Bionic Bug Podcast

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 42. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on January 26, 2019.  I’m sad to say that this is my final episode of the Bionic Bug podcast. This is somewhat bittersweet because I’ve grown fond of sharing my thoughts with you. If you’ve been listening from the beginning, thank you so much for joining me on this journey. If you want to keep listening to me, I’ll be launching a new podcast called the Authors of Mass Destruction Podcast.  I’ll talk tech and weapons of mass destruction, but will take a slightly different approach. I’m planning to focus on helping authors write great stories about national security issues while getting the technical details right. Tune in for interviews with leading experts on weapons of mass destruction and emerging technologies, author interviews, technical modules, and reviews of what TV shows and movies get right and

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 41. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on January 20, 2019.  Two episodes in one week? Yes, it’s true. This is my second to last episode of Bionic Bug. If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, I hope you’ll tune into my new podcast called Authors of Mass Destruction, which will be launching in March. Let’s talk tech: I have one headline for this week: “Twins get some 'mystifying' results when they put 5 DNA ancestry kits to the test,” published on CBC online on January 18.  Throughout this podcast, I’ve talked about the power of data and warned you to think about how freely you give it out. I’ve talked about the potential risks in sending away your DNA to companies like 23&Me and Ancestry.com. Many of you do it anyway since you’re curious about your ancestry, and I can understand that. However, this article raises questions about the value of th

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 40. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on January 20, 2019.  Let’s talk tech: Outerspace is heating up. My headline for this week is “Pentagon to Study Putting Anti-Missile Laser Weapons in Space,” published on Defense One by Patrick Tucker on January 16. The Pentagon released its long-awaited Missile Defense Review, the first one since 2010. It includes a controversial proposal by the Pentagon “to study the possibility of space weapons — perhaps particle beams, ray guns, space lasers, or orbiting missiles — that could intercept enemy missiles coming off the launch pad.” This is a response to a dramatically altered security environment since 2010 in which we face “not just ballistic missile threats but also cruise missile threats and novel types of weapons like hypersonics.” The proposal is reminiscent of President Reagan’s Star Wars effort in t

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 39. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on January 13, 2019.  Thanks to the winter storm, you’re getting a bonus episode this weekend.  Let’s talk tech! I have one more tech headline for you this weekend. “DARPA Thinks Insect Brains Might Hold the Secret to Next-Gen AI” published on Defense One on January 10. If you’ve read Bionic Bug, then you know why I love this headline. DARPA is soliciting “ideas on how to build computing systems as small and efficient as the brains of ‘very small flying insects.’” The new program is called the Microscale Biomimetic Robust Artificial Intelligence Networks program, or MicroBRAIN. Gotta love the acronym! “Understanding highly-integrated sensory and nervous systems in miniature insects and developing prototype computational models … could be mapped onto suitable hardware in order to emulate their impressive

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 38. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on January 13, 2019.  No personal update today except that we’re stuck inside in the middle of a beautiful winter snow storm.  Let’s talk tech. I have one headline for this week: “I Gave a Bounty Hunter $300. Then He Located Our Phone,” published on motherboard on January 8. I talked about the power of location data a few weeks ago. As a nation, we are behind the curve in understanding the power of data. Many Americans still believe that data without direct connection to identity is somehow anonymous. Policymakers have failed to address privacy issues for data and issue proper protections. Private sector companies who gather your data are selling it off. If this article is true, it’s possible for anyone to pay a couple hundred bucks to geolocate your smartphone. In other words, anyone can find you wherev

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 37. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on January 6, 2019.  Happy New Year everyone! I hope this year is full of promise. For the past three years, I’ve spent the end of the year reflecting on what I’ve achieved as an Indie author. I also set my publishing goals for the coming year. My first of two posts is entitled “Sowing the Seeds for your Writer’s Journey” and takes a look at how I met my writing goals in 2018. I’ll include the link in the show notes. We are nearing the end of this podcast with five more episodes left to go. If you enjoy following my writer’s journey and listen to me discuss technology, you’ll be relieved to know that I’m launching a new podcast in March 2019 called “Authors of Mass Destruction”. For this podcast, I’ll be helping authors get the technical details write on WMD and emerging technology. I’ll feature interviews f

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 36. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on December 24, 2018. Happy holidays! First off, I have an update for Bionic Bug fans. Last week, I produced my first “Bionic Bug On Location” video where I take readers behind the scenes to visit a real location in my novel. I show how the location inspired the drone show that takes place at the beginning of the book. I’ll include the link to the video on YouTube in the show notes. Second, the drones are coming. And I don’t mean as presents for Christmas. They’ve made headlines quite a bit this past year, most significantly in the alleged assassination attempt on the President of Venezuela. Most recently, drones made the headlines for closing down Gatwick airport in London last week, the second largest airport in the UK. The sightings of two drones shut down the airport leading to the cancellation of hu

