FringeFM - Exploring the Edges of Human Understanding | Future Tech | Longevity | Singularity | AI | Cryptocurrencies & Blockchain | Space Technology | Venture Capital | Startups

Dennis Kowalski (@CiCryonics) is the director of the US-based Cryonics Institute (CI), a non-profit founded in 1976 by Robert Ettinger, “The Father of Cryonics.” CI’s goal from the beginning has been to offer the best available cryonics services to the public at an affordable cost. Since founding, Cryonics Institute has been a leading force in the cryonics movement, advancing research, education and public awareness. CI hosts an active and engaged community of more than 1,100 members world-wide and 150 patients currently in cryostasis. In addition to his role at CI, Dennis is a firefighter, a nationally registered EMT (emergency medical technician) and previous boxing champion and special forces officer. You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * How science is constantly catching up to the wonders of nature * The life extension possibilities of cryonics * Why cryonics isn’t as crazy as you think and might just be a really smart bet * The different ways science could possibly bring people back from the dead * Why we are still a ways off from uploading our consciousness the cloud * The increasingly exciting opportunities of exponential technology * How sci-fi sometimes suggests the future * Why predicting the future is hard to be exact * The role cryogenics plays in potential space travel   — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.    

Roel Vertegaal (@roelvertegaal) is a Dutch-Canadian interaction designer, scientist, musician and entrepreneur working in the area of Human-Computer Interaction. He is a Professor at Queen’s University’s School of Computing where he directs the Human Media Lab and is best known for his pioneering work on flexible and paper computers, with PaperWindows (2004), PaperPhone (2010] and PaperTab (2012). He is also known for inventing ubiquitous eye input, such as Samsung’s Smart Pause technologies. “In the near future, a computer will have any shape or form, and flexible computer displays will start appearing on any product of any form. These Organic User Interfaces will be completely embedded in real world interactions.”   You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * The future of computing interfaces and why it is not what you think * What is on the near-term horizon in terms of holograms * How technology transforms society and cultural norms * The big problem with conflicting interests creating filter bubbles, fake news and overly aggressive Facebook * Why AR and VR are overhyped and ultimately not the answer * The problems with voice and Alexa-like products for functionality * How communication can break down or be enhanced online * The problems Roel sees in today’s world and what causes them * Roel passion for quantum computing and potential implications * The reason Roel is very worried about climate change * Why Roel believes startups and tech companies should have higher moral character * The awesome effects of flexible computers, phones and interfaces * Why the lab is always 10-15 years ahead of commercial companies — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.      

Prof. Dirk Helbing (@dirkhelbing) is Chair of Sociology, in particular of Modeling and Simulation, in ETH Zurich, and the Scientific Coordinator of the FuturICT Flagship Proposal. He is also the Principal Investigator on FutureICT Knowledge Accelerator and Crisis Relief System, a big data computing system, conceived as sort of a crystal ball of the world. The core of the system is the Living Earth Simulator, a computing machine attempting “to model global-scale systems — economies, governments, cultural trends, epidemics, agriculture, technological developments, and more — using torrential data streams, sophisticated algorithms, and as much hardware as it takes”. The project currently competing for funding from the European Commission of € 1 billion. He is known for the social force model, in particular its application to self-organising phenomena in pedestrian crowds. Besides the slower-is-faster effect, he introduced the freezing-by-heating effect and the phase diagram of congested traffic states. Helbing also proposed a microscopic foundation of evolutionary game theory and has studied self-organized behavioral conventions. Recent work applies principles of collective intelligence and self-organized control to the optimization of urban and freeway traffic. His current research activities focus on norms and conflict, the role of success-driven motion for the establishment of cooperation among selfish individuals, the science of science, socio-inspired technology and techno-social systems, disaster spreading and crisis management. You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * How science fiction impacts our worldview * The problem with today’s economic model and what we need to fix to find success * Why blockchain is incredibly interesting and has potential to transform society * How artificial intelligence and human creativity can co-exist and thrive * Why we need better governance and incentive systems to sustainably survive the coming years * The problem with connectivity and monitoring * Why Dirk’s team is focused on building a universal human brain * The pros and cons of capitalism, socialism and something else entirely * How regulations help and hinder progress * What a new world order could look like and how to get there * The impact of IoT and sensing on striving for a better future — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.    

