Episode #94 – Progress and Next Steps in Neuroscience – Dr. Hal Blumenfeld of Yale University

Normally on Fridays I go over some kind of technology, theme, or shift that we'll just have to get used to. Prosthetics and brain-machine interfaces are part of a general trend towards extending our physical capacities.

Dr. Rudolph Tanzi is a neuroscientist and renowned researcher at Harvard University. Selected as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2015 for his groundbreaking alzheimer’s research, Dr. Tanzi also serves as the Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

Fused-quartz optical memory is the new long-term data storage reality.  The technology, developed by scientists and led by Dr. Jingyu Zhang from University of Southampton in the U.K., has garnered the nickname “superman memory crystal”, with the potential to hold data for millions of years, potentially outlasting the human race; did we mention it has a resistance of up to 1000 degrees Celsius i.e. 1832 degrees Fahrenheit?

Dr. Patrick Hopkins is a philosopher and bioethicist. In this interview, we don't contemplate traditional bioethic concerns of animal testing or disease treatment. Instead, we discuss some important considerations of how emerging technologies might alter our bodies, minds, personalities and gender – and, indeed, what "human" might imply in the first place.

Dr. John MacCormick is the author of the book “Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today's Computers,” and in this interview, he shares some of the fundamental algorithms that support modern artificial intelligence, and his optimistic views on the future of AI.