As a service (●aaS) via the public cloud

 

The information technology (IT) services are categorised into various levels nowadays. At this time, the business models providing customers and clients with the services via the online connection such as the internet rather than using services only within the on-premises environment. Most notably, there are three categories of services, the software as a service (SaaS), the platform as a service (PaaS), and the infrastructure as a service (IaaS).

Nowadays, many IT service providers offer the subscription service available online rather than the offline purchasing. The notable advantages are agility, availability, and scalability of the resource preparation as well as reliance on the providers for the content and security update and the physical space saving for the physical stuff. The shared access offered by the public cloud is now popular than ever.

The internet connection is not only the online connection option. There is a service called the direct connect connecting users' computer and the server network of the provider located in a remote data centre. The internet connection requires to secure the connection security preventing various incidents such as data breach and information fraud as well as the available IP address allocated to this connection. Then, the direct connect service to the public cloud system is often preferred in order to keep the stable access with an efficient financial cost per use (the internet connection tends to be more expensive for a regular high volume information transaction). For example, there is a movement for various financial institutes to shift their crypto asset management from the internet connection to the direct connect access to the specialised data centre. 

The most familiar service may be the SaaS because it is convenient for users to start using it. The software is already prepared by the providers so that they can simply use the ready-made application and data by just accessing it. Many companies adopt the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) outsourced as subscribing to this service via online instead of purchasing cartridge, CD, or the licence cord offering the software product. The disadvantage is its inflexibility of customisation and modification of applications and data adapted to the users' own requirements and environments.

The PaaS offers a more flexible service for customising and modifying applications and data via the platform composed of the operating system (OS) e.g., Microsoft (MS) Windows, middleware, and runtime is ready. When MS introduced its public cloud service MS Azure, many people thought its compatibility with the commonly distributed OS, the MS Windows, would be high. By contrast, the operation system and its server network architecture may require more flexibility enough to customise their own platform. Then, the IaaS introduced in the next paragraph can be the option.

The IaaS has become popular for the IT engineers to install since Amazon introduced its public cloud service called Amazon Web Service (AWS). The notable benefit is reducing the workloads for maintenance and security update as well as saving space and labour for the physical infrastructure composed of servers, databases, and their network in their on-premises. It is even beneficial to combine the already established on-premises environment and the public cloud services as a hybrid. Another notable useful point is Autoscaling elastically adjusting the volume use by means of its fluctuant demand, which is beneficial not only for the access and service maintenance management but also the financial accounting including the cost calculation and the tax payment. Because AWS was the first pioneer having popularised the public service, this seems to be the main business core of Amazon nowadays. 

In conclusion, considering these characteristics, it is predicted that more businesses will shift their IT basis to this "as a service" due to their convenience and resource scalability. In one of the Bank of England press conferences in 2021, the adoption of the public cloud services by many major private banks was hotly debated. Regardless of its controversy over the national compliance issues, it seems to be the unstoppable inevitable phenomenon across the border in 2020s like the globalisation movement of socio-economy seen in 2000s.

Autoscaling

 * Without Autoscaling: The fixed cost approach

 * With Autoscaling: The variable cost approach

Autoscaling is one of the remarkable advantages of using the public cloud because of its elasticity of the volume usage. This factor is also beneficial by means of the financial accounting.  However, Autoscaling is not that perfect as much as the salespersons from the public cloud providers advertise.  This short essay picks up the typical benefits and challenges of installing the public cloud especially because of its Autoscaling.

Autoscaling is a notable advantage of the public cloud which is usually emphasised in the introductory guideline of the public cloud advertisement. First of all, it allows its users to elastically adjust their quantity usage at each time period, instead of fixing the quality usage, depending on the fluctuant quantity demanded at each time period. This is useful to avoid both the dead-weight of the volume usage while the low access traffic and the volume shortage while the high access traffic.

Focusing on the accounting aspect, it can covert its usage cost to the variable operational cost instead of the capital or fixed-cost = liability. In many cases, it is often advantageous because it is likely to avoid paying the high tax levied onto the capital expenditure. By contrast, the cost covered for the public cloud is often accounted as the variable operational cost which is actually useful to reduce the total tax payment. Regardless of the total cost amount, in many administrative accounting cases, it provides individuals and their firms with the tax payment advantages.

