The Future And You

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

Topics: Human augmentation, autonomous vehicles (both ground vehicles and aircraft), 3D printing, cyberwarfare, battles over fresh water, and the rising power of cities (compared to the stagnating power of nations). This is part 2 of my discussion of Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 16, 2013 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes]

News Items [1]: How impressively easy it is to help in the search for extrasolar planets. Your host uses and critiques the website www.planethunters.org. [2]: Scott Nicholson, a horror author, is one more concrete example of how Amazon's Kindle program is giving authors far more control over their own careers.

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

Topic: Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds is a careful and thorough estimation of what the future holds for us all on a global scale. This document is created every four years and presented to the President of the United States of America in the weeks before he is sworn into office. Your host reads snippets from its pages and summarises some of its predictions.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 9, 2013 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 38 minutes]

News Item #1: Newsweek has ceased publication as a print magazine and is now strictly an online magazine. December 31, 2012 was the last print issue of the magazine. If you didn't get a copy, check for it on eBay. It's bound to be a collectors item.

News Item #2: The entire run of Omni magazine is online and readable for free. Omni was a big beautiful glossy print magazine covering both science and science fiction which ran from 1978 to 1995. I used to subscribe to it myself--it was excellent. Its editor was the legendary science fiction author Ben Bova. I had the pleasure of interviewing him several times for past episodes of this show, as well as for a magazine feature article about his career. (You can listen to my interviews with Ben Bova in the following four episodes: August 26, 2009; September 2, 2009; October 20, 2010; October 27, 2010.)

Listener Email: Robert D. Edmonds, Jr. describes, in an unusually heartfelt email, why he is against autonomous cars: he enjoys driving at a fundamental level.

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

Topic: Autonomous Cars (also known as driverless cars and self-driving vehicles). What they are; how they will change our lives; and especially the powerful forces which may accelerate their dominance of all roads and highways by mandating the elimination of human-driven cars.

Google's work on autonomous cars, and their recent lobbying for laws making them legal in Nevada, Florida and California. It's beginning to look as though autonomous cars might become available and popular within this decade.

Source material mentioned in today's episode: A Wall Street Journal article dated Sept. 24, 2012, written by Dan Niel, which provides an excellent analysis of what autonomous cars are all about, effects they will have on our lives and on civilization, and forces which may propel them to dominate the road at a surprising rate. The NOVA documentary, The Great Robot Race (available in DVD and streaming format from Netflix) which details the 2004 and 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge to create an autonomous vehicle for the US military. And the 1976 novel A World Out of Time, by Larry Niven, which described autonomous cars in the deep future.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 2, 2013 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 33 minutes]

News Item: While at LibertyCon in Chattanooga a few months ago, I had the privilege of interviewing the convention's Literary Guest of Honor: the bestselling author Brandon Sanderson. This interview was different from the almost 400 I've done over the last seven years. This one was videotaped (in HD) by a professional. The professional, Derek Pearson who has been producing music videos for some time, was looking for a project to help him showcase his skills in videography as well as post production with the intention of moving his career into TV show production. The resulting video interview is now available online for your viewing pleasure, and at the traditional Internet price: Free.

Jacob Krogsgaard (atmospheric scientist and project manager) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Possible ramifications of self-replicating 3-D printers, such as the RepRap Machine by Dr. Adrian Bowyer. Also: open-source designs, crowd-funding, the stock market micro-crash, the Augmented Reality glasses such as the Google Glass project, and computers wired directly into the human brain. As well as his observation that our current generation of technology seems to be super-empowering volunteer activities of every type such as Librivox and Wikipedia; and his notion that artificial intelligence may be more useful if it does NOT mimic human styles of thinking.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 26, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 29 minutes] This interview was recorded using Skype on December 1, 2012.

Jacob Krogsgaard is currently working (along with Tom Canton) to create a documentary film which will promote the idea of using of a mass driver as a space launch system to the general public (as well as to the scientific and political communities) as an alternative to rockets and space elevators. Jacob Krogsgaard is an atmospheric scientist and project manager. Tom Canton is a experienced director of business, training and music videos.

BTW: I interviewed Dr. Adrian Bowyer about his RepRap 3-D Printer Project on September 17, 2008 Episode. That episode--like all past episodes of this show--remains available for your listening pleasure. It can be found here.

