small WORLD 200th episod! Vernor Vinge, scifi writer

[bazookajoeshow]

Interview with Vernor Vinge. We discuss what his definition of the Singularity; why he calls it the Singularity (mathematical and gravitational); the difficulty describing the possible changes brought about by the Singularity; analogies to the Singularity; Moore’s law; increased computation; wireless networking technology; artificial intelligence; mainframe computers; personal computers; robots; networked embedded processors; distributed intelligence; Karl Schroeder and his book, Ventus; valiance; RFIDs (Radio Frequency IDentification); intelligence amplification; David Brin’s neo neocortex; Whole Earth Review; Gregory Stock’s book, Metaman; hard science fiction; Charles Stross and Ray Kurzweil writing about the Singularity; Greg Egan’s book, Diaspora; the diffrence between the hard and soft take off of the Singularity; Mark Twain; humans and the animal kingdom; the buffalo analogy; Hans Moravec; Greb Bear’s book, Blood Music; why a hard take off would be such an extreme event; exponential growth; the arms race analogy; has the Singularity become a curse for Vernor; his novella, Fast Times at Fairmont High and his next novel, Rainbows End; why his new novel takes place in the near future; cell phones; Starbucks‘ hot spots; his story “Synthetic Serendipity“; is their anything to be optimistic embedded technologies in regards to privacy; Martin J. Rees‘ book, Our Final Hour; watching China; David Brin’s book, The Transparent Society; where his character Pham Nuwen came from and the books A Fire Upon The Deep and A Deepness in the Sky; does he miss teaching at San Diego State University; retiring from teaching to write full time; what he does when he’s not writing.

Featured song is “Possibly” by Johnny Isbell.

http://www.smallworldpodcast.com/images/photo-vernorvinge.gif