Topics: trends in England and Europe compared to the USA especially involving cell phones, Internet connections, and other technologies. Robert also talks about: the lack of national unity in the UK; bigotry and prejudice in Europe against non-European immigrants and against Eastern Europeans; how globalization is changing Europe (for good and bad); why the impact of China and India are large but completely different; and his observations of trends in North Africa based on the time he spend living in a suburb of Tunis, Tunisia.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 1, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 37 minutes]

Robert Hooker has a Bachelors in Cognitive Sciences  from the University of Chicago and a Masters in Sociology from the Open University in Britain. For most of the 1990s Robert worked first as a researcher in Artificial Intelligence at Northwestern University Institute for Learning Sciences (ILS) and then as Web Developer and Entrepreneur. While at  the Institute for Learning Sciences he worked with Virtual Reality, web based video delivery,  Internet learning and content indexing. Current he works for Fujitsu Services in the United Kingdom. He has lived in London for the last 10 years.

Topics: the latest in 3D displays for TV and for video games; self-fueling robots; robots in warfare now and in the near future; robots as smart weapons; robotic fighter jets; educational robots; robotic dance competitions; fighting methods used by TV battle robots; diversity of robotic body styles; and getting started in robotics without much money or without having to build your robot.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 24, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 32 minutes]

Robot Magazine covers every aspect of the rapidly exploding field of robots. It has 'how-to' for robot hobbyists, 'what's going on' for robot enthusiasts and 'what's innovative' for tech and engineering professionals. Strong on education, it offers parents, teachers and kids guidance on using and playing with the latest consumer, toy and hobby robots that serve as educational tools and recreational fun. Every issue is full of hundreds of full color photos of robotic fun, gee whiz and hands on experience.

Topics: the astounding progress being made in all areas of robotics such as: how vacuum cleaning robots are getting improved house-mapping abilities; what's happening in artificial intelligence for robots; trends in Japanese robots; the brilliant new way in which robots are being used in physical therapy for post-operative patients; and which needs to advance more to put robots to work in our homes as cooks, house cleaners, gardeners and laundry workers -- artificial intelligence or the basic mechanics of robotic bodies.

Tom Atwood also talks about his conversation with Sebastian Thrun of Stanford University, winner of the Second DARPA Grand Challenge, about how Sabastian's team programmed their car to win the robotic auto race. (The DARPA Grand Challenge is a series of very long -- some might say 'grueling' -- road races sponsored by DARPA in which all the participants are computer controlled motor vehicles. Not toy cars; but full-sized cars and trucks with no human driver.  DARPA is the Defence Advanced Research Project Agency: the organization that created the Internet.)

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 17, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 33 minutes]

Robot Magazine covers every aspect of the rapidly exploding field of robots. It has 'how-to' for robot hobbyists, 'what's going on' for robot enthusiasts and 'what's innovative' for tech and engineering professionals. Strong on education, it offers parents, teachers and kids guidance on using and playing with the latest consumer, toy and hobby robots that serve as educational tools and recreational fun. Every issue is full of hundreds of full color photos of robotic fun, gee whiz and hands on experience.

Topics: Robots are in a world-wide boom time. Hundreds of thousands of hobbyists are building robots. Competitive robot events draw Rock-Star-sized crowds and are doubling in attendance each year. High schools and colleges are using the building and programing of robots (from scratch and from kits) to get students enthused about science, math, logic, engineering, programming and many other crucial subjects. Open source collaboration is driving innovation in robotic software as well as hardware. Tom emphasizes how these learning benefits are also beginning to work their way into grade schools, and how all this learning forms a foundation for the future of the students and of our world.

Tom Atwood also describes an experiment in which rat brain tissue (grown in a culture dish) was wired to a robot and taught to successfully navigate an obstacle course.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 10, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes]

Robot Magazine covers every aspect of the rapidly exploding field of robots. It has 'how-to' for robot hobbyists, 'what's going on' for robot enthusiasts and 'what's innovative' for tech and engineering professionals. Strong on education, it offers parents, teachers and kids guidance on using and playing with the latest consumer, toy and hobby robots that serve as educational tools and recreational fun. Every issue is full of hundreds of full color photos of robotic fun, gee whiz and hands on experience.

Topics: trends in medicine and the possibility that cancer may someday become completely curable. Privacy vs life-logging, twitter and the incessant text-messaging some people do about the trivial minutia of their daily lives. James suggests that 'When Orwell wrote in 1984 about people being watched by their TVs, what he didn't understand about the human condition is that a lot of people wanted the TV to watch them.' The compulsion of Googling one's own name, as well as  time travel paradoxes and human longevity.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 3, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 47 minutes]

James Maxey is the author of the Dragon Age fantasy series which includes the novels Bitterwood, Dragonforge, and Dragonseed. Set a thousand years in the future, after the fall of our modern civilization, in a world dominated by the intelligent dragons we created through genetic engineering. Humans are reduced to slaves, and the remnants of long forgotten nanotechnology make the world a wondrous place of magic.

Topics: the current search for other earths and what effect their discovery might have on people: the demise of circus freaks as professional performers; and (despite James' long-term atheism) his fascination with Angels, both in their original source material and in the popular culture.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 27, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 39 minutes]

James Maxey is the author of the Dragon Age fantasy series which includes the novels Bitterwood, Dragonforge, and Dragonseed. Set a thousand years in the future, after the fall of our modern civilization, in a world dominated by the intelligent dragons we created through genetic engineering. Humans are reduced to slaves, and the remnants of long forgotten nanotechnology make the world a wondrous place of magic.

Also in this episode we begin a 12 part serialization of a complete story from Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. The story is the Hugo Award nominated Article of Faith, written by Mike Resnick and read by Walt Boyes.

Topics: the various ways our modern civilization might come to an end (all the usual suspects along with  total economic collapse); disruptive technologies such as the large scale use of cheap solar cells which could lead to the abandonment of the electric power grid; how the differences between men and women may affect their acceptance of the robotic husbands and wives which will become available within a decade or two; life-sized anatomically-correct sex dolls of today and the 2007 movie, Lars and the Real Girl, which co-stars one such doll.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 20, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes]

James Maxey is the author of the Dragon Age fantasy series which includes the novels Bitterwood, Dragonforge and Dragonseed. Set a thousand years in the future -- after the fall of today's civilization, in a world dominated by the intelligent dragons we created through genetic engineering -- humans are reduced to pets and slaves, and the remnants of long forgotten nanotechnology make the world a place of wondrous magic.

Topics: trends in college in general, as well as in classes, dorm life, students and teachers. Also how personal computers and cell phones improve or degrade the learning experience. As well as YouTube, Facebook, Charlie Chaplin and wedding photography.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 13, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 38 minutes]

Aliese is studying for a degree in photography and fine arts, and has completed one year at a school with about 1,000 students.

Topics: Why I am an atheist and why I am not an anti-theist; my insistance that there is a rapidly growing need for a new and different kind of tolerance, greater than any this world has ever seen before; how this universe will end, and why I think we will someday engineer other universes; why past predictions of the future have always been so wrong; the probability that we will invent faster-than-light travel; and my estimation of the probability of The Singularity.

Also described are: why I started doing this show, why I chose the future as my topic, and how doing this show for three years has completely re-written my understanding of the future.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 6, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes]

Stephen Euin Cobb is an author, futurist and the host of the award-winning podcast The Future and You. He is also a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine, the online magazine from Baen Books. His articles have also appeared in Space and Time Magazine, H+ Magazine and >[gRiM]<>[cOuTuRe]< magazine. Within Second Life (as Boc Cryotank) he is a photographer and photojournalist. He has invented several games, the most popular being Death Stacks for which there is an annual tournament held each summer in Charlotte NC. He is also an artist, essayist, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation.

News: The Kepler mission to discover earth-like planets will radio its results to earth only once every thirty days. (NASA has not announced when this first report will be sent.  Possibly late May to mid June 2009) During Kepler's first 30 days of watching 100,000 stars, it will discover planets which orbit their star in ten days or less; as well as about half of the planets which orbit their star in fifteen days or less. In its second report Kepler will identify planets which orbit in less than 20 days, and about half of those that orbit in more than 20 days but less than 30 days. Every monthly report will increase, by a specific number of days, the orbital period of those planets discovered. But since the statistical probability of any planet crossing the face of its star diminishes with the size of its orbit, each of Kepler's monthly reports will contain fewer and fewer new planets. The first month will have, by far, the most.  Progessive reports will include planets in wider and wider orbits until the orbits of earthlike planets are (hopefully) revealed later in the three and a half year mission.

Topics: Smart missiles smaller than insects; military tanks becoming robots; personal headup displays for soldiers; experiments with brain implants for soldiers; war going open-source; Chinese experiments with warfare in low earth orbit; the never-ending utility of bayonets; the bizarre fact that there is no such thing as a Chinese journalist; and the possibility that we will develop faster than light travel. He also describes his worry that a future teenager huddled in his mother's basement may write a biological virus which will wipe out all of humanity. 

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 22, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes]

Translated into seven languages, John Ringo's novels range from science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers. Always outspoken, never dull and sometimes controversial, he has been an op-ed writer for the New York Post and a guest commentator on TV for Fox News. An avid essayist, his website contains many essays he has written on a wide variety of topics. By the time he graduated high school, John Ringo had lived in, or visited, 23 countries and attended 14 schools. A former paratrooper in the army airborne, he has enjoyed cave diving, rock climbing, repelling, hunting, and spear fishing.

