A few weeks ago we offered the graphic above to introduce a different kind of thought in the tech world… Examining the roots, the deep, ancient roots of technology. We hear a lot about technological origin stories with the IBMs, Microsofts, and Apples of the 1970s/80s and a touch earlier in the 20th Century, but what are the deeper, more ancient roots of some of today’s greatest techno-advancement?
Technē
Last week, we introduced our new Forged in Fire Series within Ancient Tech.
Forged in Fire
Today, we introduce our community to the God that started it all in tech: Hephaestus, and thus kick-off the Forged in Fire Series.
HEPHAESTUS
Join us next week for a deep dive. In doing so we’ll be exploring Hephaestus, the concept of Technē, and how bronze helped build the world toward the technological innovation we know today. So grab your forge, suck down some creative juices, and let’s get inventing, next Wednesday on BCB Cyber.
Each Thursday we bring you great, new, potential additions to your high-tech, low-life arsenal! We always help answer the question, How do I find the latest in cyberpunk gear?
A simple post comin’ out this week to help alter our brainwaves with enhanced mental states. We start, of course, with some cool new gear that fits our high-low tech aesthetic. Then pop over to something more ethereal, with neurofeedback cyberpunk (CP) therapies being used to treat ADHD, strokes, trauma, depression, and more!
Not Just Your Typical Renaissance Man Anymore, Or Maybe More Than Ever…
Leo DaVinci is known the world over. Our white-bearded friend may be known for his inventions, but in today’s world, he is also the namesake of many a new-age product. Not to be missed, the vapor business is now in on the DaVinci wave too. IQ2 vaporizer is DaVinci’s most recent product in the portable dry herb vaporizer market that takes on a distinct, futuristic, techy vibe.
Chromed-up gear and slick battery charging devices help set the futuristic mind flow aesthetic with this little handy device. It doesn’t stop there though as the tech allows you to work out the physical and chemical properties of the experience. Controls, gear, and experience, what could be better!?!?
And, it’s not just limited to psychedelics as vaping is exploding across substances.
… we figured we’d share cool CP-linked therapy that is building on such tools. Neurofeedback is the latest in neuroscience blending psychedelic therapies. The best part is, the therapies seem to be bringing a great deal of help and relief to folks suffering from a wide range of mental issues. More power to ’em!
Nope, we are not sponsored by any of these products, companies, or organizations, nor do we even necessarily promote any of them. We just love to share the coolest gear out there to self-cyberize and make our worlds our own! Particularly when it comes to building on the science of the mind and the futuristic aesthetics of a cyberpunked existence. Make sure to come back soon and to check out more in Cyber-Gear here!
A few weeks ago we offered the graphic above to introduce a different kind of thought in the tech world… Examining the roots, the deep, ancient roots of technology. We hear a lot about technological origin stories with the IBMs, Microsofts, and Apples of the 1970s/80s and a touch earlier in the 20th Century, but what are the deeper, more ancient roots of some of today’s greatest techno-advancement?
Technē: Forged in Fire
Last week we took down Mesopotamia. This week we announce our take on the concept of technology itself. This ancient tech origins series will take on a number of topics, but perhaps none so core to technology as the word, the inspiration, the godliness of the concept itself. In doing so we’ll be exploring Hephaestus, the concept of Technē, and how bronze helped build the world toward the technological innovation we know today. So grab your forge, suck down some creative juices, and let’s get inventing, next Wednesday on BCB Cyber.
This month we have some great stocks on tap for review. Next week we open with that great growth opportunity: Palantir. That puts us on track in this extended month to put out all three and start April right on track.
This week we wanted to offer a word of caution. With so much anxiety in the market again there seems to be a war on tech stocks. Many may be worried that as we progress through our tech-fueled portfolio lives and the apparent war on tech and growth stocks now going on in the stock markets, we will take big losses. However, remember we are investors not traders. Plus we never invest the money we need now. We don’t advocate for the whim and fervor of the latest news, but moreover the value of tomorrow built on the disruptive tech we discover today.
Our strategy in our own portfolio is built to focus on our best tech names. We do our best to employ a strategy that is tax-advantaged (means giving us a better position with regard to taxation on our accounts such as holding for over one year). In good times this means that we expand our portfolio and build out into new, developing technological opportunities. Finding those companies new to the market and building the future. However, in tough times we too find opportunities for our strategic engagement. We don’t panic, we strategize and invest.
For us, this means pulling back from our companies that not only take hits (create losses, we can sell these without the worry of taxes – didn’t have profit to tax) but have developed difficult business conditions (e.g. difficulties in cash flow) that may impact the sustainability of the business. This doesn’t mean we have to give up on them forever, but it does mean that our money moves to our strongholds as their prices come down!
As we pull back (sell off these weakening positions), we look to redeploy that capital into our strongest positions with the most potential/solid financial footings. This is where we are always doing our homework. For example, as Nvidia has been selling down we are now building our position again. While we rode our previous position up, we maintained our balance (portfolio percentages based on our risk tolerances and interests) and invested new money elsewhere as the stock grew.
Nvidia is a great well-positioned company with a great financial footing and as it gets cheaper now, we buy. While Nvidia may never be super cheap again, we see piles of potential here and want this to be a core position. So we don’t buy as things skyrocket, but we do as the market overreacts to possible news and drives prices down. We believe in the future of Nvidia and buy as it gets cheaper. To do so we use those positions that have weakened. Nvidia is just one example though as we have many and they have been featured on our site. Tesla and Medtronic are two that fit that bill as well.
We are weekly reviewing our portfolio not to race out and drop cash on new positions but analyzing and learning about what we have already bought and the new situations those companies and teams of real people find themselves in. We share our explorations to some level here on this site. The homework doesn’t end with the initial purchase. We buy and research and strategize, but we never panic.
