Flash Forward show

Flash Forward

Summary: A show about possible and not so possible futures. From space pirates to conscious robots to the end of antibiotics. Hosted by Rose Eveleth.

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 You’ve Got Brainmail | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 49:56

In our last episode of the season, we take one one of the most requested futures: telepathy! What would it be like to be able to link minds, and communicate brain to brain? And how likely is it that we’ll ever get this kind of technology? We start the episode by talking to Roger Luckhurst, a Professor in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, University of London, who explains where the word telepathy comes from, and how it totally obsessed men of science in the early 1800’s. Then, futurist and science fiction author Ramez Naam walks us through both the current state of science and the futuristic world of his science fiction series Nexus, that centers around a drug that gives people telepathic powers. After that, we consider what a future full of telepathic people might mean for etiquette with Robin Abrahams, the etiquette columnist for the Boston Globe. And then we talk privacy and digital security with Kit Walsh, a a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. And we finish out the episode by talking to Lateef McLeod, a poet, blogger, activist and doctoral student in the anthropology and social change program at California Institute for Integral Studies, about how those with complex communication needs might appreciate a new form of communication. Further reading: Science & history The Neurologist Who Hacked His Brain -- And Almost Lost His Mind When “I” becomes “We”: ethical implications of emerging brain-to-brain interfacing technologies Conscious Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans Using Non-Invasive Technologies Brain-to-Brain Interfaces: When Reality Meets Science Fiction The invention of telepathy, 1870-1901 by Roger Luckhurst Telepathy and literature: essays on the reading mind by Nicholas Royle “First Report of the Literary Committee by W.F. Barrett, C.C. Massey, Rev. W. Stainton Moses, Frank Podmore…. In Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research” Phenomena: the secret history of the U.S. government's investigations into extrasensory perception and psychokinesis by Annie Jacobsen The 120-Year-Old Mind-Reading Machine The Future of Human Evolution | Ray Kurzweil Q & A | Singularity University Science Gave My Son the Gift of Sound Understanding Deafness: Not Everyone Wants to Be 'Fixed' Memory Implant Gives Rats Sharper Recollection Building the Bionic Brain A cortical neural prosthesis for restoring and enhancing memory Computing Arm Movements with a Monkey Brainet A Brain-to-Brain Interface for Real-Time Sharing of Sensorimotor Information The Ultimate Interface: Your Brain Reconstructing visual experiences from brain activity evoked by natural movies Facilitation and restoration of cognitive function in primate prefrontal cortex by a neuroprosthesis that utilizes minicolumn-specific neural firing Protect Your Right to Repair and Control the Devices in Your Life Defend Your Right to Repair! Further reading: Science fiction Crosstalk by Connie Willis Nexus trilogy by Ramez Naam “Mute,” Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man,” Twilight Zone episode Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show,

 Countless | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 47:18

This episode we travel to a future where the 2020 census goes haywire. What happens if we don’t get an accurate count of Americans? Who cares? Apparently the constitution does!  The 2020 census is currently in the crosshairs — census watchers say that it’s not getting enough funding, and community organizations and local governments are already worrying about what an inaccurate census might mean for their people. To walk us through the current perils facing the census I talked to Hansi Lo Wang, a national correspondent for NPR who has been covering the census; Phil Sparks, the co-director of The Census Project, an organization that brings together groups who use census data; Susan Lerner, the director of Common Cause New York, a government watchdog group; Cayden Mak, the executive director of 18 Million Rising, an online organizing group that works with Asian American communities; and Dawn Joelle Fraser, a storyteller and communications coach who worked for the census in 2010. Further reading: Could A Census Without A Leader Spell Trouble In 2020? US Census Director Resigns Amid Turmoil Over Funding of 2020 Count Departure of U.S. Census director threatens 2020 count The 2020 Census is at risk. Here are the major consequences With 2020 Census Looming, Worries About Fairness and Accuracy Trump's threat to the 2020 Census NAACP lawsuit alleges Trump administration will undercount minorities in 2020 Census Census 2020: How it’s supposed to work (and how it might go terribly wrong) Census watchers warn of crisis if 2020 funding is not increased Likely Changes in US House Seat Distribution for 2020 What Census Calls Us: A Historical Timeline As 2020 Census Approaches, Worries Rise Of A Political Crisis After The Count The American Census: a social history by Margo J. Anderson The Story Collider podcast: Dawn Fraser, The Mission Note: This is the second to last episode of this season of Flash Forward! The last episode drops January 9th, and then the show will be in hiatus for a few months while I prep for season 4, which is going to be great I can already assure you! If you want to follow along with the prep for season 4, and just generally keep up with what's going on with the show and when it's coming back stay in touch via Twitter, Facebook , Reddit, or, best of all, Patreon, where I'll post behind the scenes stuff as I get ready for the next Flash Forward adventures. Also, I’m going on tour with PopUp Magazine in February! Get your tickets at popupmagazine.com. Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. Special thanks this week to Liz Neeley who voiced our discouraged bureaucrat. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! Head to www.flashforwardpod.com/support for more about how to give. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. As a bonus, at the end of this episode, you'll hear a human chorus record a psalm that was written by Janelle Shane's machine learning algorithm. (Remember her from the super religion episode?) Here's the arrangement of that psalm by Hamish Symington and Owain Park: And here's the psalm recorded by Tim Rosko,

