Stephen Euin Cobb
Biography
Stephen Euin Cobb is an author, novelist, magazine writer, futurist, award-winning podcaster, and host of The Interstellar Research Group's video series “From Here to the Stars,” for which he won the Iridani Award in 2021.
For over ten years (from 2005 to 2016) he produced a weekly podcast, "The Future And You," which explored, through interviews, panel discussions, and commentary, all the ways the future will be different from today. For that, he won the Parsec Award in 2006.
On his podcast he interviewed authors, scientists, celebrities, and "pioneers of the future" as to what they believe both the near future and distant future will be like. Nanotech, artificial intelligence, and biotech were popular topics on his show, as were cryonics, organlegging, exoplanets, computers wired into the human brain, global warming, genetic engineering of humans, faster than light travel, worm holes, black holes, transhumanism, and the technology of living more-or-less forever. Greg Bear, David Drake, and Alan Dean Foster have all been guests, as were Kim Stanley Robinson, David B. Coe, John Ringo, Spider Robinson, Eric Flint, David Brin, Mike Resnick, Sarah A. Hoyt, Joe Haldeman, Nancy Kress, Jay Lake, Vernor Vinge, and Catherine Asaro. Less famous guests have included Rudi Hoffman (a cryonics insurance agent), Mike Treder (CEO of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology), John R. Douglas (editor of Scifipedia from scifi.com), and Lionel Vogt (a transhumanist and TV battle-robot builder).
A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; Stephen has also been a regular contributor to Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen’s Universe Magazine.
In 2025, he wrote a book of theoretical physics entitled, "Planck's Particle: How a New Particle—Defined as One Unit of Planck's Constant—Might be the Sole Component of All Matter and Energy." In that book, he described his theory that everything is made of only one particle—defined as one unit of Planck's Constant. Trillions of times smaller than a proton, these new tinier particles form subatomic particles—like protons, quarks, and electrons—as ring vortexes. These vortexes are vaguely similar to smoke rings, except that they are four-dimensional, have a variety of shapes, and spin at the speed of light. This book offers a complete set of theories covering matter and energy, and explores how they relate to spacetime, gravity and electromagnetism. It also provides suggestions for experiments and computer simulations that could confirm or invalidate his ideas.
His other books of theoretical physics include: "Pandemonial Dynamics: A Speculative Rewriting of Physics from the Ground Up" and "Handwritten Notes on How I Developed Pandemonial Dynamics over Many Years - Volume 1 - Covering 1984 to 2001"
His nonfiction books (which are not-at-all-theoretical) include: "Artificial Intelligence - From Now Till The End of Humanity," "A Brief History of Predicting the Future," and "Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science."
His five hard science fiction novels include two about a runaway teen — "Leather: A Runaway Girl Across Three Worlds" and "Leather & the 40 Corpsicles in the Cafe Freezer." As well as three others without Leather, but in her universe’s historical timeline — "Plague at Redhook," "Bones Burnt Black," and "One Small Theft for Man: One Giant Siege for Mankind."
His novel "Bones Burnt Black" was serialized as an audio book within his podcast during its first two years.
An artist, essayist, game designer, and transhumanist, he is also on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation.
He has interviewed over 500 people and written over 100 magazine articles.
Magazine articles he has written include: "The Universal Diagram," "What I've Learned Interviewing Futurists," "Your Medical Care in the Coming Three Decades," "The Perpetual Electron," "The Essay with No Title (until its end)," "Fifteen Ways Cheap Solar Cells are going to Change the World," and "My Father's Watch."
His essays (in print and read into his show) generally deal with the future or with science.
He has invented several games, the most famous being "Death Stacks." For over ten years, there was an annual Death Stacks tournament held each summer in Charlotte NC at the SF&F convention ConCarolinas.
He also invented the Ignorance Index, an empirical rating system for radio and television talk shows.
His hobbies include astronomy (he has a 10.1 inch Dobsonian telescope), handwriting analysis, and drawing in charcoal and pastels.
Stephen’s somewhat unusual middle name "Euin" is pronounced like a contraction of the two words You in, with the emphasis placed on You. This was his father's middle name, as well as that of his father's father. For a time he believed it to be a Gaelic word which means young, but he has since learned it is simply the Gaelic version of the Biblical name John.
Within the three-dimensional virtual world of Second Life, his avatar goes by the name Boc Cryotank.
Recently, he created a series of Sudoku and Cryptogram puzzle books which can be found on Amazon under the short version of his name: Steve Cobb.
Learn more on his website:
www.SteveCobb.com
-- End --