The Future And You
Ideas and opinion about the future based on verifiable facts of today.
 
December 30, 2009 Episode

Five engineers and scientists experienced in large scale electrical energy production are today's featured guests.

Topics: how California's energy follies have damaged Oregon and Washington State; why making fuel out of food may be the dumbest idea the US has ever pursued; why the US has not been building nuclear power plants even though France now uses them to generate almost 80% of its electricity, so much that France frequently exports electricity to its neighboring nations; potential problems with 'cap and trade'; and the astounding--and yet mandated--federal energy planning model which insists that oil will deflate in price by almost 2% per year for the next 30 years.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 30, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 11, 2009 at LibertyCon in Chattanooga TN.

The five panel members included:
Robert G. Kennedy
(author and engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory);
Tom Trumpinski (physical chemist, formerly of Fermi Lab, and science writer);
Dan Hoyt (programmer in the field of rocket science, and science fiction writer);
Kenneth I. Roy (author and engineer with the US Department of Energy);
Tim Bolgeo (electrical engineer, retired from The Tennessee Vally Authority. Also founder and chairman of LibertyCon in Chattanooga, where he is affectionately known as Uncle Timmy).

Special thanks go to the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company for the use of their mics, sound board, and sound man; as well as to Derek Spraker (a LibertyCon organizer) who arranged for ARTC's assistance.

Direct download: TFAY_2009_12_30.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

December 23, 2009 Episode

Five engineers and scientists experienced in large scale electrical energy production are today's featured guests.

Topics: The many struggles, controversies, incidents and allegations, as well as the political and financial problems facing America's power plants and electrical grid. Also: rolling blackouts, why California has more energy problems than any other state, environmentalism's impact, work-a-rounds and fail-safes, the selling of byproducts, and a wide variety of behind the scene facts most of the public has never heard. This discussion forum was entitled The Green Energy Panel, but in truth covered many related energy topics.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 23, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 46 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 11, 2009 at LibertyCon in Chattanooga TN.

The five panel members included:
Robert G. Kennedy
(author and engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory);
Tom Trumpinski (physical chemist, formerly of Fermi Lab, and science writer);
Daniel M. Hoyt (programmer in the field of rocket science, and a science fiction writer);
Kenneth I. Roy (author and engineer with the US Department of Energy);
Tim Bolgeo (electrical engineer retired from The Tennessee Valley Authority. He is also the founder and chairman of LibertyCon in Chattanooga, where he is affectionately known as Uncle Timmy).

Special thanks go to the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company for the use of their mics, sound board, and sound man; as well as to Derek Spraker (a LibertyCon organizer and friend of the host) who arranged for ARTC's assistance.

Direct download: TFAY_2009_12_23.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

December 16, 2009 Episode

Fourth Anniversary Episode; featuring a year in review, behind the scene tidbits, and miscellaneous commentary by the host.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 16, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 37 minutes] (For the third time in four years, the host is also the guest.)

News Item: Stephen Euin Cobb was given a tiny cameo in Stuart Gibbon's first professional short story sale. Inspired by discussions about Second Life and Digital People which occurred on The Future And You during 2007 and 2008, the story is titled Proof of Life and was in the Oct/Nov issue of Cosmos Magazine. Cosmos is an award winning magazine sold on newsstands in all the English-speaking nations. Its offices are in Australia, but it is marketed internationally.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_12_16.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

December 9, 2009 Episode Andrew Hessel (biologist, author and co-founder of the Pink Army Cooperative) is today's featured guest.

Topics: how new drugs have been developed during the last few decades; why these processes cost so much; and how it may be possible to use open source techniques to develop new drugs faster, cheaper, better, and targeted for patients individually. This is the focus of the Pink Army Cooperative.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 9, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 23 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

Andrew Hessel, is a consulting biologist and author interested in synthetic biology and open source biology. He advocates the use of open source for writing DNA code. In software development, open source has led to robust code, highly skilled developer communities, and non-monopolistic pricing — in other words, good things for end users. If the same results can be achieved in genome engineering, open source could potentially create a more diversified and sustainable biotechnology industry.

He earned his MSc. in bacterial genomics from the University of Calgary in 1995. He joined the Amgen Institute, a 120 person research facility located in Toronto, Canada, where he facilitated dozens of advanced research projects involving microarrays, genetic sequence analysis, and data mining. Today, the Institute, no longer affiliated with Amgen, is known as the Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research. In 2002, he cofounded Miikana Therapeutics and helped create the virtual business model they successfully used. Miikana was sold to Entremed in December, 2005 for $21 million plus milestones.

Since 2003, he has worked to raise awareness about the potential benefits of synthetic biology and open source biology. His efforts have been supported by the University of Oklahoma, the University of Toronto, MIT, and most recently, the Alberta Ingenuity Fund. His ongoing goal is to help create an open source biotechnology company that specializes in individually personalized cancer therapeutics.

Direct download: TFAY_2009_12_9.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

December 2, 2009 Episode

Aaron Franz and Carlos A. Mejia (a documentary film-making team) are today's featured guests.

Aaron and Carlos are anti-transhumanism activists who have joined forces to create a documentary explaining the potential negative effects of transhumanism on the future of civilization in general, and on our individual lives in particular.

Topics: Artificial Intelligence and The Singularity, Human Augmentation (especially the augmentation of connecting the Internet directly to the human mind), and their worry that we may have already gone too far. They also describe their documentary and their production company: TransAlchemy.com.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 2, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 29 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 3, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_12_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

November 25, 2009 Episode

Doctor Gregory L. Matloff, C Bangs and Keith Comito are today's featured guests.

Doctor Gregory L. Matloff is an astronomer, author and professor; C Bangs is a professional artist and author; and Keith Comito is a mathematician, programmer and founder of OmegaSoft  which produces games and apps for the iPhone.

Topics: The future in general but also, extending human longevity, artificial intelligence, the Singularity, augmenting the human body and mind, the Fermi paradox, iPhone apps (such as Orbus which mimics an AI), and Michelle Phan who has become a celebrity on YouTube for her makeup tutorials.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the November 25, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 26 minutes] (These  interviews were recorded on October 3 and 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

Michelle Phan (BTW) has also posted helpful and clever tutorial videos on things that have nothing to do with makeup, such as how to use a black tee shirt to become a ninja in only 30 seconds, and how to stretch shoes that are too tight by placing Ziploc bags in them that are half-filled with water and putting them in the freezer overnight. Brilliant stuff.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_11_25.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

November 18, 2009 Episode

Peter Nygard (the internationally famous fashion designer) is today's featured guest.

Topics: how technology has transformed the fashion industry; and the pivotal role he played in the beginning and final negotiation of NAFTA. Also, as I interviewed him, my assistant Peggy Gregory noticed that his leather jacket bore the seal of the president of the United States of America. Asking about this, he explained that President Bush Senior--while visiting him on his island--took it off and gave it to him in return for one of his designer T-Shirts.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the November 18, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 26 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

Peter Nygard is a fashion designer who's clothing, accessories, and home fashions can be found in Sears, Dillard's and countless other well known stores around the world. Enjoying a long and prosperous career, he owns a private island in the Bahamas called Nygard Key where he built a resort style mansion with a staff of 20, and owns a 133 feet long 727 as his private jet. He is friend to presidents, prime ministers, and celebrities of every media--TV, movies, music and print.

This episode is dedicated with special thanks to Greta Blackburn (an actress who appeared in many TV shows in the 80s and 90s such as Three’s Company and Dynasty, and several movies such as 48 Hrs and Yellowbeard, as well as the original version of the mini-series V). While I was busy interviewing futurists, Greta introduced my assistant Peggy to several noteworthy people we would have otherwise missed. One was Noel Patton of T.A. Sciences and another was today's guest, her friend, Peter Nygard. Greta was so modest that (though I kept thinking she looked familiar) I had no idea of her fame until I got home and looked her up online. If I had realized I would have asked her for an interview too.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_11_18.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

November 11, 2009 Episode

Ari Kiirikki, Vice President of Knome Inc. (the world's leading provider of personal DNA sequencing) is today's featured guest.

