The Future And You

Ramez Naam (author, futurist and IT professional) is today's featured guest.

Topics: good trends such as: poverty and hunger are down world-wide, while health and longevity are up; but also mixed trends such as in: education and the jobs of the future, the rising shortage of fresh water, how desalinization works and why it is increasingly important, the good and bad truth about fracking and natural gas, limits on agriculture--just how much food can we produce? the good and bad news about china, as well as other topics he covers in his book The Infinite Resource: The Power of Innovation on a Finite Planet which is due out in the spring of 2013.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the November 7, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 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.

Ramez Naam (author, futurist and IT professional) is today's featured guest.

Topics: Internet Search Algorithms (what they are and how they do what they do); what and why he teaches at Singularity University; why he joined Humanity Plus and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies; why he believes (as does your host) that all human beings are transhumanists by their fundamental nature; why he dislikes the term "Transhumanist" even though he is one. We also discuss his article in Scientific American which describes how photovoltaic cells (solar cells) are undergoing an exponential price change similar to Moore's Law; why the power grid is not ready for widespread use of photovoltaic cells, and what needs to be done to make it ready; and the difference between smart grids and dumb grids.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 31, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 38 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.

News Item: As of Oct. 28, 2012, every observation from the extrasolar planet survey made by Kepler since its launch in 2009 through June 27, 2012, is available to scientists and the public. What's more, all future data will be no longer exclusive to the Kepler science team, its guest observers, and its asteroseismology consortium members and will be available immediately to the public. This treasure-trove contains more than 16 terabytes of data and is housed at the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, or MAST, at the Space Telescope Science Institute. MAST is a huge data archive containing astronomical observations from 16 NASA space astronomy missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope. It is named in honor of Maryland U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski. Over the past three years the Kepler science team has discovered 77 confirmed planets and 2,321 planet candidates.

Jim Craig, Micki (of the Charlotte Geeks) and Stephen Euin Cobb are today's speakers.

Topic: Inventions which were Inspired by Science Fiction movies, books or TV.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 24, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 66 minutes] This panel discussion was recorded before a live audience on June 2, 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina at the Science Fiction and Fantasy convention ConCarolinas.

News Items:

[2] Starvation Hormone (fibroblast growth factor-21, FGF21 for short) Markedly Extends Mouse Life Span, Without Need for Calorie Restriction.

John G. Hartness is today's featured guest.

Topic: An even deeper penetration into the secrets of self-publishing electronically. As well as some frank advice about writing erotica; how Michael Stackpole made many traditionally-published authors angry; Books on the Knob; what NOT to do when designing ebook covers, and some insider tips on how to publish and promote using Kindle Direct Publishing which is amazon's website for all those who self-publish electronically.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 17, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 63 minutes] This was recorded on July 21, 2012 in a pizzeria in Chattanooga Tennessee during the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon.

Also, a listener email from Ripley Maddock mentions two articles: Driverless Cars In California Approved By Governor Jerry Brown and Carnegie Mellon Using Cell Phones and Facebook to Identify, Map and Monitor Potholes.

Sarah Hoyt, Daniel Hoyt, John G. Hartness, Charlotte Babb, Tamera Lowery and Dan Hollifield are today's featured speakers.

Topic: Self-Publishing as a Viable Career Option. How you can participate in the upheaval going on in the publishing industry by publishing your books, your short stories, and even your nonfiction articles for sale to the general public all by yourself. Mostly this means ebooks which have been outselling physical books for over a year, and which provide the author with a much larger royalty for each book sold than the traditional book publishers were ever able to offer--even if your name is Stephen King.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 10, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 53 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 21, 2012 before a live audience in Chattanooga Tennessee at the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon. Special thanks go to Derek Spraker and John Trieber of LibertyCon who recorded this, and many other panels for me.

Stephen Euin Cobb is today's featured speaker.

Topics: Your host reads from, and comments on, an MIT report entitled The Future of the Electric Grid. Also: cybersecurity; wind energy; why electric cars may become a huge burden on the electric grid; and how the power industry's push-back against solar cells in Hawaii has now spread to California.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 3, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes]

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

Jim Minz, Lee Martindale, Chris Morris, Janet Morris, Dan Hollifield, Holly McClure and Walt Boyes are today's featured guests.

Topic: ePublishing as viewed principally by various publishers and editors who have successfully transitioned into it without abandoning their traditional paper-based publishing business models.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 26, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 52 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 21, 2012 before a live audience in Chattanooga Tennessee at the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon. Special thanks go to Derek Spraker and John Trieber of LibertyCon who recorded this and many other panels for me.

Stephen Euin Cobb is today's featured speaker.