Thanks so much for joining us here on BCB Cyber and we look forward to seeing you all again next week for our wealth analysis on Palantir. Another great example of what we have been discussing here today.
But we don’t stop there. Make sure to come back tomorrow for an exciting sneak peek into a health tech company that is pushing the limits of our biology: Exicure. See you then!
A few weeks ago we offered the graphic above to introduce a different kind of thought in the tech world… Examining the roots, the deep, ancient roots. We hear a lot about technological origin stories with the IBMs and Apples of the 1970s/80s, but what are the deeper roots of some of today’s greatest techno-advancement?
As a means of bookkeeping, in the graphic above all the graphics, save the Hanging Gardens, came from an Envato Elements subscription. That standalone graphic has a special source. While the source of the Hanging Gardens Graphic didn’t suggest any restrictions on use, we site as referenced on that site and offer it below. If anyone should see any problem with this please let us know. Our goal, the open dissemination of thought and inspiration, through digital word, art, and work.
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. “Beautiful reconstruction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed February 24, 2021. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-4d45-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Parallels
This is where we come in today. To start these explorations we will be building a great new Wisdom section dedicated to ancient technologies and the linkages, parallels if you will, to their innovative contemporaries.
Our introduction to that section debuts now. We begin by pulling a quick sketch of the parallels between early, ancient tech as found in one of humanity’s oldest urban outposts: Mesopotamia, and comparing today’s greatest variants. Yeah, you know, the Tigris and Euphrates folks that started the party for humanity; quite literally as we’ll come to see in some cases.
Mesopotamia, you’ve got to be kidding me. They didn’t have tech. Oh contraire my friend…
While the materials may have changed the ambitions have not. Nor does the fact that the rudiments of today’s greatest advances begin in the cradle of human society. It appears tech is built into our social code.
Building inspiring works of architecture, labor divisions, great food and drink, a strong military, and providing electrical power to enhance the work and comfort of humanity have been staples from the beginning. Nope, not just all cuneiform and wheels but real, socially-defining tech that changed the way society worked. For Mesopotamia, technology was real and technology was the way.
Checking out today’s urban parallels, its not hard to start seeing the comparables:
Ok, so ours in modern history are shinier, but come on…
One of the best known examples is the Ziggurat of Ur, Neo-Sumer, around 2100 BC. In addition was the Tower of Babel, from Neo-Babylon around 575 B.C.
You know this one, The Tower of Babel, just gotta remember Bible school…
4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
But there is an old Greek guy who gives us a clue… Herodotus told us all about the structure, more importantly, the effort required to get to the top: all about a spiral staircase that wrapped around the building and a place to rest. Go figure, somethings never change: complaining about how many stairs to the top. Humanity will never change.
Finally, we come to the Baghdad Battery. Created during the Parthian Period which occurred from approximately 250 BC to 250 AD, there has been much conjecture about this little device.
Ok, so maybe not a true battery, and it certainly doesn’t compare to the Lithium powered batteries of our modern electric vehicles (EVs). But hey, it was a start!
Ok so not the Lithium batteries of EVs, but you get the idea.
We love our military tech today. So many incredible systems and capacities to destroy the world. Great right!?!?!?! Ok, so we’ll reserve judgement. Or do we?
While we love our gear today built to fight, we aren’t the first. Apparently the Ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia were no slouches. From about 1000 – 612 BC they were getting super busy with military tech of their own. Crafting up battering rams, siegecraft, chariots, and flotation devices to aid in assault, etc. these crafty Mesos were all about being more effective combatants in their own squabbles. So much so, the Assyrians are considered by some to be the world’s first professional army.
While they may not have had the advancements or the refined materials, the Mesos sure tech’d up their lives to the greatest extent they could. In doing so they built the rudiments of what would become our technologically enabled societies of today.
That’s it for this week folks, check back soon as we dig up more cutting edge tech from around the ancient world. Speaking of cool, cutting edge tech, make sure to come back tomorrow for the latest in Cyberpunk Gear.
Which high tech, low life story will we write today?
For anyone who missed our health post this week, we’ve found some great new tech workout gear to check out. AI is a game-changer no doubt and now it’s dominating our gym… get to Crushing It with AI.
Punk up and get it done… We, as individuals, defineourworlds, not them. Not the government, not the corporate giants, not those telling us how to live our lives or what to think. We accept pain, not losses. We fight and we build.
A few weeks ago we offered the graphic above to introduce a different kind of thought in the tech world… Examining the roots, the deep, ancient roots. We hear a lot about technological origin stories with the IBMs and Apples of the 1970s/80s, but what are the deeper roots of some of today’s greatest techno-advancement?
Parallels
This is where we come in today. To start these explorations we will be building a great new Wisdom section dedicated to ancient technologies and the linkages, parallels if you will, to their innovative contemporaries.
Our introduction to that section debuts next Wednesday. We’ll begin pulling a quick sketch of the parallels between early, ancient tech as found in one of humanity’s oldest urban outposts: Mesopotamia, and comparing today’s greatest variants. Specifically, we’ll get a glance into power and elegance, energy and architecture. See you all next week!
As a means of bookkeeping, in the graphic above all the graphics, save the Hanging Gardens, came from an Envato Elements subscription. That standalone graphic has a special source. While the source of the Hanging Gardens Graphic didn’t suggest any restrictions on use, we site as referenced on that site and offer it below. If anyone should see any problem with this please let us know. Our goal, the open dissemination of thought and inspiration, through digital word, art, and work.
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. “Beautiful reconstruction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed February 24, 2021. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-4d45-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
