The Future And You
Ideas and opinion about the future based on verifiable facts of today.
 
March 31, 2010 Episode

Jordan Chabalowski and Christopher Breedlove (Journalists helping Web 1.0 transition into Web 2.0) are our featured guests.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 31, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes]

Topics: how Twitter can help people get more work (such as building credibility and reputation with clients and potential clients by letting them know what you are working on, or verifying that you are working on projects similar to their own); how the technical sophistication of our lives is making the younger generation into specialists without generalized knowledge of simple things (such as what plants are edible in their own backyard, how to grow food, their physical location in the world or even in relation to their own friends, and how to fix things); the irretrievability of everything we put online (including photos, blog entries, and our profiles on Facebook, MySpace, and Linkedin) which will all be searchable years from now by those we ask for a job, those we ask to marry, and eventually even our children; trends in India they have witnessed by living there; and how American schools can learn social engineering from the ways the Nazi's rewrote grade school textbooks.

This interview was recorded at the World Future Convention in Chicago last fall. Jordan and Christopher were there covering the event for the online news-magazine Reality Sandwich. In addition to journalism, they translate messages; not from one language to another but from traditional forms such as advertising or websites into social-driven media such as YouTube, Twitter and iPhone apps.

BTW: Also mentioned was LibraVox.org which is one of your host's favorite places to download audio books for free. These audio books are free because the are out of copyright and were read by volunteers.

News Item: On Monday, March 29, 2010 (two days before this episode goes public) your host will go to the hospital for outpatient surgery. Recovery will take about six weeks. Hopefully the pain medicines won't interfere with any of April's episodes. If it does rest assured I will be back soon. For those who were expecting to see me speak and moderate panels at RavenCon in Richmond Virginia (April 9-11, 2010) I apologize. As much as I was looking forward to seeing so many good friends and getting so many cool interviews I have had to cancel that appearance.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2010_3_31.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

March 24, 2010 Episode

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

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 24, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes] Part three of three with Dr. Sandberg.

Topics: changes he expects in the next two decades; technical difficulties of emulating a full human brain in a computer; what people should do differently if they expect to live for centuries; and his vision of how the Singularity will play out.

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

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

BTW: There was, as you may have noticed, no episode last week. I was very sick with an intestinal virus or food poisoning. (This week's episode was supposed to be last week's episode.)

Direct download: TFAY_2010_3_24.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

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

 

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

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

 

Category:general -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

March 10, 2010 Episode

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

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

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

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

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

Direct download: TFAY_2010_3_10.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

March 3, 2010 Episode

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

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

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

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

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

Direct download: TFAY_2010_3_3.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT