January 28, 2006 Episode

SF authors Nancy Kress and Joe Haldeman are among the guests, as are: an astronomer, a recording label executive, a transhumanist, a cryonics insurance provider, two teenaged girls, and Pugsley and Wednesday from the beloved TV show The Addams Family. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 28, 2006 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 79 minutes]  Topics include: [1] As the internet slowly kills the old traditional recording labels, Magnatune (a new kind of label) is growing like a weed. John Buckman (Magnatune's founder and CEO) explains his company's strange motto: 'We are not evil.' [2] The award winning science fiction author Nancy Kress talks about future medical advances, including the promise of, and the ongoing controversy over, stem cell research. [3] An essay by your host on the probability that any extraterrestrial civilization we encounter will be near our scientific or technological level. [4] The award winning science fiction author Joe Haldeman talks about faster than light travel (FTL), the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and mentions that some of his students at MIT have discovered exoplanets. [5] Doctor Greg Matloff (astronomer, author and professor) also discusses the SETI program, as well as the problems that SETI scientists have when interpreting what appear to be genuine (but very brief) signals from intelligent aliens. [6] The fourth installment in our serialization of the novel Bones Burnt Black. [7] Rudi Hoffman (the world's leading cryonics insurance provider) grapples with cryonics' thorniest theological problem: 'If human beings actually do have souls, will cryopreserved people be impossible to re-animate?' [8] Noted transhumanist, Lionel Vogt, explains why he believes that when AI (artificial intelligence) is finally a reality it will produce an explosion of technological advancement that is impossible for us to imagine today. [9] A listener disagrees with the host's essay on cryonics from the previous episode. [10] Halo Parties, fuzzy shoes, and the insistence that 'Final Fantasy will never die.' Two teenaged girls (Aliese, age 15; and Amber, 14) describe the strange trends and rising fads within their youthful universe. [11] Was that Lurches real voice? And whose hand was it that played Thing? A double celebrity interview with Ken Weatherwax and Lisa Loring: Pugsley and Wednesday from the beloved old TV show The Addams Family.