62 Future Now Podcast - Living Solar Panels, Llama 3 freely available, Messages from Voyager, Light Sail 3 Launched, Dune 2 & Antisocial Network reviews, Our view of venture capitalist Vinod Khosla's world changing predictions, AI $$ ideas, jokes, and blended coffee!

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A promising future lies in potential symbiotic relationships between our tech and nature.  A example of theat lies with the use of algae in the generation of energy from solar panels.  And…how might the climate change gas of methane be actually useful in making things better for us and our planet?  This week, the Planetary Society’s latest Solar Sail spacecraft is now in orbit, and if successful, could pave the way for easy and cheap travel to other planets..slow but steady.. We were inspired by Nina Paley’s review of the new Dune 2 movie and had to share some quotes with you. And while on the movie front, Mrs. Future had some profound things to say about the Netflix documenatry, “The Antisocial Network,” about the history of 4chan and how it led to the QAnon conspiracy theory and the January 6th riots. Nothing to think about there :-) . 

We also discuss some of the big future predictions of venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, such as how expertise will soon be free and we’ll all use AI agents for getting information.  And there are our initial experiments to see how the AI’s can make $$ for us, including the use of humor.  Also  this week we enlisted the free ‘expertise’ of coffee entrepreneur Gabrielle Cianfrani in evaluating AI’s foray into coffee blending, and it’s somewhat atypical choices.  Enjoy!

AI creates a new kind of coffee blend that is very tasty

61 Future Now Podcast - Bay Area Solar Geoengineering for Brighter Clouds, Udio AI Audio Demo, Space News and Sonifications, Nordic Dave pilots his Cessna 182 to the Totality Zone and Lives to tell us about it!

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I couldn’t believe it when I read about a geoengineering project changing the reflectivity of clouds in our home, the SF Bay Area, in Scientific American, a mainstream science publication! Maybe there is something to all the airplane trails we see these days that will be discussed to major forums. No such luck in looking at the bigger picture of chemtrails, but there is some light on the topic that is now being discussed in the open.  In our fiest hour we also look at Udio, an audio AI program that allows you to create songs on any topic instantly, Tesla Taxi plans, extra stellar sonification, a strange gamma ray burster, and a dead star that has mysteriously come to life!  

The second hour is a delightful conversation with Dave Welch, aka ‘Nordic Dave’ at Santa Cruz Voice on his and Amy’s trip to see the total eclipse of the sun last week via his Cessna 182 aircraft. Dave shares with us what it is like to fly private these days, with over 3500 small airports in the US available, many with services, and close to where you want to go.  We ask about the weather, wifi, autopilot, noise, radar, maps, other planes. Dave compares flying private today to taking cross country road trips in the 1960’s and 70’s…very enjoyable!  Later in the show, Dave delves into his passion for incredible audio, building his own amps and speakers for the best sound experiences possible. We greatly enjoyed our time with him, as you will, I’m sure. Enjoy!

Nordic Dave and his Cessna 182 and the 2024 Eclipse

60 Future Now Show - Eclipse stories with ISS View, Lunar Time Zone! Biggest camera ever! Chilean Super Telescope, Hundreds of twin rogue planets discovered between star systems, the singing nuns at Abbey Road.

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Hope you all enjoyed your eclipse experience, be it partial, full, or virtual!  Our fav visuals were from the ISS, where you could see the eclipse, appearing as a dark cloud-like 115 mile diameter shadow cast onto the planet’s surface, speeding across the continent, southwest to northeast.  Moving at 2400 km/h, the dark shadow turned day into night for 4 minutes or so in towns and cities it swept across, creating a visual interplay of light and dark when seen from low earth orbit.  Check it out..This clips shows two views from space, one from the space station, the other from a Starlink satellite in a higher orbit.

The 2024 Eclipse as seen from the International Space Station

This week Bobby is remote on the Carrizo Plain, a Central California location famous for wildflower blooms this time of year. He and Katia are in the middle of it all, surrounded by blossoming beauty and lots of crickets!  Bandwidth from there was good via his T-Mobile internet gateway, allowing us to look at the latest on a new lunar time zone, increasing Youtube comprehension speed tips, new useful AI apps, the Chile telescope and proof of the Multi/Universe, one way or another.  Oh yes, and we delve into the mystery of ‘rogue planets,’ traveling between star systems, usually in pairs. And Mrs. Future says, “check out the singing nuns at Abbey Road!” (toward the end of the show). Enjoy!

The Singing Nuns at Abbey Road

59 Future Now - Online Eclipse Awesomeness, True Mt. Shasta Magic with Mary Donnelly, R.N.

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We are still on the road this week, this time in magical Mt. Shasta, where we introduce you one of it’s residents, Mt. Shasta is rumored to house the Lemurian city of Telos within.Mary Donnelly.  A New Englander trained as an RN in pediatric oncology, she learned of Mt. Shasta via an alternative healer, and feeling she has found her true home, has never looked back.  We speak with her about her journey to mountain and the healing modalities she is now exploring.

We begin the show this week discussing some of the hot research being conducted in studying next week’s solar eclipse, including a citizen science project that will allow you to watch the eclipse live, for over an hour, via a series of telescopes networked along the eclipse’s path of totality, enjoy!

The Futures (with Bobby on iPad) interviewing Mt. Shasta innkeeper Mary Donnelly, RN

58 Future Now - Interview/Discussion - Making Democracy Wise - with Jim Rough and Casandra Firman

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This week we are on the  road in beautiful Port Townsend, Washington, visiting Jim Rough, founder of www.wisedemocracy.org and Casandra Firman, Jim’s wife and partner in updating democracy as we know it. We all know about the importance of voting, and the necessities of jury duty and national defence as citizens, but have you heard of collaborative ‘choice creation?’ Jim and Cassandra help us understand what that means and why it so important for our modern democracy to embrace. In today’s show we also explore related concepts, such as ‘to-beism’ in relation to the economy, unity through choice creation, the role of George Washington as a ‘space creator,’ building trust, and other elements in keeping our system up-to-date. Enjoy!

Meeting with Jim Rough and Casandra Firman