Harry Turtledove, David B. Coe, and Toni Weisskopf are our featured guests today. Interviewed as a group and recorded before a live audience, they discuss the future of books and the trends they see in publishing. In the process of sharing their vision of the future they also share many personal anecdotes about themselves and about famous authors they have met, including: Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, L. Sprague de Camp, Mike Resnick, Sarah A. Hoyt, Lois McMaster Bujold, Charles Sheffield and Catherine Asaro. Harry Turtledove is an award winning science fiction & fantasy author best known for his novels of alternate history. He holds a Ph.D. from UCLA in Byzantine history. (Web, Wiki)  David B. Coe is an award winning author of epic fantasy novels who holds a Ph.D. in environmental history. (Web, Wiki) Toni Weisskopf is an award winning editor and the head of Baen Books: the world renowned publishing house of SF&F hardbacks, paperbacks and electronic books. Baen Books was founded by Jim Baen, and is the owner of Jim Baenâs Universe Magazine, where your humble host is a columnist and contributing editor. (Web, Wiki) Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 16, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 69 minutes] This interview was recorded on July 12, 2008 at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention in Chattanooga TN called LibertyCon.

Listen Now:

Mark Forman, who has lived and worked in Taiwan for over twenty years and is host of the podcast Big in Asia, is our featured guest. (His websites: business, personal, podcast.) An eye-witness to the trends which are shaping Asia's rapidly changing future, Mark Forman is an American businessman from Brooklyn New York who studied Chinese language and culture at the University of Arizona and, during the last two decades, has traveled a great deal in China as well as within many of its neighboring countries. In today's interview he describes his personal observations of the changes sweeping the Asian world and especially Greater China. Greater China is a term commonly used in business and economics to indicate not just mainland China, but also the regions that it governs, such as Hong Kong, as well as the regions it does not govern, such as Taiwan.  Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 9, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 59 minutes] While the topics covered in this interview range all over Asia, much of the focus is on mainland China and its relationship to other countries. This is because of all the countries in Asia, China has the biggest influence on the rest of the world and yet (since the Bamboo Curtain is only now beginning to fall) for most Westerners it is the least understood.  Topics discussed include: the transformation of China from an anti-business communist economy to a pro-business free-market economy; the rise of Chinese consumerism; how internet access (including Google and Wikipedia) are eroding Chinese government censorship and forcing a new openness; the possibility of democracy taking root in China, and how a non-western democracy might be defined; the 2008 Olympics in Beijing; and of course much, much more.  

Listen Now:

Kevin J. Anderson, the best selling science fiction and fantasy author, is our guest today.  (His website.) Co-author of the Dune prequels, his original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. A prolific science fiction author, he has had at least 32 of his novels on the various best seller lists including the famous New York Times Bestseller's list. His books have been translated into at least twenty-four languages, and have sold over 16 million copies worldwide. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files. In addition to all this, he has served as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 2, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 56 minutes] In today's interview Kevin J. Anderson describes his ideas and observations on a variety of topics such as the current global energy crisis, peak oil theory, solar and nuclear power, and his new purchase of a fuel efficient car. Having returned from a month long promotional tour of Australia and New Zealand, he describes his surprise at how different public opinion about Global Warming is down there compared to in the US. There is an overwhelming acceptance of the concept, and crowds greet Al Gore with the admiration and enthusiasm usually reserved for rock stars. He is not comfortable that we will soon retire the space shuttle with nothing to replace it. Even now, he points out, we have to ask the Russians to take our astronauts up to the international space station for us.  He also ponders some serious questions: If the Middle Eastern dictators thumb their noses at China, the Chinese government--which unlike the USA does not set limits on how it treats its own people much less outsiders--may very well invade the oil rich countries and take their oil by force. And if future nanotechnology allows everyone to have everything they want what kind of civilization will we have? Will people still work? Will most crime go away? What in our lives will remain the same? 

Listen Now:

Catherine Asaro, physicist and Nebula award winning author, is our featured guest. (Her website) She discuses nanotech, biotech, artificial intelligence and the singularity. She also describes her expectations concerning aging and longevity, oil and alternative energy; and she agrees to let the host arrange for her to do a personal appearance inside Second Life. She mentions that she has begun composing music on the computer, says a few words about her new novel (The Night Bird) and briefly lets slip that she will be consulting with a game developer (which she could not name) to help them with aspects of the new game they are designing.  When asked questions which form the core beliefs of The Order of Cosmic Engineers (web) (a new international organization of which your host is a founding member) she displays a remarkable level of agreement.  As a tutor to gifted children she sees how the world view of children today is radically different than those held by children just twenty or thirty years ago. Their vision of the world has been transformed by the Internet and cell phones into something far more global and far less tied to ones specific locality.  Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 25, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 66 minutes] Catherine Asaro is the author of 23 novels which have been described as a blend of hard science fiction, romance and space adventure. 11 of her novels belong to her Saga of the Skolian Empire. Her novel The Quantum Rose won the Nebula Award for best novel of 2001 and she is a three-time winner of the Romantic Times Book Club award for Best Science Fiction Novel. From UCLA she received a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry. From Harvard she received a Masters in Physics and a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics. She has done research at the University of Toronto in Canada, the Max Planck Institut fÃr Astrophysik in Germany, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Her research involved using quantum theory to describe the behavior of atoms and molecules. She was a physics professor until 1990, when she established Molecudyne Research. A former ballerina, she has performed with ballets and in musicals on both the east and west coast of the United States. In the 1980âs she was a principal dancer and artistic director of the Mainly Jazz Dancers and the Harvard University Ballet.  She has also published short stories, reviews, essays, and scientific papers in refereed academic journals. Her paper Complex Speeds and Special Relativity, which appeared in the April 1996 issue of The American Journal of Physics, forms the basis for some of the science in her novels.

Listen Now:

Authors Robert V. Aldrich, Michael D'Ambrosio and Steve Cross are our featured guests today. Recorded on location at ConCarolinas (web): the science fiction and fantasy convention held a few weeks ago in Charlotte NC.Robert V. Aldrich (web) (author of the anime-style novels Crossworld and Queendom) describes trends in anime, manga, illegal downloading as well as the movies Speed Racer and Ironman. Michael D'Ambrosio (web) (author of the Fractured Time trilogy) has been expanding his career into screenwriting and so describes the trends he sees in that difficult and highly competitive field, as well as in movie deals and promotion. Steve Cross (web) briefly describes his first novel: Discarded Faces.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 18, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 41 minutes]Also mentioned in this episode is the news that the host is one of the founders of a new international organization called The Order of Cosmic Engineers.  (The Order's Prospectus)

Listen Now:

Professor Amy H. Sturgis is our featured guest.  She talks about many of the trends she sees in colleges in general, and the increasing scholarly studies of science fiction and fantasy literature and media in particular. She also mentions her work for StarShipSofa, the enthusiasm students have for classes on speculative fiction, and how these studies augment their study of history. Amy H. Sturgis earned her Ph.D. in Intellectual History from Vanderbilt University, and she teaches Interdisciplinary Studies at Belmont University. In the field of science fiction/fantasy studies, she has multiple books, book chapters, and articles to her credit on subjects such as J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Gothic literature, and Arthurian legends, among others. She is a regular speaker at universities and conventions across the U.S. and Canada, and she is often interviewed by national radio programs, television shows, and newspapers as a genre expert. In 2006, she was honored with the Imperishable Flame Award for Achievement in Tolkien/Inklings Scholarship. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 11, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 36 minutes]

Listen Now:

Gary Jones (from the TV shows Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis) is joined by the authors Mike Resnick and David B. Coe, and the editor of Orson Scott Card's online magazine, Edmund R. Schubert. Recorded at the science fiction and fantasy convention ConCarolinas in Charlotte NC, this episode is dedicated to ConCarolinas.ConCarolinas is very special to your host for several reasons. Six years ago, it became the first con he ever attended as part of the entertainment; for the last five years they have hosted an annual tournament for a game he invented (Death Stacks); and because they have always treated him as though he was part of their family.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 4, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 70 minutes]Other guests in this episode include: Gail Martin (fantasy author and video podcaster); Mike Pederson (editor of Nth Degree Magazine and founder of RavenCon); Podcasting's Rich Sigfrit (voice actor and producer of many podcasts); Davey Beauchamps (writer and anthologist); Neury Steinhour (host of Artist Ally Podcast); Warren Buff (StellarCon's new chairman); Tom Barisford  (spokesperson for a writers group called Charlotte Writer's Night Out); Chris Hensley (a self-described low-level flacky); As well as Tera Fulbright, Glen Beattie and a variety of anonymous fans.Topics covered include trends in books, comics, writing, podcasts, standup comedy, TV shows, as well as anecdotes about Kelly Lockhart and the late Jim Baen, and just exactly who kissed who to raise $100 during the charity auction.

Listen Now:

Two Radio DJs, each from a different part of the country and having traveled a different career path, describe the trends which are forcing commercial radio to change from what it once was into what it is yet to become.Kelly Lockhart (website) started his DJ career in Key Largo Florida, when fresh out of the military and has worked at radio stations in Atlanta, Tallahassee and Chattanooga. He is a feature writer for The Chattanooga Pulse newspaper, is an award-winning advertising copywriter, is the lead guitarist for the popular 70âs style rock band Moccasin Bend, and for two decades worked in radio and television both on the air and behind the scenes.Shannon Presley (website) is currently an on-air personality and webmaster for the #1 radio station in south central Kentucky: The Beaver--WBVR. She is also a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, is a Board Member for the Glasgow Highland Games, and helps with 18th century events at Mansker's Station.Kelly talks about the downside of voice tracking and worries that traditional radio is dying. Satellite radio, he says, will have its day in the sun but podcasting will replace them both. This final dominance of podcasting will come when podcasts become commonly available in cars, because the drive time commute is the key. He does emphasize that radio can save itself if it does the right thing. This is the thing that Oprah and Howard Stern both do.Shannon is less worried about radio's future. She does not see satellite radio as a threat to ground-based radio because ground-based is local and gives listeners a local connection to things like bad weather. She also describes the good side of voice tracking; and even insists that people do like to hear some local commercials because that lets them know about concerts and special events, as well as sales and bargains.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 28, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 68 minutes]Shannon also talks about topics unrelated to radio such as: digital photography, PDAs, historical research for reenactments of frontier life, shopping on eBay, advancements in the medical field such as diabetes, identity theft, the government overstepping people's rights, and recalls when owning a VIC-20 computer made you Hot Snot.

Listen Now:

Five professional artists discuss the trends in the popular arts, including comics, Muppets, childrenâs book illustrations, commercial art and movie animation (both hand-drawn and CGI) and much, much more. Each artist shares anecdotes from their experiences and describes the trends they see within their specific field.They five artists are:Cheralyn Lambeth, who worked on the Muppet costumes for Sesame Street Live! worked with Jim Henson Productions on the TV series Dinosaur! and the film The Muppet Christmas Carol, and also worked as a prop maker for Paramount Production Services. (IMDb)Steve Bennett, a manga artist with three webcomics online and a career history that stretches back to working in an anime production studio in Japan as a teenager. (webpage)Richard H. Green, who worked at Walt Disney Studios on: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Beauty and the Beast, and Rescuers Down Under.Scott Stewart who has been the principal artist for many projects including childrenâs books, comic books and coloring books which are marketing tie-ins to famous properties including Spiderman, Superman and The X-men. (webpage)S.L. Gallant, who has done a number of comic book tie-ins for movies from DreamWorks such as Madagascar, has done cartoon ads for Kraft Foods such as the Cool Aid Man and Cheesaurus Rex, and has also worked for Dark Horse Comics. (webpage)Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 21, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 84 minutes]

Listen Now:

Paul Fischer, Information Technology professional and one of podcastingâs pioneers, is our guest today. The team of Paul Fischer and Martha Holloway are widely known for their Balticon Podcast and A.D.D. Podcast.In this interview Paul describes:How cellular phone companies manage to charge $3 for only part of a song when the entire song can be bought on Amazon.com for under a dollar. And why this eight billion dollar ringtone business in the US is even worse in Europe where ringtones cost individual users about $30 per year, every year, because they are rented.How the F.C.C. has failed the American public in their assigned mission, and why they do not care that they have failed. Ways the American cell phone companies have perverted the rules that are supposed to govern their operations.The sad fact that Police and Fire Department cellular systems all take a back seat to commercial cellular systems in terms of quality, bandwidth, priority and deployment. And which cities are taking serious steps to fix this problem.Why the Japanese all have better cell phone service and bandwidth than Americans, so much so that watching live streaming internet TV on their cell phones has lost its novelty.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 14, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 58 minutes]Paul Fischer also talks about his involvement with Balticon, and how this led him and Martha Holloway to create the Balticon Podcast. He mentions that Neil Gaiman was one of his favorite guests, and describes Neil Gaiman as a joy to interview, a genuinely nice guy, as well as a modern renaissance man who seems to do everything well. Paul also talks about his interviews with others including the brilliant artist Joe Bergeron.

Listen Now:

Katherine Kurtz, the best selling author of many fantasy novels including those in her Deryni Series, is our featured guest, in an interview recorded at the science fiction and fantasy convention, RavenCon in Richmond Virginia.In this interview Katherine Kurtz talks about: her writing methods and style; which of her books were the most difficult to write and which ones were the most fun, and shares anecdotes from her travels, her life and her work. A friend of Anne McCaffery, Katherine has lived for a number of years in Ireland but recently moved back to the United States â the nation of her birth.Concerning the future: Katherine describes trends within publishing today and the future of electronic publishing, and how our lives are being changed by cell phones, IM, high speed internet and online catalogs. She also discusses the annoyance of popup ads and junk-mail, her opinion of Wikipedia, and the seduction of the internet as a time-vampire. She also predicts that physical mail (as opposed to email) will someday become rare.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 7, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 48 minutes]News items in this episode include:1) Sophrosyne Stenvaag announces that Extropia Core (the futuristic city-state within Second Life which your host visits frequently) will Co-Host part of the NASA Future Forum next week on May 14, 2008, which will feature a preview of NASAâs Constellation Program â Americaâs return to the Moon and beyond. The keynote address which will be broadcast live on NASA TV will be given by NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale, who is known inside Second Life as Xena Dahl. Soph explains how listeners can attend and participate.2) Your host also thanks Zada Zenovka for her kind gift of a new pair of designer eyes for his avatar within Second Life. Zada is one of the two artists who crafted the custom made body and skin for the author David Brin when he made a personal appearance inside Second Life a few weeks ago as part of Extropia's celebration of Yuri's Night.

Listen Now:

Authors C.J. Henderson, Allen Wold and Michael Ventrella are joined by Thomas cmdln Gideon (digital media activist and host of The Command Line podcast), The Wombat (RavenCon's Fan Guest of Honor back in 2007), as well as Bill Mann, Tera Fulbright and many others in this special episode recorded on location at the science fiction and fantasy convention in Richmond Virginia called RavenCon.Also included is an exclusive interview with one of the inside experts on a new massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game called Beyond Protocol which is currently in beta test.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 30, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 77 minutes]C.J. Henderson is the award-winning author of fifty novels including the Teddy London supernatural detective series. Allen Wold is the author of nine novels and five nonfiction books. And while Michael Ventrella has just released his first novel, he is best known as one of the founders of Animato Magazine and of the LARP NERO.

Listen Now:

David Brin, fresh from a personal appearance inside the virtual world of Second Life, is our featured guest. The best selling science fiction author, scientist and public speaker, expands on the ideas he presented there and describes his impression of that virtual world based on his first-hand experience.David Brin has won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards and is the author of the novel Kiln People and The Life Eaters as well as six novels within his Uplift Series. He holds a Bachelorâs in astronomy, a Masterâs in applied physics, and a Doctorate in astrophysics.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 23, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 49 minutes]David Brin's appearance inside Second Life was part of the annual world-wide celebration of Yuri's Night, which commemorates the first human flight into space by Yuri Gagarin in 1961.For nearly two hours David Brin spoke to an overflow crowd in the grand meeting hall in the Central Nexus Building inside the city-state of Extropia inside Second Life. He was interviewed by Sophrosyne Stenvaag in an expanded version of her Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon which is held every week.Wearing a photorealistic body specially crafted for this event by the avatar artists Zeroe Auer and Zada Zenovka, David spoke about the strengths and weaknesses of virtual worlds as a place to discuss ideas--and did so while experiencing those very strengths and weaknesses as he discussed ideas. (My photos of his event may be found on Flickr.)The city-state of Extropia has become a popular meeting area within Second Life for those who are curious about the future because it features weekly events to discuss various futuristic topics. The organization SL-Transhumanists, for example, hosts lectures and discussions about the many aspects of transhumanism such as nanotech, genotech, AI and the Singularity.

Listen Now:

Randal L. Schwartz, the widely known computer programmer and programming consultant, is our featured guest today.Randal has acquired a level of renown through his longstanding work in popularizing and promoting the programming language called Perl. He has authored and co-authored many widely used books on the subject, and has written over 200 articles about it for various computer magazines.He is also the co-host of FLOSS Weekly (a podcast from the TWiT podcasting Network which features prominent guests from the free software/open source community).In todayâs interview Randal discusses the following topics:How ethanol is not only raising food prices world-wide but its production is also a major source of carbon dioxide (a concern for Global Warming), some have suggested that switch grass may be a better answer. Google's announced desire to offer free nation-wide wireless internet access; and the legal catch-22 that municipalities have always found themselves in when they tried to provide wi-fi at the taxpayer's expense. How passports with RFID chips can be hacked wirelessly as you walk through an airport; why it is that Japanese users are getting 25 times faster high-speed internet than American high-speed users; and how Netflix.com is scrambling to keep Hulu.com from outpacing them.Randal also describes his involvement with Geek Cruises and the Scientific American Cruises; his podcast FLOSS Weekly (which stands for Free Libre Open Source Software and may be found at twit.tv/floss); and his enthusiasm over a powerful new programming language called SeaSide. (Examples, BTW, of open source software include: Wikipedia, Blender, Gimp and Open Office.)Randal also gets to gloat over his prediction from last year because the New York Times has reported that pacemaker heart implants with wi-fi internet connections can be hacked through the internet by a hacker on the other side of the world, who can make the device stop working or even give the patient electric shocks strong enough to kill.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 16, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 69 minutes]Randal L. Schwartz is a founding board member of the Perl Mongers, the worldwide Perl grassroots advocacy organization and, since 1985, has owned and operated Stonehenge Consulting Services which specializes in the teaching, training and programming of Perl.Also included in this episode is your host's eyewitness report on the Yuri's Night celebration that took place on April 12 in the city state of Extropia inside Second Life. David Brin (the award-winning and best-selling author) was the featured speaker. David was easily recognizable since his avatar wore a photorealistic skin created for the occasion by a skilled avatar artist.During the all-day festivities in Extropia your host: met two NASA representatives as well as some Russians, drove a moon buggy; sat inside a life-sized model of Yuri Gagarin's space capsule, danced with a wide variety of beautiful women, admired Vidal Tripsa's space suit (possibly the sexiest space suit ever), watched David Brin pack the house for his open forum discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of virtual worlds such as Second Life, and took over 300 photos of the day's events. (Many of which can be viewed on Flickr.)

Listen Now:

Greg Bear, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of more than thirty books of science fiction and fantasy, is our featured guest today.Greg Bear has served on political and scientific action committees and has advised Microsoft Corporation, the U.S. Army, the CIA, Sandia National Laboratories, and Homeland Security. And just recently--like your host--he has joined the advisory board of the Lifeboat Foundation.In today's interview Greg Bear describes his TV appearance on The Daily Show with John Steward, movie deals which are in the works for his novels, and his recollections of his many conversations with the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke, including the very first time he met Sir Arthur back in 1968 when Greg was only 16 years old.He also talks of nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, technological immortality, mind uploading, and why he disagrees with some of the expectations of Transhumanists, and most of the expectations of Singularitarians.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 9, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 62 minutes]Greg also discusses physics and string theory; life on extrasolar planets (including the surprisingly numerous super-hot planets which often orbit their stars in a matter of days); the world wide annual celebration of Yuri Gagarin's first human flight into space (which your host will be celebrating inside Second Life); Sir Arthur C. Clarke's many contributions to civilization; how technology will change future battlefields; and how Russia seems to be heading back into the cold war.He also reveals his excitement that The Science Fiction Museum in Seattle will be expanding to include fantasy, and possibly horror as well. He was on the advisory board for the science fiction museum in Seattle along with Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler and Sir Arthur C. Clarke.Greg Bear's novel, Quantico, is a near-future thriller; while Darwinâs Radio and Darwinâs Children form a sequence about viruses and human evolution. Blood Music deals with biotechnology, nanotechnology (including grey goo), the nature of consciousness and artificial intelligence.News items mentioned in this episode include:Robert J. Sawyer the award-winning author made two personal appearances inside Second Life on Sunday, April 6, 2008. The first in the Central Nexus building in Extropia Core, the second at a meeting of the Extropia Book Club.David Brin the award-winning author will be making a personal appearance inside Second Life on Saturday, April 12 in Extropia Core as part of the annual world-wide Yuri's Night celebrations of the first human in space. He will be the Spotlight Guest at Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon. Soph will interview David in an open discussion event from 1 PM to 2:30 PM Pacific Time.I am the Very Model of a Singularitarian is a clever music video now on youTube. Written and sung by Charlie Kam to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General from the popular musical play The Pirates of Penzance.www.WikiPatents.com is a public community which features a wiki-like interface for reviewing, rating, and discussing US patents and pending patent applications. It also offers free patent PDF downloads, file histories, and advanced patent searching. Users may also vote on the marketability and technical merits of patents and patent applications.

Listen Now:

Dr. Gregory L. Matloff, astronomer and author of six popular books on astronomy and astronautics, is our featured guest. His latest book, Living Off the Land in Space, was co-authored with NASAâs Les Johnson and Brooklyn artist C Bangs.Future and current trends in spaceflight and propulsion are covered in this interview, as well as all the following topics: where the big money will be made in space; space-based solutions to our energy problems on earth today; the inflatable space habitats and hotels that Robert Bigalow has started building; practical methods of asteroid mining and diverting; ion drives and solar sails; the likelihood of a new international space race; exoplanets in general but especially the new developing possibility of earth-like planets orbiting the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.Doctor Matloff also talks about the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke's book Rendezvous with Rama which opens with an asteroid impact wiping a quarter of Europe's cities and population off the map; new estimates of the Tunguska impact of 1908; as well as one particular earth-grazing asteroid which will be taking two pot-shots at humanity during the next two decades.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 2, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 71 minutes]Doctor Matloff makes it clear that the future of spaceflight is Not likely to look like the spaceflight of the past. Nor is it likely to resemble the spaceflight generally described in science fiction.One of his early books, The Starflight Handbook: A Pioneer's Guide to Interstellar Travel, was co-authored with MIT science writer Eugene F. Mallove. Doctor Matloff has consulted for NASA on in-space propulsion systems and methods of protecting Earth from threatening objects. And he has also contributed to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), atmospheric modeling, space astronomy and navigation, and studies to produce energy from the wind.News Items described in this episode include:Robert J. Sawyer (bestselling author and former guest on this show) will be making a personal appearance inside Second Life. He will discuss the future of: AI, robotics, life extension, SETI, and more. Afterward, he will join the Extropia Book Club for their discussion of his latest novel, Rollback, which is now a finalist for the Hugo Award. The event will be held on April 6, 2008 at high noon (Pacific Time) in the Central Nexus building in Extropia Core inside Second Life.The New York Times has reported that pacemakers are now vulnerable to hacker attacks because device makers have begun designing them to connect to the Internet wirelessly.Google wants to offer nationwide Wi-Fi to everyone in America for Free. (This is not an April Fools joke.) On March 21, 2008 Google submitted a six-page letter to the FCC outlining processes and tests to avoid interference if they are granted use of a portion of those radio frequencies which will become available in 2009 when television ceases to broadcast analog transmissions.

Listen Now:

Kim Stanley Robinson, the best selling and award-winning science fiction author is our featured guest. 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.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 26, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 83 minutes]In todayâs interview Kim Stanley Robinson covers many topics: his conversations with Sir Arthur C Clarke; how the TV show 24 encourages and justifies the use of torture; his observation that terrorists have become an exaggerated enemy; why English has become the world language; the vision he has tried to put forth in his latest novel Sixty Days and Counting; how frustrating it is that there are lots of exoplanets but we can't go look at them; and his worry that people are losing interest in space exploration because our ability to travel has not extended to the stars and is limited to our own solar system.He also speaks to the difficult issues of the deeper future including: his opinion of the Singularity; his expectations of Artificial Intelligence; why he has moderated some of his views about Nanotechnology (he used to be more dismissive); and just how long he thinks human longevity might become stretched.He also responds to the host's questions:  What would people do differently if we all knew we were going to live for 300 years? How would this change civilization?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 Ph.D. 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.Other items in this episode include: the recent death of Sir Arthur C. Clarke (one of the hosts personal heroes); how the upcoming Yuri's Night celebrations will take place in two worlds instead of one (the anniversary of the first human in space); LED light bulbs; and an essay concerning the host's new theory about the origin of NGC-6543, also known as the Cat's Eye Nebula.

Listen Now:

Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google (yes, THE Google) is our featured guest today.Peter is co-author of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, the leading textbook in the field of AI. He has written more than fifty publications in the computer sciences - concentrating on Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, and Software Engineering. He is a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and the Association for Computing Machinery. And he was the head of the Computational Sciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center, making him NASA's senior computer scientist.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 19, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 97 minutes]Will machines someday think as well as humans? Will they think in the same way we do? Will they plan, be creative, invent things that are new and innovative? Will they feel emotions as we do? Will they feel compassion, fear, fondness, attachments based on familiarity?Peter Norvig answers all of these questions, as well as the obligatory scary question: If the IQ curve of AI rises long enough for their IQ to match our own, why would that curve stop rising? Won't their IQ continue increasing until they are ten times smarter than us, and then a hundred, and then a thousand? At what point might this stop? Is there a limit? Do you fear superhuman AI? Should anyone?He also describes his work at NASA concerning the Remote Agent and Mars Exploration Rovers, and what role AI played in it. He talks of the work Google is doing in AI, why Google is interested in AI, and if Google plans to have its search page converse with users.