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 35. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on December 16, 2018.  Let’s talk tech: “Does AI Truly Learn And Why We Need to Stop Overhyping Deep Learning,”published on Forbes.com on December 15. This is great article that clearly articulates what today’s AI is and more importantly what it isn’t. The media hype about AI has led the general public to have misconceptions about the art of the possible When I talk about AI to my students, I refer to it as the next generation in software applications. Of course, that’s an oversimplification. Hardware is important as well. But it’s important to understand that machine intelligence at this current stage is not all that intelligent, at least not when compared to humans. Can machines outperform humans in certain areas? Yes, but that’s been true for decades.  Machine learning refers to a new approach tha

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 34. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on December 9, 2018.  First off, a quick personal update. I’m now in the editing phase for Genomic Data, Book Three of the Lara Kingsley series. If you’re enjoying Bionic Bug thus far, you can order Project Gecko. I’m offering print versions on Amazon and the ebook version on Kobo or Walmart. Also, I’ve selected a professional narrator to produce the audiobook for Bionic Bug. I expect that will become available in February or March of 2019. Let’s talk tech. Two headlines for this week: Last week, I talked at length about the CRISPR baby controversy. This week’s headline is “Despite CRISPR baby controversy, Harvard University will begin gene-editing sperm” published on November 29 in MIT’s technology review by Antonio Regalado. This article highlights a critical dilemma surrounding many emerging technolo

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 33. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on December 2, 2018. Several distinct threads are converging in this episode—my personal update, tech news and Chapter 33 of Bionic Bug. For my personal update, I just finished the first draft of Genomic Data, Book Three in the Lara Kinsley Series, which features topics such as genomic data, CRISPR, germ-line genetic engineering, in-vitro fertilization, designer babies, and China. Chapter 33 of Bionic Bug features Fiddler, our rogue scientist, explaining how and why he created bionic bugs; he used CRISPR and gene drives to modify the beetles to bite humans and spread disease. The big tech news last week came out of China. “Chinese scientists are creating CRISPR babies,” published in the MIT Technology Review on November 25. We knew this was on the near-term horizon and in my novel, I anticipated the develop

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 32. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on November 25, 2018. I’m thrilled to deliver a bonus episode this weekend! This is to make up for the one we missed earlier in November. Just one additional news headline for today: “The Human Brain is a Time Traveler” published in the New York Times Magazine this weekend. This is a fascinating piece and worth reading several times. It looks at the inner workings of the human brain and how AI might augment or replace our ability to analyze the past and predict the future. In neuroscience in the 1990s, scientists wanted to use scans of the brain’s “resting state” to compare scans of the brain doing certain activities. The theory was that the brain uses different amounts of energy depending on the activity. But it turned out that the brain’s resting state was more active that the brain’s active state. This

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 31. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on November 25, 2018. Let’s talk tech: My first headline is “Wanted: The ‘perfect babysitter.’ Must pass AI scan for respect and attitude” published in the Washington Post on November 23 Machine learning tools are beginning to impact our lives in big ways without us taking a moment to think through the limitations of such tools or the potential consequences. It’s scary. This article describes new software tools/services driven by machine-learning to improve the screening of potential employees—in this case, babysitters. Parents are increasingly turning to online services like Predictum to make choices about babysitters. This service leverages “artificial intelligence” to screen the social media activity of prospective babysitters to generate an automated risk rating. Babysitters are assessed for their ri

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 30. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on November 18, 2018. First off, a personal update. I’m excited to announce that I’m in the midst of producing an audio book for Bionic Bug.I’m currently auditioning professional narrators and expect the project to be finished in early 2019. I apologize for the break in releasing podcast episodes. I’ve been recovering from a nasty sinus infection the past few weeks, and my voice continues to be scratchy. You’ll probably notice if you listen to the next chapter of Bionic Bug. I hope you enjoyed the bonus episode where I interviewed Samuel Bennett, an expert on robotics, AI and Russia. Check out the episode and the show notes, which include links to his recent publications. Let’s talk tech. Just two headlines for this week. “Jon and Daenerys United in First Pic from Game of Thrones’ Eighth and Final Season,” pub

