The Future And You
Ideas and opinion about the future based on verifiable facts of today.
 
December 30, 2009 Episode

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

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

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

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

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

Direct download: TFAY_2009_12_30.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

December 23, 2009 Episode

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

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

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

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

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

Direct download: TFAY_2009_12_23.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

December 16, 2009 Episode

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

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

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

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_12_16.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

December 9, 2009 Episode Andrew Hessel (biologist, author and co-founder of the Pink Army Cooperative) is today's featured guest.

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

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

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

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

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

Direct download: TFAY_2009_12_9.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

December 2, 2009 Episode

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

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

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

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

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_12_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT