The Future And You
Ideas and opinion about the future based on verifiable facts of today.
 
The Future And You--April 24, 2013

This is the 300th episode of The Future And You.

A hundred new predictions about the future from dozens of past guests, a few possible future guests, several listeners and an assortment of people actively building the future we are all going to live in.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 24, 2013 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 48 minutes].

And If you enjoy the many predictions in this episode you may also enjoy the 200th episode (May 25, 2011) which also contains over 100 predictions from past guests.

Direct download: TFAY_2013_4_24.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:05am EDT

Rudi Hoffman, the world's leading cryonics insurance provider, is today's featured guest.

You can too take it with you!  How combining cryonics and insurance can let you leave your million dollar insurance death benefit to yourself. It may allow you to wake up a century or two in the future, not just healthy but also wealthy. Cryonics is not just for today's rich. Ordinary people with moderate incomes can afford cryonic suspension by funding it with insurance.

Rudi also describes one of the principal enemies of the fledgling cryonics services: the powerful funeral industry. This is a David and Goliath story of a nationwide big-money operation trying to stamp out two tiny business facilities. One industry financed by millions of customers per year; the other by dozens. Hardly a fair fight.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 1, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 85 minutes]

Writing cryonic insurance since 1994, and with more than 80% of the world's market share, Rudi Hoffman is the world's leading cryonic insurance provider. He has been an insurance agent and professional financial planner since 1980. He is on the Board of Advisers for the Lifeboat Foundation, and is a Senior Associate with the Foresight Institute.

Direct download: TFAY_2008_10_1.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

SF authors David Brin and Joe Haldeman are among the guests, along with: the head of a nanotech org, a marketing consultant, a cryonic insurance provider, and the actress Robin Curtis, who played a Vulcan Starfleet officer in two Star Trek movies.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 11, 2006 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 79 minutes] 

Topics include:

[1] David Brin (bestselling author and scientist) warns that Righteous Indignation is an addictive high chemically similar to heroin, and also describes our civilization's unfounded Crisis of Confidence.

[2] Predicting the risks and potential misuse of nanotechnology's vast and marvelous future is the mission of CRN: the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology. CRN's Executive Director, Mike Treder, provides a heads-up.

[3] Another installment in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black.

[4] More powerful than propaganda, social marketing has been used to engineer changes in the beliefs and behaviours of entire populations, and has suceeded with surgical precision. David Pascal, a marketing consultant who specializes in social marketing, explains this power; as well as how it is used--and misused--in today's american politics.

[5] Technological Immortality: will we develop it in the next few decades? The award winning author Joe Haldeman shares a few thoughts on the subject.

[6] A few more thoughts on technological immortality; this time from Rudi Hoffman, the world's leading cryonics insurance provider.

[7] A listener's comments on the host's use of the word dead when referring to the cryopreserved.

[8] She worked with Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner and the rest of the cast of Star Trek. A celebrity interview with the actress Robin Curtis, who played the Vulcan Starfleet officer Lieutenant Saavik in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock as well as (the host's favorite of the Star Trek movies) Star Trek IV: The Journey Home.

Direct download: TFAY_2006_2_11.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:13pm EDT

SF authors Nancy Kress and Joe Haldeman are among the guests, as are: an astronomer, a recording label executive, a transhumanist, a cryonics insurance provider, two teenaged girls, and Pugsley and Wednesday from the beloved TV show The Addams Family.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 28, 2006 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 79 minutes] 

Topics include:

[1] As the internet slowly kills the old traditional recording labels, Magnatune (a new kind of label) is growing like a weed. John Buckman (Magnatune's founder and CEO) explains his company's strange motto: 'We are not evil.'

[2] The award winning science fiction author Nancy Kress talks about future medical advances, including the promise of, and the ongoing controversy over, stem cell research.

[3] An essay by your host on the probability that any extraterrestrial civilization we encounter will be near our scientific or technological level.

[4] The award winning science fiction author Joe Haldeman talks about faster than light travel (FTL), the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and mentions that some of his students at MIT have discovered exoplanets.

[5] Doctor Greg Matloff (astronomer, author and professor) also discusses the SETI program, as well as the problems that SETI scientists have when interpreting what appear to be genuine (but very brief) signals from intelligent aliens.

[6] The fourth installment in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black.

[7] Rudi Hoffman (the world's leading cryonics insurance provider) grapples with cryonics' thorniest theological problem: 'If human beings actually do have souls, will cryopreserved people be impossible to re-animate?'

[8] Noted transhumanist, Lionel Vogt, explains why he believes that when AI (artificial intelligence) is finally a reality it will produce an explosion of technological advancement that is impossible for us to imagine today.

[9] A listener disagrees with the host's essay on cryonics from the previous episode.

[10] Halo Parties, fuzzy shoes, and the insistence that 'Final Fantasy will never die.' Two teenaged girls (Aliese, age 15; and Amber, 14) describe the strange trends and rising fads within their youthful universe.

[11] Was that Lurches real voice? And whose hand was it that played Thing? A double celebrity interview with Ken Weatherwax and Lisa Loring: Pugsley and Wednesday from the beloved old TV show The Addams Family.

Direct download: TFAY_2006_1_28.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:50pm EDT

SF author Nancy Kress, a cryonic insurance provider, an astronomer, and an actor from Star Trek and Sliders are amoung the guests.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 1, 2006 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 68 minutes] 

Topics include:

[1] The genetic engineering of human beings (an interview with the award winning science fiction author Nancy Kress).

[2] Cryonics: how to leave your money (even your big life insurance death benefit) to your frozen dead body (an interview with Rudi Hoffman--the Worlds Leading Cryonics Insurance Provider).

[3] The second chapter in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black.

[4] Trends within the movie industry (an interview with a theater manager).

[5] How soon are we likely to build faster than light space craft? (an interview with Doctor Greg Matloff: astronomer, author, professor and a consultant for NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center).

[6] A celebrity interview with the actor Jerry Rector who has performed on Star Trek, NYPD Blue and Sliders.

Direct download: TFAY_2006_1_1.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:17pm EDT

SF author M.M.Buckner, an astronomer, a cryonic insurance provider, an actor from StarGate SG-1, and a dealer in antiques and fine art are amoung the guests.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 15, 2005 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 118 minutes] 

Topics include:

[1] Predictability: an essay on what is and what is not predictable.

[2] How long until we find a second earth? Doctor Greg Matloff (astronomer, author and professor) talks about the more than 160 exoplanets found so far.

[3] The power of eBay. (An interview with a dealer in antiques and fine art; and another with a dealer in collectables.)

[4] How you can buy cryonic insurance. (An interview with Rudi Hoffman, the world's leading cryonics insurance provider.)

[5] Global warming: is it real or just part of the normal interglacial? (An interview with M.M.Buckner, author of the science fiction novels Hyperthought, Neurolink and WarSurf)

[6] Illegal copying and bootlegging of movies: the methods, problems, and one theater chain's corporate response. (An interview with a theater manager.)

[7] The first installment in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black.

[8] A celebrity interview with actor Gary Jones of Stargate SG-1.

Direct download: TFAY_2005_12.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:27pm EDT