Juan Enriquez gave a TED talk in 2009 called “The next species of human,” and video went viral - and is now one of the most popular futurist talks in TED history. In addition to previously founding the Life Sciences Project at the Harvard Business School, Juan is now managing partner in Excell Venture Management in Boston, MA.   In this interview we discuss Juan’s thoughts about the most relevant technologies that might “tinker with what’s human,” and which such technologies might be the first to require serious ethical consideration from humanity as a whole, in the public and private sectors.

Decades ago, Cornell’s Dr. Joe Halpern wrote a book called “Reasoning with Uncertainty.” In this interview, we discuss alternative approaches to handling large-scale uncertainty - as might be applied to broad concerns such as environmental policy, or the management of hard-to-predict emerging technologies.   Through thought experiments and some philosophical exploration, Prof. Halpern explains some potential alternatives to “probabilities,” and opens up the door to other, potentially more robust methods of managing large, uncertain, important questions for humanity’s future.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor became remarkably well-known following her TED talk called “My stroke of insight,” where she explained her experience of having a stroke from her perspective… that is to say: perspective of a neuroscientist. Since then Jill has been featured on Oprah, and her book (with the same title as her TED talk) is available in over 30 languages worldwide. In this interview, Dr. Taylor explains her perspective on the place and purpose of the left and right hemispheres, and how an understanding of neuroanatomy might help us make sense of our own desires / drives, and help us lead a more fulfilling or productive life.

Dr. John MacCormick is the author of the book “Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today's Computers,” and in this interview, he shares some of the fundamental algorithms that support modern artificial intelligence, and his optimistic views on the future of AI.  

Dr. Gregory Hickok is working on modeling brain circuits related to hearing and auditory information at the University of California, Irvine. Listen into this interview to hear what Greg believes might be the grandest application of cognitive neuroscience in the coming decade, and why - when asked about modeling the human brain in the coming decades - he says “I don’t see the brain giving up it’s secrets in the next couple of generations.”

Dr. Nils Nilsson was one of the early researchers in emerging technology back in the 1960s - graduating with his doctorate from Stanford before it had a computer science department. In this interview, Dr. Nilsson joins me from his retirement residence in Oregon and shares his overview of the history of artificial intelligence - and his thoughts about it’s most meaningful impact in the coming 10-20 years.

Zoltan Istvan doesn’t believe that issues of life extension, genetic modification, and neural prosthetics are the problems for the president in the year 220, but that they’re among the most important considerations of the future of America, and of human life in general. In this interview, I ask Zoltan what kinds of technology and health initiatives he’d get behind as a president, as well as his own thoughts as to how concerns of merging technology might be brought to the forefront of American awareness (without a disaster, that is).

Gray Scott’s mission is to bring the concerns of the future to the public - and with recent coverage in Psychology Today, New York Post, and the World Future Society, he’s picking up steam. In this interview, Gray and I discuss the most important societal shifts that he believes are opening up our generation and culture to take issues like life extension and brain-machine interface. We discuss how modern skepticism of religious dogma plays a role in the social shift towards transhumanism.

Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman is no slouch when it comes to understanding the human mind - particularly the diagnoses and treatment of mental illness. In addition to being chair of psychiatry at Columbia University, Dr. Lieberman sits on the advisory board of many of the world’s largest drug companies. In this particular interview, Dr. Lieberman shares his thoughts around the most transformative technological developments in understanding the mind in the last 10 years - as well has his predictions as to which technologies and approaches will break the most ground in the future of diagnosing and treating mental illnesses.

There are “techno-optimists” and “techno-pessimists”… and there’s those who just don’t know what they’re talking about. Skeptic Magazine’s founder Michael Shermer shares his thoughts on what’s hyped-up and what’s worth considering in the human race to the future.