At the same time, Autoscaling does not perfectly work as the textbooks and the introductory guideline of the public cloud explains. In reality, there is a limit of calling for extra instances at once because there is a certain maximum number of the server instances within a certain time period e.g., being able to call 5 instances per minute. There is a physical barrier of scaling the instances depending on each situation.

Furthermore, there is a case that the load balancer misjudges the health check of each connected server instance and the access control. This load balancer can accidentally call unwanted instances by falsely detecting as broken, deleted, or over-capacity or some errors of the monitoring tools and the metric/log information. In addition, there can also be a human error of typing the programmes of directing the traffic control or the security/monitoring setup. This may incur a considerable financial disadvantage of excess instances called by Autoscaling. 

All in all, the Autoscaling mechanism is still an attractive characteristic of using the public cloud to optimise the operational availability as well as the financial efficiency. Nevertheless, it must take an account of the dysfunctions of Autoscaling such as the latency of calling the instances and the extra possible costs caused by both machinery and human errors. On the top of what the salespersons and the textbooks indicate, the users had better refer to the actual experiences of its real application.

Let's be sceptical about Corporate Capitalism!

 

The current world socio-economic situation can be expressed by the quote of Friedrich Nietzsche "God is dead." as the invisible hand of God explained by Adam Smith no longer corrects the distribution flow of labour and capital in the spontaneous order of the laissez-faire market. The gravestone of its death is created out of the current gigantic economies of scale for the majority of existing industries. Moreover, the courage of individual economic agents is undermined in front of the staunch fortress fortified with allows and spikes of high skill-set requirements and the massive wall of the barriers to the market entrant imposed by bureaucracy and regulations protecting the corporate tycoons dominating their strong hold. 

The current form of the market economy is oligopolistic where a few numbers of elite oligarchies secure their dominance. This is because that they can take an advantage of their huge economies of scale basing their factors of production which enables them to drastically expand their quantity and brand name of their products superior to those smaller rivals. Although their offering goods and services with their high quality and fast speed are beneficial for the majority individuals to enjoy, the market entry for any new entrant to compete with these already established corporations has become significantly more discouraged than the past. In another word, the world socio-economy basing these individuals' life is then more dependent on these corporate oligarchies staying in the market for a long term. 

The social mobility of individuals nowadays is more discouraged than a few decades ago because there is a huge gap between those who are fortunate enough to obtain the skill-sets required by the market and the others not fortunate enough. Each individual's own competence, effort, and motivation are no longer enough to outperform in the current market competition because it requires the significantly higher financial and time costs to secure their competitive advantage than the past. It is not only the matter of material well-beings but also the accessible information available in their living community determine their fortune of acquiring their initiative. Therefore, it requires the public management to offer a certain degree of the equality in outcome to accomplish the equality in opportunity. 

The good old days of the laissez-faire free market capitalism are gone. Instead, the more static socioeconomic political form of the corporate capitalism has come. Rather than the free-minded courageous individual economic agents, the already established aristocrats called corporate shareholders and government bureaucrats secure their dominance. Majority individuals now belong to one big institute of either corporation or government. Even small/medium sized business owners are working under the subcontract with either a bigger corporation or government. The profit share of these corporations is heavily distributed to major shareholders and corporate executives instead of rewarding majority individual workforce members propping up the daily business activities. Therefore, the priority on rewording the merit of individual workforces tends to be undermined under the current socio-economic structure.

It sounds like being a big government advocate by claiming for more positive public interventions. However, its attempt is to avoid the excess centralisation of the capital flows monopolised by corporatist oligarchies and the unfair heavy regulations imposed by government bureaucrats protecting their interest. Without this intervention, the government will become even bigger under the influence of these corporate oligarchies as their political influence is overwhelming the others with relatively less advantages. This should be the intervention to decentralise the whole socio-economic structure to encourage more healthy and fair competitions which the laissez-faire capitalism of the good old days used to promote. 

