René Girard was not a particularly great theorist. It's easy to spot his weaknesses and lacunae. But he is the theorist our Era Deserves:
Although the literary theorist and anthropologist René Girard has many
Silicon Valley disciples, surely the most notable of them is the
German-born venture capitalist and founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel. A
student of Girard’s while at Stanford in the late 1980s, Thiel would go
on to report, in several interviews, and somewhat more sub-rosa in his
2014 book, From Zero to One, that Girard is his greatest intellectual inspiration. He is in the habit of recommending Girard’s Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (1978) to others in the tech industry.
Wellington: New Zealand's Reserve Bank says it is “responding with urgency” to a computer system breach.
The bank issued a statement shortly after 2pm (New Zealand time) on Sunday saying a “third party file sharing service” used by the bank to share and store some sensitive information, had been illegally accessed.
PC World – Start off right with solid security tools, productivity software, and other programs that every PC needs.
7 Steps to Tidying Your Digital life
Chinese Communist Party introduces new rules on what members can say as it ‘boosts internal democracy’ South China Morning Post
Covid: WHO team investigating virus origins denied entry to China BBC
A Different Story about the Origin and Development of Alternative Protein in China The Pig Site
“Questions over what data banks could potentially access as well as what data an individual can or would like to share under such a National ID framework in banking remain....
“However, as we’ve seen with the phased implementation of an Open Banking regime in Australia, the right mix of bipartisan encouragement, regulatory support and policy controls can help provide us with a favourable environment for making sure we get this initiative absolutely right for end consumers.”
~ Dirk Steller.
Digital identity the next frontier for FinTech innovation
Special Report: The growing prevalence of digital identities will have far-reaching consequences for the way we interact with our traditional banking and financial services institutions in shaping the contours of customer engagement.
The renewed investment by the federal government in digital identification presents a telling blueprint for the future of public-facing interactions – one which could completely transform legacy systems and infrastructure, particularly when applied to Australia’s financial services sector.
That is the view of Seed Space Venture Capital founder and managing partner Dirk Steller.
Steller said the federal government’s move to expand its Digital Identity Program in this year’s Federal Budget with a $257 million cash injection was consistent with the government’s series of “digital-first” measures that included continuing the rollout of open banking and a $19.2 million expansion of an advisory program that helped small businesses make the transition to digital.
According to Steller, Australia could take a leaf out of the implementation of digital identities in overseas jurisdictions such as France and India.
He said La Poste’s L’Identité Numérique presented an excellent example of how this could apply on a national scale and is successfully being rolled out across France and it’s overseas territories.
“National identification systems are emerging rapidly, and the next logical frontier for this is around digital identity systems. La Poste’s L’Identité Numérique is an initiative that allows French citizens to access everything from their social security payments and retirement documentation, with future enhancements allowing you to open a bank account or sign up for private or mutual insurance on the go,” Steller said. And with the EU’s interoperability regulations in place, French citizens can use their digital identity anywhere within the EU.
