Jim Baen's Universe

What's New in The Future And You

Columns

August 2007

Written by Stephen Euin Cobb

Battlestar Galactica actor Bodie Olmos (son of Edward James Olmos) is joined by the authors Mike Resnick, Catherine Asaro, Robert Buettner, Randal L. Schwartz, Stoney Compton, Paula Goodlett and Hildy Silverman, as well as by Walt (the Bananaslug) Boyes for the July and August 2007 episodes of The Future And You.

The Future And You is an award-winning audio podcast about the future which may be downloaded and enjoyed, or even copied and shared, for free. Every episode contains numerous interviews which reveal a wide variety of ideas and opinion about the future from a wide variety of people.

July's episode features: Battlestar Galactica actor Bodie Olmos, Robert Buettner, Mike Resnick, and Randal L. Schwartz. August's episode features: Catherine Asaro, Randal L. Schwartz, Hildy Silverman and Paula Goodlett.

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Topics in the August episode

Topic: Will future ballet dancers augment their bodies for greater range of motion, endurance and strength? And will we develop faster than light travel (FTL) in the same way we developed quanta mechanics and the relativistic equations? Author and scientist, Catherine Asaro covers both questions with authority because her career has included both. Concurrent with earning her doctorate in chemical physics from Harvard, she started and ran the Harvard University Ballet dance company, which still performs. A former physics professor and researcher, Catherine Asaro has performed with ballets and in musicals on both the East and West coast of the United States, and her paper “Complex Speeds and Special Relativity” appeared in the April 1996 issue of The American Journal of Physics.

In her interview, Catherine addresses our prospects of achieving FTL, defines complex speeds and how they relate to relativistic travel, and voices her concern that today’s pressure on kids in ballet troops to be unnaturally thin can be a bit scary. Some companies, she says, are so thin it's unpleasant to watch. She admits that thinness is needed to look artistically beautiful, but when you can see their bones, it’s not fun to look at anymore.

Topic: Infertility in America is increasing. This trend has lasted for decades, has been verified through statistics, and shows no sign of slowing. But while infertility is growing a new openness in talking about the subject is allowing its stigma to fade. Achieving Families Magazine is the “only magazine dedicated to providing real-life informative stories and articles to guide you through the challenges of infertility.” Hildy Silverman is more than just one of its editors; she's a living example of how science and technology are bringing the joy of childbearing to those who would otherwise be left out. Her daughter was conceived through technological intervention.

Hildy describes new methods of conception, and the thorny legal problems they've created. For example: if a couple divorce, who owns their frozen embryos? And if, years later, the woman decides to use them to become pregnant, must her former husband pay child support for children he did not agree to conceive? And more fundamentally, is a frozen embryo a human being and therefore not capable of being owned by anyone?

Outside of fertility, Hildy Silverman also talks about her recent purchase of Space and Time Magazine which, founded in 1966 by Gordon Linzner, has been publishing horror, fantasy and science fiction for over forty years.

Topic: How soon will e-books be as cheap as candy bars; so cheap you can pass them out to any kid who wants one? Paula Goodlett is eager for that day. As a child, she sometimes lived in towns without a library, towns where there was little available for her to read. Today she's the Managing Editor of Jim Baen's Universe Magazine and of the Grantville Gazette, both of which were created by Eric Flint and the late Jim Baen to experimentally test the waters of electronic publishing.

So far the results of these two experiments are looking good: both magazines are thriving. Readership is growing; online reviews are enthusiastic; and the magazines' stories are beginning to win prestigious awards which have traditionally gone only to SF&F published on paper.

Paula describes, in her interview, how these experiments developed and grew, and what has been learned from them so far. She also provides hints of what changes are yet to be tried, and mentions the innovative submission method which involves hopefuls posting their stories for public critique on “Baen's Bar.”

Topic: With its reputation for being twitchy and crash-prone, do you really want MS Windows running the anesthesia and life support software during your next surgical procedure? And in the future, when nanorobots are ready to be injected into your bloodstream to protect you from heart attack, stroke and cancer, should you trust their AI software not to crash. Or more importantly, should you trust them not to get a bug that identifies, as a cancerous tumor which must be sliced up and removed, your heart or eyes or brain?

Randal L. Schwartz is a programmer familiar with the weakness and frequent glitches of software. He also talks of transcontinental remote surgery, cryonics, technology versus quality of life, and what he sees as the principal limitation of Strong AI in accelerating the rate of scientific advancement toward The Singularity.

