This week's episode will be postponed until next week. 

I'm very sick and weak and dehydrated. I can't think straight and ordinary tasks are way too complicated. I think I have the flu. I spent 12 hrs yesterday with constant diarrhea and six episodes of vomiting. Yesterday morning (Monday) I weighed 190.2 but this morning (Tuesday) I weighed 184.6 (which means I lost 5.6 lbs). I'm holding my fluids now so I should be back to normal by next week. Thank you all for your patience. -- Stephen Euin Cobb

 

Dr. Anders Sandberg (computational neuroscientist, futurist, transhumanist and author) is our featured guest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 10, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 33 minutes] Part two of three with Dr. Sandberg.

Topics: obvious problems with autonomous robots attempting to decide which humans to kill during warfare; the ethics of military and law enforcement use of non-lethal weapons; the ethics of greatly extending human lives; how human memory works and how it might be enhanced; his stand on morphological freedom; and his involvement in the development of computer emulations of the human brain.

Dr. Anders Sandberg is currently postdoctoral research assistant for the Oxford group of the EU ENHANCE Project at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. He is also a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute (Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University). He is cofounder of and writer for the think tank Eudoxa. And between 1996 and 2000 he was Chairman of the Swedish Transhumanist Association.

His other interests include physics, astronomy, biomedicine, psychology, complexity theory, art, science fiction, roleplaying, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, information visualization, intelligence amplification technologies, and the philosophy and politics of human enhancement.

Dr. Anders Sandberg (computational neuroscientist, futurist, transhumanist and author) is our featured guest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 3, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes] Part one of three with Dr. Sandberg.

Topics: benefits we may get with our first neural implants; augmentations we already have and some we may have soon; the IQ enhancing drugs in widespread use on campuses today; the good and bad and political ramifications of the far more powerful IQ enhancing drugs we will see in the future; people (such as the founders of TransAlchemy.com) who feel that any augmention of the human body is terrible and should be prevented; the digital simulation of a human brain using computational neuroscience; the robotic future of automobiles; and Modafinil use by surgeons, athletes, truck drivers and nuclear power plant operators.

Dr. Anders Sandberg is currently postdoctoral research assistant for the Oxford group of the EU ENHANCE Project at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. He is also a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute (Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University). He is cofounder of and writer for the think tank Eudoxa. And between 1996 and 2000 he was Chairman of the Swedish Transhumanist Association.

His other interests include physics, astronomy, biomedicine, psychology, complexity theory, art, science fiction, roleplaying, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, information visualization, intelligence amplification technologies, and the philosophy and politics of human enhancement.

Speakers and attendees from the World Future Convention '09 held in Chicago.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 24, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 29 minutes] These interviews were recorded July 18-19, 2009.

Topics:

A dozen college students from Student Pugwash describe the mission of this international organization, as well as what worries them about the future and what gives them the most hope. These students include: Jessica Holsinger, Nick Lilovich, Autumn Rains, and Alex Webster.

Vicki Stein (program director of Future Problem Solving Program International) describes how FPSPI teaches children a step-by-step method of problem solving which can be used for the real-life problems they will face outside the classroom.

Shashi Parulekar (of Natural State Research) describes how his company is working to make fuel out of waste plastic.

Frederik Pohl (author of Gateway--the classic science fiction novel which won the Nebula, Hugo, Campbell and Locus awards) is today's featured guest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 17, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes] This is the second half of this interview, which was recorded on January 30, 2010.

Topics: How he and Arthur C. Clarke became friends many decades ago; and how in Arthur's declining years Arthur asked Fred to finish a book that he had started but could not complete. Fred's years working as a literary agent--during which he became Isaac Asimov's first agent, and sold Isaac's first novel: A Pebble in the Sky. His work as the editor of various magazines including Astonishing, Galaxy and If--which is when he bought Larry Niven's first few professional stories, and when he hired Judy-Lynn del Rey as his secretary at Galaxy Magazine even though she knew nothing about Science Fiction at the time. (This was long before she worked at Ballantine Books, married Lester del Rey, and became so influential at Ballantine that they put her in charge of an imprint and named it after her.) Miscellaneous topics include: how he came to write for Playboy Magazine; why he wrote under so many pseudonyms; his method of collaborating with other authors; and how he become Encyclopedia Britannica's first official authority on the Roman Emperor Tiberius.

Frederik Pohl is a science fiction writer, and has been a book and magazine editor, as well as a poet, critic, literary agent and teacher. He edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine If, winning the Hugo for If three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.

Frederik Pohl (author of Gateway--the classic science fiction novel which won the Nebula, Hugo, Campbell and Locus awards) is today's featured guest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 10, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes] This is the first half of this interview, which was recorded on January 30, 2010.

Topics: predicting the future using the Delphi Method; his co-founding of The Futurians; his nonfiction books: The Way the Future Was, Our Angry Earth, and Science as a Spectator Sport; the Americanization of the world (which he has witnessed by traveling to more than 50 different nations); his modest contribution to democracy in Moscow; how he was excluded from attending the very first WorldCon; and a few insights about his long-term friends: Donald A. Wollheim (the creator of DAW Books), and Isaac Asimov.

Frederik Pohl is a science fiction writer, and has been a book and magazine editor, as well as a poet, critic, literary agent and teacher. He edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine If, winning the Hugo for If three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.

I asked Fred for this interview for several reasons: I'd read Gateway in 1977 when it first came out  (I was 22 and still impressionable); a few weeks ago, his buddy Gregory Benford suggested that I interview him; and because, just a few months ago, Frederik Pohl celebrated his 90th birthday.

 

Gregory Benford (Nebula Award winning author, physicist and professor) is today's featured guest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 3, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes] This is the second half of the interview recorded on January 16, 2010.

Topics: the Neanderthal Genome Project and the two teams working on bringing back the Woolly Mammoth; his impression of the 3D movie Avatar; why he became an atheist and the growing cultural bias he sees toward those who remain religious; how e-books have the big New York book publishing houses terror-stricken; his approach to electronic rights for his own books; the goals of The Mars Society and of The L5 Society; the life extension product he is involved with (Genescient); his going to school with Vernor Vinge, and how they differ in their expectation of The Singularity; the new book he and Larry Niven are working on; and the short story he wrote that horrified his friend Ray Bradbury.

In popular culture Gregory Benford: is a science fiction writer with over twenty novels to his credit; has won the Nebula Award twice; in 1989 was host and scriptwriter for the television documentary series A Galactic Odyssey; and also served as scientific consultant for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In academia Gregory Benford: has a doctorate in physics; is a professor of physics at the University of California; conducts research in plasma turbulence and in astrophysics; has published well over a hundred scientific papers; and has served as an advisor to the Department of Energy, NASA and the White House Council on Space Policy.

Gregory Benford (Nebula Award winning author, physicist and professor) is today's featured guest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 27, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 37 minutes] This interview was recorded on January 16, 2010.

Topics: A new life extension product he is involved with (Genescient ) which will be available in the summer of 2010; life extension in general and his vision of its possibilities; how global warming might be mitigated using geoengineering methods such as carbon capture; what he learned by being co-founder and co-editor of the SF fanzine Void; the work of his friend Stephen Wolfram (inventor of Mathematica) including the new online calculating engine Wolfram Alpha.

In popular culture Gregory Benford: is a science fiction writer with over twenty novels to his credit; has won the Nebula Award twice; in 1989 was host and scriptwriter for the television documentary series A Galactic Odyssey; and also served as scientific consultant for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In academia Gregory Benford: has a doctorate in physics; is a professor of physics at the University of California; conducts research in plasma turbulence and in astrophysics; has published well over a hundred scientific papers; and has served as an advisor to the Department of Energy, NASA and the White House Council on Space Policy.

J.C. Hutchins (the award-winning novelist of the 7th Son technothriller trilogy) is today's featured guest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 20, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 47 minutes]

Topics: his innovative approaches to marketing his fiction through the Internet such as his viral videos (vlerbs he calls them) as well as free ebook-downloads and free audio book-downloads and, of course, the results he has been seeing. We also talk about innovative methods used by Cory Doctorow; the problematic trends going on in traditional book publishing; and the Amazon Kindle, one of which he owns and enjoys a great deal.

