Jeremy Burghall's Blog

The coming difficult transitions

Before we get to the good we will have to experience some of the bad. The good news is that I believe we can overcome each of these transition periods.

Here is a brief overview of 3 of the transitions we will have to overcome:

1. Peak Oil (I predict will hit hardest sometime between 2011 and 2020)

I define as the greatest possible global production of oil in millions of barrels of oil per day, after which there will be a decline in oil production year after year.
Half the oil will still be in the ground but it will take more energy to get it out than we get from it.
Why should you care? Virtually all transportation is oil based. Everything that requires transportation will go up in price, a lot.
The U.S. hit Peak Oil (maximum oil production) in the early 1970’s and oil production has declined every year since. Other countries peak oil dates include: Libya, Venezuela also 1970s, Indonesia, Romania ’77, Egypt ‘93, Argentina ‘98, U.K. ‘99, Australia 2000, and more countries.
Many believe the world hit its peak in 2008 when oil hit $147. But we will only be able to tell once we see oil production levels start to decline, they have stayed static at 86 million barrels since 2008.
Oil prices went down once the Great Recession lowered the demand. (People stopped buying stuff.)
The next oil price shock will happen if demand picks up (U.S. consumer spending recovers) which is unlikely or oil production numbers start to go down. If they go down this could create a panic in the stock markets the likes of which we have never seen.
What is the solution? Alternative energy and switching our transportation to run on other sources of fuel. Natural gas is a possible interm solution for trucking and fleet cars. But eventually we will have to switch to electric vehicles and possibly hydrogen powered vehicles and planes. (Hydrogen is a battery technology, you make hydrogen by putting electricity through water, then when you combine the hydrogen with oxygen from the air it produces electricity and water.)
Electricity will come increasingly from alternative power in particular wind and solar, as we burn all the ‘good’, easy to reach coal, the remaining coal will be more expensive to produce. Coal currently produces most of the world’s electricity. Covering 4% of the world’s deserts with solar panels would provide for all of the world’s energy needs.
The other good news is that our current transportation system is fantastically inefficient. When oil production starts to decline we will be able to become more efficient and that will buy us some time.
Individual solutions, get out of debt, buy (support) local food production (if there is no local food, you should move, now!) and buy an electric car when you can.
I could write much more but I will save it for another post.

2. Collapse of the U.S. dollar (I predict between 2011 and 2015)

QE2 or Quantitative Easing 2 is the U.S. government’s plan to spur consumer spending. What they are actually doing is literally printing money to pay off their debt. QE2 will start with $600 billion but could easily be more. This will lead to inflation, more money in circulation will mean less value for each dollar.
China, Japan and Saudi Arabia all own U.S. debt. They do not want to see the dollar collapse suddenly because they will lose all their investment. It is in everyone’s (U.S. included) interest to see the dollar depreciate slowly.
However, I believe Peak Oil may change that. If it is evident that oil is running out and the U.S. can just print paper dollars to buy the oil, China, Japan and the Saudis won’t like that too much. (Oil is sold in U.S. dollars around the world increasing the demand for U.S. dollars, if that changes the dollar will drop like a stone.)
Individual solution, don’t hold anything valued in U.S. dollars, stocks, property, bonds, or cash. Buy Asian or possibly European (but they may have their own problems too.) Gold is great but probably to expensive now, Silver may still be okay.
More in a future post.

3. Robots get vision, most jobs replaced by machines (I predict between 2025-2030)

This is actually a software problem. Once computers can understand what they are looking at through cameras, robots will clean our toilets and take most of the manufacturing jobs.
This will reduce the cost of most things dramatically. But even if everything is super cheap, most people won’t be able to buy them because they won’t have a job.
Solution -> Revolution. More in a future post.

Let me know what you think! Jeremy (at) JeremyBurghall.com

Posted 1 year, 6 months ago at 9:13 pm.
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Why would you want to live forever?

Why would anyone want to live forever? Wouldn’t you get bored? Would the future be the kind of place where you would even want to live? Will anyone actually be able to live forever?

I hope to answer these questions to your satisfaction in this blog and convince you that an unimaginably better future is something that you can indeed participate in through lifestyle changes that will bring us to the life extending technologies that are just over the horizon.

Here are some reasons why you would want to live forever listed in no particular order:

1. In the future, almost everything will be free.

Nanomachines will recycle old materials and take carbon out of the air to construct new products on an atomic level.
Larger products will be constructed by fully automated robots.
Zero labour cost. Humans will not be involved with the production of anything unless they choose to.
The energy for the production methods will come from highly efficient photovoltaic solar cells.
The only things that will not be free are rare, in demand elements (potentially Copper, Silver, Gold, Palladium, Einsteinium, etc.), land and possibly information (i.e. movies, blueprints, books). Let me know if you can think of any others.

2. Because everything is free, no one will be required to work any job to sustain themselves.

3. You will be able to choose your biological age.

You will be able to literally choose how old you appear and keep all your organs in optimal health through regular tune-ups and the use of various ‘nanobots’ in your body to correct damage as it accumulates.

