The Future And You

Kim Stanley Robinson, the best selling and award-winning science fiction author is today's featured guest.

Topics include: Kim Stanley Robinson describes his reaction to being chosen as Guest of Honor for the 2010 World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne Australia. He also describes the benefits and challenges of the January 17, 2009 personal appearance he did in Second Life.

He also explains his conviction that we will never develop artificial intelligence, or the singularity, or mind-uploading. But he enthusiastically agrees with the desirability of increasing human longevity as much as possible, even if that means centuries, and even if it throws a monkey wrench into population control. He equates increasing longevity with decreasing human suffering. However, he doubts that an indefinate lifespan will come soon enough for anyone alive today.

Earth's current population, he says, may be the result of an Oil Bubble, and may be unsustainable after we run out of oil. He also explains why some people may be disappointed concerning the relationship they have with their robots in the future, since they will watch their machine for some glimmer of personality but will not find it.

He also talks about his involvement with the Clarion Writer's Workshop. About his teaching there this summer; about his teaching there once before in 1988; about being a student there in 1975; about the teaching methods used at Clarion; and about how, when it was forced to relocate, he helped Clarion find a new home at his alma mater (UCSD).

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 18, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 80 minutes]

Kim Stanley Robinson's writings have won the Hugo, the Nebula, the Asimov, the John W. Campbell, the Locus, and the World Fantasy Awards. He has a Bachelors degree in literature, a Masters in English, and a PhD. also in English. He considers science fiction to be one of the most powerful of all literary forms, which explains why his doctoral thesis was titled The Novels of Philip K. Dick.

Probably best known for his Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars); his other novels include: Fifty Degrees Below, Forty Signs of Rain, The Years of Rice and Salt, and most recently, Sixty Days and Counting (which describes the first year of a new and innovative environmentalist president, and may be becoming historical fiction). His newest novel is called Galileo's Dream but will not be released in the US until January of 2010.

News in this episode: As many as 50 planets like the Earth are expected to be discovered during the next three years. They will be discovered by the Kepler orbiting telescope, which will begin it's search a few days after NASA launches it on March 5, 2009. As a side result it will also locate many thousands, or even tens of thousands, of planets not like the earth.

Jerry Pournelle (author, journalist, editor, technology columnist, and military textbook writer) is today's featured guest. (This is the third and final portion of his two-hour long interview.)

Topics today include: Why political debates are not debates, why the U.S. electoral college was devised, and why the 1787 Congress was more successful by being a closed-door session. Comments on the Cray-1 supercomputer; the remarkable fact that Moore's Law has held so long and still seems to be going strong; and what he tried to accomplish in his long-running column in the iconic computer magazine Byte. His observation that today's computer hardware has become so powerful that our software has not kept up; and his feeling that, 'The next big step will be to make programming obsolete.' The possibility that electronic piracy is what's killing the publishing industry, and his ideas on the possibilities of an 'Enhanced Electronic Book.' The advantages of space-based solar energy compared to ground-based; and a few comments on Escape from Hell: his and Larry Niven's sequel to Inferno.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 11, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 48 minutes]

Doctor Jerry Pournelle has written more than thirty novels and at least thirteen books of non-fiction. More than a dozen of his novels, he coauthored with his friend Larry Niven, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Inferno; and their new sequel to Inferno: Escape From Hell.

Novels, however, have been only a portion of Jerry Pournelle's work. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he acquired Master's degrees in both experimental statistics and systems engineering, and Doctorates in both psychology and political science. He co-wrote a military textbook called The Strategy of Technology which was required reading at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He helped to write a portion of Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address concerning a missile defense system which the media at the time enjoyed making fun of and calling Star Wars, since they believed the technology needed to shoot down incoming missiles with our own missiles was impossible. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. He was campaign manager for Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr., as well as for Mayor Sam Yorty. And he was a columnist for Byte Magazine beginning in 1982.

News Item: A new university dedicated specifically to teaching about the technological singularity was announced on February 3, 2009. Singularity University will be housed at NASA's Ames base in California and will begin classes this summer. It is the brainchild of Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis, and has the backing of NASA and Google.

Jerry Pournelle (author, journalist, editor, technology columnist, and military textbook writer) is today's featured guest. (This is the second portion of our two-hour interview. The third and final portion will be provided next week.)

Topics today include: How he contributed to President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address in 1980, and became part of Reagan's group of advisers concerning the Strategic Defence Initiative (which Ted Kennedy, by the way, dubbed Star Wars because he did not believe it would ever be possible to shoot down an incoming missile with one of our own missiles). And how this lead directly to the Patriot Missile and other missiles which routinely do the impossible by routinely shooting down incoming missiles.

Laser-based warfare: including one proposal that would turn Grand Coulee Dam into a space-based weapon of immense power and very nearly global reach. A weapon so powerful that only one would be needed in a war.

