The Future And You
Ideas and opinion about the future based on verifiable facts of today.
 
​Robert Hooker (an Information Technology professional living in London) is today's featured guest.

Topics: a first-hand account of trends developing in England and Europe; the good and bad effects the Iceland volcano's ash cloud has had to business and to people as it spread across Europe; social trends which are specific to London (where iPad availability is still limited); why Apple's iPad is so popular and how this popularity will spawn a wave of similar pad-style computers from Apple's every competitor; how the iPad relates to ebooks and the continued decline of newspapers; trends in other popular media such as England's first political debate between candidates running for Prime Minister.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 26, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 40 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_2010_5_26.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

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

Topics: An explanation of Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0; how Google's failure at Web 2.0 is forcing the search giant to leapfrog from Web 1.0 straight into Web 3.0; the huge demand amongst businesses playing catchup,  as they scramble to get into Web 2.0; the rise of smart phones and the attraction of the iPad; new trends in England, Europe, China, India, Greece and Poland; why the European Union will not fall apart despite all the awful rumors about Greece; why increasing longevity within the developed nations may cause all of us to spend half our lives as old people, and some of the ways civilization will need to adjust itself to make that new reality livable.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 19, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 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_2010_5_19.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 11:26am EDT

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

Topics: The Glossary for Futurists and Trend Watchers. Your host reads a few selections from this (free to download) publication written by the consulting firm of Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc. (In order to stay within fair-use laws only one tenth or less of the glossary was read into the show. If you enjoy the selections you may read the entire glossary for free by downloading it pdf format.)

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 12, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 17 minutes]

Stephen Euin Cobb is (according to Wikipedia) a U.S. author, magazine writer, interviewer and host of the award-winning podcast The Future and You. He's also a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine; a contributing editor for Robot Magazine; and has written for Space and Time Magazine, H+ Magazine, and Grim Couture Magazine. He is also a game designer, artist, essayist, futurist, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation.

Direct download: TFAY_2010_5_12.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

May 5, 2010 Episode

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

Topics: The debut of the first ever Robot Girlfriend. (In this case a sex doll that is only slightly robotic.) Why sex robots (as they become more numerous and more human-like over the next few years) will produce an emotional firestorm of outrage from both the far left and far right which will fill every corner of the media. Also: news that the ebook market is about to turn into a fight between three giants: Amazon, Apple and beginning this summer Google; the closing, after four years, of Jim Baen's Universe Magazine; and the huge increase in online SF&F magazines which pay their writers professional rates as defined by SF&FA (the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America).

Note: Here are a some submission pages of online fiction magazines which pay for stories. Many of these pay SFWA professional rates (five cents per word or better): Clarksworld, Abys & Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Brain Harvest, Futurismic, Heliotrope, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Fantasy Magazine, and ThePedestalMagazine.) (Heliotrope pays 10 cents per word.) 

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 5, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 21 minutes]

Stephen Euin Cobb is (to quote Wikipedia) a U.S. author, magazine writer, interviewer and host of the award-winning podcast The Future and You. He's also a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine; a contributing editor for Robot Magazine; and has written for Space and Time Magazine, H+ Magazine, and Grim Couture Magazine. He is also a game designer, artist, essayist, futurist, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation.

Direct download: TFAY_2010_5_5.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT