Nexus

Science Fiction Author Ramez Naam: The Future Isn’t Set In Stone!

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Ramez NaamThis is the first out of a series of 3 sci-fi round-table interviews with Ramez Naam, William Hertling, and Greg Bear that I did last November in Seattle. It was produced by Richard and Tatyana Sundvall and generously hosted by Greg and Astrid Bear. [Special thanks to our cinematographer Ian Sun for both recording and editing.]

After two previous low-tech interviews, it was about time to give Ramez Naam the proper video quality that his work deserves. Ramez is a public speaker, futurist, and author of some of my favorite science fiction action thrillers.

During our 1 hour conversation we cover a variety of interesting topics such as fiction vs non-fiction; the deeper impact he wants to achieve with his work; the meaning and function of science fiction; the Nexus, Crux, and (upcoming) Apex trilogy; More Than Human and Transhumanism; AI and the technological singularity; whole-brain simulation, IBM’s SyNAPSE and The Human Brain Project; the likelihood of war between humans and post-humans; Big Brother and technological unemployment…

My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Ramez Naam is:

The future isn’t set in stone! The shape that it takes depends quite a lot on the choices that we make as individuals and as a society. […] The future can be even better if we can make the right choices together!

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation, or become a patron on Patreon.

 

Who is Ramez Naam?

Ramez-NaamRamez Naam was born in Cairo, Egypt, and came to the US at the age of 3.  He’s a computer scientist, futurist, and award-winning author.

Ramez spent 13 years at Microsoft, where he led teams developing early versions of Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, and the Bing search engine.  His career has focused on bringing advanced collaboration, communication, and information retrieval capabilities to roughly one billion people around the world, and took him to the role of Partner and Director of Program Management within Microsoft, with deep experience leading teams working on cutting edge technologies such as machine learning, search, massive-scale services, and artificial intelligence.

Between stints at Microsoft, Ramez founded and ran Apex NanoTechnologies, the world’s first company devoted entirely to software tools to accelerate molecular design.  He holds 19 patents related to search engines, information retrieval, web browsing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

Ramez is also the H.G. Wells Award-winning author of four books:

The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet (non-fiction), which looks at the environmental and natural resource challenges of climate change, energy, water, and food, and charts a course to meet those challenges by investing in the scientific and technological innovation needed to overcome them, and by changing our policies to encourage both conservation and critical innovations.

Nexus and Crux (fiction). These philosophical science fiction thrillers look at the impact of an increasingly plausible technology that could link human minds, and the impact such a technology could have on society and on the human condition, for both good and ill.  Along the way, issues of civil liberties, surveillance, Buddhist conceptions of mind, and the responsibilities of scientists to society are explored.  Nexus has been optioned for a film by Paramount Pictures and director Darren Aronofsky (The Black Swan).

More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement (non-fiction), which looks at the science of enhancing the human mind, body, and lifespan, and the effects that will have on society.

Ramez lectures on energy, environment, and innovation at Singularity University, where he serves as Adjunct Faculty.  He’s spoken to audiences from Illinois to Istanbul and from corporate boardrooms to Harvard University.  He’s appeared on Sunday morning MSNBC, repeatedly on Yahoo! Finance, on China Cable Television, on BigThink, and Reuters.fm.  His work has appeared in, or been reviewed by, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Business Week, Business Insider, Discover, Popular Science, Wired, and Scientific American.   He’s a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy at Aurora Illinois.

In his leisure, Ramez has climbed mountains, descended into icy crevasses, chased sharks through their native domain, backpacked through remote corners of China, and ridden his bicycle down hundreds of miles of the Vietnam coast. He lives in Seattle, where he writes and speaks full time.

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Ramez Naam on Nexus: We Are The Ones Who Create The Future

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This is the second time that I interview Ramez Naam for my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast.

Last time we talked about Naam’s interesting background, professional experience, and award-winning book More Than Human. 

During our second conversation with Ramez, we talk mainly about his novel Nexus: Mankind Gets an Upgrade.

We also cover a variety of related topics such as the difference between fiction and non-fiction; the major issues Mez wanted to bring attention to; the potential for global Giga War between Terrans and Cosmists;  why fear is the path to Big Brother totalitarianism; prisoner’s dilemma and the militarization of science; weak brain-to-brain communication, Buddhism, empathy, and neuroscience; the technological singularity and exponential growth…

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation, or become a patron on Patreon.

 

What others have said about Nexus: Mankind Gets An Upgrade 

  • Wired says “Good. Scary good… stop reading now and have a great time reading a bleeding-edge technical thriller that is full of surprises.”  read the whole thing 
  • Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing says “Nexus is a superbly plotted high tension technothriller… full of delicious moral ambiguity… a hell of a read.”  read the whole thing 
  • Ars Technica says “Nexus is a lightning bolt of a novel… with a sense of awe missing from a lot of current fiction.” read the whole thing 
  • Booklist says “Starred Review. Naam turns in a stellar performance with his debut SF novel… Here is the remarkable scope of the story and its narrative power.”
  • Publisher’s Weekly says “Mesmerizing”.
  • Alastair Reynolds says “a gripping piece of near-future speculation”.

Who is Ramez Naam?

Ramez Naam is a professional technologist and was involved in the development of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook. He was the CEO of Apex Nanotechnologies, a company involved in developing nanotechnology research software, before returning to Microsoft.

Naam holds a seat on the advisory board of the Institute for Accelerating Change, is a member of the World Future Society, a Senior Associate of the Foresight Institute, and a Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

Ramez is the author of More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement (for which he was awarded the 2005 H.G. Wells Award for Contributions to Transhumanism) and The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet. Most recently Naam published his first novel – Nexus, which will be followed by Crux.

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