Interview with Vernor Vinge. We discuss what his definition of the Singularity; why he calls it the Singularity (mathematical and gravitational); the difficulty describing the possible changes brought about by the Singularity; analogies to the Singularity; Moore's law; increased computation; wireless networking technology; artificial intelligence; mainframe computers; personal computers; robots; networked embedded processors; distributed intelligence; Karl Schroeder and his book, Ventus; valiance; RFIDs (Radio Frequency IDentification); intelligence amplification; David Brin's neo neocortex; Whole Earth Review; Gregory Stock's book, Metaman; hard science fiction; Charles Stross and Ray Kurzweil writing about the Singularity; Greg Egan's book, Diaspora; the diffrence between the hard and soft take off of the Singularity; Mark Twain; humans and the animal kingdom; the buffalo analogy; Hans Moravec; Greb Bear's book, Blood Music; why a hard take off would be such an extreme event; exponential growth; the arms race analogy; has the Singularity become a curse for Vernor; his novella, Fast Times at Fairmont High and his next novel, Rainbows End; why his new novel takes place in the near future; cell phones; Starbucks' hot spots; his story "Synthetic Serendipity"; is their anything to be optimistic embedded technologies in regards to privacy; Martin J. Rees' book, Our Final Hour; watching China; David Brin's book, The Transparent Society; where his character Pham Nuwen came from and the books A Fire Upon The Deep and A Deepness in the Sky; does he miss teaching at San Diego State University; retiring from teaching to write full time; what he does when he's not writing.

Special thanks to Patrick from the Mysterious Galaxy Books for putting me in contact with Vernor.

Featured song is "Possibly" by Johnny Isbell.

small WORLD Podcast web site
 http://www.smallworldpodcast.com

small WORLD Podcast subscription
 http://feeds.feedburner.com/smallworld