Reflections: Information "tsunami!" And ... No end in sight ...

in #philosophy5 years ago

Reflecting this morning on the work in front of me, as I often do I am looking back over my life. And wondering what the future holds. For what? Dealing with the overwhelming amount of "information at our fingertips" ...

An information "tsunami" of sorts, which is beyond dispute to me. Given what I have experienced in my lifetime.

Image Source: Pixabay

"Information at our fingertips" is an expression I have used for a long time. Before there ever was an Internet.
At least before I was aware of it. As an engineer, I experienced a relatively early "deep dive" into the topic, when I bought one of the first available IBM PCs. In the early 1980s ...

While it is easy to "skip over" the implications of what I have experienced since, I have decided to put together these thoughts in my latest Steem post, where they will be "immutably enshrined" for future reference.

Entering the Information Age

Without spending too much time on it, in my quiet moments in thinking about this topic, I am reminded of some fun conversations I have had with my children over the years (they are all out on their own now ...).

The "common theme" of these has been that I have lovingly and gently (but still seriously in my intent ...) chided them about their father being a "dinosaur" and, as a result, knows what it takes to accomplish certain tasks, before there ever was any thought of a computer doing it for me.

What about them? A lot could be written about the implications ...

We could all probably write a number of posts on what follows. The impact of entering the Information Age and its effect on all of us. Especially our children ...

Image Source

The "tsunami" of information "rolling over" us in the Information Age is indisputable. Whatever we may have experienced, or think about it, very few of us would spend any time arguing about whether or not the Information Age is here to stay.

Whether we like it or not. Whether we spend any time even thinking about whether we like it or not. Like I am this morning ...

Accelerating into the Information Age

Heading into the future, the impact on the lives of us all is growing. I personally believe it is accelerating. That is to say, borrowing some verbiage from my engineering background, the growth is not linear. It is asymptotic:

"An asymptotic line is a line that gets closer and closer to a curve as the distance gets closer to infinity."
[emphasis mine]

Source: Cambridge Dictionary

Infinity ... How does a man respond to such a concept? Whatever the answer, dear reader, we have reached the point some time ago, where it is not even a thought any more that we can do it unaided.

Unaided by what?

Computers! That can process minding-numbing amounts of information. At speeds approaching the speed of light. With ever increasing amounts of processing power ...

In splendid isolation from each other? No! The advent of the Internet has made it possible for information systems across the entire planet to be networked together. And this is at the heart of what am writing about this morning.

Image Source

In the midst of the "explosion" of technological innovation we have seen in our lifetimes, we are all now at the very beginning of experiencing what the introduction of blockchain technology introduces to the "equation" ...

Current Focus: Taxes and the "Digital Asset" Class

So ... What has set all these thoughts "in motion?" Beyond the "caffeine rush" of a couple of cups of coffee this morning? 😉 ...

As much as I might like to pretend, currently retired, that I am "free" of deadlines, yeah, well ... Think again! I am currently faced with the well-known federal deadline of April 15th to file my taxes for 2018. And ... With it, a challenge unlike any I have faced before now.

Historically, I have always done my own taxes. I am an engineer and a supposed "numbers guy," so how tough could it be to do that? Circumstances have varied from year to year, of course, but overall the answer has been - "Not too bad" ... Particularly with nice "tools" like the well-known TurboTax ...

Well, I didn't get very far into prep for this year, when "Houston, we have a problem" ... ... cropped up. How was I going to report on a whole new investment area. My portfolio of "digital assets?" Where every single exchange is a taxable event? ...

In the midst of beginning to even think about the challenges I would face, after reading up on it a bit, I was hit with a different, but related, challenge. Related to a MS Excel spreadsheet I built over a year ago, to handle all of the details of tracking my various "digital asset" transactions.

On the worksheet built to send and receive API calls to and from CoinMarketCap (CMC) for the latest pricing, as needed, I was suddenly looking at the following:

Illustration: CoinMarketCap API Call "Deprecated" ... 😧


Good grief! So ... All my hard work a while back was soon to be "deprecated," i.e. replaced. 😞 Back to the "drawing board" ...

