The Future And You
Ideas and opinion about the future based on verifiable facts of today.
 

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 authors Joe Haldeman and Nancy Kress, a transhumanist, a physicist, and Jason's mother from Friday The 13th are amoung the guests.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 15, 2006 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 79 minutes]

Topics include:

[1] Nanotechnological invisibility is being developed at MIT and is described by the award winning science fiction author Joe Haldeman, along with his personal feelings about cryonics, and his vision that, once they are developed, computers wired directly into the human brain may sweep the developed world as quickly as cell phones since those without them will be at a competative disadvantage.

[2] A new device which will allow planets orbiting other stars to be seen and studied by blotting out the light of the star which they orbit. Professor Grover Swartzlander of the University of Arizona in Tucson explains his invention.

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

[4] Award winning science fiction author Nancy Kress explains the growing controvercy over the genetic engineering of crops, or as they call them in europe FrankenFoods.

[5] Trends within the movie theater industry; revenues are down, but popcorn sales are up.

[6] A personal essay in which the show's host describes his mixed feelings about cryonics, entitled: 'Why I may not want cryonics afterall.'

[7] Transhumanist, Lionel Vogt, describes aspects of day-to-day life in the deep future such as the fear of living forever.

[8] A celebrity interview with Betsy Palmer who played Jason's mother (the axe-murdering, Mrs. Voorhees) in the original movie Friday The 13th.

Direct download: TFAY_2006_1_15.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:42pm EDT