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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