In Part 2 of our three-part series on the new economy, Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon welcome New York Times bestselling author and Forbes.com Web Celeb Cory Doctorow to FastForward Radio to discuss his novel Makers. 

 

Set in a highly plausible near future, Makers is the story of

the next great economic boom and bust cycle -- empowered by 3D printers, useful

refuse, and the unstoppable hacker urge to get out there and make something

cool. Is this our future? How will the ongoing (and closely related) trends

of increased productivity and increased individual control of production impact

our economy? Are we heading for a world in which, as we discussed in

Part 1, robots take all our jobs away? If so, how much of that damage will

be offset by technology that let's us "print" the stuff we need -- including

housing?

 

What does the future hold in store for us -- the consumer welfare state?

The luxury shanty town? Or something else altogether? Tune in and find out.

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger.

He is a co-editor of Boing

Boing. He also blogs at craphound.com. 

He is a contributor to Wired, Popular Science, Make, the New York

Times, as well as a number of other newspapers, magazines and websites.

Cory's bestselling novel Little Brother was nominated for the 2008 Hugo,

Nebula, Sunburst and Locus Awards.  His current novel is called Makers

and it's available in bookstores now.

How long before a robot gets your job?

Phil and Stephen begin a three part series on the New Economy with Special Guest martin Ford. Ford's new book, The Lights in the Tunnel, takes an in depth look at current trends in technology and globalization and examines what the likely economic impact will be in the coming years and decades.

Globalization. Collaboration. Telecommuting. Are these the forces that will shape the workplaces of the future? Or is there something bigger lurking?

How will job automation impact the economy in the future?

How will the offshore outsourcing trend evolve in the coming years?

What impact will technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence have on the job market?

And most importantly, what should we do next? Tune in and find out!

About Our Guest

Martin Ford is the founder of a Silicon Valley-based software development firm. He has over 25 years experience in the fields of computer design and software development. He holds a computer engineering degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a graduate business degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.

What is it that throws the Speculist Switch? Phil and Stephen review and update the Speculist Essentials -- key influences towards developing a FastForward-friendly view of the universe, including:Movie or TV show

Fiction book

Nonfiction book

Website

Event

Person

If you listen live you can contribute to the show by joining the text chat.  Our chat host Sally Morem will be on hand to lead the discussion.

In honor of the prognosticating rodent, Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon give their own thoughts on when Spring will arrive, along with other upcoming positive developments.

How does the future happen? How do we get one future vs. a different future? Phil Bowermaster and guest co-host Michael Darling discuss.

Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon welcome author (The Universe: Solved!) and futurist Jim Elvidge back to FastForward Radio.

Elvidge is a Cornell-educated entrepreneur and inventor who holds four patents in digital signal processing. His love of music inspired him to develop one of the first PC-based digital music samplers and to co-found RadioAMP, which was the first private-label online streaming radio company. In recent years he has turned his attention to the ultimate question of existence and, drawing on a broad and eclectic base of knowledge and interests, has come up with a unique explanation for...pretty much everything.

The Universe: Solved!, covers a lot of scientific and philosophical ground, including the idea that we live in a computer simulation. If so, are there Easter Eggs in the cosmos?

Phil and Stephen welcome writer and futurist P. J. Manney back to FastForward Radio to talk about major developments of 2009 and to look forward to the new year.

BONUS: a special holiday edition of "Tales of the Paranormal."

About Our Guest

As a frequent guest and occasional co-host -- not to mention our official Hollywood correspondent -- PJ Manney brings a unique perspective to FastForward Radio. She is a writer and futurist, and a leading voice in the Humanity+ movement. She has written extensively on H+ topics, having previously been involved in motion picture development (Hook, It Could Happen to You, Universal Soldier) and writing for television (Hercules: the Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess).

Futurist J. Storrs Hall joins us as we continue our special series leading up Foresight 2010. The conference, January 16-17 in Palo Alto, California, provides a unique opportunity to explore the convergence of nanotechnology and artificial intelligence and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Foresight Institute.

Join us as we catch up the progress of the Foresight Institute and get a sneak preview of topics to be covered at the conference.

About Our Guest:

J. Storrs Hall is a scientist, visionary, entrepreneur, and the president of the Foresight Institute.

Economist Robin Hanson and futurist Brian Wang join us as we continue our special series leading up Foresight 2010. The conference, January 16-17 in Palo Alto, California, provides a unique opportunity to explore the convergence of nanotechnology and artificial intelligence and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Foresight Institute.

Robin Hanson is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University, a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University, and chief scientist at Consensus Point. Robin is a pioneer in the field of prediction markets, also known as information markets or idea futures. He was a principal architect of the first internal corporate markets, as well as the Foresight Exchange beginning in 1994, and of DARPA's Policy Analysis Market, from 2001 to 2003. Robin has diverse research interests everything from health incentive contracts, to Bayesian classification, agreeing to disagree, self-deception in disagreement, to growth given machine intelligence, and interstellar colonization. He blogs at Overcoming Bias.

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.

Futurist Michael Anissimov and nanotechnologist Ralph Merkle us as we begin a special series leading up Foresight 2010. The conference, January 16-17 in Palo Alto, California, provides a unique opportunity to explore the convergence of nanotechnology and artificial intelligence and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Foresight Institute.

About our guests:

Michael Anissimov is a

science/technology writer and consultant. He is the creative force

behind one of the leading futurist blogs, Accelerating

Future. He is a co-founder of the Immortality

Institute and the Media Director for the Singularity Institute for Artificial

Intelligence.

Ralph Merkle is the co-inventor of public key encryption and a pioneering reseracher in the field of nanotechnlogy. He is a Director of Alcor, on the faculty at Singularity University, a co-founder of the Nanofactory Collaboration and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. He was co-recipient of the 1998 Feynman Prize for Nanotechnology for theory, the ACM's Kanellakis Award for Theory and Practice, the IEEE Kobayashi Award and the 2000 RSA Award in Mathematics.