FastForward Radio
Sunday night Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon will talk about the future of fun. If automation gives us more free time, what will we do with it?
Could entertainment, recreation, and "experience" industries become the center of the economy? Will RPG's, video games, and virtual reality blur the line between entertainment and real life?
Would this be a good or bad thing?
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The topics:
- Tales of the Paranormal - UFOs Exist!
- Astounding Science Facts - Life in outer space? Astronomers hunt aliens:
Japan’s project involves astronomers filming one star over several nights - Stephen got a lot of the movie info this week from Rotten Tomatoes. Movies that have opened so far this summer:
- Forbidden Kingdom (63% at Rotten Tomatoes)
- Iron Man (93%)
- Speed Racer (36%)
- Prince Caspian (66%)
- Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (77%)
- Kung Fu Panda (88%)
- The Incredible Hulk (66%)
- Get Smart (52%)
Movies yet to come this summer:
- Next weekend we get two movies, Pixar's Wall-E and Wanted
- July 2, Hancock
- July 11, Hellboy II
- July 18, The Dark Knight
- July 25, The X Files
- August 1, Mummy 3
- August 15, Star Wars: Clone Wars
- August 15, Tropic Thunder
- Stephen thinks that our fun future could be jeopardized by peak oil.
- Phil wonders if we'll allow ourselves to enjoy the great future once it gets here. Will we obsess more and more about less and less serious problems?
- One thing both Phil and Stephen think we'll spend a lot of time doing is virtual reality.
- Stephen thinks the notion that we would get bored with an indefinite lifespan is just a new iteration of the Tithonus Error. We won't get bored because - in addition to remaining biologically young - we'll also be getting smarter. This is part of Eliezer Yudkowsky's Theory of Fun (MP3 of the speech and transcript is at the link). According to his theory, "fun space" is a function of intelligence. The more intelligent we are, the more possibilities of fun we have.
- Things we can't grasp today will be fun (and funny) to us when we're smarter. Stephen was reminded of the Simpson's episode "Bart the Genius."
Our front bumper is a sample of Marginal Prophets' "The Difficult Song."
Our exit music this week is from Axe Riverboy. The song is "Carry On."
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