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy, which states that, 'In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals which the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.' Doctor Pournelle explains and gives examples.

He also mentions working with: Buzz Aldrin, Robert Heinlein, Greg Bear, Jim Baen, Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Ben Bova, and Dean Ing. He describes a fundamental problem he sees with today's space suits; and talks of Patton and MacArthur, military theory, teacher's unions, and NASA.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 4, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 47 minutes]

Doctor Jerry Pournelle has written more than thirty novels and at least thirteen books of non-fiction. More than a dozen of his novels, he coauthored with his friend Larry Niven, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Inferno; and their new sequel to Inferno: Escape From Hell.

Novels, however, have been only a portion of Jerry Pournelle's work. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he acquired Master's degrees in both experimental statistics and systems engineering, and Doctorates in both psychology and political science. He co-wrote a military textbook called The Strategy of Technology which became required reading at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. He was campaign manager for Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr., as well as for Mayor Sam Yorty. And he was a columnist for Byte Magazine beginning in 1982.

News Note: Last week, in the January 28 2009 episode of this show, Jerry Pournelle mentioned his battle with a brain tumor, described the annoyances of his radiation treatment, and reported that he is now cancer-free.

Jerry Pournelle (author, journalist, editor, technology columnist, and military textbook writer) is today's featured guest.

Topics include: Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Larry Niven and other authors he has been friends with; how the downfall of the Soviet Union was an engineered event, planned decades in advance, which worked exactly as planned (and specifically what that plan was); how he orchestrated the political campaigns of Barry Goldwater, Jr., and Sam Yorty; his friends and involvement in the Survivalist Movement, and his being editor of the magazine Survive which was closely allied with the magazine Soldier of Fortune; political stories from The Cold War and Mutual Assured Destruction; a few words about his and Larry Niven's new novel Escape from Hell; the difficulties of his chemotherapy; the good news that he is now cancer free.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 28, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 65 minutes]

Doctor Jerry Pournelle has written more than thirty novels and at least thirteen books of non-fiction. More than a dozen of his novels, he coauthored with his friend Larry Niven, including The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Inferno; and their new sequel to Inferno: Escape Fom Hell.

Novels, however, have been only a portion of Jerry Pournelle's work. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he acquired Master's degrees in both experimental statistics and systems engineering, and Doctorates in both psychology and political science. He cowrote a military textbook called The Strategy of Technology which was required reading at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He helped to write a portion of Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address concerning a missile defense system which the media at the time enjoyed making fun of and calling Star Wars, since they believed the technology needed to shoot down incoming missiles with our own missiles was impossible. He worked in operations research at Boeing, The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. He was founding President of the Pepperdine Research Institute. And he was a columnist for Byte Magazine beginning in 1982.

Alan Dean Foster (author of over 100 novels of science fiction and fantasy and noted world traveler) is today's featured guest.

Many of this interview's topics were made possible only because of Alan's longstanding enthusiasm for traveling to places tourists rarely go. He seeks the places where wildlife is still unspoiled; and where the ancient ways that predate writing still exist. He knows they are fading rapidly, and wants to see them before they are gone forever.

Topics include: how cell phones are changing even the third world with amazing speed; primitive cultures accepting technology, and leapfrogging passed the intermediate technologies; the rise of ebooks overseas, as well as how traditional publishers may watch their income evaporate when people buy ebooks online directly from the authors, which would cut publishers out of the loop; how policing oceanic piracy is forcing the naval ships of nations which are normally enemies to cooperate, and how this may build relationships of respect: a precursor to trust.

He also shares some personal anecdotes: about writing movie novelizations such as Aliens 1, 2 and 3--and why he didn't write number 4; how he met Diana Rigg (who played Emma Peel on The Avengers) as well as Julie Newmar (who played the original Catwoman on Batman); his trip with James Gurney (author of Dinotopia and illustrator for National Geographic) who joined him on travels through Malta, Tunisia, Morocco, Dakar and Gibraltar.

He also described his intention to travel to the Western Indian Ocean, which is part of the area threatened by the pirate's that have been in the news so much lately for hijacking cruise ships and oil tankers and holding everyone aboard hostage, sometimes for many months.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 21, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 64 minutes]

While most of his novels involve worlds he has created himself, such as those in his Commonwealth series and Spellsinger series, and those in his various trilogies such as The Damned, The Taken and Icerigger, a portion of his time is spent writing novelizations of successful movies and TV shows. Examples include: the first three Aliens movies, The Chronicles of Riddick, Outland, Clash of the Titans, Starman, The Thing, Alien Nation, Transformers, The Last Starfighter, and the first Star Wars novelization, which he co-wrote with George Lucas.

The quality and extent of this body of work won him the 2008 Grand Master award from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.

Doctor Bob Boan (scientist and author) is today's featured guest.

Dr. Boan's work has involved US Government space programs for the intelligence departments, but he has also done work for NASA and for commercial communications.

He is coauthor (along with Doctor Travis S. Taylor) of the book: An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extra-Terrestrial Invasion. This book makes a serious and scientifically rigorous analysis of exactly how to defend Earth against an attack from space. Today that would mean from an alien force, but eventually this might mean human forces which have been deployed into space.

John Ringo (the New York Times, Bestselling Military SF Author) called it: '...the definitive book on the defense of the Earth against a potential alien incursion... the book also serves as an important primer on the potential future of warfare on every level. It is tightly grounded in current day realities of war and extrapolates thoughtfully but closely about future potentials. It should be on the reading list of anyone who is serious about national security and the future of war.'

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 14, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes]

In today's interview Dr. Boan says: 'Our schools are based on conformity, but we need to encourage greater creative thinking. Let the kids color the cows purple and draw jewelry on them; they'll learn cows don't wear jewelry soon enough.' And he suggests: beyond identity theft, we need to be aware of 'personality theft:' literally the specific details of who we are: the details of our lives, and what makes us unique.

Dr. Boan also describes why he thinks: China may be the place where the next big software security innovation gets developed; software development is being pushed most by video games; and nuclear power's bad rap is not only unjustified, it is hurting our future by ensuring our continued dependence on foreign oil; software has only begun to change our lives to the extent that it will; there are three areas that are already important but which will soon become exceedingly important: data archiving, data retrieval, and data security. He also talks about: robotics, AI, Virtual Reality, and movies with virtual actors rather than real ones.

News in this episode: Kim Stanley Robinson (the bestselling author) will be making a personal appearance inside Second Life at noon Pacific time on Saturday, January 17, 2009. He will be speaking and answering questions in the Grand Meeting Room inside the Central Nexus Building in the City State of Extropia Core. The event will be hosted by Sophrosyne Stenvaag. Your host plans to be there taking pictures.

Phillis George and Billy George are today's featured guests. Both Phyllis and Billy have worked in banking for many years, however, this interview is NOT about the current bailouts and other well publicized banking debacles. Those thoroughly examined topics can be left to the army of other interviewers. This interview is about the trends within all of banking, and especially at your neighborhood bank, and how these trends are changing your bank into what it will eventually become.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 7, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 68 minutes]

Topics include: how Billy George discovered a crook working inside his bank who was stealing money from his account; why the scam called Check Kiting is becoming impossible in more and more locations; methods of sending money--without a check--to people in the US and Mexico; circumstances in which fear over identity theft make no sense; and why sometimes the people you think will be early adopters resist new technologies, and those you think will resist already love it.

Also, how some banks are dumping their problem customers in order to improve customer service for those who are not a problem; why your check sometimes clears the bank while you're still talking to the merchant you just handed it to; why banks like their employees to bring their cell phones to work, as long as they don't use them very much; the benefits of online banking which go way beyond saving money; as well as credit cards, debit cards, smart cards, and cards with computer chips inside them.

All this, combined with other misunderstandings about banking which cost people money. For example: many people don't understand that a loan officer's job is to sell them a loan. They are no different than a car dealer. Their job to sell the customer the loan that is best for the bank, not best for the customer.

Rhonda Leigh Jones (author of erotic romance novels, and just back from a year living in and participating in the Eastern European culture of Romania) is today's featured guest.

Sex, BDSM, and life in Romania verses American are the general topics of the interview. Specifics topics include: the sexiness of the Joker from Batman; sexual repression within our culture; surprises from living a year in Romania; how her novels differ from the BDSM movies The Story of O and The Secretary; other alternative lifestyles such as polyamory; many people who are dating and in relationships rarely talk about sex, and when they do, rarely describe what they actually want; differences between occasional kink and lifestyle kink; people consider murder less a crime than rape even though it's possible to recover from rape but not from murder; that goth is mostly about music and only secondarily about style; and the goth scene in Romania. Also, how Romania differs from America in terms of music, sexual attitudes (both kinky and non), clothing styles, culture, employment, crime, living conditions (it being a former communist nation), even how Romanians differ from Americans when just standing in line.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 31, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 67 minutes]

The Maestro's Butterfly and The Maestro's Maker are the first two novels in her erotic romance series which explores the dark side of eroticism using Vampires as some of the principal characters and the erotic elements of BDSM. Both novels are now also available as downloadable audio books. (Her publisher Ravenous Romance released her second novel only days after this interview was recorded.) Rhonda Leigh Jones has a Bachelors in English, and is a former newspaper reporter.

Sound-bites from the interview: 'There is so much kink out there.'

'Sexual attitudes in Romania are simultaneously more open and less open.'