News: Your host has been granted official press credentials for World Future 2009 in Chicago (July 17 to 19, 2009). This is the annual convention of the World Futurist Society (of which I'm a member). Hundreds of professional futurists are expected to attend and dozens are scheduled to speak. Press credentials will allow me to gather live interviews and collect business cards for phone interviews which can be done later.

Topics: Specific examples of the tens of thousands of robots in use in war right now and how they are transforming the methods and nature of fighting for the individual soldiers on the ground; how this transformation will change the wars of the future; and the longstanding psychology in the US military that is driving this robotic transformation. Also, anecdotes about the years he went to grade school in Iran; the summer camp he went to in Switzerland; and some of his other travels around the world as a child and teenager.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 15, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 36 minutes]

Translated into seven languages, John Ringo's novels range from science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers. Always outspoken and sometimes controversial, he has been an op-ed writer for the New York Post and a guest commentator on TV for Fox News. An avid essayist, his website contains many essays he has written on a wide variety of topics. By the time he graduated high school, John Ringo had lived in, or visited, 23 countries and attended 14 schools. A former paratrooper in the army airborne, he has enjoyed cave diving, rock climbing, repelling, hunting and spear fishing.

Topics: Anecdotes about his appearances on TV for Fox News in the years following The 9/11 Attacks; how it is that he is the only person to use the term Euro-Wiener on national TV; the terrible affect the economic crisis has had on the publishing industry; rumors that three of his novels are in the works to become major motion pictures, and one is in talks to become a first-person-shooter style game; and the changes he would make to the US Income Tax code.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 8, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 36 minutes]

Translated into seven languages, John Ringo's novels range from science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers. Always outspoken and sometimes controversial, he has been an op-ed writer for the New York Post and a guest commentator on TV for Fox News. An avid essayist, his website contains many essays he has written on a wide variety of topics. By the time he graduated high school, John Ringo had lived in, or visited, 23 countries and attended 14 schools. A former paratrooper in the army airborne, he has enjoyed cave diving, rock climbing, repelling, hunting, and spear fishing.

News: The Kepler Mission to find earth-like planets orbiting other stars, was launched on March 6, 2009 and will begin its search a few weeks from now in early May.  Estimates of the number of earth-like planets it will discover during it's 3-1/2 year mission vary from zero to over 400. What's less talked about is the number of NOT earth-like planets it will discover. My own personal guess is that it will discover NOT earth-like planets at a rate of better than one per hour--maybe a lot better. If you would, email your estimates to me (steve [ at ] thefutureandyou . com)

Topics: online publishing verses paper publishing; the rise in small presses; the number of new readers is increasing; fiction sales are increasing; trends in podcasting and narrow-casting; the economy and personal debt; Connor his new baby; and the closing of Realms of Fantasy Magazine.

BTW: A few days after this interview was recorded, the situation at Realms of Fantasy Magazine turned around. Hearing the magazine was going to close, Tir Na Nog Press made an offer to buy it. The offer was accepted, so the magazine will be reopened this summer.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 1, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes]

Shaun Farrell has has interviewed more than 100 speculative fiction authors and actors; most of these interviews can be heard on his podcast: Adventures in Scifi Publishing, which (like this show) has won a Parsec Award.

Based in Southern California, Shaun owns Singularity Audio, which provides podcast consultation, creates book promos, edits audio and develops new podcasts. He is also a contributing writer for Gateworld podcast; producer and content manager for The New England Fights! podcast; and an actor in the feature film Death Dress, where he plays a serial killer. Magazines he has written for include Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld and Raygun Revival.

Topics: Shaun's interview with Ray Bradbury, and others, such as the actors from Stargate Atlantis: Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett and Jewel Staite (who also played the ship's mechanic on the TV show Firefly and in the movie Serenity). Trends in publishing: both print and electronic (such as involving the Amazon Kindle). Trends in acting, and why your look matters far more to a talent agent than your ability to act.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 25, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 46 minutes]

Shaun Farrell has interviewed more than 100 speculative fiction authors and actors; most of these interviews can be heard on his podcast: Adventures in Scifi Publishing, which (like this show) has won a Parsec Award.

Based in Southern California, Shaun owns Singularity Audio, which provides podcast consultation, creates book promos, edits audio, and develops new podcasts. He is also a contributing writer for Gateworld podcast; producer and content manager for The New England Fights! podcast; and an actor in the feature film Death Dress, where he plays a serial killer. Magazines Shaun has written for include Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld and Raygun Revival.

News in this episode: H+ Magazine has redesigned its website. In addition to articles written specifically for the magazine, it now offers late breaking news and videos.

Topics include: his opinion of the Amazon Kindle; his improving opinion of the future of electronic publishing; the collapse of the Borders Books Store chain, which occurred before the economic down turn; and why he urged Jim Baen into ask Eric Flint to be the first Editor-in-Chief of what has become the widely popular online magazine called Jim Baen's Universe.

Working with Newt Gingrich is also topic. Specifically how it came about that David Drake and Jim Baen helped Newt Gingrich write a World War Two thriller-type novel named 1945; why the political climate during the book's release prompted the media to universally pan the book; and how this storm of negative reviews nearly put Baen Books out of business.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 18, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 38 minutes]

David Drake is an author of science fiction and fantasy, and is widely considered one of the premier authors of the military science fiction sub-genre. He has written over 60 books some of which are in his Hammer's Slammers series of military science fiction, his Lord of the Isles series of fantasy novels, and his newer Republic of Cinnabar Navy series.

David graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Iowa, majoring in history and Latin. His studies at Duke University School of Law were interrupted for two years by the U.S. Army, where he served as an enlisted interrogator with the 11th Armored Cavalry in Vietnam and Cambodia. After finishing law school, he spent eight years as Assistant Town Attorney of Chapel Hill, NC. In 1980 he resigned and drove a city bus part-time for a year while doing more writing. Since 1981 he's been a full time writer. Some of his novels are available for free download in the Baen Free Library.

For relaxation David translates ancient books from the Roman Empire from their original Latin into English, many of which can be read on his website.

News in this episode: CNN's sad and somewhat pathetic confusion over which way the Earth rotates and the direction satellites orbit the Earth, as depicted in the animated graphic for their March 13, 2009 report on the orbiting space junk which temporarily endangered the International Space Station. A confusion which may result from their layoff, three months earlier, of their entire Science and Technology reporting team, including their Senior Science Reporter, Miles O'Brian.

Topics include: How blatantly morality and ethics must be depicted in fiction, and which self-appointed thought-police will jump on you if you do not toe-the-line. The unknown risks of the experiment now known as the Baen Free Library, and Jim Baen's other efforts to innovate within the publishing industry. David Drake also talks about: Rudyard Kipling; Project Gutenberg; Samuel Johnson, and his biographer James Boswell; as well as the power and value of online Search.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 11, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 41 minutes]

David Drake is an author of science fiction and fantasy, and is widely considered one of the premier authors of the military science fiction sub-genre. He has written over 60 books some of which are in his Hammer's Slammers series of military science fiction, his Lord of the Isles series of fantasy novels, and his newer Republic of Cinnabar Navy series.

David graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Iowa, majoring in history and Latin. His studies at Duke University School of Law were interrupted for two years by the U.S. Army, where he served as an enlisted interrogator with the 11th Armored Cavalry in Vietnam and Cambodia. After finishing law school, he spent eight years as Assistant Town Attorney of Chapel Hill, NC. In 1980 he resigned and drove a city bus part-time for a year while doing more writing. Since 1981 he's been a full time writer. Some of his novels are available for free download in the Baen Free Library.

For relaxation David Drake translates ancient books from the Roman Empire from their original Latin into English, many of which can be read on his website.

News in this episode: The Spring 2009 issue of H+ Magazine is available. H+ magazine is dedicated to an intelligent and informed exploration of the future, especially as relates to transhumanism and the singularity. This issue contains more than two dozen articles about the future, one entitled Singularity 101 which is an interview with Vernor Vinge (the mathematician who first suggested the idea of the Singularity in 1993, and who has been a guest on the April 8, 2006 and May 1, 2006 episodes of The Future And You).

Topics include: The state and health of Transhumanism worldwide; his worry that some people are watering down transhumanism to gain acceptance from mainstream culture or to make it more Politically Correct; his expectations about the future of human longevity, and the political forces needed to bring it to fruition. And he describes some of the powerful political and religious forces that are trying to prevent transhumanist goals, such as Life Extension.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 4, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 39 minutes]

Stefano Vaj is author of the book Biopolitics of the New Paradigm which covers the biotechnological areas of transhumanism. He is also: a public speaker fluent in several languages; on the Board of Directors of the Italian Transhumanist Association; an Italian lawyer with offices in Milan, Italy and Brussels, Belgium; an Architect of the Order of Cosmic Engineers; and an active contributor to the Hplus2, Extropy and World Transhumanist Association discussion boards. (Though fluent in several languages, his own blog and his books are written in Italian and not yet available in English.)