Topics: how you can have your entire DNA sequenced; the rate at which this expensive procedure is growing in popularity; how soon it will drop below $1000 (and may even reach $100); the new diagnostic powers general practitioners will gain using personalized DNA sequencing; cases in which the accidental discovery of extreme human genotypes have produced new drug therapies; why this technology will make the discovery of these extreme human genotypes far more common by making them far less random; speculation on ways widespread personal DNA sequencing might change online dating services; and how Knome Inc. is working to make personal DNA sequencing increasingly affordable and yet keep this data in the hands of the person whose DNA it is, and not in any database anywhere.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the November 11, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 20 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_11_11.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

November 4, 2009 Episode

Noel Patton (founder of T.A. Sciences) is today's featured guest.

Topic: A product available today which may extend human lives well beyond traditional limits. Specifically what this product is, how it functions within living cells, and some of the scientific and medical research verifying its effectiveness.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the November 4, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 23 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

The product is called TA-65™ and is an enzyme (a single molecule) that activates telomerase. Discovered in 2001 by the California bio-tech company Geron, in 2002 it was licensed by T.A. Sciences. Telemerase reverses the normal loss of telemeres which occurs each time cells divide throughout a human life and which sets a limit (called the Hayflick limit) on the number of times human body cells can divide, and consequently how long a human can live.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_11_4.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

October 28, 2009 Episode

Eliezer Yudkowsky (co-founder and research fellow of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence) is today's featured guest.

Topics: the Singularity and the creation of Friendly AI; his estimate of the probability of success in making a Friendly AI; and why achieving AI using evolutionary software might be monumentally dangerous. He also talks about human rationality, such as: the percentage of humans today who can be considered rational; his own efforts to increase that number; how the listener can seek the path to greater rationality in his or her own thinking; the benefits of greater rationality; and the amount of success that can be expected in this pursuit.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 28, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 30 minutes] (This interview was recorded on October 4, 2009 at the Singularity Summit in New York City.)

Eliezer Yudkowsky is an artificial intelligence researcher concerned with the Singularity, and an advocate of Friendly Artificial Intelligence. He is the author of The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence publications Creating Friendly AI (2001) and Levels of Organization in General Intelligence (2002). His most recent academic contributions include two chapters in Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom's edited volume Global Catastrophic Risks.

Aside from research, he is also notable for his explanations of technical subjects in non-academic language, particularly on rationality, such as his article An Intuitive Explanation of Bayesian Reasoning. Also, along with Robin Hanson, he was one of the principal contributors to the blog Overcoming Bias sponsored by the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. In early 2009, he helped to found LessWrong.com, a community blog devoted to refining the art of human rationality.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_10_28.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

October 21, 2009 Episode

Michael Vassar and Michael Anissimov are today's featured guests. (Both are interviewed in their capacity as organizers of the Singularity Summit 2009 held earlier this month in New York City.)

Topics: the Singularity and artificial intelligence in general, and this year's Singularity Summit conference in particular. Also: the limits of human reasoning, public resistance to the Singularity, and trends within the transhumanist community.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 21, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 27 minutes]

Michael Vassar is President of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence and is responsible for the organization of the Singularity Summit. He has held positions with the Peace Corps and with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He writes and speaks on topics relating to the safe development of disruptive technologies. His papers include the Lifeboat Foundation analysis of the risks of advanced molecular manufacturing (which he co-authored with Robert Freitas) and Corporate Cornucopia, which he authored for the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology Task Force. He holds an M.B.A. from Drexel University and a B.S. in biochemistry from Penn State.

Michael Anissimov writes and speaks on futurist issues, especially the relationships between accelerating change, nanotechnology, existential risk, transhumanism and the Singularity. His blog Accelerating Future has had over 4 million visits. He co-founded the non-profit Immortality Institute, the first organization focused on the abolition of nonconsensual death. He has worked or volunteered for, the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, The Methuselah Foundation, The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, and the Lifeboat Foundation. He has given talks to audiences at technology and philosophy conferences in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and at Yale University. A leading voice on the technological Singularity, he was quoted multiple times in Ray Kurzweil's 2005 book The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. He was profiled in the May 2007 issue of Psychology Today.

Michael Anissimov was the featured guest in The Future And You episode for the week of March 5, 2008. That episode (like all past episodes) is still available for your listening pleasure.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_10_21.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

October 14, 2009 Episode

Gregory Benford and Aubrey de Grey (who both spoke at the Singularity Summit held earlier this month in New York City) are interviewed, as well as two attendees of this singular event which is so intently focused on the future.

Topics: the Singularity and artificial intelligence in general, and this year's Singularity Summit conference in particular. (The goal of this episode, in addition to being informative, is to provide a little of the convention's feel and mood--and if possible--it's energy.) Other related topics include life extension and mind uploading.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 14, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 25 minutes]

Doctor Gregory Benford is a Nebula award winning science fiction author. He has a doctorate in astrophysics, and is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California. 

Doctor Aubrey de Grey is a medical doctor known for his work in promoting human life extension. He is an author and theoretician in the field of gerontology, and the Chief Science Officer of the Methuselah Foundation. He has been interviewed by 60 Minutes, the BBC, the New York Times, Fortune Magazine, the Washington Post, TED, Popular Science--even by Stephen Colbert for his comedy show The Colbert Report.

News Items include my activities at the Singularity Summit, such as people I met, talked with, ate with, and had ice cream with. The short version is that I had a lot of fun and met a lot of cool and exciting people, the long version contains considerably more detail.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_10_14.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

October 7, 2009 Episode

Nathan P. Butler (a professional educator with eight years of teaching experience) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Why teachers are encouraged to give kids about five hours of homework everyday. Ways in which kids are different today thanks to the technologies they've grown up with, and how those same technologies are changing the teaching methods used in the classroom. Ways in which atheism is encouraged in children by public schools since teaching it openly is not allowed. The balancing act of just how much religion must be avoided when teaching human history.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 7, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes]

Nathan P. Butler holds a 'Masters in Education with a Specialization in Integrating Technology in the Classroom.' He is also a groundbreaking podcaster, having been a podcaster years before podcasting had a name or a standardized means of distribution. He is also a mover and shaker in Star Wars Fandom through his work in with ChronoRadio and StarWarsFanworks, and for having written an exhaustive thousand-page-long chronology of the Star Wars universe which is titled 'Star Wars Timeline Gold.'

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_10_7.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

September 30, 2009 Episode

Nathan P. Butler (a professional educator with eight years of teaching experience) is today's featured guest.

Topics: trends in teaching in public schools; how one problem student can prevent an entire class from learning; whether or not smarter kids are being ignored to help slower kids; as well as trends in teacher's unions, merit pay, voucher systems and No Child Left Behind.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 30, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 43 minutes]

Nathan P. Butler holds a 'Masters in Education with a Specialization in Integrating Technology in the Classroom.' He is also a groundbreaking podcaster, having been a podcaster years before podcasting had a name or a standardized means of distribution. He is also a mover and shaker in Star Wars Fandom through his work in with ChronoRadio and StarWarsFanworks, and for having written an exhaustive thousand-page-long chronology of the Star Wars universe which is titled 'Star Wars Timeline Gold.'

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_9_30.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

September 23, 2009 Episode

Three Biotech Researchers (two geneticists and one agronomist) are today's featured guests.

Topics: problems involved in engineering a virus to kill a specific race or sex of human beings; genetics involved in regrowing human limbs for amputees; how we've made corn fields increase their yield ten-fold since the 1940s; exactly why US Stimulus Package money is so slow at get into research; why the Malthusian theory, in which exponential population growth produces mass starvation, has lost its validity; why some of our crops have become clones without a natural genetic diversity; how some crops have become dependant on us for survival; and how the Monsanto corporation has grown to dominate American agriculture.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 23, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 44 minutes] (This discussion panel was recorded in front of a live audience on July 11, 2009 at LiberyCon in Chattanooga Tennessee.)

Dr. Diane Mucci, formerly with the National Institute of Health (NIH), is currently a full time professor of biotechnology, and has a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, and Microbiology. Cathy Smith is an insect molecular geneticist with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). And Gary Shelton is an agronomist with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_9_23.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

September 16, 2009 Episode

Three Biotech Researchers (two geneticists and one agronomist) are today's featured guests.

Dr. Diane Mucci, formerly with the National Institute of Health (NIH), is currently a full time professor of biotechnology and has a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, and Microbiology. Cathy Smith is an insect molecular geneticist with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). And Gary Shelton is an agronomist with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Topics: the future of our food supply; genetically modified crops; the good and bad trends in pest control; genetic and other methods used to increase crop production per acre and the trade offs involved in each; why organic farming methods cannot be scaled up to industrial levels sufficient to feed the world; ongoing research in the genetic control of insects and specifically how genetic methods are used to control insect pests; why insects have no blood; safety measures used in genetics labs; why a gene gun resembles a shot gun; transgenic plants; the future of neutracuticals; and how the human genome project is being expanded to include other species useful to our survival.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 16, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 45 minutes] (This discussion panel was recorded in front of a live audience on July 11, 2009 at LiberyCon in Chattanooga Tennessee.)

BTW: An ethanol re-education class is mentioned repeatedly--with a great deal of sarcasm. This does not refer to Alcoholics Anonymous but to the push that was going on within the US government to promote the idea of using ethanol made from corn to replace or supplement gasoline in automobiles. This is the notorious project that forced the price of corn around the world to double, producing an unexpected amount of hunger among people who rely on corn-based foods, such as tortillas, as their prime sustenance. Public sentiment has since shifted away from this idea.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_9_16.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

September 9, 2009 Episode

Stephanie Osborn (author and former NASA payload flight controller) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Space Shuttle flights and the International Space Station; her work in astronaut training, and what it is that a payload flight controller does; Space Camp--the actual camp (where she herself taught) and how the real thing differs from the movie of the same name; her friend, the astronaut Kalpana Chawla; the technical side of what happened to cause seven astronauts to die in the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster; and a little about her novels (such as Burnout) which are based on her experience in the space program.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 9, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 48 minutes] (This interview was recorded on July 11, 2009 at LiberyCon in Chattanooga Tennessee.)

Stephanie Osborn is a former payload flight controller, with over twenty years experience in civilian and military space programs. She has worked on numerous Space Shuttle flights and the International Space Station. As part of her work, she trained astronauts, and one of those astronauts was Kalpana Chawla (known to her friends by her initials: K.C.). Kalpana Chawla was one of the seven astronauts who died in 2003 when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during reentry from earth orbit. Today, Stephanie is retired from space work. She tutors students in math and science from elementary school through college and writes science fiction mysteries based on her knowledge, experience and travels.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_9_9.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

September 2, 2009 Episode

Dr. Ben Bova (author of more than 115 books about science and science fiction) is today's featured guest.

Topics: his work advising Woody Allen for the movie Sleeper; anecdotes about his friends Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, and Gene Roddenberry; his writing an episode of Land of the Lost; his work with George Lucas; and the time he was on Good Morning America with Jim Henson, Kermit the frog and (first baseman for the Dodgers) Steve Garvey.

He also describes Joseph Stalin's insistence on building the world's first big rockets (big enough to carry the early nuclear weapons to the other side of the world); how this prompted John F. Kennedy to proclaim the famous Missile Gap; and lead to General Bernard Schriever's involvement in space, and the growing renown of Wernher von Braun. He also talks about high-powered gas dynamic lasers as defencive weapons against incoming nuclear missiles; how solar power satellites can solve humanity's energy needs; his own expectations of robots in war and in peace; the polarization of American politics; the future of space business, tourism and colonization; and the 1973 TV show The Starlost.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 2, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 48 minutes] This is the second half of the interview with Dr. Bova recorded on July 12, 2009.

Ben Bova is an award-winning author of more than 115 books of fiction and nonfiction. He has been involved in science and technology since the birth if the space age, and has worked with film makers and television producers such as Woody Allen, George Lucas, and Gene Roddenberry. He is President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was editor of Analog Science Fiction magazine for seven years.  After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni Magazine. He has been the science analyst on CBS Morning News, and has appeared frequently on Good Morning America and The Today Show.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_9_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

August 26, 2009 Episode

Dr. Ben Bova (author of more than 115 books about science and science fiction) is today's featured guest.

Topics: extreme human longevity, which Dr. Bova expects and endorses; why lasers are the ultimate weapon of defense against incoming missiles, and why the U.S. won't be defended by them until after the Obama Administration is out of office.

He also describes his participation in the Vanguard Rocket program just before and just after the Russians shocked the United States out of complacency by placing humanity's first satellite into earth orbit; his work popularizing science and science fiction while at Omni and Analog Magazines, as well as in his Grand Tour series of novels about human civilization spreading out from earth and colonizing our solar system; and some of the now-famous authors he discovered in the slush pile while they were yet unpublished, such as Orson Scott Card and Spider Robinson.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 26, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 40 minutes] (This interview was recorded on July 12, 2009 at LiberyCon in Chattanooga Tennessee where Dr. Bova was the convention's Literary Guest of Honor.)

Ben Bova is an award-winning author of more than 115 books of fiction and nonfiction. He has been involved in science and technology since the birth if the space age, and has worked with film makers and television producers such as Woody Allen, George Lucas, and Gene Roddenberry. He is President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was editor of Analog Science Fiction magazine for seven years.  After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni Magazine. He has been the science analyst on CBS Morning News, and has appeared frequently on Good Morning America and the Today show.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_8_26.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

August 19, 2009 Episode

José Cordeiro (author, researcher, professor, futurist, consultant and world traveler) is today's guest.

Topics: José Cordeiro's lectures at World Future 2009; The Singularity University (his involvement, its goals, and plans for its future expansion); his idea that 'Transhumanists are the futurists among the futurists'; the struggle schools all around the world are having trying to keep up with the ongoing information revolution and the success Finland's school system is seeing with a version of Life Long Learning. He also talks about: extreme human longevity, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and other revolutionary technologies we will likely see.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 19, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 40 minutes] (This interview was recorded on July 18, 2009 at the Chicago Hilton during the World Future Society's annual convention where he was giving several presentations.)

José Luis Cordeiro is former director of the World Transhumanist Association, and of the Extropy Institute, and of the Venezuela Chapter of the Club of Rome. He is founder and president of the Venezuela Chapter of the World Future Society, co-founder of the Venezuelan Transhumanist Association, chair of the Venezuelan Node of the Millennium Project of the American Council of the United Nations University (UNU), advisor to the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, and a member of the Academic Committee of the Center for the Dissemination of Economic Knowledge (CEDICE).

Born in Caracas, Venezuela of European parents, José Cordeiro has studied, visited and worked in over 130 countries on five continents. His Bachelors and Masters degrees are in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has worked extensively in Africa, Europe and the Americas, and currently lives in Asia.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_8_19.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

August 12, 2009 Episode

Young-sook Park 박영숙 (South Korean diplomat, author, and futurist) is today's guest.

