CLEVELAND, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Downtown Cleveland gains a new Rally House store in the historic Caxton Building within the Gateway District. Rally House Gateway is conveniently situated down the street from Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Progressive Field, and FirstEnergy Stadium, a ...

Baseten Announces the Launch of Baseten on Google Cloud Marketplace with 
Early Access for Hybrid Mode, Delivering Exceptional Flexibility and Scale 
for AI Workloads

The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel argues that the proposed rate hike, which would pay for upgrades to FirstEnergy’s electric grid, is “inextricably intertwined” with the House Bill 6 corruption scandal.

Watchdog group: Put FirstEnergy’s proposed $770 million upgrade program on hold because of HB6 scandal - cleveland.com

Former FirstEnergy executives Chuck Jones and Michael Dowling as well as ex-PUCO Chairman Sam Randazzo plead not guilty Tuesday to 27 felony charges.

Ex-FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones, 2 others plead not guilty in HB 6 FirstEnergy scandal

FirstEnergy customers are furious at the former utility company executives who raised their bills to allegedly fund the largest bribery scheme in Ohio history — especially as they pleaded not guilty.

‘Give me my money’ — FirstEnergy customers furious as former CEO, VP plead not guilty in bribery scandal

Ohio AG Dave Yost said former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and former SVP Michael Dowling promised to turn themselves in but did not.

FirstEnergy $60 million bribery scandal: Grand jury indicts former executives | Fortune

Two former Akron-based FirstEnergy executives and ex-Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo were indicted on 27 felony violations.

Ohio AG announces indictments for ex-FirstEnergy execs, Randazzo in House Bill 6 scandal

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced scores of felony charges against a former regulator who also has been charged federally, and against two people who haven’t — former top executives for Akron-based FirstEnergy whom the company admitted paid more than $60 million in bribes between ...

Ex-First Energy executives, Ohio utility regulator charged by state in bailout and bribery scandal - Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio’s attorney general accused a former chairman of the state’s Public Utilities Commission of taking more than $4.3 million in bribes from FirstEnergy executives.

FirstEnergy Ex-C.E.O. and 2 Others Are Indicted in Bribery Scandal - The New York Times

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced indictments in the House Bill 6 scandal with charges against former FirstEnergy executives Chuck Jones and Michael Dowling.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announces new indictments in House Bill 6 scandal: Former FirstEnergy executives face bribery charges

The indictment of two former FirstEnergy executives reignited worry over what this could mean for the company's future in Akron.

