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Shane Tews — Non-Resident Senior Fellow at AEI and the person who explained the internet to Capitol Hill No Password Required Season 7: Episode 7 – Shane Tews Shane Tews is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she focuses on cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, and internet governance. She is also President of Logan Circle Strategies, a strategic advisory firm working at the intersection of technology and policy. Before her think tank work, Shane helped introduce modems to the George H.W. Bush White House, walked the halls of Capitol Hill explaining the internet to blank-staring legislators, and spent years at VeriSign helping shape the foundational frameworks of how the internet would be governed. In this episode, Shane traces her unlikely path from the Bush administration to becoming one of Washington's most trusted voices on tech policy. She breaks down why regulating outcomes rather than inputs is the only sensible approach to technology governance, why the US and EU are operating from fundamentally different innovation philosophies, and why a national privacy bill is long overdue. She also explains why most organizations and individuals are far less protected than they think and why nobody knows who to call when something goes wrong. Jack Clabby and co-host Kayley Melton talk with Shane about legacy system vulnerabilities, the cybersecurity implications of agentic AI, and what policymakers absolutely must get right over the next decade. She also reflects on what the CISA reauthorization limbo means for companies that don't even know they've lost liability protection. In the Lifestyle Polygraph, Shane reveals she has 20,000 emails across eight accounts, admits she fakes laughs at bad jokes out of Midwestern politeness, shares her obsession with The Bear and Peaky Blinders, and tells us about her children's book project using Google Omni called "Shane on a Train." Follow Shane on LinkedIn and on X at @ShaneTews. Find her work at AEI.org and TechPolicyDaily.com. No Password Required is presented by ThreatLocker In this episode: Shane's path from the George H.W. Bush White House to becoming Capitol Hill's go-to internet explainer (00:34 - 02:22) Why the Clinton-era multi-stakeholder model got internet governance right and what that means for policy today (04:40 - 06:13) The case for a national privacy bill and why 50 state standards aren't working (07:24 - 09:27) What AEI covers and how Shane thinks about riding the top of the wave across the entire tech policy stack (09:35 - 11:23) Legacy systems, vendor debt, and why outdated software is the easiest entry point for bad actors (11:30 - 13:34) The gap between how protected people think they are and how exposed they actually are, including a generational perspective on MFA (14:07 - 16:25) The biggest disconnect between everyday cyber reality and the policy world (16:59 - 20:35) Government readiness for a major cyber attack and why most people don't have a plan (20:54 - 22:32) How the US and EU innovation philosophies differ and why Europe's banking system is the real tech problem (22:41 - 25:38) The DeepSeek false narrative and where the US is leading vs. reacting on AI (25:45 - 29:21) The shift from AI features to AI coordination and what agentic AI means for cybersecurity permissions (29:28 - 32:16) What policymakers must get right on AI over the next 10 years (32:25 - 34:11) The Lifestyle Polygraph: inbox chaos, fake laughs, The Bear, and Shane on a Train (00:04 - 12:48) Timestamp Highlights: (00:34) Shane's origin story: modems at the White House and blank stares on the Hill (04:40) Why the internet got policy right early on and what we can learn from it (07:24) The case for harmonizing breach standards with a national framework (11:30) Legacy systems and vendor debt as the easiest attack vectors (14:07) The real gap between how protected people think they are and how exposed they actually are (20:54) Government cyber readiness: do you know who to call when something goes wrong? (22:41) US vs. EU innovation: why Europe's banking system is the real tech problem (29:28) Agentic AI and the cybersecurity risks of permissions you forgot you gave (32:25) What policymakers must get right on AI over the next decade (06:44) Shane on a Train: using Google Omni to write a children's book series Resources & Links: AEI.org — Shane's think tank home base TechPolicyDaily.com — Daily tech policy coverage ThreatLocker — Supporter of this podcast Cyber Florida — The Mother Ship
Database branching has, for a long time, been a troublesome piece in the modern developer workflow puzzle: a good idea in principle but in practice a slow and often expensive challenge. Get it right and you can accelerate productivity and remove bottlenecks; get it wrong and you're potentially creating all sorts of trouble for yourself, from privacy risks to additional complexity. However, things are changing. Thanks to the emergence of new platforms such as Neon, Supabase and Databricks Lakebase, branching a database can become as familiar to developers as managing code branches and multiple environments with, say, Git and Terraform. On this episode of the Technology Podcast, host Ken Mugrage is joined by his Thoughtworks colleague Cam Casher and Databricks' Kevin Hartman to discuss the work Thoughtworks and Databricks have been doing together on Lakebase. They discuss the platform, their experience using it with Spotify's Backstage and the opportunities database branching can offer software engineering teams in an increasingly AI-assisted and agentic world. Read Cam and Kevin's recent series on using Databricks Lakebase with Backstage: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/data-engineering/backstage-lakebase-databricks
Anyone can build software with AI now, and millions of people are giving it a try. But when AI can spin up an app in minutes, are security risks slipping through the cracks?
Semantic diffusion, combined with the pace of technology change, makes talking about AI-adjacent practices and techniques incredibly diffficult. There are few better examples of this issue than the term 'spec-driven development'. Although it's not new — its coinage precedes our current AI moment — it has become ubiquitous over the last six months or so as software professionals attempt to develop a vocabulary for talking about how they're developing methods for working successfully with coding agents. On this episode of the Technology Podcast, Birgitta Böckeler is joined by Laura Tacho — Developer Experience at AWS — to discuss all things spec-driven development. From competing definitions to different interpretations, implementations and workflows, the discussion provides a frank and grounded look at one of the most discussed and debated terms in modern software engineering. Learn more about Laura's work by visiting her website: https://lauratacho.com/ Read Birgitta's article on spec-driven development on Martin Fowler's website: https://martinfowler.com/articles/exploring-gen-ai/sdd-3-tools.html Learn more about The Future of Software Development Retreat discussed on this episode and explore some of the key insights: https://www.thoughtworks.com/about-us/events/the-future-of-software-development
In Elixir Wizards S15E04, Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond are joined by Somtochi Onyekwere, a software engineer at Fly.io and contributor to the Corrosion distributed database project, to talk about distributed systems, infrastructure resilience, and the growing fragility of centralized cloud platforms. We discuss what recent outages across major providers reveal about modern infrastructure and why more teams are starting to rethink assumptions around reliability, failover, and system design. Somtochi explains how Fly.io approaches geographic distribution, eventual consistency, and replication across nodes, along with the trade-offs that come with building systems this way. The conversation explores CRDTs (Conflict-free Replicated Data Types), consensus, split-brain prevention, and what actually happens when distributed systems fail in production. We also talk about testing strategies, rollback planning, property-based testing tools, and how teams can reduce blast radius when things inevitably go wrong. Along the way, we discuss AI infrastructure, sandboxing AI agents, and how newer workloads may add pressure to already centralized systems. The episode closes with practical advice for developers who want to build more resilient applications without over-complicating their architecture. Topics Discussed in this Episode: Corrosion and distributed database replication Centralized cloud fragility and recent outage patterns Distributed systems versus traditional cloud architectures Multi-region deployment strategies for Phoenix applications CRDTs and conflict resolution in distributed systems Eventual consistency versus strict consistency tradeoffs Consensus, leader election, and split-brain prevention Testing failover and recovery scenarios Property-based testing and Antithesis Rollback planning for database schema migrations Reducing blast radius through system isolation Health checks and blue-green deployment strategies Fly Proxy request routing and replay behavior Cross-region synchronization and replication challenges Single points of failure inside “redundant” systems Backup restoration testing and disaster recovery planning Network partitions and failure handling in production Infrastructure monitoring and operational visibility AI infrastructure workloads and operational strain Sandboxing and securing AI agents Sprites and AI workflows at Fly.io Latency improvements from geographic distribution Distributed systems tradeoffs in real-world environments Transitive dependency failures across cloud providers Practical resilience strategies for modern engineering teams Links Mentioned: https://fly.io https://github.com/superfly/corrosion https://docs.gitops.weaveworks.org/ FluxCD https://fluxcd.io/ Fly.io Stateful Sandbox Environments https://sprites.dev/ Cloudflare Workers AI Inference Platform https://www.cloudflare.com/products/workers-ai/ “An AI Agent Just Destroyed Our Production Data. It Confessed in Writing” Twitter post from PocketOS founder: https://x.com/lifeof_jer/status/2048103471019434248 Oct 2025 AWS Outage https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/24/amazon-reveals-cause-of-aws-outage Dec 2025 Cloudflare Outage https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/05/another-cloudflare-outage-takes-down-websites-linkedin-zoom July 2025 Crowdstrike Outage https://www.ibm.com/think/news/recent-crowdstrike-outage-what-you-should-know March 2026 Stryker Cyber Attack https://www.stryker.com/us/en/about/news/2026/a-message-to-our-customers-03-2026.html https://aws.amazon.com/ https://cloud.google.com/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us https://fly.io/docs/elixir/ CRDTs!! https://smartlogic.io/podcast/elixir-wizards/s13-e03-local-first-liveview-svelte-pwa/ https://antithesis.com/docs/resources/property_based_testing/ https://hex.pm/packages/proper
