Accelerating Tech
Magic Tech
NASA’s idea for making food from thin air just became a reality — it could feed billions It’s not like you can make food out of thin air. Well…it turns out you can. A company […]
Accelerating Tech
Accelerating Tech
Return to the Moon
Phil and Stephen review the legacy of the first moon landing. We’re now as far in time from the moon landing as that event was from the end of World War I. What does it […]
Accelerating Tech
Relentless Improvement
How do we get to the future we want? So far we have discussed Outrageous Optimism and Audacious Action, which together can bring about disruptive change. But what about incremental change? Wouldn’t that be better, […]
Accelerating Tech
Audacious Action
In our recent show about Outrageous Optimism https://youtu.be/R91LqaxqfpI, we discussed how one bold idea — one outrageously optimistic idea — may do more to end suffering from disease than anything that’s come before. We begin […]
Accelerating Tech
Amazing Topics
Phil and Stephen present their 800th show. An Amazing Wednesday lineup of topics, including: This new Lithium battery tech can simply suck up CO2 to power itself Engineers develop process to 3-D print cells to […]
Accelerating Tech
Infinite Computing or Infinite Hype?
How do we sort amazing new capabilities from eloquent marketing hype? Headline on Facebook: What if We Could Unlock Infinite Computing Power? Headline when you get to the page: What if we could unlock our […]
Accelerating Tech
New Capabilities, New Risks
New technologies bring unintended consequences and often unexpected risks. A new method of treatment introduces a whole new category of risk: Could genome sequencing in healthy persons create “sick patients for life”? It was also […]
Accelerating Tech
Is Social Media Killing Us?
Is social media killing us? If so, how do we fix it? Correlation is not causation, but still there is a huge correlation between rising depression rates and the ascendancy of social media. For example, […]
Accelerating Tech
Closer Than We Think
Are breakthrough technologies progressing faster than we think? Phil and Stephen review three recent news items that indicate they may be. Sucking carbon dioxide from air is cheaper than scientists thought https://go.nature.com/2JhnFLT Siphoning carbon dioxide […]
Accelerating Tech
Frickin’ Lasers! (Save the Universe)
Frickin’ Lasers Save the Universe Lasers Could Make Computers 1 Million Times Faster Phil and Stephen discuss two recent examples of the amazing potential of lasers to change everything. Lasers Could Make Computers 1 Million […]
Accelerating Tech
Time to Abandon Self-Driving Cars?
In Arizona, a pedestrian has been killed by a self-driving car. What went wrong? Was it the Uber system? Uber’s Self-Driving Cars Were Struggling Before Arizona Crash Disgraceful Dashcam Video Proves Uber Is the Theranos […]
Accelerating Tech
How Old Are You, Really?
Phil and Stephen discuss how artificial intelligence might help to add years to our lives. AI Scientists Via Their ‘Aging Clock’ May Have Discovered How To Rewind Our Biological Clocks A group of scientists who […]
Accelerating Tech
10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2018 Part 2
Phil and Stephen continue discussing the MIT Technology Review list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2018. In part 2, we look at: Babel Fish Earbuds Zero-Carbon Natural Gas Perfect Online Privacy Genetic Fortune-Telling Materials’ Quantum […]
Accelerating Tech
10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2018 Part 1
Phil and Stephen discuss the MIT Technology Review list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2018. In part 1, we look at: 3-D Metal Printing Artificial Embryos Sensing City AI for Everybody Dueling Neural Networks What […]
Accelerating Tech
Signs of the Times
Phil and Stephen ask whether current developments make the Singularity more plausible. The “Father of Artificial Intelligence” Says Singularity Is 30 Years Away At the World Government Summit in Dubai, I spoke with Jürgen Schmidhuber, […]
Accelerating Tech
Stem Cells Made to Order
Phil and Stephen review more reasons that this is a great time to be alive. The little lizard with the big genome. Making skins cells into stem cells — three different ways! The check-in procedure […]
Accelerating Tech
Extra! Voyage of the Space Roadster!
Phil and Stephen reflect on the launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, and Starman’s drive to the asteroid belt. What is Elon Musk up to? Is this all just a publicity stunt? Or was […]
Accelerating Tech
The Time Travel Mortality Wager
Phil and Stephen discuss a familiar subject — why this is the best time to be alive. But this time with a twist: how good would a life in the past have to be to […]
Accelerating Tech
Reality: and Now the Bad News
Phil and Stephen look at possibilities that arise — some fun, some dangerous — when the lines between reality and illusion are blurred. Reddit User Outperforms Disney With AI-generated Princess Leia I Made My Shed […]
Accelerating Tech
What Does a Thought Look Like? (And Other Amazing Stuff)
Phil and Stephen review amazing news indicating that the future is closer than we think. Neuroscientists Have Followed a Thought as it Moves Through the Brain A study using epilepsy patients undergoing surgery has […]
Accelerating Tech
Friday Grab Bag
Future news from a variety of angles. What ties them together? You decide. Scientists reverse genetic aging, memory decline in rats They injected rats with viral vectors that expressed FKBP1b, causing a rise in overall […]
Accelerating Tech
The Big Transition
Our economy is in the early stages of a major transition. For some time, automation has been pushing people out of the business of producing stuff (machines do it better, by and large). More recently, […]
Accelerating Tech
It’s Happening
Phil and Stephen discuss a number of future developments that they have been predicting for years that now appear to be coming true. Biotech boss backing gene therapy to solve ageing crisis seeks injection […]
Accelerating Tech
Cities with Force Fields (and Other Predictions)
Phil, Stephen, and special guest Thomas Frey conclude their 3-part celebration of the 700th edition of the World Transformed. (Here’s Part 1. Here’s Part 2.) In Part 3, Phil, Stephen, and Thomas make predictions covering […]
Accelerating Tech
The Death of Banks (and Other Predictions)
Phil, Stephen, and special guest Thomas Frey continue their 3-part celebration of the 700th edition of the World Transformed. (Here’s Part 1.) In part 2, the guys discuss predictions for the next 20 years. Are […]