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Topics in the July episode

Topic: From Battlestar Galactica, the actor Bodie Olmos (son of Edward James Olmos and grandson of Howard Keel) describes his work on the set of the science fiction TV show, as well as how it has affected his expectations of the future. He also talks of trends within his favorite hobbies: surfing and playing drums; and (in this interview taped June 2, 2007) reveals that Battlestar Galactica will end its run at the end of this season.

Topic: Mike Resnick talks of how his own medical conditions may someday require he use voice recognition software, and how these conditions have influenced his feelings about socialized medicine.

Mike also tackles other tough questions: Will the world’s religions remain relevant? Is it OK for Big Brother to watch you if it reduces crime? Will artificial intelligence worship its creators rather than destroy them? Will the lessons of prohibition be forgotten when writing future laws concerning marijuana? And "consumerism American style:" is it succeeding where fascism and communism failed? Is consumerism doing what it appears to be doing: conquering every nation on earth?

Topic: Is it time to buy beachfront property inside the virtual world called "Second Life?" Randal L. Schwartz, who rents an apartment inside, and is therefore a resident, describes this bizarre world which is both similar and dissimilar to our own. Randal also describes some of his ideas concerning artificial intelligence and how quantum computing and neural nets may relate to its prospects.

Topic: With the future coming at us faster and faster how can your favorite science fiction writers stay one step ahead of emerging technology and the changes it creates in our lives? Truth is, sometimes they can't. Robert Buettner describes the future inside and outside of his novels, and how he and other writers struggle with the ever accelerating speed of scientific advancement.

And as always, every episode of The Future And You contains another installment in our serialization of the Hard SF novel, Bones Burnt Black; and features ten minutes of Walt Boyes (The Bananaslug) & Stoney Compton as they do their bit to let the world at large know what's in the current issue of Jim Baen's Universe Magazine.

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News Items in the July and August issues

The Future And You

nominated

for a

second Parsec Award

The 2007 Parsec Award nominations have been announced and The Future And You has been nominated in four categories including: "Best Tech Podcast," "Best Speculative Fiction News podcast" and "Best Audio Production."

Last year The Future And You won a Parsec Award in the category "Best Speculative Fiction News Podcast" which was a wonderful honor and an exciting event for its host. With the increased visibility and notoriety of both the Parsec Awards and of podcasting in general, the competition this year may be even tougher.

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ConCarolinas

Your host (that would be me) had a very nice time at ConCarolinas this year although I did have some car troubles. A switch attached to my car's brake pedal failed and would not let the automatic transmission be shifted out of park. The good news was that this happened after we arrived at the convention hotel; the bad news was that it happened as we were loading our luggage onto the porter's luggage cart just ten feet outside the hotel's front door.

For over an hour my car blocked half of the arriving convention attendee traffic as porters and bell clerks and other hotel employees tinkered and toyed under my hood and under my dashboard to no avail. The car would start just fine, but moving it was out of the question. It couldn't even be pushed by hand since it couldn't be shifted into neutral. Finally, I had AAA tow it to a repair shop.

Even with the extra hassle the con was wonderful. In addition to Peggy Gregory, my usual photographer/assistant/sister, I was also accompanied and assisted by my girlfriend Veronica McIlvoy. This was Veronica's first SF&F convention and my first chance to show off for her by speaking on panels, playing the part of Uncle Sam in a Mister Adventure radio play, and interviewing authors and actors for The Future And You.

The actor, Bodie Olmos of Battlestar Galactica and the best selling author Robert Buettner both gave excellent interviews and you can hear them both in the July episode.

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2007 Death Stacks Tournament

While at ConCarolinas I watched a portion of the fourth annual World Death Stacks Tournament and had the honor of awarding the trophies.

$250.00 in cash, along with the first place trophy which is about two feet tall, went to Chris Jarret. The second place trophy went to Eric Lowman. And the third place trophy went to Joey Wong.

To encourage artificial intelligence programmers to compete in the tournament a new category was created this year: "Best Artificial Intelligence Implementation of Death Stacks." This year’s winner in the new AI category was a programmer who goes by the name “Freegoldbar.” His 18-inch tall trophy has not yet been shipped to him.

His AI implementation of Death Stacks may be freely played online right here. More information about Death Stacks may be found in its Wikipedia article or on my website www.stevecobb.com.

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Dragon*Con

Those of you in the right general area who wish to say Hi to your host in person, or wish to have me sign a copy of one of my novels, may do so at Dragon*Con in Atlanta GA (August 31-September 3, 2007).

I'm scheduled to be on panels in the podcasting track which will be located in the Hilton Hotel. I expect to roam the entire con but the podcasting track will be the easiest place to find me since I will be attending many of its panels and shows to be “recorded before a live audience.”

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Learn More

You can learn more about The Future And You here, or here or even here.

Or learn more about its host here or here.

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