The Futurists – Details, episodes & analysis

Brett and Rob unpack the result of the 2024 US national election. President-elect Donald Trump has announced candidates for his next Administration. The verdict? His picks are a clown car of unqualified candidates who intend to dismantle the apparatus of the federal government of the United States. What might this wrecking ball achieve…or destroy? Who benefits from the chaos?  Join us for a lively future-focused discussion about geopolitics, BRICs, global trade, technology, isolationism, the viability of NATO, the fate of small nations. Plus, the immense power of billionaires who have stepped forward to demand their share of the spoils. And one wildcard: will Donald Trump be the instrument of humanity’s survival?  Absurd?.  But if the Trump Administration green-lights a SpaceX mission to Mars, there’s a non-zero probability that Elon Musk’s long term plan for human colonization of another planet might actually occur. 

In this week’s show Bestselling Author Michael J Casey, the chairman of DAIS (Decentralized AI Society), senior advisor on MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency initiative, and previous Chair of Consensus at CoinDesk, joins Brett to talk the reality of decentralized and open source AI. The intersection of DeFi and DeAI appears to be a logical path if not for the hundreds of billions being invested in big tech efforts to create AGI. Is it possible to really make AI less centralized and still deliver the promise of a highly automated world? You’ll need to tune in to find out!

Michael Clark data scholar and futurist joins The Futurists this week to talk the critical misalignment of our global data infrastructure when it comes to AI and the future of the planet. He argues that data is more valuable than water, more valuable than money but can’t be just an asset used by corporations, that it must be owned but each individual from cradle to grave. How? You will need to listen to find out.

Real-time 3D computing is vast, but most people are not aware of it. RT3D tech powers online and mobile games, digital twins, industrial simulations and the much-ballyhooed Metaverse. And it has important implications for training machine learning and autonomous systems. This week’s guest expert, technology innovator Sylvio Drouin, has been working at the forefront of RT3D for decades. Join us for a tour of the emerging 3D future. 

In this week’s episode of The Futurists, bestselling author of MOVE and futurist Parag Khanna joins us to talk about climate migration, geopolitics, real-estate and agriculture in a world impacted by climate change. Khanna is the founder of futuremap and climate alpha, and has worked with the US government, World Economic Forum and others on climate change adaptation strategies and policy. 

Award-winning author and technologist Mark Pesce tells us about the deep history of today’s consumer technology in military R&D including the 30 year arc of the Metaverse which Pesce himself kickstarted in the early 1990s. Pesce points out how consumer technology has outpaced the defense innovation, and now has become a front for a new kind of warfare. 

This week we speak to a NASA veteran Wanda Harding about the future of space exploration, human boots on Mars (and back on the moon, and educating people to be passionate about the universe and exploring our solar system. Will Musk beat NASA to Mars? This week on the Futurists.

In this week’s episode Brett King and Robert Tercek, Brett’s The Futurists cohost, interview two-time presidential candidate, entrepreneur, journalist and futurist, Zoltan Istvan. We dive into how the species might evolve to adapt to living with AI, a changing climate and even to life off-planet. It’s controversial, dynamic and the philosophy and ethics of humanity are front and center in the debate. We’ll see you in the future!

In the digital domain, marketing is technology. Glenn White builds advertising systems for brand managers inside game worlds.  In this episode of The Futurists, Glenn explains the complex strategic decisions that govern how brand advertising will evolve in the Metaverse. 

July 31, 2022 was the fictional birthdate of George Jetson, so we thought we’d take a look this week at how The Jetsons has stood up over time in respect to its vision of the future.  It’s just Robert and Brett comparing notes and debating what the Jetsons got right and what they got wrong. From smart watches and flying cars to household robots and 3D printers.