Jacob Krogsgaard (atmospheric scientist and project manager) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Driverless cars are legal in California and Nevada, why smartphones are not done changing the world, such as using a smartphone to give an EKG test, why high-frequency computerized stock trading is a problem, how journalism is being radically changed by the Internet, and police officers using tiny drones to take aerial photos of automotive traffic accidents. Also: examples of volunteer driven productivity; such as: the uncountable number of free tutorial videos on uTube, and the thousands of classic books which can be downloaded from Librivox.org and listened to as audiobooks for free. As well as: swallowing a camera in a pill, the Chinese going to the moon, the coming boom in space missions for profit, why cable companies are dinosaurs, and the problem of dieing newspapers.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 19, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 31 minutes] This interview was recorded using Skype on December 1, 2012.

Jacob Krogsgaard is currently working (along with Tom Canton) to create a documentary film entitled Mass Driver which will promote the idea of using of a mass driver as a space launch system to the general public (as well as to the scientific and political communities) as an alternative to rockets and space elevators. Jacob Krogsgaard is an atmospheric scientist and project manager. Tom Canton is a experienced director of business, training and music videos.

News Item: This is the seven year anniversary episode of The Future And You. Seven years ago (on December 15, 2005) the very first episode of The Future And You became globally available for public enjoyment. Back then it was in a magazine format in which each episode contained many guests. This made the show very long; usually about an hour and a half. Too long, some listeners said, which is why I changed it to the current shorter format. Sound quality back then was also less than it is today since I was doing phone interviews through a traditional land line telephone instead of through Skype or Google Talk.

Despite their age, I am pleased to say that my decision to keep all past episodes up and available indefinitely has proven to be a good one. All the past episodes, even the very earliest, continue to be downloaded at a rate that I find pleasing. I'm also pleased at the global nature of the show's popularity. While the USA makes up about 60 percent of the audience, I have listeners in over 140 nations around the world. China tops the foreign countries, followed by all the English speaking nations (in order of population), then the developed countries in Europe and Asia and the Americas, followed finally by what seem to be all the nations that have access to the Internet.

I'd like to thank everyone who has helped to make this show a success: both those who listen and those who have let me interview them. The desire to hear and the desire to share ideas and opinion about the future is what keeps this show going. Thank you all, I appreciate your help.

Jacob Krogsgaard (atmospheric scientist and project manager) is today's featured guest.

Topics: adult stem cells harvested from human urine; 3D printing of organs; a new way of enriching uranium which may make it cheaper and easier, and therefore more common and more dangerous; solar cells which can split water into hydrogen and oxygen; why photovoltaics are wonderful, but why photovoltaics wont be enough to solve the climate change problem; and specifically why climate change may be catastrophic. Also: the two types of privacy; surveillance verses sousveillance; genetic therapies; regenerative medicine; and viruses used as targetable delivery methods for drugs which kill cancer.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 12, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 30 minutes] This interview was recorded using Skype on December 1, 2012.

Jacob Krogsgaard is currently working (along with Tom Canton) to create a documentary film entitled Mass Driver which will promote the idea of using of a mass driver as a space launch system to the general public (as well as to the scientific and political communities) as an alternative to rockets and space elevators. Jacob Krogsgaard is an atmospheric scientist and project manager. Tom Canton is a experienced director of business, training and music videos.

Jacob Krogsgaard (atmospheric scientist and project manager) is today's featured guest.

Topic: the engineering difficulties which must be overcome in order to build a magnetic mass driver capable of safely launching into earth orbit both cargo and people.

Links for more info on things mentioned in this episode: Mass Driver, L5 Society, plasma window, and Mass Driver Up-Date By Henry Kolm From L5 News, September 1980.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 5, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes]

Jacob Krogsgaard is currently working (along with Tom Canton) to create a documentary film entitled Mass Driver which will promote the idea of using of a mass driver as a space launch system to the general public (as well as to the scientific and political communities) as an alternative to rockets and space elevators. Jacob Krogsgaard is an atmospheric scientist and project manager. Tom Canton is a experienced director of business, training and music videos.

Topic: Is America Still a Leader in Education? (Part 2 of 2)

Dr. Ben Davis (nuclear physicist, programmer, and former professor), Terry W. Erwin II (educator of English and Science at the High School level, who is also a science fiction writer) and Jim Craig (speaker, lecturer, and planetarium director) are our featured guests. Stephen Euin Cobb moderated this panel: asking questions and keeping everyone on topic.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the November 28, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes] This is a panel discussion recorded before a live audience in Charlotte North Carolina on June 2, 2012 at the Science Fiction and Fantasy convention ConCarolinas. This is the second half of the panel discussion. The first half is in last next week's episode.

Dr. Ben Davis earned his PhD in Nuclear Physics from the University of Notre Dame. For several years he then taught mathematics, programming, astronomy and physics. He now works in the biometrics industry. His personal interest include: futurism, skepticism, science fiction, and history.

Terry W. Erwin II writes novels, short stories and articles. His novels include: Blood Swordand Flank Hawk.

Jim Craig is the director of the James H. Lynn Planetarium at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia NC. He is a lifelong science fiction fan and has given presentations on the history of science fiction. He is an outspoken activist for science education, critical thinking, skepticism and free thought. In 2006 he was allowed to name a crater on Mars.

Stephen Euin Cobb is an author, futurist, magazine writer and host of the award-winning podcast The Future And You. He is also an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of the Lifeboat Foundation. Three years a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine; he is a Contributing Editor at Space and Time Magazine; has become a regular contributor at Robot Magazine and H+ Magazine; and has written for Digit, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines. His novels include: Bones Burnt Black, Plague at Redhook andSkinbrain.

Dr. Ben Davis (nuclear physicist, programmer, and former professor), Terry W. Erwin II (educator of English and Science at the High School level, who is also a science fiction writer) and Jim Craig (speaker, lecturer, and planetarium director) are our featured guests. Stephen Euin Cobb moderated this panel: asking questions and keeping everyone on topic.

Topic: Is America Still a Leader in Education? (Part 1 of 2)

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the November 21, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 30 minutes] This is a panel discussion recorded before a live audience in Charlotte North Carolina on June 2, 2012 at the Science Fiction and Fantasy convention ConCarolinas. This is the first half of the panel discussion. The second half will be in next week's episode.

Dr. Ben Davis earned his PhD in Nuclear Physics from the University of Notre Dame. For several years he then taught mathematics, programming, astronomy and physics. He now works in the biometrics industry. His personal interest include: futurism, skepticism, science fiction, and history.

Terry W. Erwin II writes novels, short stories and articles. His novels include: Blood Swordand Flank Hawk.

Jim Craig is the director of the James H. Lynn Planetarium at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia NC. He is a lifelong science fiction fan and has given presentations on the history of science fiction. He is an outspoken activist for science education, critical thinking, skepticism and free thought. In 2006 he was allowed to name a crater on Mars.

Stephen Euin Cobb is an author, futurist, magazine writer and host of the award-winning podcast The Future And You. He is also an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of the Lifeboat Foundation. Three years a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine; he is a Contributing Editor at Space and Time Magazine; has become a regular contributor at Robot Magazine and H+ Magazine; and has written for Digit, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines. His novels include: Bones Burnt Black, Plague at Redhook andSkinbrain.

Ramez Naam (author, futurist and IT professional) is our featured guest.

Topic: Global Climate Change is just one of the many topics he covers in his book The Infinite Resource: The Power of Innovation on a Finite Planet. Looking beyond the arguments and hyperbole, in this interview we discuss what we know scientifically and what we don't know. We explore the problems and inconveniences which global warming will likely produce, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of some possible engineering methods of placing a thermostat on the Earth.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the November 14, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 40 minutes]

Ramez Naam is an IT professional, futurist and author. His background is in computer software and high scale web services. He held leadership roles on early versions of Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Internet Explorer. He was one of the early employees on the Bing search engine and led all of Program Management for Bing for two years and the Relevance and Ranking Team for four years. He is a member of Humanity Plus and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and he teaches at Singularity University. He is the author of the nonfiction book More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement which came out in 2005. And has a new book coming out in the spring of 2013 entitled The Infinite Resource: The Power of Innovation on a Finite Planet.