Dr. Young-sook Park is Chair of the United Nation's Millennium Project in Korea, Chair of the Korean Chapter of the World Future Society, President of the Korean Foster Care Association, Senior Advisor for the Australian Embassy in Seoul, and a member of the World Transhumanist Association. She has been a teacher, a lecturer, a freelance journalist, a diplomat, and is the author of more than 22 books.

Topics: the massive chaos the South Korean government is expecting and preparing for when Kim Jong-il 김정일(North Korea's dictator) finally dies; how South Korea's prosperity is threatened by its ongoing population decline--which is greater than that of any other nation on earth today; why so many South Korean young people are attending college in the U.S. and Europe and after graduation are not returning to the land of their birth; as well as many other social political and technological trends involving the two Koreas, China, and the United States.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 12, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes]

This interview was recorded on July 18, 2009 at the Chicago Hilton during the World Future Society's annual convention where Dr. Park was speaking.

Direct download: TFAY_2009_8_12.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

August 5, 2009 Episode

Timothy C. Mack (President of the World Future Society) is today's guest.

The World Future Society is a nonprofit, nonpartisan scientific and educational association of people interested in how social and technological developments are shaping the future. The society works as a neutral clearinghouse for ideas about the future. These ideas include forecasts, recommendations, and alternative scenarios concerning the next 5, 10, or more years. Founded in 1966, the society is chartered as a nonprofit educational and scientific organization in Washington, D.C.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 5, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 44 minutes]

Timothy C. Mack is an attorney (a member of the New York and the District of Columbia bars). He has served as general counsel, consultant, and lobbyist for corporations, associations, non-profit organizations, and governmental groups struggling with cultural, technological and market issues worldwide. He has held research positions at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the US National Academy of Sciences.

He has also served on the Budget Policy Task Force at the US General Accounting Office and on the Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based non-profit group offering marketing, financial and technology services to new and innovative companies. As a change consultant, he has assisted the US General Services Agency and the US Department of Defense in developing strategic planning and change management strategies for innovation enhancement, privatization of public services, superfund clean up and transportation planning.

Since 1985, Timothy C. Mack has edited Futures Research Quarterly, the oldest and most respected professional journal in the foresight area. He has published numerous books and articles on trend analysis, and is currently writing a book on the social and economic impacts of the Internet on modern society and the global economy.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_8_5.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

July 29, 2009 Episode

Nathan P. Butler (a professional educator with eight years of classroom teaching experience) is today's featured guest.

Topics: now that the flood gates of information are open wide (sometimes referred to as the Internet) we are all swimming in information so deep we can't see the bottom.  How this info-flood has changed schools and teaching and students and teachers and homework--even changed what is taught and how it is taught. The struggles teachers face in keeping up with these changes; the struggles students face in an always-online world; the rising importance of context over content; and the mixed bag of good and bad results from all this change.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 29, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 40 minutes]

Nathan P. Butler holds a 'Masters in Education with a Specialization in Integrating Technology in the Classroom.' He is also a groundbreaking podcaster, having been a podcaster years before podcasting had a name or a standardized means of distribution. He is also a mover and shaker in Star Wars Fandom through his work with ChronoRadio and StarWarsFanworks, and for having written an exhaustive thousand-page-long chronology of the Star Wars universe which is titled Star Wars Timeline Gold.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_7_29.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

July 22, 2009 Episode

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

Topics: why Islamic fundamentalists feel threatened by the dominance of the Internet today, just as Christian fundamentalists felt threatened by the dominance of TV in the 1960s; now that online dating is a highly profitable business, how dating sites may try to change cultural ideas and habits about dating to stretch those dating years into a lifelong lifestyle to maximize their profits; why Internet technology may have more to do with fashion than with the 'needs' people have (or think they have); how technology is helping people to come together on a global basis and become more of a world community; also: cell phones, global warming and Second Life.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 22, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 36 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_2009_7_22.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

July 15, 2009 Episode

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

Topics: his experience in AI research in the early 1990s; his PhD in sociology and the results of his sociological research inside Second Life; the importance of gender roles in the real world and in virtual worlds; ways to find answers to specific questions online; web page rankings and the google algorithms; and is the Internet is increasing or decreasing global acceptance of diversity?

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 15, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 37 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_2009_7_15.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

July 8, 2009 Episode

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

Topics: powerful software which is totally free to download and use (such as: Open Office, Gimp, and Ubuntu); Web 3.0 verses 2.0; the buzzword The Cloud and what it means to users; trends in Microsoft Office and its global popularity; and the overwhelming reason why users have not adopted Linux even though it is excellent and free.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 8, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 30 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_2009_7_8.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

July 1, 2009 Episode

Robert Hooker (an Information Technology professional living in London) is our featured guest.

Topics: trends in England and Europe compared to the USA especially involving cell phones, Internet connections, and other technologies. Robert also talks about: the lack of national unity in the UK; bigotry and prejudice in Europe against non-European immigrants and against Eastern Europeans; how globalization is changing Europe (for good and bad); why the impact of China and India are large but completely different; and his observations of trends in North Africa based on the time he spend living in a suburb of Tunis, Tunisia.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 1, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 37 minutes]

Robert Hooker has a Bachelors in Cognitive Sciences  from the University of Chicago and a Masters 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_2009_7_1.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

June 24, 2009 Episode

Tom Atwood (Editor-in-Chief of Robot Magazine) is our featured guest.

Topics: the latest in 3D displays for TV and for video games; self-fueling robots; robots in warfare now and in the near future; robots as smart weapons; robotic fighter jets; educational robots; robotic dance competitions; fighting methods used by TV battle robots; diversity of robotic body styles; and getting started in robotics without much money or without having to build your robot.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 24, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 32 minutes]

Robot Magazine covers every aspect of the rapidly exploding field of robots. It has 'how-to' for robot hobbyists, 'what's going on' for robot enthusiasts and 'what's innovative' for tech and engineering professionals. Strong on education, it offers parents, teachers and kids guidance on using and playing with the latest consumer, toy and hobby robots that serve as educational tools and recreational fun. Every issue is full of hundreds of full color photos of robotic fun, gee whiz and hands on experience.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_6_24.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

June 17, 2009 Episode

Tom Atwood (Editor-in-Chief of Robot Magazine) is our featured guest.

Topics: the astounding progress being made in all areas of robotics such as: how vacuum cleaning robots are getting improved house-mapping abilities; what's happening in artificial intelligence for robots; trends in Japanese robots; the brilliant new way in which robots are being used in physical therapy for post-operative patients; and which needs to advance more to put robots to work in our homes as cooks, house cleaners, gardeners and laundry workers -- artificial intelligence or the basic mechanics of robotic bodies.

Tom Atwood also talks about his conversation with Sebastian Thrun of Stanford University, winner of the Second DARPA Grand Challenge, about how Sabastian's team programmed their car to win the robotic auto race. (The DARPA Grand Challenge is a series of very long -- some might say 'grueling' -- road races sponsored by DARPA in which all the participants are computer controlled motor vehicles. Not toy cars; but full-sized cars and trucks with no human driver.  DARPA is the Defence Advanced Research Project Agency: the organization that created the Internet.)

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 17, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 33 minutes]

Robot Magazine covers every aspect of the rapidly exploding field of robots. It has 'how-to' for robot hobbyists, 'what's going on' for robot enthusiasts and 'what's innovative' for tech and engineering professionals. Strong on education, it offers parents, teachers and kids guidance on using and playing with the latest consumer, toy and hobby robots that serve as educational tools and recreational fun. Every issue is full of hundreds of full color photos of robotic fun, gee whiz and hands on experience.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_6_17.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

June 10, 2009 Episode

Tom Atwood (Editor-in-Chief of Robot Magazine) is our featured guest.

