The Future And You
Ideas and opinion about the future based on verifiable facts of today.
 
The Future And You -- January 30, 2013

Stuart Jaffe (author and co-host of The Eclectic Review) is today's featured guest.

Topics: the future of traditional publishing after the ebook revolution is over, Stuart's own efforts and experiences in book promotion, his results in podcasting, his expectations of the future, his impression of 3D movies, and his impression of Vocaloid (the popular software used to create the singing voice of the also popular animated Japanese performer Hatsune Miku).

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 30, 2013 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 32 minutes]

Stuart Jaffe is the author of The Max Porter Paranormal-Mysteries, The Malja Chronicles, a post-apocalyptic fantasy series, and After The Crash as well as the short story collection, 10 Bits of My Brain, and many other short stories which have appeared in magazines and anthologies. He is the co-host of The Eclectic Review -- a podcast about science, art, and well, everything. He also plays guitar, is active in the theater, and holds a 2nd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Listener Email: Brian J Piccioni wrote to point out that we are far deeper into the transition from film projectors to digital projectors in movie theaters. To support his statement he provided links to two articles: Difference Engine: Ne plus ultra and Movie Studios Are Forcing Hollywood to Abandon 35mm Film. But the Consequences of Going Digital Are Vast, and Troubling.

Direct download: TFAY_2013_1_30.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:19am EDT

The Future And You -- January 23, 2013

Stuart Jaffe (author and co-host of The Eclectic Review) is today's featured guest.

Topics: trends in movies, TV and book publishing. Stuart's love hate relationship with CGI; will CGI ever completely replace actors?; and why George Lucas's long push for digital projectors in theaters still has yet to succeed. Also: Stuart's analysis of the ebook revolution based on his 20 years of personal experience in publishing.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 23, 2013 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 37 minutes]

Stuart Jaffe is the author of The Max Porter Paranormal-Mysteries, The Malja Chronicles, a post-apocalyptic fantasy series, and After The Crash as well as the short story collection, 10 Bits of My Brain, and many other short stories which have appeared in magazines and anthologies. He is the co-host of The Eclectic Review -- a podcast about science, art, and well, everything. He also plays guitar, is active in the theater, and holds a 2nd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Direct download: TFAY_2013_1_23.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:43am EDT

The Future And You -- January 16, 2013

Stephen Euin Cobb (your host) is today's speaker.

Topics: Human augmentation, autonomous vehicles (both ground vehicles and aircraft), 3D printing, cyberwarfare, battles over fresh water, and the rising power of cities (compared to the stagnating power of nations). This is part 2 of my discussion of Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 16, 2013 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes]

News Items [1]: How impressively easy it is to help in the search for extrasolar planets. Your host uses and critiques the website www.planethunters.org. [2]: Scott Nicholson, a horror author, is one more concrete example of how Amazon's Kindle program is giving authors far more control over their own careers.

Direct download: TFAY_2013_1_16.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:16am EDT

The Future And You -- January 9, 2013

Stephen Euin Cobb (your host) is today's speaker.

Topic: Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds is a careful and thorough estimation of what the future holds for us all on a global scale. This document is created every four years and presented to the President of the United States of America in the weeks before he is sworn into office. Your host reads snippets from its pages and summarises some of its predictions.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 9, 2013 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 38 minutes]

News Item #1: Newsweek has ceased publication as a print magazine and is now strictly an online magazine. December 31, 2012 was the last print issue of the magazine. If you didn't get a copy, check for it on eBay. It's bound to be a collectors item.

News Item #2: The entire run of Omni magazine is online and readable for free. Omni was a big beautiful glossy print magazine covering both science and science fiction which ran from 1978 to 1995. I used to subscribe to it myself--it was excellent. Its editor was the legendary science fiction author Ben Bova. I had the pleasure of interviewing him several times for past episodes of this show, as well as for a magazine feature article about his career. (You can listen to my interviews with Ben Bova in the following four episodes: August 26, 2009; September 2, 2009; October 20, 2010; October 27, 2010.)

Listener Email: Robert D. Edmonds, Jr. describes, in an unusually heartfelt email, why he is against autonomous cars: he enjoys driving at a fundamental level.

Direct download: TFAY_2013_1_9.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:27am EDT

The Future And You -- January 2, 2013

Stephen Euin Cobb (your host) is today's speaker.

Topic: Autonomous Cars (also known as driverless cars and self-driving vehicles). What they are; how they will change our lives; and especially the powerful forces which may accelerate their dominance of all roads and highways by mandating the elimination of human-driven cars.

Google's work on autonomous cars, and their recent lobbying for laws making them legal in Nevada, Florida and California. It's beginning to look as though autonomous cars might become available and popular within this decade. 

Source material mentioned in today's episode: A Wall Street Journal article dated Sept. 24, 2012, written by Dan Niel, which provides an excellent analysis of what autonomous cars are all about, effects they will have on our lives and on civilization, and forces which may propel them to dominate the road at a surprising rate. The NOVA documentary, The Great Robot Race (available in DVD and streaming format from Netflix) which details the 2004 and 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge to create an autonomous vehicle for the US military. And the 1976 novel A World Out of Time, by Larry Niven, which described autonomous cars in the deep future.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 2, 2013 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 33 minutes]

News Item: While at LibertyCon in Chattanooga a few months ago, I had the privilege of interviewing the convention's Literary Guest of Honor: the bestselling author Brandon Sanderson. This interview was different from the almost 400 I've done over the last seven years. This one was videotaped (in HD) by a professional. The professional, Derek Pearson who has been producing music videos for some time, was looking for a project to help him showcase his skills in videography as well as post production with the intention of moving his career into TV show production. The resulting video interview is now available online for your viewing pleasure, and at the traditional Internet price: Free.

Direct download: TFAY_2013_1_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:43pm EDT