J.C. Hutchins has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Asimov’s Science Fiction, on the BBC and Italian National Radio.

 

Celebrating the new decade with Part Two of the summary of the changes your host expects we will see during the next ten years.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 13, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 31 minutes] This was recorded on January 2, 2010.

Topics:

By the end of this decade a wide variety of nanomaterials will be in almost all consumer products, and nanomaterials will become a mature field of engineering. Molecular manufacturing, however, will probably not be a mature engineering field, though many of the steps need to get us there will have been made.

The US war on terrorism will spread to many progressively tinier places scattered all around the world--places which are poorly governed, or not governed at all.

Atheism will increase, and the geographical locations where it carries a stigma will continue to shrink, but religions will still enjoy widespread popularity.

Cell phones will become increasingly computer-like, and increasingly Internet connected. However, cell phones will be replaced almost completely in the second half of the decade by eyeglass computer cell phones which will have full-color 3-D displays in their lenses which can highlight and label what you are looking at in your surroundings or show you the TV show you missed last night.

The Democratic Party might be foolish enough to split into two parties.

By 2020 there will be more robots than humans in the developed nations. These robots will perform a wide variety of tasks, and a great deal of work, but it will still be a decade or so before they are as smart as people.

A thousand miniature mole-like robots arrayed under the ground in a grid patten, and oriented like a vertical wall, will sweep once through an archaeological dig site and examine every grain of dirt for evidence of some past civilization. On that day archaeology will be changed forever.

By the end of this decade there will be at least a hundred digital video cameras for every human being in the developed world. Their ownership will be split between individuals, corporations and governments; but the balance of power will shift to the individuals because they have a thousand times more eyes than the corporations and a million times more eyes than the governments; as well as because individuals are quick to post online what annoys them so that it can annoy everyone else too. This ocean of cameras will cover the earth with a relentless scrutiny which will change civilization in many ways. For example: Although new crimes will be invented, the traditional crimes we are familiar with today such as smuggling, auto theft and burglary will become more an more impossible to get away with. Terrorists too will eventually fail and fade away under the relentless watch of six billion eyes: it will become increasingly impossible to hide their equipment, their actions, and finally themselves, in a world in which Google Earth can display every square inch of the planet in real time. Even the biggest and most powerful dictators will cringe under the coming scrutiny. Law abiding citizens will find it simultaneously annoying and reassuring.

 

Celebrating the new decade with a summary of the changes your host expects we will see during the next ten years.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 6, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes] This was recorded on January 2, 2010.

Topics: All human knowledge will be available online; the brilliant new movie Avatar (and why my friends Extropia DaSilva and Khannea Suntzu insisted I watch it in 3D on an IMAX); free-roaming surgical robots smaller than insects will allow surgeons to perform delicate operations which are impossible today; cheap solar cells will be everywhere but cheap battery technology may lag behind and limit their potential (temporarily); the long bitter fight against TV moving online has begun and may get ugly; Amazon's Kindle and the inevitable fall of the giant chain book stores; why World of Warcraft will avoid becoming photorealistic; why old municipal waste dumps will become the new gold mines; Fareed Zakaria's recent guest who advocated a geoengineering solution to global warming, thus placing the regulation of the earth's temperature under direct human control; why luddism may become popular and maybe even trendy; professional genealogists as a group will be shamed, discredited and ridiculed as charlatans when personal DNA testing becomes widespread and shows that their work is riddled with errors; the Chinese government will have to make a choice soon, and if they get it wrong many Chinese will suffer and die. Other topics include: human life expectancy, artificial intelligence, the Internet, cell phones, voice recognition, The Singularity, cleaning robots, and why movie theaters will remain popular even though we'll get a better seat, sound and image in our home theaters.

 

Five engineers and scientists experienced in large scale electrical energy production are today's featured guests.

Topics: how California's energy follies have damaged Oregon and Washington State; why making fuel out of food may be the dumbest idea the US has ever pursued; why the US has not been building nuclear power plants even though France now uses them to generate almost 80% of its electricity, so much that France frequently exports electricity to its neighboring nations; potential problems with 'cap and trade'; and the astounding--and yet mandated--federal energy planning model which insists that oil will deflate in price by almost 2% per year for the next 30 years.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 30, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 11, 2009 at LibertyCon in Chattanooga TN.

The five panel members included:
Robert G. Kennedy (author and engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory);
Tom Trumpinski (physical chemist, formerly of Fermi Lab, and science writer);
Dan Hoyt (programmer in the field of rocket science, and science fiction writer);
Kenneth I. Roy (author and engineer with the US Department of Energy);
Tim Bolgeo (electrical engineer, retired from The Tennessee Vally Authority. Also founder and chairman of LibertyCon in Chattanooga, where he is affectionately known as Uncle Timmy).

Special thanks go to the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company for the use of their mics, sound board, and sound man; as well as to Derek Spraker (a LibertyCon organizer) who arranged for ARTC's assistance.

Five engineers and scientists experienced in large scale electrical energy production are today's featured guests.

Topics: The many struggles, controversies, incidents and allegations, as well as the political and financial problems facing America's power plants and electrical grid. Also: rolling blackouts, why California has more energy problems than any other state, environmentalism's impact, work-a-rounds and fail-safes, the selling of byproducts, and a wide variety of behind the scene facts most of the public has never heard. This discussion forum was entitled The Green Energy Panel, but in truth covered many related energy topics.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 23, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 46 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 11, 2009 at LibertyCon in Chattanooga TN.

The five panel members included:
Robert G. Kennedy (author and engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory);
Tom Trumpinski (physical chemist, formerly of Fermi Lab, and science writer);
Daniel M. Hoyt (programmer in the field of rocket science, and a science fiction writer);
Kenneth I. Roy (author and engineer with the US Department of Energy);
Tim Bolgeo (electrical engineer retired from The Tennessee Valley Authority. He is also the founder and chairman of LibertyCon in Chattanooga, where he is affectionately known as Uncle Timmy).

Special thanks go to the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company for the use of their mics, sound board, and sound man; as well as to Derek Spraker (a LibertyCon organizer and friend of the host) who arranged for ARTC's assistance.

Fourth Anniversary Episode; featuring a year in review, behind the scene tidbits, and miscellaneous commentary by the host.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 16, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 37 minutes] (For the third time in four years, the host is also the guest.)

News Item: Stephen Euin Cobb was given a tiny cameo in Stuart Gibbon's first professional short story sale. Inspired by discussions about Second Life and Digital People which occurred on The Future And You during 2007 and 2008, the story is titled Proof of Life and was in the Oct/Nov issue of Cosmos Magazine. Cosmos is an award winning magazine sold on newsstands in all the English-speaking nations. Its offices are in Australia, but it is marketed internationally.

 

Andrew Hessel (biologist, author and co-founder of the Pink Army Cooperative) is today's featured guest.

Topics: how new drugs have been developed during the last few decades; why these processes cost so much; and how it may be possible to use open source techniques to develop new drugs faster, cheaper, better, and targeted for patients individually. This is the focus of the Pink Army Cooperative.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 9, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 23 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

Andrew Hessel, is a consulting biologist and author interested in synthetic biology and open source biology. He advocates the use of open source for writing DNA code. In software development, open source has led to robust code, highly skilled developer communities, and non-monopolistic pricing — in other words, good things for end users. If the same results can be achieved in genome engineering, open source could potentially create a more diversified and sustainable biotechnology industry.

He earned his MSc. in bacterial genomics from the University of Calgary in 1995. He joined the Amgen Institute, a 120 person research facility located in Toronto, Canada, where he facilitated dozens of advanced research projects involving microarrays, genetic sequence analysis, and data mining. Today, the Institute, no longer affiliated with Amgen, is known as the Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research. In 2002, he cofounded Miikana Therapeutics and helped create the virtual business model they successfully used. Miikana was sold to Entremed in December, 2005 for $21 million plus milestones.

Since 2003, he has worked to raise awareness about the potential benefits of synthetic biology and open source biology. His efforts have been supported by the University of Oklahoma, the University of Toronto, MIT, and most recently, the Alberta Ingenuity Fund. His ongoing goal is to help create an open source biotechnology company that specializes in individually personalized cancer therapeutics.

Aaron Franz and Carlos A. Mejia (a documentary film-making team) are today's featured guests.

Aaron and Carlos are anti-transhumanism activists who have joined forces to create a documentary explaining the potential negative effects of transhumanism on the future of civilization in general, and on our individual lives in particular.

Topics: Artificial Intelligence and The Singularity, Human Augmentation (especially the augmentation of connecting the Internet directly to the human mind), and their worry that we may have already gone too far. They also describe their documentary and their production company: TransAlchemy.com.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 2, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 29 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 3, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

 

Doctor Gregory L. Matloff, C Bangs and Keith Comito are today's featured guests.

Doctor Gregory L. Matloff is an astronomer, author and professor; C Bangs is a professional artist and author; and Keith Comito is a mathematician, programmer and founder of OmegaSoft  which produces games and apps for the iPhone.

Topics: The future in general but also, extending human longevity, artificial intelligence, the Singularity, augmenting the human body and mind, the Fermi paradox, iPhone apps (such as Orbus which mimics an AI), and Michelle Phan who has become a celebrity on YouTube for her makeup tutorials.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the November 25, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 26 minutes] (These  interviews were recorded on October 3 and 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

Michelle Phan (BTW) has also posted helpful and clever tutorial videos on things that have nothing to do with makeup, such as how to use a black tee shirt to become a ninja in only 30 seconds, and how to stretch shoes that are too tight by placing Ziploc bags in them that are half-filled with water and putting them in the freezer overnight. Brilliant stuff.

 

Peter Nygard (the internationally famous fashion designer) is today's featured guest.

Topics: how technology has transformed the fashion industry; and the pivotal role he played in the beginning and final negotiation of NAFTA. Also, as I interviewed him, my assistant Peggy Gregory noticed that his leather jacket bore the seal of the president of the United States of America. Asking about this, he explained that President Bush Senior--while visiting him on his island--took it off and gave it to him in return for one of his designer T-Shirts.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the November 18, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 26 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

Peter Nygard is a fashion designer who's clothing, accessories, and home fashions can be found in Sears, Dillard's and countless other well known stores around the world. Enjoying a long and prosperous career, he owns a private island in the Bahamas called Nygard Key where he built a resort style mansion with a staff of 20, and owns a 133 feet long 727 as his private jet. He is friend to presidents, prime ministers, and celebrities of every media--TV, movies, music and print.

This episode is dedicated with special thanks to Greta Blackburn (an actress who appeared in many TV shows in the 80s and 90s such as Three’s Company and Dynasty, and several movies such as 48 Hrs and Yellowbeard, as well as the original version of the mini-series V). While I was busy interviewing futurists, Greta introduced my assistant Peggy to several noteworthy people we would have otherwise missed. One was Noel Patton of T.A. Sciences and another was today's guest, her friend, Peter Nygard. Greta was so modest that (though I kept thinking she looked familiar) I had no idea of her fame until I got home and looked her up online. If I had realized I would have asked her for an interview too.

 

Ari Kiirikki, Vice President of Knome Inc. (the world's leading provider of personal DNA sequencing) is today's featured guest.

Topics: how you can have your entire DNA sequenced; the rate at which this expensive procedure is growing in popularity; how soon it will drop below $1000 (and may even reach $100); the new diagnostic powers general practitioners will gain using personalized DNA sequencing; cases in which the accidental discovery of extreme human genotypes have produced new drug therapies; why this technology will make the discovery of these extreme human genotypes far more common by making them far less random; speculation on ways widespread personal DNA sequencing might change online dating services; and how Knome Inc. is working to make personal DNA sequencing increasingly affordable and yet keep this data in the hands of the person whose DNA it is, and not in any database anywhere.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the November 11, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 20 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

 

Noel Patton (founder of T.A. Sciences) is today's featured guest.