What the big government advocates such as the orthodox Marxists should be criticised is their excess centralisation of the means of production. Even though they have an originally good will of deserving the majority, it often fails to deserve the majority because this centralised political system put higher priority on deserving those elite bureaucrats at first. This failure of the centralised means of production takes place under the current corporatist capitalism due to its excessively centralised flow of the capital. 

As John Maynard Keynes affirmed, the reform of optimising the balance of private and public sector with the positive intervention to the market with a right harmony is the key to enable the free as well as the fair market economy to survive. Yet, the Keynesian policy also contains the risk of failing into the paternalism by the central government conducting the intervention. Then, it will be necessary to spread the policy decision makings out to much smaller scale such as local authorities and cooperatives. 

The power weight of the public corporations over the private corporation is way more excess than the past. The dominance of the investors/shareholders of these public corporations induces the asymmetric distribution of their profit share which undermines the contribution by the majority individual workforces. The initiative attracting these investors is necessary whilst the distribution weight of the profit share provision is overweighted onto them nowadays. In order to appreciate the contribution by these majority individuals providing the actual workforces, their reward should be derived from not only the labour costs but also some pies from the profit share.

It should also take reviving small and medium sized enterprises into consideration. The oligopoly of the major private banks perpetuates the public corporations' dominance over the private corporations of small and medium sized businesses. This is another reason to shift the economic and political power to the local authority and cooperative which are able to monitor the business performance of their local enterprises as they are located close to each other. Instead of merely relying on the major private banks, rending and legal support from the local authority and cooperative should be more available. The initiative of expanding the decentralised public sector is to encourage more private businesses of not only the big public corporations but also the multiple numbers of the private corporations. 

All in all, it is the time to be sceptical about the big government of the market monopoly! Majority individuals need to capture the power by empowering the decentralised public managements to counter the centralised public body by the puppet government of these corporatist aristocrats. The grass-root political lobbying must take place to capture the socio-economic freedom of majority individuals!!

Manifesto Spiritual Libertarian - the Libertarian for the coming age of Ying 陰

 

The previously posted article describes how Libertarianism regards highly of the free will of individuals without being restrained by the pre-determined fate and sounds very spiritualist despite its emphasis on the strong secular moral and social policies. By combining with the astrological analysis and the Taoist teaching of 陰陽 (Ying & Yang), Libertarianism especially by means of its spiritualist element seems to provide human individuals with the antidote agains the declining materialist prosperity represented as the Yang element in the coming age of Ying. 

A retrospective astrological analysis in this blog forecasts that, when Pluto starts crossing the ascendant of Aquarius, the age of revolution as well as stagnation will come. As the world economic activities will be more decentralised than the current globalist order, the macroeconomic business cycle will be more stagnant meanwhile the further technological advancement encouraging the microeconomic development will be expected. This means that the world socio-economy will induce individuals to be more individualistic to look after themselves while providing the intellectually enlightened individuals with some significant advantage over the others. 

The theory of Gaia, which is well-known among spiritualists, also inters that the world elements are shifting toward relatively more Ying (the shadow), implying spirituality and feminity, as the reaction against the world whose Yang (the light) elements, implying materialistic and masculinity, have been too intense. The number of wars and excess industrial activities polluting environments may decline while the social atmosphere will turn to be more anomic and melancholic. Then, the world is shifting from expansionist to isolationist (inner focusing) so that human individuals' life purpose will be hardly instructed externally so that they will need to think of their own life plans themselves more than ever. 

As the external surroundings of individuals will no longer enable them to materially expand their living standard as much as it used to, it is the time for them to expand their inner spiritual universe backed up by increasing their intellectual potential. The technological advancement offers more opportunities for individuals to access the abundant knowledge. However, this opportunity can only be maximised by those who are spiritually enlightened enough to be interested in growing their intellect by proactively accessing the knowledge base. 

