The Future And You -- February 29, 2012

George Dvorsky (futurist and ethicist) is our featured guest. Topics: Is it wise to use our emotions (especially repugnance) as a guide to truth? Giving protective rights to intelligent animals (apes, whales, dolphins, and elephants), and eventually (when the time is right) to artificially intelligent software; augmenting animals to raise their IQ (animal uplifting); the new movie Planet of the Apes; the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey; better ways to conduct the search for extraterrestrials (SETI); Dyson Spheres; the Fermi Paradox; why your host hopes we will forever move to universes of ever increasing dimensionality; as well as artificially created universes and simulated universes. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 29, 2012 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 61 minutes]. This is the second third of an interview recorded using Skype on February 17, 2012. George Dvorsky is a Canadian futurist and ethicist. He has written and spoken extensively about the impacts of cutting-edge science and technology—particularly as they pertain to the improvement of human performance and experience. He is the Chairman of the Board at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and is the program director for the Rights of Non-Human Persons program.