Topics: Robots are in a world-wide boom time. Hundreds of thousands of hobbyists are building robots. Competitive robot events draw Rock-Star-sized crowds and are doubling in attendance each year. High schools and colleges are using the building and programing of robots (from scratch and from kits) to get students enthused about science, math, logic, engineering, programming and many other crucial subjects. Open source collaboration is driving innovation in robotic software as well as hardware. Tom emphasizes how these learning benefits are also beginning to work their way into grade schools, and how all this learning forms a foundation for the future of the students and of our world.

Tom Atwood also describes an experiment in which rat brain tissue (grown in a culture dish) was wired to a robot and taught to successfully navigate an obstacle course.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 10, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes]

Robot Magazine covers every aspect of the rapidly exploding field of robots. It has 'how-to' for robot hobbyists, 'what's going on' for robot enthusiasts and 'what's innovative' for tech and engineering professionals. Strong on education, it offers parents, teachers and kids guidance on using and playing with the latest consumer, toy and hobby robots that serve as educational tools and recreational fun. Every issue is full of hundreds of full color photos of robotic fun, gee whiz and hands on experience.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_6_10.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

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

Topics: trends in medicine and the possibility that cancer may someday become completely curable. Privacy vs life-logging, twitter and the incessant text-messaging some people do about the trivial minutia of their daily lives. James suggests that 'When Orwell wrote in 1984 about people being watched by their TVs, what he didn't understand about the human condition is that a lot of people wanted the TV to watch them.' The compulsion of Googling one's own name, as well as  time travel paradoxes and human longevity.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 3, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 47 minutes]

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_2009_6_3.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

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

Topics: the current search for other earths and what effect their discovery might have on people: the demise of circus freaks as professional performers; and (despite James' long-term atheism) his fascination with Angels, both in their original source material and in the popular culture.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 27, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 39 minutes]

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.

Also in this episode we begin a 12 part serialization of a complete story from Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. The story is the Hugo Award nominated Article of Faith, written by Mike Resnick and read by Walt Boyes.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_5_27.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

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

Topics: the various ways our modern civilization might come to an end (all the usual suspects along with  total economic collapse); disruptive technologies such as the large scale use of cheap solar cells which could lead to the abandonment of the electric power grid; how the differences between men and women may affect their acceptance of the robotic husbands and wives which will become available within a decade or two; life-sized anatomically-correct sex dolls of today and the 2007 movie, Lars and the Real Girl, which co-stars one such doll.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 20, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes]

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 today's civilization, in a world dominated by the intelligent dragons we created through genetic engineering -- humans are reduced to pets and slaves, and the remnants of long forgotten nanotechnology make the world a place of wondrous magic.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_5_20.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Aliese, a college student, is today's featured guest.

Topics: trends in college in general, as well as in classes, dorm life, students and teachers. Also how personal computers and cell phones improve or degrade the learning experience. As well as YouTube, Facebook, Charlie Chaplin and wedding photography.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 13, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 38 minutes]

Aliese is studying for a degree in photography and fine arts, and has completed one year at a school with about 1,000 students.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_5_13.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Stephen Euin Cobb is today's featured guest. (This is the second half of the experiment in which the questions I normally pose to others I ask of myself.)

Topics: Why I am an atheist and why I am not an anti-theist; my insistance that there is a rapidly growing need for a new and different kind of tolerance, greater than any this world has ever seen before; how this universe will end, and why I think we will someday engineer other universes; why past predictions of the future have always been so wrong; the probability that we will invent faster-than-light travel; and my estimation of the probability of The Singularity.

Also described are: why I started doing this show, why I chose the future as my topic, and how doing this show for three years has completely re-written my understanding of the future.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 6, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes]

Stephen Euin Cobb is an author, futurist and the host of the award-winning podcast The Future and You. He is also a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine, the online magazine from Baen Books. His articles have also appeared in Space and Time Magazine, H+ Magazine and >[gRiM]<>[cOuTuRe]< magazine. Within Second Life (as Boc Cryotank) he is a photographer and photojournalist. He has invented several games, the most popular being Death Stacks for which there is an annual tournament held each summer in Charlotte NC. He is also an artist, essayist, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation.

News: The Kepler mission to discover earth-like planets will radio its results to earth only once every thirty days. (NASA has not announced when this first report will be sent.  Possibly late May to mid June 2009) During Kepler's first 30 days of watching 100,000 stars, it will discover planets which orbit their star in ten days or less; as well as about half of the planets which orbit their star in fifteen days or less. In its second report Kepler will identify planets which orbit in less than 20 days, and about half of those that orbit in more than 20 days but less than 30 days. Every monthly report will increase, by a specific number of days, the orbital period of those planets discovered. But since the statistical probability of any planet crossing the face of its star diminishes with the size of its orbit, each of Kepler's monthly reports will contain fewer and fewer new planets. The first month will have, by far, the most.  Progessive reports will include planets in wider and wider orbits until the orbits of earthlike planets are (hopefully) revealed later in the three and a half year mission.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_5_6.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT



Stephen Euin Cobb is today's featured guest. (This is an experimental episode in which the questions normally posed to others, I direct at myself.)

Topics: My opinion that the earth needs a thermostat. That the days in which the temperature of the earth can be left to nature need to come to a close. And that if the fear of global warming gets people motivated enough to pay for an engineering project large enough to regulate the earths temperature on a day-to-day basis then that fear will have served humanity well.

Also described are: scenarios which might produce the fall of civilization; how the singularity might go well or go badly; and why I believe I have a 50 percent chance of living for hundreds of years, although not in my current physical form or with my current personality.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 29, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 36 minutes]

Stephen Euin Cobb is an author, futurist and the host of the award-winning podcast The Future and You. He is also a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine, the online magazine from Baen Books. His articles have appeared in Space and Time Magazine, H+ Magazine and >[gRiM]<>[cOuTuRe]< magazine. Within Second Life (as Boc Cryotank) he is a photographer and photojournalist. He has invented several games, the most popular being Death Stacks for which there is an annual tournament held each summer in Charlotte NC. He is also an artist, essayist, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation.
Direct download: TFAY_2009_4_29.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

John Ringo (New York Times best selling novelist with over two million books in print) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Smart missiles smaller than insects; military tanks becoming robots; personal headup displays for soldiers; experiments with brain implants for soldiers; war going open-source; Chinese experiments with warfare in low earth orbit; the never-ending utility of bayonets; the bizarre fact that there is no such thing as a Chinese journalist; and the possibility that we will develop faster than light travel. He also describes his worry that a future teenager huddled in his mother's basement may write a biological virus which will wipe out all of humanity. 

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 22, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes]

Translated into seven languages, John Ringo's novels range from science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers. Always outspoken, never dull and sometimes controversial, he has been an op-ed writer for the New York Post and a guest commentator on TV for Fox News. An avid essayist, his website contains many essays he has written on a wide variety of topics. By the time he graduated high school, John Ringo had lived in, or visited, 23 countries and attended 14 schools. A former paratrooper in the army airborne, he has enjoyed cave diving, rock climbing, repelling, hunting, and spear fishing.

