032 WTFuture- Interview with Filmmaker Brett Leonard

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I kicked off my birthday weekend at our beach house after subjecting my guests to an all-night video marathon, leaving poor Mrs. Future to pull an “elf move,”   wiring all our  recording gear into place while I slept, so we could podcast on schedule!  

For this week we sit down with my long time buddy, Brett Leonard, a filmmaker whose sprawling résumé spans pioneering cyberspace in The Lawnmower Man to being cornered by convention fans who only care about the time he played an angry, machete-wielding alien in Killer Klowns from Outer Space.  

 Before we even got to his vision for digital media, Brett took me on a whirlwind tour through our shared past—reminiscing about auditioning five hundred Santa Cruz spiritual hippies to play brain-crunching zombies in The Dead Pit, sharing George Lucas’s private birthday party at Skywalker Ranch, and sitting stark naked in an Esalen hot tub receiving career advice from the great mythologist, Joseph Campbell!

 Just when I thought my decades of shooting thousands of hours of  video footage had driven everyone crazy,  Brett validated my life’s work by declaring it the raw data for an “AI Gaussian-splatting time machine^!! Go figure..  Then, fueled by a cup of “Flower of Life” tea, he launched into his cosmic insight that artificial intelligence isn’t artificial at all as computer chips are made of silicon and rare earth elements, making AI literally wise rocks channeling Gaian nature spirits. “Holy quartz crystals, Batman!” 

By the time he transitioned from  unconditional cosmic love to “Emergent Interactive Narrative” cinematic story telling,   all I could do was smile and grok in classic Santa Cruz fashion; frankly, the best birthday gift a guy called Dr. Future could ask for.. Enjoy!

Future News and DJI Educator Romeo Durscher on the Drone Revolution

Listen Now to Dr. Future Show 4.28.2015 Drones

Space X chalks up another couple of successes, sonic ‘accoustraments’ redefine controls for your smart phone, NASA’s got a new car, and Drones are coming in mass to Santa Cruz this week!  Find out more about the drone conference and what you might see from educator Romeo Dursher, who is working DJI, a very popular drone company, who shares with us his passion for the flying technology and the new era of flight that this represents.

Future News - Streaming Video App Craze, Amazing Aluminum Batteries, Drone Hybrid, Brontosaurus Reboot, UnScruz Burning Man Regional Coming up!

Listen Now to Future News 4.07.2015

In a few weeks, Santa Cruz will be hosting both a major drone show and our Burning Man Regional party.  A perfect opportunity to test out these new apps, Periscope and Meerkat, for streaming live video to your friends and strangers from your iPhone or Android device.  To be fair we’ve had such capability with apps like Livestream and Ustream in the past, but it looks like now is the time for video streaming with big players like Twitter (Periscope) entering the game.  It’ll be interesting to see how it mutates the realms of video and live streaming!

And our first guests this week share with us some info about our local Burning Man regional party, scheduled to happen May 1-3, 2015 at Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds.  A three day party embracing many of the sensibilities of the Burning Man festival in Nevada.  If you’ve ever wanted to go to Burning Man or wish to feel the vibe of the event without the hassle of packing and driving long distances and paying a small fortune for you and your gang to attend, consider visiting our regional BM party, sponsored by Unscruz.com.  Art cars, firedancers, radical art, Burner fashion and creative comraderie galore.  We think you’ll enjoy hearing about the fest on today’s show, and hopefully we’ll see you out there!

The Futures Interview with Biodiesel entrepreneur Ray Newkirk and Michael Smith on Biofuels and Music

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Wait a minute, biofuel and music, ru kidding?  Nope, it all kinda flows, so to speak in this interview/jam session with Ray, Michael and the Futures..  With these guys, not only can you get green fuel for your diesel engines, but instruments and music for your heart and soul.  That’s our town for ya!  Full service station..

Check out Ray’s green station and their new Boulder Creek musical store and social club, opening to crowds this Saturday with a 12 hour party!

Entrepreneurs Michael Smith and Ray Newkirk on the Dr. Future Show

What's Next with Artificial Intelligence? What is a musical AI? Is the Singularity really near, or what?

Listen Now to Eliot and Andie 

 To help us with these questions, our guests are Dr. Eliot Handelman and computer scientist Andie Sigler, who are endeavoring to create a breakthrough AI that can compose brilliant music, called “Jack and Jill.” We plan on starting by looking at the brief history of AI, including the Frankenstein story, the HAL 9000 computer from 2001 A Space Odysessy, the movie “AI,” and moving on to how we are making everything smarter, like houses, cars, even cities..

Andie and Eliot on vacation in Santa Cruz, CA  October 2012