The Future And You--July 29, 2015

Topic: The Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop is a group of scientists, engineers, space advocates, and space enthusiasts who are all pulling together to promote the eventual exploration of planets beyond our solar system. Les Johnson has described it this way: "The Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop is an opportunity for relaxed sharing of ideas in directions that will stimulate and encourage Interstellar exploration including propulsion, communications, and research. The 'Workshop' theme suggests that the direction should go beyond that of a 'conference'. Attendees are encouraged to not only present intellectual concepts but to develop these concepts to suggest projects, collaboration, active research and mission planning. It should be a time for engaging discussions, thought-provoking ideas, and boundless optimism contemplating a future that may one day be within the reach of humanity." Speakers include: Les Johnson (space scientist), Robert G. Kennedy (author, speaker and engineer), Yohon Lo (aerospace and system engineer), Kenneth I. Roy (author and engineer), and Martha Knowles. Also: an email from Barry, in Australia, a long-time listener. He points out that the number of astronauts who have been beyond low Earth orbit is 24, not the oft quoted 27, and he explains why. He also describes a bit about the Kerbal Space Program, a game I look forward to playing. (Barry is a Statistician. One false move and you're a Statistic.) Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 29, 2015 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 58 minutes] This discussion was recorded in front of an audience at the science fiction and fantasy convention LibertyCon in Chattanooga TN, on June 27, 2015. Stephen Euin Cobb has interviewed over 350 people for his work as an author, futurist, magazine writer, ghostwriter, and award-winning podcaster. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. For the last nine years he has produced a weekly podcast, The Future And You, which explores (through interviews, panel discussions and commentary) all the ways the future will be different from today. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. Stephen is the author of an ebook about the future entitled: Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science.