Listen Now:

David B. Coe the award-winning, and critically acclaimed, author of nine fantasy novels (some of which have been translated into no less than six languages, including Russian, German, Dutch, and French) is our featured guest today.David has a doctorate in American history from Stanford University, and he enjoys nature photography, bird and butterfly watching, and playing guitar.David talks about Wikipedia, e-books and Amazon's Kindle, Green investment funds, solar power, his belief that clean coal is decades away, and he once again emphasizes that if his fellow environmentalists are going to get serious about global warming they will have to find a way to embrace nuclear power.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 12, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 82 minutes]David also describes the changing corporate climate concerning environmentalism. Being Green has become the In Thing for corporate marketing. Wal-Mart has become a leader in promoting Green. Saving the environment is now widely seen as good business.He explains why official decisions concerning which birds are, and are not, defined as separate species are based mostly on science, but also partly on politics, emotionalism, local tradition and sentimentality. An avid bird and butterfly watcher, he describes the trends in both, and mentions that butterflies are like the canary in the coal mine: they are an early indicator of damage to an ecosystem.He also responds with surprising candor to the host's question: For each of the current candidates (John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton) what is the best and worst things that would probably happen during their presidency?Others who provide comment, feedback or receive an honorable mention in this episode include: Randal L. Schwartz, Shaun Ferrell, Rich Sigfrit, Mur Lafferty, Tee Morris, Khannea Suntzu and Extropia DaSilva (for her blog post entitled Snowcrashing into the Diamond age).

Listen Now:

Michael Anissimov, the well known futurist, blogger and transhumanism activist is today's featured guest.Michael talks about many future-oriented topics such as: transhumanism and the singularity; cryonics and Paris Hilton; solar power verses nuclear power; synthetic biology and Craig Ventor's new artificial organism; and his own involvement with the founding of the Immortality Institute.The Immortality Institute is a life extension activist organization that today includes hundreds of paying members and an active online community. Michael was one of its co-founders though he was still in High School at the time.Currently Michael is the Lifeboat Foundation's fundraising Director for North America; He is very much involved with the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology; and was recently voted to join the board of the World Transhumanist Association.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 5, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 71 minutes]In this interview Michael expresses his enthusiasm about the ongoing revitalization of the World Transhumanist Association, which includes the new webzine being put together by R. U. Serious.He also discuses two technologies he feels could have a radical destabilizing effect on the world once they reach a certain threshold--which they may do within 20 years. These technologies are molecular nanotechnology (MNT) and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). While their potential benefits are great, if not handled with extreme caution, he feels these technologies could cause disaster.He also describes the trends he sees going on within the transhumanist movement today, and how he expects these trends to play out during the next few years. For example, he sees that the general public is beginning to warm up to transhumanist ideas thanks to movies and TV; but that there is still a lot of fear of transhumanism among the religious right. He agrees that there are a lot of closet transhumanists who haven't come out yet. But he also says the new transhumanists seem to be of all ages, not just young people. He sees the next few years as a time of much greater acceptance of the transhumanist ideas and idealism.Michael is a science and technology writer and consultant based in San Francisco. He has given talks on futurist issues at seminars and conferences in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and at Yale University. His blog (acceleratingfuture.com) has become one of the primary focal points within the futurist community, including the communities of transhumanists and singularitarians. His blog features his own writings, the writings of others, as well as many important links to other sources of information about the future.

Listen Now:

Philippe Van Nedervelde, international spokesperson for the Lifeboat Foundation, is today's featured guest. (He is also Executive Director for the Foresight Nanotech Institute in Europe, and a Global Task Force Member for the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.) Philippe describes the Lifeboat Foundation, its work to define and evaluate the many coming risks to humankind, and how the foundation has already begun formulating specific recommendations on how we may prepare for these risks.This episode also contains an essay by your host describing the dramatic changes which the internet will experience in the next five to ten years; as well as an announcement of a presentation which will be given on March 9, 2008, at Extropia Core inside Second Life by the esteemed pioneers of international transhumanism and extropy: Natasha Vita-Moore and Anders Sandberg. Their topic: Do humans have a natural right to augmentation and enhancement?Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 27, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 93 minutes]Some of the risks include: unfriendly AI (Artificial Intelligence), devastating asteroid strikes, bioweapons and pandemics, replicating and nonreplicating nanoweapons, nuclear, biological, and nanotechnological attacks. But one of the scariest of these has become known as ADC (Asymmetric Destructive Capability), in which large scale destruction can be accomplished with relatively small scale resources. Another scary risk is called SIMaD, which stands for Single Individual Massively Destructive, or as Philippe describes it, The Unabomber on steroids.Philippe Van Nedervelde is a regular keynote speaker at conferences and other events, and has made presentations throughout Europe to audiences of all sizes and compositions including academic, business and governmental such as European Union parliamentary hearings.He is the award-winning founder, CEO and majority-owner of E-spaces, a VR production house which has delivered networked or multi-user Virtual Reality or tele-virtuality and interactive 3D graphics projects for customers including NASA, UNESCO, the European Commission, Flemish Government, Ericsson Business Networks, Nokia and IBM.Philippe holds a master's degree in communication as well as a post-graduate degree in Media and Information Science from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

