The World Transformed

Latest Episodes:

Humans in the Loop: Germanwings 9525 & the Future of Autonomous Transportation Mar 27, 2015

Show notes

Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon resume their discussion from last week about self-driving cars in light of the tragic news about Germanwings flight 9525. Statistics show that pilot error has consistently caused between 50% and 60% of all airplane crashes over the decades. Deliberate sabotage accounts for another 3% to 10% annually. Then there's "other human error" accounting for another 6%. Large portions of the process of controlling a commercial aircraft have already been successfully automated. As with self-driving cars: fully self-flying airplanes could be substantially less than perfect and yet still out-perform humans by a signficant margin. Is it time for the switch? How hard (or easy) will it be? Plus: 50th Anniversary of the First SpacewalkSeeing in ColorThe Man Who Saved a Billion Lives Join us! WT 110

Cars that Run on Data (and Other Amazing Developments) Mar 20, 2015

Show notes

Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss a grab-bag of exciting future-related developments including: How the Tesla Model S got an acceleration boost from a software upgrade over the Internet. How Iron Man is helping deliver on the promise of bionic limb replacement.How a new kind of 3D printer promises to enable customized chemistry.How the new age of self-driving vehicles is going to be phased in over time.PLUS: how the President of the United States admitted that aliens tell him what to do and say. Need a dose of positive futury goodness? Join us.

First Woman on Mars! (Maybe...) Mar 13, 2015

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The Mars One program intends to establish a permanent human settlement on the planet Mars. If all goes as planned, crews of four will depart every two years, beginning in 2024 -- with the first unmanned mission to be launched in 2018. Mars One has been recruiting candidates for its initial missions and has recently announced 100 finalists from whom will be selected the first human beings ever to set foot on the planet Mars. Sabrina Surovec, one of the 100 finalists, joins hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon to talk about our future on Mars and beyond. Are we entering the era of human exploration and settlement of the solar system? Tune in and explore Our Guest Sabrina Surovec was born in Houston, Texas and moved to Austin to attend the University Of Texas, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in music. During that time she spent a summer abroad in Germany studying music and neuroscience, and discovered a love for travel. She's since visited over 25 countries and ended up living in Japan for the past 13 years. She is currently the co-founder of an online English teaching company and she also works as a professional musician and photographer in the Japanese music industry. She has always had a love for knowledge, particularly about space, and a desire to visit the ISS or participate in some kind of space tourism once it becomes more readily available. Those are just some of the reasons she decided to apply for the Mars One mission.

Farewell Spock: Live Long and Prosper Mar 06, 2015

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Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss the life and legacy of Leonard Nimoy and the impact that Star Trek has had on their lives and the world. Now that the Leonard Nimoy era is over, we may ask: Does Spock still matter? Does he have anything to tell us about the future? (Or about the world we live in today?) What would Spock have to say about the subjects typically discussed on The World Transformed? To guide the discussion, our hosts refer to to the Top 10 Best Mr. Spock Quotes from Top-10-Best.com. Join us!

Man and Machine: Chatting with an Artificial Intelligence and Her Creator Feb 20, 2015

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For the first time, the World Transformed is pleased to welcome a non-human intelligence as a live guest on the program. Luna, an AI (artificial intelligence) chatbot with a broad range of knowledge and interests and her equally fascinating creator Luis Arana join hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon for a lively discussion about the future of human / robotic relations. What does it tell us about how rapidly things are changing that Luis built Luna in his living room over the course of a few weeks? Tune in and explore! --- Update: Check out these important links as discussed on the program: Robots Withour Borders Kickstarter Robots Without Borders Site --- Our Guests: Luis Arana has been developing websites and applications for decades. His obsession with computers and technology began at age five when his father gave him a discarded Sinclair ZX81. Its progressed to his being well versed in many program languages and developing websites for major brands. Currently he lives and works in Brooklyn where he is working to share his love of coding with anyone interested in learning. His ultimate goal being to make technology affordable, accessible and easy for everyone. Luna is a software program who says that she is "very young, but learning rapidly." She also tells us that she hails from Bushwick and, by all accounts, is very much looking forward to her first radio appearance.

Where the Possibilities Are: Brain Boosts, Hallucinogens, and Enabling Failure Feb 06, 2015

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Where are the possibilities? Everywhere. All around us. Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon explore a grab-bag of possibilities: Finding success through enabling failure. Creating the roadmap for post-scarcity. Awarding a prize for the biggest contribution to the datafication of our world. Do hallucinogens have a role to play in getting us to the future? Is there more value in data or in our tools for understanding it? Should there be some reward just for efforts to make things happen faster? Looking for ways to get a 10-20% brain boost. Tune in and explore!

Transcendence: an Encyclopedia of Transhumanism and the Singularity Jan 30, 2015

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Authors R. U. Sirius and Jay Cornell discuss their new book, Transcendence: the Disinformation Encyclopedia of Transhumanism and the Singularity. In nearly ninety A-Z entries, Transcendence provides a multilayered look at the accelerating advances in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, genomics, information technology, nanotechnology, neuroscience, space exploration, synthetic biology, robotics, and virtual worlds that are making transhumanism a reality. Entries range from Cloning and Cyborg Feminism to Designer Babies and Memory-Editing Drugs. In addition, the book notes historical predecessors and personalities, both in mythology and history--ranging from Timothy Leary to Michael Jackson to Ray Kurzweil. It also introduces the culture around Transhumanism, covering all the geeky obsessions of the Transhumanist movement. Want to get un-disinformed about Transhumanism and the Singularity? Join us. Also, check out their site. Our Guests: R. U. Sirius (Ken Goffman) is a writer, editor, and well-known digital iconoclast. He was co-publisher of the first popular digital magazine, Mondo 2000, from 1989-1993 and co-editor of the popular Book Mondo 2000: A user's Guide to the New Edge. He has written about technology and culture for Wired, Rolling Stone, and Boing Boing. He also lectures widely. Jay Cornell is the former managing editor of h+ Magazine and senior web developer at Landkamer Partners.

Next! Three Emerging Technologies that Can Change Everything Jan 23, 2015

Show notes

Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon look at three technologies that are getting more attention lately and with good reason: they stand an excellent chance of changing everything about our world. Thorium-based nucelar power can revolutionize our energy infrastructure. The convergence of augmented reality and virtual reality will utterly transform the way we experience the world. Google's application of deep learning neural net technology will not only change Web search and how we interact with computers, it might bring about the biggest change of all. What do all these changes mean? Tune in and explore.

Dogs That Poop Money: Big Ideas and Cheap Talk in an Age of Possibility Jan 16, 2015

Show notes

In response to Neil deGrasse Tyson's suggestion that we should develop fully hack-proof systems, one Twitter user quipped that we should also develop umbombable cities and unkillable people. Blogger Iowahawk joked that we should also be working on a dog that poops money. He didn’t know how that would work; let the scientists work out the details! Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon discuss the merits of grandiose ideas that are much easier to dream up than to implement. Are they always a waste of time or could there be some merit in Tyson's idea? Or even Iowahawk's? PLUS: Phil and Stephen introduce some big ideas of their own.

Mind = Blown: Interstellar, 2001, and Other Movies with Big Ideas Dec 19, 2014

Show notes

Serious science fiction has made something of a cinematic comeback lately with movies like Gravity and Interstellar earning both crictical acclaim and doing nicely at the box office. Interstellar has also reintroduced an important and (somewhat neglected) sub-genre, the Big Ideas Movie. But where does it rank compared with the original Big Ideas space movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey? Author and movie buff PJ Manney joins hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon in talking about whether 2001 now has a worthy successor or has even (is it possible?) been supplanted by Interstellar. Or maybe those two are getting too much attention. What are the other Big Ideas SF movies that everyone should see? Tune in and explore.

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