What indictment of former FirstEnergy executives could mean for Akron

FirstEnergy

firstenergy

by Jeff Garzik and Ralph Benko We agree with the recently published Techno-Optimist Manifesto We agree with the recently published , hailing, among other things, the importance to civilization of energy and, thus, of good, practical energy policy. Abundant, reliable, readily affordable power is what unlocks a nation's dynamism, builds factories, creates jobs, enhances national security, and reduces poverty and famine. Techno-Optimist Manifesto A specter is now haunting those of us (including us) who believe that equitable prosperity is a great thing for people and the planet both. This specter is the shade of those who are anti-technology and anti-prosperity. Pro-prosperity goes under the rubric of e/acc, shorthand for “ .” As an aside, that might be a coinage derived from “ .” The latter had its day, although now is tarnished by the spectacular fall of its most enthusiastic and flamboyant promoter, . effective accelerationism effective altruism Sam Bankman-Fried The opponents of tech, and of its attendant general prosperity, have been dubbed the “decels.” Possibly a sly allusion to “incels.” e/acc also goes by the term “techno-optimism.” Many prominent center-leftists are at least as enthusiastic about the promise of technology to improve the lives of people and the planet as are the card-carrying members of the vast right-wing conspiracy. Techno-optimists tend to lean libertarian, whether left or right. Prominent among the leading proponents are masters of the universe , , , (with stated reservations about AI), and . Also notable are economist, blogger, and journalist ( ), public intellectual Peter Zeihan, who refers to the process of deindustrialization now underway as “decivilization,” and , who presents at a16z with exceptional clarity on matters such as . Marc Andreessen Ben Horowitz Bill Gates Vitalik Buterin Peter Thiel Noah Smith an incisive self-professed political southpaw Ryan McEntush how to scale nuclear power The villains in this drama are those who committed to “degrowth,” or shrinking the economy, perhaps by the “spectre of degrowth communism” of “Kohei Saito, the rising star of contemporary Marxist thought….” best exemplified Marxists Never Cease To Delight in Spectral Haunting Marxists just never cease to delight in spectral haunting. Some people just have to learn the hard way. We’ve written about the tussle between us techno-optimists and the luddites at ; ; at ; and at . Let’s up the ante. Toward a Pragmatic American Energy Policy To Build or Not to Build Washington? Just Face Facts Yankee Ingenuity The sweet spot of Washington Power and Light, our policy institute, is good energy policy, the foundation of equitable prosperity. In that, we are not alone. Marc Andreessen recently, in his . wrote: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto “Energy is life. We take it for granted, but without it, we have darkness, starvation, and pain. With it, we have light, safety, and warmth. We believe energy in an upward spiral. Energy is the foundational engine of our civilization. … We believe we should place intelligence and energy in a positive feedback loop, and drive them both to infinity. We believe we should use the feedback loop of intelligence and energy to make everything we want and need abundant.” should be And as Noah Smith observes in : Don’t be a Decel “Energy technology is arguably the most important kind of technology that humans create, since everything else we do is downstream of our ability to harness energy.” It isn’t very romantic of us, but … our mission is to encourage policy based on real-world data to produce great results, rather than relying on faith-based dreams we call “hopium.” We consider ourselves proud pragmatists. Pretty much everyone, including the innumerate, has heard of Einstein’s E = mc2, energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. the world’s most famous equation. PBS calls it While it is profound to prove that energy and matter are interchangeable, in day-to-day terms it’s not the most important equation around. We nominate, instead, e2/acc: effective energy accelerationism. Capitalism’s monster Those advocating economic “shrinkage” (to steal ) are an odd lot. Consider the frailty of the romantics, like Saito. He was critiqued by Thomas Fazi at , as “capitalism’s monster.” a phrase from Seinfeld Unherd To wit: “It is no coincidence that Saito comes from Japan, which enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world. But for most people on the planet, especially those living in poorer countries, climate change among the lowest policy priorities — well below more pressing material concerns such as hunger and poverty, access to water and sanitation, and education. systematically ranks “To the billions of people who still live in extreme poverty, and the millions who don’t even have access to electricity, Saito’s vision of degrowth communism, and his plea to scale back production and consumption, is unlikely to be very appealing. In fact, Saito’s insistence that countries in the Global South should refrain from pursuing growth — even ‘green growth’ — might very well be seen as a form of Western eco-imperialism. … “In this sense, degrowth communism suffers from the same drawback of old-school communism: it’s an intrinsically universalist worldview, one that purports to offer a one-size-fits-all solution for all human societies, regardless of local cultural and civilisational specificities. This globalist outlook is typical of post-Nineties leftism, which Saito harks back to in several respects. This is also evident in his rejection of the nation-state, viewed as a reactionary, quasi-fascist construct, rather than the framework through which virtually all the major social, economic and political advancements of the past centuries were achieved. “It’s a view that is completely at odds with global realities. Capitalism’s monster? At odds with reality? Yeah, that’s our poster child villain, all right! Curtis Yarvin: the greatest living Hobbesian philosopher, formidable poet, and classic antihero, declares Trotsky at Burning Man Among others in the techno-pessimistic camp is the always interesting contrarian Curtis Yarvin – the greatest living Hobbesian philosopher and poet, a classic antihero rather than villain, and possibly simply being arch – recently published “ .” Therein, he wrote: a techno-pessimist manifesto “Where did this ideology come from? While the connection is obviously a coincidence, techno-optimism is a curious historical match for another deeply American ideology from the 20th century: Trotskyism. “In (1924), Trotsky wrote: Literature and Revolution “Through the machine, man in Socialist society will command nature in its entirety, with its grouse and its sturgeons. He will change the course of the rivers, and he will lay down rules for the oceans. This does not mean that the entire globe will be marked off into boxes, that the forests will be turned into parks and gardens. Thickets and forests and grouse and tigers will remain, but only where man commands them to remain. And man will do it so well that the tiger won’t even notice the machine, or feel the change, but will live as he lived in primeval times. The machine is not in opposition to the earth. The machine is the instrument of modern man in every field of life… “Man, who will learn how to move rivers and mountains, how to build people’s palaces on the peaks of the Mont Blanc and at the bottom of the Atlantic, will not only be able to add to his own life richness, brilliancy and intensity, but also a dynamic quality of the highest degree. The shell of life will hardly have time to form before it will burst open again under the pressure of new technical and cultural inventions and achievements. Life in the future will not be monotonous! “Narrator: nor was it. “More than that. Man at last will begin to harmonize himself in earnest. He will make it his business to achieve beauty by giving the movement of his own limbs the utmost precision, purposefulness and economy in his work, his walk and his play. He will try to master first the semiconscious and then the subconscious processes in his own organism, such as breathing, the circulation of the blood, digestion, reproduction, and, within necessary limits, he will try to subordinate them to the control of reason and will. Even purely physiologic life will become subject to collective experiments. The human species, the coagulated Homo sapiens, will once more enter into a state of radical transformation, and, in his own hands, will become an object of the most complicated methods of artificial selection and psycho-physical training. “One can easily see Trotsky at Burning Man…. “Here again the ‘scientists, technologists, artists, and visionaries beyond our wildest dreams.’ Was Trotsky the first ‘effective accelerationist?’ Life takes you funny places.” “Life takes you funny places.” True! Washington Power and Light Last year, we constituted a new, tech-savvy think tank in Metro DC, Washington Power and Light, to advocate for, to quote Bastiat (see below), a “real, serious and pragmatic” energy policy, a policy rooted in technological reality rather than “pretty to think so” romantic dreams. Thus, we heartily welcome a recent big reveal at Ben Horowitz’s blog, “ ,” that a16z has desired to engage politically, seriously, to conduct a savvy “revenge of the nerds” political crusade to make the pro-techno worldview stick: Politics and the Future “We believe that advancing technology is critical for humanity’s future, so we will, for the first time, get involved with politics by supporting candidates who align with our vision and values specifically for technology. “While “Big Tech” is well represented in Washington D.C., their interests are often at odds with a positive technological future as they are more interested in regulatory capture and preserving their monopolies. As a result, technology startups need a voice. “We are non-partisan, one issue voters: If a candidate supports an optimistic technology-enabled future, we are for them. If they want to choke off important technologies, we are against them.” Badly needed! Politicians have mostly taken their eye off the ball and turned Congress mostly into a slapstick pie-fight over mostly trivial matters. Consider the daily political news. Much of it covers the struggle between the Democrats (the Donks) and the GOP (Pachyderms, thank you, Thomas Nast!). And, implicit therein, the forever war between the left and right. And much of the news now is devoted to the internecine intraparty struggles, such as within the administration, between the privileged progressives and the rank-and-file workers of the labor-and-ethnic left. And the marquee battles between the MAGAs (“the Chaos Caucus”) and the Regular Republicans in the House. “A full phase-out of fossil fuels would take the world back into caves.” Meanwhile, note the recently convened and concluded CAP28, whose presiding officer rocked the world by observing candidly, as reported by : Reason “ Al Jaber also that a full phase-out of fossil fuels would ‘take the world back into caves.’ Into the caves we go: said Some scientists and activists have not welcomed Al Jaber's blunt realism, but have said his are ‘verging on climate denial.’ comments “To be sure, Al Jaber has been properly criticized for a possible conflict of interest, as he is also the CEO of the Emirati state-owned oil and gas company, ADNOC. But he's correct to weigh tradeoffs and to point to the fact that world leaders need a more concrete plan, since toothless U.N. agreements don't really cut it.” “What Is Seen and What is Not Seen” We confidently submit that, in the spirit of Bastiat’s final work, – “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen” – that which is invisible is often more consequential than what is visible. CE QUON VOIT ET CE QUON NE VOIT PAS And the previously almost invisible war between the techno-optimists (“the squares”) and the techno-pessimists (“the hippies”) is, we believe, the truly important political, social, and cultural battle now going on. As the fox confided to the , “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Thus, let us look with our hearts. Little Prince Why is the war between the techno-optimists and the techno-pessimists of existential importance? Bastiat, courtesy of : Mises.org In the department of economy, an act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects. Of these effects, the first only is immediate; it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause — . The others unfold in succession — : it is well for us if they are . Between a good and a bad economist this constitutes the whole difference — the one takes account of the effect; the other takes account both of the effects which are and also of those which it is necessary to . Now this difference is enormous, for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the ultimate consequences are fatal, . Hence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good, which will be followed by a great evil to come, while the true economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil. it is seen they are not seen foreseen visible seen foresee and the converse “In fact, it is the same in the science of health, arts, and in that of morals. If often happens, that the sweeter the first fruit of a habit is, the more bitter are the consequences. Take, for example, debauchery, idleness, prodigality. When, therefore, a man, absorbed in the effect which , has not yet learned to discern those which are not seen, he gives way to fatal habits, not only by inclination, but by calculation. is seen “This explains the fatally grievous condition of mankind. Ignorance surrounds its cradle: then its actions are determined by their first consequences, the only ones which, in its first stage, it can see. It is only in the long run that it learns to take account of the others. It has to learn this lesson from two very different masters — experience and foresight. Experience teaches effectually, but brutally. It makes us acquainted with all the effects of an action, by causing us to feel them; and we cannot fail to finish by knowing that fire burns, if we have burned ourselves. For this rough teacher, I should like, if possible, to substitute a more gentle one. I mean Foresight. For this purpose I shall examine the consequences of certain economical phenomena, by placing in opposition to each other those , and those .” which are seen which are not seen The struggle over tech is crucial because it is, at base, a struggle between prosperity and austerity. Prosperity affords us agency. Poverty is a vice, not a virtue. The Soviet bloc, exponentially poorer than the capitalist running dogs of the West, experienced far worse environmental degradation than did the capitalist world. It is better that we fight over what to do with our discretionary income than scrap for subsistence. Shall we use our surplus wealth to clean up our rivers and air? Plant forests? Invent new tech? Buy more aircraft carriers? Pay down the national debt? These are much worthier fights to have than those available while struggling for survival in a condition of great scarcity. Sorry, Luddites. Few indeed wish to return to the caves. Bad policy.  Bad politics. As Churchill, on the floor of the House of Commons, , ‘The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.’ observed Misery loves company. That said, misery makes for bad policy. So, let’s accelerate our technology and, with it, our prosperity. Then… watch the Congress. Those fights will be merry indeed but much more productive than what we are now witnessing. Bravo to the : “We believe we should place intelligence and energy in a positive feedback loop and drive them both to infinity. We believe we should use the feedback loop of intelligence and energy to make everything we want and need abundant.” Techno-Optimist Manifesto To remain great or regain greatness, America can and must have abundant, reliable, readily affordable energy from practical, reality-driven sources. Abundant, reliable, affordable power unlocks a nation's dynamism, builds factories, creates jobs, enhances national security, and reduces poverty and famine. Accept no substitutes. Jeff Garzik serves as the founder and chairman of the policy institute Washington Power and Light.  Before co-founding Bloq, he spent five years as a Bitcoin core developer and ten years at Red Hat. His work with the Linux kernel is now found in every Android phone and data center running Linux today. Ralph Benko serves as co-founder and general counsel to Washington Power and Light. He is also the co-founder and general counsel for F1R3FLY.io and has worked in or with 3 White Houses, two executive branch agencies, and the Congress, as well as many political and policy institutes. He is an award-winning columnist.

