This week The Futurists hosts Brett, Rob and Katie host a guest that NY Times calls “one of the world’s most acclaimed living science fiction writers” – Kim Stanley Robinson. We dive into the Mars Trilogy and interplanetary colonization and exploration, we tackle climate shift and the economics of the world of the future. We get some background on his early career in sci-fi, we delve into KSR’s world building and how real world places influenced story settings, his interest in fields like terraforming, geology and even genetics. This is part 1 of a two part special episode. You’re going to love it, we did!

In this weeks episode of The Futurists we delve into the world of synthetic and programmable genetics with one of the worlds foremost experts, Dr. Andrew Hessel. We also discuss his latest book The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology and how computing advances that led to gene sequencing are now allowing us to think about editing genetics in the same way we program computers. What are the implications for humanity as this allows us to radically adapt our biology for new purposes and new futures? Join us to find out.