Listen Now:

Giulio Prisco (futurist, scientist, corporate consultant and until recently the Executive Director of the World Transhumanist Association) is today's featured guest. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and on the Global Task Force on Implications and Policy for CRN, the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.Argent Bury (a digital person living exclusively within Second Life) provides an essay concerning the tension between immersionists and augmentationists within her virtual world.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 20, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 79 minutes]Giulio Prisco also covers the prejudice and intolerance between immersionists and augmentationists, and mentions that the day before the interview, Cervantes University held its very first college class within Second Life, and discusses many aspects of the future of virtual realities.A virtual reality expert and consultant for companies wishing to use and benefit from many different VR platforms, Giulio describes what's available now, and what will be available in the decades to come. From the current photorealistic graphics, to the total immersion through full sensory feedback directly wired into the human nervous system.He describes various VR platforms including Second Life and its competitors, as well as the possibility that all the platforms will become linked together into a unified whole, just as the internet was once many separate little nets that could not share content.Giulio Prisco is also the Director of the futurist consulting consortium called FutureTag, as well as founder and CEO of Metafuturing (a company specializing in Science and Technology Consulting, Internet Services and Virtual Reality). Based in Madrid, Spain, he founded the Spanish transhumanist group FASTRA. He is a former physicist and computer scientist, as well as a former manager at ESA: the European Space Agency.

Listen Now:

Catherine Asaro, scientist and Nebula award winning author, is our featured guest; while Glen Walkerson who writes tech-manuals for the F-16 fighter jet provides a brief bonus interview.Catherine Asaro describes her thoughts on the rise of nanotechnology, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the ongoing feminization of civilization, and how non-lethal weapons might alter the nature of war. Glen Walkerson shares a few comments on the new F-22 fighter jet, which is under production, as well as the F-35 fighter which is still in development.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 13, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 41 minutes]Catherine Asaro is the author of 16 novels which have been described as a blend of hard science fiction, romance and space adventure. 11 of her novels belong to her Saga of the Skolian Empire. Her novel The Quantum Rose won the Nebula Award for Best Novel of 2001 and she is a three-time winner of the Romantic Times Book Club award for Best Science Fiction Novel.From UCLA she received a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry. From Harvard she received a Masters in Physics and a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics.She has done research at the University of Toronto in Canada, the Max Planck Institut fÃr Astrophysik in Germany, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Her research involved using quantum theory to describe the behavior of atoms and molecules. She was a physics professor until 1990 when she established Molecudyne Research.A former ballerina, she has performed with ballets and in musicals on both the east and west coast of the United States. In the 1980âs she was a principal dancer and artistic director of the Mainly Jazz Dancers and the Harvard University Ballet.She has also published short stories, reviews, essays, and scientific papers in refereed academic journals. Her paper Complex Speeds and Special Relativity, which appeared in the April 1996 issue of The American Journal of Physics, forms the basis for some of the science in her novels.

Listen Now:

Paul Levinson (author, media commentator and professor) shares his ideas concerning nanotechnology, SETI, the Fermi Paradox, the probability and impact of our finding another Earth, and the impacts already made upon society by PayPal and eBay. He also explains why he believes that Wikipedia is one of the most exciting innovations in communication today.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 6, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 55 minutes]Paul Levinson is professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York City. He has a Bachelors in Journalism, a Masters in Media Studies and a Doctorate in Media Ecology.He is the author of five novels of science fiction and/or fantasy; as well as nine non-fiction books. He served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from 1998 to 2001.As a commentator on media, popular culture, and science fiction he has been interviewed over 500 times on television and radio. And his op-eds have appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New York's Newsday, and the New York Sun.Prior to his academic career, Paul Levinson was a songwriter, singer and record producer in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with recordings by the Vogues, Donna Marie of The Archies and Ellie Greenwich. As a radio producer he worked with Murray the K and Wolfman Jack.Also included in this episode: (a) a piece of music from Chris Armstrong's CD entitled: AI Awakens; (b) how to visit Boc Cryotank (your host's avatar in Second Life) at Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon (a weekly gathering of transhumanists, extropians, and other future-minded people); (c) your host's birthday; and (d) the news that your host has accepted an invitation to join the advisory board of the Lifeboat Foundation.

Listen Now:

Eric Flint, best selling author of more than 25 novels of science fiction and fantasy, as well as editor-in-chief of the online science fiction and fantasy magazine Jim Baen's Universe, is this week's featured interview.In a rare interview recorded in front of a live audience, Eric shares anecdotes from behind the scenes of his many collaborations with authors such as David Weber, David Drake, Dave Freer and Mercedes Lackey.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 30, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 73 minutes]A prolific collaborator all through his career, Eric describes the ups and downs of collaborating on a novel: how it works and what goes wrong when it doesn't. A former political activist, he describes the events that lead up to his entering the Writers of The Future Contest, and how winning it changed his life.Six drunk friends collaborating is how he describes the crude beginnings of what later evolved into his first Joe's World novel.He also mentions stories about his friend, the late Jim Baen, founder of Baen Books. And he mentions what actions Toni Weisskopf (the new head of Baen Books) used to insure stability at Baen after Jim's untimely passing.Eric Flint also touches on electronic publishing. He says, Baen is quite aggressive in moving toward electronic publishing. And it would be foolish not to be. Baen is the premier electronic publisher in science fiction; it's not the biggest in print, but it is the biggest in electronic publishing.Also included is an update on your host's exploration of the online virtual world called Second Life, such as his attending Sophrosyne's Saturday Salon (a weekly gathering of transhumanists, extropians, and other future-minded people hosted by Sophrosyne.) Listener feedback is provided by Peer Infinity, a transhumanist resident of Second Life.

