The World Transformed

Latest Episodes:

What Will We Do with all the Old People? May 10, 2016

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Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss some interesting recent developments related to life extension. An anti-aging startup hopes to elude the U.S. Food and Drug The product contains a chemical precursor to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD, a compound that cells use to carry out metabolic reactions like releasing energy from glucose. The compound is believed cause some effects similar to a diet that is severely short on calories—a proven way to make a mouse live longer. First human to be made younger via gene therapy? Could gene therapy help you live forever? CEO of controversial firm claims she has successfully carried out first anti-ageing treatment - on herself. Elizabeth Parrish, CEO of Bioviva, has been using therapies for 6 months. She says the therapy was able to reverse 20 years of telomere shortening. How Increasing Longevity Will Shape Our World One gnawing problem, the panelists said, is in the workplace. Few U.S. employers are finding creative ways to keep and nurture their older workers. Freedman and Fried hope to see more older Americans using their longevity bonus to aid children who could use mentoring and assistance. Plus: Phil and Stephen provide their own thoughts on what to do with all the old people. WT 160-466

Big Fixes: Solutions to Some of Humanity’s Most Daunting Challenges May 07, 2016

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Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss solutions, currently under development, to some of humanity's biggest problems. Zuckerberg sees 'better than human' AI in next 10 years Computers will delve into your timeline and figure out even more about you What the bleep is an exocortex and why should we care? Scientists Use Nanoparticles to Create a ‘Universal Treatment’ for Allergies Scientists can now make lithium-ion batteries last a lifetime The discovery could lead to vastly longer lifespans for batteries in computers, smartphones, appliances, cars and spacecraft Kinetic Wave Power Station This power station can harvest kinetic wave energy and turn it into electricity. Uranium From Seawater Could Keep Our Lights On for 13,000 Years The team created braids of polyethylene fibers that contain amidoxime, a chemical species that binds uranium. Tests show the new material has the ability to hold more than 6 grams of uranium per kilogram of adsorbent in 56 days of submersion in natural seawater. Join us! WT 159-465

It’s the End of the World? Let’s Go to Mars! May 05, 2016

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Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss why the end may be near. is it time to book passage to Mars? How virtual reality can save humanity Truc de Ouf's Gentry Lane says society is losing its humanity, but a powerful storytelling tool like VR can help revive it. Panarchy 101, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Global Collapse Like air moving from one balloon into another, the collapse of an archaic system actively drives the emergence of a new system. How to Solve a Mass Extinction Event Human Extinction Isn't That Unlikely “A typical person is more than five times as likely to die in an extinction event as in a car crash,” says a new report SpaceX may have just changed the world with a tweet. It began with a Tweet. On Wednesday, April 27, SpaceX posted two photos on Twitter, announcing plans to send a Red Dragon space capsule to Mars "as soon as 2018." Terraforming Mars: Turning the Red Planet Green Join us WT 158-464

Where Will You Be in a Thousand Years? May 03, 2016

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Hots Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss the prospects for extreme life extension. We will soon live to 1,000: British scientist who has dedicated his life to the quest for eternal youth claims the human body can be repaired - just like a car Reversing Alzheimer's Disease in Mice If you're alive in 30 years, chances are good you may also be alive in 1000 years First human to be made younger via gene therapy? Could gene therapy help you live forever? CEO of controversial firm claims she has successfully carried out first anti-ageing treatment - on herself Elizabeth Parrish, CEO of Bioviva, has been using therapies for 6 months Parrish says she is first human being to be rejuvenated using gene therapy She says the therapy was able to reverse 20 years of telomere shortening Telomeres are the caps on the ends of DNA strands called chromosomes They act as 'buffers' against wear and tear, and delay the ageing process Join us! WT 157-463

