Stephen Euin Cobb's Blog, page 22

The Future And You -- September 26, 2012

Jim Minz, Lee Martindale, Chris Morris, Janet Morris, Dan Hollifield, Holly McClure and Walt Boyes are today's featured guests.

Topic: ePublishing as viewed principally by various publishers and editors who have successfully transitioned into it without abandoning their traditional paper-based publishing business models.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 26, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 52  minutes] This panel was recorded on July 21, 2012 before a live audience in Chattanooga Tennessee at the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon. Special thanks go to Derek Spraker and John Trieber of LibertyCon who recorded this and many other panels for me.

The Future And You -- September 19, 2012

Stephen Euin Cobb is today's featured speaker.

A Variety of Topics Which Include: 11 Health Habits That Will Help You Live to 100; An exhaustive Longevity Quiz I took recently; Forks Over Knives (a documentary about how foods affect our health); The first ever smart phone with a Geiger counter built into it; Deaf gerbils hear again after stem cell cure; Woolly Mammoth fragments from Siberia raise cloning hopes; Google News and Google Alerts (what they are and why they can be valuable to you); and online college courses from famous universities which you can take for free. 

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 19, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 49 minutes] 

Stephen Euin Cobb  is an author, futurist, magazine writer and host of the award-winning podcast The Future And You. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he is also a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. His novels include  Bones Burnt Black ,  Plague at Redhook  and  Skinbrain .

Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science is a nonfiction article by Stephen Euin Cobb available in a Kindle Edition. This 27-page article--written by an experienced futurist who has interviewed over 300 people for their opinion about the future--describes several of the far future scientific and technological innovations which will transform our civilization from what it is now into an exponentially larger, faster, stronger and more dynamic civilization than can be contained on this planet, or in this solar system, or within this universe. These technologies will allow us to expand through those boundaries and find new unimagined boundaries beyond them to break through. (Article: 7,498 Words) Chapter Titles -- We Will Transmute the Elements; We Will Develop Many Completely New Physics; My Father's Watch; Hidden-Life May be More Common on Planets than Non-Hidden: And Earth May be No Exception; The Universal Diagram; Engineering Space: Altering This Universe and Making New Ones.

A Brief History of Predicting the Future is a nonfiction article by Stephen Euin Cobb available in a Kindle Edition. This 21-page article--written by an experienced futurist who has interviewed over 300 people for their opinion about the future--describes how predicting the future has changed many times through the centuries: from magic to science, and from science fiction to computation. This is a quick and lively romp designed to give the reader a taste of what futurology today is all about, and a feel for the long uphill climb it has made from its humble beginnings in the dawn of antiquity. (Article: 5,600 Words) Sections include: The Future is Deep; The Far Future; The Near Future; From Ancient Magic to Scientific Causality; Science Fiction made the Future Fun; But then the Future Got Serious; Yes, the Future does Compute; The Future may get Weird; Just before it becomes Unimaginable; Transhumanists want you to be Better than Healthy; Virtual Living; End of the World; But not all Futures are Deadly, or even Weird.

The Future And You -- September 12, 2012

Michael Z. Williamson,Philip R. Cox and Janet Morris are today's featured speakers.

Topic: (Second Half of discussion on) Future Weapons, including Post-Projectile weapons and "non-lethal" or "Less-than-lethal" weapons.

Michael Z. Williamson is retired from the United States military after 25 years and is both a science fiction and military fiction author. He is also associate editor at SurvivalBlog where he does reviews of disaster preparedness products. He has consulted on military matters, weapons and disaster preparedness for Discovery Channel and Outdoor Channel productions. He tests and reviews firearms and gear for manufacturers. He is the author of at least ten military SF novels, one of which is a collaboration with the New York Times best-selling author John Ringo.

Janet Morris is President and CEO of M2 Technologies, Inc., a woman-owned corporation specializing in non-lethal weapons (NLW), novel technology applications, tactics and technology. Her seminal non-lethal concept and novel technology applications work has been used by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and was excerpted in the Army's Draft Operations Concept for Disabling Measures (920904). She has taught or provided course material to the U.S. Air Force's Air Command and Staff College, National Defense University's (IRMC) School of Information Warfare and Strategy, and Penn State University Applied Research Laboratory's Non-Lethal Institute. She has provided and presented seminars and briefings to the Defense Science Board, the Congressional Research Service, Senate Armed Services Committee Staff, and the Center for Naval Analysis.

