Jim Baen's Universe

What's New in The Future And You

Columns

December 2007

Written by Stephen Euin Cobb

Authors Kevin J. Anderson and Timothy Zahn are joined by Grant Baciocco (professional comedian), Doctor Aubrey de Grey (gerontologist promoting medical life extension), Professor Paul Levinson (media commentator) and Paul Fischer (pioneering podcaster), as well as by Stoney Compton and Walt (Bananaslug) Boyes for the November and December 2007 episodes of The Future And You.

The Future And You is an award-winning audio podcast about the future which may be downloaded and enjoyed, or even copied and shared, for free. Every episode contains numerous interviews which reveal a wide variety of ideas and opinion about the future from a wide variety of people.

And as always, each episode of The Future And You contains an installment in our serialization of the Hard SF novel, Bones Burnt Black; and features ten minutes of Walt Boyes (The Bananaslug) & Stoney Compton as they do their bit to let the world at large know what's in the current issue of Jim Baen's Universe Magazine.

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Topics in the December 2007 episode

Timothy Zahn is not surprised that the SETI project hasn't found anyone because he doesn't think there's anyone out there to find. He regards the expectation that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe to be a perfectly understandable assumption, but one based on far too little data. (In addition to being a best selling author, he has a Masters degree in physics.) "Earth constitutes only one data point” he says, “and my training in physics and mathematics tells me that extrapolating from only one data point is fraught with danger."

His confidence is high, however, that we will someday have computers wired directly into our bodies. “Teenagers would love to have their music wired into their brains,” he says, but adds, "I'll wait for the third or fourth generation of the technology to see what the side effects are."

He describes his ideas on a wide variety of topics such as: medical life extension, The Singularity and nanotechnology. For example, he is skeptical of cryonics for both technical and spiritual reasons. He’s skeptical about the chances for faster than light travel (FTL) but admits he cannot rule it out completely. He finds it strange that schools are cutting exercise and sports programs at the very time when childhood obesity is widespread and on the rise. And he gives a number of examples to support his doubts that non-lethal weapons can be meaningful unless both sides in a war agree to use them.

Kevin J. Anderson (co-author of the best selling Dune prequels) feels that the job of a science fiction writer is not to write stories which accurately describe our real future, but to write entertaining stories which relate to people today. Even if he were able to write such stories accurately, which he emphasizes he cannot, he expects that our future way of life, fifty or a hundred years from now, will be so removed from our present way of life that today’s readers would find it difficult or even impossible to relate to the characters or to their problems.

He finds cryonics interesting, and can conceive of our future nanotechnology becoming advanced enough to repair any and all freezing damage on the cellular and molecular level, but wonders if there aren’t spiritual and religious questions which are yet to be answered regarding the act of reanimating those who are deceased. Even if we repair all the damage, he asks, when we flip the switch to bring the body back to life, will the person be in there? This is not just a question of data storage, but a question of the soul.

When it comes to SETI, Kevin J. Anderson is not surprised that the universe seems so empty. But he does see this emptiness as an argument that FTL may be difficult or even impossible to invent. On the other hand he says, “If SETI (researchers) came in tomorrow and said, guess what? Somebody picked up the phone. We’re actually talking to an alien race. The change this would bring upon the human race is impossible to calculate.”

He is also in the camp of those who see artificial intelligence eventually merging with humans rather than becoming our enemy. He anticipates that computer implants will become popular, and is willing to have one too—after other people try them first. He even anticipates that this might someday lead to humanity developing a “hive mind.”

Paul Levinson feels that if cryonics works it could provide a good form of time travel as well as a good way to extend human lives. And he describes the affects he thinks it might have on society.

As to The Singularity: Paul Levinson agrees with some but not all of the concepts which are expected to work together to bring it about. He does not buy into any of the apocalyptic descriptions of The Singularity. He especially balks at the idea of artificial intelligence becoming so advanced that it is unintelligible to humans. Instead, he sees artificially intelligent machines becoming integrated with human minds; so that we become better humans—rather than the machines out-pacing us and going their own way. He uses a number of historical examples to support his ideas of how this and other aspects of our future will grow out of our present.

Is every police officer’s current location a blinking dot on a computer map of the town back at headquarters? Does every police officer wear a GPS locator and carry a big red panic button? Does every police car have a computer to run the license plate of the cars the officer stops? Officers, firefighters and civilians live or die everyday based on the answer to these and similar questions, but in many places in America and around the world the unfortunate answer is “No, not yet.”

Paul Fischer helped design New York City’s newly installed Dedicated Data Network which is one of the most advanced such systems in America. Its powerful features and abilities can—or soon will—answer Yes to those urgent questions. Paul Fischer describes how it is used to help save lives, as well as the trends he sees developing in Police, Firefighting and other municipal computer systems.

Paul Fischer also speaks briefly about the two podcasts he and his wife (Martha Holloway) produce: The Balticon podcast (in which they interview authors, scientists and other people of note attending the science fiction and fantasy convention called Balticon) and The A.D.D. Cast (a free form podcast in which they talk about how to cope with A.D.D.). (Paul was diagnosed with A.D.D. many years ago while still in junior high school.)

And as always, each episode of The Future And You features ten minutes of Walt