“What is Essential is Invisible;” Enter Energy/Acceleration

There was once a priest with cold, watery eyes

Worlds Within Worlds: The Story of Nuclear Energy, Volume 3 (of 3), by Isaac Asimov is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Volume III, NUCLEAR FISSION: New Elements Enrico Fermi (left) and Niels Bohr discuss physics as they stroll along the Appian Way outside Rome in 1931. NUCLEAR FISSION New Elements In 1934 Enrico Fermi began his first experiments involving the bombardment of uranium with neutrons—experiments that were to change the face of the world. Fermi had found that slow neutrons, which had very little energy, were easily absorbed by atomic nuclei—more easily than fast neutrons were absorbed, and certainly more easily than charged particles were. Often what happened was that the neutron was simply absorbed by the nucleus. Since the neutron has a mass number of 1 and an atomic number of 0 (because it is uncharged), a nucleus that absorbs a neutron remains an isotope of the same element, but increases its mass number. For instance, suppose that neutrons are used to bombard hydrogen-1, which then captures one of the neutrons. From a single proton, it will become a proton plus a neutron; from hydrogen-1, it will become hydrogen-2. A new nucleus formed in this way will be at a higher energy and that energy is emitted in the form of a gamma ray. Sometimes the more massive isotope that is formed through neutron absorption is stable, as hydrogen-2 is. Sometimes it is not, but is radioactive instead. Because it has added a neutron, it has too many neutrons for stability. The best way of adjusting the matter is to emit a beta particle (electron). This converts one of the neutrons into a proton. The mass number stays the same but the atomic number increases by one. The element rhodium, for example, which has an atomic number of 45, has only 1 stable isotope, with a mass number of 103. If rhodium-103 (45 protons, 58 neutrons) absorbs a neutron, it becomes rhodium-104 (45 protons, 59 neutrons), which is not stable. Rhodium-104 emits a beta particle, changing a neutron to a proton so that the nuclear combination becomes 46 protons and 58 neutrons. This is palladium-104, which is stable. Fermi’s laboratory in Rome in 1930. As another example, indium-115 (49 protons, 66 neutrons) absorbs a neutron and becomes indium-116 (49 protons, 67 neutrons), which gives off a beta particle and becomes tin-116 (50 protons, 66 neutrons), which is stable. There are over 100 isotopes that will absorb neutrons and end by becoming an isotope of an element one higher in the atomic number scale. Fermi observed a number of these cases. Having done so, he was bound to ask what would happen if uranium were bombarded with neutrons. Would its isotopes also be raised in atomic number—in this case from 92 to 93? If that were so it would be very exciting, for uranium had the highest atomic number in the entire scale. Nobody had ever discovered any sample of element number 93, but perhaps it could be formed in the laboratory. In 1934, therefore, Fermi bombarded uranium with neutrons in the hope of obtaining atoms of element 93. Neutrons were absorbed and whatever was formed did give off beta particles, so element 93 should be there. However, four different kinds of beta particles (different in their energy content) were given off and the matter grew very confusing. Fermi could not definitely identify the presence of atoms of element 93 and neither could anyone else for several years. Other things turned up, however, which were even more significant. Before going on to these other things, however, it should be mentioned that undoubtedly element 93 was formed even though Fermi couldn’t clearly demonstrate the fact. In 1939 the American physicists Edwin Mattison McMillan (1907- ) and Philip Hauge Abelson (1913- ), after bombarding uranium atoms with slow neutrons, were able to identify element 93. Since uranium had originally been named for the planet, Uranus, the new element beyond uranium was eventually named for the planet Neptune, which lay beyond Uranus. Element 93 is therefore called “neptunium”. Lise Meitner Emilio Segrè Edwin M. McMillan Otto R. Frisch Glenn T. Seaborg Philip H. Abelson 121 What happened was exactly what was expected. Uranium-238 (92 protons, 146 neutrons) added a neutron to become uranium-239 (92 protons, 147 neutrons), which emitted a beta particle to become neptunium-239 (93 protons, 146 neutrons). In fact, neptunium-239 also emitted a beta particle so it ought to become an isotope of an element even higher in the atomic number scale. This one, element 94, was named “plutonium” after Pluto, the planet beyond Neptune. The isotope, plutonium-239, formed from neptunium-239, was only feebly radioactive, however, and it was not clearly identified until 1941. The actual discovery of the element plutonium came the year before, however, when neptunium-238 was formed. It emitted a beta particle and became plutonium-238, an isotope that was radioactive enough to be easily detected and identified by Glenn Theodore Seaborg (1912- ), and his co-workers, who completed McMillan’s experiments when he was called away to other defense research. Neptunium and plutonium were the first “transuranium elements” to be produced in the laboratory, but they weren’t the last. Over the next 30 years, isotopes were formed that contained more and more protons in the nucleus and therefore had higher and higher atomic numbers. At the moment of writing, isotopes of every element up to and including element 105 have been formed. A number of these new elements have been named for some of the scientists important in the history of nuclear research. Element 96 is “curium”, named for Pierre and Marie Curie; element 99 is “einsteinium” for Albert Einstein; and element 100 is “fermium” for Enrico Fermi. 122 Element 101 is “mendelevium” for the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeléev, who early in 1869 was the first to arrange the elements in a reasonable and useful order. Element 103 is “lawrencium” for Ernest O. Lawrence. “Rutherfordium” for Ernest Rutherford has been proposed for element 104. And “hahnium” for Otto Hahn (1879-1968), a German physical chemist whose contribution we will come to shortly, has been proposed for element 105. Neptunium, however, was not the first new element to be created in the laboratory. In the early 1930s, there were still 2 elements with fairly low atomic numbers that had never been discovered. These were the elements with atomic numbers 43 and 61. In 1937, though, molybdenum (atomic number 42) had been bombarded with neutrons in Lawrence’s laboratory in the United States. It might contain small quantities of element 43 as a result. The Italian physicist Emilio Segrè (1905- ), who had worked with Fermi, obtained a sample of the bombarded molybdenum and indeed obtained indications of the presence of element 43. It was the first new element to be manufactured by artificial means and was called “technetium” from the Greek word for “artificial”. The technetium isotope that was formed was radioactive. Indeed, all the technetium isotopes are radioactive. Element 61, discovered in 1945 and named “promethium”, also has no stable isotopes. Technetium and promethium are the only elements with atomic numbers less than 84 that do not have even a single stable isotope. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Isaac Asimov. 2015. Worlds Within Worlds: The Story of Nuclear Energy, Volume 3 (of 3). Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10616/pg10616-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

The Story of Nuclear Energy: Nuclear Fission | New Elements

What is Happening? , a web3 company co-founded by Steve Wozniak (Apple co-founder), is building the first Energy Efficiency NFTs to help fund energy-efficient projects. EFFORCE These projects focus on a sustainable future by bringing a novel "Proof of Contribution" concept that underpins a new breed of utility NFTs. The Genesis NFTs are a resource for making the necessary energy efficiency upgrades to businesses, as part of the Energy Efficiency NFT initiative to meet expectations to reduce energy consumption which is crucial in today's era of climate change and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG). A 180 kwe combined cooling heating and power plant is the first project that will be developed by the company. This sustainable project is a part of an anonymous company's endeavours and is projected to run for more than 8,000 hours annually to meet the business's cooling and air conditioning requirements. Additionally, it will generate 1.4 GWh of electricity on its own each year. The cost is 210 USDC per NFT to fund this sustainable project. 400 WOZX (native tokens) must be locked by users for each mint of these NFTs. Additionally, the project is expected to yield rewards of 735.000 mWOZ. The second project is an Energy Efficiency Project (EEP) for an anonymous company that will supply 60% of the power required by a sewage treatment facility. Additionally, it will provide heat to a sludge drying plant, reducing the weight of the discarded sludge by up to 80%. The projected earnings from that endeavour are $665,000 mWOZ. This model helps to fund sustainable projects where companies can build sustainable projects via funds raised from NFT or token issuance. : Vested Interest Disclosure The author is an independent contributor publishing via our . Be it through direct compensation, media partnerships, or networking. The author has a vested interest in the company/ies mentioned in this story. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYOR brand-as-author program What is EFFORCE? To democratise access to energy efficiency projects, has developed the first platform utilising the power of blockchain technology. EFFORCE was founded by Steve Wozniak, Jacopo Visetti, Jacopo Vanetti, and Ken Hardesty. They have worked in the field for over a decade each on the premise that consumers don't need to alter their energy consumption habits to reap sustainability benefits. EFFORCE Understanding the Importance of a Sustainable Future in the Face of Climate Change According to , the blockchain technology industry is projected to reach $4.94 billion by the year 2030 ( ). The latest emphasizes the critical need for a worldwide energy transition by 2030 to achieve net-zero carbon emissions and keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. Fossil fuels must be used much less frequently and cities must run widespread sustainable electricity supported by renewable energy sources to ensure energy efficiency and prevent a climate catastrophe. estimates excluding publicly traded cryptocurrencies Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report In are already struggling to adapt to the changing climate and shrinking ice, threatening their way of life. About one-tenth of the four million people who live in the Arctic, including indigenous groups like the Inuit, Saami, and Chukchi, are at risk due to the region's warming at a rate roughly twice that of the rest of the world. Nunavut, Canada, Inuit hunters Further, in the United States, extreme weather has caused widespread power outages and destructive storms that have disabled large swaths of the country's ageing power grid. Between 2015 and 2020, the frequency of extensive blackouts is expected to increase by over 60%. Due to this, focusing on protecting our environment is critical for the survival of mankind and using cryptocurrencies and NFTs as an alternative mode of finance can help green companies establish sustainable projects to raise money and build projects that help our environment. The Importance of Sustainable Development for the Cryptocurrency Industry According to the maintained by Cambridge University's Centre for Alternative Finance, Bitcoin mining consumes more energy annually than either Malaysia or Sweden. This is a massive concern for environmental activists and the cryptocurrency industry alike. There are growing efforts to make cryptocurrency mining more environmentally friendly in response to rising public concern about the industry's energy footprint. Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index For instance, the Ethereum Foundation that after Ethereum 2.0, energy consumption will be cut by 99.95 percent. This is an excellent example of how the cryptocurrency industry can try to reduce its carbon footprint and develop solutions that protect the environment and increase our economy's sustainable development. predicts Renewable energy expansion, improved energy management practices, and carbon offsets are all examples of how we can reduce carbon emissions. Tokenized carbon credits which trade via blockchain applications are a novel use of technology which can help minimise market inefficiency and help in carbon reduction. TRG Datacenters widespread reform in using existing cryptocurrencies and developing new ones that are more environment-friendly and sustainable. predicts To decarbonize the industry and reach net-zero emissions from the power consumption associated with digital currencies by 2030, the Crypto Climate Accord has been signed by more than 45 companies and individuals in the virtual currencies, financial services, electricity, and technology industries. Using cryptocurrencies such as utility tokens and NFTs to fund environment-based projects can disrupt how green companies can raise finance from the open market to fund sustainable projects. These initiatives are a step in the right direction which removes the stereotype around cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology being bad for the environment and instead focuses on using blockchain as a means of technology to leverage the development of sustainable projects. Final Thoughts on Funding Sustainable Projects via Crypto In my opinion, using tokens and NFTs to raise finance for developing and building sustainable projects is critical for both the cryptocurrency and environment industries. Novel ideas that help green companies fund their renewable energy projects via funding in crypto can help companies when they cannot seek capital from investment funds or venture capital firms. Further, this can bridge the gap between the cryptocurrency industry and environment activists where the latter sees the minimal application of blockchain technology which can help the environment. However, based on projects like these, we can see that this is not the case and blockchain is indeed an instrument that can help build a sustainable future for mankind. Don’t forget to like and share the story! and . Noah Buscher Tyler Casey