 There’s No Great Future in Plastics | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 37:27

This episode is all about a world without plastic. What would that look like? Is it even possible?  Today, plastic is seen as one of our great environmental enemies. But it actually wasn’t always that way. Bradford Harris, a historian of science and the host of a podcast called How It Began: A History of the Modern World, and Susan Freinkel, a journalist and the author of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, walk us through how plastic started out as a solution to unsustainable practices. Then we talk to Sherry Lippiatt, California Regional Coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program, about what exactly is going on with garbage in the ocean. And finally I visit Danielle Trofe at her studio in Brooklyn, where she grows sustainable materials using mushrooms. Further reading: Debbie Chachra on peak plastics "On a scale beyond all previous conceptions" [electronic resource] : plastics and the preservation of modernity Bradford Harris: Plastics and Sustainability Our 'Toxic' Love-Hate Relationship With Plastics 99 Percent Invisible: The Post-Billiards Age Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean There Is No Island of Trash in the Pacific Global Plastic Production Rises, Recycling Lags Different Types of Plastics and their Classification Health risks posed by use of Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) in PVC medical devices: A critical review How Stuff Works: bioplastics Taxation and Regulation of Plastic Shopping Bags in Botswana and South Africa GROW: A Lamp YOU Grow from Mushroom Mycelium Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The voices from the future this episode were provided by Lisa Pollak, Arielle Duhaime-Ross, Brent Rose, Victor Dorff and Mary Beth Griggs. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. This episode was sponsored in part by: The Demon Crown, the latest novel by James Rollins. BetterHelp, convenient, affordable, private online counseling. Enter the invite code FLASH to get your first 7 days free If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! Head to www.flashforwardpod.com/support for more about how to give. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one. ▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹ TRANSCRIPT Rose: Hello and welcome to Flash Forward! I'm Rose and I'm your host. Flash Forward is a show about the future. Every episode we take on a specific possible... or not so possible future scenario. We always start with a little field trip to the future, to check out what's going on, and then we teleport back to today to talk to experts about how that world we just heard might really go down. Got it? Great! This episode we're starting in the year 2040.   INTRO:   NPR Host [[Lisa Pollak]]: President Adam Susan signed an executive order today banning the use of all plastics, in a move that shocked environmentalists and plastics manufacturers alike. The order comes with little explanation or direction -- it does not specify which types of plastics should be banned, or how the ban should be enforced.

 Our Father, Who art in Algorithm | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 52:39

In this episode, we travel to a future where a tech mogul feeds a machine learning system all the religious texts he can find, and asks it to generate a “super religion.” Buckle up because this is a long episode! But it’s fun, I promise. For the intro of this episode I worked with Janelle Shane to actually train a machine learning algorithm on a big chunk of religious texts that I assembled, and spit something back out. The specifics of the texts and the machine learning algorithm come with a handful of caveats and notes, which you can find at the bottom of this post. Janelle has done of ton of really funny, interesting things with machine learning algorithms that you can find here.  To analyze the text that this algorithm generated, and talk about the limitations of this kind of project, I spoke with a big group of people from a variety of backgrounds: Linda Griggs is an Episcopal priest and an assisting priest at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Providence Rhode Island. Lauren O’Neal and Niko Bakulich are the hosts of a podcast called Sunday School Dropouts, whose tagline is: "an ex-Christian (Lauren) and a non-believing sort of Jew (Niko) read all the way through the Bible for the first time." Elias Muhanna is the Manning Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown University, and director of the Digital Islamic Humanities Project. Beth Duckles is a sociologist (who you heard last episode talking about peanut allergies). Carol Edelman Warrior is an Assistant Professor of English at Cornell’s American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program. She is also enrolled with the Ninilchik Village Tribe (Dena'ina Athabascan / Alutiiq), and is also of A'aninin (Gros Ventre) descent. Mark Harris is a journalist who writes about technology, science and business for places like WIRED, The Guardian and IEEE Spectrum. He wrote a great piece about Anthony Levandowski’s new religion of artificial intelligence called Way of the Future. Further Reading: Sunday School Dropouts: Robobible Inside the First Church of Artificial Intelligence God is a Bot and Anthony Levandowski is His Messenger Way of the Future Nine Billion Names by Arthur C. Clarke Dataism + Machine Learning = New Religion Machine Learning May Help Determine When the Old Testament Was Written Indigenous Writers of Speculative Fiction Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion The Space NDN's Star Map Borrowed Power: Essays on Cultural Appropriation Caveats on the Algorithm: There are approximately a thousand caveats to this machine learning project, and here are some of them: To train the algorithm, I compiled a set of source texts. This is by no means a full sampling of religious texts, nor is it in any way scientific. I am not an expert on religions in any way. I made no effort to balance the source texts by popularity of the religion or anything like that. The sampling is heavily biased by which texts I could find online for free in a format I could use. I had to exclude a few texts that I wanted to have in there because I couldn’t find versions that did not heavily include non-English sections. (The machine learning algorithm would have been totally thrown off by random bits of Italian or French or Mandarin, and I didn’t have time to manually go through thousands of pages and strip out the non-English text). I also had to skip a few texts that were so full of footnotes that the spiritual text itself was hard to pull out. I did make a conscious effort to balance out the Abrahamic religions, while also trying to avoid accounts written by white colonizers about traditions they had just “discovered” in their travels. I tried my best to include mostly descriptions and ...

 Deceptible Me | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 38:59

This episode we travel to a future where you can choose to turn off your ability to deceive yourself. Are you now a perfectly clear eyed genius? Or a perpetually depressed misanthrope? Maybe both?  This episode was suggested by my mom. It begins with two tales of self deception, one from Jacquelyn Gill, an assistant professor of paleo-ecology at the University of Maine and the host of a podcast about climate change called Warm Regards, and the other from Beth Duckles, a writer, researcher, ethnographer and social scientist. Then we talk to Zoë Chance, an assistant professor of marketing at the Yale School of Management and an expert on self-deception. After that, we go to therapy, and Chamin Ajjan, a clinical psychotherapist and author of Seeking Soulmate: Ditch the Dating Game and Find Real Connection explains what she does when she sees a case of self-deception in her office. And finally, Erik Vance, science journalist and author of Suggestible You: The Curious Science of Your Brain's Ability to Deceive, Transform, and Heal helps us understand what might really happen if we could truly turn off this ability to deceive ourselves. Further reading: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Self Deception The Elements of a Scientific Theory of Self-Deception People don’t know when they’re lying to themselves Temporal view of the costs and benefits of self-deception The slow decay and quick revival of self-deception DENIAL: Self-Deception, False Beliefs, and the Origins of the Human Mind Suggestible You: The Curious Science of Your Brain's Ability to Deceive, Transform, and Heal Seeking Soulmate: Ditch the Dating Game and Find Real Connection Patrons are going to get a really fun bonus segment next week that didn’t quite make it into this episode. It’s about hypnosis. So if you want that, go to Patreon and sign up as a $5 donor! Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The voice from this episode’s future was provided by Cynthia Graber. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! Head to www.flashforwardpod.com/support for more about how to give. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one. ▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹ TRANSCRIPT   Rose: Hello and welcome to Flash Forward! I'm Rose and I'm your host. Flash Forward is a show about the future. Every episode we take on a specific possible... or not so possible future scenario. We always start with a little field trip to the future, to check out what's going on, and then we teleport back to today to talk to experts about how that world we just heard might really go down. Got it? Great!   Just as an FYI, this episode includes discussions of both sex and abusive behavior. Okay, let’s go to the future. This episode we're starting in the year 2033.   [[meditative music]]   Soothing woman voice: Hello, and welcome to the Ubik Mindfulness Program. Please tap the center of your screen three times to begin.   [[soothing sounds]]  

