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.