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak is Developing Energy Efficiency NFTs

TerraGreen Purpose The general thought behind is to use blockchain technology and cryptocurrency to make the earth (Terra) a greener place. The focus of TerraGreen is to produce renewable energy that is generated from renewable materials and waste productions instead of using fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas. In the end, TerraGreen’s purpose is to create a truly sustainable and clean community which will allow consumers to directly participate in the renewable energy industry positively. TerraGreen TerraGreen intends to break down the walls between energy producers, investors, consumers, and utilities so that people get involved and influence their energy is produced. TerraGreen Motivation. Environmental stress to earth has induced an urgent quest for innovation in energy structure on a global scale. As evidenced by the 148 nations who ratified the Paris Climate Accord, there is profound interest in fostering a cleaner future as these nations agreed to fulfil its responsibility by capping GHG emissions as soon as possible. The seriousness of global warming is due to a disconnection between the energy producers and energy users. TerraGreen is all about bringing reform in the current energy supply structure and transition to a new energy system with the help of blockchain technology, that can fundamentally reduce GHG emissions and mitigate waste pollution. TerraGreen is an ecosystem, where renewable energies are tokenized and can be used by the community in exchange for fiat currency or as a payment for energy consumed. But we are not stopping here, we want to use blockchain technology in a way that users can monitor how the energy is produced and what it is used for. Renewable Energy Technology Collaborations. TerraGreen has been in collaborations with companies inside and outside the energy sector to produce renewable energy technologies in more efficient, reliable and sustainable ways. Such collaborations have led to the development of new technologies namely biomass gasification system and biofuel hydrolyzer. The collaboration partners are a. AVI Renewable Sdn Bhd b. Augustina Tradelink Pvt. Ltd. c. Hydrogreen Amplifier Pvt. Ltd. By introducing the hydrolyzer onto the TerraGreen platform, we create a direct connection to the customer and a possibility for everyone to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Usage of the Hydrolyzer can be tracked and Reduction of fuel consumption can be transformed into green energy token, which is connected to the TerraGreen platform. TerraGreen Stages. TerraGreen will be developed in 4 stages. Starting with use cases in stage 1 and 2. TerraGreen is looking to revolutionize the energy generation and distribution system in the long run. But we are beginning with the use cases of real projects to create trust and start the development of the platform. Stage One. The first stage is made to create the first energy tokens and develop the TerraGreen platform. In the first stage and use case of TerraGreen, we are looking at the Energy Token creation for producers. Stage Two through Four. In the second stage, TerraGreen can set up partnerships with energy distributor companies, to accept specific energy tokens as a payment from the customers. Stage 3 will combine stage 1 and 2 to connect the energy token price that consumer is buying with the token creation from the renewable energy power plants. This introduces the TerraGreen exchange on the platform. In the last stage of TerraGreen, we are expanding the energy network to the transmission company. Energy payments will be done with the various tokens. Creation, transmission, and usage of energy can be tracked on the blockchain in real time. Use Case for Stage One: 2.4MWe Biomass Gasification Power Plant in Terengganu, Malaysia by Ajil Biofuel Sdn Bhd Malaysia Renewable Energy Act 2011 In Accordance with Renewable Energy Act 2011, The Malaysia government has introduced a Feed-In Tariff (FiT) mechanism to promote the growth of the renewable energy sector which implementation is administered, managed, monitored and reviewed by the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) Malaysia. 2.4MWe Biomass Gasification Power Plant The technology to be employed in the power plant is a well proven fluidized bed gasification system. The use case plant will be using feedstocks in the form of forest and agricultural wastes. It is designed to achieve an availability factor minimum of 85% throughout the entire 16 years of operation. The plant converts treated biomass wastes into medium calorific product gas. Here the produced gas is combusted in a gas engine for the production of electricity. The plant is capable for the production of 2.4 MW of electricity. Biomass Fuel Production Facility. The biomass fuel production facility is designed to produce briquettes from forest and agriculture waste materials. The briquettes are used in the biomass gasification plant for the production of electricity. Use-Case: Biofuel Hydrolyzer Application in India by Hydrogreen Amplifier Pvt. Ltd. The state of Gujarat, In India, is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the world. The number of registered motor vehicles in Gujarat was about 19 million for 2015. TerraGreen counters rising fuel demand and emission with the latest technology. For this reason, we are going to roll out the implementation of the Hydrolyzer first where it is needed most. Use Case Stage 2 — Electricity Transaction Validation Services. TerraGreen in partnership with electricity distribution companies in Cambodia, Malaysia, and Central Africa Republic (CAR), plans to implement electricity retail DApps for the following purposes: - Validation of electricity consumption - Validation of payments - Improve efficiencies in the electricity value chain. Blockchain Technology. The native blockchain of TerraGreen will allow to the Deployment of different DApps on the system. Since it is a platform for green energy, we do not support the massive waste done by proof of work consensus. For this reason, we will implement the latest dedicated proof of stake consensus to make our blockchain safe and efficient. With the applications being deployed on the blockchain, we can transmit, store and analyze energy data in real time. It will feature lightning fast, multilayer protocol, easy to use and unlimited side chains which makes the platform extravagant. Tokenomics — Market, Growth, and Revenue. The (TGN) is connected in every token transaction to a small percentage and therefore “running” the system. This connection is done by smart contracts which are implemented into the blockchain technology. TerraGreen platform coin Each stage of TerraGreen has its own market and creates a new demand for the coin. Additionally, each stage will consist of multiple projects and markets where TerraGreen will be introduced. In the first stage, the renewable energy projects are supported through the TerraGreen platform. The second stage introduces the consumers with energy tokens. In the third and fourth stage, final mass adoption will come later into the picture, pushing the TGN demand and value. Token Distribution, Sales and Supply. Use of fund The total supply of TerraGreen token (TGN) is set at 270 million. Only about 50% will be unlocked at first after the ICO. 20% is reserved for rewards for the master nodes and the rest of TGN is locked investing contracts to be released in line with demand growth performance. Conclusion TerraGreen is about to bring a Revolutionary change with the use of blockchain technology in its platform. Its main aim is to remove the wall between consumers, producers, and investors and build a bridge between them. TerraGreen is an ecosystem where renewable energies are tokenized and can be used by the community in exchange for fiat currency or as a payment for energy consumed. But we are not stopping here, we want to use blockchain technology in a way that users can monitor how the energy is produced and what it is used for. TerraGreen will introduce Hydrolyzer to create a direct connection to the customer and a possibility for everyone to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Usage of the Hydrolyzer can be tracked and transformed into green energy token, which is connected to the TerraGreen platform. TerraGreen will be developed in 4 stages. Starting with use cases in stage 1 and 2. TerraGreen is looking to revolutionize the energy generation and distribution system in the long run. But we are beginning with the use cases of real projects to create trust and start the development of the platform. With the applications being deployed on the blockchain, we can transmit, store and analyze energy data in real time. It will feature lightning fast, multilayer protocol, easy to use and unlimited side chains which makes the platform extravagant. The TerraGreen platform coin (TGN) is connected in every token transaction to a small percentage and therefore “running” the system. This connection is done by smart contracts which are implemented into the blockchain technology. Each stage of TerraGreen has its own market and creates a new demand for the coin. Additionally, each stage will consist of multiple projects and markets where TerraGreen will be introduced.

