Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku describes some of the inventions he thinks will appear in the coming century — including Internet-ready contact lenses, space elevators and driverless cars — in his book Physics of the Future.
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/29/142717081/physics-of-the-future-how-well-live-in-2100
Powerpoint presentations, key performance indicators and mission statements. Do they make our businesses and institutions run more efficiently, or are they irritating and faddish, not just devoid of meaning, but actually obstructive of clear communication? In his new book, "Bendable Learnings", there is no doubt what Don Watson thinks. In this laugh-out-loud talk at the ANU, he outlines his argument for why we need to avoid the ridiculous confusion of corporate language.
The Design of Business shows how leading companies use design thinking to push knowledge through stages that produce breakthrough innovations and competitive advantages. Roger Martin illustrates how to combine proof-based analytical thinking with possibility-based "abductive thinking;" how to change structures and processes to move knowledge from one stage to the next; and how to develop the key tools of design thinkers: observation, imagination, and configuration.
Through these stories, The Design of Business reveals the true foundation of successful, profitable innovation, connecting the worlds of business and design. Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800 Location: New York, NY, Wollman Hall, New School Program and discussion: http://fora.tv/2009/11/12/Roger_Martin_The_Design_of_Business
Hugo Award nominee and winner Charles Stross is in studio to chat about his latest book, Saturn’s Children. Charles explains how the story is really a Heinlein styled period piece, an homage to Heinlein’s late period, and tells the story of an android designed to be a sex robot for humans, only humans have gone extinct before she rolls off the assembly line.
Why else would a robot have been built with nipples?
The talk ranges from the appeal of Heinlein, the book sales percentages in the UK, and about the next few books he is working on, a sequl to Halting State, and more in the Merchant Princes series.
From http://www.dragonpage.com/2008/08/12/cover-to-cover-322a/
Neal Stephenson, the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, reads from and discusses his new novel Anathem, a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable-yet strangely inverted-world.
From: http://authorsontourlive.com/aot-135-neal-stephenson-podcasts-anathem/
Tagged with neal stephenson author anathem book reading science fiction sci-fi
Space, the final frontier. But is science fiction the final frontier when it comes to being a literature of ideas? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll wax philosophical about science fiction with two of the genre’s greatest writers — George R.R. Martin and Ursula K. Le Guin. And we’ll explore H.P. Lovecraft’s literary philosophy of "Cosmicism."
Author Steven Johnson’s new book, The Invention of Air, is, on the one hand, a supple examination of the man largely credited with the discovery of oxygen. On the other, it’s a subtle reminder of the intellectual glories of bygone days when great thinkers mastered numerous fields, not merely one.
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=93525086
The preeminent scientist Richard Dawkins is Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. Discover magazine recently dubbed him "Darwin’s Rottweiler" for his fierce defense of evolution and Prospect magazine placed him among the top three public intellectuals (with Noam Chomsky and Umberto Eco) worldwide. His award-winning books include The Selfish Gene, in which he first introduced the concept of the "meme," and The Blind Watchmaker, a convincing account of neo-Darwinian theory. In The God Delusion, Dawkins asserts the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm religion has done society, from the Crusades to 9/11.