Episode 89 - XRisk

Recorded: 6 April 2018
Released: 7 April 2018
Duration: 91 minutes, 56 seconds

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Host Paul Carr welomes panelists Gita Jaisinghani, Sam Lichtenstein, Nick Nielsen and Adam Smith

Eric Drexler

to take about a selection of Existential Risks.

Topics include: nanotechnology, pandemics, AI, and Climate Change. As usual, we let the discussion wander where it will go.

Links

Future of Humanity Institute (exrisk think tank)

Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk

There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom

Nanotechnology: Armed resistance

Orthogonality Thesis

The Paperclipper

Gray Goo

Controversial US scientist creates deadly new flu strain for pandemic research

Engineered Avian Flu Could Kill Half the World's Humans

Asilomoar AI Principles

NASA on Climate Change

Early climate action has big effect on rising sea levels

Credits

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky
Links: Nick Nielsen

Unseen Pub #8 tonight - join us!

Here is the watch live link if you don't want to participate:

If you do, just meet up with us on Twitter, @podcastunseen, and tell us you'd like to be on #upub8.

Episode 88 - Chad Davies on the Scientific Odyssey

Recorded: 16 February 2018

Released: 17 February 2018
Duration:  85 minutes, 8 seconds

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Host Paul Carr welcomes special guest Chad Davies of the Scientific Odyssey podcast, and panelists Sam Lichtenstein and Patrick Festa, to talk about the history and philosophy of science.

erratum: at the end, the host says it's the 16th of September. It was February.

Links:

the Scientific Odyssey Podcast:

Blog

On Facebook

On Apple Podcasts

On Stitcher

On player.fm

Chad Davies on Twitter

The Doom of Spacetime

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

The Unseen Podcast

Episode 87 - The Fight for Kids in Space

Recorded: 26 January 2018
Released: 27 January 2018
Duration: 104 minutes 39 seconds

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Host Paul Carr is joined by special guest panelist and documentary filmmaker Paul Hildebrandt,  director of The Fight for Space. Joining The two Pauls are Mike Mongo, Jon Eckberg, and Nick Nielsen. We talk about kids in space, and how it relates to Paul Hildebrandt's kickstarter for his film First to the Moon.

 

Links

Fight for Space
First to the Moon Kickstarter

Eric S. Raymond on Google Plus
Linus Torvalds on Google Plus

Sally Ride

Valentina Tereshkova
Who Was Sally Ride?
Christa McAuliffe
Apollo 8
Thomas Selfridge, first person to die in an airplane crash

Blanche Scott
The Apollo 1 Fire

Stowaway to the Moon

Schoolgirl sailor triumphs after battle with authorities

Fight for Space

Earthrise

The Overview Effect

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

Episode 86 - A Hyperbolic Trajectory Through the Drake Equation

Recorded: 19 January 2018
Released: 20 January 2018
Duration:126 minutes, 28 seconds

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Frank Drake and his famous equation

Host Paul Carr is joined by new panelist Jon Eckberg, and regulars Nick Nielsen, Buck Field, Mike Bohler and Patrick Festa to talk about how the discovery of the interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua affects the terms in the Drake Equation, if at all. As is typical for us, the discussion ranges wide, once again confirming the Drake Equation's role as an excellent mental lens.
affects the terms in

Links:

The Drake Equation
Through the Lens of the Drake Equation
Claudio Maccone - The Statistical Drake Equation
David Jewitt - Oddball Visitor from Outer Space
Early trace of life from 3.95 Ga sedimentary rocks in Labrador, Canada
Guns, Germs, and Steel
The Case for K Dwarf Stars
This Humpback Whale Saved a Woman's Life, But Probably Not on Purpose
Face to Face with a Leopard Seal

A Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracy
Oh, No Ross and Carrie

Credits: 

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

Episode 85 - Beyond Flags and Footprints

Recorded: 5 January 2018
Released: 6 January 2018
Duration: 97 minutes, 44 seconds

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Erratum: the 2017 Federal Budget is 4.1 Trillion dollars.

Host Paul Carr is joined by panelists Adam Smith, Nick Nielsen, Patrick Festa, and Buck Field to talk about the human return to the moon. It seems to boil down to: yes,, but who's going to pay for it? Maybe the Chinese? Maybe American or Asian billionaires? Somehow this drifts into discussion of flat Earthers and joke cults.

 

Links

Artist's conception of lunar colony

Deep Space Gateway
Space Launch System
SpaceIL

Thiel: Google has $50B, doesn't innovate  or the longer version: 2012 - Eric Schmidt and Peter Thiel - Debate
The Largest Companies by Market Cap

Robert Zubrin - Mars Direct: Humans to the Red Planet within a Decade

"There is a tide in the affairs of men."
Lava tubes as hidden sites for future human habitats on the Moon and Mars
Lunar lava tube
Budget of NASA

5 Whys

Stalinist gigantism

The World at War

A Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracy
Ross and Carrie Traverse Flat Earth
Ross and Carrie Go Raelian
Church of the Subgenius
North Texas Church of Freethought

 

Credits

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

Hardware: Shure, ProArt, Focusrite, Apple, Audio Technica,Tascam
Postproduction: Auphonic Desktop Application
Hosting: Libsyn

The Unseen Podcast is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike license.

Episode 84 - Will Religious Aliens Serve Man?

Recorded: 8 December 2017
Released: 9 December 2017
Duration: 97 minutes, 32 seconds

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GJ 273B in Aladin

Host Paul Carr welcomes panelists Nick Nielsen, Sam Lichtenstein, and Patrick Festa to talk about
the possible consequences of Active SETI, or METI. Of course, the discussion veers off into religion and just how tasty man flesh is.

Links:

Interview with METI.org president Douglas Vakoch
James Benford: Whispering at the Stars
SETI, METI, and Existential Risk
Daniela DePaulis talks about Project Cognos.

Pascal Boyer
John Romer: Testament
Evolutionary Psychology of Religion

The Twilight Zone: To Serve Man (video)
Fred Saberhagen's Beserker

Ferengi

Andy Weir talks economics
The Star Trek Ferengi
Douglas Adams' Planet Krikkit

The Wow! Signal's Towel Day episode on Douglas Adams.

Credits:

Host and Producer: Paul Carr
Music: DJ Spooky

The Unseen Podcast is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike license