postalex

Hey Richard -- nice to hear from you, sorry the line went dead. We're in production on a larger video piece on bitcoin, into which your interviews may fit. I'll be in touch by email.

And if anyone wants to get in touch about bitcoin or other stories, you can reach me at alexp at motherboard dot tv. See some of the coverage Alec Liu's been doing in text:

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/why-bitcoins-are-just-like-gold

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/a-guide-to-bitcoin-mining-why-someone-bought-a-1500-bitcoin-miner-on-ebay-for-20600

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/cyprus-spain-when-governments-take-your-money-bitcoin-looks-really-good

1. Hard to pick one, Warlizard. a) advances in battery efficiency will change our relationship with mobile technology and help extend the use of renewable energy tech (graphene will be important for this, and for new processors, right? http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/a-single-atom-thick-graphene-transistors-transmits-electricity-1000-times-faster-than-silicon-chips)
   b) novel human-computer interfaces (stay tuned to @motherboard for more on that). c) faster more ubiquitous internet (closing the digital divide, allowing us to do some awesome things over the web, and more and more and more and more and more data) d) drones drones drones (think face recognition surveillance, a big national privacy debate, and all kinds of fascinating, awesome applications: motherboard.tv/drones) e) our strange nerd friends wearing computer glasses and other wearable tech to the bar, making the rest of us laugh and feel totally outmoded -- at least until we're all wearing them and dreaming of electric sheep or flying toasters. I could go on but [something about information overload].

2. I think there's a lot more that can and will be done with an anonymous internet, and while Tor is great, there are all kinds of new interesting applications that rely on encryption to ensure (one hopes) anonymity -- dissidents will find more uses, as will mainstream users who grow increasingly frustrated with privacy violations. so will the underground, from conventional criminals to for-hire cyber warriors. See this interview with @colestryker:

3. I don't know if it's just an American phenomenon, but I think of it as us dealing with a new kind of economy. These sites are "free" in the very basic sense, but of course nothing is free. We pay for them with our data but even if we spent hours pouring over these companies' terms of service, it's still very hard to what the ultimate terms of this exchange are. We don't really know what we're giving up, and it's unclear what we're getting, however awesome these sites can be. See Austin recently on the surveillance society: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-long-eyeball-of-the-law-are-we-ready-for-a-minority-report-style-future

This is even more of a problem given that we've become hooked on free stuff, from mp3s to articles to video (YouTube is considering a subscription service). There's a cost to this transition. Separate but related -- the problem that creative types (including journalists(!)) will have to deal with: we don't like to pay for stuff. Hence the rise of the paywalls.

That all said, it will be exciting to see what new models emerge in the next few years, taking up the torch of projects like diaspora: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/what-happened-to-the-facebook-killer-it-s-complicated

Alex

We'll need to keep talking about this as a country. The trick will be getting past drone fear and being realistic about what they can do, what we want to use them for, and what kinds of smart standards and laws we can craft that will address the risks of drones (and the specter they, along with other new technologies, represent of persistent surveillance).

Police want these machines as much as the military does, and they will get them. The question is how our laws manage to catch up to the technology, and manage to meet our expectations. Already dozens of states have proposed drone bans; Charlottesville, VA, has placed a moratorium on them for two years. Stay tuned to MB.

Warfare: many risks there obvs, but don't discount those cool drones: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/drones-rap-too

sweet. our little youtube channel is at youtube.com/motherboardtv -- go subscribe please! just note that not all of our videos are up there yet. We also do some shows on Vice's YouTube channel. The video we produced on microscopic creatures that can survive the vacuum of space is, amazingly, the most watched on there. Our shows there are

Spaced Out

My Life Online

Personally, I think they won't have much choice otherwise given the political pressure. We'll see. In the meantime, look for lots of state laws... see my other response below about drone bans.