Philip R. Cox has been an engineer in the military-industrial complex for the last thirty years. His career has included the development of many fine spacecraft and weapons of mass destruction.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 12, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 28 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 21, 2012 before a live audience in Chattanooga Tennessee at the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon. Special thanks go to Derek Spraker and John Trieber of LibertyCon who recorded this, and many other panels for me; and to the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel for having such a fine sound system.

The Future And You -- September 5, 2012

Michael Z. Williamson, Philip R. Cox and Janet Morris are today's featured speakers.

Topic: Future Weapons, including Post-Projectile weapons and "non-lethal" or "Less-than-lethal" weapons. (First of two parts.)

Michael Z. Williamson is retired from the United States military after 25 years and is both a science fiction and military fiction author. He is also associate editor at SurvivalBlog where he does reviews of disaster preparedness products. He has consulted on military matters, weapons and disaster preparedness for Discovery Channel and Outdoor Channel productions. He tests and reviews firearms and gear for manufacturers. He is the author of at least ten military SF novels, one of which is a collaboration with the New York Times best-selling author John Ringo.

Janet Morris is President and CEO of M2 Technologies, Inc., a woman-owned corporation specializing in non-lethal weapons (NLW), novel technology applications, tactics and technology. Her seminal non-lethal concept and novel technology applications work has been used by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and was excerpted in the Army's Draft Operations Concept for Disabling Measures (920904). She has taught or provided course material to the U.S. Air Force's Air Command and Staff College, National Defense University's (IRMC) School of Information Warfare and Strategy, and Penn State University Applied Research Laboratory's Non-Lethal Institute. She has provided and presented seminars and briefings to the Defense Science Board, the Congressional Research Service, Senate Armed Services Committee Staff, and the Center for Naval Analysis.

Philip R. Cox has been an engineer in the military-industrial complex for the last thirty years. His career has included the development of many fine spacecraft and weapons of mass destruction.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 5, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 31 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 21, 2012 before a live audience in Chattanooga Tennessee at the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon. Special thanks go to Derek Spraker and John Trieber of LibertyCon who recorded this, and many other panels for me; and to the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel for having such a fine sound system.

The Future And You -- August 29, 2012

Eric Flint, Janet Morris, Lee Martindale, Holly McClure, Chris Morris and Daniel M. Hoyt are today's featured speakers.

Topic: Electronic Piracy of music, books, movies, software, etc. (This is the second of two parts.)

Eric Flint is the best selling author of more than 25 novels of science fiction and fantasy, as well as the former editor-in-chief of the online science fiction and fantasy magazine Jim Baen's Universe. Janet Morris is an author, publisher, editor and anthologist. Lee Martindale is a writer, editor and publisher. Chris Morris is an author, publisher and editor; as well as a singer and songwriter. Holly McClure is the president of Sullivan Maxx Literary agency and also is a writer. Daniel M. Hoyt is a science fiction writer and programmer in the field of rocket science.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 29, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 38 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 21, 2012 before a live audience in Chattanooga Tennessee at the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon. Special thanks go to Derek Spraker and John Trieber of LibertyCon who recorded this, and many other panels for me; and to the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel for having such a fine sound system.

The Future And You -- August 22, 2012

Eric Flint, Janet Morris, Lee Martindale, Holly McClure, Chris Morris and Daniel M. Hoyt are today's featured speakers.

Topic: Electronic Piracy of music, books, movies, software, etc. (This is the first of two parts.)

Eric Flint is the best selling author of more than 25 novels of science fiction and fantasy, as well as the former editor-in-chief of the online science fiction and fantasy magazine Jim Baen's Universe. Janet Morris is an author, publisher, editor and anthologist. Lee Martindale is a writer, editor and publisher. Chris Morris is an author, publisher and editor; as well as a singer and songwriter. Holly McClure is the president of Sullivan Maxx Literary agency and also is a writer. Daniel M. Hoyt is a science fiction writer and programmer in the field of rocket science.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 22, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 31 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 21, 2012 before a live audience in Chattanooga Tennessee at the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon. Special thanks go to Derek Spraker and John Trieber of LibertyCon who recorded this, and many other panels for me; and to the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel for having such a fine sound system.

The Future And You -- August 15, 2012

Les Johnson, Dr. Gregory L. Matloff, Stephanie Osborn, and Phillip R. Cox are today's featured speakers.

Topic: (1) The ways in which we will all suffer if we lose all of our satellites, and (2) the well-researched dangers which could destroy or disable all of our satellites.

