Topic: The Future

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with William Gibson, author of the books "Neuromancer" and "Spook Country," about where we are headed in this post-internet age.

At the Tools of Change Conference 2007 Tim O'Reilly interviews Bruce Chizen, then CEO of Adobe Systems Inc., about the revolution in the publishing industry and Adobe's products. Through their publishing solutions, Adobe has a strong influence on both the print and online worlds. Listen to the story of the transition from Postscript and PDF to Adobe AIR and Digital Editions, which can be seen as the transition from print to electronic publishing.

Dr. Stephen Omohundro tells what characteristics a self improving artificial intelligence will need and how we can shape it to include human values. The economic rational theory that has trouble explaining many human actions is the key theory that will guide the actions of a self improving AI. He explains the emergent attributes such an AI with preferences and beliefs will exhibit, and how to prevent the nightmare scenarios that movies and fiction writers have long feared.

A panel of experts -- Thomas Deichmann of Novo magazine, Julie Hill of Green Alliance, author Julia Hailes, and spiked magazine's Rob Lyons -- debate the importance of recycling. Those against argue that recycling at the household level doesn't lead to the perceived benefits, but instead wastes more money and precious time. Those in favor argue that we are nearing a resource crisis that can be mitigated by the re-use of recycled material. Due to brief profanity, this program may not be appropriate for work or family listening.

As macular degeneration erodes Susan Gerhart's vision, she's shifting into audio mode. On this edition of Interviews with Innovators, host Jon Udell asks about what she has learned about adaptive technologies, and ask her about her blog, As Your World Changes.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with media futurist Gerd Leonhard about the next stage of online music, and asks him to give a peek into the future of online media distribution.

The goal of Artificial General Intelligence is to create a machine with the abilities to learn, use common sense, and solve general problems. And it must do this better than humans. Peter Voss has been working in AGI since the 90s and in 2001 started Adaptive A.I. Inc. specifically to develop a commercially viable AGI engine. In this talk from the 2007 Singularity Summit, he describes how AGI will be accomplished, what are the benefits, and projects a healthier, wealthier, and more moral world, all through the science of AGI.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist and author of "Physics of the Impossible" about the improbable, and the very likely in the near future: phasers, force fields and time travel.

Technology is becoming more entrenched in every part of our life, and we need to be aware of where that might lead us. Jamais Cascio gives four possible scenarios based on whether technology is used to augment or simulate reality and whether it is internally or externally focused. Because of the human bias inherent in any technology, he argues that we need to democratically include all of the world's stakeholders to avoid having these scenarios become dystopias.

Scientific advances have opened previously unimaginable possibilities in the realm of human reproduction. Determining the sex of an early stage embryo, or shifting the pre-conception arrangement of chromosomes in favor of certain outcomes further opens the door to sex selection. By various means, it is becoming feasible to genetically engineer a child with specific qualities. Harvard Professor Michael J. Sandel, and William Haseltine, CEO of Human Genome Sciences, debate the moral and ethical implications of such actions.