Episode description

Hank Pellissier--[Part 4]--(writer, editor, speaker, producer, futurist and transhumanist).

Topics: Human Intelligence--is it a product of our culture or our genes? Are some of this world's cultures more effective, more useful...maybe even more valuable? Should having babies be licensed and regulated, and not a right given to everyone? Features of Confucianism. Artificial Intelligence and the Technological Singularity. Ideas in the movie Idiocracy--a lighthearted science fiction movie in which the entire population of the world, in the far future, becomes very stupid. And I ask Hank if I am accurate in sizing him up as "an activist who feels comfortable using people's negative emotions to get the word out on topics he feels are important." I tell him that I think he views argument and controversy as useful and important tools. And I ask him if I am wrong.

Hank Pellissier is a writer, editor, speaker and producer, especially on futurist and transhumanist topics. He has written 22 articles for HplusMagazine, and 30 articles for IEET.org - the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technology. Seven of his articles placed in the Top 12 in 2011 hits. In 2012 he was appointed the Managing Director of IEET. He continued to write for the site, finishing the year with 4 articles in the Top 12. He left IEET in October 2012 to start Transhumanity.net. He gave that site to Zero State in February 2013, and started ImmortalLife.info. He sold that site to Giovanni Santostasi in June 2013, and started the website BrighterBrains.org. At this site he started producing the TRANSHUMAN VISIONS conferences in the San Fransico Bay Area. He is the author of three e-books, Brighter Brains-225 Ways to Elevate or Injure IQ, Why is the IQ of Ashkenazi Jews so High?, and Invent Utopia Now. As a journalist, he was the "Local Intelligence" columnist for the New York Times (San Francisco edition) and he's a frequent contributor to GreatSchools.org. Past work includes a daily column for Salon.com titled "Naked World," two columns for SfGate.com titled "Urban Animal" and "Odd Barkings," and dozens of articles for other publications like San Fransisco Bay Guardian, World Future Society, and Acceler8or. He has also performed as a solo performance artist and Slam Poet, under his nom de plume, "Hank Hyena."

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 11, 2014 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 31 minutes] This is the third portion of my interview with Hank Pellissier which was recorded using Skype on April 24, 2014. The final portion will be in next 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.