The world population is moving into cities. Will we all fit? Phil and Stephen discuss what to do when the land runs out In Hong Kong, Humankind Moves Back Into Caves Hong Kong has the most skyscrapers in the world. But going high hasn’t addressed the chronic housing shortage in the city of 7.4 million, which also boasts the world’s priciest housing market. Surrounded almost entirely by the South China Sea, Hong Kong is running out of land. The government has proposed an unusual solution:...

Waiving the Flag New Film About Neil Armstrong Omits American Flag From Moon Landing Hollywood star Ryan Gosling, who portrays Armstrong in the movie, told The Telegraph the flag was omitted from the moon landing because the achievement of humans walking on the moon "transcended countries and borders." “First Man” omits flag - rather than boycott, Stephen is going to Rocky-Horror-Picture-Show it. “I hear the film’s otherwise great, so I’m carrying my own flag I’ll wave at the appropriate...

Phil and Stephen discuss the signficicance of one man's action (or rather inaction) 35 years ago. Did Stanislav Petrov save the world? Stanislav Petrov, 'The Man Who Saved The World,' Dies At 77 https://n.pr/2MJ0JXM Stanislav Petrov was a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Union's Air Defense Forces, and his job was to monitor his country's satellite system, which was looking for any possible nuclear weapons launches by the United States. He was on the overnight shift in the early morning...

Part 2: A World of Abundance Phil and Stephen wrap up their week with special guest John Palmer with a discussion of where the next big positive changes may be coming from. John outlines major coming improvements in: Energy & Transportation Food and Water Medicine & Health Care Artificial Intelligence Philanthropy For more on clean energy disruption, see the Tony Seba talk John mentioned.  About Our Guest John Palmer is a coach and speaker who is passionate about alternative...

Part 1 Amazing Improvements What kind of a future are we in for? So-So? Scary? Great? Superfantastic? Phil and Stephen talk with John Palmer about what recent trends tell us about what kind of future we can expect.  Is the world’s future bleak? There is a lot of worry about: ClimateTerrorismOverpopulationEconomic CollapseFascism -- the “bad people” are going to win (huge fear of both the left and right) But maybe we’re getting the future wrong. John outlines the biases and the media...

Phil and Stephen welcome special guest John Palmer to discuss unexpected solutions to climate change. John reviews some our-of-the-box ideas related to: Energy & transportation Land Use Materials Buildings and Cities Women and Girls For more on these kinds of approaches, see: Drawdown, by Paul Hawken.   About Our Guest: John Palmer is a coach and speaker who is passionate about alternative energy, efficient government, and, more recently, generous listening.   Together with...

Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth are out. The fourth Star Trek movie in the current franchise appears to be dead in the water. Phil and Stephen take a look at where things have been going wrong for Trek and what might set things right. First off, check out this video, which gives a good low-down with the current situation.  Star Trek 4 Loses Pine and Hemsworth - The Rise and Fall of The Kelvin Timeline What we know of Star Trek 4 sounds interesting. The story potentially involves time travel...

Phil and Stephen discuss the question -- is death integral to our humanity? They start with a look at a recent opinion piece at The New York Times: Life Is Short. That’s the Point. "Our mortality is not something to be overcome. It is integral to our humanity."  Is this correct? Are we defined by our limitations? Maybe. But we are also defined by other things, in part our ongoing struggle to overcome our limitations. Interesting quote: In her new book, “Natural Causes: An Epidemic of...

The west is getting drier and Stephen Gordon has an intriguing idea about how to get the water where it is needed. Why couldn't we pipe water from the Missouri River to the Colorado River headwaters? Stephen suggests that a pipeline about the size of this one might do the trick. .Phil and Stephen look at the major objections to this particular plan,and discuss why ideas like this need to be on the table. Another possibility: Should we be turning seawater into fresh water in order to...

The more we learn about the universe, the stranger it gets. Phil and Stephen examine some recent headlines showing just how mysterious the universe is.   Interstellar Visitor 'Oumuamua Is a Comet After All First it was a comet. Then it was a meteor. Then it was a very starnge meteor. Then it was a possible alien spacecraft. And now it's a comet again. The universe’s rate of expansion is in dispute – and we may need new physics to solve it Different parts of the universe expanding at...

Phil and Stephen review three recent news stories showing the remarkable rapid progress being made in treating (and curing?) cancer. New Australian drug puts cancer cells permanently to 'sleep' Scientists in Melbourne say they have discovered a new type of anti-cancer drug without the usual side effects of conventional cancer treatments. -- HPV vaccine eliminates advanced skin cancer in 97-year-old A 97-year-old female patient had developed multiple cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas. On...

Phil spent some time at Loch Ness last week where he and his kids came up with little in the way of evidence in support of the existence of Nessie. In light of those disappointing results, Phil and Stephen discuss some of their all-time favorite monsters. None of these critters can be ruled out, of course, but what are the chances that any of them exist? How probable is the Loch Ness monster? (Quora discussion) Bizarre, Nessie-Like Creature Washes Ashore in Georgia, and Marine Experts Are...

So let's get into it here. Aliens? Designer babies? Robo-apocalypse? Phil Bowermaster and Nate Gruendemann discuss. About our guest: Nate Gruendemann is not your typical 22-year-old. He’s young enough to still have high school senior class president and valedictorian on his resume. After two years at Williams College, he and his buddies dropped out to found Board Private Bank. His mission is to level the playing field between mortgage buyers and cash buyers in the country’s most...

Do we now live in the post-satire era? Phil and Stephen discuss whether the Onion can stay in business much longer. How do you write spoof headlines in a world that produces real ones like these?  Dozens of professional goats briefly took over a neighborhood in Boise Costco’s free cheese samples spurred a physical fight between two men in their 70s New study finds it’s harder to turn off a robot when it’s begging for its life See recent clip from The Good Place  Alex Jones’s Attorneys...

Phil and Stephen discuss new research that shows how people respond differently to robots based on what the robots say to them. Is this proof that humans are easily manipulated by robots or does it offer hope that, when the time comes, people will treat sentient robots right? New study finds it’s harder to turn off a robot when it’s begging for its life In roughly half of experiments, the robot protested, telling participants it was afraid of the dark and even begging: “No! Please do not...

Technology is changing every aspect of home purchase and home ownership.What will the suburbs look like when no one owns a car? What will the housing market look like when place no longer matters? Phil Bowermaster and Nate Gruendemann discuss. About our guest: Nate Gruendemann is not your typical 22-year-old. He’s young enough to still have high school senior class president and valedictorian on his resume. After two years at Williams College, he and his buddies dropped out to found Board...

Nate Gruendemann, a founder of Board Private Bank, outlines a plan for leveling the playing field for potential home-buyers. In today's market, cash buyers have a big advantage over those who need to secure financing. But does it have to work that way? Let's explore! About our guest: Nate Gruendemann is not your typical 22-year-old. He’s young enough to still have high school senior class president and valedictorian on his resume. After two years at Williams College, he and his buddies...

What were the greatest summer movies ever made? Or maybe it's better to ask, what was the greatest movie summer of all time? It's a full-on geekout as Phil and Stephen explore answers to these vital questions. WT 459-777 Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 Videos and Images from Pixabay.com and other sources.

Phil and Stephen discuss medical breakthroughs that promise to help us all stay young, thin, and healthy. The 'Big Bang' of Alzheimer's: Scientists ID genesis of disease, focus efforts on shape-shifting tau Scientists have discovered a "Big Bang" of Alzheimer's disease – the precise point at which a healthy protein becomes toxic but has not yet formed deadly tangles in the brain. The revelation offers a new strategy to detect the devastating disease before it takes hold and has spawned an...

When it comes to managing data for modern, agile environments, is data modeling a roadblock? Or is it, in fact, one of the keys to achieving agility? If traditional data modeling will no longer support what businesses need today, what are the alternatives? In this edition of Fast Forward, Desmarets talks with hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon about the challenges that surround data modeling in the age of NOSQL databases and agile development. He outlines how Domain-Driven Design can...

Are more people subscribing to the idea that the Earth is flat? How does flat Earth relate to other conspiracies: 9/11Lizardoid aliens controlling the earthMandela Effect Have these all been enabled by the Web? Are they spread by people trying to refute them? More and More Americans are Starting to Believe Earth is Flat In America interest in the flat-Earth movement appears to be growing. In September Bobby Ray Simmons Jr., a rapper also known as B.o.B, launched a crowd-funding campaign...

Thoughts on the Incredibles and the Incredibles 2: do these movies value being "naturally" super over technological advancement?  The Incredibles movies have a weird relationship with technology https://bit.ly/2MSukcL But there’s another, subtler thread running through the two Pixar films. And because it repeats, it seems to point to a larger philosophy: both movies feature villains whose evil deeds give the franchise a markedly technophobic outlook. In The Incredibles, it’s Syndrome, a...

Does the Web ned reopening? Let’s start with one more thought from Survival of the Richest: Of course, it wasn’t always this way. There was a brief moment, in the early 1990s, when the digital future felt open-ended and up for our invention. Technology was becoming a playground for the counterculture, who saw in it the opportunity to create a more inclusive, distributed, and pro-human future. But established business interests only saw new potentials for the same old extraction, and too many...

A futurist thinks he's speaking at a conference only to realize that he's been asked  to advise a secret meeting of billionaires. Survival of the Richest They are looking for ways to pretoct themselves fro some mysterious future "event." His conclusion? "For all their wealth and power, they don’t believe they can affect the future." The author goes on to ask whether transhumanists and techno-optimists aren't essentially the same as the billionaires -- looking or a way to save their own...

Here’s a case in point on radical uncertainty. Do we believe this? Are we alone? The question is worthy of serious scientific study https://bit.ly/2yQJCNb Declassified information from covert studies is interesting, but not scientifically helpful. This is a topic worthy of open scientific inquiry, until there is a scientific consensus based on evidence rather than prior expectation or belief. If there are indeed extraterrestrial craft visiting Earth, it would greatly benefit us to know...