Podcast with Vernor Vinge
Today, we are talking with one of science fiction's most brillant and popular authors, Vernor Vinge. Vinge coined the term, Singularity, a term used to indicate a future where technological change has changed everything. We see the beginning of that change with Internet-based tools that are changing our lives--Wikipedia, Google, eBay and others. Vinge discusses his new novel, Rainbows End,
the Internet of 2025, mind transfer and whether colleges will become obsolete after the Singularity.Thanks for the three and one-half million downloads our podcasts have received so far! We had over 141,000 (141,131 to be exact) downloads just today and it seems to be growing. Who says individuals have to rely on the MSM or even cable channels to give them a platform? Podcasts are the Singularity in action.
You can listen here (no iPod needed) or subscribe to iTunes. We are asking our iTunes listeners who have not done so to please subscribe to iTunes for our podcasts to help us move up the charts. Exposure -- it's what we get instead of money!
A low-fi version for dialup users is here, and you can see all our previous episodes here.
posted by Helen at 8:26 PM
17 Comments:
I'm looking so forward to this week's edition of G&H...
I also was wondering if the G&H Show is planning on interviewing the great Egyptian bloggers anytime soon? I very much enjoyed the segment with M. Totten and thought it would be very interesting to hear from Big Pharoah, Sandmonkey, Freedom for Egyptians, etc. It may be difficult since they are overseas I understand (FFE back in states this week.)... I look forward to the Singularity issue.
I've told Glenn before that you guys have something special going. I don't have a suggestion right now for a future topic, but I do suggest you do a videocast once in a while. I realize that's a lot more work, but I'd bet some of your guests would travel to meet you for the (now-demonstrated) exposure, and I'm sure there's a studio you can use in your area. (Or do what Michele Malkin is doing, and set it up in your basement or something.)
Here are my suggestions for future podcasts:
Tony Snow (Yeah, he's busy, but surely not too busy to answer a few questions from the internet's premier podcasters.)
On immigration: Representative from the Minutemen, Senator Jon Kyl or Senator John Cornyn on where the Senate stands, or Congressman Tom Tancredo on the House position. For a front-line report, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona.
On the space elevator: A NASA representative regarding NASA's view of this project and its potential role. (Why do I doubt NASA would agree to participate?)
On school violence: Dr. Helen and ??, especially in light of the Columbine-like plots that have been exposed and thwarted in the past months.
On gun laws: Sarah Brady on her position - is it true she tilted slightly more conservative in the past year? And Texas Rep. Suzanna Hupp, whose parents were executed in the 1991 Luby's massacre, on whether her position has moderated over the past 15 years.
On war movies: Paul Greengrass, the writer and director of United 93.
On the Constitution in a time of war: Lino Graglia of the University of Texas School of Law.
On internet ethics: Not sure who, but I'd like to hear bloggers talk about this subject. Maybe Patrick "Patterico" Frey?
On college admissions: Donald Kagan, a history professor and former dean at Yale, who told John Fund (Opinion Journal 4/17/2006) that there is growing anecdotal evidence that the supersecret world of university admissions often operates in such a capricious or unpredictable way that "people are justified in questioning the fairness of the process." And maybe John Fund on the Yale Taliban saga.
On gender and race issues: Thomas Sowell.
On anything they want to talk about: James Lileks and Mark Steyn.
I would LOVE to hear Glenn (and you!) interview Neil Stephenson about the future of nanotech....
You've established yourselves as the preeminant interviewing podbloggers, much as Norm Geras did with blogging.
I suggest you take it up a notch. How about an interview vblog?
http://hotair.com/ seems to have started out strong. http://bloggingheads.tv/ seems to be Kaus's natural media, and he seems natural in every media. I can't get enough of http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/ and http://www.mobuzz.com/vlog/index_en.html . But none of these bring the Glenn & Helen aesthetic to the web.
Could I suggest a vblog interview of Bill Hobbs?
In i-Tunes, do I just do a search for "Dr. Helen" to find your podcast, or is there a link somewhere on your website?
Thanks,
g
Great podcast as always. As far as suggestions go I know that this would be difficult logistically but how about a podcast of bloggers stationed (or recently returned) in Iraq and Afghanistan? Just a thought. Keep up the great work.
Hi George,
You just click on the link in the next to last paragraph above that says, Subscribe to iTunes and it will take you right to our site to subscribe or listen--it takes a minute or so sometimes for iTunes to come up so be patient.
volroy,
If you look at our podcast archives, you will see the last podcast was with Michael Totten, just back from Northern Iraq and Turkey and a previous podcast featured Michael Yon, just back from his adventures in Iraq.
Vinge coined the term, Singularity, a term used to indicate a future where technological change has changed everything.
Actually, the term was coined in a private discussion between Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann, as the Wikipedia article correctly reports. In the sort of singularity that they had in mind, it wouldn't just be that colleges would be obsolete, human beings would be obsolete. The world would be in the hands of computers and human beings would be their witless pets, if they continued to exist at all. People would be as witless about the computers as trees are witless about people.
This was once Vinge's message too, I think, although the whole notion has been so debased that I don't know what people are saying about it now.
Helen and Glenn,
Here's a literary/political "hybrid model" guest: James Webb. Glenn's written enthusiastically about Born Fighting, which is now Webb's campaign slogan as he runs for the Virginia senatorial primary--as a Democrat!--trying to unseat George Allen.
Besides being an excellent writer (compare his fictional Gen. MacArthur to Neal Stepehenson's--heck, why not have them both on to talk about it), Webb is a fascinating political figure. He seems to be a libertarian at heart, and would probably be a big Porkbusters supporter. But he really parted with the Bush administration on the Iraq war, which he considered a major strategic blunder (you want an intelligent discussion with someone who disagrees with you about the war? He's your man).
This largely explains why he's running as a Democrat, which adds an intriguing element to his campaign. It seems that he's being embraced by the Kossacs and Air America types, who must guess that he has a decent chance of unseating George Allen. Yet his statements about the Clintons over the years would give even Zel Miller pause, and would surely give Howard Dean many a sleepless night. The thought of folks like Boxer and Pelosi having to smile and endorse him, given his past statements on, say, Tailhook, is darn near irresistible.
I hope he does win in the primary and again in November, as Allen has yet to impress me and this would put his presidential hopes out of their misery. It could be the springboard to even greater things.
But my concern is that his
honor and integrity might get in the way. He's shown that he's willing to fall on his sword in the past, and I wonder if even six years in the Cesspool on the Hill would be more than he could stomach.
absolutely anything at all with Neal Stephenson. ;)
Dale,
I like Webb's book, "Born Fighting" and we have discussed having Webb on a podcast--glad to see that you think he would make an interesting guest.
Webb would be very interesting — if you ask him serious questions about Iraq. Don't pull any punches.
Your podcast feed is still broken.
You are putting the image file inside an enclosure tag. That is what is causing the problem. Sure, blame the MT Plug-in, but please realize that there is a fix to the problem. A setting adjustment. It would be really nice to be able to download your podcasts automatically when they are posted.
Best regards from NY! » » »
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