Future News - Space Accidents Update, Running Robots, Portable Nuke Fusion Reactor Revealed, Electromagnetics for Autism, Captain Crunch Calls in

Listen Now to Future News 11.04.14

Last week was quite hard for two private space companies, Orbital Sciences Corporation, with the loss of their Antares rocket, and the crash of Virgin Galactic’s Space Ship Two.  Unfortunately, one of the pilots on Space Ship Two lost his life, a local son, Michael Alsbury, from Scott’s Valley, California.  Very sad.  

It’s looks like we are learning lots about teaching our robots how to run from studying running birds, especially turkeys.. As long as I’m not being chased by a velociraptor!  You’ll enjoy this segment, based on research found in this article.

Nuclear fusion had entered the headlines this week, because of an announcement from Lockheed’s famous Skunkworks, promising a working prototype within five years. We’ll see…

Meanwhile, Captain Crunch (aka John Draper) called in and gave us an update about what went on at Defcon, a major hacker gathering in Las Vegas.  He confirmed that fake cell phone towers are out there and working, cast doubt about electronic voting, and asked you all for help.  He is recovering from a serious back operation, an attempt to repair damage done by the mafia to him for refusing to give them the correct codes of his magical blue box, a 70’s device that allowed free long distance phone calls.  He’s been suffering a long time, and finally he is finding some relief.  Click here to read about his effort to raise the money for his operation and recovery expenses.

Future News- Bandwidth Breakthrough, Apple (will) Pay Controversy, China Goes to Moon,3D Printers Go Dino, Top Ten SciFi Realities

Listen Now to Dr. Future News 10.28.2014

Remember how, when we met each other, we would set up a plan to do so well in advance, and call the other from a pay phone if need be, if things had changed? I wonder the impact of changing that basic connection process as we update it to the use of today’s realitme mobile connections we all have with each other.

Traffic slow you down, restarant closed on Monday’s? No problem, your contactee(s) are notified with ease via text or mobile voice. Less anxiety and stress, easier connections, more fluidity.  That is the nature of of current species present, from what I’ve observed.  “How does this affect our organization structure, you might ask?”  

More ease of connection allows more connection, leading to greater complexity, typically.  And complexity can be quite good for us, if it’s say, the development of our fundamental ability to communicate, an evolution our species nervous system, if you will. 

One measure of how much we currently communicate with each other is how much bandwidth we are using.  Most of us consider it good bandwidth these days  if we have 10 Mbs symmetrical  (for both up and down).  The fastest commercial bandwidth today is 100 Gbps, way more than our  piddly 10 Mbs. But wait, that’s ok, we are used to that kind of disparity between high end stuff and low end usage.  But what’s to come is a real jaw dropper.  

According to Andrew Tarantola filed with Gizmodo, the latest data speeds coming from the R&D labs is 255 Tb/s, delivered over a single fiber optic hair! That’s roughly equivalent to the current internet traffic crossing the Atlantic ocean, as much as the entire transatlantic backbone, on a single fiber!!.  An expensive multicore fiber as opposed to a cheap single core fiber to be sure, but a single fiber nonetheless.  It is a 2,550x increase in bandwidth! That’s downright practically exponential; Kurzweil is probably very happy about now, and me too. Once it’s ecosystem evolves over the next few years, such bandwidth will be part of who we are.  “Why, what could happen?,” you might ask. 

The internet of things picks up speed, making everything around us smarter and interactive.  Not just your tablet, but the chair or bed you are residing on right now, the fridge, the toliet knows your gut. Virtual worlds are just a wall away. Video search is as common as word or phrase searches. Such things rapidly become ‘normal.’ Realtime interspecies translators are all the rage. Me and my neigborhood racoon have quite a story to share…

Notice how fast we’ve adapted to the Net over the last 20 years?  It should be interesting to reflect on today from the perspective of ten years from now, after it all came alive.. :-)

Meanwhile, we have a some more Future News this week for your consideration.  Plus we really enjoyed having John Monahue in the studio this week and Greg Panos on FB Messenger.  Thanks for your perspectives on all this crazy stuff!

(And yes, I did make a disparing remark about the boater who was shooed away from the Antares launch vehicle before it was postponed.  Fortunately that sightseeer wasn’t nearby when the robotic craft exploded on the launch pad the next day..)

Future News - Magic Leap Foward, Dark Matter Clues, Apple update with Taylor Barcroft, Electric Airplane,Enlightened Business Summit, Beyond LED Lighting, Ipad Ultrasound, Unpublished Asimov, The Hummingbird Effect

Listen Now to Future News 10.21.14

What? LEDs already on the way out? Noooo…..but close.. check out the new options.  Ever wanted to fly?A new Chinese two seater airplane runs only on electricity..Looks good, and adds a whole new twist to ‘range anxiety’ with only 45 minutes of flight time..Still..  only $1 of electricity for the ride!

Apple had their latest announcements this week, and we have our very own Apple tracker, Taylor Barcroft to update us on the latest and greatest from Cupertino.  Also KSCO station manager Michael Olsen shares his experience of test driving a Tesla Model S (Sweeet!) and KSCO’s Michael Zwerling tells us about the  brand spanking new transmitter being installed, and the new party deck with a stunning view of the KSCO Lagoon and ocean!

Oh yes, and there’s the latest from the startup world in entertainment, a product ecosystem called Magic Leap that will take us beyond our screens!  Lots to share this week..

Interview - Media Pioneer Michael Gosney on the Renaissance of Digital Multimedia

Listen Now to Michael Gosney

Before there was the Internet there were Mac SE’s, Amigas, Atari’s, and Mac II microcomputers.  They were revolutionizing the industries of book and magazine publication, photography, graphic arts, and music.  

To cover this revolution there was Verbum Magazine, founded by Michael Gosney, who later hosted the popular Digital Be-in parties, following the ever popular MacWorld Exhibition at Moscone Center in San Francisco.  

On today’s show Michael brings us back to these formative times, just before the rise of the internet and the whirlwind of evolution that happened then.  It was in these early times, the pre-Cambrian era of microcomputers, that today’s digital world was born, with artists collaborating, playing with techies and geeks to make it all happen Join us as we relive these magical times, their connection with the psychedelic 60’s, and setting the stage for today’s hyperlinked mobile world.

Future News - Eggs for Your Energy, Germs on the Plane, Faster Charging Please, X37B Landing,Deep Sleep for Martian Colonists, Netscape Navigator 20 years old, On Angela's Watch, Inflatable Space Habitat

Listen Now to Dr. Future News 10.14.14

It’s Dr. Future’s birthday today, so lots of fun stories, and those that aren’t so much fun are at least presented in the most illuminating light. It’s been 20 years since we started using a real web browser, Netscape Navigator!  Wow has that changed our world… and from our featured link,

“Some interesting little nuggets from the release include: “optimized to run smoothly over 14.4 kilobit/second modems, “continuous document streaming, enabling users to interact with documents while they are still being downloaded”, “multiple, simultaneous network accesses, allowing several documents or images to be downloaded simultaneously” and – wait for it – “native support for the JPEG image format.””