A Variety of Topics Which Include: 11 Health Habits That Will Help You Live to 100; An exhaustive Longevity Quiz I took recently; Forks Over Knives (a documentary about how foods affect our health); The first ever smart phone with a Geiger counter built into it; Deaf gerbils hear again after stem cell cure; Woolly Mammoth fragments from Siberia raise cloning hopes; Google News and Google Alerts (what they are and why they can be valuable to you); and online college courses from famous universities which you can take for free.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 19, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 49 minutes]

Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science is a nonfiction article by Stephen Euin Cobb available in a Kindle Edition. This 27-page article--written by an experienced futurist who has interviewed over 300 people for their opinion about the future--describes several of the far future scientific and technological innovations which will transform our civilization from what it is now into an exponentially larger, faster, stronger and more dynamic civilization than can be contained on this planet, or in this solar system, or within this universe. These technologies will allow us to expand through those boundaries and find new unimagined boundaries beyond them to break through. (Article: 7,498 Words) Chapter Titles -- We Will Transmute the Elements; We Will Develop Many Completely New Physics; My Father's Watch; Hidden-Life May be More Common on Planets than Non-Hidden: And Earth May be No Exception; The Universal Diagram; Engineering Space: Altering This Universe and Making New Ones.

A Brief History of Predicting the Future is a nonfiction article by Stephen Euin Cobb available in a Kindle Edition. This 21-page article--written by an experienced futurist who has interviewed over 300 people for their opinion about the future--describes how predicting the future has changed many times through the centuries: from magic to science, and from science fiction to computation. This is a quick and lively romp designed to give the reader a taste of what futurology today is all about, and a feel for the long uphill climb it has made from its humble beginnings in the dawn of antiquity. (Article: 5,600 Words) Sections include: The Future is Deep; The Far Future; The Near Future; From Ancient Magic to Scientific Causality; Science Fiction made the Future Fun; But then the Future Got Serious; Yes, the Future does Compute; The Future may get Weird; Just before it becomes Unimaginable; Transhumanists want you to be Better than Healthy; Virtual Living; End of the World; But not all Futures are Deadly, or even Weird.

Michael Z. Williamson,Philip R. Cox and Janet Morris are today's featured speakers.

Topic: (Second Half of discussion on) Future Weapons, including Post-Projectile weapons and "non-lethal" or "Less-than-lethal" weapons.

Michael Z. Williamson is retired from the United States military after 25 years and is both a science fiction and military fiction author. He is also associate editor at SurvivalBlog where he does reviews of disaster preparedness products. He has consulted on military matters, weapons and disaster preparedness for Discovery Channel and Outdoor Channel productions. He tests and reviews firearms and gear for manufacturers. He is the author of at least ten military SF novels, one of which is a collaboration with the New York Times best-selling author John Ringo.

Janet Morris is President and CEO of M2 Technologies, Inc., a woman-owned corporation specializing in non-lethal weapons (NLW), novel technology applications, tactics and technology. Her seminal non-lethal concept and novel technology applications work has been used by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and was excerpted in the Army's Draft Operations Concept for Disabling Measures (920904). She has taught or provided course material to the U.S. Air Force's Air Command and Staff College, National Defense University's (IRMC) School of Information Warfare and Strategy, and Penn State University Applied Research Laboratory's Non-Lethal Institute. She has provided and presented seminars and briefings to the Defense Science Board, the Congressional Research Service, Senate Armed Services Committee Staff, and the Center for Naval Analysis.

Philip R. Cox has been an engineer in the military-industrial complex for the last thirty years. His career has included the development of many fine spacecraft and weapons of mass destruction.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 12, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 28 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 21, 2012 before a live audience in Chattanooga Tennessee at the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon. Special thanks go to Derek Spraker and John Trieber of LibertyCon who recorded this, and many other panels for me; and to the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel for having such a fine sound system.

Michael Z. Williamson, Philip R. Cox and Janet Morris are today's featured speakers.

Topic: Future Weapons, including Post-Projectile weapons and "non-lethal" or "Less-than-lethal" weapons. (First of two parts.)

Michael Z. Williamson is retired from the United States military after 25 years and is both a science fiction and military fiction author. He is also associate editor at SurvivalBlog where he does reviews of disaster preparedness products. He has consulted on military matters, weapons and disaster preparedness for Discovery Channel and Outdoor Channel productions. He tests and reviews firearms and gear for manufacturers. He is the author of at least ten military SF novels, one of which is a collaboration with the New York Times best-selling author John Ringo.

Janet Morris is President and CEO of M2 Technologies, Inc., a woman-owned corporation specializing in non-lethal weapons (NLW), novel technology applications, tactics and technology. Her seminal non-lethal concept and novel technology applications work has been used by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and was excerpted in the Army's Draft Operations Concept for Disabling Measures (920904). She has taught or provided course material to the U.S. Air Force's Air Command and Staff College, National Defense University's (IRMC) School of Information Warfare and Strategy, and Penn State University Applied Research Laboratory's Non-Lethal Institute. She has provided and presented seminars and briefings to the Defense Science Board, the Congressional Research Service, Senate Armed Services Committee Staff, and the Center for Naval Analysis.

Philip R. Cox has been an engineer in the military-industrial complex for the last thirty years. His career has included the development of many fine spacecraft and weapons of mass destruction.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 5, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 31 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 21, 2012 before a live audience in Chattanooga Tennessee at the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon. Special thanks go to Derek Spraker and John Trieber of LibertyCon who recorded this, and many other panels for me; and to the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel for having such a fine sound system.