Jim Baen's Universe

What's New in The Future And You

Columns

December 2007

Written by Stephen Euin Cobb

Authors Kevin J. Anderson and Timothy Zahn are joined by Grant Baciocco (professional comedian), Doctor Aubrey de Grey (gerontologist promoting medical life extension), Professor Paul Levinson (media commentator) and Paul Fischer (pioneering podcaster), as well as by Stoney Compton and Walt (Bananaslug) Boyes for the November and December 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.

And as always, each episode of The Future And You contains an 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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Topics in the December 2007 episode

Timothy Zahn is not surprised that the SETI project hasn't found anyone because he doesn't think there's anyone out there to find. He regards the expectation that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe to be a perfectly understandable assumption, but one based on far too little data. (In addition to being a best selling author, he has a Masters degree in physics.) "Earth constitutes only one data point” he says, “and my training in physics and mathematics tells me that extrapolating from only one data point is fraught with danger."

His confidence is high, however, that we will someday have computers wired directly into our bodies. “Teenagers would love to have their music wired into their brains,” he says, but adds, "I'll wait for the third or fourth generation of the technology to see what the side effects are."

He describes his ideas on a wide variety of topics such as: medical life extension, The Singularity and nanotechnology. For example, he is skeptical of cryonics for both technical and spiritual reasons. He’s skeptical about the chances for faster than light travel (FTL) but admits he cannot rule it out completely. He finds it strange that schools are cutting exercise and sports programs at the very time when childhood obesity is widespread and on the rise. And he gives a number of examples to support his doubts that non-lethal weapons can be meaningful unless both sides in a war agree to use them.

Kevin J. Anderson (co-author of the best selling Dune prequels) feels that the job of a science fiction writer is not to write stories which accurately describe our real future, but to write entertaining stories which relate to people today. Even if he were able to write such stories accurately, which he emphasizes he cannot, he expects that our future way of life, fifty or a hundred years from now, will be so removed from our present way of life that today’s readers would find it difficult or even impossible to relate to the characters or to their problems.

He finds cryonics interesting, and can conceive of our future nanotechnology becoming advanced enough to repair any and all freezing damage on the cellular and molecular level, but wonders if there aren’t spiritual and religious questions which are yet to be answered regarding the act of reanimating those who are deceased. Even if we repair all the damage, he asks, when we flip the switch to bring the body back to life, will the person be in there? This is not just a question of data storage, but a question of the soul.

When it comes to SETI, Kevin J. Anderson is not surprised that the universe seems so empty. But he does see this emptiness as an argument that FTL may be difficult or even impossible to invent. On the other hand he says, “If SETI (researchers) came in tomorrow and said, guess what? Somebody picked up the phone. We’re actually talking to an alien race. The change this would bring upon the human race is impossible to calculate.”

He is also in the camp of those who see artificial intelligence eventually merging with humans rather than becoming our enemy. He anticipates that computer implants will become popular, and is willing to have one too—after other people try them first. He even anticipates that this might someday lead to humanity developing a “hive mind.”

Paul Levinson feels that if cryonics works it could provide a good form of time travel as well as a good way to extend human lives. And he describes the affects he thinks it might have on society.

As to The Singularity: Paul Levinson agrees with some but not all of the concepts which are expected to work together to bring it about. He does not buy into any of the apocalyptic descriptions of The Singularity. He especially balks at the idea of artificial intelligence becoming so advanced that it is unintelligible to humans. Instead, he sees artificially intelligent machines becoming integrated with human minds; so that we become better humans—rather than the machines out-pacing us and going their own way. He uses a number of historical examples to support his ideas of how this and other aspects of our future will grow out of our present.

Is every police officer’s current location a blinking dot on a computer map of the town back at headquarters? Does every police officer wear a GPS locator and carry a big red panic button? Does every police car have a computer to run the license plate of the cars the officer stops? Officers, firefighters and civilians live or die everyday based on the answer to these and similar questions, but in many places in America and around the world the unfortunate answer is “No, not yet.”

Paul Fischer helped design New York City’s newly installed Dedicated Data Network which is one of the most advanced such systems in America. Its powerful features and abilities can—or soon will—answer Yes to those urgent questions. Paul Fischer describes how it is used to help save lives, as well as the trends he sees developing in Police, Firefighting and other municipal computer systems.

Paul Fischer also speaks briefly about the two podcasts he and his wife (Martha Holloway) produce: The Balticon podcast (in which they interview authors, scientists and other people of note attending the science fiction and fantasy convention called Balticon) and The A.D.D. Cast (a free form podcast in which they talk about how to cope with A.D.D.). (Paul was diagnosed with A.D.D. many years ago while still in junior high school.)

And as always, each episode of The Future And You features ten minutes of Walt Boyes (The Bananaslug) & Stoney Compton as they let the world know what's in the current issue of Jim Baen's Universe Magazine.

This episode however does not—I repeat, does not—contain another installment in our serialization of the Hard SF novel, Bones Burnt Black. This is because the final climactic installment was included in the previous episode.

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Topics in the November 2007 episode

Kevin J. Anderson feels that if nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing turn out to meet their potential they will change human society and the human race forever, and that this will be a bigger change than any we have experienced in all of human history.

He sees Vernor Vinge's Singularity as a fascinating and scary possibility. Though a long-time Mac user and early adapter, he feels the curve of The Singularity has already passed him by.

One of his worries for the future is that we have lots of smart people working on scientific advances when they have no clue what the effect on society will be. As an example, he sites a U.S. project from the sixties called Operation Plowshare in which nuclear warheads were to be used in place of earth moving equipment for construction projects such as blasting tunnels through mountains for interstate highways and for creating municipal reservoirs for public drinking water.

"Cryonics is a very good bet," says Doctor Aubrey de Grey who sees resuscitation from a cryo-preserved state as a natural extension of the work he's already doing in Medical Life Extension. He is pessimistic about cancer, however, and does not expect a cure within the next few years. He feels that cancer will be one of the most difficult problems for Life Extension to overcome.

Doctor de Grey also uses empirical evidence to make a case for his notion that because Life Extension raises people's perception of the value of life, in the future wars will become less and less common.

He also suggests that the reason the US medical system is so expensive compared to those of the rest of the civilized world is not that it is not socialized but that America is such a litigious society. A lot of the money goes to lawyers and to malpractice insurance companies rather than to those who actually provide medical care.

Professional comedian Grant Baciocco is interviewed in Atlanta Georgia where he had just accepted a Parsec Award for the podcast which he co-created with Dougg Price called The Radio Adventures of Doctor Floyd.

A technogeek but no transhumanist, Grant Baciocco is one of the early pioneers of podcasting. He discusses trends in comedy including the recent increase in vulgarity, his use of SeatGuru to always get an aisle seat when flying, and trends in theme parks—especially the new interactive animated characters which talk with and answer questions from their audience.

And as always, each episode of The Future And You features ten minutes of Walt Boyes (The Bananaslug) & Stoney Compton as they let the world know what's in the current issue of Jim Baen's Universe Magazine.

This episode contains the final climactic installment in our serialization of the Hard SF novel, Bones Burnt Black.

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News Items in the November and December 2007 issues

Hank Reinhardt Has Passed Away

Hank Reinhardt, renowned weapons expert and beloved husband of Toni Weisskopf, passed away on October 30, 2007.

Many thousands of SF&F fans have enjoyed his weapons demos at various science fiction conventions. Those who knew him well described him as “a good guy, a vibrant man full of energy and life.”

Here are just a few of the many possible links about Hank: a bio, an interview, a feature article. Numerous tributes and recollections have been posted on the net and are easily found by searching for his name (which is sometimes misspelled Hank Reinhart). Here is a website Hank created himself some time ago but had not updated sine 2005.

I spoke with him a few times over the last few years, and had a chance to enjoy his sword demo at LibertyCon in 2003. He was a good guy.

Catching a Cold May Produce Obesity

Research in the last few years has linked more than one of the viruses that cause the common cold to obesity in humans. The explanation, which is still theoretical, is that because these particular viruses reproduce in fat cells they have evolved the ability to stimulate the human body to create more fat cells. To learn more do an online search for the words: obesity and virus.

Bones Burnt Black

Serialization Reaches “The End”

It took nearly two years, but the November 2007 episode of The Future And You contains the final climactic installment in our serialization of the Hard SF novel, Bones Burnt Black. The show’s host has not yet decided if he will begin reading another of his novels into the show.

Second Anniversary of The Future And You

The December 2007 episode of The Future And You marks the show’s second anniversary.

First Anniversary of the

Alliance with Jim Baen’s Universe Magazine

One year ago your host was asked to team this podcast with Jim Baen’s Universe Magazine. Just two month earlier The Future And You had won the 2006 Parsec Award for “Best Speculative Fiction News Podcast.”

New Movie-Documentary Claims Academia

Conspires to Suppress Intelligent Design

The writer, commentator, actor and comedian, Ben Stein (Wikipedia article) (who is often remembered for playing the economics teacher calling out the attendance roll in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) will release a controversial new movie-documentary which claims to show a widespread conspiracy within universities and colleges to suppress any discussion of theories which oppose the theory of natural selection. The movie is titled: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Methods of suppression are said to go beyond ridicule, and include denial of tenure, denial of funding, even dismissal from long-held teaching positions.

Because of the emotional nature of this century-old conflict, this movie is bound to get a great deal of attention and stir a great deal of controversy. And like other controversial movie documentaries, such as those by Michael Moore and Al Gore, it’s bound to make a great deal of money.

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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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