A Reliable Blockchain Platform for Renewable Energy Sector

Quantum Computing Weekly #11 This is a syndicated version of my weekly e-mail round-up of news about Quantum Computing. to subscribe to updates and check out previous issues. Visit the homepage ☁️ Hello from chilly London! This weekend I came back from Mexico, and although the jet-lag is pretty intense, I’m back to work and learning about quantum computing once more. In news we’ve got a few interesting articles about things like the difficulty in finding components for building a quantum computer, as well as non-cryptography related applications, and more. We’ll also be learning a bit about quantum tunneling as well as sharing a resource for finding a job in quantum computing! Looking for a particular area of quantum computing you’d like to see covered in the next issue? and let me know! Ping me Tiny Fact of the week This week we’ll learn a bit about something called quantum tunneling, which may have some massive implications for things like nuclear fusion and more. The quantum tunneling effect is a quantum phenomenon which occurs when particles move through a barrier that, according to the theories of classical physics, should be impossible to move through. The barrier may be a physically impassable medium, such as an insulator or a vacuum, or a region of high potential energy. In classical mechanics, when a particle has insufficient energy, it would not be able to overcome a potential barrier. In the quantum world, however, particles can often behave like waves. On encountering a barrier, a quantum wave will not end abruptly; rather, its amplitude will decrease exponentially. This drop in amplitude corresponds to a drop in the probability of finding a particle further into the barrier. If the barrier is thin enough, then the amplitude may be non-zero on the other side. This would imply that there is a finite probability that some of the particles will tunnel through the barrier. Source As always, Wikipedia has an on this topic with a lot more details and is well worth a look. amazing article Learn What kind of jobs are out there for people in quantum computing? In this article Jay Gambetta lays out about 12 different types of roles, as well as some info on how to get in touch with IBM if you’re interested in a career in the field of quantum computing. Very cool! While traveling around to give talks about quantum computing, I’ve noticed two things — the enthusiasm of our growing community, and the frequency of the following question: “I don’t know much about… The Hitchhiking Cat’s Guide to Getting a Job in Quantum Computing — medium.com News Quantum machines will deliver the next great leap forward in computing, but researchers building them can’t easily get some of the exotic components they need. We’d have more quantum computers if it weren’t so hard to find the damn cables — www.technologyreview.com When it comes to securing data, it is not too early to start anticipating the future threat of quantum computing. You need to plan today for the Quantum future. I talked to IBM — a company that understands both side of this problem. IBM Lattice Cryptography Is Needed Now To Defend Against Quantum Computing Future — www.forbes.com Disregard the alarmist headlines: Quantum computers won’t end privacy online. In fact, their most revolutionary impact may be felt offline. The Real Business Case for Quantum Computing — knowledge.insead.edu Exxon partners with IBM to advance quantum computing — www.thechemicalengineer.com ExxonMobil has become the first energy company to join the IBM Q Network, a worldwide community that aims to advance quantum computing and explore science and business applications. Quantum computers are probably the most misunderstood of nascent technologies, which makes sense, because their very basics rely on the hardest-to-grasp concepts of physics. That’s led to people making some ridiculous claims, like that they give you “god-like powers” and that they’re an “imminent threat.” Why Did NASA, Lockheed Martin, and Others Spend Millions on This Quantum Computer? — gizmodo.com Thanks for reading! Contribute? Written an interesting blog post or found some neat things to share about quantum computing? Spotted a mistake? Ping me on twitter ( ). @jesperht