Geoffrey Woo (@geoffreywoo) is co-founder and CEO of HVMN, a research-driven company that provides nutrition to elite performers in sport and military. HVMN makes HVMN Ketone, the world’s first ketone ester drink based on technology developed in a DARPA program to enhance soldier performance. In early 2016, Geoffrey started experimenting with intermittent fasting to activate metabolic pathways associated with longevity and cognitive function. To make the science and physiology behind the benefits of fasting more accessible, Geoffrey started WeFast, one of the largest online intermittent fasting communities, and became a widely cited spokesperson for intermittent fasting in the media. Geoffrey is a serial entrepreneur. He previously was CEO and co-founder of Glassmap Inc., a software technology company backed by YCombinator, a top venture capital group, and acquired by Groupon ($GRPN).   You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * How diet impacts mental and physical performance * The blood boy billionaires and methods of extending human life * Why fasting and intermittent fasting are fast becoming the rage in Silicon Valley * The ways top performers are enhancing themselves without resorting to harmful drugs * Why we may be headed towards different species of humans * The DARPA/US military science on superhuman performance * How health, happiness and sleep affect human performance and success * Why science often takes a long time to catch up to practice * The reason the healthcare system is so screwed up * Where we are headed with quantified-self movement * Why Geoff is very excited about IoT and it’s self-enhancement abilities BTW HVMN is on Amazon! — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.  

Parag Khanna (@paragkhanna) is a leading global strategist, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is a CNN Global Contributor and Senior Research Fellow in the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is also the Managing Partner of Hybrid Reality, a geostrategic advisory firm, and Co-Founder & CEO of Factotum, a boutique content strategy agency – topics he addressed in his popular TED Talk on How Megacities are Changing the Map of the World. Parag has (co)authored several books, including: * Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization * Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012) *  How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011) * The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008) In 2008, Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.” He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has traveled to more than 100 countries and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.   You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * Why Asia is where the 21st century will unfold * How economic forces are driving apparently separatist movements * The de-volution of nation-states and the rise of Mega-Cities * Why borders are becoming increasingly less relevant * How Parag sees blockchain technology impacting politics * Why local democracies are the most effective governing systems to date * How cities are starting to challenge the power of governments * Why and how regulation will shape the geo-politics of the future * How Asia impacts China more than you know — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.    

Rob Hopkins (@robintransition) is the co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and of the Transition Network – a movement of communities coming together to reimagine and rebuild our world Rob is a serial blogger, both on Transition Network and at robhopkins.net, and author of The Power of Just Doing Stuff , The Transition Handbook and The Transition Companion. He has been awarded a PhD by the University of Plymouth and an Honorary Doctorate by the University of the West of England. In 2012 he was voted one of the Independent’s top 100 environmentalists and one of ‘Britain’s 50 New Radicals’. He has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Four Thought’ and on ‘A Good Read’, in addition to speaking at TED Global once, and at 3 TEDx events. He is an Ashoka Fellow, a keen gardener and one of the founders of New Lion Brewery in Totnes and a Director of Atmos Totnes, a very ambitious community-led development project.   You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * How local communities are reshaping the world and economy * The exciting advances in renewable energies and combatting climate change * What happens when communities create their own currencies * How and why we need to address climate change * Why Donald Trump is the last gasp of fossil fuel driven capitalism * How the governments of the future are evolving today * Why Rob is optimistic in the face of great challenges * Where we are headed with urban farming * Is community-owned resources the answer to societies problems — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.      

