Wunderdog Øystein Runde & Nitro

At 3 in the night at Starmus 2017 I finally managed to get ten minutes with astrophysicist, science communicator, director of the Hayden Planetarium. At it's purest, Wunderdog digs into one or two topics and goes deep, like Vinay's refugee cities, Casey's carbon capture, Ana's cosmic bullet holes, and Eugene's star-based life. This isn't that! This is, me grabbing hold of someone very smart and trying to squeeze fun answers out of them on as many topics as I could. 

We talk about CRISPR, Breakthrough Starshot, Ray Kurzweil, Mars exploration and contamination, mind uploads, genetically engineered bacteria and Craig Venter, sci-fi, Bach's Mass in D minor, and how Beethoven's 7th symphony is "high cholesterol" and Denis Villeneuve's "Arrival". 

I was reluctant to share it because it was so unfocused, but Neil has such a knack for delivering fun, concise answers on any topic. He did this easily, despite having been CONSTANTLY surrounded by media all weekend. He was the most popular man on a festival where ELEVEN of the guests had won Nobel prizes.

Wunderdog is produced by Nitro Studio Oslo, and music is by Trop1ce / Charky. In this particular episode my ticket was funded by Norway's Research Council, and the interview was originally done for Andreas Kjensli Knudsen, Pablo Castro & my excellent live-podcast "Applied Science Fiction" / "Anvendt Science Fiction".

The people who support this stuff are mentioned on this episode, they did so at www.patreon.com/runde  

Ein kommentar på nettsida www.barnebokkritikk.no vart illustrert med bilete genererte av Microsoft Ai Copilot. Eit bortimot samla korps av norske illustratørar og teikneserieskaparar hoppa inn på Barnebokkritikk sine facebooksider for å skjelle ut valget, deriblant eg. Ansvarleg redaktør Ingvild Bræin tok kontakt for å få lufta litt kva ho hadde tenkt, og sidan eg også hadde tankar å lufte, og temaet er litt uhandterleg, lagde vi berre ein podcast av det. Dette bringer neppe diskusjonen til noka avslutning, og kanskje heller ikkje vidare, men kort oppsummert er vel mi meining at aktørar som ynskjer framstå som seriøse ikkje bør bruke AI-genererte bilete, fordi prosessen med å kverne milliardar av bilete opp til statistikk, anonymiserer menneska som har skapt den originale kunsten, og dermed kuttar over koblinga frå menneske til menneske som er det som gjer kunst til kunst. Samstundes er eg klar over at dette er ei litt høgttravande, pretensiøs forklaring, men det er meir ærleg og presist enn "det er stygt" eller "det stjeler frå oss" eller "det tek jobbane våre", som alle er meir populære og, for meg, mindre presise grunnar.

Elles tenker eg jo at det også demokratiserer evna til biletskaping, og dermed puttar "visuelle superkrefter" i hendene på folk med handikap, folk med lite tid, og folk med mangel på ressursar. Prisen vi betaler for det er meir visuell støy og meir skrot, men det har alltid vore tilfelle når evner som har vore begrensa til ein elite vert distribuert ut til "massene" - akkurat som bloggar og facebookstatusar byrja konkurrere med trykte media. Det er ofte heslig å sjå på, men totalt sett synest eg likevel denslags er eit gode. Og akkurat som seriøse aviser kanskje ikkje bør trykke bloggpostar eller facebook-utbrudd (men likevel gjer det), bør ikkje seriøse aviser trykke AI-illustrasjonar. Det er dårleg smak, uavhengig av om produktet er fint eller stygt. 

Nettopp det at det kanskje til slutt berre handlar om smak er vrient å svelge for oss som teiknar og gjerne vil kunne forhandle hardt på pris, men akkurat no kjem eg ikkje på meir "konkrete" motargument, men kjem heller ikkje unna at det ER dårleg smak. 

Vinay Gupta: Mattereum, giving our things a trackable identity layer. Bonus: Climate refugees! Vinay has a plan! 
Vinay used to work at Ethereum. Now he's trying to develop Mattereum, a digital identity layer (based on blockchain technology) that can tell us with more precision where a product is in its lifecycle, and how safe it is to buy. The intention: To make us reuse stuff more, with higher trust, thus rewarding quality products over cheap, one-time use stuff.

https://mattereum.com/ shows how it's used, but I needed to know WHY. And that's how we got here.

After hour one, he's explained Mattereum pretty well (doesn't buying used stuff on Ebay and Amazon accomplish the same? Why do we need a blockchain solution for this? How will the quality of used goods be "supervised", and by whom? What does the future hold for Mattereum?)

According to Vinay, a big use case for Mattereum is just around the corner. As usual, you're 5 years ahead of things if you listen to Wunderdog!

In hour two, we go into Vinay's big ambition: How to help the coming wave of climate refugees as best as possible. The only way is to give them a framework that allows them to do labor. How does he plan to accomplish this?

Vinay's cheap housing design http://hexayurt.com/ has already become the go-to housing at Burning Man, but there's also large-scale infrastructure to think about.



Listen, discuss and leave reviews of the pod in your preferred player!

Jingle by @trop1ce from Twitter. May or may not contain black holes.

As usual, the podcast exists because of my amazing sponsors from www.patreon.com/runde 

Today let me highlight the following Patrons:

Roy Cato Kleveland
Ole-Morten Duesund
Kirsti
Bjarte Aune Olsen
Michael Schmichael


and in particular:

Lars Ivar Igesund
Kyle Arumugam
Kyrre Matias Goksøyr
Are Edvardsen
Kristoffer Karlsen
Øyvind Grimstad Gryt
Andreas Døving
Berit Reppen Lorentzen
Kristoffer Karlsen

Patrons are incredibly cool people! You remember the Medicis, right? And none of the other noble families from Italy around the renaissance. Just the Medicis, because they supported the arts. Maybe you remember the Borgias, because they were so horrible. But ... don't be a Borgia. Be a Medici.

Www.patreon.com/runde

"One of the most original thinkers in the world" (list of people who have said this at the bottom) is BACK for a second visit! Robin Hanson explains his "grabby aliens" idea.

This episode has a new jingle, by @trop1ce - who I found on Twitter. It contains a sample from a certain black hole sound published by NASA. Thank you! 

As usual, the podcast exists because of my amazing sponsors from www.patreon.com/runde 

Today let me highlight the following Patrons: 

Sunniva Gylver (welcome!)
Thomas Nøkleby (welcome!)
Katja
Beate Eiklid
Bjørnar Kristiansen
Joakim Kjenes

and in particular: 

Lars Ivar Igesund
Kyle Arumugam
Kyrre Matias Goksøyr
Are Edvardsen
Kristoffer Karlsen
Øyvind Grimstad Gryt
Andreas Døving
Berit Reppen Lorentzen

You patrons, you keep this going. Thank you. Remember to quit supporting whenever it should become a burden for you or if I just start making bad stuff. 

Here are the blurbs for Robin's book "Age of Em", which was the topic of our previous Robin Hanson-episode, but which i just found right now. This is wild. Look at what these people are saying. (Also, I wonder what Robin thinks about the gender balance in this list. Oh well.)

I'm reading a fascinating academic book, The Age of Em. .. It’s about brain emulation.Ian McEwan, Winner of the Man Booker prize Robin Hanson brings intelligence, imagination, and courage to some of the most profound questions humanity will be dealing with in the middle-term future. The Age of Em is a stimulating and unique book that will be valuable to anyone who wants to look past the next ten years to the next hundred and the next thousand.Sean Carroll The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself What happens when a first-rate economist applies his rigor, breadth, and curiosity to the sci-fi topic of whole brain emulations? This book is what happens. There's nothing else like it, and it will blow your (current) mind.Andrew McAfee  The Second Machine Age A highly provocative vision of a technologically advanced future that may or may not come true — but if it does, we'll be glad Robin wrote this book now.Marc Andreessen  Netscape, Andreessen Horowitz In this brilliant analysis, Robin Hanson shows that our hyper-smart `downloaded’ – or emulated – heirs will still have ambitions, triumphs and thwarted desires. They'll make alliances, compete, cooperate… and very-likely love… all driven by immutable laws of nature and economics. Super intelligence may be a lot more like us than you imagined.David Brin  Hugo: Existence, The Transparent Society Robin Hanson provides a richly detailed portrait of a future society where brain emulation is widespread. Drawing on physics, economics, sociology, history, and a host of other disciplines, he describes a world that is wonderfully strange and yet strikingly familiar. Far out? Yes. Fascinating? That too.Hal Varian  Google A fascinating thought experiment about the future, written with clarity and verve by somebody who thinks very deeply and freely.Matt Ridley  The Times, The Evolution of Everything Robin Hanson is one of the most important and original thinkers. His new tour de force will dazzle and delight you. Anyone who loves books should read The Age of Em.Tyler Cowen  New York Times, The Great Stagnation Robin Hanson has a remarkable mind and has written a remarkable book. He provides an encyclopedically-detailed analysis of a fascinating future dominated by brain emulations. Whether you agree or disagree with each of his specific predictions, each page will entice you to think more deeply.Erik Brynjolfsson  The Second Machine Age There are different paths to the Technological Singularity. In The Age of Em Robin Hanson explores one such possibility using methods and insight that all analysts of future technology can admire. With this book, Hanson owns the Em scenario. He casts a very bright light upon foot

Anders Sandberg talks volcano engineering, Freeman Dyson's computer at the end of everything, moving planets, how transparent society should get after quantum computers, and what is the best type of geoengineering! 

Anders is a futurist and transhumanist, but also deeply concerned with the ethics and risks of all the wild technology he believes will happen. He works at Nick Bostrom's Future of Life Institute, and calls himself an "academic jack of all trades". This episode is me trying to hold a firehose at full power. But Anders manages to remember where digressed every time I completely lose track of our topic. This one goes EVERYWHERE.

If you don't learn something new in this one, you're something special!

Give this podcast reviews in whatever podcast app you're listening to it in, find my patreon on patreon.com/runde and subscribe to this + comics for a dollar, remember to pet dogs and cats and don't pet walruses, and stay kind.

Made in collaboration with NITRO STUDIOS, Oslo.

Casey Handmer: On leaving Hyperloop One and NASA to bet on cheap, giga-scaleable carbon capture.

First he took a PhD in gravity waves, then he got a position at Hyperloop One because of some truly shocking problem-solving skills (as far as I can tell, just listen to the episode and see if you agree), and THEN he worked at NASA JPL, where the literal rocket science happens. Every single one of these topics could have been their own 2 hour 40 minute podcast - but we hardly go there.

This episode focuses on Casey's current endeavour after he left NASA: Terraform Industries, a carbon capture project that's designed to be ultra-scaleable - which is what the world VERY much needs. Is Casey's carbon capture project feasible? If solar power becomes cheap enough, Casey thinks so. The episode was recorded before the current war in Ukraine, and with the war, gas prices have gone up so much that Casey's technology would be profitable today.

The war has also shown (as if that was necessary) the value of producing one's own natural gas, which Terraform's machines are promising to do. It sounds almost too optimistic to be true, but Casey's credentials speak for themselves. This may be the most optimism-inducing podcast I've recorded so far, and on twitter, you can tag me @oysteinrunde and casey @cjhandmer if you have any questions or grievances.

His twitter bio reads "Physicist, Immigrant, Pilot, Dad.Former Caltech, Hyperloop, NASA JPL.Founder @terraformindie", and he came to my attention when a lot of smart space people shared his essay "Starship is still not understood".
https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2021/10/28/starship-is-still-not-understood/

If you want me to make a similar episode where we ONLY talk about SpaceX' and Elon Musk's masterpiece Starship, the spaceship that promises to really change the space industry for humankind, please find me on Instagram @rundeshow and send a PM, and do leave reviews and comments on this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts. Spreading the word helps!

This podcast exists because of the generous contribution of Nitro Studios, Oslo, and my great supporters at www.patreon.com/runde. They also get some neat digital comics!