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How we can best prepare young people to be successful in the 21st century. There are two guests. Esther Wojcicki is the founder and director of the highly acclaimed Palo Alto High School Journalism Program, where students learn journalism by doing journalism. She was named California Teacher of the Year in 2002 and is the author of the recent book “Moonshots in Education.” Marc Prensky is a speaker, author and consultant in the field of education. He’s the founder and director of the Global Future Education Foundation, which promotes new approaches to education, and has written seven books, including “Education to Better Their World.”
A discussion of the major challenges facing humanity in the 21st century, and how we might best deal with them. The guest is astrophysicist and futurist David Brin who serves on an advisory board to NASA and is also a bestselling science fiction author. One of his novels, “The Postman,” was made into a movie starring Kevin Costner. He’s also a nonfiction author whose recent works deal with the increasing levels of surveillance in our society and its possible consequences.
A discussion of the culture of innovation that makes scientific breakthroughs possible. The guest is Norman Winarsky, past president of SRI Ventures, a part of SRI International, where he built the SRI venture process and helped found about 60 technology companies including robotic surgery company Intuitive Surgical, and Siri, that was later purchased by Steve Jobs for the iPhone. Norman and his team also won an Emmy Award for their contributions to high definition television. He’s the coauthor of the recent book “If You Really Want to Change the World.”
Two prominent nanotechnologists discuss their work. Z. X. Shen is a Professor of Physical Sciences at Stanford University, a former Chief Scientist at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the winner of the E. O. Lawrence Award from the U.S. Energy Department. Nicholas Melosh is Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford, and a winner of the National Science Foundation early career award.
A discussion of technological innovation with Curt Carlson, former President and CEO of SRI International, one of the world’s top research labs renowned for bringing great technology to the commercial marketplace. He helped start over 25 new companies, including Siri and Intuitive Surgical. He is founder and CEO of Practice of Innovation, an international consulting company that advises governments, corporations and universities on how to get more value from their workers. He served on President Obama’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
An interview with Cassandra Vieten, president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which conducts research into the nature of consciousness and how to unlock the full potential of the human mind. The Institute of Noetic Sciences, or IONS, was founded in 1973 by the late Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell, one of the few men to ever walk on the Moon. Returning from his lunar voyage, he reported an intense experience of the oneness and interconnectedness of all life, and founded IONS in order to study that phenomenon. Cassandra is also a mind-body medicine research scientist , a licensed clinical psychologist, and the author of “Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life.”
The connection between neuroscience and compassion, and whether new understandings in neuroscience can enable us to be more compassionate toward one another, as well as more effective in all areas of life. The guest is James R. Doty, M.D., Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University, and founder and director of CCARE, the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, which received its initial funding from the Dalai Lama. Dr. Doty is also an inventor, an entrepreneur, and author of the book “Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart.”
A discussion of computer generated animation and interactivity. The guest is Jerome Solomon, Dean of Cogswell College, a Silicon Valley school that trains people for careers in technology with an emphasis on digital art and animation, as well as game design and development. Jerome had a 17 year career in Hollywood, where he worked at Industrial Light and Magic and DreamWorks Animation and produced several top tier video games. He is also the chairman of the 2017 SIGGRAPH Conference, whose aim is to foster innovation in computer graphics and interactivity.
A radical new technology for spaceflight, which if successful, could enable spacecraft to travel more than 1000 times faster than they do today. The project is called Breakthrough Starshot, and the goal is to launch a space probe to Alpha Centauri, the next nearest star, and have the trip take a mere 20 years instead of the 30,000 years it would take with current means of propulsion. The guest is Breakthrough Starshot director Pete Worden. A former director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, he’s a retired Brigadier General in the U.S. Air Force with a PhD in Astronomy, and is recognized as one of the world’s leading space experts. Breakthrough Starshot is funded by a $100 million grant from Russian philanthropist Yuri Milner. Other notable people involved in the project are physicist Stephen Hawking, Google’s Sergey Brin and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
A discussion of augmented reality, which differs from virtual reality in that in VR, you put on a special headset and immerse yourself in a totally computer generated world, whereas in AR, you put on a headset but you’re still in the real world, but with computer generated images floating in the foreground. We explore some of the practical uses of this technology with our two guests. Nabil Chehade is Director of Professional Services at Atheer, a leading maker of AR products. Nabil was the first employee at Atheer and gives a live demonstration of how their products work. Ori Inbar is founder and director of Super Ventures, a startup incubator fund dedicated entirely to AR startups. He’s the co-founder of the annual Augmented World Expo, the world’s top showcase for AR innovation, and is considered a leading visionary in the field.
