Too Much Magic With James Howard Kunstler | The DisinfoCast with Matt Staggs: Episode 07 iTunes | Download (mp3) | RSS | iPhone App Social critic and peak oil provocateur James Howard Kunstler is on The DisinfoCast to discuss his upcoming book Too Much Magic: Technology, Wishful Thinking and the Fate of the Nation. Kunstler believes that the end of cheap, readily available oil is very near, and with it the collapse of the industrial society as we know it. According to Kunstler, alternative energy sources and other technological solutions are just wishful thinking, and the future that awaits us may very well resemble our past.
Tags / futurism
Tagged with “futurism”
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“Too Much Magic” With James Howard Kunstler | Disinformation
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Why David Brin Hates Yoda, Loves Radical Transparency | Underwire | Wired.com
The best-selling author and futurist doesn’t mince words when it comes to his disdain for Star Wars’ wizened guru (or for George Lucas, creator of the "horrible little oven mitt"). Find out what he thinks about capitalism, autism, SETI’s brilliant but misguided search for extraterrestrial life and other hot topics in the latest edition of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast.
Tagged with wired davidbrin futurism geeksguidetothegalaxy
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Warren Ellis on The DisinfoCast with Matt Staggs
Posted by Matt Staggs on May 15, 2012
Legendary comics author and novelist Warren Ellis joins me on The DisinfoCast for a conversation about the future that was, artificial intelligence, the Singularity, aliens (ancient and otherwise), the legacy of Hunter S. Thompson, porn and even a little bit about comic books. Tune in.
http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/warren-ellis-on-the-disinfocast-with-matt-staggs
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Vernor Vinge Is Optimistic About the Collapse of Civilization | Underwire | Wired.com
Noted author and futurist Vernor Vinge is surprisingly optimistic when it comes to the prospect of civilization collapsing.
“I think that [civilization] coming back would actually be a very big surprise,” he says in this week’s episode of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “The difference between us and us 10,000 years ago is … we know it can be done.”
Vinge has a proven track record of looking ahead. His 1981 novella True Names was one of the first science fiction stories to deal with virtual reality, and he also coined the phrase, “The Technological Singularity” to describe a future point at which technology creates intelligences beyond our comprehension. The term is now in wide use among futurists.
But could humanity really claw its way back after a complete collapse? Haven’t we plundered the planet’s resources in ways that would be impossible to repeat?
“I disagree with that,” says Vinge. “With one exception — fossil fuels. But the stuff that we mine otherwise? We have concentrated that. I imagine that ruins of cities are richer ore fields than most of the natural ore fields we have used historically.”
That’s not to say the collapse of civilization is no big deal. The human cost would be horrendous, and there would be no comeback at all if the crash leaves no survivors. A ravaged ecosphere could stymie any hope of rebuilding, as could a disaster that destroys even the ruins of cities.
“I am just as concerned about disasters as anyone,” says Vinge. “I have this region of the problem that I’m more optimistic about than some people, but overall, avoiding existential threats is at the top of my to-do list.”
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/03/vernor-vinge-geeks-guide-galaxy/
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Why William Gibson Distrusts Aging Futurists’ Nostalgia
Few things seem more pathetic than a science fiction writer who pines for the "good old days." Just a whiff of that sort of crippling nostalgia sets of
Tagged with futurism williamgibson technology
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Future Tense: Science Fiction
Russian/American scientist and author, Isaac Asimov, once wrote: Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.
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PodOmatic | Best Free Podcasts
KMO welcomes Joe Bageant, author of Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War, to the program to examine the corporate media-fabricated bubble of hyper-propaganda that Americans perceive as the real world, the "Stockholm syndrome of the soul" by which we identify with the ideologie" name="DESCRIPTION
http://c-realmpodcast.podomatic.com/entry/2009-04-15T10_20_26-07_00
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Jennifer Finney Boylan Loves Monsters in Episode 28 of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy
Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror, joins us this week on io9’s Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast to talk about literal and metaphorical monsters, and growing up transgender.
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The Interview: Ray Kurzweil
Ray Kurzweil is an American scientist who wants to live forever. He has made several successful predictions about a technology driven future. And this week on The Interview he tells Carrie Gracie that technology could make death a thing of the past.
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The Coming Age of Magic
The Coming Age of Magic, ETech Conference 2007, Mike Kuniavsky: Mike discusses how information processing is integrated into everyday objects, and the ‘desktop’ metaphor is obsolete. This post-desktop model of computing is known as ubiquitous computing. From http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/podcasts/
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