The following is a brief outline of what I have been through, over the last two weeks or so, to get to the main point of my writing this morning:

  • Long avoided prior, due to the time involved, I decided to "go right down through the middle" of the problem and create a new database. Rather than tackle it any further with a spreadsheet. An order of magnitude more difficult to work with in crafting a solution, but also and very importantly, an order of magnitude more powerful for addressing the challenge ...

  • For most any request for data today, on the Web, if you want to "automate" the capturing of it anyway, then you need to understand sending and receiving API calls for it ...

  • To continue getting all-important "crypto" pricing, I needed a new route to the API data on CMC. The old one was being "deprecated" ...

  • First, I had to get my own "personal" (so, of course, you can be "tracked" ...) API key, to cross the barrier now erected to get any more info from CMC via an API call.

  • Second, I had to understand the finer points of receiving the API response as a JSON string vs. an XML string.
  • Microsoft has built in "native" support for handling XML data. Relatively easy. But, JSON data? Nope! You are "on your own" ...

    What about the "customer service" minded approach of supporting multiple API response options? Yeah, right ...

The technical details warrant (maybe I'll write more on them some day) a separate post to be understood at any depth, beyond what I have written above.

At the heart of the philosophical state of mind I am in this morning is the last bullet item. Getting one "information system" to simply and easily "talk" to another. You know, like one American talking to another. Not even a thought needed to be given to the potential for interpretation problems. How about it? Again. Yeah, right ...

Image Source: Pixabay

With the relentless advance of technological innovation and growing size of the "tsunami" of information we are attempting to handle as it is "rolling over" us, this is a common issue. We all are very familiar with the challenges faced when attempting to communicate effectively and efficiently with someone who speaks a different language from us. Particularly, if neither of us have any idea about the language of the other!

Guess what? Information systems have their version of the identical problem. Again, a lot could be said here on this point, e.g. there is a business "strategy" involved in having a proprietary solution that locks your customers up into only dealing with you. "Open source" is a commonly used expression these days for avoiding some of those pitfalls.

Separately, we have a number of different programming languages available, when writing code to get these &$%&$#*)%@#%^#^@&(^%^& computers to do what we want. And how well do they all "play together in the sandbox?"

You get the general idea ...

Closing on I suppose a bit of a high note here, challenges of this type have been at the center of my work to support my family over the last 15 years. One of my favorite sayings, working through the midst of these types of challenges?

"If it was easy, it would've been done by now!"

To keep morale up and humor light, often followed with - "lifetime job security" ... 👍

No End in Sight ...

From the outset of my time "in here," once electing to "jump in" to engaging on the Steem blockchain, I have never made any secret of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. In short, a Christian ... Like any of the rest of my fellow Steemians, our philosophy on life is going to be heavily, if not solely, based upon our system(s) of belief.

I am no exception. So, please permit me dear reader to close out this post with some perspective you may find of some interest, whether you fully (or even partially ...) agree or not.

In the Bible, the Book of Genesis is commonly referred to as the story of the beginning of the ages - the history of man. Many of the details are fairly well known, e.g. Noah and the Flood. In amongst these stories is one I would like to draw to your attention this morning.

Soon after the Flood (did man learn anything? Uhhh ... Well, let's see ...), we are presented with the story of the Tower of Babel:

Image Source: Jonathan Park - "What Happened at the Tower of Babel?"

In this remarkable story, captured for us briefly in Genesis 11:1-9, we read these closing words of judgment:

"That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth."

Genesis 11:1-9 [emphasis above mine]

Any person with a Judeo Christian worldview would trace at least some of their understanding of the historical challenges man has faced with language and distance barriers to this story. Specifically, that a sovereign God ordained that it be so. To discourage man from what he was attempting at that point in time ...

So ... Where do we find ourselves today?

I've already briefly touched on the Internet providing some solutions to the historic distance problem. As a result, the world seems much "smaller" these days. Right?

How about language barriers? Well, we can throw our new "tools" at it, e.g. Google translator! Certainly far from perfect, but we can make ourselves reasonably well understood. With relatively little effort. I have used this tool myself, while "engaging" here on the Steem blockchain with newly "met" friends, e.g. @insight-out (Bulgarian), @blessed-girl (Venezuelan), and @marya77 (Iranian).

So, we are becoming progressively more and more familiar with all that is going in to overcome the historic difficulties of language and distance. With perhaps the "low hanging fruit" already "picked," then the increasingly more challenging "difficulty factors" are being met with ever greater amounts of processing power brought to bear on overcoming them.

In recent history, man has been at the center of creating and focusing these efforts. In the future? In response, I wrote briefly on what I have personally experienced in a post about attending a conference with the "best and brightest" from all over the world last Fall in San Antonio, Texas.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) and all that this implies, is now playing an increasingly more central role moving forward. Man will not be actively involved as much as "supervising" systems doing the work for him ...

To wrap up, overall are we making "progress?" Are all of these technological advances ultimately "good" or "bad?" While not professing to have the wisdom to know for certain, my own thoughts are that, for the most part at least, in and of themselves, probably neither.

It is the overall intent and focus of man's hopes and aspirations, in applying them, as we read in the story of the Tower of Babel that I believe is key. Are we ushering in some sort of "utopian" future for us all? The creation of or restoration of (depending on your system of belief) "Paradise on Earth?" "We got this!" Right? Hmmm ...

To be crystal clear, I am not making any declarations. Nor passing any judgments ... I am absolutely suggesting, however, we not lightly pass over the implications of all we are living through. And what they might mean for our future.

Image Source: Pixabay

It is tempting and, with the passage of time ever more so for me and my family, to try and "escape" all of this somehow. To live simpler lives. Close to the earth. I am resigned to this not being realistically possible.

Nope. For whatever I may think of it, this is the time in man's history I was destined to live. "For such a time as this" was a common thought in my recently completed "road to recovery" trip.

Perhaps someday I will get around to writing more about that ...

Closing

So ... There you have some "food for thought" from the perspective of one of your fellow Steemians. Who has experienced a lot in life. And who has lived long enough to enjoy (at least somewhat ... 😉) reflecting back on "what it all means" from time to time ...

With that, on into my day dear reader. Back to work on my "taxing" problem ... 😉 I’d love to hear any feedback you may be inspired to provide.

Until "next time," all the best to you for an even better tomorrow, as we all work together to build our Steem Community! 👍 😊

Respectfully,
Steemian @roleerob

Posted using SteemPeak and “immutably enshrined in the blockchain” on Friday, 29 March 2019!

divider 123.png


Interested to read more of my “reflection” series of posts? Great!

SteemPeak: An awesome interface for our Steem blockchain.

Check it out!


This account is protected by @dustsweeper

Sort:  

One of my struggles here also is the administrative burden to account for all of our transactions, particularly the passive income for delegations at this point. Unfortunately, it will only get worst with SMTs in the future but I have given up on doing my taxes years ago as I don't have the patience to read instructions these days despite, like you, being. numbers guy. So my tax person knows very well the fun of having a crypto client (his first actually). Check out @coingecko as they also have an API that is free and even Steemit, Inc. will be using it soon. Have a great one!

Yes @newageinv ...

"One of my struggles here also is the administrative burden ..."

... no question, it is a headache and a hassle. A year and a half "in" though, I have remained very steady in taking care of it. The beauty of a database is that, for the most part at least, it can be "automated." Once built ...

I enjoy the technical challenge, up to a point. And it keeps my mind engaged, as I think the old "use it or lose it" applies to our mental faculties, as well.

"Check out @coingecko as they also have an API that is free and even Steemit, Inc. will be using it soon."

I will do that. Having now solved the intricacies of importing CoinMarketCap API's JSON string, I can use that as leverage for extracting data from any other API response this is provided in the same format.

Hope you are enjoying a great weekend there with your family!

Dear @newageinv

Great comment buddy.

particularly the passive income for delegations at this point.

I'm not sure if I understand and I hope you don't mind sharing with me what did you mind ? Do you need to pay some taxes from rewards received because of your delegations? Even if you do not "cash out"? Isn't STEEM an utility token and as long as it would be used within ecosystem (let's say that Im always powering up and growing my account) then ... do taxes still apply?

Yours
Piotr

My understanding, as well as my tax advisor, is that for US purposes, cryptocurrencies are treated as property and when you receive any amounts, you must recognize it as taxable income at the fair market value at the time of receipt. That is ordinary income. When you sell it or exchange for another crypto, then you will also need to consider any capital gains or losses on the change in value from the acquisition price. There is a user called @cryptotax I believe that has posted about it in great detail.

Posted using Partiko iOS

Thank you dear @newageinv for your prompt reply. I will definetly check out this profile.

cryptocurrencies are treated as property and when you receive any amounts, you must recognize it as taxable income

Can buying STEEM and powering up to STEEM POWER possibly be recognized as a taxable property? Even if it's a utility token that isn't creating real profit and is only helping user to build his presence/reach on social platforms?

That is more and more confusing.

Piotr

We are really surrounded by a lot of information ... technology has advanced a lot. I remember that I was always in first place in technology, but now I am as outdated, everything moves so fast hahaha.

As for communications, really, borders no longer exist. I feel that I communicate perfectly with you as if we spoke the same language hahaha ... the problem would be to speak personally... hahaha we would have to do a language course hahaha

Dear @blessed-girl

Great comment buddy.

I was always in first place in technology, but now I am as outdated, everything moves so fast hahaha.

Same here. My PC was my first wife. I used to do programming even on ATARI and C64. Right now I'm hardly catching up :)

Yours
Piotr

Hahaha. If you were Atari's programmer and you're just catching up ... imagine how it turns out for me hahaha. Happy day.

Yes @blessed-girl ...

"... now I am as outdated, everything moves so fast hahaha."

... it is very challenging to stay current. Perhaps soon, our "bot buddies" will take care of that responsibility ... 😉

"As for communications, really, borders no longer exist. I feel that I communicate perfectly with you as if we spoke the same language"

Yes, that certainly is true. In some respects. We can certainly communicate across them quite freely. As we have the blessing of experiencing every day, here on our Steem blockchain.

You and I communicate very well. I am thankful for the opportunity to have "met" you "in here."

I hope you and yours are well on this fine "Spring" day (it is just about to start snowing again here ...)! 😊

Does spring last a short time there? Here is springtime, and it does not go fast, we enjoy it at some point. Currently the heat is a bit strong 27 degrees. Girls and I are hot. :(

Here it just depends. It is just volatile. As a result, it can be quite warm and all of the flowers and buds come out. Then, it can still freeze and ruin them. Really not good for early blossoming fruit trees ...

"Girls and I are hot. :("

Hmmm, maybe we could trade a few degrees ... If we ever see that dApp "in here," we'll have to jump on it! 😉

Posted using Partiko Android

yeah hahaha, how much is the current temperature where do you live?

Here, it is currently just past the "heat of the day" and setting at 39°F ( ~ 4 °C). Later tonight, it will be below freezing and expected to snow ...

We’ve awoken this morning to find a fresh “skiff” of snow on the ground @blessed-girl. Very pretty with the sunrise shining down on it. That is the storm is now passed ...

Luckily for us, it will be melted before long. That is partly how we distinguish Spring from Winter. How long the snow remains on the ground, once it has fallen … 😉

wao the climate is very variant there ... here it does not vary so much. In fact here we do not have the 4 stations.
Right now I'm going to an orchid exhibition...

Dear @roleerob

I was wondering what kind of tsumani did you have on your mind :)

Tsunami of informations? Indeed. It's overwhelming to stay updated. At some point of my life I decided that I can spent 2-3hours a day "absorbing" new informations and then CUT! STOP! Otherwise I would overload my own brain :)

Sometimes I dream about days when I will be old and living far away from civilization and everything that is related to it. Living without knowing what's happening around the world. In my little bubble.

I wonder if my dream will ever come true :)

Back to the "drawing board" ...

Oh shit. Sorry to hear that :(

Yours, Piotr

The use of the word "tsunami" @crypto.piotr is my way of using a "word picture" to convey one of the main points of this post. When it comes to the growth of information, in my lifetime, I think it is a very effective way to portray it ...

"Sometimes I dream about days when I will be old and living far away from civilization and everything that is related to it. Living without knowing what's happening around the world. In my little bubble."

"I wonder if my dream will ever come true :)"

Hard to say @crypto.piotr. Depends on how determined you or any of the rest of us are I suppose. At one time, I had my family far out in the country. With a dream of making my living on "the cutting edge of technology" while living safely out on the "trailing edge of technology." It didn't work out ... 😉

"Back to the 'drawing board' ..."

The price of progress. Nothing "stands still." At least not for long. One of the prices we pay for being here at this time in man's history ...

Thanks for stopping by! 👍

Dear @roleerob

Why didn't it worked out? Maybe you're not old enough? I want to spend old days far from technology (once I will be >70) :)

Cheers
Piotr

"Why didn't it worked out?"

Too long a story to answer that question "in here" @crypto.piotr. But, no, it wasn't my age. Many factors, but a big one was being "ahead of my time," i.e. the remote services needed for support simply didn't exist where I lived ...

"I want to spend old days far from technology"

I run "hot and cold" on this thought. Part of it is appealing. Part of it I would like to completely eliminate from my life.

A good start for me is getting away from being so deadline driven, i.e. where I can simply relax more and enjoy it. Sometimes I think I have forgotten how to relax ...


This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here

Thank you very much @c-squared, for your support. I really appreciate it! 😊

So you are thinking that report I printed off from Blocktrades and handed off to my accountant may be insufficient? I am not a numbers guy.

I am hesitant to reply @melinda010100, as I don't want the responsibility for getting it wrong. Either for you or anyone else.

That said, if you've chosen an accountant who understands the intricacies of tax reporting related to this new asset class, they should be able to inform you properly. If what you have provided does not meet their requirements, they are being paid by you to know what they are doing and to let you know.

I certainly hope it is adequate info, because that is all I've got for them! I may have to keep all my Steem forever because I would have no idea how to provide them with that information!

Yes, well, as I mentioned @melinda010100, hopefully you have a good accountant who will let you know.

In essence, it is not all that complicated. Like buying and selling stocks, you are accounting for the prices at which you made purchases. And the prices at which you sold them. In so doing, did you make a profit? Or incur a loss? ...

And is there an accounting anywhere where I can find that information? I have not kept track. If I sold ethereum on coinbase and bought Steem through block trades, how can I find out what the price of steem was then? Or do I need to know that?

While I can give you an answer @melinda010100, I need to stress again the disclaimer that I make no profession to being an accountant. Nor a tax expert. The only responsibility I have and accept is for my own family.

From what you can read on this subject, you'll find current opinion is the IRS classifies every crypto exchange made as a taxable event. So, to answer your question, for my family, I am tracking every transaction I make. And calculating the P & L for each.

In your case, both Coinbase and Block Trades should have transaction history for your account. Beyond that, there are a number of places where you will find crypto price history. As this post indicates, I use CoinMarketCap.

Hope that helps!

Dear @roleerob

Do you think that person who purchased some token for as little as 1000usd and is still holding to it (even with over 50% loss) would have to think of paying any taxes on top of that?

I found this topic very interesting and so bloody confusing. I'm glad to be poor to be an investor :)

Cheers
Piotr

I can't speak for where you are @crypto.piotr, as I make no profession of being a tax expert even here in America. But, from your description, there would be no tax liability due here. Until you sold the token. Then, there would a tax credit, as you would have incurred a 50% loss ...

Congratulations @roleerob! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You published more than 90 posts. Your next target is to reach 100 posts.

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

To support your work, I also upvoted your post!

Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:

3 years on Steem - The distribution of commemorative badges has begun!
Happy Birthday! The Steem blockchain is running for 3 years.
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!

Thank you so much for participating in the Partiko Delegation Plan Round 1! We really appreciate your support! As part of the delegation benefits, we just gave you a 3.00% upvote! Together, let’s change the world!

Hi @roleerob!

Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 4.118 which ranks you at #3350 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has not changed in the last three days.

In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 196 contributions, your post is ranked at #39.

Evaluation of your UA score:
  • Some people are already following you, keep going!
  • The readers like your work!
  • Great user engagement! You rock!

Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.18
TRX 0.15
JST 0.029
BTC 63057.34
ETH 2546.78
USDT 1.00
SBD 2.64