 Easy Bake Organs | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 33:13

This episode we take on a future full of bioprinted replacement organs. You asked for more hopeful futures, this is about as hopeful as they get! We start by hearing a bit about what the current organ donation market is like from Christine Gentry, who donated a kidney to a stranger. Then we talk to Dr. Anthony Atala,  the Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and of the world’s leading regenerative medicine specialists. Dr. Atala has implanted organs grown from the cells of patients themselves in clinical trials. Then Kelly and Zach Weinersmith join us to talk about what they learned while writing a chapter about bioprinting for their new book Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything. And finally, we get an impassioned indictment of 3D printing file formats from Meghan McCarthy, Project Lead for the NIH 3D Print Exchange. Further reading: Organ Donation Statistics Neural and cognitive characteristics of extraordinary altruists Boston woman's donation creates 3rd-longest kidney transplant chain, saving 28 people The Doctor and the Salamander How An Economist Helped Patients Find The Right Kidney Donors TED Talk: Printing a Human Kidney Rebuilding the Breast Soonish: Zach and Kelly Weinersmith on 10 technologies that will change everything Online Course Bioprinting: 3D Printing Body Parts Scientists 3-D Print Mouse Ovaries That Actually Make Babies If you’re interested in becoming a living organ donor and want to know what it’s like, you can get in touch with Christine Gentry. Her email is christine.gentry at gmail.com, and she’s all about helping people understand donation. Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. Our intro future voices were skillfully provided by Alyssa Mondelli, BW and Josh Kirby. The music from the intro was by Unheard Music Concepts, PC III and Soft and Furious. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! Head to www.flashforwardpod.com/support for more about how to give. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one. ▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹ TRANSCRIPT Rose: Hello and welcome to Flash Forward! I'm Rose and I'm your host. Flash Forward is a show about the future. Every episode we take on a specific possible... or not so possible future scenario. We always start with a little field trip to the future, to check out what's going on, and then we teleport back to today to talk to experts about how that world we just heard might really go down. Got it? Great! This episode, we're starting in the year 2136.   [commercial music] Commercial voice 1:  We know you have lots of choices when it comes to your next kidney. Here are a few reasons we think that the Lensman Lab is right for you. World renowned surgeon and bio-designer Dr. Gray Lensman has successfully designed, printed and implanted over a thousand organs, from hearts to kidneys to livers. Dr. Lensman puts your comfort above everything, offering complimentary spa services, dream implantation technology for while you’re in ...

 Buzz Off | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 27:32

In this episode we travel to a world without bees. And not just honey bees, all bees. You’ve probably heard a lot of doom and gloom predictions about what might happen if honey bees went extinct. Mass famine! The end of coffee! World economic collapse! But is that all true? (Probably not.) And how likely is a honeybee extinction anyway? (Extremely unlikely.) Plus, what about all the other bees in the world? We ponder these questions and more in this episode. To walk us through what might happen to agriculture if bees went away, I talked to Marcelo A. Aizen, a researcher who studies plant pollinator interactions. His research suggests that the loss of honeybees might not be as dire as everybody claims. And to talk about the more neglected bees out there, I called up Elaine Evans, a professor at the University of MInnesota’s Bee Lab, and Paige Embry, the author of the forthcoming book Our Native Bees: North America’s Endangered Pollinators and the Fight to Save Them. Plus, a little bonus “what if” at the end, featuring cartoonist Dean Yeagle, the man who drew the original Honey Nut Cheerios bee. Further reading: How much does agriculture depend on pollinators? Lessons from long-term trends in crop production (PDF) How to befriend bumblebees What if bees went extinct? Why bees are disappearing Citizen Science: Bumble Bee Surveys Has Anybody Seen the Franklin’s Bumblebee? Franklin’s Bumblebee Still Elusive The Old Man and the Bee Wallace’s Giant Bee Honey Nut Cheerios Mascot Goes Missing as Brand Addresses Declining Bee Populations Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The future voice this episode was provided by Mike Rugnetta. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. I love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! Head to www.flashforwardpod.com/support for more about how to give. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one. ▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹ TRANSCRIPT Rose: Hello and welcome to Flash Forward! I'm Rose and I'm your host. Flash Forward is a show about the future. Every episode we take on a specific possible... or not so possible future scenario. We always start with a little field trip to the future, to check out what's going on, and then we teleport back to today to talk to experts about how that world we just heard might really go down. Got it? Great! This episode we're starting in the year 2073.   [YouTube Music]   YouTube Host: Hey guys! Melissa Bhramari here, and you’re watching my YouTube channel Pollination Nation. If you like what you see, don’t forget to subscribe! Just click the button right here. Okay! On to the video!   Today we’re going to review hand pollination of … Vanilla planifolia. Tadaaaaa.   Right so normally this plant, like every plant we’ve talked about on this channel, would be pollinated by bees. But… womp womp, no more bees. So here we are! Pollinating! It’s fun! And also worth it if you want vanilla. Which I bet you do!  