Topics include: Why transhumanism is taken seriously by the Italian public and the Italian press (as opposed to the American public and American press which often view transhumanism as a delusional fantasy). Why Europeans do not share the American view that Intellectuals are outside the loop in their ivory towers and are therefore unimportant. The influence of the Catholic Church in public and political life in Italy, and as the main opponent to transhumanism. How politicians in Europe use fear of transhumanist ideas as a tool to get more votes. What Stefano does as a transhumanism activist, and what listeners can do in their own lives and in their own ways if they wish to help this cause too. He also talks about the new Singularity University, and the new transhumanist periodical, H+ Magazine.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 25, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 44 minutes]

Stefano Vaj is author of the book Biopolitics of the New Paradigm which covers the biotechnological areas of transhumanism. He is also: a public speaker fluent in several languages; on the Board of Directors of the Italian Transhumanist Association; an Italian lawyer with offices in Milan, Italy and Brussels, Belgium; an Architect of the Order of Cosmic Engineers; and an active contributor to the Hplus2, Extropy and World Transhumanist Association discussion boards. (Though fluent in several languages, his own blog and his books are written in Italian and not yet available in English.)

News in this episode: [1] Google's new Latitude lets you see the location of your friends on Google maps using the GPS in their phone, and lets you immediately contact them with IM, SMS or a phone call. [2] Google has made one million public domain books freely available for reading on iPhones.

Topics include: Kim Stanley Robinson describes his reaction to being chosen as Guest of Honor for the 2010 World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne Australia. He also describes the benefits and challenges of the January 17, 2009 personal appearance he did in Second Life.

He also explains his conviction that we will never develop artificial intelligence, or the singularity, or mind-uploading. But he enthusiastically agrees with the desirability of increasing human longevity as much as possible, even if that means centuries, and even if it throws a monkey wrench into population control. He equates increasing longevity with decreasing human suffering. However, he doubts that an indefinate lifespan will come soon enough for anyone alive today.

Earth's current population, he says, may be the result of an Oil Bubble, and may be unsustainable after we run out of oil. He also explains why some people may be disappointed concerning the relationship they have with their robots in the future, since they will watch their machine for some glimmer of personality but will not find it.

He also talks about his involvement with the Clarion Writer's Workshop. About his teaching there this summer; about his teaching there once before in 1988; about being a student there in 1975; about the teaching methods used at Clarion; and about how, when it was forced to relocate, he helped Clarion find a new home at his alma mater (UCSD).

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 18, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 80 minutes]

Kim Stanley Robinson's writings have won the Hugo, the Nebula, the Asimov, the John W. Campbell, the Locus, and the World Fantasy Awards. He has a Bachelors degree in literature, a Masters in English, and a PhD. also in English. He considers science fiction to be one of the most powerful of all literary forms, which explains why his doctoral thesis was titled The Novels of Philip K. Dick.

Probably best known for his Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars); his other novels include: Fifty Degrees Below, Forty Signs of Rain, The Years of Rice and Salt, and most recently, Sixty Days and Counting (which describes the first year of a new and innovative environmentalist president, and may be becoming historical fiction). His newest novel is called Galileo's Dream but will not be released in the US until January of 2010.

News in this episode: As many as 50 planets like the Earth are expected to be discovered during the next three years. They will be discovered by the Kepler orbiting telescope, which will begin it's search a few days after NASA launches it on March 5, 2009. As a side result it will also locate many thousands, or even tens of thousands, of planets not like the earth.

Topics today include: Why political debates are not debates, why the U.S. electoral college was devised, and why the 1787 Congress was more successful by being a closed-door session. Comments on the Cray-1 supercomputer; the remarkable fact that Moore's Law has held so long and still seems to be going strong; and what he tried to accomplish in his long-running column in the iconic computer magazine Byte. His observation that today's computer hardware has become so powerful that our software has not kept up; and his feeling that, 'The next big step will be to make programming obsolete.' The possibility that electronic piracy is what's killing the publishing industry, and his ideas on the possibilities of an 'Enhanced Electronic Book.' The advantages of space-based solar energy compared to ground-based; and a few comments on Escape from Hell: his and Larry Niven's sequel to Inferno.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 11, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 48 minutes]

Doctor Jerry Pournelle has written more than thirty novels and at least thirteen books of non-fiction. More than a dozen of his novels, he coauthored with his friend Larry Niven, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Inferno; and their new sequel to Inferno: Escape From Hell.

Novels, however, have been only a portion of Jerry Pournelle's work. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he acquired Master's degrees in both experimental statistics and systems engineering, and Doctorates in both psychology and political science. He co-wrote a military textbook called The Strategy of Technology which was required reading at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He helped to write a portion of Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address concerning a missile defense system which the media at the time enjoyed making fun of and calling Star Wars, since they believed the technology needed to shoot down incoming missiles with our own missiles was impossible. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. He was campaign manager for Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr., as well as for Mayor Sam Yorty. And he was a columnist for Byte Magazine beginning in 1982.

News Item: A new university dedicated specifically to teaching about the technological singularity was announced on February 3, 2009. Singularity University will be housed at NASA's Ames base in California and will begin classes this summer. It is the brainchild of Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis, and has the backing of NASA and Google.

Topics today include: How he contributed to President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address in 1980, and became part of Reagan's group of advisers concerning the Strategic Defence Initiative (which Ted Kennedy, by the way, dubbed Star Wars because he did not believe it would ever be possible to shoot down an incoming missile with one of our own missiles). And how this lead directly to the Patriot Missile and other missiles which routinely do the impossible by routinely shooting down incoming missiles.

Laser-based warfare: including one proposal that would turn Grand Coulee Dam into a space-based weapon of immense power and very nearly global reach. A weapon so powerful that only one would be needed in a war.

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy, which states that, 'In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals which the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.' Doctor Pournelle explains and gives examples.

He also mentions working with: Buzz Aldrin, Robert Heinlein, Greg Bear, Jim Baen, Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Ben Bova, and Dean Ing. He describes a fundamental problem he sees with today's space suits; and talks of Patton and MacArthur, military theory, teacher's unions, and NASA.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 4, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 47 minutes]

Doctor Jerry Pournelle has written more than thirty novels and at least thirteen books of non-fiction. More than a dozen of his novels, he coauthored with his friend Larry Niven, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Inferno; and their new sequel to Inferno: Escape From Hell.

Novels, however, have been only a portion of Jerry Pournelle's work. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he acquired Master's degrees in both experimental statistics and systems engineering, and Doctorates in both psychology and political science. He co-wrote a military textbook called The Strategy of Technology which became required reading at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. He was campaign manager for Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr., as well as for Mayor Sam Yorty. And he was a columnist for Byte Magazine beginning in 1982.

News Note: Last week, in the January 28 2009 episode of this show, Jerry Pournelle mentioned his battle with a brain tumor, described the annoyances of his radiation treatment, and reported that he is now cancer-free.

Topics include: Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Larry Niven and other authors he has been friends with; how the downfall of the Soviet Union was an engineered event, planned decades in advance, which worked exactly as planned (and specifically what that plan was); how he orchestrated the political campaigns of Barry Goldwater, Jr., and Sam Yorty; his friends and involvement in the Survivalist Movement, and his being editor of the magazine Survive which was closely allied with the magazine Soldier of Fortune; political stories from The Cold War and Mutual Assured Destruction; a few words about his and Larry Niven's new novel Escape from Hell; the difficulties of his chemotherapy; the good news that he is now cancer free.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 28, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 65 minutes]

Doctor Jerry Pournelle has written more than thirty novels and at least thirteen books of non-fiction. More than a dozen of his novels, he coauthored with his friend Larry Niven, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Inferno; and their new sequel to Inferno: Escape Fom Hell.

Novels, however, have been only a portion of Jerry Pournelle's work. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he acquired Master's degrees in both experimental statistics and systems engineering, and Doctorates in both psychology and political science. He cowrote a military textbook called The Strategy of Technology which was required reading at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He helped to write a portion of Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address concerning a missile defense system which the media at the time enjoyed making fun of and calling Star Wars, since they believed the technology needed to shoot down incoming missiles with our own missiles was impossible. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. And he was a columnist for Byte Magazine beginning in 1982.

Many of this interview's topics were made possible only because of Alan's longstanding enthusiasm for traveling to places tourists rarely go. He seeks the places where wildlife is still unspoiled; and where the ancient ways that predate writing still exist. He knows they are fading rapidly, and wants to see them before they are gone forever.

Topics include: how cell phones are changing even the third world with amazing speed; primitive cultures accepting technology, and leapfrogging passed the intermediate technologies; the rise of ebooks overseas, as well as how traditional publishers may watch their income evaporate when people buy ebooks online directly from the authors, which would cut publishers out of the loop; how policing oceanic piracy is forcing the naval ships of nations which are normally enemies to cooperate, and how this may build relationships of respect: a precursor to trust.

He also shares some personal anecdotes: about writing movie novelizations such as Aliens 1, 2 and 3--and why he didn't write number 4; how he met Diana Rigg (who played Emma Peel on The Avengers) as well as Julie Newmar (who played the original Catwoman on Batman); his trip with James Gurney (author of Dinotopia and illustrator for National Geographic) who joined him on travels through Malta, Tunisia, Morocco, Dakar and Gibraltar.

He also described his intention to travel to the Western Indian Ocean, which is part of the area threatened by the pirate's that have been in the news so much lately for hijacking cruise ships and oil tankers and holding everyone aboard hostage, sometimes for many months.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 21, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 64 minutes]

While most of his novels involve worlds he has created himself, such as those in his Commonwealth series and Spellsinger series, and those in his various trilogies such as The Damned, The Taken and Icerigger, a portion of his time is spent writing novelizations of successful movies and TV shows. Examples include: the first three Aliens movies, The Chronicles of Riddick, Outland, Clash of the Titans, Starman, The Thing, Alien Nation, Transformers, The Last Starfighter, and the first Star Wars novelization, which he co-wrote with George Lucas.

