Singularity.FM

Nigel Ackland claims he is an ordinary man. But, after seeing the emotional impact he had on the audience at GF2045, I have to disagree with him. His speech titled Ordinary… Extraordinary. Life with a Bionic Arm was in my view by far the most moving of all the conference presentations. And so, I knew instantly that I have to interview Nigel on my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. During my conversation...

Marvin Minsky is often called the Father of Artificial Intelligence and I have been looking for an opportunity to interview him for years. I was hoping that I will finally get my chance at the GF2045 conference in NY City. Unfortunately, Prof. Minsky had bronchitis and consequently had to speak via video. A week later, though still recovering, Marvin generously gave me a 30 min interview while att...

A few weeks ago I got interviewed on the Futurology Podcast. During my one hour conversation with show host Jason Peffley we discuss a number of topics such as: how I got to do blogging and podcasting; my time and take on Singularity University in particular and education in general; the wait-and-see vs the proactive approach to the future; the definition of the technological singularity; slow vs...

Thad Starner is a wearable computing pioneer who coined the term “augmented reality” and a Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also a technical lead on Google Glass – a self-contained wearable computer. And so I was very excited to interview Prof. Starner for my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. During our conversation with Thad we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how h...

Daryl Oster is an inventor and engineer who wants to bring space travel to Earth. The idea is called ET3 – Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies. Oster is the CEO of ET3 and his company “uses an open consortium business model to share information resulting in co-operative benefits.” The goal is nothing less but building a radically new high-speed global network of transportation that will be cheap...

Chris Lewicki is the president and Chief Asteroid Miner at Planetary Resources – the first company that plans to locate and mine asteroids for water and precious metals. The company is backed by a number of billionaires and space enthusiasts such as director James Cameron, Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, X Prize founder Peter Diamandis and billionaire Ross Perot Jr., along with a number of o...

Prof. Chris Hables Gray is someone whose work on both war and the cyborg is a must read for anyone interested in those topics. I have followed Gray’s work for over 10 years and have read at least 3 of his books. So when I discovered that Chris will be one of the speakers for the upcoming ISTAS2013 conference in Toronto, that I can’t wait to attend this June 27-29, I decided to use it as an excuse...

Ori Inbar developed a passion for augmented reality (AR) ever since he realized that it will change every aspect of life and work we can think of. This realization has motivated him to become an industry start-up entrepreneur, a founder of a not-for-profit organization, an event organizer and a recognized speaker on topics related to augmented reality. Thus I was very happy to get him for an inter...

Jacque Fresco is a futurist, inventor, social engineer, visionary and technician, best known for the Venus Project. In his Future By Design documentary about Fresco’s life and ideas, Emmy winning filmmaker William Gazecki called the 97-year-old Jacque “a modern day Da Vinci.” Others have called him “a new Buckminster Fuller.” Now, I have to admit that I really like Jacque as a person – he just see...

Amon Kalkin is a cognitive scientist, electronic artist and founder of Zero State. He is 40 years old, born in New Zealand and living in the UK, where he spends his time raising a young family and gardening when he isn’t working to create a sphere of influence for positive futurist values. During my interview with Amon Kalkin we cover a variety of topics such as: what is Zero State - its genesis,...

While I personally loved the first half of The Transhumanist Wager and disliked much of the second, I am convinced that the novel is a must read for anyone interested in the future of our civilization. In my view the novel is full of interesting and controversial contradictions. For example, on the one hand Zoltan Istvan is a philosophically sophisticated author using elements from Plato’s Republi...

Transhumanism is both misunderstood and feared. Ignorant people with an ideological agenda have gone as far as labeling it “the most dangerous idea.” Thus a comprehensive book – a Transhumanist Reader, documenting both the origins and the current state of transhumanist thought has been long needed. So, when I discovered that a new book aimed at accomplishing just that is being published, I knew I...