The Libertarian metaphysical perspective may provide individuals with some useful hints to survive and thrive in the coming age of Ying. Each unique universe exists per each autonomous individual so that the number of the existing parallel worlds is unlimited. As autonomous free independent individual can challenge against the fate to change their destiny and influence the world structure with the power of their own mind with their free will. This metaphysical thought enables them to realise they are endowed with the power of their own free will which is strong enough to design their own universe. Thus, it must encourage individuals to be enlightened to be intellectually and spiritually proactive to survive and thrive in the coming age of Ying.

Revival of Bitcoin and the other crypto markets in 2025

 

Recently, the value of all the crypto currencies has been substantially plunging as the NASDAQ stock exchange value, correlated to the crypto market, declines. Someone has started claiming this is the beginning of the twilight years of the crypto market.  However, there are still various positive predictions inferring the reincarnation of the crypto market within a few years. 

The notable example of the positive attitudes toward the crypto currency is El Salvador having adopted Bitcoin functioning as the legal currency officially circulating in this country. In such one of the LDCs (Least Developed Countries), the infrastructure for accessing the banking services is considerably lacking so that the citizens there suffer from the significantly high financial and physical costs. Furthermore, their dependency on money transaction by people working as immigrant workers from these LDCs in the developed countries such as the USA is very high. At the same time, the transaction across the border incurs substantially high costs including the foreign exchange fee and the banking service charge for these people. The crypto currencies such as Bitcoin have a notable advantage of reducing these costs as explained in the following chapter.

This advantage of introducing the crypto currency is similar to that of introducing a mobile/smart phone in the LDCs. Because of the lack of the infrastructure such as accessible bank branch offices, telephone lines, and public transportations, the benefit of the wireless transaction via the internet is huge. The IT (Information Technology) assisted services do not need these traditional physical infrastructures requiring a huge public work project for their installation. In addition, there are less market entrant barriers for the IT assisted service providers than the developed countries with the market monopoly/oligopoly by the already established providers of these traditional infrastructure. Therefore, these LDCs gain more net benefits of the public welfare as well as the fast speed of its installation. 

As various analyses of both modern economics and astrology have predicted, the wealth gap among countries will shrink due to the technological development. These characteristics, such as equality and innovations, are represented by the wind element in terms of the Western and Indian astrology. The coming age of wind which has already started from 2021 when both Jupiter and Saturn crossed the ascendant of Aquarius. Its transformational speed is going to be furthermore accelerated from 2023 when Pluto starts crossing the ascendant of Aquarius for two decades. 

Moreover, the characteristics of the wind elements will be exaggerated from 2025 when Uranus, whose own sign is Aquarius, starts crossing the ascendant of Gemini (Another wind sign) and forming the triangle aspect with Pluto crossing the ascendant of Aquarius. 2025 is also the year when Neptune shifts from crossing the ascendant of Pisces to the Aries counterpart so that Neptune is going to start simultaneously forming the sextile aspect with both Uranus and Pluto. This means that all these three trans-Saturnian planets form the aspect together in the masculine signs. 

Regarding the crypto currencies whose characteristics, such as innovation, electricity, borderless-ness, and spontaneity, can be represented by Uranus. In 2025, Uranus is going to shift from crossing the ascendant of Taurus, Uranus's detrimental sign, to crossing the Gemini counterpart stimulating Uranus's own strength far more than Taurus. This will be the remarkable signal that the crypto currencies will be appreciated furthermore than this current time period that Uranus is still crossing the ascendant of Taurus while it is still forming the square aspect (The hard aspect) with Saturn, representing such as society, established structure, and tradition, crossing the ascendant of Aquarius, Saturn's own sign stimulating Saturn's strength. This connotes how severe the position of the innovative products based on the spontaneous order without without a centralised organisation such as the crypto currencies. Therefore, the ongoing value depreciation of the currencies at the moment seems to be astrologically inevitable but temporary. 

Focusing on Neptune in 2025, it might infer a possible big scale natural disaster occurring sometime close then. When a trans-Saturnian planet shifts to start crossing the ascendant of Aries, a major natural disaster often tends to strike. In particular, as it is Neptune, it might be something oceanic whilst neither exact timing nor exact scale is predictable. In 2025, Neptune forming the sextile aspect with both Uranus and Pluto crossing the ascendant of the wind signs implies that this natural disaster will trigger to convince people to recognise the importance of something innovative and spontaneous such as the crypto currencies.