News: Your host has been granted official press credentials for World Future 2009 in Chicago (July 17 to 19, 2009). This is the annual convention of the World Futurist Society (of which I'm a member). Hundreds of professional futurists are expected to attend and dozens are scheduled to speak. Press credentials will allow me to gather live interviews and collect business cards for phone interviews which can be done later.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_4_22.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

John Ringo (New York Times best selling novelist with over two million books in print) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Specific examples of the tens of thousands of robots in use in war right now and how they are transforming the methods and nature of fighting for the individual soldiers on the ground; how this transformation will change the wars of the future; and the longstanding psychology in the US military that is driving this robotic transformation. Also, anecdotes about the years he went to grade school in Iran; the summer camp he went to in Switzerland; and some of his other travels around the world as a child and teenager.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 15, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 36 minutes]

Translated into seven languages, John Ringo's novels range from science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers. Always outspoken and sometimes controversial, he has been an op-ed writer for the New York Post and a guest commentator on TV for Fox News. An avid essayist, his website contains many essays he has written on a wide variety of topics. By the time he graduated high school, John Ringo had lived in, or visited, 23 countries and attended 14 schools. A former paratrooper in the army airborne, he has enjoyed cave diving, rock climbing, repelling, hunting and spear fishing.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_4_15.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

John Ringo (New York Times best selling novelist with over two million books in print) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Anecdotes about his appearances on TV for Fox News in the years following The 9/11 Attacks; how it is that he is the only person to use the term Euro-Wiener on national TV; the terrible affect the economic crisis has had on the publishing industry; rumors that three of his novels are in the works to become major motion pictures, and one is in talks to become a first-person-shooter style game; and the changes he would make to the US Income Tax code.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 8, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 36 minutes]

Translated into seven languages, John Ringo's novels range from science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers. Always outspoken and sometimes controversial, he has been an op-ed writer for the New York Post and a guest commentator on TV for Fox News. An avid essayist, his website contains many essays he has written on a wide variety of topics. By the time he graduated high school, John Ringo had lived in, or visited, 23 countries and attended 14 schools. A former paratrooper in the army airborne, he has enjoyed cave diving, rock climbing, repelling, hunting, and spear fishing.

News: The Kepler Mission to find earth-like planets orbiting other stars, was launched on March 6, 2009 and will begin its search a few weeks from now in early May.  Estimates of the number of earth-like planets it will discover during it's 3-1/2 year mission vary from zero to over 400. What's less talked about is the number of NOT earth-like planets it will discover. My own personal guess is that it will discover NOT earth-like planets at a rate of better than one per hour--maybe a lot better. If you would, email your estimates to me (steve [ at ] thefutureandyou . com)

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_4_8.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Shaun Farrell (writer, actor, and award-winning podcaster) is today's featured guest.

Topics: online publishing verses paper publishing; the rise in small presses; the number of new readers is increasing; fiction sales are increasing; trends in podcasting and narrow-casting; the economy and personal debt; Connor his new baby; and the closing of Realms of Fantasy Magazine.

BTW: A few days after this interview was recorded, the situation at Realms of Fantasy Magazine turned around. Hearing the magazine was going to close, Tir Na Nog Press made an offer to buy it. The offer was accepted, so the magazine will be reopened this summer.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 1, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes]

Shaun Farrell has has interviewed more than 100 speculative fiction authors and actors; most of these interviews can be heard on his podcast: Adventures in Scifi Publishing, which (like this show) has won a Parsec Award.

Based in Southern California, Shaun owns Singularity Audio, which provides podcast consultation, creates book promos, edits audio and develops new podcasts. He is also a contributing writer for Gateworld podcast; producer and content manager for The New England Fights! podcast; and an actor in the feature film Death Dress, where he plays a serial killer. Magazines he has written for include Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld and Raygun Revival.


Direct download: TFAY_2009_4_1.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Shaun Farrell (writer, actor, and award-winning podcaster) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Shaun's interview with Ray Bradbury, and others, such as the actors from Stargate Atlantis: Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett and Jewel Staite (who also played the ship's mechanic on the TV show Firefly and in the movie Serenity). Trends in publishing: both print and electronic (such as involving the Amazon Kindle). Trends in acting, and why your look matters far more to a talent agent than your ability to act.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 25, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 46 minutes]

Shaun Farrell has interviewed more than 100 speculative fiction authors and actors; most of these interviews can be heard on his podcast: Adventures in Scifi Publishing, which (like this show) has won a Parsec Award.

Based in Southern California, Shaun owns Singularity Audio, which provides podcast consultation, creates book promos, edits audio, and develops new podcasts. He is also a contributing writer for Gateworld podcast; producer and content manager for The New England Fights! podcast; and an actor in the feature film Death Dress, where he plays a serial killer. Magazines Shaun has written for include Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld and Raygun Revival.

News in this episode: H+ Magazine has redesigned its website. In addition to articles written specifically for the magazine, it now offers late breaking news and videos.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_3_25.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

David Drake (author of over 60 novels of science fiction and fantasy) is today's featured guest.

Topics include: his opinion of the Amazon Kindle; his improving opinion of the future of electronic publishing; the collapse of the Borders Books Store chain, which occurred before the economic down turn; and why he urged Jim Baen into ask Eric Flint to be the first Editor-in-Chief of what has become the widely popular online magazine called Jim Baen's Universe.

Working with Newt Gingrich is also topic. Specifically how it came about that David Drake and Jim Baen helped Newt Gingrich write a World War Two thriller-type novel named 1945; why the political climate during the book's release prompted the media to universally pan the book; and how this storm of negative reviews nearly put Baen Books out of business.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 18, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 38 minutes]

David Drake is an author of science fiction and fantasy, and is widely considered one of the premier authors of the military science fiction sub-genre. He has written over 60 books some of which are in his Hammer's Slammers series of military science fiction, his Lord of the Isles series of fantasy novels, and his newer Republic of Cinnabar Navy series.

David graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Iowa, majoring in history and Latin. His studies at Duke University School of Law were interrupted for two years by the U.S. Army, where he served as an enlisted interrogator with the 11th Armored Cavalry in Vietnam and Cambodia. After finishing law school, he spent eight years as Assistant Town Attorney of Chapel Hill, NC. In 1980 he resigned and drove a city bus part-time for a year while doing more writing. Since 1981 he's been a full time writer. Some of his novels are available for free download in the Baen Free Library.

For relaxation David translates ancient books from the Roman Empire from their original Latin into English, many of which can be read on his website.

News in this episode: CNN's sad and somewhat pathetic confusion over which way the Earth rotates and the direction satellites orbit the Earth, as depicted in the animated graphic for their March 13, 2009 report on the orbiting space junk which temporarily endangered the International Space Station. A confusion which may result from their layoff, three months earlier, of their entire Science and Technology reporting team, including their Senior Science Reporter, Miles O'Brian.

Direct download: TFAY_2009_3_18.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

David Drake (author of over 60 novels of science fiction and fantasy) is today's featured guest.

Topics include: How blatantly morality and ethics must be depicted in fiction, and which self-appointed thought-police will jump on you if you do not toe-the-line. The unknown risks of the experiment now known as the Baen Free Library, and Jim Baen's other efforts to innovate within the publishing industry. David Drake also talks about: Rudyard Kipling; Project Gutenberg; Samuel Johnson, and his biographer James Boswell; as well as the power and value of online Search.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 11, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 41 minutes]

David Drake is an author of science fiction and fantasy, and is widely considered one of the premier authors of the military science fiction sub-genre. He has written over 60 books some of which are in his Hammer's Slammers series of military science fiction, his Lord of the Isles series of fantasy novels, and his newer Republic of Cinnabar Navy series.

David graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Iowa, majoring in history and Latin. His studies at Duke University School of Law were interrupted for two years by the U.S. Army, where he served as an enlisted interrogator with the 11th Armored Cavalry in Vietnam and Cambodia. After finishing law school, he spent eight years as Assistant Town Attorney of Chapel Hill, NC. In 1980 he resigned and drove a city bus part-time for a year while doing more writing. Since 1981 he's been a full time writer. Some of his novels are available for free download in the Baen Free Library.

For relaxation David Drake translates ancient books from the Roman Empire from their original Latin into English, many of which can be read on his website.

