The Future And You -- April 18, 2012

Marshall Brain (founder of HowStuffWorks.com) is today's featured guest. Topic: The remarkably BAD side of what the rise of robots may do to our culture, civilization, economy, and lifestyles during the next decade or two. This is a thorough examination of Marshall Brain's new book: Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future. One of his two visions is remarkably bad, and the other is remarkably good. Both are completely different from any form of civilization we have seen before. Currently we are on track toward the future that is bad. In today's episode we will discuss the remarkably bad future, Next week we will discuss the remarkably good future. Marshall Brain is best known as the founder of HowStuffWorks.com, which grew into one of the top Web sites in the country, and sold in 2007 to Discovery Communications for $250 million. He hosted the TV show "Factory Floor" which appeared on the National Geographic channel. And he has written a number of books, articles and essays, which--just like the famous website he created--explain in a no-nonsense way how stuff works. A perfect example is his article "How to make a million dollars," which can be read for free on his website: MarshallBrain.com. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 18, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 30 minutes] This is the first half of an interview recorded using Skype on April 6, 2012.