4. We will eventually cure all diseases and ailments.

5. You will be able to change your DNA and enhance your body anyway you desire.

6. Nanobots will clean up all environmental damage from the industrial era.

6. If you desire, you will be able to connect directly with computers and all their information.

You could have your own personal ‘Matrix’ or ‘Holodeck’, where you could choose who you interact with, be it real humans or human-identical artificial intelligences (AIs), in any environment or situation you can imagine, with literally no rules or physical laws (i.e. gravity, time travel, etc.) restricting you.
You could ‘know’ everything that has been recorded by human civilization and future AIs.

I am looking forward to my retirement. It will literally be limited only by what I can imagine. People will have amazing freedom like never before. However, we will have to go through some very significant difficult transitions before we get there. More about those transitions in further posts.

There is a lot more I could say on this topic, but I will have to leave it for future posts. What do you think? Would you like to live in this future? Anyone who doesn’t please let me know why. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me jeremy (at) JeremyBurghall.com.

Posted 1 year, 6 months ago at 5:50 pm.
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The word ‘pragmatical’ is sold for $100!

www.WinningWriters.com has purchased the word ‘pragmatical’!

All of you aspiring poets and writers must check out this website. Their expert online poetry contest guide, Poetry Contest Insider, profiles over 750 poetry contests. And Winning Writers is proud to be one of “101 Best Websites for Writers” (Writer’s Digest, 2005-2009) and a recipient of the Truly Useful Site Award (Preditors & Editors, March 2006).

This now pushes the site to $1000 in word sales! Woo hoo! And ProLiteracy gets a few more dollars too!

Thanks and congratulations once again to Winning Writers!

Posted 2 years, 8 months ago at 9:03 pm.
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EveryWordIsForSale.com Partners with ProLiteracy!

For Immediate Release

For more information please contact:
Tracy Carman for ProLiteracy
(315) 422-9121, ext 374
tcarman@proliteracy.org

Jeremy Burghall
(604) 716-7095
press@everywordisforsale.com

Web Site Sells Words and Supports Literacy

September 8th is International Literacy Day

September 3, 2009, Vancouver, Canada – Buy a word and support international literacy efforts. Web entrepreneur Jeremy Burghall has created the Web site www.EveryWordIsForSale.com with the goal of raising $2.4 million. Burghall is donating 25% of the total raised to ProLiteracy, the world’s largest organization of adult literacy programs.

The www.EveryWordIsForSale.com Web site consists of the entire text of the book “The Science of Getting Rich,” by Wallace D. Wattles, first published 99 years ago. Each word is available for purchase as a hyperlink advertisement to the buyer’s Web site.

“The book inspired the idea for the Web site,” Burghall, 27, said. “I want to increase opportunities for people seeking self-improvement. ProLiteracy’s international programs give budding entrepreneurs in developing countries the basic literacy and math skills they need to help their businesses succeed.”

Individuals and companies can buy words for $100 each with the stipulation that they must purchase every instance of the word. The most common, and therefore most expensive, word is “the,” which Burghall hopes to sell for $123,900. Supporters are encouraged to buy words related to their products or services. For example, attitudetravel.com has purchased the word “travel.”

“Partnerships with young entrepreneurs like Jeremy are so important to the work ProLiteracy does around the world,” said Lynne Jones, ProLiteracy’s vice president for development and membership. “Many of our international partner programs offer literacy instruction that helps adults start and grow their own small businesses.”

About ProLiteracy
ProLiteracy, based in Syracuse, NY, champions the power of literacy to improve the lives of adults and their families, communities, and societies. ProLiteracy has 1,200 member programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and works with 125 nongovernmental international agencies. For more information, please go to www.ProLiteracy.org and www.NewReadersPress.com.

About Jeremy Burghall
Jeremy Burghall is a 27-year-old Internet entrepreneur from Vancouver, Canada. He created www.EveryWordIsForSale.com in June 2009, and it is his second internet venture. His first business was a pumpkin carving stencil software program he sells online at www.CanUCarve.com.

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Posted 2 years, 8 months ago at 11:20 am.
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Big changes to EveryWordIsForSale.com

Hey guys,

I have made some major changes to the website. Advertisers now have a 270×60 graphic appear when you hover over their word (instead of just a word description) and there is a revolving banner at the top of the page displaying the most recent words sold.

I have also altered the text a bit to accommodate the changes and I have been able to cut the word count down to exactly 24,000 words, I think this is better for selling the site to the public and media.

I changed the list of last 100 words sold to a list of all words sold, now on a new column on the right side of the page. Words are listed by price and then sale. Eventually, I will have to fill up both columns on both sides of the page (but not until I have sold about half the words :p )

I also got rid of the sale page not many people were looking at it and it has become redundant now. And I added a graphic background for both columns and a picture of Wallace D. Wattles. (I have had many people ask me to add pictures to the text; I will be looking for more.)

Let me know what you guys think, feel free to email me.

Cheers,

Jeremy

Posted 2 years, 8 months ago at 11:30 am.
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Third piece of publicity! Talk 1410 AM Radio

Hello guys,

I just had my third piece of publicity on Talk 1410 AM Radio here in Vancouver.

I was able to successfully plug attitudeTravel.com and their purchase of the word travel.

For those of you thinking of purchasing a word, I am trying to plug the first 100 words sold in my first interviews with the media, some additional incentive to get in early.