Will Crockett is a photo innovator and web TV personality. He has more than 30 years as a commercial photographer with clients like Pfizer, Boeing, Hewlett Packard, Cadbury, United Airlines, TIME magazine and the US Pentagon. Crocket is also the man behind DiscoverMirrorless.com and ShootSmarter.com as well as a prototype test shooter for many camera manufacturers. [His early reviews were the main...

Matthew Putman is the most eclectic guest I have had on Singularity 1 on 1. Matthew is a PhD in applied mathematics and engineering, Professor at Columbia University, a Thiel fellowship mentor, entrepreneur, poet, jazz pianist, inventor holding patents in nano-imaging, film and theater producer and a cancer survivor. After spending over an hour talking to Putman I feel confident in saying that he...

James D. Miller is a professor of economics and, most recently, the author of Singularity Rising: Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World. James is the second economist on Singularity 1 on 1 and he respects and agrees with much of Robin Hanson‘s conclusions. In my view, however, Miller’s book Singularity Rising ends up presenting a much richer, more diverse, more bala...

Yesterday I went to speak to a class of grade 12 students from the Newtonbrook Secondary School in Toronto. I have been looking forward to this opportunity to challenge and be challenged by the next generation of bright young minds, and was not going to be prevented from going there, be it by a Canadian winter storm of by any other of life’s tragedies. Needless to say, I enjoyed speaking to the st...

Yesterday I spoke at this year’s edition of the annual Podcamp Toronto at Ryerson University. Since people often ask me for tips on podcasting, I decided to record my presentation so that it is always available to anyone interested in knowing how I started or what in my view are the most important elements for a successful podcast. The presentation was filmed by my friend and budding photographer...

Ayesha Khanna is the co-founder of the Hybrid Reality Institute and co-author of Hybrid Reality book for Kindle. During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Ayesha Khanna we discuss a variety of topics such as: women and technology; whether men are from Mars and women from Venus; her book Hybrid Reality and what she calls the hybrid age; smart cities; the philosophy and politics of technology; big...

My second interview with economist Robin Hanson was by far the most vigorous debate ever on Singularity 1 on 1. I have to say that I have rarely disagreed more with any of my podcast guests before. To be even more clear, I believe that it is ideas like Robin’s that may, and often do, have a direct impact on our future. And so I am very conflicted. Ever since I finished recording my second intervie...

Christine Peterson is not only the co-founder and past president of the Foresight Institute for Nanotechnology but also the person credited with coining the term open source software. More recently her interests have evolved to include longevity and life extension technologies and she is currently the CEO of Health Activator. During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Christine Peterson we discus...

Dr. “George Church is one of the most brilliant scientists in the world,” says Steven Pinker on the front cover of Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves. Regenesis is the recent book that Church wrote together with Ed Regis, where the authors “imagine a future in which human beings have become immune to all viruses, in which bacteria can custom-produce everyday items,...

Today my guest is Doug Wolens. Doug is the lawyer-turned-documentarian whose most recent film is The Singularity. I have to say that neither Doug nor his film are what I expected. To paraphrase and add to one of the other iTunes film reviewers – what I was expecting was “Wohooo! Singularity!” But what I got instead was a surprisingly detailed critical examination of the notion of the singularity,...

Robin Hanson is not just a well known economist with seminal work in prediction markets. He is also a physicist, philosopher and AI researcher. Besides being a polyglot he is also an extremely likable fellow and both of those make him very hard to argue against. Add up the fact that it’s been over a decade since my study of economics and you will get a better idea as to why I struggled to keep up...

I know how hard it is start a podcast. So when budding podcasters ask me for an interview, I am always looking for reasons to say “Yes.” This is a re-post of my month-old interview for the Wow Signal Podcast recently started by Paul Carr. Since this is only the 3rd episode ever, the recording is still a bit rough around the edges. Never-the-less, I enjoyed talking to Paul and you might enjoy liste...

Bob McDonald is the national science correspondent and popular host of CBC’s radio show Quirks and Quarks. If you are Canadian it is virtually impossible that you have not seen or heard him on TV or radio for the past 30+ years. If you are not, then, you will be treated to some of his endless curiosity and infectious passion for science. During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Bob we discuss a...