 Piraceuticals | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 27:32

This episode we go to a future with pirates! There always has to be at least one pirate episode per season. This time it’s pharmaceutical pirates. This episode was inspired by a new book by Annalee Newitz called Autonomous. It’s very good and you should read it. I am not being paid to say that, I just really like the book. Autonomous tells the story of two main characters: Jack the pharmaceutical pirate, and Palladin the bot that is trying to hunt her down. A few cool links related to Autonomous: How to Write a Novel Set More Than 125 Years in the Future Robots need civil rights, too Sword and Laser podcast #306 - Indentured Robotude w/ Annalee Newitz Pirates and Robots Square Off Over Drugs in Annalee Newitz’s Debut Novel In A Future Ruled By Big Pharma, A Robot Tentatively Explores Freedom — And Sex: 'Autonomous' For our episode, we focused on the pharmaceutical piracy part of the book. And to talk to us about the nitty gritty of how pharmaceuticals are made, and how they’re protected by patents, I talked to Jason Kahana, the founder and president of a small biotech company called Integrity Biosolutions, and Charles Duan, the director of the Patent Reform Project at Public Knowledge. [Full disclosure: my father and Jason know each other and have worked together in the past.] These Aren’t the Patent Remedies You’re Looking For (No, Really) Teva Pharmaceuticals Antitrust Settlement is a Win for Competition Martin Shkreli Is Big Pharma’s Biggest A**hole Drug C.E.O. Martin Shkreli Arrested on Fraud Charges Yusuf Hamied, generic drugs boss The Treasure of Mumbai Pharmaceutical deformulation The Role of Reverse Engineering in the Development of Generic Formulations The Impact of the US Food and Drug Administration Chlorofluorocarbon Ban on Out-of-pocket Costs and Use of Albuterol Inhalers Among Individuals With Asthma Do Patents Disclose Useful Information?  We Are Definitely Against Indefiniteness in Patents Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro and ad-break music is by Hussalonia. The pirate music from the intro is by Nerve Damage. The future voices this episode were played by Tamara Krinsky, Brent Rose and Stephen Granade. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! We have a Patreon page, where you can donate to the show. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. That’s all for this future, come back next month and we’ll travel to a new one. ▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹ TRANSCRIPT Rose: Hello and welcome to Flash Forward! I'm Rose and I'm your host.   Flash Forward is a show about the future. Every episode we take on a specific possible... or not so possible future scenario. We always start with a little field trip to the future, to check out what's going on, and then we teleport back to today to talk to experts about how that world we just heard might really go down.   Before we start today’s episode, I have a quick announcement for you! Flash Forward is going back to bi-weekly. Bi-monthly? Every other week. I never know the right way to say that. Anyway,

 After Life | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 26:35

This month’s episode is about what it would take to sterilize the Earth, and why you might want to figure that out in the first place.  First we talk to the authors of a paper that tries to figure out this exact question. David Sloan and Rafael Alves Batista are the authors of a paper called “The Resilience of Life to Astrophysical Events” (along with Avi Loeb). No, they’re not evil scientists, just interested in what it might take to find life on other planets. They explain their calculations, and how we mostly don’t have anything to worry about. Plus, cool facts about tardigrades! Then we talk to science-fiction author N.K. Jemisin who is the author of The Broken Earth trilogy. Which is very good! She explains her thinking behind the books, why the Earth is out to get her characters, and how humans banding together to survive is more interesting to her than the lone ranger making it on his own. Further reading: What Would It Take to Completely Sterilize the Earth? The Resilience of Life to Astrophysical Events Did a gamma-ray burst initiate the late Ordovician mass extinction? NASA: Gamma-ray Bursts Flash Forward: The Supernova Next Door 'The Fifth Season,' by N.K. ­Jemisin N. K. Jemisin on Diversity in Science Fiction and Inspiration From Dreams The Tardigrade: Practically Invisible, Indestructible ‘Water Bears’ Tardigrades return from the dead Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! We have a Patreon page, where you can donate to the show. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. That’s all for this future, come back next month and we’ll travel to a new one. ▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹ TRANSCRIPT Rose: Hello and welcome to Flash Forward! I'm Rose and I'm your host. Flash Forward is a show about the future. Every episode we take on a specific possible... or not so possible future scenario. We always start with a little field trip to the future, to check out what's going on, and then we teleport back to today to talk to experts about how that world we just heard might really go down. Got it? Great! This year we're starting in the year TK.   [garbled sounds] [ticking]   Initiate planet list.   Passing Sector QQ7 Active J Gamma   Passing Yavin 4   Passing O G L E -2005 -B L G -390 Lb   K2 3d -- K 2 dash 3 -- Leo -- tidally locked, half scorched half ice -- do not send probes, zero success rate -- no life   HD 40307 g -- K 2.5V -- small, warm Neptune without a solid surface -- no life   LHS 1140 b -- LHS 1140 -- Cetus -- rocky -- single celled life -- do not send living probes, neural infections, quarantine all returning probes indefinitely   Sol III -- 399 -- Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha -- mostly water -- special note -- “also known as Earth, the only known planet to once harbor life but then lose all life forms,