We're Turning into God's What? Apr 30, 2016

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Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon pose the question: rather than asking what it means to become gods, maybe we should focus on a more basic question. How do we become (fully) human? The Immortality Upgrade Is the Mormon Transhumanist Association working out the roadmap to godhood? Google's chief futurist Ray Kurzweil thinks we could start living forever by 2029 But even before 2045, Kurzweil thinks we could begin the deathless process. Why Physicists Are Saying Consciousness Is A State Of Matter, Like a Solid, A Liquid Or A Gas The experimental diet that mimics a rare genetic mutation Novelty and the Brain: Why New Things Make Us Feel So Good Craig Venter's new longevity startup will make "100 the new 60" Join us! WT 156-462

Amazing Stuff and More Amazing Stuff Apr 28, 2016

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Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon talk about cool gadgets and inventions and world-changing technologies. Nanotubes assemble! Rice introduces ‘Teslaphoresis’ Molecular mechanical computer design 100 billion times more energy efficient than best conventional computer NASA feed 'goes down as horseshoe UFO appears on ISS live cam' sparking claims of alien cover up Solar Cells Will be Made Obsolete by 3D rectennas aiming at 40-to-90% efficiency LG Planning “wafer-thin” flexible TV screen that you can roll up like a newspaper Concrete Fabric A PhD student invented a robot that can grow fruits and vegetables on Mars Scientists make "Impossible Material" ... by accident Join us! WT 155-461

It's the End of the Job as We Know It Apr 27, 2016

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It’s past time to talk post-employment in a serious way. Is universal basic income the answer? Buckminster Fuller on Employment Rutger Bregman's 'Utopia for Realists' Shows Us Why We Deserve Universal Basic Income VC, Entrepreneur Says Basic Income Would Work Even If 90% People 'Smoked Pot' and Didn't Work Related: privatizing our data leading to the new feudalism? Kansas Required Work for Food Stamps. Here’s What Happened. Tune in and explore! WT 154-460

Imagination: The Critical Future Skill Apr 23, 2016

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Can imagination make the difference in terms of what kind of future we experience? What are the indications that imagination is THE critical skill for the future? Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss Why our imagination for alien life is so impoverished Scientists Are Using Stories To Teach Human Values To Computers 7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding How active imagination beats passive absorption of pop culture. Five reasons imagination is more important than reality If you live totally in the “real world” you have no concept of the world as it could be and therefore no inspiration. If you live totally in your imagination you are divorced from the place you could actually do some good. Certainly the people we admire the most - have a foot in both worlds. Shouldn’t we all? Join Us! WT 153-459 Join Us! WT 153-459

"Until It’s Yet”— The Future Is Closing In Fast Apr 21, 2016

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Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss changes that are happening sooner than many expected. 3-D Printers: now they are just another ad that show up in your search results. Photon Propulsion Could Launch Spacecraft To Mars In Days Futurist Ray Kurzweil Predicts Solar Industry Dominance In 12 Years –Trajectories Are Exponential “’It’s not true we’re running out of energy,’ Kurzweil said before moving on to another topic. ‘We’re only running out of resources if we stick with 19th-century technologies.’ Senolytics: Scientists identify new drug that slows the ageing process and could dramatically increase our life expectancy "It may eventually become feasible to delay, prevent, alleviate or even reverse multiple chronic diseases and disabilities as a group, instead of just one at a time." (Story is from a year ago.) Join us! WT 152

The Universe is Full of Surprises Apr 19, 2016

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Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss cosmic mysteries. The Perseus Signal -- "What We Found Could Not Be Explained by Known Physics" We could be “looking at” dark matter here. A Giant Galaxy Orbiting Our Own Just Appeared Out of Nowhere A while back we learned that there could be more planets -- even big ones -- in our solar system that we still haven’t discovered. Turns out there are also whole galaxies right in our neighborhood -- orbiting our own galaxy! -- waiting to be discovered. Lucky it’s not one of these: 'Death Star' Black Hole Fires At Neighboring Galaxy But even dodging that bullet doesn’t help us much in the long run: The universe will end much sooner than previously thought, says study Expansion is 8% greater than we thought. We’re that much closer to the “big freeze” at the end of time. (Still not particularly close, of course.) What’s driving the faster-than-expected expansion? Possibly dark matter -- see above. Join us! WT 151

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