How to find a job in quantum computing | Quantum Computing Weekly #11

The noise about disruptive tech is deafening; , and . These, and other propositions that truly make it seem like we live in a world that is moving faster than most of us can adapt to. But which of these technologies will go beyond the hype and truly change our lives at scale? Which of these will be a General Purpose (GPT). Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) creating crypto-millionaires at a pace causing even governments to worry brain + machine interfaces your face replacing your fingerprints/passwords Technology What is a General Purpose Technology (GPT)? To assess the question above, I decided to look at these technologies through the lenses of General Purpose Technologies (GPT). . The examples that quickly come to mind are . I’ll also throw in telephony. These technologies fundamentally impacted how we live, expanded our lives (physically and emotionally), built our cities and changed how we interact with the world around us. According to Bresnahan and Trajtenberg, GPTs also have GPTs are those technologies that impact economic growth, and transform both household life and the ways in which firms conduct business steam, electricity (#1 in my opinion), internal combustion, computers and the internet 3 fundamental features or characteristics GPTs are and spread to most sectors pervasive GPTs and should keep lowering the costs of its user improve over time GPTs making it easier to invent and produce new products or processes. spawn innovation There is a discussion about productivity gains as a characteristic of GPTs. This is a divisive topic as, depending on inputs into the measures of productivity ( ), school of economics you subscribe to, and time frames considered, not all GPTs provide productivity gains. But they are still considered GPTs. There is also the recognition that some GPTs increase the productivity gains from the GPTs before them. For example vehicular transportation, a GPT, was improved by electrification. is it a product GPT or a process GPT? For our own purposes, while the 3 broad features or characteristics can be applied to any GPT, we’ll filter further by adding a 4th (and I’ll suggest important filter) feature ? Electricity displaced the technologies of lighting, mechanization and processing that came before it. It is also foundational to many of the GPTs we consider absolutely necessary nowadays (telephony and the Internet are two GPTs that wouldn’t exist without electrification). Are any of the new technologies this foundational? Especially within the next 2–5 years 4. Is the GPT fundamentally disruptive and foundational The most likely GPT, from the analysis above, is Artificial Intelligence. It is already being applied in our shopping recommendations and companies are already using Like, electricity, all the other technologies being hyped right now can only truly achieve their potential with the aid of AI. This is why most of the folk who understand what’s going on (and, honestly, some who do not) are focused on this particular technology. intelligent agents to detect malware, to prevent money laundering and automate claims process at an insurance company in Singapor e. And it makes sense that AI might be the option; we need more , AR and VR will impact us less than the transition , connected devices are still (basically) devices and the trustless promise of blockchain/cryptocurrencies require us to first energy efficiency than renewables from radio to TV trust the underlying system . While the AI hype far surpasses the true capabilities at this point, , AI will change as we know it. Because, if it achieves its potential as a GPT, and as the researchers in the quote below suggest, it’s about to be a bumpy ride… as Kevin Kelly rightly points out in this fantastic article business “ overall the evidence clearly supports the view that technological progress is uneven, that it does entail the episodic arrival of GPTs, and that these GPTs bring on turbulence and lower growth early on and higher growth and prosperity later .” Please share, like, and tweet. You can indicate your interest in ‘Radar’, the Bloomberg-terminal like platform for monitoring private company innovation and strategy. Asha Labs provides innovation strategy consulting to executives in the utility industry. Sign up for the Polymathic Monthly Newsletter — if you’ve read this far, I’m betting you’ll love it. You can buy my book Antifragile Grid on Amazon .

Will AI, Blockchain, AR and/or VR Become A General Purpose Technology?

I love when I work on one demo, hit an issue, discover something else, and get joyfully distracted into learning something completely different. In this case, it was a suggestion to help with an issue I was having with output from a prompt, and while it wasn't a good solution for what I was doing, it an eye-opening look at a really cool feature of - Function Calling. was Generative AI Now, I'm new to GenAI, and new to this particular feature, having been introduced to it a bit less than twenty-four hours ago. I know it's supported by Google AI APIs as well as OpenAI, and a quick search around other offerings seems to imply it's a universal thing. I want to give a quick shout-out to , who helped me wrap my head around this a bit. Any misunderstanding is on me, though, not him. Allen Firstenberg What is Function Calling? Typically, in a GenAI application, you issue a prompt and get a response in text or an image if you're using something like Firefly. Function calling is a bit different. Instead of returning text, the idea is to return the of your prompt mapped to a particular function. intent That probably doesn't make sense, but I think a good way of thinking about it is how Alexa works. Now, I haven't done any Alexa development in a couple of years, but it was cool. When building an Alexa skill, you define the various "intents" that should be supported by it. incredibly Consider a coffee store. When you go in, you probably only want to do one of two things: Ask for a menu (i.e., what kinds of coffee do you have) Make an order When building your Alexa skill, you define those two intents, and define what arguments they may take. The first one, "What's on the menu," would take none, but the second one, "I'd like to order an espresso," would have an argument for the product. You would define a few sample prompts (utterances in Alexa development), and from there, Alexa was smart enough to map random human input. So, for example, I could say: I need a damn coffee, please. I want an espresso, if you don't mind. I'd like to buy a double frap mocha latte with unicorn sprinkles and magic. Alexa would map of these to one intent - making an order. Even better, it would then determine the product: all coffee espresso double frap mocha latte with unicorn sprinkles and magic And finally, here's the cool bit. While Alexa did all the work of figuring this out, it would pass to your code something like this: {
	"intent":"order",
	"product":"coffee"
} This worked well (at least when I last used it) and maps to what function calling does. really kinda Ok, seriously, what is it? Alright, so given the above, for our GenAI application, we can consider this feature to be a way to map your input to a function, with intelligent parsing of the input into various arguments. I'm going to steal an example from the involving movies. In their code sample, they define three functions: Google docs find_movies find_theaters get_showtimes Each of these has arguments. as an example, has arguments for the location, movie, theater, and date. is simpler and just requires a location and movie. get_showtimes find_theaters If I use a prompt like then, the API attempts to map that to a function figure out the arguments. Here is a portion of the result for that call demonstrating this: Which theaters in Mountain View show Barbie movie? and "content": {
	"parts": [
		{
		"functionCall": {
			"name": "find_theaters",
			"args": {
				"movie": "Barbie",
				"location": "Mountain View, CA"
			}
		}
		}
	]
}, The important thing to note here is that the result is Rather, you are expected, much like in Alexa, to take this and implement that logic yourself. The API has handled the parsing and figured out the intent from the prompt, so the hard parts are done. Now it's up to you to actually do the boring logic bit. not the end! Show me a demo! So I played with this a bit, of course, and built a simple demo. First off, note that the does support using this feature yet. However, the REST API was so trivial I'm almost tempted not to ever return to the SDK. Node.js SDK not At a high level, you pass in an object that will contain your prompt and then an array of function_declarations objects that define each function along with its arguments. This is all passed to the endpoint along with your key, and... literally, that's it. I also found that when I messed things up, Google's API did a really good job of describing what I did wrong. Let's look at a function that supports a function (sorry if that's confusing) related to ordering a product: const API_KEY = process.env.GOOGLE_AI_KEY;

