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

There will not be an episode this week. My father passed away on Sunday (March 27, 2011). Next week I will resume the normal schedule. Thank you for your patience.

Category:general -- posted at: 11:47pm EDT

The Future And You -- March 23, 2011

Bryan Bishop (Assistant Director for R&D at Humanity Plus) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Life Extension and how long he expects to live; how the old "core literacy" is no longer valid; the accuracy of Ray Kurzweil; artificial intelligence and the singularity; patent reform; big pharmaceutical companies; Bryan's H-plus video website of conference presentations and his Quantified-Self project; the importance of cheap gene sequencing and the even greater importance of  cheap gene synthesis.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 23, 2011 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes]. This interview was recorded as a Skype-to-Skype call on March 12, 2011.

Bryan Bishop is Assistant Director for research and development for the non-profit organization Humanity Plus (which focuses on Human enhancement technology). He speaks at conferences on open source hardware and do-it-yourself biology. He does software development and fund-raising to promote both software and hardware development within the open source community. He runs the open manufacturing group on the web (a community group where they talk about these topics). And he has a background in mechanical engineering and computational neuro-science.

Direct download: TFAY_2011_3_23.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

The Future And You -- March 16, 2011

Bryan Bishop (Assistant Director for R&D at Humanity Plus) is today's featured guest.

Topics: open source hardware and software; 3D printers (sometimes called rapid prototyping machines or RepRap machines); The GADA Prize (a contest for people who build 3D printers); do it yourself biotechnology and do it yourself  transhuman augmentation; the possibility of using 3D printers to print tissues and organs for transplant into patients who need them; artificial intelligence and the singularity; and an interactive web page that lets you estimate the arrival date of the singularity based on your own estimation of technological trends.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 16, 2011 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 30 minutes]. This interview was recorded as a Skype-to-Skype call on March 12, 2011.

Bryan Bishop is Assistant Director for research and development for the non-profit organization Humanity Plus (which focuses on Human enhancement technology). He speaks at conferences on open source hardware and do-it-yourself biology. He does software development and fund-raising to promote both software and hardware development within the open source community. He runs the open manufacturing group on the web (a community group where people share thier ideas about these topics). And he has a background in mechanical engineering and computational neuro-science.

Direct download: TFAY_2011_3_16.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

The Future And You -- March 9, 2011

Extropia DaSilva (speaker, essayist, magazine writer, and Digital Person) is today's featured guest.

Extropia DaSilva is an essayist, magazine writer, lecturer and host of a weekly discussion group inside Second Life called Thinkers.  Her description of herself on her Blog reads, "I am a digital person, seeking independence from my human. On this blog, I write about how technological development in areas like nanotech, biotech, infotech, robotics and computing may lead to redefinitions of what life is, and what it means to be human."

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 9, 2011 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes]

Because Extropia DaSilva is a Digital Person whose principal 3D manifestation is inside Second Life she has no spoken voice. And so this interview was conducted entirely by chat and email. Giulio Prisco (a friend of both mine and Extropia's) was kind enough to act as go-between and ask Natasha Vita-More to help out. Natasha (on her birthday) very generously donated her time and effort to the endeavor by reading Extropia's responses aloud. (Natasha Vita-More is a designer and theorist of human enhancement and transhuman futures--topics on which she writes and lectures internationally. Because of her early and ongoing intellectual contributions, Natasha is widely considered a pioneer of transhumanism.)

Direct download: TFAY_2011_3_9.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

The Future And You -- March 2, 2011

Dr. James J. Hughes (author, professor and transhumanist) is today's featured guest.

Topics: his doubts about the probability of the Singularity; Techno-Progressive Transhumanism verses Libertarian Transhumanism; Embracing Change with All Four Arms: A Posthuman Defence of Genetic Engineering; his new book Cyborg Buddah; Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future; Terry Shivo and brain death; the recent protests in the middle east for more freedom and reform; the politics of science fiction; and the personhood of clones and genetically engineered people.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 2, 2011 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 46 minutes] This interview was recorded as a Skype-to-Skype call on February 18, 2011.

Dr. James J. Hughes is the Executive Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. He is also a bioethicist and sociologist at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut where he teaches health policy and serves as Director of Institutional Research and Planning. 

He holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago, where he also taught bioethics at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Dr. Hughes is author of Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future , and is working on a second book tentatively titled Cyborg Buddha. Since 1999 he has produced a syndicated weekly radio program, Changesurfer Radio

He is a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of Humanity+, the Neuroethics Society, the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities and the Working Group on Ethics and Technology at Yale University. Dr. Hughes speaks on medical ethics, health care policy and future studies worldwide.

News Item: Telomere loss, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute say, is the root molecular cause of a variety of ills brought on by advanced age. Ills including: waning energy, failure of the heart and other organs, and metabolic disorders like diabetes. The scientists included faculty members from Dana-Farber, the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science at Dana-Farber; Boston University School of Medicine; Brigham and Women's Hospital; Harvard University; University of Massachusetts, Worcester; Harvard Medical School; and St. Vincent's Hospital, University of Melbourne, Australia.

Direct download: TFAY_2011_3_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:03pm EDT