Episode description

R.U. Sirius (Editor-In-Chief of the new Transhumanist Magazine called H+ as well as writer, talk show host, and cyberculture icon) is today's featured guest.

R.U. Sirius tells how Timothy Leary (his friend and fellow cyberculture activist) helped him trick William Gibson (the reclusive author of the seminal cyberpunk novel Neuromancer) into providing them with an interview for Mondo 2000 (the cyberculture magazine of which R.U. Sirius was editor and co-founder).

He also talks about his work with Bruce Sterling (SF author and cyberculture leader); his candidacy for president in 2000; how the decline of print magazines is opening up the possibility that the new transhumanist magazine H+ may become a print magazine; and he accepts an invitation from me (your host) to do two personal appearnces inside the virtual world of Second Life.

And somewhere in the middle of all this he finds time to talk about technological enhancements to our IQ and mood; the accuracy of Ray Kurzeil's time-line; artificial intelligence; diminishing privacy; biotechnology; Amazon's Kindle; virtual reality; and why molecular manufacturing might become the magic bullet to end scarcity, increase health and extend human longevity.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the December 24, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 51 minutes]

R.U. Sirius (who was born Ken Goffman) may be best known as co-founder and the original Editor-In-Chief of Mondo 2000 Magazine from 1989–1993. He was Editor-In-Chief of Axcess magazine in 1998, and GettingIt.com from 1999-2000. He was also chairman and candidate in the 2000 U.S. presidential election for The Revolution Party; which had a platform that was a mixture of libertarianism and liberalism. He has been a regular columnist for Wired News and the San Francisco Examiner, a contributing writer for Wired and Artforum International. And he has written for Time, Esquire, Rolling Stone and many other publications. Altogether, he has written several hundred articles and essays.

News Items in this episode include: [1] Review of Robot Magazine. A glossy, full-color, 80 page-thick magazine crammed with articles about how to make robots, program robots, where to get robot parts, and what happened at all the latest robot competitions. [2] Kim Stanley Robinson will be in Second Life for an open forum discussion on Saturday, January 17, 2009. Beginning at Noon Pacific Time, it will be hosted by my friend Sophrosyne Stenvaag as part of her series of open forum discussions with people who are shaping the future, entitled Sophrosenye's Saturday Salon. [3] I attended my first baby shower inside Second Life. On December 14, 2008 Giulio Prisco (in Spain) threw the shower for Amara Graps (in Denver). Photos I took are on my Flickr page.