The Future And You
Ideas and opinion about the future based on verifiable facts of today.
 
The Future And You--April 27, 2016

Timothy Baughman (professional Network Security Analyst & Master of Information Security) is our featured guest.

Topics: if quantum computers become publicly available, and are as powerful as we are told they will be, all of everyone's past encrypted secrets will be revealed to anyone who wishes to read them--emails, banking transactions, Silk Road purchases, the entire Darknet, and any money laundering hidden within the bitcoin blockchain. Future encryptions will be secure (at least for a while) but every previously encrypted file and document that is findable on the Internet will be laid bare. If you have ever done something that you shouldn't, and you are counting on encryption to keep your secret forever, you need to think again.

Also, accuracy of the computer hacking on the TV show Mr. Robot; methods hackers use to get your password; how little protection is provided by a fully encrypted hard drive; and why the hardest part of the computer security profession is "securing the human."

Also, the browser named Opera has announced that it will include VPN (virtual private network) as a default feature, and so your host speculates that this may soon prompt ALL browsers to include VPN.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 27, 2016 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes]

Stephen Euin Cobb has interviewed over 350 people for his work as an author, futurist, magazine writer, ghostwriter, and award-winning podcaster. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. For the last ten years he has produced a weekly podcast, The Future And You, which explores (through interviews, panel discussions and commentary) all the ways the future will be different from today. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. Stephen is the author of an ebook about the future entitled: Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science.

Direct download: TFAY_2016_4_27.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 9:45pm EDT

The Future And You--April 20, 2016

Topics: Stephen Hawking and the Russian billionaire, Yuri Milner, want to send hundreds of tiny space probes to solar systems around other stars (exactly as Dr. Philip Lubin described to me a few months ago in the December 16, 2015 episode.) The project is called Breakthrough Starshot.

Also: a Genetically Modified Mushroom will bypass GMO food rules through a regulatory loophole; IBM's Watson will advise and consult with cancer patients as well as with doctors; a British hospital live-streamed a surgery in virtual reality; insulin-making cells can be efficiently generated according to researchers at the Salk Institute; Blue CareOnDemand (from Blue Cross, Blue Shield) allows smartphone users access to a personal medical consultation with a doctor or nurse 24 hours a day any day of the year, for a price; Windows XP still powers 181 million computers around the world, which means it is more popular than all Apple computers combined. (Wake up, people. XP hasn't been supported for over two years. You are vulnerable to hackers. Upgrade to something.); and a listener email from Joseph.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 20, 2016 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 30 minutes]

Stephen Euin Cobb has interviewed over 350 people for his work as an author, futurist, magazine writer, ghostwriter, and award-winning podcaster. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. For the last ten years he has produced a weekly podcast, The Future And You, which explores (through interviews, panel discussions and commentary) all the ways the future will be different from today. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. Stephen is the author of an ebook about the future entitled: Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science.

Direct download: TFAY_2016_4_20.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:26pm EDT

The Future And You--April 13, 2016

Topics: the free website, FlightRadar24 shows where on the map jetliners are in real-time all around the globe; scientists store digital data, including a photo of a cat, in DNA they created themselves; Samsung's patents reveal their plans for an augmented reality device built into contact lenses; giant whistle-blowing leaks like the Panama Papers are likely to grow progressively larger and more frequent in the future; the impact on your life and on civilization of the coming rise of self-driving big-rig trucks; and a new metal foam one inch thick disintegrates armor piercing bullets.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 13, 2016 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 32 minutes]

Stephen Euin Cobb has interviewed over 350 people for his work as an author, futurist, magazine writer, ghostwriter, and award-winning podcaster. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. For the last ten years he has produced a weekly podcast, The Future And You, which explores (through interviews, panel discussions and commentary) all the ways the future will be different from today. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. Stephen is the author of an ebook about the future entitled: Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science.

Direct download: TFAY_2016_4_13.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:15pm EDT

The Future And You--April 6, 2016

Topics: how the arrival of quantum computers may reveal to the world all your past secrets, since anyone who owns one will be able to crack all of today's current encryptions; cloaking the earth from hostile aliens using lasers, not only will not work, it would actually broadcast our location instead; mind-transfer methods depicted in the recent movie Self/less; Microsoft is committed to AI and bots, despite the recent catastrophic failure of the chatbot named "Tay"; and Microsoft has created a Star Wars-style holographic communication.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 6, 2016 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes]

Stephen Euin Cobb has interviewed over 350 people for his work as an author, futurist, magazine writer, ghostwriter, and award-winning podcaster. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. For the last ten years he has produced a weekly podcast, The Future And You, which explores (through interviews, panel discussions and commentary) all the ways the future will be different from today. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. Stephen is the author of an ebook about the future entitled: Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science.

Direct download: TFAY_2016_4_6.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:02pm EDT