Today we travel to a future where humans share our robotic knowledge with the rest of the animal kingdom—for better, and for worse.

This is also the LAST EPISODE of Flash Forward 1.0. Listen to the end for my sappy goodbye to this version of the show, a show that has really meant the world to me. 

More info & show notes here: https://www.flashforwardpod.com/2021/12/21/final-episode-robots-could-robots-replace-animals/

FINAL EPISODE!! ROBOTS: Could Robots Replace Animals?

More info & show notes here: https://www.flashforwardpod.com/2022/06/28/can-you-be-sued-by-a-river/

Can You Be Sued By A River?

More info & show notes here: https://www.flashforwardpod.com/2022/11/07/vanguard-estates-living-with-dementia/

Vanguard Estates: Living With Dementia

More info & show notes here: https://www.flashforwardpod.com/2022/11/14/vanguard-estates-the-future-of-the-aging-brain/

Vanguard Estates: The Future of the Aging Brain

More info & show notes here: https://www.flashforwardpod.com/2022/11/21/vanguard-estates-can-robots-really-help-the-aging/

Vanguard Estates: Can Robots Really Help the Aging?

More info & show notes here: https://www.flashforwardpod.com/2022/11/28/vanguard-estates-the-true-cost-of-care/

Vanguard Estates: The True Cost of Care

This is the final series for Flash Forward ever. The finale is three episodes, each about some aspect of future thinking that has been on my mind. It's part manifesto about the future, part love letter to listeners, part summation of what I've learned from making Flash Forward for eight years. I really hope you like it!

PUPATION

PRECIPICE

HOPE

PRECIPICE (by Lazerbeak)

What happens when women no longer have to physically bear children? Who wins? Who loses? Who takes artificial wombs to a far away planet to create a colony of super-beings? 

A Womb Away from Home

What would happen if the Earth suddenly had a second moon? This week, we work through the impact an additional satellite would have on our planet, from tides, to the night sky, to the potential destruction of Earth. Oh also there are space pirates. 

The Second Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Over the past 85 years, antibiotics have been miracle drugs. They’ve kept infections at bay and opened up a world of medical possibilities: organ transplants, heart surgery, chemotherapy. But they’re not going to work forever. The age antibiotic resistance is coming. So what does a world without these drugs look like? 

Revenge of the Germs

If there was a drug that meant you never had to sleep again, would you take it? Would those who didn’t need to sleep have special advantages over those who did? All that and a side of zombies, in this week’s episode.

Never Lay Me Down To Sleep

What if “life in prison” could mean 100 or 200 or 400 years? Does that change the way that sentences are dolled out? What happens when a person gets out of prison?

Eternal Life in Prison

What does the world look like when everybody with a smart phone also has a drone?

A Drone of One's Own

What would happen if we rounded up all the critically endangered animals and plants and put them in armored zoos?

Caged

When you were a kid and stole your friends’ toys, your parent probably asked you this angry hypothetical: “How do you think that made them feel?” But what if you actually could feel what another person is feeling? This week, we travel to a future where humans have invented an empathy machine.

The Empathy Machine

Humans spend a lot of time and energy wondering if there’s anybody else out there. But what if we got unequivocal evidence that there was? In this week’s future, a probe that is extremely similar to the Voyager probes that we sent out in the 1970’s shows up in our galaxy.


Greetings

In 2006, scientists described the world's first invisibility cloak. But there was a catch. It only worked in two dimensions, and on microwaves. But to what if scientists and engineers could created a true invisibility cloak? 

Unseen

When it comes to climate change, there are a lot of researchers already thinking about how to equip crops and food animals with genes to help them withstand heat and parched conditions. But what about genetically engineering humans to try to slow our constant carbon contributions?

The Carbon Gene

What if we lived in a world where gender was more like hair color — something you could change at will, and that had little bearing on what other people thought of you?

Bye Bye Binary

What would it be like if we lived in a world where everything you do is subject to a rating dolled out by a combination of machines and other people? 

Reputationville

What would happen if the whole world stopped being able to recognize people by their face? Welcome to season two of Flash Forward! 

Face Off

Right now there’s a whole lot of buzz about sex robots. Some people are really excited about them, and think we’ll be marrying robots by 2050. Other people are really worried about them, and are organizing whole campaigns against sex robots. This week, we travel to a future where sex robots are realized, and talk about everything from warranties to ethics.  

[A note: if you listen to our show with or near young kids be aware that today’s episodes discusses the future of sex, and goes into some detail about sex toys, sex work and other sexy time things. If your kiddos are ready for a calm, reasonable discussion of sex and the sex industry, carry on! If you’re not there yet, that’s cool, but maybe skip this one.]

Love At First Bot

Today we travel to a future full of spreadsheet approved lives. A future where everything we do is tracked and quantified: calories, air quality, sleep, heart rate, microbes, brain waves, finances, happiness, sadness, menstrual cycles, poops, hopes and dreams. Everything. 

My Everything Pal

Today we go to a future where all pop stars use avatars, clones, robots or cartoons instead of their real bodies and faces. What does that do to music? Can everybody pull off an avatar? And why would any pop star even want that?


Popnonymous

Today we travel to a future where all drugs are legal.  In this episode we discuss the history of drug laws, why some drugs are legal and others aren’t, and what would happen if we just let everybody lose to do whatever they want. 



The Altered State

Today’s episode is about a future where nobody works on farms anymore, all farming is done by robots. Is it possible? Probably not. But it might be closer than you think.

Robocrop

In this episode, we travel to a future where a tech mogul feeds a machine learning system all the religious texts he can find, and asks it to generate a “super religion.”

Our Father, Who Art in Algorithm

How much of what you do is actually your choice? What if you were secretly being controlled by a parasite that had infected your brain? What if that infection was spreading?

Fungus Among Us

What message would you send to someone living 50 years from now?

Flash Forward is a show about possible (and not so possible) future scenarios. What would the warranty on a sex robot look like? How would diplomacy work if we couldn’t lie? Could there ever be a fecal transplant black market? (Complicated, it wouldn’t, and yes, respectively, in case you’re curious.) Hosted and produced by award winning science journalist Rose Eveleth, each episode combines audio drama and journalism to go deep on potential tomorrows, and uncovers what those futures might really be like. The future is going to be weird, so let's get ready for it together.

Flash Forward

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