MARYS ROOM: A Thought Experiment

Posted on April 25, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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A thought experiment is an imaginary scenario that is meant to elucidate or test an argument or theory. It is often an experiment that would be hard, impossible, or unethical to actually perform. It can also be an abstract hypothetical that is meant to test our intuitions about morality or other fundamental philosophical questions. The German term Gedankenexperiment was utilized by physicist Ernst Mach

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Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. She specializes in the neuro-physiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like ‘red’, ‘blue’, and so on.

MORE: http://www.philosophical-investigations.org/2020/09/marys-room-thought-experiment.html

Question: What will happen when Mary is released from her black and white room or is given a color television monitor? Will she learn anything or not?

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The Medical Executive-Post is a  news and information aggregator and social media professional network for medical and financial service professionals. Feel free to submit education content to the site as well as links, text posts, images, opinions and videos which are then voted up or down by other members. Comments and dialog are especially welcomed. Daily posts are organized by subject. ME-P administrators moderate the activity. Moderation may also conducted by community-specific moderators who are unpaid volunteers.

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TESLA: My Current Thoughts

Posted on April 25, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA

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Tesla market value of $780 billion mostly reflects Elon’s future dreams, not car sales. The reality? Only $100-180 billion tied to the actual vehicle business.

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Current thoughts on Tesla (TSLA)

Tesla has a market capitalization as of this writing of $780 billion. It made around $14 billion of profit in 2023 and $7 billion in 2024. A good chunk of profit comes not from selling cars but from regulatory credits. It sold fewer cars in 2024 than in 2023. Unless we see a significant shift change in battery capacity, speed of charging, and improved quality and availability of charging infrastructure, we have reached peak EV penetration (I wrote about this earlier).

However, today Tesla is not trading based on car sales but on future dreams of self-driving robo-taxis, robots, semis, and whatever else Elon dreams up. The car company may be worth $100–180 billion; the rest is what investors are willing to pay for Elon’s dreams.

Quick thoughts on each dream:

Self-driving: I would not trust my life or my kids’ lives to a car company that only uses cameras. They are passive sensors that have limited range and are easily impacted by bad weather. I’ve used Tesla self-driving software – it is great most of the time, except when it’s not – and then it might kill you or others.

Robo-taxis: They may work in geo-fenced areas, but they pose a huge reputational risk to Tesla. One death and this business is done. That’s what happened to Uber’s self-driving business, and why Google’s Waymo has taken a much more conservative route. It uses radar/lidar and launched the service in geo-fenced areas first.

Semis: They were announced in 2017 and were going to hit the road the next year. They are still not out there. I suspect Elon is waiting for a breakthrough in battery technology.

Robots: Exciting, huge market, but this will be a crowded field.

New competition: There are lots of Chinese EVs invading Europe and the rest of the world. BYD looks like a real competitor.

China looked like a great opportunity for Tesla, but may turn into a liability if the trade war intensifies.

Finally, though at times he seems superhuman, Musk is constrained by the number of hours in the day. As of today he is running Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter (x.com), xAI (the maker of Grok – a ChatGPT competitor), The Boring Company, Neuralink, and oh, yes, DOGE. The EV market is getting more, not less, competitive.

Tesla needs an un-distracted Elon Musk.

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DAILY UPDATE: Merck and the Surging Stock Markets

Posted on April 25, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST – TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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Essays, Opinions and Curated News in Health Economics, Investing, Business, Management and Financial Planning for Physician Entrepreneurs and their Savvy Advisors and Consultants

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SPONSORED BY: Marcinko & Associates, Inc.

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Merck rose 1.40% today after beating earnings expectations. The problem is that the pharma giant expects a $200 million hit to its bottom line due to tariffs. And that doesn’t count the potential additional pharmaceutical levies Trump has indicated he’s planning.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/2h47urt5

🟢 What’s up

  • Alphabet warned some remote employees that they must return to the office three days a week or lose their jobs. Shareholders clearly approve: The stock gained 2.53%.
  • Amazon and Nvidia executives made it clear that contrary to popular belief, demand for AI data centers isn’t slowing down. Amazon rose 3.29%, while Nvidia climbed 3.62%.
  • Newmont gained 4.80% after the gold miner reported strong earnings thanks to gold’s incredible run.
  • ServiceNow soared 15.49% after the enterprise tech company posted a beat-and-raise earnings report.
  • Texas Instruments popped 6.56% thanks to a strong first quarter and healthy fiscal guidance from the domestic semiconductor company.
  • Chipotle eked out a 1.60% gain despite a mixed quarter that saw same-store sales fall for the first time since 2020.

What’s down

  • IBM topped analyst expectations on sales and profits, but the tech stock fell 6.58% thanks to a poor performance from its consulting and its mainframe businesses.
  • Nokia tumbled 8.65% following a big earnings miss last quarter, and warned that tariffs will take a serious toll on its business this quarter.
  • Fiserv plunged 18.52% after the software provider beat expectations for profits but missed on revenue.
  • Procter & Gamble outpaced Wall Street’s forecast for earnings but fell short on revenue and cut its fiscal guidance, pushing shares of the consumer goods giant down 3.74%.
  • Comcast also beat analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines, but sank 3.71% after reporting it lost 199,000 broadband customers last quarter.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/tj8smmes

  • Warren Buffett owns 5% of all Treasury bills—more than the Federal Reserve
  • A list of every company that’s announced it’s moving manufacturing to the US
  • Home sales fell 5.9% in March, their biggest drop since 2022
  • The $TRUMP crypto surged over 50% after President Trump invited the coin’s top 220 holders to a private dinner
  • Durable goods orders, AKA purchases of big-ticket items like autos and aircraft, popped 9.2% as people rushed to buy ahead of tariffs
  • Speaking of, US liquor exports surged 10% to a record $2.4 billion

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