IE: Why it is that without satellites cell phones would not function, credit card transactions could not be processed, the Internet would shut down in many areas and be slow and unreliable in places which remain online, and all GPS navigation would go dead. Also, some of the many ways we might lose our satellites such as: a repeat of the Carrington Event (a devastating solar flair in 1859), the hundred thousand pieces of space junk in earth orbit today, a catastrophic chain reaction in which the existing space junk suddenly multiplies a thousand fold, and of course satellite destruction through terrorism and space war.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 15, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 58 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 21, 2012 before a live audience in Chattanooga Tennessee at the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon. Special thanks go to Derek Spraker and John Trieber of LibertyCon who recorded this, and many other panels for me; and to the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel for having such a fine sound system.

Les Johnson serves as the Deputy Manager for the Advanced Concepts Office at the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Stephanie Osborn is a former NASA payload flight controller, with over twenty years experience in civilian and military space programs. She has worked on numerous Space Shuttle flights and the International Space Station.

Dr. Gregory L. Matloff is assistant professor of physics at New York City College of Technology. He has consulted for the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, is a Fellow of the British interplanetary Society, is a Hayden Associate at the American Museum of Natural History, and is a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Phillip R. Cox has been an engineer in the military-industrial complex for the last thirty years. His career has included the development of many fine spacecraft and weapons of mass destruction.

The Future And You -- August 8, 2012

Eva Sawyer and Stephen Euin Cobb (your host) are today's featured speakers.

Topic: Improving the Functioning of Your Brain (AKA: Cognitive Enhancement).  Discussion points include: recent developments in cognitive enhancement, what is desired and what is desirable, drugs known to increase mental capacity, why there is push-back and resistance, the benefits, the dangers, and trends in medical research which will affect the future of cognitive enhancement.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 8, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 57 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 21, 2012 before a live audience in Chattanooga Tennessee at the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon . Special thanks go to Derek Spraker and John Trieber of LibertyCon who recorded this, and many other panels for me; and to the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel for having such a fine sound system.

Eva Sawyer has a bachelors degree in neurobiology and behaviour, a masters degree in zoology, and is currently working on her doctorate in neuroscience at Vanderbilt University. 

Stephen Euin Cobb is an author, futurist, magazine writer and host of the award-winning podcast The Future And You. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he is also a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. His novels include Bones Burnt Black, Plague at Redhook and Skinbrain.

The Future And You -- August 1, 2012

Today's featured guests are: Dr. Tedd Roberts (a medical researcher with 30 years of experience who also blogs as Speaker-to-Lab-Animals); Cy Chase (a doctoral candidate in evolutionary biology at Vanderbilt); Cathe Smith (an insect molecular geneticist); Gary Shelton (an agronomist with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA); and, as moderator, your host Stephen Euin Cobb.

Topic: Genetic Manipulation--what we can do today that we could not do as little as three years ago, the falling cost of sequencing, what is pushing some areas forward and holding other areas back, where the money is flowing, its success's so far, what some of the big goals are, the benefits, the dangers, and other trends which are transforming this field into what it is yet to become. Because Genetic Manipulation is so technology driven--and because there is still so much to learn--it is one of our most rapidly changing fields of science and engineering.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 1, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 59 minutes] This panel was recorded on July 21, 2012 before a live audience in Chattanooga Tennessee at the science fiction and fantasy convention: LibertyCon. Special thanks go to Derek Spraker and John Trieber of LibertyCon who recorded this, and many other panels, for me; and to the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel for having such a fine sound system.

Announcement: Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science is a nonfiction article by Stephen Euin Cobb available in a Kindle Edition. This 27-page article--written by an experienced futurist who has interviewed over 300 people for their opinion about the future--describes several of the far future scientific and technological innovations which will transform our civilization from what it is now into an exponentially larger, faster, stronger and more dynamic civilization than can be contained on this planet, or in this solar system, or within this universe. These technologies will allow us to expand through those boundaries and find new unimagined boundaries beyond them to break through. (Article: 7,498 Words) Chapter Titles -- We Will Transmute the Elements; We Will Develop Many Completely New Physics; My Father's Watch; Hidden-Life May be More Common on Planets than Non-Hidden: And Earth May be No Exception; The Universal Diagram; Engineering Space: Altering This Universe and Making New Ones.

The Future And You -- July 25, 2012

New York Times bestselling authors Brandon Sanderson, Timothy Zahn, John Ringo, and Eric Flint are joined by Janet Morris, Patrick Vanner, Richard Groller, Michael H. Hanson and Phillip R. Cox; as well as three artists: Melissa Gay, Michael Bielaczyc, ~mel-mel; and several convention organizers: Warren Buff, Brandy Spraker, Derek Spraker, Elayna Little Cook, and LibertyCon's Founder, Uncle Timmy. Mentioned are: The Space Proletariat, and a writers club called The Fictioneers.

Dedicated to the 25th Anniversary of the science fiction and fantasy convention LibertyCon, this over-sized episode contains 17 short interviews gathered from around this year's con. This episode is intended to give you a little of the feel and flavor of the con.

LibertyCon's organizers have a strong science and engineering background, which manifests itself in the number of panels which are dedicated to science and engineering topics. This year alone, they had 17 hours of science panels; which I estimate to be about 20% of their total programming. Over the last nine years this con has given me many brilliant scientists and researchers to interview. People from NASA, DOD, DOE, even DARPA. As well as academicians, inventors and innovators.

LibertyCon has been so helpful to me that, last year when I could not attend because of my brother's wedding, they recorded more than ten hours worth of science for me to use in the show. This may sound like a minor thing; just someone flipping a switch somewhere, but it was not. They had to borrow a sound board and microphones from The Atlanta Radio Theater Company, set them up in the appropriate rooms, verify it was recording each panel properly, and then burn it all onto a DVD and snail-mail it to me. LibertyCon has been very good to me, and to this show.

This was a special LibertyCon in that Uncle Timmy (its founder and leader for the last 25 years) is stepping down after this one.  This was an emotional time for many because Uncle Timmy is such a big lovable man, full of modesty and kindness for everyone.  To me his is a man we can all love and admire. 

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 25, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 99 minutes] 

Announcement: For a limited time, one of my novels is on sale. The Kindle edition of Skinbrain (Cerebrodermus Fantastica), my most recent and most futuristic novel, has been reduced to just $2.99.  That's right, under three bucks for what I consider my best novel. Here is a description of some of its main characters:

Cast of Characters:

Leather -- A runaway teenage girl. Tough and bold, she is learning to scrape out a living in the alleys of the largest city on Big Sandy: one of several dozen human inhabited worlds. Sleeping under bridges and in the dusty basement of an abandoned church, she takes the name Leather because it makes her feel tough, and she is determined to survive. She falls for a con-man named Johnny Bopp, and runs off with him straight into an assorted gang of mostly alien criminals.

Peter -- An evil little physicist who lusts after Leather and dreams of securing her to his torture rack, which at the moment holds an alien physicist he'd kidnapped weeks earlier, and from whom he’s been extracting scientific secrets. Peter plots to kill all the other gang members and capture Leather alive and undamaged so that he can damage her slowly and repeatedly for his morbid sexual enjoyment.

Breensdil -- A large and gentle insect-bearing alien. His people are peace-loving and nonviolent, and he is their greatest living physicist. Unfortunately, he is being tortured for secrets of advanced physics by Peter who intends to use these secrets to create more powerful weapons he can then sell to his Neo-Nazi allies on the colony world of Ironfeld.

Pug -- An easy-going frog-like alien of vast power and wealth who secretly owns and manages this galaxy. Each of her people own and manage one galaxy; by their laws anyone not up this task is aborted even if they are an adult. She causally decides which civilizations within her galaxy will live and which must be destroyed. She likes this new human civilization, and has an odd fondness for Johnny Bopp.

Johnny Bopp -- A happy-go-lucky human con-man and jewel thief who enjoys the company of aliens. A xenophile, he is forever seeking new things to see and do and taste and experience.

Eve Adams -- A beautiful and voluptuous android containing, and controlled by, a pair of octopus-like aliens who think as one because they are permanently mated. Driven by their obsession to studying human beings, they attempt to seduce Johnny away from Leather using their sensuous android body.

Aristat Sookirat -- Johnny Bopp's loyal friend. A bright red alien criminal who has more than once killed to protect Johnny. And needs little provocation to do it again.

The situation they find themselves in:

On a planet far from Earth, remains of a long dead alien civilization have been found. But this news has not reached the authorities—nor will it. Fourteen murderers—a mixed bag of human and alien criminals—have seen to that by killing the team of forty scientists who discovered the remains. These professional criminals combine their talents to search through the rubble for a hypothetical alien super-weapon. Leather thinks she's got what it takes to rub shoulders with the worst of them but soon realizes she’s in way over her head. Worse, as conflicts struggle to tear it apart, she learns just how unstable a team of criminals can be. Call it anything you like: treachery, betrayal, or just reducing the number with whom one must share the final spoils. Here, as in all of life, cowards and the dead reap nothing.

Skinbrain (Cerebrodermus Fantastica). It's a fun read. Check it out.