The Future And You--April 23, 2014

Zoltan Istvan (journalist, entrepreneur, futurist) is today's featured guest. Topics: life-extension and the elimination of death; his proposals for a transhumanist Olympics; and how transhumanist ideas mesh or conflict with the various religions of the world. Also, ways in which life-extension may change our cultural attitudes and behaviours--for example: marriage may not survive and having children may become less popular or just delayed until later in people's lives. Also just how strong should we let artificial intelligence become, and what actions might our government take to control a singularity. Also his work stopping the illegal poaching of endangered species in Southeast Asia, and how he pioneered the extreme sport of volcano boarding. Zoltan Istvan is an American-Hungarian philosopher, journalist, entrepreneur, and futurist. He is best known as a leading transhumanist and the author of the controversial novel, The Transhumanist Wager, a #1 bestseller in both Philosophy and Science Fiction Visionary and Metaphysical on Amazon. At the age of 21 he began a solo, multi-year sailing journey around the world. His main cargo was 500 handpicked books, mostly classics. He's explored over 100 countries—many as a journalist for the National Geographic Channel—writing, filming, and appearing in dozens of television stories, articles, and webcasts. His work has also been featured by The New York Times Syndicate, Outside, San Francisco Chronicle, BBC Radio, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, Animal Planet, and the Travel Channel. In addition to his award-winning coverage of the war in Kashmir, he gained worldwide attention for pioneering and popularizing the extreme sport of volcano boarding. Zoltan later became a director for the international conservation group WildAid, leading armed patrol units to stop the billion-dollar illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia. He is a philosophy and religious studies graduate of Columbia University. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the April 23, 2014 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 33 minutes] This is the second half of my interview with Zoltan Istvan which was recorded using Skype on April 3, 2014. The first half is in last week's episode. Stephen Euin Cobb is an author, futurist, magazine writer and host of the award-winning podcast The Future And You. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. Stephen is the author of Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science as well as A Brief History of Predicting the Future.