Future Tech: Almost Here, Round-the-Corner Future Technology Podcast
1,842 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago -Future Technologies Poised to Transform Our Lives For The Better are the focus of this podcast. Almost here means these technologies are Now Here, or Just Around The Corner. Listen to the latest future tech news & interviews, featuring Artificial Intelligence, 3D printing, stem cells, regenerative medicine, Bitcoin, Blockchain & other cutting-edge stuff.
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Episodes
The Pirate Party – Securing Freedoms for Future Generations
July 12, 2017 10:02 - 35 minutes - 80.2 MB“If you look back through history, Richard, people in power have always used their power to grow their power, and to safeguard their power.” This is Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Swedish Pirate Party. The Pirate Party, first established in Sweden, has now grown to 70 countries, and continues to grow what Falkvinge calls “swarm methodologies.” Rick and other members of his party fear that with the technical ability to measure personal data, there is a loss to civil liberties, especially for ...
Dash – Digital Cash
July 11, 2017 11:03 - 31 minutes - 72.3 MBAs with many people, Robert Wiecko first started getting interested in Bitcoin in 2013. Since then, he's come to think of cryptocurrency as the greatest innovation of the 21st century. Now, Wiecko is a project manager for Dash, an up and coming cryptocurrency. Starting with core wallet development, Wiecko is heading up a lot of new projects at Dash, from front end to back end. “A lot of things are happening in Dash, I would say,” says Wiecko, “It’s even difficult to talk about all of them.” ...
Jan Vijg – How and Why We Age
July 11, 2017 11:01 - 34 minutes - 78.7 MBSince the 80’s, Jan Vijg has been fascinated with the process of aging. This, having heard a fascinating talk on the subject back when he was a student at the University of Leiden. The speaker, then, “actually mentioned the possibility that we age because damage is accumulating in our DNA—the DNA of our cells and tissues. And I never forgot that,” says Vijg. As soon as he could, he started his own research. Tune in to learn more about how and why we age from Jan Vijg. Subscribe, review, and...
CryptoBroker.io – Streamlining Altcoin Exchanges
July 11, 2017 10:51 - 28 minutes - 66 MBRight now in the cryptocurrency space, there are a lot of different exchanges out there. And they all have different prices. Let's say you're doing a larger order, and you get a higher price on one of the exchanges: bummer. To save registering on multiple exchanges and comparing rates, now, you can go through a brokerage like Cryptobroker.io. “People can come to us,” says Cryptobroker CEO Ryan Scott. “And we'll eventually route all of the orders through the other exchanges to give them the be...
SciFest Dubai – Celebrating Science Through the Arts
July 07, 2017 18:36 - 24 minutes - 56 MBSciFest Dubai may be exactly what it sounds like: a festival celebrating science in Dubai. But there’s more to it than that; there’s a whole rationale and methodology to think about. SciFest Dubai aims to celebrate science through the arts, in order to improve scientific literacy. “If you look around you, there’s a lot of people who are intimidated by science,” explains festival co-founder Rohan Roberts. “That’s because of how it was taught in high school.” For many, science is a huge, bori...
Rik Willard – The Social Impact of BlockChain
July 07, 2017 17:00 - 31 minutes - 73.1 MB“The banking system, while people don’t like to necessarily say this,” says Rik Willard, “is a rigged game, in many cases. If you have money: great. If you don’t have money, it’s the worst possible scenario.” Willard is the founder and managing director of Agentic Group. Agentic is a sustainability platform for the BlockChain ecosystem—a major player. Rik’s position made him a key interviewee in the forthcoming documentary, “The Blockchain and Us,” which reckons with the impact the BlockChai...
Arterys – Improving Medical Imaging
July 07, 2017 16:58 - 20 minutes - 46 MBIn today’s world, all the data from medical imaging is handled at a local level—the hospital level. For physicians, and especially radiologists, this is a constrained environment. There aren’t enough resources at the local level to get everything done. Much has to be done manually, and is (maybe therefore) less accurate. These constraints were identified by Arterys and improved with faster, more accurate automation, using the cloud and A.I. along the way. “We’re really trying to enable data-...
Fidelity Labs – A Culture that Embraces Change
July 06, 2017 11:49 - 26 minutes - 60.3 MBMost large institutions don’t want to use about BitCoin. They don’t even want to talk about it. As an emergent and in some cases untested technology, BitCoin is mostly used for select applications, and is not broadly accepted. So what makes Fidelity different—Fidelity, the company that tested BitCoin both in-house in their cafeterias, and for their charity? Culture. “I think there is a different cultural aspect,” says Senior VP and Managing Director Hadley Stern. “Fidelity… has a very long-t...
R3 Consortium – A New Level of Financial Transparency
July 06, 2017 11:47 - 39 minutes - 89.8 MBThe word “Blockchain” gets thrown around a lot these days. Used so often—and in so many different contexts—it’s hard to exactly define what it actually means. In short, it’s a buzzword. As Tim Swanson of the R3 Consortium attests, the word doesn’t mean a whole lot beyond “something magical”: the magical super-technology that fits into every excited sentence you can come up with about fintech. For the purposes of the interview, Swanson defines the word “Blockchain” as a kind of distributed led...
Michael Folkson, Nate Basanese – Winners of BCoin Hackathon
July 06, 2017 11:16 - 23 minutes - 52.7 MBAs of this writing, there’s not really much incentive to run a full node as an individual. As just one person, it’s not worth the cost. And the cost is high. Nate Basanese estimates it at “too much.” Along with partner Michael Folkson, Nate is one of two winners of a recent BCoin Hackathon. Folkson and Basanese joined me to talka bout their recent success, and to get into further detail on their winning project. As with most Hackathons, it started with the brainstorming stage. “We wanted to w...
Kevin Kelly – The Next 30 Years
July 04, 2017 11:02 - 44 minutes - 101 MBIn Kevin Kelly’s book, The Inevitable, the futurist tries to nail down what the next 30 years will look like. For him, this is the short-term. By extrapolating from our technology today, he can pretty safely say what our near future will be like, without having to theorize about tech centuries in advance. This is what is so close, it’s practically destined. “I’m saying they’re inevitable in the sense that no matter what individual entrepreneurs or even politics happen we’re going to have more...
Jane Langdale – Designing More Efficient Leaves
July 04, 2017 10:59 - 27 minutes - 63.9 MBEarly land plants didn’t have leaves. At a certain point, they evolved. In fact, the anatomy found in C4 leaves evolved 60 times, and leaves themselves evolved at least twice but probably no more than 6 times, essentially independently from one another. Now, this is a complex genetic change we’re talking about. How did this happen? That’s what Jane Langdale is trying to figure out. The whole of Jane Langdale’s research is about shoot development in plants. When a shoot develops, it can either...
Decentral’s Anthony Di Iorio and Charlie Shrem On The Benefits and Pitfalls of Entering the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem
July 03, 2017 11:05 - 28 minutes - 64.5 MBIf you have lofty visions of banking millions off cryptocurrency, Decentral CEO Anthony Di Iorio and COO Charlie Shrem have words to contemplate as they discuss what Di Iorio calls a “shifting from the information age to a much more powerful age of value”. As cryptocurrency and blockchain continue their unstoppable climb to mainstream relevancy, trying to get your foot in the door without the proper knowledge will leave you vulnerable. Pay heed to Di Iorio and Shrem’s views on this and other ...
Salt Lending – Lending in the Cryptocurrency Space
July 03, 2017 11:02 - 29 minutes - 67 MBSalt, in this context, is an acronym for “Secured Automated Lending Technology.” And that’s what Salt has to do with: blockchain-backed loans. “Basically at a high level, a blockchain-backed loan is a secured asset-backed loan, where the collateral is BitCoin or Etherium,” explains Shawn Owens. What Salt is really doing here is creating a credit market that doesn’t already exist. It’s a space for borrowers and lenders to interact, on either side. Owens sees huge potential for blockchain tech...
Capella Space – Empowering Satellite Photography
July 03, 2017 10:51 - 23 minutes - 54.7 MBShooting satellite photography is suboptimal at night. It’s also hard to get a good picture through a cloud. But it’s night on 50% of the globe at any given time. What’s more, another 50% of earth is covered in clouds. (That means there are parts of the planet that are both dark and clouded.) All in all, only a certain percentage of satellite photos are actually usable. We’re taking a lot of pictures of indistinguishable darkness. This is where Capella Space comes in, with tiny, backpack-siz...
Basil Leaf Team – Making Science Fiction a Reality
June 30, 2017 11:37 - 30 minutes - 69.5 MBLike the tablet and sliding door, the tricorder is a technology inspired by Star Trek that exists today as a reality. In the show, the tricorder was a handheld device used by the doctors to find out and diagnose the condition of patients. You could scan someone, and get everything you needed to know. This was the object of Qualcomm Tricorder Xprize competition: to build a tricorder. And Dr. Basil Harris did. That's why it exists today. “Being a long time trekkie and science fiction fan, this...
IRIS.ai – Synthesizing the World’s Research
June 30, 2017 11:03 - 31 minutes - 72.9 MBThere are about 150 million research papers in the world. Just consider that briefly: 150 million. There are 3,000 papers in science, technology, and medicine being published every single day. Our knowledge of ourselves and the world is growing at an exponential rate. So how are we going to keep track of all this information? A company called IRIS.ai is designing an A.I. researcher to do just that: to keep track, to keep tabs on the world’s research. The goal is to build an A.I. system that ...
Outlier Canada – Managing Big Risks Effectively
June 30, 2017 10:46 - 36 minutes - 83.8 MB“We’re compliance nerds,” says guest Amber Scott. What this means, in essence, is that Amber—and her co-workers at Outlier Canada—help people follow the law. When dealing with a lot of money, there’s a lot of risk. Someone needs to be there to help make sure all the money’s being used safely, correctly, legally. This means preventing money laundering, and avoiding funding terrorism. As an individual, it’s harder to manage the huge risk that comes with big money. Because of this, Amber mostly...
Belouga – Connecting Classrooms Around The World
June 29, 2017 12:25 - 29 minutes - 67.7 MBRecently I spoke with Alex Mathews, a senior web application developer at Belouga, a free, web-based educational platform connecting classrooms all around the world. This cutting-edge company has quickly been expanding, now offering over 900 classes in 60+ countries since their launch in September 2016. Incorporating easy to use technology, Belouga is the perfect enhancement for any teacher looking to expand his or her classroom beyond borders. Their platform also rewards participating studen...
Denis Noble – The Cutting Edge of Biology
June 23, 2017 09:20 - 58 minutes - 135 MBDenis Noble CBE FRS FRCP FMedSci has a veritable alphabet soup after his name. It's kind of hard to pronounce, and it always becomes a point of conversation for him. But you don't get that many letters after your name for nothing. Noble is a longtime public intellectual, having been the first to mathematically describe the heart's pacemaker with computer models. And then the first to explain it to everyone else. “I think what we're witnessing at the moment is quite a fundamental change in the...
How J.R. Skok and the “Made of Mars” Initiative Could Save Humanity
June 23, 2017 09:17 - 30 minutes - 69.3 MB“We’re either going to go into space or we’re going to go extinct here on Earth,” says explorer and planetary geologist J.R. Skok. That’s why Skok has committed his life to the study of Mars. He feels it’s humanity’s first step in living off-Earth. To Skok, Mars is perfect—even better than the moon—because it’s far enough away to be a mystery we should solve, yet close enough for us to travel there in a matter of months. He discusses evidence that, despite Mar’s current status as a “dead” fro...
Pavel Bains, CEO of Singapore-Based Bluzelle, Talks Blockchain Technology’s Surprising Impact on the Financial Industry
June 23, 2017 09:15 - 32 minutes - 75.4 MBBluzelle CEO Pavel Bains likes to make the complicated seem uncomplicated, as when he describes blockchain as simply an “authentication and verification of data between parties that inherently might not trust each other.” But he might be on to something. These days, threats like money laundering and terrorism have banks and regulatory agencies nervous. Identity Management and KYC have become costly in both time and resources when banks and insurance companies onboard new customers. As regulat...
Learn How Via Science Uses Big Math on a Tiny Scale to Improve AI and Solve Huge Problems
June 23, 2017 09:12 - 35 minutes - 80.7 MBWhen your house loses power, it’s irritating, even problematic. But what if the power outage is scaled up—across the region, state, or even nation? That’s what keeps Colin Gounden awake at night. Gounden is CEO of Via Science, a company that develops software solutions that help identify risks to a given area’s critical infrastructure. AI can help this by processing given data to help decisions get made. Yet, there are critical limitations to AI’s abilities that still need solving before this...
Chris Harrison – Making Human-Computer Interaction Delightful
June 22, 2017 06:28 - 23 minutes - 53.3 MBWhat if touchscreen technology could be applied to whole environments? Could you have a multi-touch sensitive house, with all the walls receiving input from the user? These are the kinds of questions posed by Chris Harrison, professor at CMU. Harrison is a computer scientist by training, and the focus of his research is human-computer interaction. Harrison explains that it's taking insights from computer science and science generally and “applying them to this very specific problem of trying ...
Equibit – Trading Securities with a Blockchain
June 22, 2017 06:20 - 24 minutes - 55 MBLike dollar bills, securities are a tradeable financial asset. And like dollar bills, ultimately, when it comes right down to it, securities are just words on paper. The founders of Equibit realized what had been done for the dollar could be done for securities. They realized that there was a better, safer, faster Blockchain application. Chris Horlacher of Equibit explains. “We use the BitCoin codebase, and we made a number of modifications and upgrades and enhancements to it, to make it sui...
Help Scout – Starting a Much Needed Conversation
June 22, 2017 06:18 - 28 minutes - 65.2 MBHistorically, customer service (CS) is an impersonal experience. You get assigned a ticket, and a case number, and you receive emails from a no-reply address. Often, it doesn't feel like you’re talking to a real human being. From the company's side, all that systematic organization makes sense: CS is dealing with a lot of people. But for the user, it can be frustrating and slow. Help Scout is a tool designed to facilitate a real conversation between users and CS. The idea behind Help Scout w...
Worried about the Safety, Monitoring, and Storage of Your Data? Here’s How BigID Is Helping to Protect It
June 20, 2017 07:16 - 18 minutes - 42.7 MBYour data is a fundamental right, according to Dimitri Sirota, CEO of BigID, and everyone “has a legal right to their data.” “Companies that…collect and process [the] data don’t own it.” With that shot fired, Sirota describes how the EU is taking the global lead on this with legislation (the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR) outlining what companies are required to do in tracking and monitoring consumer data. He reveals not only which types of data must be managed and protected but...
Mass Migration of Humans into Space? Daniel Faber, former CEO of Deep Space Industries Explains How, Why & When
June 20, 2017 07:10 - 24 minutes - 57 MB“It’d be a good thing to get people off Earth,” and with that, this Future Tech podcast, Exploring Deep Space, really begins as we visit with Daniel Faber, former CEO of Deep Space Industries (DSI). Although no longer with DSI, Faber is continuing to honor his calling and pursue his goal: planning and being prepared for the inevitability that is humans living off-Earth. The risks inherent to us here on Earth (meteorites or global cataclysms, for instance) can be mitigated by a move into space...
How Singularity University Is Saving the World and You Can Be a Part of It With Nicholas Haan
June 19, 2017 08:47 - 28 minutes - 65.8 MBListen to Nicholas Haan talk about Singularity University’s flagship program, Global Solutions, a 10-week session where 80 innovators from around the world learn new technologies and apply them to solve worldwide challenges. Here’s a sampling of what you’ll discover: * The start-ups and innovations that have originated from Singularity University’s Global Solutions Program and how they are impacting the world for the better * How diversity drives this innovation * How you can get in on the a...
Why a Robot Named Tarzan May Be The Key To Our Children’s Food Security with Jonathan Rogers of Georgia Tech
June 19, 2017 08:46 - 20 minutes - 47.6 MBJonathan Rogers is a professor at Georgia Tech who’s focused on designing and prototyping new robots for use in nontraditional environments. In his newest project, the nontraditional environment is a farm and the robot’s name is Tarzan. If you think a farm and a swinging robot are an odd combination, tune in to hear Jonathan Rogers explain how they’re a perfect match and why this unlikely merger can help ensure the future of the world’s food supply. Here’s a peek at what you’ll discover insid...
How Tech-Augmented Meditation Can Help You De-Stress with Mikey Siegel of Stanford University
June 16, 2017 10:08 - 42 minutes - 97.7 MBDo you have trouble falling asleep at night because your mind won’t shut off? Do your thoughts constantly wander? Do your body and mind show signs of stress overload? If you answered yes to any of those questions, then listen in as Mikey Siegel gives insights on the technologies that can help you learn to slow your heart rate and find calm even in the middle of stressful situations. Mikey Siegel is a teacher at Stanford University with a background in engineering and technology. His passion...
David Bailey on Rebranding the ‘Let’s Talk Bitcoin’ Network and the Bright Future of Crypto
June 16, 2017 09:56 - 42 minutes - 97.2 MB“Bitcoin is not a hobby anymore. It’s a $30 Billion industry, and it’s going to be a $300 Billion industry in the next 10 years.” That’s just one exciting statistic David Bailey shares as he discusses upcoming changes to the Let’s Talk Bitcoin Network. Tune in as he gives an insider’s view of the lucrative world of crypto currency and shares some exciting forecasts for how bitcoin is set to spark the next industrial revolution. Here’s some things you’ll discover in this episode: * How, in th...
Flash Coin & the Bitcoin Ecosystem – Chris Kitze Discusses Where the Blockchain Industry is, and Where It’s Headed
June 16, 2017 09:49 - 45 minutes - 103 MBIf you’ve been thinking about getting into cryptocurrency or are new to it, this podcast is for you. Chris Kitze, CEO of FlashCoin, a private blockchain platform for both application development and incentive based consumer marketing. Kitze describes that, despite the importance of Bitcoin to the marketplace, it has flaws that have allowed competitors such as FlashCoin to gain footholds in the industry. In other words, in many respects, such as buying other forms of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is...
A.I. Coin – Investing with Crypto
June 15, 2017 09:08 - 33 minutes - 77.2 MBFor ages, I’ve been saying there’s a moat, or a chasm, between cryptocurrency and fiat currency. There are just some things you can’t do with crypto yet. Now, though, that’s beginning to change. Now, with A.I. Coin, you can invest with crypto. Gavin Smith of A.I. Coin explains: “We allow people to trade stocks, trade futures, trade for an exchange using their cryptocurrency as collateral to make investments and trades.” The thing is, we’re still crossing that chasm: there are all sorts of rea...
Anti-Aging Specialist Peter de Keizer of Erasmus University Medical Center Discusses Senescent Cells and Why They Are Of Such Interest to Anti-Aging Researchers
June 15, 2017 08:31 - 30 minutes - 68.8 MBSenescent cells play a uniquely dual role in the body: in the younger stages of life, they are crucial in helping heal wounds, yet later in life, they contribute to certain aspects of aging. The powerful influence senescence cells have on the body is what drives Peter de Keizer, an anti-aging researcher at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands. In this Future Tech “Almost Here” podcast, Anti-Aging, de Keizer takes us deep into his research. His goal is to find a way to purge th...
The Newsletter That Helps Leaders and Investors Understand Blockchain (With Brandon Thomas)
June 14, 2017 08:22 - 32 minutes - 73.4 MBThe world of Blockchain is a very complex space. And it’s a space that’s easy to get lost in. Blockchain is quickly evolving from the mere backbone of bitcoin that it once was. It’s now being used to issue stock via the internet, monitor goods throughout the supply chain, and connect devices within the Internet of Things. And it’s set to keep progressing into other areas of the real world at break-neck speeds. That’s why the Newsletter, Blockchain Intel, was created. Listen in to hear Brandon...
PIOTR PIASECKI: THE BIRTH OF BITCOIN AND THE FUTURE OF CRYPTOCURRENCIES
June 14, 2017 07:54 - 25 minutes - 58.5 MBThe rise of the cryptocurrency sector and Bitcoin especially, is one of the most exciting advances of the last seven years. What lies behind these incredible developments and what changes might we see in the coming years? In this episode, Piotr provides insights in the origins of Bitcoin and learn what makes it such an innovative piece of programming. You’ll also discover where Bitcoin’s limitations lie and how the next generation of cryptocurrencies are building up and improving the Bitcoin ...
The Online Brain Training System That Could Save Your Life (With Dr. Henry Mahncke)
June 13, 2017 08:11 - 36 minutes - 84.2 MBJust like you can go to the gym to train your body, you can also learn exercises to train your brain. These brain workouts are clinically proven to improve memory and intelligence, but they can also increase your brain’s processing speed. The latter could save your life. In fact, a study from the National Institute of Health found that people who performed brain processing exercises for just 10 hours reduced their at-fault automobile accidents by 50% within a five year span. Dr. Mahncke share...
Anand Iyer on The Childcare App That Pairs Busy Parents With Trusted Care Givers
June 13, 2017 08:06 - 29 minutes - 67.1 MBFrom unexpected school closures to battling sickness yourself, there are times when you need last minute help caring for your children—and it’s not always easy to find! Since you aren’t going to entrust your home and children to just anyone, what do you do when you need a highly qualified babysitter on short notice? Anand Iyer founded the company, Trusted, to help parents answer this question. He’s designed a sitter service that employs vetted caregivers and created an app to pair parents wit...
CryptoConsultant – Investing in the Future of Blockchain Technology
June 12, 2017 09:48 - 33 minutes - 77.2 MBJason has over fifteen years of financial as well as technical experience. He has spent seven years managing different software technologies at BlackBerry. Being involved in Bitcoin since 2012, his focus is on spurring adoption across Canada while assisting blockchain start-ups on an international level. His belief in free and honest money, passion for financial education and love of all things digital is what has led him to establish Crypto Consultant. Now, CryptoConsultant is growing—and ch...
Blockchain Association of Canada – No Taxation Without Representation
June 12, 2017 09:44 - 26 minutes - 61.1 MBAs the Blockchain space has grown, it’s started to be noticed by national governments. There’s more money at stake than ever before. More people involved. Is the Blockchain a state-level concern? More specifically, Should cryptocurrencies like BitCoin be regulated? For some yes; for others, no; and from this, the debates begin. For the Canadian government, the question is whether or not to introduce a general, 5% sales tax into the sale of BitCoin. And this is where the Blockchain Associatio...
Ethan Siegel On technology’s Future, inspired by Star Trek’s vision
June 10, 2017 10:33 - 35 minutes - 82.3 MBA lot of the technologies that we use today were first imagined in Star Trek: cell phones, flash drives, tablets, sliding doors, voice-command for computers. It may seem odd now that these technologies are so ubiquitous, but in fact they once existed only in science fiction. What’s next? Warp drives? Transporters? Ethan Siegel thinks yes. “I’ll even challenge you to think of a technology that Star Trek envisioned that we don’t have, and won’t have,” says Siegel. Siegel is a theoretical astrop...
ClearLabs.com – Sequencing DNA in Food
June 10, 2017 10:27 - 22 minutes - 51.1 MBThe Human Genome Project took 13 years and cost 3 billion dollars. That was for just one human genome. Now the cost of DNA-sequencing has fallen dramatically. You can do human genetic testing for under a thousand dollars a genome today. And now next-gen DNA-sequencing technology has become economical enough to apply in different contexts. Take ClearLabs.com, a Silicon Valley tech company that’s built a DNA-sequencing platform for food. It’s expensive to mess up food, for a manufacturer. “The ...
Raya Bidshahri – Disruptive Trends in Education Tech
June 09, 2017 10:37 - 24 minutes - 55 MB300 events. 40,000 audience members. 500,000 social media followers. This is SciFest Dubai, co-founded by social entrepreneur and science journalist Raya Bidshahdri. “The goal is to really bring culture back to science; to make it fun and exciting through the arts,” says Bidshahdri. The festival is a massive undertaking in itself, but it symptomizes a greater trend in education as an industry. Namely, it shows where education is failing. The rise of festivals like SciFest Dubai—along with a...
Robin Farmanfarmaian – Hacking Healthcare
June 09, 2017 09:59 - 28 minutes - 64.9 MBAs a teenager, Robin Farmanfarmaian was mis-diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. All told, she ended up having forty-three hospitalizations, six surgeries, and three organs removed. For a mis-diagnosis. Seriously. Having gone through this, Farmanfarmaian decided to take her healthcare into her own hands. She fired her entire medical team, and took herself off the high-dose opiate she was on, leading to an experience equivalent to heroin withdrawal. “Because of that, I ended up getting diagn...
Dr. Stephen Long – Adapting Plants to Global Change
June 09, 2017 09:48 - 30 minutes - 69.4 MBHow do you feed 7 billion people? How do you grow that much food? That’s the question that confronts plant biologists. Over the past sixty years, our understanding of genetics has allowed us to increase yield of crops hugely. This, by taking an edible plant, and increasing the relative biomass of the part you can eat—a bigger grain of rice, for instance. Or a bigger bean from a soybean plant. But as the world population continues to grow, and change, researchers like Dr. Stephen Long are loo...
What If You Had the Power to Control Your Health—From the Palm of Your Hand? Eleonore Pauwels of the Wilson Center Explains How Close This Is to Reality
June 08, 2017 08:50 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBImagine this: you’re out with friends, and you’re contemplating another glass of wine despite the fact that you feel a bug coming on. Normally, you’d make a spontaneous decision based on how you think you feel both now and tomorrow. But what if you could be sure of it? In this Future Tech podcast, Genome Editing, we visit with Eleonore Pauwels, the Director of Biology Collectives with the Science and Technology Program at the Woodrow Wilson Scholar Institute in Washington, D.C. Pauwels delves...
Donnie Gebert – Empowering the Electorate with BlockChain
June 08, 2017 08:48 - 30 minutes - 69.4 MBFundamentally, the role of the BlockChain’s open ledger is to provide transparency. “Because of the nature of the BlockChain, you can look at all those transaction,” says guest Donnie Gebert. For Gebert, though, there’s more than one application of that transparency. Beyond cryptocurrency, what would the BlockChain look like if applied to policy-making? Imagine this… instead of voting on issues and representatives, you could essentially self-represent by crowd-funding government projects yo...
DigitalFutures.co – The Near Future of Digital Currency
June 08, 2017 08:39 - 26 minutes - 59.8 MBPeople love plastic. Despite the advantages of digital currency, people still love their credit cards; secure and familiar in the old paradigm, the shift to digital currencies has been slow. And yet, it is inevitable that things will change. Manie Eagar sees this change happening soon. “There’s a great convergence taking place,” he says. “Very very exciting new paradigms are starting to emerge.” “Tell me about this convergence,” I say. For years, Manie Eagar has worked in the financial sect...
Can New Tech Reduce Crime? With Robert Muggah of Igarape Institute
June 07, 2017 09:17 - 38 minutes - 89.2 MBStatistics show that crime, especially violent crime, is hyper concentrated within certain times, places and people. Just look at these stats: 90-95 % of homicides take place in less than 2% of the street addresses in any area. Half of all crimes occur within the same 10 hours of every week. 5% or less of the population in any given area is responsible for 90% of crime that happens there. Is there a way to leverage this data to prevent crime? Robert Muggah thinks so. Listen in to hear him exp...