This astrological prediction might explain that the advantage of the crypto currencies will be more recognised especially after such a catastrophic event caused by a major natural disaster. When physical infrastructures are damaged, the money transaction via the crypto currencies may be able to help to save this suffering areas and people there. The reason is the same as the example seen in the LDCs where necessary infrastructure for the traditional banking system is scarce.

All in all, the current crypto market downturn must be temporary even it may take one year or two to recover from it.  Many people are often afraid of and sceptical about something innovative and difficult to explain with a clear visible picture which they are not familiar with in their daily life. They are just over-reacting this temporary plunge despite the long term potential. Hence, it is nonsense to panic to preach about the doom's day of the crypto currencies and their market. 

Libertarian, the metaphysical radical

 

Libertarianism is well known political philosophy promoting the high degree of freedom in both the economic scale and the social scale of the Political Compass. In another word, Libertarian is known to be the economic right wing and the social left wing. While Libertarian reveals a remarkably unique characteristic in terms of politics, it also takes a notable position in terms of the philosophical spectrum. Libertarian perspective of the subject of philosophy called metaphysics is in an extreme side of its spectrum.

Metaphysics focuses on how and why the world is constructed and structured as well as how human individuals' actions and minds take place, are influenced by, and affect the others and the world. The spectrum of the metaphysical perspectives is spread between the determinism and its opposition. 

The extreme side of the determinism regards that individuals' mind and their action derived from it are purely dependent on the outside influences. Therefore, there is only one world so that there is no such a thing as a parallel world while the fate determines how the world and individuals living there. In such a view, the free will of individuals is irrelevant to exist because their mind and actions derived from it are simply determined by means of the complex flow of the world and its fate. 

Most of the philosophical perspectives accept there is some degree of freedom from the determined factors, which allows to change the predetermined outcomes to a certain extend within restriction imposed by fates and inevitability. Despite many inevitable factors determining their minds and actions limiting individuals' free will over their life and surrounding environment, there are still non-determined factors available to change with their will. 

Even politically radical theories stand on somewhere between these two sides of the metaphysical perspective. The notable materialist political philosophy Marxism describes that individuals' minds and actions are predetermined by means of the historical inevitability even though it highlights the emerging will of the proletariat class individuals. Owing to this theory, individuals' minds and actions are not quite derived from individuals' free will. These individuals will of changing their living condition is derived from their material needs and wants, which have been suppressed through the history, rather than the proactive free will. 

On the other hand, Libertarianism defies this materialist view because it regards highly of the free will of autonomous individuals which stimulates individuals' minds and actions instead of their frustrated material needs and wants.  It also explains that their free will is detached from the influence of either their material conditions or the externally derived factors. By means of its theory (regardless of its feasibility in real), the will of all individuals is free and independent from their material as well as externally influences. Therefore, each individual has her/his own influencing power over their life, their surrounding environment, and their destiny.

Libertarians also challenges another materialist theory called Capitalism although they are often categorised into the identical political spectrum. The material Capitalism affirms that their self-proclaimed objective factors such as the market force derive individuals even though they are politically free. Under Capitalist philosophy, individuals are stimulated by the material profitability in the market force. 

By contrast, Libertarian claims for a freedom from such a materialist motive even if it may incur the loss for gaining something more than their instant materialist gain which they pursue for their own unique purpose. Libertarians cling to a freedom to live independently from not only the political cohesion but also from the market force if it does not deserve their will. 

Moreover, Libertarianism is radically spiritualistic despite its strong social and moral political principle. What Libertarians call the free will is nothing more than a spirit, the non-physical element forming individuals' characteristics, not highly dependent on their physical conditions or any outside materialistic influences. In an individual's mind is completely independent from the materialistic influence, there must be some non-physical element driving this individual. This is often called spirit in general.