The quality and extent of this body of work won him the 2008 Grand Master award from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.

Dr. Boan's work has involved US Government space programs for the intelligence departments, but he has also done work for NASA and for commercial communications.

He is coauthor (along with Doctor Travis S. Taylor) of the book: An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extra-Terrestrial Invasion. This book makes a serious and scientifically rigorous analysis of exactly how to defend Earth against an attack from space. Today that would mean from an alien force, but eventually this might mean human forces which have been deployed into space.

John Ringo (the New York Times, Bestselling Military SF Author) called it: '...the definitive book on the defense of the Earth against a potential alien incursion... the book also serves as an important primer on the potential future of warfare on every level. It is tightly grounded in current day realities of war and extrapolates thoughtfully but closely about future potentials. It should be on the reading list of anyone who is serious about national security and the future of war.'

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 14, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes]

In today's interview Dr. Boan says: 'Our schools are based on conformity, but we need to encourage greater creative thinking. Let the kids color the cows purple and draw jewelry on them; they'll learn cows don't wear jewelry soon enough.' And he suggests: beyond identity theft, we need to be aware of 'personality theft:' literally the specific details of who we are: the details of our lives, and what makes us unique.

Dr. Boan also describes why he thinks: China may be the place where the next big software security innovation gets developed; software development is being pushed most by video games; and nuclear power's bad rap is not only unjustified, it is hurting our future by ensuring our continued dependence on foreign oil; software has only begun to change our lives to the extent that it will; there are three areas that are already important but which will soon become exceedingly important: data archiving, data retrieval, and data security. He also talks about: robotics, AI, Virtual Reality, and movies with virtual actors rather than real ones.

News in this episode: Kim Stanley Robinson (the bestselling author) will be making a personal appearance inside Second Life at noon Pacific time on Saturday, January 17, 2009. He will be speaking and answering questions in the Grand Meeting Room inside the Central Nexus Building in the City State of Extropia Core. The event will be hosted by Sophrosyne Stenvaag. Your host plans to be there taking pictures.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 7, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 68 minutes]

Topics include: how Billy George discovered a crook working inside his bank who was stealing money from his account; why the  scam called Check Kiting is becoming impossible in more and more locations; methods of sending money--without a check--to people in the US and Mexico; circumstances in which fear over identity theft make no sense; and why sometimes the people you think will be early adopters resist new technologies, and those you think will resist already love it.

Also, how some banks are dumping their problem customers in order to improve customer service for those who are not a problem; why your check sometimes clears the bank while you're still talking to the merchant you just handed it to; why banks like their employees to bring their cell phones to work, as long as they don't use them very much; the benefits of online banking which go way beyond saving money; as well as credit cards, debit cards, smart cards, and cards with computer chips inside them.

All this, combined with other misunderstandings about banking which cost people money. For example: many people don't understand that a loan officer's job is to sell them a loan. They are no different than a car dealer. Their job to sell the customer the loan that is best for the bank, not best for the customer.

Sex, BDSM, and life in Romania verses American are the general topics of the interview. Specifics topics include: the sexiness of the Joker from Batman; sexual repression within our culture; surprises from living a year in Romania; how her novels differ from the BDSM movies The Story of O and The Secretary; other alternative lifestyles such as polyamory; many people who are dating and in relationships rarely talk about sex, and when they do, rarely describe what they actually want; differences between occasional kink and lifestyle kink; people consider murder less a crime than rape even though it's possible to recover from rape but not from murder; that goth is mostly about music and only secondarily about style; and the goth scene in Romania.  Also, how Romania differs from America in terms of music, sexual attitudes (both kinky and non), clothing styles, culture, employment, crime, living conditions (it being a former communist nation), even how Romanians differ from Americans when just standing in line.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 31, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 67 minutes]

The Maestro's Butterfly and The Maestro's Maker are the first two novels in her erotic romance series which explores the dark side of eroticism using Vampires as some of the principal characters and the erotic elements of BDSM. Both novels are now also available as downloadable audio books. (Her publisher Ravenous Romance released her second novel only days after this interview was recorded.) Rhonda Leigh Jones has a Bachelors in English, and is a former newspaper reporter.

Sound-bites from the interview: 'There is so much kink out there.'

'Sexual attitudes in Romania are simultaneously more open and less open.'

'My novels are for people who like the dark side of eroticism; these are kinky vampires. It's an exploration of power dynamics: of domination and submission, and also of corporal punishment. There's a lot of corporal punishment in my writing.'

'People, if they are like me, get into BDSM because they don't skydive. A little bit of fear is the ultimate aphrodisiac.'

R.U. Sirius tells how Timothy Leary (his friend and fellow cyberculture activist) helped him trick William Gibson (the reclusive author of the seminal cyberpunk novel Neuromancer) into providing them with an interview for Mondo 2000 (the cyberculture magazine of which R.U. Sirius was editor and co-founder).

He also talks about his work with Bruce Sterling (SF author and cyberculture leader); his candidacy for president in 2000; how the decline of print magazines is opening up the possibility that the new transhumanist magazine H+ may become a print magazine; and he accepts an invitation from me (your host) to do two personal appearnces inside the virtual world of Second Life.

And somewhere in the middle of all this he finds time to talk about technological enhancements to our IQ and mood; the accuracy of Ray Kurzeil's time-line; artificial intelligence; diminishing privacy; biotechnology; Amazon's Kindle; virtual reality; and why molecular manufacturing might become the magic bullet to end scarcity, increase health and extend human longevity.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 24, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 51 minutes]

R.U. Sirius (who was born Ken Goffman) may be best known as co-founder and the original Editor-In-Chief of Mondo 2000 Magazine from 1989â1993. He was Editor-In-Chief of Axcess magazine in 1998, and GettingIt.com from 1999-2000. He was also chairman and candidate in the 2000 U.S. presidential election for The Revolution Party; which had a platform that was a mixture of libertarianism and liberalism. He has been a regular columnist for Wired News and the San Francisco Examiner, a contributing writer for Wired and Artforum International. And he has written for Time, Esquire, Rolling Stone and many other publications. Altogether, he has written several hundred articles and essays.

News Items in this episode include: [1] Review of Robot Magazine. A glossy, full-color, 80 page-thick magazine crammed with articles about how to make robots, program robots, where to get robot parts, and what happened at all the latest robot competitions. [2] Kim Stanley Robinson will be in Second Life for an open forum discussion on Saturday, January 17, 2009. Beginning at Noon Pacific Time, it will be hosted by my friend Sophrosyne Stenvaag as part of her series of open forum discussions with people who are shaping the future, entitled Sophrosenye's Saturday Salon. [3] I attended my first baby shower inside Second Life. On December 14, 2008 Giulio Prisco (in Spain) threw the shower for Amara Graps (in Denver). Photos I took are on my Flickr page.

As Editor-In-Chief of a new magazine called H+ (which is written by transhumanists, for transhumanists) he describes how he was recruited, his goals for its future, and admits (possibly for the first time) that he is a transhumanist and has been one, possibly his whole life.

Timothy Leary (who he recruited as a regular writer for Mondo 2000) in the 1980s, he points out, wrote about and promoted many ideas that today are widely considered transhumanist in nature. He suggests that although Timothy Leary did not describe himself as one, he might be considered an early transhumanist.

He also answers the host's question: How many of your articles, over the years, have been rejected because they were too controversial? And: if human longevity is developed, how will carrying our sometimes controversial reputations for centuries change our lives? He also talks about his expectations concerning artificial intelligence and the Singularity.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 17, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 49 minutes]

H+ magazine is available worldwide as a free download in PDF format. The first issue of is out. Your host has read it, and enjoyed it very much. Many of its articles were written by people who have been a guest on The Future And You.

Previously, R.U. Sirius (who was born Ken Goffman) was best known as co-founder and the original Editor-In-Chief of Mondo 2000 Magazine  from 1989â1993. He was Editor-In-Chief of Axcess magazine in 1998, and GettingIt.com from 1999-2000. He was also chairman and candidate in the 2000 U.S. presidential election for The Revolution Party; which had a platform that was a mixture of libertarianism and liberalism. He has been a regular columnist for Wired News and the San Francisco Examiner, a contributing writer for Wired and Artforum International. And he has written for Time, Esquire, Rolling Stone and many other publications. Altogether, he has written several hundred articles and essays.

News Items in this episode include: [1] This is Third Anniversary episode of The Future And You. [2] The Future And You, and other podcasts, can be listened to by phone. Podlines assigned this show the phone number  +1 (210) 957-5545 . [3] The Annual Death Stacks Tournament (a game invented by your host) has been invited to become part of the IAGO World Tour by The International Abstract Games Organization. [4] New Scientist Magazine reports that eating food with heavier isotopes of hydrogen and other atoms might lengthen human lives.

Biases remain strong, Brian says, within government and the scientific community that have prevented the funding of some nanotechnology projects while promoting others. Brian explains how these biases are misused to secure funding for projects which have nothing to do with nanotechnology, at the cost of those that do.

