The World Transformed

Latest Episodes:

Super Projects: A Voyage to Saturn, Computer-Brain Interfaces, and Optimistic TV May 05, 2017

Show notes

Phil and Stephen discuss more super projects, including the Cassini mission, plans to connect human brains directly with computers, and new tech-positive version of Black Mirror. Cassini beams back the closest EVER images of Saturn NASA’s Cassini spacecraft continues making history. As Cassini is plunging into Saturn, the spacecraft has managed to send back to Earth unprecedented, stunning images from its descent down the mysterious gap located between Saturn and its magnificent rings. Zuckerberg: Facebook Is Working on a Brain Interface That Lets You “Communicate Using Only Your Mind” "Tomorrow, we are going to update you on all of our work on connectivity. We have a team right now in Arizona preparing for our second flight of Aquila, our solar powered plane that’s going to help beam down internet connectivity to people all around the globe, and we’re going to update you on a lot of the other technology that we are building too. You’re going to hear from Regina Dugan about some of the work that we’re doing to build even further out beyond augmented reality, and that includes work around direct brain interfaces that are going to, eventually, one day, let you communicate using only your mind." OTHER GEEK Futurists want to transform Black Mirror’s dystopia into something better Netflilx’s Black Mirror has the tech world worried about the dystopian future that the science fiction show depicts. To counter that, a group of futurists, creators, and hackers are gathering in Los Angeles to envision a “White Mirror,” or a society where technology can inspire us instead. WT 299-608

Our Future in Space with Rand Simberg, Best of TWT May 04, 2017

Show notes

Phil, Stephen, and Michael D. chat with aerospace engineer and blogger Rand Simberg. What is the future of the future of space travel? Are manned missions to Mars and space elevators in our future? How does the privatization of space development factor in? [This show first aired 6/09/2008]

Super Projects: Airships, Bugs that Eat Plastic, Robot Overlords May 03, 2017

Show notes

Phil and Stephen explore more super projects, including buiulding airships and saving the planet with a caterpillar that eats plastic bags. Google’s Sergey Brin said to be working on a zeppelin-like airship "Google co-founder Sergey Brin has been known to enjoy ambitious flights of technological fancy, but this may be his flightiest: Bloomberg reports the enigmatic billionaire, who favors dark attire and once leapt out of an airplane wearing Google Glass to promote the launch of the wearable, is now working on a secret airship in a NASA hangar. Brin’s interest in zeppelins isn’t purely an anachronistic tick — the Hybrid Air Vehicles HAV 304 Airlander 10 hybrid airship, depicted in the image above, holds the record as the world’s largest aircraft and has some promising benefits for potential military operations, including a very low operational heat signature and radar profile." Scientists have discovered a worm that eats plastic bags and leaves behind antifreeze "The wax worm, a caterpillar typically used for fishing bait and known for damaging beehives by eating their wax comb, has now been observed munching on a different material: plastic bags. Jürgen Schmidhuber on the robot future?: ‘They will pay as much attention to us as we do to ants' "The German computer scientist says artificial intelligence will surpass humans’ in 2050, enabling robots to have fun, fall in love – and colonise the galaxy." WT 298-607

Speculist Essentials, Best of TWT May 02, 2017

Show notes

Phil, Stephen, and Michael D. discuss "Speculist Essentials." What have been the key influences towards developing our unusual outlook on the future? Each host plus audience members named one item in each of the following categories that has had the most impact on them as Speculists: Movie or TV show Fiction book Nonfiction book Website Event Person [This show first aired June 2, 2008.]

Super Projects: A Billion Oysters, a Time Machine, and a Cure for Aging May 01, 2017

Show notes

The Billion Oyster Project The Billion Oyster Project (BOP) is a long-term, large-scale plan to restore one billion live oysters to New York Harbor over the next twenty years and in the process train thousands of young people in New York City to care for their marine environment. Physicists Just Came Up With a Mathematical Model for a Viable Time Machine Physicists have come up with what they claim is a mathematical model of a theoretical "time machine" - a box that can move backwards and forwards through time and space. The trick, they say, is to use the curvature of space-time in the Universe to bend time into a circle for hypothetical passengers sitting in the box, and that circle allows them to skip into the future and the past. Google is super secretive about its anti-aging research. No one knows why. Researchers are puzzled by Calico’s stealthiness and say it’s not good for science. I asked everyone I could about Calico — and quickly learned that it’s an impenetrable fortress. Among the little more than a dozen press releases Calico has put out, there were only broad descriptions of collaborations with outside labs and pharmaceutical companies — most of them focused on that overwhelmingly vague mission of researching aging and associated diseases. The media contacts there didn’t so much as respond to multiple requests for interviews. WT 297-606

Thomas Frey and the Future of Wealth Apr 28, 2017

Show notes

Thomas Frey joins Phil and Stephen in a discussion about the future of wealth. First off, a story with a provocative title You are Richer than John D. Rockefeller This raises some interesting questions: Would you trade your lifestyle today for Rockefeller's 1917 lifestyle? Would you trade your lifestyle today for the lifestyle of someone at the bottom of the economic stack 100 years from now? Would it make a difference if you could SEE that future first? Next we have the concept of demonetization from Peter Diamandis Demonetized Cost of Living Diamandis talks about early efforts to implement Basic Income, then raises an interesting question: will such schemes be necessary on a large scale if everything is free? Related, we have been talking with Brian Wang of Next Big Future about his idea for Basic Power to lift the developing world out of poverty. Diamandis specifically talks about the demonetization of basic lifestyle stuff: Transportation Food Healthcare Housing Energy Education Entertainment Could these all ever become free? Or will they just be massively cheaper than they are today? Plus: Thomas joins the guys for a very special OTHER GEEK! WT 296-605

Is Time Travel Possible? Best of TWT Apr 27, 2017

Show notes

Phil and Stephen discuss whether time travel is possible, including serious (?) efforts to achieve it. Memorial Day Weekend Will the LHC Enable Time Travel? Or end the world?* Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull The Phoenix landing on Mars Physicist Ronald Mallett is trying to build a time machine. Seriously. Michael Darling sends this article, "Visitors From the Future due This Year." Hope on the Horizon from MIT News [This show first aired May 26 2008] *Hey, this was several years ago!

Thomas Frey and the Future of Retail Apr 26, 2017

Show notes

World-renowned futurist Thomas Frey joins Phil and Stephen in a discussion of the future of retail. What comes after the shopping mall?Is transitory and even mobile retail the future of shopping?Will windshields and tires replace brick and mortar?How will future retail experiences by tailored to the shoppers wants and needs?What role will virtual reality and augmented reality technologies play? Tune in and explore! About our Guest Thomas Frey has been called both the “father of invention” and the “dean of Futurists” He writes and speaks on topics related to the future for both the private and public sector all over the world and is frequently featured in major media outlets as one of the leading thinkers about the future, how it will impact us, and how we can prepare for it. WT 295-604

Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, Best of TWT Apr 25, 2017

Show notes

A panel discussion on the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems. goo.gl/e7R1Gv Underpinning most discussions about nanotechnology are two driving questions: 1. When will we see widespread implementation of technologies built at the molecular level? 2. How will we get there? The Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems outlines the research pathways required to achieve atomically precise manufacturing, providing a good starting answer to the second question, as well helping us to clarify our thinking about the first. Over a period of three years, working groups made up of over 70 research scientists, nanotechnology theorists, and business leaders collaborated to create a common framework for understanding and defining these multidisciplinary research pathways. Panelists: Christine Peterson David Forrest Pearl Chin [This show first aired 05/18/2008.]

Hadoop and the Future of Big Data Apr 24, 2017

Show notes

Data industry guru and analyst John Myers joins Phil Bowermaster for a discussion about the future of big data. Is big data, and Apache Hadoop in particular, experiencing some kind of existential crisis? Has Hadoop "failed us?" John describes how the crisis may be one of mismatched expectations, explaining that Hadoop is free in the same way that free puppy is free. Moreover, while Hadoop addresses the addresses the major challenges of the big data era, it does not automatically solve the myriad other data management problems that data warehouse and database systems have been addressing for years. So is Hadoop over, or is it just getting started? And what does the future of Hadoop have to tell us about the future of big data, and therefore the future of everything else? Tune in and explore. About Our Guest John Myers has nearly 20 years of experience in areas related to business analytics and business intelligence in professional services, sales consulting, product management, industry analysis and research. John is a frequent contributor to industry publications including Search Business Analytics, Inside Analysis and Information Management. He speaks internationally on the topics of telecom analytics, data virtualization and Big Data. John has been previously named as one of the Top 100 Big Data Influencers. He is a Managing Research Director of Business Intelligence and Analytics Practice with EMA. WT 294-603

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