 Down For Everyone Not Just You | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 39:22

This episode is a little different than other episodes. As many of you know, Flash Forward is my second job. My first job is at ESPN, where I recently helped launch an audio documentary series called 30 for 30 Podcasts. Please go check that out, even if you don’t like sports I promise there’s something for you. My episodes are numbers three and four in the series, and they’re both out, and if you like the weird stuff I do on this show I think you’ll probably enjoy them. Trying to make two highly produced shows at once is hard though! So for my mental health, this month’s Flash Forward is a bit of a remix. The top of the show is new, it’s an interview with Kit Walsh, who is a staff attorney at Electronic Frontier Foundation where she works on free speech, net neutrality, copyright, coders' rights, and other issues that relate to freedom of expression and access to knowledge. Then, you’ll hear a remixed version of an old episode about the future of the internet, and what it would take for us to abandon the world wide web. More information about net neutrality: Net neutrality explained: "Imagine internet is pizza ..." Throttling on Mobile Networks Is a Sign of Things to Come, Unless We Save Net Neutrality Now Dear FCC Ajit Pai’s anti-net neutrality plan gets the facts and law wrong, lawmakers say Am I The Only Techie Against Net Neutrality? The remixed episode after my interview with Kit is all about what it would take to lose the internet. And to figure that out I talked to two historians of digital culture at NYU. Laine Nooney studies the history of computers and video games. Finn Brunton studies how and why different technologies get adopted (or don’t). Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. Special thanks this episode to Lena Groeger, Sisi Wei, Colin Schultz, and my mom. Yes, that was my actual mom. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. I love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! We have a Patreon page, where you can donate to the show. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. That’s all for this future, come back next month and we’ll travel to a new one.

 Love On The Brain | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 33:11

This episode, we travel to a future where your romantic partners aren’t chosen by questions or swipes, but rather by your brainwaves. This future is based on an idea from Shelly Ronan and Ernesto D. Morales and their project Object Solutions. If you liked what you heard about Object Solutions you should check out their other work, and their Patreon page. I also talked to Suzanne Dikker, who has used EEG headsets to study everything from education, to Marina Abramovic’s art, to compatability. And to get a true expert position on dating apps, I talked to Andrea Silenzi from the podcast Why Oh Why. If you’re interested in the intersection between sex, dating, relationships and technology, check out her show. Other things to read: The Mutual Wave Project by Suzanne Dikker ‘EEG Dating’ matches people based on their brainwave data This Tinder Hands-Free App Makes Dating Decisions by Reading Heartbeats This Tinder-Swiping Biometric Love Robot Knows Who Your Body Wants Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. By the way, check out Matt's new animated web series over at Topic.  If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. I love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! We have a Patreon page, where you can donate to the show. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to Apple Podcasts and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. That’s all for this future, come back next month and we’ll travel to a new one. ▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹ TRANSCRIPT Rose: Hello and welcome to Flash Forward! I'm Rose and I'm your host. Flash Forward is a show about the future. Every episode we take on a specific possible... or not so possible future scenario. We always start with a little field trip to the future, to check out what's going on, and then we teleport back to today to talk to experts about how that world we just heard might really go down.   Before we go to the future this week, I want to tell you about a podcast that I really love, and think you all might like too! It’s called Imaginary Worlds and it's a show about how sci-fi and fantasy worlds are created, and why we suspend our disbelief. Some of the episodes have been about...   > How the residents of the real towns where Twin Peaks was filmed feel about the show and how the show gave their community a strange new identity > Whether the Death Star was too big to fail and blowing it up would've plunged the galaxy into economic chaos. > Which is more believable in fantasy films, computer generated characters or Jim Henson style puppets?   Host Eric Molinsky talks with filmmakers, comic book artists, novelists, video game designers, LARPers, Cosplayers, and on rare occasions -- a pair of vampires, Captain Hook, and even the brain of HP Lovecraft. You can download Imaginary Worlds where ever you get your podcasts, or go to imaginary worlds podcast dot org.     Okay, let’s go to the our imaginary future world! This time, we're starting in the year 2020.   Soothing voice: Object solutions.   Welcome to a world of problems, solved.

