Topic: Science and Technology (general)
Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Dr. Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo and the inventor of plastics derived from corn, about corn derived biofuels. Also, Dr. Bill Gerwick and his graduate student Cameron Coates talk about producing fuel from algae.
Defense journalists Nathan Hodge and Sharon Weinberger have traveled globally to visit sites where the infrastructure of the nuclear arms race still remains. On this edition of IEEE Spectrum Radio, Hodge and Weinberger, who are husband and wife, talk about nuclear tourism and their motivations for writing the book A Nuclear Family Vacation which chronicles an array of discoveries from a one-eyed baby in Kazakhstan to radioactive deer hunting in Tennessee.
How do you create a friendly Artificial Intelligence? Eliezer Yudkowsky, Co-Founder & Research Fellow at the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, has focused his work on overcoming some of the mathematical impediments to building a self-improving AI. In this presentation he discusses the very speculative possibilities of creating an artificial mind infused with a sense of direction, and capable of learning from its own mistakes.
Jon Udell speaks with Granicus co-founder Tom Spengler, who explains how his company's streaming media system enables governments to manage the capture and synchronized presentation of video and text, making the proceedings usefully transparent.
Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Dr. Robert Martensen, author of "A Life Worth Living," about the good and bad of technology in healthcare in general and as we approach the end of life.
Doug Fisher of Intel speaks about Intel's joint efforts with Ubuntu to deliver rich capabilities in a MID, a mobile internet device. After giving a summary of Intel's activities in support of the open source space, Fisher focuses on the growing relationship between Intel and Ubuntu to innovate the platform and the operating environment for the MID and to create together new usage models in new markets.
Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Business Week journalist and author, Steven Baker, about his latest book, "The Numerati." In his book, Baker discusses the impact of digital technology in the world: toll booths, credit cards, and immediate access to information.
When President Bush set limits on stem cell research in 2001, millions of families who were hopeful that such research could help alleviate the diseases of their loved ones were devastated. In this Stanford Center for Social Innovation audio lecture, attorney Robert Klein discusses his efforts to author and push through legislation in California which, so far, has succeeded in advancing such research. Sharing personal and political struggles, Klein movingly underscores the urgency behind his quest.
The Technological Singularity - the moment when artificial intelligence overtakes human intelligence - is coming. According to Vernor Vinge, who invented the term, it will occur sometime around 2030. In this interview with Spectrum Radio's Harry Goldstein, mathematician and science fiction author Vernor Vinge discusses his latest novel "Rainbow's End" and the concept of the Singularity as depicted in his book.
November 2008 marks the tenth anniversary of RFC 2445, the iCalendar specification that governs the exchange of calendar information on the Internet. On this edition of Interviews with Innovators, host Jon Udell invites one of the authors of RFC2445, Derik Stenerson, to reflect on the history of the venerable standard, and to consider new ways it might be applied in our era of personal publishing.