Yotam Ariel (@yotamariel) is the Founder and CEO of Bluefield, a satellite change detection startup that was recent winner of Top 20 NewSpace Awards alongside SpaceX, Virgin Orbit and other innovative space startups. Bluefield use proprietary methane tracking micro-satellites & AI to provide actionable insights and valuable data for farmers maximizing crop yields, governments watching military behavior and much much more. Bluefield lies up nicely with Yotam’s previous startup Bennu Solar which mass produces affordable solar products for third world countries. Yotam likes the Morning Climate newsletter, for anyone interested.     You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * How Yotam thinks see satellite space technology changing everyday life * The space tech convergence of small scale satellites * Why methane is the new carbon dioxide * The reason Yotam doesn’t look up to Elon Musk and Richard Branson * Why we are still a ways off from living in space * The 80/20 way to think about climate change * How complexity becomes commodity and creates innovation * Why Yotam spent 12 years in China and what he learned * The reason today’s entrepreneurs focus on profitable purpose * How to start a space tech startup today – and how much it costs — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.    

Kyle Samani (@kylesamani) is cofounder and Managing Partner of Multicoin Capital, a venture capital-esque crypto hedge fund with at least $250M in assets under management (AUM). Prior to starting Multicoin Capital, Kyle ran Pristine.io (a Google Glass company for surgeons) as CEO, raising $5M and ultimately being acquired. Kyle’s writing and thought leadership has built him up as someone to follow in the ever evolving industry in addition to a strong focus on technology, entrepreneurship, sales and marketin and finance.     You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * How Kyle first discovered ethereum when it was only $10 * Kyle’s thoughts on the future of augmented reality and IoT * Why blockchain fundamentally disrupts so many industries * Which areas of crypto Kyle and his team are most excited about * Why Kyle believes Bitcoin will become irrelevant * What you need to know about the crypto rabbit hole * How the future of money will edged government * Why decentralization is more important than most people realize * How crypto investors can think about blockchain protocol value — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.  

Jamais Cascio (@cascio) is a writer, speaker and futurist that focuses on the intersection of emerging technologies, environmental dilemmas, and cultural transformation, specializing in the design and creation of plausible scenarios of the future – writing mainly on the importance of long-term, systemic thinking, emphasizing the power of openness, transparency and flexibility as catalysts for building a more resilient society at openthefuture.org. Selected by Foreign Policy magazine as a Top 100 Global Thinker, Jamais Cascio specializes in the creation of provocative future scenarios. He explores emerging possibilities in print and in speaking events world-wide, and has appeared in in multiple television and film documentaries. Cascio serves as Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for the Future, and published his first non-fiction book, HACKING THE EARTH, in 2009. He was a featured speaker at the TED 2006 conference, “The Future We Will Create,” in Monterey, California. “My worst-case scenario is us continuing to have short-term-track thinking.” — Jamais Cascio   You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * Why we may be heading towards a 5-6 degree warmer world * The biggest threats to humanity’s existence * How technology and humanity intertwine and co-evolve * Why Jamais is pessimistic in the short term and optimistic in the long term * Jamais’ thoughts on the cons of geo engineering * The important but often overlooked drivers climate change * Why Jamais forecasts rather than predicts the future * The actual implications of autonomous driving and automation * Why our political and economic systems are outdated and how to fix this * Why the future may have a lot more sex and drugs NOTE: A couple times Jamais references terms/concepts which popularly used yet politically charged like pink-collar jobs. He is in no way endorsing or a fan of gender-roles/stereotypes but just observing them in action. Recommended Books * The Culture Series: Book 1 – Consider Phlebas * Transmetropolitan, Vol 1: Back on the Street  — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.  

Lee Cronin (@leecronin)’s lab at the University of Glasgow does cutting-edge research into manufacturing and 3D printing complex molecules, like medicines on-demand – a breakthrough he presented at TEDGlobal 2012. He has one of the largest multidisciplinary chemistry-based research teams in the world, having raised over $35 M in grants and current income of $15 M. Lee has given over 300 international talks and has authored over 350 peer reviewed papers with recent work published in Nature, Science, and PNAS. He and his team are trying to make artificial life forms, find alien life, explore the digitization of chemistry, understand how information can be encoded into chemicals and construct chemical computers.   You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * How Lee believes we can create artificial life * The relationship between biology, chemistry and our understanding of the universe * What Lee’s team is looking at when it comes to 3D printing medicines and molecules * The future of personalized genetic medicine * Why Lee is skeptical of artificial general intelligence * The real problem with fake news * How the scientific research funding process works and the politics involved * Why researchers need to be able to sell their ideas * The way Lee looks at problems to tackle * Why chemical computers may be a bigger deal than quantum — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.    

Zoltan Istvan Gyurko (@zoltan_istvan) is an American transhumanist, journalist, entrepreneur and Libertarian futurist who ran for President of the United States in 2016 to raise awareness for transhumanism. In 2017, Istvan announced his intent to run for Governor of California in the 2018 election as a member of the Libertarian Party – see his website: zoltanistvan.com for more. Formerly a reporter for the National Geographic Channel, Istvan now writes futurist, transhumanist, libertarian and secular themed articles for major publications including Vice’s Motherboard, Wired, The Huffington Post., TechCrunch and Newsweek. Istvan also regularly appears on television and video channels discussing futurist topics and is one of the world’s most influential transhumanists – believing transhumanism will grow into a mainstream social movement in the next decade. Istvan is also the author of The Transhumanist Wager, a philosophical science fiction novel.   You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * Why Zoltan believes he will live forever * How Zoltan thinks about AI and the future of intelligence * The exciting science of life extension and which areas are most promising * What happens to nation-states when humans start to live longer * How and when genetic engineering and implants will start to impact society * Why transparency may be the savior of humanity * How Zoltan sees blockchain in the bigger picture * Why Zoltan wants a mechanical heart ASAP * What average individuals can do to live longer — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.    

Mike Selden (@mikeseldenFF) is co-founder and CEO of Finless Foods, a food startup that uses cutting-edge cellular-agriculture technologies to grow marine-animal cells, creating fish and seafood products enjoyed around the world. They are working toward a sci-fi, soon-here world where everyone has access to healthy, delectable seafood, without the environmental devastation or the health hazards of traditional fishing and aquatic farming. Mike has a background in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, he is dedicated to climate justice and science advocacy. Before co-founding Finless Foods, he was working at the Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine in high-throughput cancer screening.     You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * The clean meat revolution and end of animal agriculture * How Mike’s company Finless Foods is growing fish in a laboratory * The exciting science of foodtech * Why people need to embrace GMOs * How agriculture is increasingly driving climate change * Why we aren’t far off from growing usable human organs * How hard it is to fund traditional deep tech * Why we are entering a foodtech revolution * How human’s will eat and thrive in space * Why we need to start pricing pollution into our products — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.    

Pascal Finette (@pfinette) is Fastrack’s Executive Director and Singularity University’s Chair for Entrepreneurship & Open Innovation. He focuses on helping change makers tackle the most intractable problems of our times. He got started on the net before there was a web browser, founded a series of technology startups, led eBay’s Platform Solutions Group in Europe, launched a consulting firm helping entrepreneurs with their strategy & operations, invested into early-stage tech startups, led Mozilla’s Innovation Lab, created Mozilla’s accelerator program WebFWD, headed up Mozilla’s Office of the Chair and has invested into social impact organizations around the globe at Google.org. Further he founded the nonprofit organizations Mentor for Good and The Coaching Fellowship; the “GyShiDo” (Get Your S%#& Done) movement and publishes the opinionated newsletter, “The Heretic“, which is read by ten of thousands of change-makers globally. Recently he published “The Heretic – Daily Therapeutics for Entrepreneurs” book.   You can listen right here on iTunes In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * How Pascal thinks about AI and the future of intelligence * The exciting space technology that no one is talking about * What happens to nation-states when humanity goes interplanetary * How and when genetic engineering will start to impact society * Why synthetic biology may in fact be the most exciting industry of our generation * How tariffs and NAFTA could affect investment in Canadian startups * Why traditional venture capital sucks for true moonshot businesses * Why Pascal is doubtful of a Skynet situation * Is China’s totalitarian regime a better system — Make a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFM FringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.