 Mons Voyage | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 34:52

This episode, we go on another vacation! Can you tell I need a vacation? Anyway, back to the episode. What would it be like if you could hop on a space cruise ship, and take a trip to Mars? This is a special episode because our little future intro is actually two real people playing real parts. Olivia Koski and Jana Grcevich are the authors of a new book called Vacation Guide to the Solar System. The book is a spinoff of their long-running project the Intergalactic Travel Bureau, a project of Guerilla Science and a place where people could really come inside and ask about trips to other planets. And they take us on a very fun tour of what you could do, as a tourist, to Mars. Along with Olivia and Jana, this episode features Ben Longmier, a former rocket scientist, and Rebecca Boyle, a science writer who has a true love for Mars.  There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to intergalactic travel, so in this episode we focus specifically on tourism. Not colonization, or research, or any of the other things that you could potentially try to do. And we’re also going to focus on a single planet, just because trying to cover all the planets would be really hard. So what would it be like, to take a vacation to Mars. Just… a trip for fun. Like going to Cancun. But instead of snorkeling you hike up Olympus Mons? Listen to find out! Further reading: 'Intergalactic Travel Bureau' Wants to Plan Your Space Vacation Vacation to Mars Everything About Mars is the Worst Welcome To Mars! Enjoy Perpetual Jet Lag Under An Eerie Red Sky Mars Needs Lawyers Life on Mars time for JPL scientist and his family Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! We have a Patreon page, where you can donate to the show. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. That’s all for this future, come back next month and we’ll travel to a new one. ▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹ TRANSCRIPT Rose: Hello and welcome to Flash Forward! I'm Rose and I'm your host. Flash Forward is a show about the future. Every episode we take on a specific possible... or not so possible future scenario. We always start with a little field trip to the future, to check out what's going on, then we teleport back to today to talk to experts about how that world we just heard might really go down. Got it? Great! This year we're starting in the year 2155.   [door chime]   Jana Grcevich: Welcome to the intergalactic travel bureau. I'm Jana, so I'll be your travel agent. So what do you like to do on vacation?   Rose: I like to scuba dive.   Jana: Oh OK. We have some excellent scuba diving locales. Yeah, if you would like to travel to Jupiter there is an excellent moon there called Europa. And there's scuba diving there. It has a layer of ice that's, you know, 20 kilometers thick or even thicker. And you can drill down through and go scuba diving down there, and everybody's always looking for life down there and you know we won't guarantee anything, but you can try for it. Anything else you like to do.

 Back to the Future: A Womb Away From Home | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 21:56

Long time listeners of Flash Forward might feel like this future is kind of… familiar. And it is. It’s actually the first future we ever traveled to on this show. A future where humans have invented artificial wombs. And this is a special bonus episode of Flash Forward where we’re going to go back and revisit that future, because a new piece of research recently came out about artificial wombs. I’m calling this, a BACK TO THE FUTURE episode. Related reading: Fluid-filled ‘biobag’ allows premature lambs to develop outside the womb An extra-uterine system to physiologically support the extreme premature lamb Early Ectogenesis: Artificial Wombs in 1920s Literature The Man Who Ran a Carnival Attraction That Saved Thousands of Premature Babies Wasn’t a Doctor at All The World, the Flesh & the Devil An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus Daedalus, or Science and the Future Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth, and is part of the Boing Boing podcast family. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! We have a Patreon page, where you can donate to the show. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. That’s all for this future, come back next time, and we’ll travel to a new one! ▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹ TRANSCRIPT Rose: Hello and welcome to Flash Forward! I'm Rose and I'm your host. Flash Forward is a show about the future. Every episode we take on a specific possible... or not so possible future scenario. We always start with a little field trip to the future, to check out what's going on, and then we teleport back to today to talk to experts about how that world we just heard might really go down.   Before we go to the future this week, I want to tell you about a podcast that I really love, and think you all might like too! It’s called Imaginary Worlds and it's a show about how sci-fi and fantasy worlds are created, and why we suspend our disbelief. Some of the episodes have been about...   > How the residents of the real towns where Twin Peaks was filmed feel about the show and how the show gave their community a strange new identity > Whether the Death Star was too big to fail and blowing it up would've plunged the galaxy into economic chaos. > Which is more believable in fantasy films, computer generated characters or Jim Henson style puppets?   Host Eric Molinsky talks with filmmakers, comic book artists, novelists, video game designers, LARPers, Cosplayers, and on rare occasions -- a pair of vampires, Captain Hook, and even the brain of HP Lovecraft. You can download Imaginary Worlds where ever you get your podcasts, or go to imaginary worlds podcast dot org.     Okay, let’s go to the our imaginary future world! This time, we're starting in the year 2020.   Soothing voice: Object solutions.   Welcome to a world of problems, solved. Finding a compatible partner is a task like no other. The first date dinner table is loaded with a lifetime...

