Guest - Bruce L. Erickson - amazing futurist, networker, speaker and international- management consultant

Listen Now to Bruce Erickson

I’ve know Bruce Erickson for many years and he never fails to amaze and amuse with his stories and adventures.  I marvel at the way he seemingly effortlessly connects people with each other at various social events.  For me, many of the people I have met through him have changed my life for the better.

In this interview we delve a bit into our deep history together, in the renaissance of Montreal, Quebec during the 1970’s involving alternative healing, psychics, aliens, dowsers, out of the body experiences, and other such sundry topics..

He has been working for years on designing sustainable and healthy communities all around the world and will share some of his insights with us.  In his words, “Understanding the processes of how we create a sustainable, healthy and regenerative community has been at the forefront of my endeavors. My management consulting practice is in strategic planning and implementation.”

Guests- Dr. Eliot Handelman and Andie Sigler on the Intersection of Music and Artificial Intelligence

Listen Now to Eliot and Andie on Music and AI

You’ve heard of computers that can play chess, but how about creating music, original music so good that it seems to have been created by a master?  This is one of the holy grails in creating a true musical AI as envisioned by the dynamic partnership and quest of Eliot and Andie.  

© 2012 Jim Needham

They are exploring questions like, “Can an AI operate beyond the regurgitation and remembrance of musical patterns humans have already explored and discovered?” 

Trained at Princeton, Dr. Handelman sees AI as the ultimate art, because it can create an consciousness beyond any particular reference point.  A real freedom us biologicals, trapped in specific bodies and belief systems, can only dream of.. You can check out some of  their AI generated music here. 

“Art is the way we negotiate a boundary between ourselves and somebody else..

One day an AI can be an externalized social self…”

Come take a journey with us into the minds of musical AI scientists, as they dream up  new ways of thinking about intelligence that could impact us all..

Dr. Future News - iPad Heater, Pirate Bay Server Drones, New NASA app, Copyright issues, Chinese Eco-City populated, Ambitious Russian space plans

Listen Now to Dr. Future News 3.20.12

To comment on the news this week, besides our usual crew of Dr. Mrs. Future and MC Hager, we have Canadians Andie Sigler, and Dr. Eliot Handelman,  visiting AI/Music scholars from McGill University.  It’s a lively conversation, guaranteed to spark a few neurons..

Dr.Future News - the Skinny on the new iPad, Traumatic Brain Injury and war, South by Southwest, Gorilla Genome

Dr. Future News 3.13.12

This week we bring in our favorite all things Apple pundit, Taylor Barcroft, to discuss the new iPad..Quite interesting..For example, did you know that tablet computing is being adopted faster than any other electronic device in history, faster than the telephone, radio, TV, VCR, DVD player, or even cell phone? Just wow…

Other stories we discuss include war and Traumatic Brain Injury, the South by Southwest conference, TED education/artist pairings, new info on the Gorilla gennome, Android firefighters, and mono-multi-lingual communications.

In the first of our Future of Business Series - Multilevel Marketing Today, an alternative to jobs, or false hope?

Listen Now to Future of Business, MLMs?

Besides the heralding of Mayan Prophecies, 2012 has brought several new network marketing companies into our local social sphere of influence, here in Santa Cruz.. Curious as to whether such business ventures are a viable alternative to jobs in our current economic climate, we decided to do a show on the topic..

As defined by Wikipedia, 

Multi-level marketing (MLM) is a marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of others they recruit, creating a downline of distributors and a hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation. 

MLM’s have been around since 1945, the first being the California Vitamin Company (shortly afterwards to become Nutrilite).  The plan allowed Nutrilite distributors with at least 25 regular customers to recruit new distributors and draw a 3 percent commission from their sales. Unlike traditional direct selling, this was an ongoing payment whenever the customer re-ordered, allowing direct sellers to build a sales organization that could generate a residual-like income.

But are MLM’s a good approach for the future of marketing and distribution of goods and services today?  Does our internet savvy world still need a system originally designed in a time when America was a series of relatively small, isolated towns and rural areas not easily accessible to small companies,  and MLM was a useful way to let people know of and buy products or services?  And just what is the difference between an MLM an a classic pyramid scheme?

To answer these questions and others, we have invited several local entrepreneurs to the station, to see what convinced them to buy into their MLMs, and what kind of results they are achieving.

Our panel features local entrepreneurs Halle Blessing, who has been working with American Communications Network, a Donald Trump endorsed MLM selling telecommunications services, Michael Moore, with Ampegy, an alt energy-oriented MLM, and Michael Zwerling, station owner of KSCO and supporter of Youngevity, a health and supplement-oriented MLM.