Future News - Brain Drone Race, More Robot Semi's, Solar Probing, Barbie's Hologram, Elmo's App, Miraculous H Metal Disappears!

Listen Now to Dr. Future Show 2.28.2017

March is upon us, the weather is still wintry here, but the future keeps rolling forward.  Thought-controlled drone racing?  Nice proof-of-concept event, but a long way to go..Autonomous trucks, however, are rolling out with yet another company in the fray, this one EMBARK, a startup by two Canadian 21-year-old entrepreneurs.  

On the space frontier, we are launching a way cool probe to our Sun, Solar Probe Plus, to orbit a mere 4 million miles from the flaming orb. Designed to withstand temperatures of 1500 degrees F, Solar Probe Plus will help us explore mysteries, like how the ‘surface’ of the sun is 11,000 degrees F, and the ‘atmosphere’ is 3500 MILLION degrees F! Why such a big temperature differential? No one really knows..and no one really knows what happened to the mysterious Hydrogen metal seen in recent Harvard experiments..

And this week, we look at some of the new high tech toys coming online..Catepillar coders, smart doll houses, Barbie holograms..  It’s getting fun now!

Update on Artificial Intelligence with AI researchers Drs. Eliot Handelman, Andie Sigler and Casey X

Listen Now to Dr. Future Show 2.21.2017

With all the talk these days about bringing jobs back to America, and Bill Gates talking about taxing robots, we catch up with our favorite Artificial Intelligence researchers from Canada. Drs. Eliot Handelman and Andie Sigler, with their Cartoon Network associate, Casey X, give us an update on their latest thinking about AI.  What do humans do if smart robots are doing all the work?  Eliot suggests our species become more focused on creativity, fostering the divine spark within us, something the robots cannot grasp or conceive of as yet. Andie suggests we see the rise of the machines as an extension rather than of foe of ourselves. The question of jobs and education is broached as well by Mrs. Future, who helps in the elucidatation of these topics with our erudite (and fun) guests. Enjoy!

L-R Casey X, Dr.Mrs. Future, Drs. Eliot Handelman, Andie Sigler

Future News - AI Bixby Debuts, Mark Cuban and Bill Gates on Robots, Jobs, and Taxes, Silicon Valley's Upcoming Cinequest Film & VR Festival, Dr. Bruce Damer's first-hand report on NASA's choice for the next Mars Rover

Listen Now to Future News 2.21.2017

Lots of great news this week, from a new AI on Samsung gear to getting the robots to pay taxes.  If that idea takes off, you can thank Bill Gates for that!  For today’s show we spoke with Kendall Stevens, about the upcoming Cinequest Film and VR Festival in Silcon Valley next week.  We are particularly curious about how cinematic storytellers will be using the new medium of VR and 360 video, and asked Kendall to tell us a bit about the productions they will be featuring. 

We finish up the news segment of our show with a fresh report from Dr. Bruce Damer on his presentation to a gathering of 260 scientists at the Jet Propulsion Labs last week, deciding where the next Martian rover will land to look for signs of life. Bruce was happy to report that his team’s choice of Gusev Crater is one of the final three choices that the NASA scientists as a whole have chosen, originally from a field of over 30 landing sites. If his site wins, they will be looking for life in an old Martian hot springs, back when it was warm.  Enjoy!

Valentines Show - Nick Herbert and August O'Connor of "The Blarney's"

Listen Now to The Blarney’s

For our Valentine show this week we bring you love from physicist/penny whistler/poet Nick Herbert with musician August O’Connor.  Long-time Santa Cruz County residents and lovers of Nature, they share with us some whimsical prose, poetry and live music honoring the emotion of love.  And if you are interested in some great walks in nature and semi-secret places to make out outside, keep listening!  

If you enjoy their countenance and music, the full complement of the Blarney’s will be playing this Sunday, Feb. 19, at the Broadway Theater in the Santa Cruz Art League, from 5 - 7p.m. Their music can be previewed here. And Nick’s poetry heard on today’s show can be read at his blog, Quantum Tantra. Enjoy!

August O’Connor and Nick Herbert of the Blarney’s, a Santa Cruz Irish music band

Future News - 104 satellites on a single rocket, Where will the next Rover Land?, First Tesla 3's being made, Border Agent makes NASA Scientist unlock phone, Entreprenurial Trump2Cash app, Autonomous Taxi Drones This Summer, Exoplanet Citizen Science, Tim Cook on AR

Listen Now to Future News 2.14.2017

Wow, 104 sats in one launch, a new ‘world’ record! And just what are all these sats doing? Well, 88 of them are from Planet Labs, whose first major mission is to image all the Earth’s land mass every single day! Also in space news, the JPL Mars team have narrowed down the 2020 rover landing sites from 30 potential locations to three, as the best candidates for discovering any form of microbial life on the Red Planet. This is exciting for us as one of the final locations is one being promulgated by a Dr. Future Show regular, Dr. Bruce Damer, who was presenting to the JPL team this past weekend. 

Lots of other news this week we think is worthy of your attention, including an opportunity for you to discover a new planet!  Enjoy..

The Planet Lab’s Dove 3 Flock before being launched into orbit