 1-in-a-billion founder. These founders are the soul of the company and have more power than the boards."
The surge in AI hype, spearheaded by ChatGPT, has led to a national conversation about regulation as experts debate the cost-benefit ratio presented by the technology and politicians try to better understand the tech before they move to regulate it.
Already, American regulators have flagged artificial intelligence as a potential risk to the nation’s financial system, calling for increased supervision and monitoring of this rapidly progressing technology.
In November 2023, The Financial Stability Oversight Council, under the leadership of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, underscored the risks linked with AI in its most recent annual financial stability report, according to Reuters.
In November 2023, The Financial Stability Oversight Council, under the leadership of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, underscored the risks linked with AI in its most recent annual financial stability report, according to Reuters.
This is the first time of a government panel addressing the potential dangers of AI.
The report stated that while AI could potentially enhance innovation and efficiency in the financial sector, it could also pose threats such as "cyber and model risks."
The council has recommended businesses and regulators bolster their expertise and ability to monitor AI innovation, usage, and emerging risks.
It also cautioned about the likelihood of biased or inaccurate results if companies and their regulators do not thoroughly understand AI tools.
It also cautioned about the likelihood of biased or inaccurate results if companies and their regulators do not thoroughly understand AI tools.
In addition, the report flagged the risks associated with large external datasets and third-party vendors, which AI tools often depend on, citing privacy and cybersecurity issues.
The panel also expressed the need for ongoing efforts to evaluate risks associated with climate change and the escalating role of non-banks and private credit.
The concerns voiced by the council echo those of AI experts such as Stuart Russell, a well-respected AI and machine learning expert.
Earlier this year, in an interview, Russell expressed his apprehension over the potential hazards of unchecked AI development – thoughts that prominent people like Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak have shared.
Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC, along with other regulators, has been investigating the use of AI by firms, following the executive order from the White House to minimize AI risk.
The executive order by President Joe Biden came as financial firms and banks started adopting AI-based systems not only to make daily work easier for employees but also to make informed, safer, and profitable loan and credit decisions.
And in the midst of this, the people that have been, or will be, impacted by this technology have largely been ignored.
That dichotomy is what inspired Daniel Colson to launch the Artificial Intelligence Policy Institute (AIPI) in August 2023.
The non-profit has been conducting polls since then, and its work has thus far found that, across political parties, the American public is extremely concerned about the development of the technology and is intensely supportive of strict regulation.
"I think because the public is so concerned about AI, it's an important voice to bring into the picture," Colson told TheStreet in an interview.
Colson, previously a tech entrepreneur, had been thinking of starting such a non-profit for about a decade. But the launch of ChatGPT indicated that the technology was moving far more quickly than he anticipated. It caused him to change his plans "pretty dramatically."
He began studying macro-history in an attempt to determine what kind of agency humans have over the trajectory of history, weighing the question of whether history is 'techno-determinist.'
This, he said, is an important question as much of the conversation around AI (and regulating AI) has a baked-in inevitability around the eventual creation of artificial general intelligence (AGI), a hypothetical AI of human-level intellect.
"Inevitable-ism tends to be the sort of argument that people who are trying to avoid moral culpability for doing something horrible tend to invoke," Colson said. "I really want to be able to help play a role in steering towards sensible and beneficial regulation.
'Non-democratic tech leaders deciding the future?'
One of AIPI's earliest polls found that the bulk of voters believe the potential risks of AI outweigh its potential benefits; the majority of Americans surveyed additionally believe that AI companies ought to have regulatory representation on their boards.
Another poll found that the bulk of voters believe AI companies ought to be held liable for any harms caused by their technology, with 64% of people supporting the idea of a governmental task force designed to audit such companies.
The think tank's first poll found that 82% of those surveyed do not trust tech executives to self-regulate. This is a particularly important point following OpenAI's sudden ouster of Sam Altman last week, over an issue based around his lack of honesty to the board that the company has not elaborated on.
"The absolutely clear implication from this is we cannot trust the companies to self-regulate," AI expert Gary Marcus said of the leadership changes at OpenAI.
"This shows the huge tension between making money and safety, and it shows that we can't necessarily trust that the companies are going to sort this out."
While Colson said that the bulk of respondents likely don't understand the technical details of how AI technology works, they do understand the implications of a computer that now "talks back."
The public, he said, doesn't need a technical understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs) or transformers to have a "relevant opinion" about the societal implications of building these technologies.
In terms of "non-democratic tech leaders deciding the future," Colson said that "the American public is basically saying:
'We've been on the receiving end of this technological leadership and rule for a number of decades,' whereby the primary trajectory of America is being determined by large tech companies.
"The overwhelming response and perspective is that this has been net negative, and really, really significantly negative in terms of people's daily experience and the quality of social fabric and the quality of discourse, the stability of democracy and the way that politics is working," he added.
It is my forecast that the post-pandemic solar years 2024 and 2025 will see major events that will come to define the atmosphere of the mid-to-late 2020s while presaging what I consider to be the darker decade of the 2030s when the Sun's Grand Minimum will deepen the era of global cooling I have long forecasted.
I urge the good reader to know their own transits and progressions in light of the global planetary transits to come and to be watchful, prudent and most of all - prepared.
~ Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci
“Time extending through the ages is a child playing at a game of chance. The child is king.
This is Telesphorus, who roams through the dark regions of this cosmos and glows like a star out of the depths.
He points the way to the gates of the sun and to the land of dreams.”
~ Carl Jung
I urge the good reader to know their own transits and progressions in light of the global planetary transits to come and to be watchful, prudent and most of all - prepared.
~ Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci
This is Telesphorus, who roams through the dark regions of this cosmos and glows like a star out of the depths.
He points the way to the gates of the sun and to the land of dreams.”
~ Carl Jung
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