Episode description

Gregory Benford (Nebula Award winning author, physicist and professor) is today's featured guest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 3, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes] This is the second half of the interview recorded on January 16, 2010.

Topics: the Neanderthal Genome Project and the two teams working on bringing back the Woolly Mammoth; his impression of the 3D movie Avatar; why he became an atheist and the growing cultural bias he sees toward those who remain religious; how e-books have the big New York book publishing houses terror-stricken; his approach to electronic rights for his own books; the goals of The Mars Society and of The L5 Society; the life extension product he is involved with (Genescient); his going to school with Vernor Vinge, and how they differ in their expectation of The Singularity; the new book he and Larry Niven are working on; and the short story he wrote that horrified his friend Ray Bradbury.

In popular culture Gregory Benford: is a science fiction writer with over twenty novels to his credit; has won the Nebula Award twice; in 1989 was host and scriptwriter for the television documentary series A Galactic Odyssey; and also served as scientific consultant for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In academia Gregory Benford: has a doctorate in physics; is a professor of physics at the University of California; conducts research in plasma turbulence and in astrophysics; has published well over a hundred scientific papers; and has served as an advisor to the Department of Energy, NASA and the White House Council on Space Policy.