Topic: A product available today which may extend human lives well beyond traditional limits. Specifically what this product is, how it functions within living cells, and some of the scientific and medical research verifying its effectiveness.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the November 4, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 23 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

The product is called TA-65™ and is an enzyme (a single molecule) that activates telomerase. Discovered in 2001 by the California bio-tech company Geron, in 2002 it was licensed by T.A. Sciences. Telemerase reverses the normal loss of telemeres which occurs each time cells divide throughout a human life and which sets a limit (called the Hayflick limit) on the number of times human body cells can divide, and consequently how long a human can live.

 

Eliezer Yudkowsky (co-founder and research fellow of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence) is today's featured guest.

Topics: the Singularity and the creation of Friendly AI; his estimate of the probability of success in making a Friendly AI; and why achieving AI using evolutionary software might be monumentally dangerous. He also talks about human rationality, such as: the percentage of humans today who can be considered rational; his own efforts to increase that number; how the listener can seek the path to greater rationality in his or her own thinking; the benefits of greater rationality; and the amount of success that can be expected in this pursuit.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 28, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 30 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

Eliezer Yudkowsky is an artificial intelligence researcher concerned with the Singularity, and an advocate of Friendly Artificial Intelligence. He is the author of The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence publications Creating Friendly AI (2001) and Levels of Organization in General Intelligence (2002). His most recent academic contributions include two chapters in Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom's edited volume Global Catastrophic Risks.

Aside from research, he is also notable for his explanations of technical subjects in non-academic language, particularly on rationality, such as his article An Intuitive Explanation of Bayesian Reasoning. Also, along with Robin Hanson, he was one of the principal contributors to the blog Overcoming Bias sponsored by the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. In early 2009, he helped to found LessWrong.com, a community blog devoted to refining the art of human rationality.

 

Michael Vassar and Michael Anissimov are today's featured guests. (Both are interviewed in their capacity as organizers of the Singularity Summit 2009 held earlier this month in New York City.)

Topics: the Singularity and artificial intelligence in general, and this year's Singularity Summit conference in particular. Also: the limits of human reasoning, public resistance to the Singularity, and trends within the transhumanist community.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 21, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 27 minutes]

Michael Vassar is President of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence and is responsible for the organization of the Singularity Summit. He has held positions with the Peace Corps and with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He writes and speaks on topics relating to the safe development of disruptive technologies. His papers include the Lifeboat Foundation analysis of the risks of advanced molecular manufacturing (which he co-authored with Robert Freitas) and Corporate Cornucopia, which he authored for the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology Task Force. He holds an M.B.A. from Drexel University and a B.S. in biochemistry from Penn State.

Michael Anissimov writes and speaks on futurist issues, especially the relationships between accelerating change, nanotechnology, existential risk, transhumanism and the Singularity. His blog Accelerating Future has had over 4 million visits. He co-founded the non-profit Immortality Institute, the first organization focused on the abolition of nonconsensual death. He has worked or volunteered for, the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, The Methuselah Foundation, The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, and the Lifeboat Foundation. He has given talks to audiences at technology and philosophy conferences in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and at Yale University. A leading voice on the technological Singularity, he was quoted multiple times in Ray Kurzweil's 2005 book The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. He was profiled in the May 2007 issue of Psychology Today.

Michael Anissimov was the featured guest in The Future And You episode for the week of March 5, 2008. That episode (like all past episodes) is still available for your listening pleasure.

 

Gregory Benford and Aubrey de Grey (who both spoke at the Singularity Summit held earlier this month in New York City) are interviewed, as well as two attendees of this singular event which is so intently focused on the future.

Topics: the Singularity and artificial intelligence in general, and this year's Singularity Summit conference in particular. (The goal of this episode, in addition to being informative, is to provide a little of the convention's feel and mood--and if possible--it's energy.) Other related topics include life extension and mind uploading.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 14, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 25 minutes]

Doctor Gregory Benford is a Nebula award winning science fiction author. He has a doctorate in astrophysics, and is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California. 

Doctor Aubrey de Grey is a medical doctor known for his work in promoting human life extension. He is an author and theoretician in the field of gerontology, and the Chief Science Officer of the Methuselah Foundation. He has been interviewed by 60 Minutes, the BBC, the New York Times, Fortune Magazine, the Washington Post, TED, Popular Science--even by Stephen Colbert for his comedy show The Colbert Report.