As similar to religious/spiritual thinkers, Libertarians believe in and count on the power of  spirit which they call the free will, which may eventually enable them to alter the shape of their personal traits as well as their world environment.  However, there is a notable difference between Libertarianism and the majority religion/spiritualism. Libertarianism avoids agitating the mass individuals with a superstitious belief because it leaves a room for each individual to think of their own belief within their own mind. Furthermore, the distinctive spiritual thought of Libertarianism is that each individual spirit lives in each detached own spiritual universe so that it is totally different from a conformist type of spiritualism which many religions are based on. 

Libertarian word view describes that each parallel world universe exists per each autonomous individual's will so that the infinite number of the parallel worlds as the products of these free wills thus exists. Libertarian perspective insists on the extreme side opposed to the determinism. It explains that the world is the product of the complex interactions of actions and minds derived from the free wills of individuals.  In another word, the unlimited number of the parallel world exist due to the  complex entanglements of the multiple interactions of the free wills. 

All in all, considering the Libertarian perspective, Libertarian distinctively rejects any theory describing individuals will is reactive to the deterministic forces. In reality, majority of Libertarians tend to compromisingly admit that there are still various obstacles preventing individuals' will from fully controlling themselves and their surroundings such as their naturally limited capability and compatibility as well as unpredictable spontaneously occurring events. 

Nevertheless, they still keep the radical metaphysical view, fundamentally regarding highly of the power of each individual free will, as their fundamental principle of their philosophical thought.   Their fundamentalist perspective is radically opposed to the metaphysically determinism so that Libertarianism certainly stands on the edge of the metaphysical perspective spectrum. 

Hence, Libertarians are perhaps the most metaphysically radical thinkers among all the philosophers when it comes to metaphysics.

 

Crypto currencies based on the Block-chain technology e.g., BItcoin and the P2P networking are like Stirnerism in economy and finance!

 

The crypto-currencies are recognised as a double-edged blade for economy; it will stimulate economy with its innovative force whereas it also disturbs economy by challenging the already established stable system.  A famous astrologist has warned that these crypto-currencies will face a huge catastrophic shock in their market. 

It might be called an anarchist revolution in the world economic and financial systems. In particular, Stirnerism can be explained as the blockchain P2P network like Bitcoin. 

 

Frankly speaking, Stirnerist socio-political structure can be compared to the network of the blockchain like the one used in the cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.  This network system does not have any central server monitoring the entire system as a control tower.  

Instead, each individual computer calculates and verifies the interactions and actions among the community utilising this network system.  This is called the peer to peer (P2P) network where their application architecture is distributed among these individual computers.  These individual computers participate in their tasks and workloads as the peers.  The privilege and the equipment are equally distributed among these peers, and there is no authorities overriding their rules of activities. 

Like this P2P network, Stirnerian socioeconomic model requires the high competency level of all individuals participating in its socioeconomics. Like the P2P computer network system, all the participants must have a reasonably high specification level to cooperatively sustain the entire network structure. Each individual must be knowledgeable about the fair judgement and aware of their self-responsibility of contributing to their public goods and services (I.e., the free ride must be prevented with the best effort).  

 

The P2P network system of both the blockchain and Stirnerism face the identical characteristics of their challenges. This P2P system still need to tackle issues of managing of data serving and access authentication.  Establishing an centralised system is efficient to store and serve the collectively used data, services, and public goods because maintenance can be concentrated on the limited places.  By contrast, the P2P network requires all agents to share the same responsibility of maintaining, managing, and updating their quality of what required to prop up this whole entire system.  

 

In the past when the information technology is not developed as much as nowadays, there has no civilisation having succeeded in establishing such an individualist mutualist anarchist society like Stirnerism even for a short time period.  This is simply because it was unimaginable.  By contrast, Stirnerism has become imaginable to establish to the certain extend by comparing the socio-politics with the hard scientific technology since the introduction of the blockchain and its P2P network. 

There is an expectation that engineers and scientists develop the current P2P network system to transform it to the more efficient and manageable alternative. This innovation expected in the future will be beneficial to continue this currently ongoing revolution of decentralising the structure of both the information technologies and political science.