Brian also talks about: Bussard Fusion (not to be confused with the interstellar ramjet also invented by Doctor Robert Bussard); types of nanotechnology and how each would change our lives and our civilization; the military's attitude toward nanotechnology; the need to quit keeping all our eggs in one basket and spread a meaningful portion of our species throughout the solar system; how future space wars in our solar system will differ from ground-based wars; that solar cells are likely to become cheap by 2015; and what a 'Mundane Singularity' might be like (one without AI or molecular manufacturing) and how much change such a Singularity might still produce in our lives.
 
Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 10, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 57 minutes]

Brian Wang is a long time futurist, who has been involved with nanotechnology associations since 1994. He is a Senior Associate of the Foresight Institute, a member of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology Task Force, and on the Advisory Board of both the Nanoethics Group and the Lifeboat Foundation.

He is the author of Predictions For a Technological Future, Now Until 2050; The Impact of Nanofactories on Jobs in the USA; and Considering Military and Ethical Implications of Nanofactory Level Nanotechnology. He has also been involved in e-commerce, Internet startups and real estate investing. He is a competitive dragon boat racer and has competed at the World Club Crew Championship.

His blog is NextBigFuture.com, but he is also a featured blogger on Michael Anissimov's acceleratingfuture.com, and on Ray Kurzweil's kurzweilAI.net.

News Items in this episode include: [1] CNN has laid off its entire Science and Technology reporting team including their Senior Science Reporter Miles O'Brian; [2] Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, describes his efforts to get China to lift their ban on Wikipedia; [3] The City State of Extropia inside Second Life celebrated its first anniversary (your host's photos may be viewed on Flickr).

Spimes, some people call them. What are spimes? What are the benefits and dangers of this new Internet expansion? What will be the uses and misuses? How will spimes impact people's lives? How will portions of the Internet migrate to this Spimey Network.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 3, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 56 minutes]

Also included are an update on the host's ongoing recovery from surgery; listener feedback; and an announcement that Sophrosyne's Satruday Salon will resume on December 6, 2008 with Information Weekâs Mitch Wagner as guest speaker.

David Orban is the founder of WideTag, Inc. which is working to place CO2 sensors into cell phones so that the CO2 concentrations within a nation or continent can be mapped with unheard of precision.  He is also Founder and Director of Singularity Institute Europe; an Advisory Board Member of the Lifeboat Foundation; Founder and CEO of Questar; Founder of Vulcano; and a Founding Member of Lunarez.

I will have to wear the sling and sleep in an easy chair until I see the doctor on December 8. He might let me stop wearing the sling. Although, to be honest, the sling is still very helpful right now.

I've been using my left hand for everything including operating my computer mouse. But last Saturday I made the mistake of controlling the mouse with my right hand. After a couple hours of that my arm was killing me so bad I had to go back to a full dose of pain medicine. The pain didn't returned to normal until Sunday evening.

I haven't figured out how to shave left-handed, so I'm growing a full beard. I might keep it after my right arm gets better. I'm not sure yet.

Thank you for the many wonderful messages wishing me a speedy recovery. It's always great to hear that there are people who don't like it when I'm hurting. This little post is to give you a clearer sense of how things are progressing.

I spent the first week after the operation living with relatives. And even though I'm living in my own house again, they still have to come get me to take me to my physical therapy twice a week since it's against the law to drive while taking my prescription pain medicine.

My surgery was an arthroscopic procedure to repair a 'full-thickness tear of the rotator cuff.' I've learned that this is a very common injury. My surgeon does two or three of these surgical repairs every week. The rotator cuff is a sheet of tendon like material that covers the shoulder joint like a hood. But its not there to just to cover it. The cuff is structural. The portion of the rotator cuff in my arm that was torn was the part that curves over the top of the shoulder and attaches the upper end of the muscle which raises my arm, to the bones of my shoulder.

The surgical procedure involves placing two anchors in the bone, then using sutures to draw the rotator back into contact with the bone and roughing up the mating surfaces enough that they bleed and so can begin to heal back together. Later, the anchors will be absorbed into the body.

With stitches inside my shoulder, the things I'm not allowed to do mostly center around not raising my right arm. It's not enough to not raise it often. I have to not raise it ever. I have to protect my arm from moving in any direction that will tear the stitches holding the rotator together. To aid in this they gave me a sling to keep my arm in for a month or two. It's very lightweight, surprisingly comfortable, closes with Velcro and is completely black. And since there might be a danger of rolling onto my arm while sleeping, I'm not allowed to sleep in a bed. I'm required to sleep in an easy chair.

I am extremely right handed, so normally my left hand doesn't know how to do anything. But I'm learning how to eat and brush my teeth and even use a computer mouse with my left hand. I've also learned that by pushing my keyboard back a foot or more from the edge of my desk, and then resting the entire weight of my right arm on the desk, I can type. But I can't lift my right arm from the desk since that is very painful and might tear the stitches. Instead, I have to lift the entire weight of my right arm with my left arm.

Another learning experience involved voting. I'm an American, and the U.S. General Election was just six days after my operation. So I sat in the passenger seat of the car wearing my hospital robe and with my arm in a sling and my head full of medicine while my 72 year old mother walked inside and brought two pole workers out to me with a computer tablet style voting machine. I may have spent less time at the poles than anyone in America that day. We were there ten minutes.

I still don't know how many weeks my show will be on hiatus. One more week, maybe two, we'll see. In the meantime, I will try to keep you up to date as to my condition. One last note: December will be the show's three year anniversary. I'll see if I can't come up with something special. Bye for now.

Unfortunately, thanks to the pain of moving my right arm combined with the mental sluggishness I'm getting from the pain medicines, my hope of doing an episode of The Future And You this week is out of the question. Even simple tasks like eating, showering and typing this tiny message all involve huge effort, moderate pain and vast amounts of concentration and cleverness since even the most basic bodily movements have to be reinvented from the bottom up.

I don't know how many weeks of recovery I will need before I can start producing episodes again. Maybe this will be the only week I miss, or maybe it will take two or three. One thing is for sure: I don't like sitting on the sidelines. The future is coming faster every day and I want to be in the thick of it.

I'll be back soon. In the meantime I'll keep you updated each Wednesday.

The Internet is big and still growing. How it grows and where it grows changes with time. During the next few years one of its massive growth spurts will be into devices that are not physically connected to the net. This transition has already begun. It is moving into the billions of cell phones. But next will come other simpler objects, like shoes and clothes and toys and toasters.

Spimes, some people call them. What are spimes? What are the benefits and dangers of this new Internet expansion? What will be the uses and misuses? How will spimes impact people's lives? How will portions of the Internet migrate to this Spimey Network. David Orban covers all these topics as well as the backlash Walmart and Darman each received over their use of RFID chips in their products.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 29, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 49 minutes]

David Orban is the founder of WideTag, Inc. which is working to place CO2 sensors into cell phones so that the CO2 concentrations within a nation or continent can be mapped with unheard of precision.  He is also Founder and Director of Singularity Institute Europe; an Advisory Board Member of the Lifeboat Foundation; Founder and CEO of Questar; Founder of Vulcano; and a Founding Member of Lunarez.

Chris Phoenix is the co-founder and Director of Research for CRN (the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology). He is also a Scientific Advisor for The Nanotechnology Group, Inc., on the Scientific Advisory Board for Nanorex, Inc. and a Senior Associate at the  Foresight Nanotech Institute.

Topics discussed include: his ideas about the Singularity; why molecular manufacturing may prove to be impossible to regulate; his theory concerning the Cambrian Explosion; his programming work with Doctor Aubrey de Grey concerning human life extension; his several talks at the BIL conference (which is held the same week as the more famous TED conference); and a cure for dyslexia.

He also suggests the possibility that an artificial intelligence of superhuman intellect might use our increasingly Byzantine system of laws to manipulate civilization since it will understand them and we won't; and the possibility that by coming as a series of many small changes the big changes of the next few decades may quietly sneak up on most people without their awareness.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 22, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 55 minutes]

Chris Phoenix has worked in the field of advanced nanotechnology for over 15 years. He has a Bachelor of Science in Symbolic Systems and a Master's in Computer Science, both from Stanford University.

He has written many articles, essays and research papers about various areas of nanotechnology including medical applications and molecular manufacturing, such as his peer-reviewed paper, Design of a Primitive Nanofactory, as well as his comprehensive outline of Thirty Essential Nanotechnology Studies. 

Chris Phoenix is the co-founder and Director of Research for CRN (the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology). He is also a Scientific Advisor for The Nanotechnology Group, Inc., on the Scientific Advisory Board for Nanorex, Inc. and a Senior Associate at the  Foresight Nanotech Institute.

Topics discussed include: an anecdote about the nanotechnology class he took from Eric Drexler; the state of nanotechnology--and especially molecular assemblers; his four different speaking topics at this year's BIL conference; and the work being done by Zyvex.

He also explains the ideas he presented when he spoke at Doctor Aubrey de Grey's Third SENS Conference on the topic Getting Ahead of Aging; as well as some of the ways nanotech might help in life extension, the potential benefits of nanotech as a replacement for human blood, how soon he expects human longevity to become indefinite, and what methods he thinks are the most promising.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 15, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 52 minutes]

Chris Phoenix has worked in the field of advanced nanotechnology for over 15 years. He has a Bachelor of Science in Symbolic Systems and a Master's in Computer Science, both from Stanford University.

He has written many articles, essays and research papers about various areas of nanotechnology including medical applications and molecular manufacturing, such as his peer-reviewed paper, Design of a Primitive Nanofactory, as well as his comprehensive outline of Thirty Essential Nanotechnology Studies. 

The mission of Police Futurists International is to foster excellence in policing by promoting and applying the discipline of Futures Research.

Topics discussed include: ways CSI and other TV shows deviate from the reality of police work; inflammatory video clips of police misconduct posted onto youtube; flash cameras at intersections which produce automated traffic ticket; how high gas prices affect police departments; Tasers and other less-than-lethal weapons; how dashboard video cameras mounted in police cars can be used as evidence; the Internet and cyber-crime; international crime; and other trends which will affect the future of law enforcement.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 8, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 53 minutes]

In addition to being president of Police Futurists International, Julie Grimaldi is a member of the International Association of Law Enforcement Planners (IALEP).

Julie Grimaldi has worked as a researcher, project manager, analyst and advisor to the Ontario Provincial Police senior and executive command staff on strategic issues and initiatives relevant to policing since 1990. Prior her work for the OPP she conducted research as a consultant to the Ontario Board of Parole. She holds an honours bachelorâs degree from York University (double major Law & Society/Philosophy), and a masterâs degree in criminology from the University of Toronto.

You can too take it with you!  How combining cryonics and insurance can let you leave your million dollar insurance death benefit to yourself. It may allow you to wake up a century or two in the future, not just healthy but also wealthy. Cryonics is not just for today's rich. Ordinary people with moderate incomes can afford cryonic suspension by funding it with insurance.

Rudi also describes one of the principal enemies of the fledgling cryonics services: the powerful funeral industry. This is a David and Goliath story of a nationwide big-money operation trying to stamp out two tiny business facilities. One industry financed by millions of customers per year; the other by dozens. Hardly a fair fight.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 1, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 85 minutes]

Writing cryonic insurance since 1994, and with more than 80% of the world's market share, Rudi Hoffman is the world's leading cryonic insurance provider. He has been an insurance agent and professional financial planner since 1980. He is on the Board of Advisers for the Lifeboat Foundation, and is a Senior Associate with the Foresight Institute.

He reveals that Robert A. Heinlein was the secret proofreader for his and Jerry Pournelle's novel The Mote In God's Eye. He describes Jerry Pournelle's personal edit war in Wikipedia, how they and other science fiction writers are helping the Department of Homeland Security, and his own work on Land of the Lost, The Outer Limits, and Star Trek the Animated Series.

He also discusses illegal organ banks, room temperature superconductors, and agrees that there is a possibility that your host's personal theory may be correct concerning high-temperature lifeforms having evolved in the ocean of liquid iron surrounding the earth's core.

Other topics include: nanotech molecule chain, how to move the earth, the Neanderthal Genome Project, human rights for AIs, the Wikipedia page concerning Jesus, exoplanets, the singularity, and the persistent rumors about a movie version of Ringworld.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 24, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 74 minutes]

Larry Niven's writing is primarily hard science fiction of an adventurous style which often involves large science concepts and theoretical physics. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series which treats magic as a non-renewable resource. He has also written humorous stories; such as those collected in The Flight of the Horse. He has won the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards.

The RepRap machine is the first machine in all of human history that can make most of its own parts. Not all of them (at least not yet) but most. This means that with a good bit of human assistance and intervention it can do two things that for six hundred million years only biologically living things could do: Reproduce and Evolve.

What's more, the material the machine needs to make more of itself can be grown in your garden. And Doctor Bowyer (who is an engineer and mathematician at the University of Bath in England) has made the design of the machine freely available to anyone who would like to build one by declaring it Open Source.

All this would be meaningless of course if the machine could only make more copies of itself but it has already made shoes, coat hooks, door handles, gears, plastic jewelry, cups, flasks, and a shot glass for toasting its own creation.

A few months ago on May 29, 2008 its first offspring, its first 'child machine,' was assembled and was immediately used to make one of the components needed to make a grandchild machine. Which means that its reproduction and evolution has already begun.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 17, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 83 minutes]

Where this will all lead is still uncertain. If the good doctor has his way, in a few years millions of them will exist in homes all around the world, happily churning out useful and decorative household items at ridiculously low cost.

From New York City to Bangladesh, no place would be left out. If enthusiasm remains strong, they might quickly spread everywhere. Because if your friend or neighbor or relative has one and you don't, you can ask them to have theirs make one for you too.

Topics include: artificial intelligence, the future of civilization, transhumanism, the singularity, mind uploading, human extinction risks including the Toba super volcano, his simulation argument, and much more.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 10, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 74 minutes]

Doctor Nick Bostrom is a philosopher at Oxford University, and is the Director of the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute. In 1998, he co-founded (with David Pearce) the World Transhumanist Association, and in 2004, he co-founded (with James Hughes) the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET).

In addition to his writing for academic and popular press, Nick Bostrom makes frequent media appearances in which he talks about transhumanism-related topics such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, cloning, mind uploading, cryonics, and the simulation argument.

He has a background in cosmology, computational neuroscience, mathematical logic, philosophy, and artificial intelligence, and is the author of the book Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy.

His research interests include the philosophy of science, probability theory, and the ethical and strategic implications of anticipated technologies. He has been a consultant for the Central Intelligence Agency in the U.S., and for the European Commission and the European Group on Ethics in Brussels.

In today's interview Neal Barrett Jr. provides us with his assessment of the future. 'I have seen entirely too much of what's going on; of the good and the bad and the indifferent.' he said. He also said, 'Every emperor and king and president and governor and mayor promises you what they are going to do. And how many of those things are still undone? The Pharaoh of 3000 BC hasn't kept his promises yet; so we're pretty far behind.'

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 3, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 41 minutes]

Neal Barrett Jr.'s novel Through Darkest America, was reviewed with the phrase, 'A book of astonishing power.' The Washington Post gave his novel The Hereafter Gang an even more enviable review which ended with the sentence, 'It is one of the great American novels.' 

He did the novelization of the motion picture Dungeons & Dragons, and his novel Pink Vodka Blues was optioned and purchased by Paramount Pictures. He followed that with Dead Dog Blues, Skinny Annie Blues and Bad Eye Blues.

Reviewers have defined Neal Barrett Jr.'s work as 'Stories that defy any category or convention.' He is the author of Perpetuity Blues, Interstate Dreams, and Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus.

He was Guest of Honor and Toastmaster at the 55th World Science Fiction Convention in 1997, and this interview was recorded the day before his 77th birthday while he and this show's host were both at the 2006 World Fantasy Convention in Austin Texas.

Topics include: Wireheading, recreational drugs, chewing coca leaves for micro-doses of cocaine, the abolition of suffering in all sentient life, veganism verses vegetarianism, why he is a founding member of the Order of Cosmic Engineers, the journal Medical Hypotheses, how he learned that he was a transhumanist, and how this lead to his co-founding of the World Transhumanist Association.

David also describes some of his essays such as: The Good Drug Guide, Superhappiness, Utopian Surgery, The Wired Society, The Hedonistic Imperative, and his Critique of Huxley's Brave New World.

His book-length manifesto The Hedonistic Imperative details how he believes the abolition of suffering can be accomplished in the coming decades through 'paradise engineering.' And he predicts that our descendants will enjoy genetically preprogrammed bliss that is orders of magnitude richer than anything accessible today.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 27, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 67 minutes]

In addition to co-founding (with Nick Bostrom) the World Transhumanist Association, David Pearce also co-founded the Abolitionist Society and serves as its honorary president. He is currently the director of BLTC Research; he serves on the editorial review board of the scientific journal Medical Hypotheses; and he is a vegan and a transhumanist. (Wikipedia article which has many more links to his work.) 

Topics include: one of NASA's advanced electromagnetic propulsion systems which uses no fuel and no rocket engines whatsoever; NASA's near future projects such as the next lunar lander and the new heavy lifting vehicle Aries V; and how we might eventually find ourselves fulfilling the vision of his non-fiction book: Living off the Land in Space.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 20, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 65 minutes]

Les Johnson is a NASA physicist and manager, as well as the author of popular science books and articles. He serves as the Deputy Manager for the Advanced Concepts Office at the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Les has been on CNN, Fox News, NPR, The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, and in the New York Times. He made a few brief speaking appearances on camera in the BBC documentary series Space (released as Hyperspace in the USA) which was hosted by Sam Neil. He was the technical consultant for the movie Lost in Space. He is a frequent, and very popular, speaker at SF&F conventions concerning space and science. And he consulted on the books Deepsix by Jack McDevitt and War Surf by M. M. Buckner. (Two authors who have been interviewed on this show.)

Les Johnson's non-fiction books include: Living off the Land in Space (which he co-wrote with Gregory L. Matloff and C Bangs) and his latest Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel (which he co-wrote with  Giovanni Vulpetti and Gregory L. Matloff). Nature (the highly-respected scientific journal now in its 139th year of publication) reviewed this book and placed it on their Recommended Reading List for the Spring.

Highlights of the interview include: The mechanism of human empathy seems to have been identified, and so can be reproduced in AI; even AI that is radically different in its thinking from human beings. Doctor Goertzel explains that this empathy is not based on emotion, and he emphasizes that he does not want to create an AI which is governed by its emotions.

He stresses that the human mind does not qualify as a completely 'General Intelligence' but lies somewhere on the spectrum between AGI on one end and 'Narrow AI' on the other. This is one of several reasons why he does not expect AGI to be achieved by mimicking the workings of the human brain.