Listen Now:

George Dvorsky, executive editor of betterhumans.com, is this week's featured interview. Betterhumans.com is a webzine with News, Articles, and interactive features serving the transhumanist community. George Dvorsky is also the co-founder and president of the Toronto Transhumanist Association and has served on the Board of Directors for the World Transhumanist Association.One of Canada's leading futurists, activists and award winning bloggers, George Dvorsky has written and spoken extensively about the impacts of cutting-edge science and technology.In this capacity he has been interviewed by: The BBC, Radio Free Europe, and by the British newspaper The Guardian. He's also been on the Canadian television news-magazine The Hour.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 23, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 84 minutes]Topics include:Why there is a negative perception of transhumanism in the general public, and what we can do about it.Why the mainstream medical community is working hard to achieve the goals of transhumanism (without realizing it) and will continue to work toward them with or without our encouragement.The vaccination of children is a perfect example of the transhumanist ideal, George explains, since it is an engineered hyper-immunity produced by technological intervention.Why the complete end of personal privacy may be unavoidable and imminent.We as a species find ourselves living with an increasing array of apocalyptic technologies, George says, and we have to learn how to live with these things since we can't un-invent them.His personal expectations of The Singularity.Life extension in general, and how long he personally expects to live.Why the areas of transhumanist thought that remain controversial are those more removed from just keeping people healthy, and more in the direction of making people better than they ever were before. These areas include such things as increasing the human IQ, life extension, and wiring computers directly into the human brain.As well as many other subjects.

Listen Now:

Matt Browne, an IT professional living in Frankfurt Germany, is this week's featured interview. With a Masters degree in Computer Science and Computational Linguistics, Matt Browne has been involved in projects developing natural language processing with a strong focus on machine translation systems.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 16, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 87 minutes]Matt talks about natural language processing and how long it might be before a computer passes the Turing Test; human resistance to the creation of human level artificial intelligences; and how this will lead to the singularity. But also how, long before The Singularity, huge profits will be made with AI applications.He also describes catastrophic dangers to the human race such as super volcanoes and asteroids, and why this has lead him to become a member of The Life Boat Foundation.He also covers many of the social and political trends growing in Germany and throughout Europe. Including his observation that prosperity is on the rise in Europe and all around the world; and how it is that English is becoming the common world language, and why the French are not happy about it.Matt is also the author of the Hard SF novel The Future Happens Twice in which he explores concepts such as: interstellar space colonization using frozen embryos; earth-like extrasolar planets; embryo-splitting technology and artificial wombs; the cryopreservation of human embryos; children being raised by sophisticated androids; and human survival threatened by an impending extinction-level event.

Listen Now:

Timothy Zahn, the bestselling author, is this week's featured guest. Possibly best known for his Thrawn Trilogy, which is a series of Star Wars novels set in the time after the movie Return of the Jedi.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 9, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 60 minutes]In this interview Timothy Zahn discusses several of his fears, hopes and worries about the future. He also talks about Wikipedia, Earthlike exoplanets, and how his master's degree in physics contributes both to the hardness of his science fiction and to the strength of his faith in God.After describing his ideas in science, theology and sociology he lightens the conversation with anecdotes of how he became a Star Wars playing card, as well as a question on the TV game show Jeopardy.News items in this episode include an announcement that the host of The Future And You (Stephen Euin Cobb) is now inside the virtual world Second Life and is going by the name: Boc Cryotank.

Listen Now:

Jack McDevitt, the best selling author, kicks off the show's new weekly format. Each weekly episode will feature a single guest interviewed in greater depth than ever before possible.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 1, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 53 minutes]Jack McDevitt discusses how he has used the internet and email for research; science fiction on TV and in movies; what he learned by being a teacher and a newspaper reporter; and the novels that changed his life which include Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and the young adult stories in The Voyage of the Space Beagle.He also talks about writing alternate history involving Sir Arthur Conan Dole's Sherlock Holmes, and he describes one of his favorite science fiction movies, the low-budget but brilliantly written film: Time Quest.News items include (a) this program's new weekly format (b) our much shorter readings of stories from Jim Baen's Universe Magazine, and (c) Sir Arthur C. Clarke's 90th birthday. The legendary science fiction author celebrated the happy occasion a few weeks ago (December 16, 2007) by posting online a video Birthday Message to the entire world. (Sir Arthur is one of a handful of people who shaped and altered the course of your host's life, and was instrumental in his becoming a transhumanist over 30 years ago.) Listener Feedback includes emails examining whether or not guest interviews on this program should be censored.

Listen Now:

Authors Timothy Zahn and Kevin J. Anderson are joined by Professor Paul Levinson (media commentator), as well as by Stoney Compton and Walt (The Bananaslug) B