News Items include my activities at the Singularity Summit, such as people I met, talked with, ate with, and had ice cream with. The short version is that I had a lot of fun and met a lot of cool and exciting people, the long version contains considerably more detail.

 

Nathan P. Butler (a professional educator with eight years of teaching experience) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Why teachers are encouraged to give kids about five hours of homework everyday. Ways in which kids are different today thanks to the technologies they've grown up with, and how those same technologies are changing the teaching methods used in the classroom. Ways in which atheism is encouraged in children by public schools since teaching it openly is not allowed. The balancing act of just how much religion must be avoided when teaching human history.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 7, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes]

Nathan P. Butler holds a 'Masters in Education with a Specialization in Integrating Technology in the Classroom.' He is also a groundbreaking podcaster, having been a podcaster years before podcasting had a name or a standardized means of distribution. He is also a mover and shaker in Star Wars Fandom through his work in with ChronoRadio and StarWarsFanworks, and for having written an exhaustive thousand-page-long chronology of the Star Wars universe which is titled 'Star Wars Timeline Gold.'

 

Nathan P. Butler (a professional educator with eight years of teaching experience) is today's featured guest.

Topics: trends in teaching in public schools; how one problem student can prevent an entire class from learning; whether or not smarter kids are being ignored to help slower kids; as well as trends in teacher's unions, merit pay, voucher systems and No Child Left Behind.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 30, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 43 minutes]

Nathan P. Butler holds a 'Masters in Education with a Specialization in Integrating Technology in the Classroom.' He is also a groundbreaking podcaster, having been a podcaster years before podcasting had a name or a standardized means of distribution. He is also a mover and shaker in Star Wars Fandom through his work in with ChronoRadio and StarWarsFanworks, and for having written an exhaustive thousand-page-long chronology of the Star Wars universe which is titled 'Star Wars Timeline Gold.'

 

Three Biotech Researchers (two geneticists and one agronomist) are today's featured guests.

Topics: problems involved in engineering a virus to kill a specific race or sex of human beings; genetics involved in regrowing human limbs for amputees; how we've made corn fields increase their yield ten-fold since the 1940s; exactly why US Stimulus Package money is so slow at get into research; why the Malthusian theory, in which exponential population growth produces mass starvation, has lost its validity; why some of our crops have become clones without a natural genetic diversity; how some crops have become dependant on us for survival; and how the Monsanto corporation has grown to dominate American agriculture.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 23, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 44 minutes] (This discussion panel was recorded in front of a live audience on July 11, 2009 at LiberyCon in Chattanooga Tennessee.)

Dr. Diane Mucci, formerly with the National Institute of Health (NIH), is currently a full time professor of biotechnology, and has a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, and Microbiology. Cathy Smith is an insect molecular geneticist with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). And Gary Shelton is an agronomist with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

 

Three Biotech Researchers (two geneticists and one agronomist) are today's featured guests.

Dr. Diane Mucci, formerly with the National Institute of Health (NIH), is currently a full time professor of biotechnology and has a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, and Microbiology. Cathy Smith is an insect molecular geneticist with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). And Gary Shelton is an agronomist with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Topics: the future of our food supply; genetically modified crops; the good and bad trends in pest control; genetic and other methods used to increase crop production per acre and the trade offs involved in each; why organic farming methods cannot be scaled up to industrial levels sufficient to feed the world; ongoing research in the genetic control of insects and specifically how genetic methods are used to control insect pests; why insects have no blood; safety measures used in genetics labs; why a gene gun resembles a shot gun; transgenic plants; the future of neutracuticals; and how the human genome project is being expanded to include other species useful to our survival.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 16, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 45 minutes] (This discussion panel was recorded in front of a live audience on July 11, 2009 at LiberyCon in Chattanooga Tennessee.)

BTW: An ethanol re-education class is mentioned repeatedly--with a great deal of sarcasm. This does not refer to Alcoholics Anonymous but to the push that was going on within the US government to promote the idea of using ethanol made from corn to replace or supplement gasoline in automobiles. This is the notorious project that forced the price of corn around the world to double, producing an unexpected amount of hunger among people who rely on corn-based foods, such as tortillas, as their prime sustenance. Public sentiment has since shifted away from this idea.

 

Stephanie Osborn (author and former NASA payload flight controller) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Space Shuttle flights and the International Space Station; her work in astronaut training, and what it is that a payload flight controller does; Space Camp--the actual camp (where she herself taught) and how the real thing differs from the movie of the same name; her friend, the astronaut Kalpana Chawla; the technical side of what happened to cause seven astronauts to die in the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster; and a little about her novels (such as Burnout) which are based on her experience in the space program.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 9, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 48 minutes] (This interview was recorded on July 11, 2009 at LiberyCon in Chattanooga Tennessee.)

Stephanie Osborn is a former payload flight controller, with over twenty years experience in civilian and military space programs. She has worked on numerous Space Shuttle flights and the International Space Station. As part of her work, she trained astronauts, and one of those astronauts was Kalpana Chawla (known to her friends by her initials: K.C.). Kalpana Chawla was one of the seven astronauts who died in 2003 when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during reentry from earth orbit. Today, Stephanie is retired from space work. She tutors students in math and science from elementary school through college and writes science fiction mysteries based on her knowledge, experience and travels.

 

Dr. Ben Bova (author of more than 115 books about science and science fiction) is today's featured guest.

Topics: his work advising Woody Allen for the movie Sleeper; anecdotes about his friends Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, and Gene Roddenberry; his writing an episode of Land of the Lost; his work with George Lucas; and the time he was on Good Morning America with Jim Henson, Kermit the frog and (first baseman for the Dodgers) Steve Garvey.

He also describes Joseph Stalin's insistence on building the world's first big rockets (big enough to carry the early nuclear weapons to the other side of the world); how this prompted John F. Kennedy to proclaim the famous Missile Gap; and lead to General Bernard Schriever's involvement in space, and the growing renown of Wernher von Braun. He also talks about high-powered gas dynamic lasers as defencive weapons against incoming nuclear missiles; how solar power satellites can solve humanity's energy needs; his own expectations of robots in war and in peace; the polarization of American politics; the future of space business, tourism and colonization; and the 1973 TV show The Starlost.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 2, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 48 minutes] This is the second half of the interview with Dr. Bova recorded on July 12, 2009.

Ben Bova is an award-winning author of more than 115 books of fiction and nonfiction. He has been involved in science and technology since the birth if the space age, and has worked with film makers and television producers such as Woody Allen, George Lucas, and Gene Roddenberry. He is President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was editor of Analog Science Fiction magazine for seven years.  After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni Magazine. He has been the science analyst on CBS Morning News, and has appeared frequently on Good Morning America and The Today Show.

 

Dr. Ben Bova (author of more than 115 books about science and science fiction) is today's featured guest.

Topics: extreme human longevity, which Dr. Bova expects and endorses; why lasers are the ultimate weapon of defense against incoming missiles, and why the U.S. won't be defended by them until after the Obama Administration is out of office.

He also describes his participation in the Vanguard Rocket program just before and just after the Russians shocked the United States out of complacency by placing humanity's first satellite into earth orbit; his work popularizing science and science fiction while at Omni and Analog Magazines, as well as in his Grand Tour series of novels about human civilization spreading out from earth and colonizing our solar system; and some of the now-famous authors he discovered in the slush pile while they were yet unpublished, such as Orson Scott Card and Spider Robinson.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 26, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 40 minutes] (This interview was recorded on July 12, 2009 at LiberyCon in Chattanooga Tennessee where Dr. Bova was the convention's Literary Guest of Honor.)

Ben Bova is an award-winning author of more than 115 books of fiction and nonfiction. He has been involved in science and technology since the birth if the space age, and has worked with film makers and television producers such as Woody Allen, George Lucas, and Gene Roddenberry. He is President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was editor of Analog Science Fiction magazine for seven years.  After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni Magazine. He has been the science analyst on CBS Morning News, and has appeared frequently on Good Morning America and the Today show.