 Robocop | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 35:49

In this future there are no more human police officers. Is that even possible? The future of policing is a really really complicated topic. And it’s also, and this might be the understatement of the year, a controversial one. On this episode we’re not going to try and give you a full picture of what the future of policing might be. That would take hours. Instead, we’re going to focus on two really specific pieces of this topic. First we talk to Madeline Ashby, futurist and science fiction writer, about robots, and what it might be like if we replaced human law enforcement with robotic law enforcement. Then, we talk to historian and writer Walidah Imarisha, about a future with no cops at all. We also hear from Doug Wyllie, the Editor at Large for PoliceOne, who, perhaps unsurprisingly, doesn't like either proposal.  Further reading: Disrupt Tha Police by Madeline Ashby Bomb Robots: What Makes Killing In Dallas Different And What Happens Next? Robocop Delivers Pizza, Prevents Suicide 11 Police Robots Patrolling Around the World Machine Bias  Hard Truths: Law Enforcement and Race  Angels with Dirty Faces  Wrestling With Angels: Walidah Imarisha on Harm and Accountability Audre Lord Safe Outside the System Collective Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. Special thanks this week to Brent Rose. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! We have a Patreon page, where you can donate to the show. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. ▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹▹ TRANSCRIPT Rose: Hello and welcome to Flash Forward! I’m Rose and I’m your host. Flash Forward is a show about the future. Every episode we take on a specific possible or, not so possible future scenario. We always start with a trip to the future, then we teleport back to today to talk to real experts about how that future might really go down. Got it? Great. This year, we’re starting in the year 2072.   Tour Guide Voice: Hello! Come on through, everybody, if everybody could scoot down a little to make room, perfect. Welcome, again to the museum, my name is TK. I’ll be taking you on the tour today.   So, as you can see we’re actually in the middle of a long hallway here. The tour begins actually in the middle of our timeline, rather than at the beginning or end. To my right, you’ve got the distant past, reaching all the way back to 1704, when the colony of Carolina developed the nation's first slave patrol. And to my left you’ve got the more recent past, stretching all the way to the present and, in the small wing beyond that, the future. But we start in the year 2037, because this is the year that peace and safety really changed completely.   Now, here’s a question for you all. Raise your hand if you are old enough to remember human police officers. Okay, a few of you. So, for the rest of you, you might not actually know this, but in this country we used to have this thing called police, and they were actually human people who would maintain law and order in our communities. But in 2037, that all changed, and law enforcement agencies were shut down throughout th...

 Unreel | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 43:52

This month on Flash Forward, we go to a future where anybody can make a video of you doing anything they want. And that technology is cheap and easy to access. What happens? This episode we start by talking about the technology as it exists now. Hamed Pirsiavash the show to explain his research into generating videos using algorithms. Here’s a little video of how it works. And let’s just take a second to appreciate how creepy those baby videos are. So that’s where the technology stands now. But once it gets better, there are all kinds of applications. Hal Hodson, a tech reporter at The Economist, tells us about how it could be used in movies. Right now, movie-makers use CGI to project faces onto other faces. Recently, in the latest Star Wars, the faces of Princess Leia and Grand Moff Tarkin from the original trilogy were projected onto actors faces for the few scenes in the new movie. Here’s a look at how they did it. But in the future, they might not have to do any of this. They could simply generate the video they need using images of Leia and Tarkin’s faces. Which also means that movie stars could wind up being in hundreds of movies a year, since they don’t have to actually be there, on set, to act. And they could keep acting in movies long after they’ve died, too. That’s a fun thing to think about. Here’s a less fun thing to think about: how people would use this technology to seek revenge and ruin people’s lives. And to talk through the legal implications, I called Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer who specializes in revenge porn cases. She explains how these generated videos of the future would actually get around today’s revenge porn laws. Then, to wrap it all up, I talk to Jenna Wortham, a writer for the New York Times Magazine and the co-host of an amazing podcast called Still Processing. In a world where online identities are not only personally valuable, but economically valuable, what does this do to us? When anybody can torpedo your finely crafted online persona with a fake video, do we all just give up? Do we try to erase everything from the internet about ourselves? Or do we lean into this and start making wild aspirational and experimental videos? Or maybe all of the above? Bonus: You will also find out what butter, The Falkland Islands, and Snakes on a Train have in common. According to Rose. Some further reading for this episode: The Attorney Fighting Revenge Porn Social Media Got You Down? Be More Like Beyonce The future of fake news is real time video manipulation The Butter Wars: When Margarine Was Pink The British Punk Band That Fooled Reagan, Thatcher and the CIA Introduction to Generative Adversarial Networks Teaching Machines to Predict the Future Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth, and is part of the Boing Boing podcast family. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. Special thanks this week to Wendy Hari, Jacki Sojico and Dan Tannenbaum. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! We have a Patreon page, where you can donate to the show. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. That’s all for this future, come back next time, and we’ll travel to a new one!

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