Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon welcome futurist Thomas McCabe to FastForward Radio to talk about what's new with Humanity+ and to get a sneak preview of the upcoming Humanity Plus Conference at Caltech December 4-5. Topics to be discussed at the conference include:

Re-Imagining Humans: Mind, Media and Methods

Radically Increasing the Human Healthspan

Redefining Intelligence: Artificial

Intelligence, Intelligence Enhancement and

Substrate-Independent Minds

Business and Economy in the Era of Radical Technomorphosis

PLUS: an all-new edition of "Tales of the Paranormal" as well as updates on the show's upcoming format change and our campaign to get 1000 people to read The Rational Optimist.

About Our Guest

Thomas McCabe is a mathematics student at Yale University and software engineer at Stik.com. He is the IT and website manager for the Singularity Summit and also a Research Consultant for KurzweilAI.net. He was recently elected to the board of directors of Humanity+ where he also serves as Program Coordinator.

Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon welcome Max Marty of the Seasteading Institute to discuss how and why people might soon be taking up permanent residence on the high seas.

From the Seasteading.org intro page.

What is "Seasteading"?

Seasteading is creating permanent dwellings on the ocean - homesteading the high seas. A seastead...is a structure meant for permanent occupation on the ocean.

Currently, it is very difficult to experiment with alternative social systems on a small scale; countries are so enormous that it is hard for an individual to make much difference. The world needs a new frontier, a place where those who wish to experiment with building new societies can go to test out their ideas.

About our guest

Max Marty is Head of Commercial Seasteading with the Seasteading institute, tasked with planning for the economic and financial challenges that individuals and firms aboard seasteads, and the seasteads themselves, will be facing when the Institute's vision comes to fruition.

Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss the implications of the discovery of the first potentially habitable planet outside the solar system. What does the existence of Gliese 581g imply about the existence of more such worlds? What does it tell us about the potential for life elsewhere in the galaxy.

If we're ever to travel to a planet such as 581g, how will we get there? And what will motivate us to go?

This week Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon take inspiration from a quote from Less Wrong.:

So my hypothesis is that if a certain side of an issue has very obvious

points in support of it, and the other side of an issue relies on much

more subtle points that the average person might not be expected to

grasp, then adopting the second side of the issue will become a signal

for intelligence, even if that side of the argument is wrong.

Are Speculists really just purveyors of the obvious? We examine some obvious(?) truths that may shed some light:

The appearance of humanity on this planet was a good thing

Life is getting better

Death sucks

The answer to our environmental problems lie in technological and economic development

The answers to virtually all of our problems lie in technological and economic development

True or false? Let's discuss.

Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss different scenarios for the future of the US and world economies. Is the American Dream alive and well, dead, sleeping, or tucked away in a cocoon awaiting some glorious metamorphosis?

Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon continue their discussion about the most promising indicators of a positive future and what steps need to be taken in order to move things along.

Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon take a positive look at future society, future technology, and future lifestyles. What are the most promising indicators of a positive future? And wat can we do to move things along?

Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon welcome Brian Wang of Next Big Future for a readout on the recent Techonomy conference at Lake Tahoe.

techonomy (te-kän'-uh-me) n. [tech(nology) + (ec)onomy]

organized activities related to the invention, development,

production, distribution and consumption of technology-enhanced goods

and services that a society uses to address the problem of scarcity and

to enhance the quality of life.

Plus, with Brian on the show you can count on plenty of news about the future and energy.

About our guest:

Brian Wang is a futurist

who blogs about all things future-related at NextBigFuture.

He is the Director of Research for the Lifeboat Foundation and a member

of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology Task Force.

On a special extended 90-minute edition of FastForward Radio, Foresight Institute co-founder and president Christine Peterson joins us to talk about her upcoming conference on Personalized Life Extension Plus, George Dvorsky and PJ Manney help us round out our recap of the Singularity Summit.

About Our Guests

Christine Peterson writes, lectures, and briefs the media on coming powerful technologies, especially nanotechnology. She is the co- founder and President of Foresight Institute, the leading nanotech public interest group. Foresight educates the public, technical community, and policymakers on nanotechnology and its long-term effects.

PJ Manney is a writer and futurist, and a leading voice in the Humanity+ movement. She is an occasional guest host on FastForward Radio as well as being our official Hollywood correspondent.

Canadian futurist, consultant and award winning blogger, George Dvorsky writes and speaks extensively about the impacts of cutting-edge science and technology -- particularly as they pertain to the improvement of human performance and experience.

At a special time, Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon recap Day 1 of the 2010 Singularity Summit and share interviews with speakers and thought-leaders in attendance.