'My novels are for people who like the dark side of eroticism; these are kinky vampires. It's an exploration of power dynamics: of domination and submission, and also of corporal punishment. There's a lot of corporal punishment in my writing.'

'People, if they are like me, get into BDSM because they don't skydive. A little bit of fear is the ultimate aphrodisiac.'

R.U. Sirius (Editor-In-Chief of the new Transhumanist Magazine called H+ as well as writer, talk show host, and cyberculture icon) is today's featured guest.

R.U. Sirius tells how Timothy Leary (his friend and fellow cyberculture activist) helped him trick William Gibson (the reclusive author of the seminal cyberpunk novel Neuromancer) into providing them with an interview for Mondo 2000 (the cyberculture magazine of which R.U. Sirius was editor and co-founder).

He also talks about his work with Bruce Sterling (SF author and cyberculture leader); his candidacy for president in 2000; how the decline of print magazines is opening up the possibility that the new transhumanist magazine H+ may become a print magazine; and he accepts an invitation from me (your host) to do two personal appearnces inside the virtual world of Second Life.

And somewhere in the middle of all this he finds time to talk about technological enhancements to our IQ and mood; the accuracy of Ray Kurzeil's time-line; artificial intelligence; diminishing privacy; biotechnology; Amazon's Kindle; virtual reality; and why molecular manufacturing might become the magic bullet to end scarcity, increase health and extend human longevity.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 24, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 51 minutes]

R.U. Sirius (who was born Ken Goffman) may be best known as co-founder and the original Editor-In-Chief of Mondo 2000 Magazine from 1989–1993. He was Editor-In-Chief of Axcess magazine in 1998, and GettingIt.com from 1999-2000. He was also chairman and candidate in the 2000 U.S. presidential election for The Revolution Party; which had a platform that was a mixture of libertarianism and liberalism. He has been a regular columnist for Wired News and the San Francisco Examiner, a contributing writer for Wired and Artforum International. And he has written for Time, Esquire, Rolling Stone and many other publications. Altogether, he has written several hundred articles and essays.

News Items in this episode include: [1] Review of Robot Magazine. A glossy, full-color, 80 page-thick magazine crammed with articles about how to make robots, program robots, where to get robot parts, and what happened at all the latest robot competitions. [2] Kim Stanley Robinson will be in Second Life for an open forum discussion on Saturday, January 17, 2009. Beginning at Noon Pacific Time, it will be hosted by my friend Sophrosyne Stenvaag as part of her series of open forum discussions with people who are shaping the future, entitled Sophrosenye's Saturday Salon. [3] I attended my first baby shower inside Second Life. On December 14, 2008 Giulio Prisco (in Spain) threw the shower for Amara Graps (in Denver). Photos I took are on my Flickr page.

R.U. Sirius (writer, editor, talk show host, and cyberculture icon) is today's featured guest.

As Editor-In-Chief of a new magazine called H+ (which is written by transhumanists, for transhumanists) he describes how he was recruited, his goals for its future, and admits (possibly for the first time) that he is a transhumanist and has been one, possibly his whole life.

Timothy Leary (who he recruited as a regular writer for Mondo 2000) in the 1980s, he points out, wrote about and promoted many ideas that today are widely considered transhumanist in nature. He suggests that although Timothy Leary did not describe himself as one, he might be considered an early transhumanist.

He also answers the host's question: How many of your articles, over the years, have been rejected because they were too controversial? And: if human longevity is developed, how will carrying our sometimes controversial reputations for centuries change our lives? He also talks about his expectations concerning artificial intelligence and the Singularity.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 17, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 49 minutes]

H+ magazine is available worldwide as a free download in PDF format. The first issue of is out. Your host has read it, and enjoyed it very much. Many of its articles were written by people who have been a guest on The Future And You.

Previously, R.U. Sirius (who was born Ken Goffman) was best known as co-founder and the original Editor-In-Chief of Mondo 2000 Magazine from 1989–1993. He was Editor-In-Chief of Axcess magazine in 1998, and GettingIt.com from 1999-2000. He was also chairman and candidate in the 2000 U.S. presidential election for The Revolution Party; which had a platform that was a mixture of libertarianism and liberalism. He has been a regular columnist for Wired News and the San Francisco Examiner, a contributing writer for Wired and Artforum International. And he has written for Time, Esquire, Rolling Stone and many other publications. Altogether, he has written several hundred articles and essays.

News Items in this episode include: [1] This is Third Anniversary episode of The Future And You. [2] The Future And You, and other podcasts, can be listened to by phone. Podlines assigned this show the phone number +1 (210) 957-5545 . [3] The Annual Death Stacks Tournament (a game invented by your host) has been invited to become part of the IAGO World Tour by The International Abstract Games Organization. [4] New Scientist Magazine reports that eating food with heavier isotopes of hydrogen and other atoms might lengthen human lives.