He describes how our brains fool us into believing that we understand our actions and decisions when we don't. And why modeling an AI too closely on the human brain might make it too, vulnerable to false notions.

He also says, 'I think virtual worlds are going to be absolutely critical to the development of Artificial General Intelligence.' As well as 'Right now connecting AI's to virtual worlds is probably the best way to get an AI to have a general human-like embodied experience.'

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 13, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 74 minutes]

Ben Goertzel has a PhD in mathematics from Temple University, and has held several university positions in mathematics, computer science, and psychology, in the US, New Zealand and Australia. He is the Author of over 70 research papers, journalistic articles and 8 scholarly books dealing with topics in cognitive sciences and futurism. He has spent over 20 years in artificial intelligence research and commercialization. 

The former Chief Technical Officer of Webmind, a thinking machine company with 120 employees, he is today the CEO of Novamente, and is the Principle architect of the Novamente Cognition Engine. He is also the Director of Research, at the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

This is the second of our two episodes containing interviews recorded at the SF&F convention LibertyCon on July 12, 2008. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 30, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 80 minutes]

Topics covered by our various guests include trends in: digital art, genetic methods of insect control, electronic publishing (especially as relates to Amazon's new Kindle ebook reader), gaming, the dark truth about fairy legends, space exploration, scientific peer review journals going online, government regulations, and how writers may soon have little need of publishers.

Topics: David Mattingly discusses trends in the digital production of commercial art.  Travis Taylor talks of the launch vehicle that will replace the soon to be retired Space Shuttle.  David B. Coe describes his take on our escalating energy crisis and the bold proposals of T. Boone Pickens.

Recorded at the SF&F convention LibertyCon on July 12, 2008, and hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 23, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 68 minutes]

David Mattingly is an award winning illustrator and painter who has done over five hundred science fiction and fantasy book covers.  The former head of the matte department at Walt Disney Studios, he has worked on the movies The Black Hole, Tron, Dick Tracy, Stephen King's The Stand and most recently I, Robot.

David B. Coe is an award winning author of epic fantasy novels, including those of his series Winds of the Forelands, who holds a doctorate in environmental history.

Travis Taylor is a research scientist and the author of scientifically accurate science fiction.  His novels include Warp Speed, The Quantum Connection, Von Neumann's War, and his latest novel: One Day on Mars.

Our other guests include several of LibertyCon's organizers: Uncle Timmy: the con chairman.  As well as Brandy Spraker and Derek Spraker both of whom wear many organizational hats. 

In the process of sharing their vision of the future they also share many personal anecdotes about themselves and about famous authors they have met, including: Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, L. Sprague de Camp, Mike Resnick, Sarah A. Hoyt, Lois McMaster Bujold, Charles Sheffield and Catherine Asaro.

Harry Turtledove is an award winning science fiction & fantasy author best known for his novels of alternate history. He holds a Ph.D. from UCLA in Byzantine history. (Web, Wiki) 

David B. Coe is an award winning author of epic fantasy novels who holds a Ph.D. in environmental history. (Web, Wiki)

Toni Weisskopf is an award winning editor and the head of Baen Books: the world renowned publishing house of SF&F hardbacks, paperbacks and electronic books. Baen Books was founded by Jim Baen, and is the owner of Jim Baenâs Universe Magazine, where your humble host is a columnist and contributing editor. (Web, Wiki)

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 16, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 69 minutes] This interview was recorded on July 12, 2008 at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention in Chattanooga TN called LibertyCon.

An eye-witness to the trends which are shaping Asia's rapidly changing future, Mark Forman is an American businessman from Brooklyn New York who studied Chinese language and culture at the University of Arizona and, during the last two decades, has traveled a great deal in China as well as within many of its neighboring countries.

In today's interview he describes his personal observations of the changes sweeping the Asian world and especially Greater China. Greater China is a term commonly used in business and economics to indicate not just mainland China, but also the regions that it governs, such as Hong Kong, as well as the regions it does not govern, such as Taiwan. 

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 9, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 59 minutes]

While the topics covered in this interview range all over Asia, much of the focus is on mainland China and its relationship to other countries. This is because of all the countries in Asia, China has the biggest influence on the rest of the world and yet (since the Bamboo Curtain is only now beginning to fall) for most Westerners it is the least understood. 

Topics discussed include: the transformation of China from an anti-business communist economy to a pro-business free-market economy; the rise of Chinese consumerism; how internet access (including Google and Wikipedia) are eroding Chinese government censorship and forcing a new openness; the possibility of democracy taking root in China, and how a non-western democracy might be defined; the 2008 Olympics in Beijing; and of course much, much more.

Co-author of the Dune prequels, his original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. A prolific science fiction author, he has had at least 32 of his novels on the various best seller lists including the famous New York Times Bestseller's list. His books have been translated into at least twenty-four languages, and have sold over 16 million copies worldwide. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files. In addition to all this, he has served as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 2, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 56 minutes]

In today's interview Kevin J. Anderson describes his ideas and observations on a variety of topics such as the current global energy crisis, peak oil theory, solar and nuclear power, and his new purchase of a fuel efficient car.

Having returned from a month long promotional tour of Australia and New Zealand, he describes his surprise at how different public opinion about Global Warming is down there compared to in the US. There is an overwhelming acceptance of the concept, and crowds greet Al Gore with the admiration and enthusiasm usually reserved for rock stars.

He is not comfortable that we will soon retire the space shuttle with nothing to replace it. Even now, he points out, we have to ask the Russians to take our astronauts up to the international space station for us. 

He also ponders some serious questions: If the Middle Eastern dictators thumb their noses at China, the Chinese government--which unlike the USA does not set limits on how it treats its own people much less outsiders--may very well invade the oil rich countries and take their oil by force. And if future nanotechnology allows everyone to have everything they want what kind of civilization will we have? Will people still work? Will most crime go away? What in our lives will remain the same? 

She mentions that she has begun composing music on the computer, says a few words about her new novel (The Night Bird) and briefly lets slip that she will be consulting with a game developer (which she could not name) to help them with aspects of the new game they are designing. 

When asked questions which form the core beliefs of The Order of Cosmic Engineers (web) (a new international organization of which your host is a founding member) she displays a remarkable level of agreement. 

As a tutor to gifted children she sees how the world view of children today is radically different than those held by children just twenty or thirty years ago. Their vision of the world has been transformed by the Internet and cell phones into something far more global and far less tied to ones specific locality. 

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 25, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 66 minutes]

Catherine Asaro is the author of 23 novels which have been described as a blend of hard science fiction, romance and space adventure. 11 of her novels belong to her Saga of the Skolian Empire. Her novel The Quantum Rose won the Nebula Award for best novel of 2001 and she is a three-time winner of the Romantic Times Book Club award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

From UCLA she received a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry. From Harvard she received a Masters in Physics and a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics.

She has done research at the University of Toronto in Canada, the Max Planck Institut fÃr Astrophysik in Germany, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Her research involved using quantum theory to describe the behavior of atoms and molecules. She was a physics professor until 1990, when she established Molecudyne Research.

A former ballerina, she has performed with ballets and in musicals on both the east and west coast of the United States. In the 1980âs she was a principal dancer and artistic director of the Mainly Jazz Dancers and the Harvard University Ballet. 

She has also published short stories, reviews, essays, and scientific papers in refereed academic journals. Her paper Complex Speeds and Special Relativity, which appeared in the April 1996 issue of The American Journal of Physics, forms the basis for some of the science in her novels.

Amy H. Sturgis earned her Ph.D. in Intellectual History from Vanderbilt University, and she teaches Interdisciplinary Studies at Belmont University. In the field of science fiction/fantasy studies, she has multiple books, book chapters, and articles to her credit on subjects such as J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Gothic literature, and Arthurian legends, among others.

She is a regular speaker at universities and conventions across the U.S. and Canada, and she is often interviewed by national radio programs, television shows, and newspapers as a genre expert. In 2006, she was honored with the Imperishable Flame Award for Achievement in Tolkien/Inklings Scholarship.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 11, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 36 minutes]

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 25, 2006 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 77 minutes] 

Topics include:

[1] Technological Immortality: when nearly everyone in the world is really, really old what kind of civilization will we have? The bestselling author, Greg Bear, paints a strange picture of the future. He also speaks about his movie deals, his involvement with The Science Fiction Museum in Seattle and his books, one of which, it turns out, is in publishing limbo.

[2] Computers implanted in the human body and wired into the human brain. Nancy Kress, the award winning author, points out that we already have a little of this but that far more is on the way.

[3] Non-lethal warfare and Non-violent religions: pointed comments from the bestselling author, Spider Robinson.

[4] Another installment in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black.

[5] How will nanotechnology change our wars? From battlefield nanotech that protects and augments the individual soldier, to nanotech manufacturing which may destabilize the global economy and lead to future wars: this, from Mike Treder, the Executive Director of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.

[6] A veteran of the televised Battle-bot competitions, Lionel Vogt (noted futurist and transhumanist) tells about some of the robots he has built.

[7] An essay by your host entitled: Why you will get two completely different answers if you ask a biologist or an evolutionist the simple question: 'Why is water clear?'

[8] The coming Latino dominance of the USA. Within sixty years the USA will be a Latino nation in the same sense that Brazil and Argentina are now. Based on current demographic trends, this does not seem a possibility but an inevitability. David Pascal, a marketing consultant, describes the statistics.

