eldarandia

What are your thoughts on the amount of control and access that companies like Google and Microsoft have? Google, for example, has a lot of control over who sees what and when and essentially control large swathes of the internet. Microsoft are in a similar position on the desktop / laptop PC market.

It makes me very uncomfortable.

I looked through your website and some of your tables list countries. I assume this is either country of citizenship, residence or business.

My question is - does this matter? In my opinion, one of the key issues with economic sanctions (here, specifically in the context of Ukraine) touted by the West is that many supposedly "Russian" oligarchs are actually citizens of other countries, in many cases Western ones. Their money is often not in Russia, but in the proverbial Swiss bank. While the flow of money into Russia can be curtailed, these economic sanctions hurt the common citizen more than the oligarchs. I am not aware of a single major campaign of economic sanctions where anything significant was achieved.

My second question is - Switzerland runs a very effective PR campaign. People tend to view Switzerland as a land of cows, chocolate, mountains and watches. The despicable actions of their banks are ignored. They also maintain "neutrality" while allowing free flow of assets to jurisdictions where these assets can be shielded. What can be done and is the EU (for example) interested in doing anything?

any startups out of Aalto university that have caught your eye? I know of Catchbox but honestly think that it's more of a gimmick than a professional level product.

Personally, i haven't heard too much about startups coming out of Aalto. I know that there was a big push encouraging people to launch startups.

Any comments on (Edit) the quality of people you've hired out of Aalto university? Any comments on how the programs there can be improved?

What sort of practical or everyday utility do you foresee for the work done by SETI?

I ask because I have a personal love for the work people like you do but am sometimes at a loss for an answer to the question 'How will this benefit humanity'?

I understand that finding even signs of life elsewhere in the universe is a noble task and is likely to be a monumental discovery when it happens but I just cannot explain to others the everyday utility of this work.

I understand, for example, that the image processing algorithms developed by the Event Horizon Telescope researchers will come in useful one day or that technologies that we cannot yet imagine might be developed as a result of your work but how do you communicate this?