News in this episode: The Spring 2009 issue of H+ Magazine is available. H+ magazine is dedicated to an intelligent and informed exploration of the future, especially as relates to transhumanism and the singularity. This issue contains more than two dozen articles about the future, one entitled Singularity 101 which is an interview with Vernor Vinge (the mathematician who first suggested the idea of the Singularity in 1993, and who has been a guest on the April 8, 2006 and May 1, 2006 episodes of The Future And You).

Direct download: TFAY_2009_3_11.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Stefano Vaj (Author, futurist and transhumanism activist) is today's featured guest. (This is the second half of his interview.)

Topics include: The state and health of Transhumanism worldwide; his worry that some people are watering down transhumanism to gain acceptance from mainstream culture or to make it more Politically Correct; his expectations about the future of human longevity, and the political forces needed to bring it to fruition. And he describes some of the powerful political and religious forces that are trying to prevent transhumanist goals, such as Life Extension.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 4, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 39 minutes]

Stefano Vaj is author of the book Biopolitics of the New Paradigm which covers the biotechnological areas of transhumanism. He is also: a public speaker fluent in several languages; on the Board of Directors of the Italian Transhumanist Association; an Italian lawyer with offices in Milan, Italy and Brussels, Belgium; an Architect of the Order of Cosmic Engineers; and an active contributor to the Hplus2, Extropy and World Transhumanist Association discussion boards. (Though fluent in several languages, his own blog and his books are written in Italian and not yet available in English.)

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_3_4.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Stefano Vaj (Author, futurist and transhumanism activist) is today's featured guest. (This is the first half of his interview.)

Topics include: Why transhumanism is taken seriously by the Italian public and the Italian press (as opposed to the American public and American press which often view transhumanism as a delusional fantasy). Why Europeans do not share the American view that Intellectuals are outside the loop in their ivory towers and are therefore unimportant. The influence of the Catholic Church in public and political life in Italy, and as the main opponent to transhumanism. How politicians in Europe use fear of transhumanist ideas as a tool to get more votes. What Stefano does as a transhumanism activist, and what listeners can do in their own lives and in their own ways if they wish to help this cause too. He also talks about the new Singularity University, and the new transhumanist periodical, H+ Magazine.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 25, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 44 minutes]

Stefano Vaj is author of the book Biopolitics of the New Paradigm which covers the biotechnological areas of transhumanism. He is also: a public speaker fluent in several languages; on the Board of Directors of the Italian Transhumanist Association; an Italian lawyer with offices in Milan, Italy and Brussels, Belgium; an Architect of the Order of Cosmic Engineers; and an active contributor to the Hplus2, Extropy and World Transhumanist Association discussion boards. (Though fluent in several languages, his own blog and his books are written in Italian and not yet available in English.)

News in this episode: [1] Google's new Latitude lets you see the location of your friends on Google maps using the GPS in their phone, and lets you immediately contact them with IM, SMS or a phone call. [2] Google has made one million public domain books freely available for reading on iPhones.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_2_25.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Kim Stanley Robinson, the best selling and award-winning science fiction author is today's featured guest.

Topics include: Kim Stanley Robinson describes his reaction to being chosen as Guest of Honor for the 2010 World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne Australia. He also describes the benefits and challenges of the January 17, 2009 personal appearance he did in Second Life.

He also explains his conviction that we will never develop artificial intelligence, or the singularity, or mind-uploading. But he enthusiastically agrees with the desirability of increasing human longevity as much as possible, even if that means centuries, and even if it throws a monkey wrench into population control. He equates increasing longevity with decreasing human suffering. However, he doubts that an indefinate lifespan will come soon enough for anyone alive today.

Earth's current population, he says, may be the result of an Oil Bubble, and may be unsustainable after we run out of oil. He also explains why some people may be disappointed concerning the relationship they have with their robots in the future, since they will watch their machine for some glimmer of personality but will not find it.

He also talks about his involvement with the Clarion Writer's Workshop. About his teaching there this summer; about his teaching there once before in 1988; about being a student there in 1975; about the teaching methods used at Clarion; and about how, when it was forced to relocate, he helped Clarion find a new home at his alma mater (UCSD).

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 18, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 80 minutes]

Kim Stanley Robinson's writings have won the Hugo, the Nebula, the Asimov, the John W. Campbell, the Locus, and the World Fantasy Awards. He has a Bachelors degree in literature, a Masters in English, and a PhD. also in English. He considers science fiction to be one of the most powerful of all literary forms, which explains why his doctoral thesis was titled The Novels of Philip K. Dick.

Probably best known for his Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars); his other novels include: Fifty Degrees Below, Forty Signs of Rain, The Years of Rice and Salt, and most recently, Sixty Days and Counting (which describes the first year of a new and innovative environmentalist president, and may be becoming historical fiction). His newest novel is called Galileo's Dream but will not be released in the US until January of 2010.

News in this episode: As many as 50 planets like the Earth are expected to be discovered during the next three years. They will be discovered by the Kepler orbiting telescope, which will begin it's search a few days after NASA launches it on March 5, 2009. As a side result it will also locate many thousands, or even tens of thousands, of planets not like the earth.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_2_18.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Jerry Pournelle (author, journalist, editor, technology columnist, and military textbook writer) is today's featured guest. (This is the third and final portion of his two-hour long interview.)

Topics today include: Why political debates are not debates, why the U.S. electoral college was devised, and why the 1787 Congress was more successful by being a closed-door session. Comments on the Cray-1 supercomputer; the remarkable fact that Moore's Law has held so long and still seems to be going strong; and what he tried to accomplish in his long-running column in the iconic computer magazine Byte. His observation that today's computer hardware has become so powerful that our software has not kept up; and his feeling that, 'The next big step will be to make programming obsolete.' The possibility that electronic piracy is what's killing the publishing industry, and his ideas on the possibilities of an 'Enhanced Electronic Book.' The advantages of space-based solar energy compared to ground-based; and a few comments on Escape from Hell: his and Larry Niven's sequel to Inferno.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 11, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 48 minutes]

Doctor Jerry Pournelle has written more than thirty novels and at least thirteen books of non-fiction. More than a dozen of his novels, he coauthored with his friend Larry Niven, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Inferno; and their new sequel to Inferno: Escape From Hell.

Novels, however, have been only a portion of Jerry Pournelle's work. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he acquired Master's degrees in both experimental statistics and systems engineering, and Doctorates in both psychology and political science. He co-wrote a military textbook called The Strategy of Technology which was required reading at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He helped to write a portion of Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address concerning a missile defense system which the media at the time enjoyed making fun of and calling Star Wars, since they believed the technology needed to shoot down incoming missiles with our own missiles was impossible. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. He was campaign manager for Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr., as well as for Mayor Sam Yorty. And he was a columnist for Byte Magazine beginning in 1982.

News Item: A new university dedicated specifically to teaching about the technological singularity was announced on February 3, 2009. Singularity University will be housed at NASA's Ames base in California and will begin classes this summer. It is the brainchild of Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis, and has the backing of NASA and Google.

Direct download: TFAY_2009_2_11.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Jerry Pournelle (author, journalist, editor, technology columnist, and military textbook writer) is today's featured guest. (This is the second portion of our two-hour interview. The third and final portion will be provided next week.)

Topics today include: How he contributed to President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address in 1980, and became part of Reagan's group of advisers concerning the Strategic Defence Initiative (which Ted Kennedy, by the way, dubbed Star Wars because he did not believe it would ever be possible to shoot down an incoming missile with one of our own missiles). And how this lead directly to the Patriot Missile and other missiles which routinely do the impossible by routinely shooting down incoming missiles.

Laser-based warfare: including one proposal that would turn Grand Coulee Dam into a space-based weapon of immense power and very nearly global reach. A weapon so powerful that only one would be needed in a war.

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy, which states that, 'In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals which the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.' Doctor Pournelle explains and gives examples.