[9] Two thousand people singing happy birthday to, and then a brief celebrity interview with, the actor Michael Berryman who may be best known as the star of Wes Craven's original version of the motion picture: The Hills Have Eyes.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 11, 2006 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 79 minutes] 

Topics include:

[1] The future dominance of women in America, and the hypocrisy within our government over the funding of global warming research. David Brin (bestselling author and scientist) tackles both of these subjects.

[2] Spider Robinson (bestselling author) explains why, thanks to the internet, it is no longer possible to think you are weird (even if you are), and how this has changed us. He also describes how he learned to appreciate technology the hard way: by living without it. (And once again, as an added bonus, you will hear a song from Spider's CD, Belaboring the Obvious. This one is called Oblivion.)

[3] Another installment in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black.

[4] How long until we fall into the next dark age? The award winning author Nancy Kress discusses this, and describes how malaria is spreading to villages higher up the sides of African mountains because the habitat of the malaria causing mosquito is expanding, apparently thanks to global warming.

[5] Will Hillary Clinton be sacrificed by the Democrats? The award winning author Joe Haldeman worries that Hillary's own party may not prove to be the strong ally she will need to win the presidency in 2008.

[6] Hacking nanotechnology: the future of NanoWarez. The world's hackers will someday shift their focus from turning your computer against you to turning your nanotech devices and implants against you. Just how dangerous this might get is described by Mike Treder, Executive Director of The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.

[7] Foreign cryonics: the French have outlawed it, the Brits are with us, and the Russians secretly researched a lot more during the cold war than they are willing to share now. And what about pre-death freezing? It's still illegal everywhere, but the Scandinavian nations are lax on suicide. Might they be flexible about freezing the terminally ill? David Pascal (noted marketing consultant who specializes in Social Marketing) shares his considerable knowledge.

[8] Why science has become so much more powerful than religion (an essay by your host).

[9] A celebrity interview with the British actress and comedian Hattie Hayridge, who played Holly the computer (after the computer's sex change) on the award winning British science fiction comedy series Red Dwarf.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 25, 2006 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 91 minutes]

Topics include:

[1] Robert A. Heinlein passed away in 1988, yet his name will appear on a brand new novel due out in September of 2006. This novel is a collaborative effort between the late legend and a younger, newer talent: one of Mister Heinlein's greatest fans: the award winning author, Spider Robinson. I asked Spider how this unusual collaboration came to be.(Following his interview, as an added bonus, you will hear the title song from Spider's CD, Belaboring the Obvious, which he wrote for his wife, Jeanne, eleven years ago while she was away in a Buddhist monastery for three months.)

[2] Are we making serious mistakes in how we're conducting the search for extraterrestrial intelligence? David Brin (the award winning author and scientist) is convinced that we are. He also describes his own answer to the puzzle of why the universe seems so completely empty of intelligent life: a situation often referred to as the Fermi Paradox.

[3] Another installment in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black.

[4] What's the difference between molecular manufacturing, nanotech assemblers and nanites? Mike Treder, executive director of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, makes it clear.

[5] Cryonic SWAT teams, and what you should do before the body of your friend or loved one rots. David Pascal describes what to do in those critical hours between an unexpected death and cryosuspension.

[6] Hillary vs Condoleezza. Both political machines are gearing up for the match of the century. Will 2008 be the year that America gets it first woman president? I posed this question to a Republican insider: Scott Dean, the Mayor of Harlem Georgia.

[7] A celebrity interview with Erin Gray, the actress who played Colonel Wilma Deering in the TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as well as Kate Summers in the TV series Silver Spoons.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 11, 2006 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 79 minutes] 

Topics include:

[1] David Brin (bestselling author and scientist) warns that Righteous Indignation is an addictive high chemically similar to heroin, and also describes our civilization's unfounded Crisis of Confidence.

[2] Predicting the risks and potential misuse of nanotechnology's vast and marvelous future is the mission of CRN: the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology. CRN's Executive Director, Mike Treder, provides a heads-up.

[3] Another installment in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black.

[4] More powerful than propaganda, social marketing has been used to engineer changes in the beliefs and behaviours of entire populations, and has suceeded with surgical precision. David Pascal, a marketing consultant who specializes in social marketing, explains this power; as well as how it is used--and misused--in today's american politics.

[5] Technological Immortality: will we develop it in the next few decades? The award winning author Joe Haldeman shares a few thoughts on the subject.

[6] A few more thoughts on technological immortality; this time from Rudi Hoffman, the world's leading cryonics insurance provider.

[7] A listener's comments on the host's use of the word dead when referring to the cryopreserved.

[8] She worked with Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner and the rest of the cast of Star Trek. A celebrity interview with the actress Robin Curtis, who played the Vulcan Starfleet officer Lieutenant Saavik in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock as well as (the host's favorite of the Star Trek movies) Star Trek IV: The Journey Home.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 28, 2006 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 79 minutes] 

Topics include:

[1] As the internet slowly kills the old traditional recording labels, Magnatune (a new kind of label) is growing like a weed. John Buckman (Magnatune's founder and CEO) explains his company's strange motto: 'We are not evil.'

[2] The award winning science fiction author Nancy Kress talks about future medical advances, including the promise of, and the ongoing controversy over, stem cell research.

[3] An essay by your host on the probability that any extraterrestrial civilization we encounter will be near our scientific or technological level.

[4] The award winning science fiction author Joe Haldeman talks about faster than light travel (FTL), the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and mentions that some of his students at MIT have discovered exoplanets.

[5] Doctor Greg Matloff (astronomer, author and professor) also discusses the SETI program, as well as the problems that SETI scientists have when interpreting what appear to be genuine (but very brief) signals from intelligent aliens.

[6] The fourth installment in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black.

[7] Rudi Hoffman (the world's leading cryonics insurance provider) grapples with cryonics' thorniest theological problem: 'If human beings actually do have souls, will cryopreserved people be impossible to re-animate?'

[8] Noted transhumanist, Lionel Vogt, explains why he believes that when AI (artificial intelligence) is finally a reality it will produce an explosion of technological advancement that is impossible for us to imagine today.

[9] A listener disagrees with the host's essay on cryonics from the previous episode.

[10] Halo Parties, fuzzy shoes, and the insistence that 'Final Fantasy will never die.' Two teenaged girls (Aliese, age 15; and Amber, 14) describe the strange trends and rising fads within their youthful universe.

[11] Was that Lurches real voice? And whose hand was it that played Thing? A double celebrity interview with Ken Weatherwax and Lisa Loring: Pugsley and Wednesday from the beloved old TV show The Addams Family.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 15, 2006 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 79 minutes]

Topics include:

[1] Nanotechnological invisibility is being developed at MIT and is described by the award winning science fiction author Joe Haldeman, along with his personal feelings about cryonics, and his vision that, once they are developed, computers wired directly into the human brain may sweep the developed world as quickly as cell phones since those without them will be at a competative disadvantage.

[2] A new device which will allow planets orbiting other stars to be seen and studied by blotting out the light of the star which they orbit. Professor Grover Swartzlander of the University of Arizona in Tucson explains his invention.

[3] Another installment in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black.

[4] Award winning science fiction author Nancy Kress explains the growing controvercy over the genetic engineering of crops, or as they call them in europe FrankenFoods.

[5] Trends within the movie theater industry; revenues are down, but popcorn sales are up.

[6] A personal essay in which the show's host describes his mixed feelings about cryonics, entitled: 'Why I may not want cryonics afterall.'

[7] Transhumanist, Lionel Vogt, describes aspects of day-to-day life in the deep future such as the fear of living forever.

[8] A celebrity interview with Betsy Palmer who played Jason's mother (the axe-murdering, Mrs. Voorhees) in the original movie Friday The 13th.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 1, 2006 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 68 minutes] 

Topics include:

[1] The genetic engineering of human beings (an interview with the award winning science fiction author Nancy Kress).

[2] Cryonics: how to leave your money (even your big life insurance death benefit) to your frozen dead body (an interview with Rudi Hoffman--the Worlds Leading Cryonics Insurance Provider).

[3] The second chapter in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black.

[4] Trends within the movie industry (an interview with a theater manager).

[5] How soon are we likely to build faster than light space craft? (an interview with Doctor Greg Matloff: astronomer, author, professor and a consultant for NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center).

[6] A celebrity interview with the actor Jerry Rector who has performed on Star Trek, NYPD Blue and Sliders.

Thank you.

Steve

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 15, 2005 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 118 minutes] 

Topics include:

[1] Predictability: an essay on what is and what is not predictable.

[2] How long until we find a second earth? Doctor Greg Matloff (astronomer, author and professor) talks about the more than 160 exoplanets found so far.

[3] The power of eBay. (An interview with a dealer in antiques and fine art; and another with a dealer in collectables.)

[4] How you can buy cryonic insurance. (An interview with Rudi Hoffman, the world's leading cryonics insurance provider.)

[5] Global warming: is it real or just part of the normal interglacial? (An interview with M.M.Buckner, author of the science fiction novels Hyperthought, Neurolink and WarSurf)

[6] Illegal copying and bootlegging of movies: the methods, problems, and one theater chain's corporate response. (An interview with a theater manager.)

[7] The first installment in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black.

[8] A celebrity interview with actor Gary Jones of Stargate SG-1.