This is a special episode of the Bionic Bug Podcast streamed LIVE on YouTube on November 12 at 7:00PM EST. Join me for a riveting interview with Mr. Samuel Bendett to talk AI and Robotics. Mr. Bennett is currently a researcher at the Center for Naval Analyses and specializes in robotics and Russia. He is also a Fellow in Russia Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council. Mr. Bendett has over 15 years of program and project management experience with US government, Department of Defense and private sector. Currently conducting research on the Russian defense and security issues, as well as the emergence of unmanned warfare. Formerly an Assistant Research Fellow at the National Defense University, working on emerging and disruptive technology for the Department of Defense policy development and concept of operations. If you’re interested in reading more, check out some of Sam’s latest articles: Samuel Bendett, "Here’s How the Russian Military Is Organizing to Develop AI,” Defense One, 20 July 2018. S

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 29. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on November 4, 2018. Last week, I was at the United Nations in New York City where I spoke about the digitization of biology at a side event of the UN Security Council Committee on Resolution 1540 hosted by the Bolivian and Swedish missions. I’m happy to say that my remarks were well received. It was thrilling to be a speaker in the same room where I was once a junior staffer taking notes. I’ve included some pictures in the show notes. Project Gecko is now available both in paperback and ebook. You can purchase the paperback on Amazon.The ebook version is currently only available on Kobo.I’ll include the links in my notes if you’re interested. This month, I’m participating in Nanowrimo which stands for National Novel Writing Month. This is a challenge in which hundreds of thousands of novel writers attemp

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 28. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on October 28, 2018. First off, I have a personal update. On Tuesday of next week, I’m headed to the United Nations in New York. I’ve been invited to talk about the digitization of biology at a side meeting of the UN Security Council on Resolution 1540. My colleagues and I published a paper on this topic. I’ll include a link in the show notes in case you’re interested in reading it. This is a particularly exciting opportunity for me since I began my career in WMD working as a Junior Political Officer at the UN where it was part of my job to track developments in the Security Council on various WMD-related resolutions. Let’s talk tech. A few headlines caught my attention this week: “Designer babies aren’t futuristic. They’re already here” published in MIT’s Technology Review on October 22. Many of you know t

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 27. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on October 21, 2018. I’m excited to deliver a bonus episode this week. There’s been so many interesting tech headlines lately, I couldn’t resist sharing more. Especially since recent headlines have featured technologies I use in my fiction novels. I’m thrilled to announce that Project Gecko is now available as a paperback on Amazon. I’ll include the link in my show notes. I hope you check it out! My first headline is not a headline, but rather a YouTube video to demonstrate the rising quality of “deep fakes”. In Project Gecko, I use fake photos as a tool of blackmail. This week, I watched a short video where a young Harrison Ford has been inserted into the new Hans Solo movie. Here you can see for yourself how authentic such videos can be and ponder the potential implications for social media, politics and el

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 26. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on October 20, 2018. First off, a quick personal update. Last week, I was unable to record a podcast episode because I was in Austin for a writer mastermind event. I’m still processing everything I learned talking to fellow writers about my fiction and author business. Perhaps, my biggest takeaway is that I should develop a presence on Medium. I’m certain that most of you have read a post from medium.com at one point or another. It is a platform designed specifically for quality content by the world’s most insightful writers, thinkers, and storytellers. I will be posting articles regularly building upon the content in this podcast. If you’re interested in learning more, I hope you follow me there. While in Austin, I have the opportunity to visit my first Amazon bookstore. What’s the big deal, you say? It’s just

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 25. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on October 7, 2018. Two episodes in one weekend? Yeah, that’s right. Next weekend, I’m heading off on my final trip of the year. I’m going to Austin, Texas for a writer event. I wanted to make sure you don’t wait too long for the next chapter, so I’m doing double duty this weekend. Let’s turn to what I think was the biggest tech story last week. “The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies” published on Bloomberg Business Week on October 4. If you’ve been following the news about China, you know their government is making an aggressive push to acquire a technological edge and using all sorts of tactics to do this. You’re probably also aware of how the U.S. has outsourced production of a wide variety of goods to China, including electronics. If this story is true, the implications

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast! You’re listening to episode 24. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, futurist, and national security expert. I’m recording this episode on October 6, 2018. First off, I have a fiction update. I’m excited to announce that my first novel, Bionic Bug, is now available as a paper back on Amazon. To find it, type in bionic bug fiction. I’ll also include the link the show notes. The release is especially timely given a headline in the New York Times last week. My first tech headline for this week: “Viruses Spread by Insects to Crops Sound Scary. The Military Calls It Food Security” by Emily Baumgaertner in the New York Times on October 4. This article is about DARPA’s Insect Allies Program, which has three technical areas—viral manipulation, insect vector optimization, and selective gene therapy in mature plants. DARPA wants to improve the resilience of crops against drought, floods and even foreign attacks by genetically modifying them to be mor