As exciting as the Kurzweil and Hanson and Smart interviews are, I enjoy the podcast most when Phil and Steve muse about the issues, along with the chat.

Regarding the robotic or AI overlords - as the hosts agreed, we really don't know how this is going to play out. But another possibility is that the wisdom of crowds will act as the overlord.

We might all be connected some of the time; or perhaps certain types of permanent connection will take place, without interference with privacy. Maybe certain types of thoughts will always be available for public view, and others can remain private. Then those permanent connections will play a role in our defense mechanisms. (That's not a guess, merely an optimistic speculation.)

The nature of thought itself, when we start to replace our axons and dendrites with non-biological versions, will change. Who knows what will be possible, when we have traveled that far technologically?

When you come right down to it, considering how unpredictable both short-term and long-term events are - the best we can do, is share a sense of optimism with the rest of the world, and just keep moving forward.

Scary times that we live in, both economically, and in terms of surprise events like the earthquakes in Haiti. There is going to be a need for encouragement, a motivation to keep going, for a long time. Futurist writers and podcasters may become more important in the coming years.

Cars and houses are not cheap and not everyone can buy it. But, business loans are invented to help different people in such cases.

DC brings up an interesting point. When highly advanced nanocomputers are available for us to upload ourselves in, how much of our individuality will survive? How much will we want? Would the Singularity noosphere be one enormously powerful mind built of individual human memories and thoughts and personalities, and perhaps AI personalities, or will it be some sort of "federal" system, in which we are still individuals but our thoughts also make up one enormous "overmind"?

When we speak of friendly AI somehow protecting us as we are, we are very likely not (as DC suggests) considering some very weird possibilities.

So, here's a potential topic for a future show:

"Will our individuality survive the Singularity?"

Very early but promising use of nanotechnology in medical devices. Involves silver and gold nanoparticles:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/178894.php

You discussed a replicator economy and speculated that people might spend their time inventing better mousetraps. It's happening already in the RepRap and Makerbot community. Thingiverse is an open-source repository for 3D-printable objects:

http://www.thingiverse.com/popular