The Future And You

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.