The topics:

• The guys started out talking about "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian"

  

  Stephen thought "Prince Caspian" was better than "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." Phil enjoyed this movie more than the latest Indian Jones adventure. It was a function of expectations - Phil's expectations for Indy were high, and his expectations for Narnia were low.

• Next they noted the passing of three celebrities: Sydney Pollack, Harvey Korman, and Alexander Courage.

  Alexander Courage was a music composer for television and movies. He is best known for a piece of music he called "marvelous malarkey" - the theme to the original Star Trek television series.

• The main segment of the evening was "Speculist Essentials." These are our key influences. These are the things that have helped us build the unique positive outlook that the Speculist has for the future.

  Phil's Essentials were:

  • Movie or TV show

    Strangely enough, Phil's choice was Field of Dreams. Phil sees post-singularity as a time where dreams can be realized in ways we can't imagine today.

  • Fiction book

    Permutation City by Greg Egan.

  • Nonfiction book

    It's Getting Better All the Time: 100 Greatest Trends of the Last 100 years by Stephen Moore

  • Website

    Phil choice was... The Speculist. In order to write about these things, Phil's had to teach himself these things. Of course the commenters and the other contributers have enriched the experience as well.

  • Event

    2003 Foresight Vision Weekend. This is an annual event held by the Foresight Nanotech Institute.

  • Person

    John Smart. John's ideas about accelerating change, MEST compression, and the ultimate destiny of the human species have been very influential at both The Speculist and FastForward Radio.

• Stephen's Essentials were:

  • Movie or TV show

    Stephen did a sci-fi movie countdown awhile back. Though Blade Runner was at the top of the list, GATTACA was his most influential film.

  • Fiction book

    A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

  • Nonfiction book

    The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil

  • Website

    Stephen's choice was Instapundit. This is not a futurist-centric site, but Glenn Reynolds is singularity-aware and Stephen has been influenced by Glenn's Army of Davids philosophy. Scholars-for-life should go to Instapundit regularly and follow the links.

  • Event

    Apollo 11 Moon Landing.

  • Person

    Aubrey de Grey. Stephen has been very much influenced by Dr. de Grey's SENS project and his book Ending Aging.

• Michael Darling's Essentials and the essentials of the chat participants were:

  • Movie or TV show

    Network, Solent Green, 2001, and Blade Runner were mentioned by the chat room. Blade Runner was Michael's choice.

  • Fiction book

    The chat room mentioned Neuromancer by William Gibson. Harvey chose Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, "The Idiot." Michael's choice was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

  • Nonfiction book

    The World's Religions by Huston Smith; Age of Spiritual Machines.

    Matt Duing mentioned a book that is available online. Eliezer S. Yudkowsky's Staring Into the Singularity.

    Michael's choice was Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations.

  • Website

    Chat room mentioned Yudkowsky.net, and Acceleration Watch. The first website that became part of Michael's daily life was Yahoo. Yahoo paved the way for Google and others and remains a big portal for the web.

  • Event

    Certain, ahem, love-life experiences were mentioned in the chat room. Michael choice was also the Apollo 11 space program.

  • Person

    Isacc Asimov, Gene Roddenbery, and Phil were all mentioned by the chat room.

    Michael's choice was University of Chicago Physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

• Stephen played the first 30 seconds of Viva la Vida, a new song from Coldplay from their new album of the same name. Stephen believes the song is about King Louis XVI of France.

Our front bumper is a sample of Marginal Prophets' "The Difficult Song."

Our exit music this week is from Song of the Siren. The song is "Peace Quiet."

Don't miss the FastForward music compilation:

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