He also mentions working with: Buzz Aldrin, Robert Heinlein, Greg Bear, Jim Baen, Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Ben Bova, and Dean Ing. He describes a fundamental problem he sees with today's space suits; and talks of Patton and MacArthur, military theory, teacher's unions, and NASA.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 4, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 47 minutes]

Doctor Jerry Pournelle has written more than thirty novels and at least thirteen books of non-fiction. More than a dozen of his novels, he coauthored with his friend Larry Niven, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Inferno; and their new sequel to Inferno: Escape From Hell.

Novels, however, have been only a portion of Jerry Pournelle's work. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he acquired Master's degrees in both experimental statistics and systems engineering, and Doctorates in both psychology and political science. He co-wrote a military textbook called The Strategy of Technology which became required reading at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. He was campaign manager for Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr., as well as for Mayor Sam Yorty. And he was a columnist for Byte Magazine beginning in 1982.

News Note: Last week, in the January 28 2009 episode of this show, Jerry Pournelle mentioned his battle with a brain tumor, described the annoyances of his radiation treatment, and reported that he is now cancer-free.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_2_4.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Jerry Pournelle (author, journalist, editor, technology columnist, and military textbook writer) is today's featured guest.

Topics include: Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Larry Niven and other authors he has been friends with; how the downfall of the Soviet Union was an engineered event, planned decades in advance, which worked exactly as planned (and specifically what that plan was); how he orchestrated the political campaigns of Barry Goldwater, Jr., and Sam Yorty; his friends and involvement in the Survivalist Movement, and his being editor of the magazine Survive which was closely allied with the magazine Soldier of Fortune; political stories from The Cold War and Mutual Assured Destruction; a few words about his and Larry Niven's new novel Escape from Hell; the difficulties of his chemotherapy; the good news that he is now cancer free.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 28, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 65 minutes]

Doctor Jerry Pournelle has written more than thirty novels and at least thirteen books of non-fiction. More than a dozen of his novels, he coauthored with his friend Larry Niven, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Inferno; and their new sequel to Inferno: Escape Fom Hell.

Novels, however, have been only a portion of Jerry Pournelle's work. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he acquired Master's degrees in both experimental statistics and systems engineering, and Doctorates in both psychology and political science. He cowrote a military textbook called The Strategy of Technology which was required reading at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He helped to write a portion of Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address concerning a missile defense system which the media at the time enjoyed making fun of and calling Star Wars, since they believed the technology needed to shoot down incoming missiles with our own missiles was impossible. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. And he was a columnist for Byte Magazine beginning in 1982.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_1_28.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Alan Dean Foster (author of over 100 novels of science fiction and fantasy and noted world traveler) is today's featured guest.

Many of this interview's topics were made possible only because of Alan's longstanding enthusiasm for traveling to places tourists rarely go. He seeks the places where wildlife is still unspoiled; and where the ancient ways that predate writing still exist. He knows they are fading rapidly, and wants to see them before they are gone forever.

Topics include: how cell phones are changing even the third world with amazing speed; primitive cultures accepting technology, and leapfrogging passed the intermediate technologies; the rise of ebooks overseas, as well as how traditional publishers may watch their income evaporate when people buy ebooks online directly from the authors, which would cut publishers out of the loop; how policing oceanic piracy is forcing the naval ships of nations which are normally enemies to cooperate, and how this may build relationships of respect: a precursor to trust.

He also shares some personal anecdotes: about writing movie novelizations such as Aliens 1, 2 and 3--and why he didn't write number 4; how he met Diana Rigg (who played Emma Peel on The Avengers) as well as Julie Newmar (who played the original Catwoman on Batman); his trip with James Gurney (author of Dinotopia and illustrator for National Geographic) who joined him on travels through Malta, Tunisia, Morocco, Dakar and Gibraltar.

He also described his intention to travel to the Western Indian Ocean, which is part of the area threatened by the pirate's that have been in the news so much lately for hijacking cruise ships and oil tankers and holding everyone aboard hostage, sometimes for many months.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 21, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 64 minutes]

While most of his novels involve worlds he has created himself, such as those in his Commonwealth series and Spellsinger series, and those in his various trilogies such as The Damned, The Taken and Icerigger, a portion of his time is spent writing novelizations of successful movies and TV shows. Examples include: the first three Aliens movies, The Chronicles of Riddick, Outland, Clash of the Titans, Starman, The Thing, Alien Nation, Transformers, The Last Starfighter, and the first Star Wars novelization, which he co-wrote with George Lucas.

The quality and extent of this body of work won him the 2008 Grand Master award from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_1_21.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Doctor Bob Boan (scientist and author) is today's featured guest.

Dr. Boan's work has involved US Government space programs for the intelligence departments, but he has also done work for NASA and for commercial communications.

He is coauthor (along with Doctor Travis S. Taylor) of the book: An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extra-Terrestrial Invasion. This book makes a serious and scientifically rigorous analysis of exactly how to defend Earth against an attack from space. Today that would mean from an alien force, but eventually this might mean human forces which have been deployed into space.

John Ringo (the New York Times, Bestselling Military SF Author) called it: '...the definitive book on the defense of the Earth against a potential alien incursion... the book also serves as an important primer on the potential future of warfare on every level. It is tightly grounded in current day realities of war and extrapolates thoughtfully but closely about future potentials. It should be on the reading list of anyone who is serious about national security and the future of war.'

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 14, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes]

In today's interview Dr. Boan says: 'Our schools are based on conformity, but we need to encourage greater creative thinking. Let the kids color the cows purple and draw jewelry on them; they'll learn cows don't wear jewelry soon enough.' And he suggests: beyond identity theft, we need to be aware of 'personality theft:' literally the specific details of who we are: the details of our lives, and what makes us unique.

Dr. Boan also describes why he thinks: China may be the place where the next big software security innovation gets developed; software development is being pushed most by video games; and nuclear power's bad rap is not only unjustified, it is hurting our future by ensuring our continued dependence on foreign oil; software has only begun to change our lives to the extent that it will; there are three areas that are already important but which will soon become exceedingly important: data archiving, data retrieval, and data security. He also talks about: robotics, AI, Virtual Reality, and movies with virtual actors rather than real ones.

News in this episode: Kim Stanley Robinson (the bestselling author) will be making a personal appearance inside Second Life at noon Pacific time on Saturday, January 17, 2009. He will be speaking and answering questions in the Grand Meeting Room inside the Central Nexus Building in the City State of Extropia Core. The event will be hosted by Sophrosyne Stenvaag. Your host plans to be there taking pictures.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_1_14.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Phillis George and Billy George are today's featured guests. Both Phyllis and Billy have worked in banking for many years, however, this interview is NOT about the current bailouts and other well publicized banking debacles. Those thoroughly examined topics can be left to the army of other interviewers. This interview is about the trends within all of banking, and especially at your neighborhood bank, and how these trends are changing your bank into what it will eventually become.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 7, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 68 minutes]

Topics include: how Billy George discovered a crook working inside his bank who was stealing money from his account; why the  scam called Check Kiting is becoming impossible in more and more locations; methods of sending money--without a check--to people in the US and Mexico; circumstances in which fear over identity theft make no sense; and why sometimes the people you think will be early adopters resist new technologies, and those you think will resist already love it.

Also, how some banks are dumping their problem customers in order to improve customer service for those who are not a problem; why your check sometimes clears the bank while you're still talking to the merchant you just handed it to; why banks like their employees to bring their cell phones to work, as long as they don't use them very much; the benefits of online banking which go way beyond saving money; as well as credit cards, debit cards, smart cards, and cards with computer chips inside them.

All this, combined with other misunderstandings about banking which cost people money. For example: many people don't understand that a loan officer's job is to sell them a loan. They are no different than a car dealer. Their job to sell the customer the loan that is best for the bank, not best for the customer.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2009_1_7.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT