Topic: The Future

Microelectronics is increasingly being used as a way to control critical systems in vehicles. Wireless sensors, speech recognition systems, and location-determination technologies are being employed to help navigation and improve the driving experience. In this talk from Where 2.0, Balaji Prasad of EDS explains how automotive telematics is helping create a more "Connected Vehicle." [Where 2.0 audio from IT Conversations]

With every passing day, it feels like the world is getting smaller and smaller. We have the ability to share photos and ideas with anyone in the world almost instantly, and the tools to find cheap gasoline on the road. Peter Barrett from Microsoft's IPTV and Scott Rafer of Wireless Ink talk about how people and technology create and foster community. [Accelerating Change Audio from IT Conversations]

Most watchers agree that the complexity of hardware is increasing at an exponential rate and that this has significant implications for the future of humanity. But what about the software that will guide the systems, and how do we prepare for a future that includes nanobots, engineered biology and artificial intelligence. Ray Kurzweil offers his vision for such a future, showing how much of it is happening now and how we can all benefit. [Accelerating Change 2005 audio from IT Conversations]

The idea that a superhuman machine intelligence could be created within our lifetimes is one that captures the imaginiations and fears of many. How can we plan for something which, by definition, changes the world in unimaginable ways? Vernor Vinge is the populizer of the term "Singularity" to describe the point at which technological progress advances so much that we cannot predict anything beyond that point. In this address from Accelerating Change 2005, he discusses how we could prepare for this type of event. [Acccelerating Change audio from IT Conversations]

We are all ambassadors to the future - this is the guiding principle behind the Accelerating Change conferences. In this opening address, organizer John Smart introduces the speakers presenting and the ideas discussed at the conference. [Accelerating Change audio from IT Conversations]

Dr. Moira Gunn is on-stage with prolific inventor Ray Kurzweil. You know him best as the inventor of speech recognition systems and music synthesizers. In more recent years he's moved his focus to artificial intelligence, human consciousness and biological intelligence. They talk about his latest book: "The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology." This version of the interview has been edited to fit the radio clock. The unedited edition will be published as part of the Accelerating Change 2005 series here on IT Converations. [Tech Nation audio from IT Conversations]

Most applications on the web today remain in thrall to the legacy of the written word: There remains a sense that everything on the web is really a document. Ramesh Jain believes that the new emphasis on 'where' is a first step to a radical change in perception which will lead to events becoming the most important aspect of what he calls Computing 3.0. [Where 2.0 audio from IT Conversations]

What do historical maps show and what do they hide? How were the cartographers over the centuries biased? How can these old maps be used, superimposed and blended with current maps to show the changes in topography over the centuries? How can old maps be "remixed" with current information to reveal interesting information about cities? David Rumsey talks about the evolution of maps over the centuries and how they can be used to reveal interesting information. [Where 2.0 audio from IT Conversations]

In the future, we will all be monitored all the time - by each other, and that future is beginning now. Learn how your camera phone is starting a snowball effect that will end not in Big Brother Watching You, but in hundreds of thousands of little brothers and sisters watching everyone and everything. This empowering and disturbing vision is articulated by Jamais Cascio in a keynote address from MeshForum 2005. [MeshForum audio from IT Conversations]

We've all imagined teleporting from place to places and making clones or copies of ourselves. But have you ever wondered what might happen if we were actually able to do so? Host Dave Slusher speaks to renowned science fiction author Wil McCarthy about what these advancements might mean and about technology, science and us.