async function runGenerate(prompt) {

  let data = {
    contents: {
      role: "user",
      parts: {
        "text": prompt
      }
    },
    tools: {
      function_declarations: [
		{
			"name":"order_product",
			"description":"order or buy a product",
			"parameters": {
				"type":"object",
				"properties":{
					"product": {
						"type":"string",
						"description":"The product to be ordered."
					},
					"quantity":{
						"type":"number",
						"description":"The amount of the product to be ordered."
					}
				},
				"required":["product"]
			}
		}

      ]
    }
  }

  let resp = await fetch(`https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemini-pro:generateContent?key=${API_KEY}`, {
    method:'post',
    headers:{
      'Content-Type':'application/json'
    },
    body:JSON.stringify(data)
  });

  return await resp.json();
} In the section, you can see one function, , with a description and two parameters - product and quantity. I've also specified that only the product is required. tools order_product I pass this entire object and just return the response. While I'm absolutely not sure about my use of functions here, at least in terms of using the REST endpoint, it really is that simple, which is great for testing. Speaking of - I did some quick tests with an array of inputs: const prompts = [
'I want to order a coffee.',
'I want to buy an espresso.',
'I want to get two espressos',
'Whats on the menu?',
'What time is love?',
'May I buy ten cats?',
'I want to order ten cats'
	];

for(let p of prompts) {
	let result = await runGenerate(p);
	//console.log(JSON.stringify(result,null,'\t'));
	console.log(`For prompt: ${p}\nResponse: ${JSON.stringify(result.candidates[0].content,null,'\t')}\n`);
	console.log('------------------------------------------');
} As you can see, I have a couple of 'normal' inputs, along with some off-the-wall ones. I was curious what would happen. Let's take a look. First one: For prompt: I want to order a coffee.
Response: {
        "parts": [
                {
                        "functionCall": {
                                "name": "order_product",
                                "args": {
                                        "product": "coffee"
                                }
                        }
                }
        ],
        "role": "model"
} Note that quantity is not present. It's optional so that's ok, and I'd expect you would just default to 1. I to set a default in my function declaration, but it wasn't supported (or, more likely, I did it wrong). tried Next: For prompt: I want to buy an espresso.
Response: {
        "parts": [
                {
                        "functionCall": {
                                "name": "order_product",
                                "args": {
                                        "quantity": 1,
                                        "product": "espresso"
                                }
                        }
                }
        ],
        "role": "model"
} Notice this time it supply a quantity. did Next: For prompt: I want to get two espressos
Response: {
        "parts": [
                {
                        "functionCall": {
                                "name": "order_product",
                                "args": {
                                        "quantity": 2,
                                        "product": "espresso"
                                }
                        }
                }
        ],
        "role": "model"
} Good job picking up the quantity! Next: For prompt: Whats on the menu?
Response: {
        "parts": [
                {
                        "text": "Sorry, I do not have access to that information."
                }
        ],
        "role": "model"
} So this is a good example of a failure. It return a human-like textual response. I suppose how you handle this depends on the application. A simple thing to do would be to ignore a text response and consider it an error in general, and perhaps ask for a new prompt. did parts Next: For prompt: What time is love?
Response: {
        "parts": [
                {
                        "text": "I cannot fulfill this request because I lack the corresponding tools."
                }
        ],
        "role": "model"
} The KLF is sad you don't know the answer to this, Google. Next: For prompt: May I buy ten cats?
Response: {
        "parts": [
                {
                        "text": "I am sorry but that is beyond my capabilities."
                }
        ],
        "role": "model"
} This one surprised me. I'm not sure why it failed. Maybe if my function declaration specified a list of possible products, it would work better. As I've said - I'm new to this. Next: For prompt: I want to order ten cats
Response: {
        "parts": [
                {
                        "text": "I am sorry, but I cannot process your request. I am not able to order or sell pets such as cats."
                }
        ],
        "role": "model"
} Very similar to the last one. I do find it kind of cool that it returned a different human-ish response, which is cool. Now, in my testing, I thought I'd try a second function related to querying the price of a product: {
	"name":"product_price",
	"description":"return the price of a product",
	"parameters": {
		"type":"object",
		"properties":{
			"product": {
				"type":"string",
				"description":"The product to be queried."
			}
		},
		"required":["product"]
	}
} Unfortunately, this made every previous good response switch to this version, even before I added prompts to ask for a price instead. I think... maybe... I didn't quite differentiate them enough for the API to be able to properly route them, but I'd love to hear from others what they think. In general, it definitely feels more 'fragile' than Alexa, but I'm still absolutely fascinated by this use-case for GenAI. Now that I'm actually supporting comments here, I'd love to know if anyone out there's using this - and if you can - I'd love to see some code. Also published . here

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