The Future And You
Ideas and opinion about the future based on verifiable facts of today.
 
​Edmund R. Schubert, Rich Sigfrit, Gail Z. Martin and one of ConCarolinas' venerable volunteers are today's featured guests.

Topics: last week's relaunch of the redesigned Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show online magazine; the recent explosion in the popularity of online magazines; the few ways in which online magazines are actually better that paper magazines; and how Amazon is confusing the magazine publishers they hope will publish their magazines in electronic format on the Kindle. Also: how the Internet allows first-time authors to get the word out about their book; the importance of authors developing a relationship with their readers through social networks; and singing the praises of the iPad. As well as miscellaneous references to: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, A formal Steam Punk ball, and Klingon Karaoke.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 30, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 43 minutes] Today's show was recorded in Charlotte NC, on June 5, 2010. This episode was recorded at, and is dedicated to, the science fiction and fantasy convention ConCarolinas (which this year had the honor of hosting Deep South Con and featured as Literary Guest of Honor, one of our past guests: Jerry Pournelle).

Edmund R. Schubert is editor-in-chief of Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show (the poplar online magazine of science fiction and fantasy). Rich Sigfrit (widely known as Podcasting's Rich Sigfrit) is a pioneering podcaster, as well as talented voice actor and comedian. Gail Z. Martin is the author of The Chronicles of The Necromancer fantasy series of novels.

Direct download: TFAY_2010_6_30.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

​James Maxey (author of the Dragon Age fantasy series and Nobody Gets the Girl) is today's featured guest.

Topics: scientific efforts in creating artificial life; computer displays built into the lenses of eyeglasses; the Google Goggles iPhone app; microbes designed to produce crude oil and diesel fuel; hard numbers on peak oil and peak coal; BP's Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and the robots being used to seal the leak; as well as cheap solar cells and new battery technologies.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 23, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 31 minutes] Today's show was recorded in front of a live audience at ConCarolinas in Charlotte NC, on June 5, 2010.

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.
Direct download: TFAY_2010_6_23.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

​James Maxey (author of the Dragon Age fantasy series and Nobody Gets the Girl) is our featured guest.

Topics: an attractive new female android built in Japan; soccer playing robots; life in antarctic lakes; the increasing practicality of building an elevator to earth orbit; the matter/anti-matter balance of the universe; massively parallel processing in popular game computers; fresh new craters on Mars; how computers are now playing the stock market even more than human beings; and a new nano-fiber material with incredible strength which is made out of old t-shirts dipped into a boron solution and then heated in an oven (a miracle substance become cheap and easy to make).

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 16, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes] Today's show was recorded in front of a live audience at ConCarolinas in Charlotte NC, on June 5, 2010.

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.

Direct download: TFAY_2010_6_16.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:49pm EDT

Robert Hooker (an Information Technology professional living in London) is today's featured guest.

Topics: artificial intelligence; how and when conversational AI may appear in our lives; the semantic web as an AI platform; AI for Internet search; the money to be made in AI; simulating AI with a brute force program which is not intelligent at all; Wolfram Alpha; a new solution to the Fermi Paradox; the massive power of the social web; companies that try (and usually fail) to profit by crowd sourcing; how Wikipedia killed the old encyclopedias; Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs; and why he (Robert Hooker) was once presumed dead for three days.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 9, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes]

Robert Hooker has a Bachelors degree in Cognitive Sciences from the University of Chicago, and a Masters degree 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.
Direct download: TFAY_2010_6_9.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Robert Hooker (an Information Technology professional living in London) is today's featured guest.

Topics: why Twitter is better than Facebook; examples of how Twitter has helped Robert promote his work; differences between the virtual world of Second Life and its new competitor Blue Mars; big and costly mistakes being made by those who own and operate both virtual worlds; and other assorted topics and trends.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 2, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes]

Robert Hooker has a Bachelors degree in Cognitive Sciences from the University of Chicago, and a Masters degree 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. Currently he works for Fujitsu Services in the United Kingdom. He has lived in London for the last 10 years.
Direct download: TFAY_2010_6_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT