The Topics:

• Stephen liked "Race to Witch Mountain." He called it a good kid's movie carried well by Dwayne Johnson's charisma. Other critics were not as generous - it presently has a 39% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

  One critic said, "...certainly not in the E.T.bracket." Stephen: "I agree. Few movies are. E.T. is visual literature that people will be enjoying in 100 years. "Race to Witch Mountain" is a safe and entertaining diversion for you and the kids this weekend."

• Astounding Science Facts:

  So a man is injured in a motorcycle accident and spends 20 years in a wheelchair paralyzed from waist down. Then he is bitten by a Brown Recluse spider. More bad luck huh? Well, five days later he regains the ability to walk.

  Stephen and Phil are hoping that this one-time miracle can be turned into a treatment.

• Our first breakthrough idea came from Phil - removing fear. The beta-blocker propranolol permanently reduces human fear response. The guys talked about the implications for those facing death due to illness, or danger (police or soldiers), or even political discourse.

  And wouldn't this have helped Cougar in Top Gun?

• Michael's first breakthrough idea is taking a fresh look at The Declaration of Independence and our Constitutional system. That new way of self-organization allowed the scientific, material, and moral progress of the last 230 years.

  Stephen mentioned the book "The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World."

  "Is it not the glory of the people of America that, while they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? To this manly spirit posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example, of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theater in favor of private rights and public happiness... Happily for America, happily we trust for the whole human race, [the founders of the nation] pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society. They reared the fabrics of governments which have no model on the face of the globe. They formed the design of a great confederacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate."

  - James Madison as quoted in "5000 Year Leap."

• Stephen said that "Lamina" technology (a term coined by Tobias Buckell) could bring us a mundane Singularity very soon.

  Of course the projector has to go. It should be replaced by something that only the user perceives - perhaps using eyeglasses as a monitor.

  And don't miss learning "the geekiest thing about Stephen."

• Phil second breakthrough idea, "The Longevity Dividend."

• Michael's second breakthrough idea is the development of pluripotent stem cells from adult patients.

  This is huge because these (hopefully) embryonic stem cell equivalents would be a perfect match for the patient they are taken from. It may take years to develop these techniques to the point that they can be economically offered to patients, and it could also take years to figure out how to use these cells in treatment, but this holds huge potential for medicine.

• Phil's last breakthrough idea is a proposal for social and political science. All societies divide work between the government and the private sector. Some societies lean toward more government, some toward the private sector. Here in the United States the political left and right fight back and forth between more government and more private sector solutions.

  What if we could step back from that fight for a moment and develop an objective science. Create computer simulations of the world and run 1000s of simulations to learn the right balance between government and private sector solutions to maximize happiness for the most people.

  Stephen thought it was a great idea, but warned that the assumptions about reality that the programmers insert into the simulation could definitely affect the outcome. Those assumptions would need to be disclosed and debated.

The Music:

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

Our exit music this week is from Elevation. The song is "Razoreyes."

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