'Harness engineering' is one of the most significant terms to emerge in software engineering in 2026. Broadly referring to the work done to control unpredictable AI agents and coding assistants, its use signals growing attention on what needs to be done to make agents reliable and consistent enough for production software in the real-world. On this episode of the Technology Podcast, Birgitta Böckeler joins hosts Prem Chandrasekaran and Nate Schutta to explore what harness engineering actually is, how it should be done and why it should matter to software engineers working today. Having written a number of articles on harness engineering for martinfowler.com based on her experiences with AI-assistance, Birgitta is well-placed to explain the core concepts and implications. Taking in everything from the practices and ideas that pre-date and inform harness engineering to integrating harness engineering into existing workflows, listen for a conversation that will provide much needed clarity on what's an essential topic in the industry. Read Birgitta's article on harness engineering on martinfowler.com: https://martinfowler.com/articles/harness-engineering.html Watch Birgitta's video on harness engineering beyond skills on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLWOLmeHOSE
What if the next great advertising frontier isn't on Earth—but in the skies above it? In this imaginative and thought-provoking episode, Robert Barrows explores the bold concept of Advertising on the Moon, examining how branding, technology, and human ambition could one day extend beyond our planet. Drawing from his ideas and media background, Robert discusses the possibilities—and controversies—surrounding space-based advertising. From projected logos and lunar displays to the ethics of commercializing the night sky, the conversation explores how innovation and marketing continue to push boundaries once thought impossible. This episode invites listeners to think about the future of media and human expansion into space. Should there be limits to advertising in outer space? How would such technology impact culture, astronomy, and public perception? And what does the idea of “advertising on the moon” reveal about humanity's drive to innovate and monetize new frontiers? Join us for a fascinating and futuristic conversation that blends imagination, technology, and debate—where the moon itself may become the next billboard in the sky.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.Please note that all XZBN radio and/or television shows are Copyright © REL-MAR McConnell Meda Company, Niagara, Ontario, Canada – www.rel-mar.com. For more Episodes of this show and all shows produced, broadcasted and syndicated from REL-MAR McConell Media Company and The 'X' Zone Broadcast Network and the 'X' Zone TV Channell, visit www.xzbn.net. For programming, distribution, and syndication inquiries, email programming@xzbn.net.We are proud to announce the we have launched TWATNews.com, launched in August 2025.TWATNews.com is an independent online news platform dedicated to uncovering the truth about Donald Trump and his ongoing influence in politics, business, and society. Unlike mainstream outlets that often sanitize, soften, or ignore stories that challenge Trump and his allies, TWATNews digs deeper to deliver hard-hitting articles, investigative features, and sharp commentary that mainstream media won't touch.These are stories and articles that you will not read anywhere else.Our mission is simple: to expose corruption, lies, and authoritarian tendencies while giving voice to the perspectives and evidence that are often marginalized or buried by corporate-controlled media
In our World Password Day Special, we're digging into credentials, identity, and authentication — and where security is heading next.
Before streaming, downloads, and digital playlists, there was a revolutionary invention that transformed the way the world experienced music—the compact disc player. In this fascinating episode, Mac Chaney shares insights from his role as the man who headed the team that helped develop the CD player, one of the most influential consumer technologies of its time. Drawing from firsthand experience in technology development and innovation, Mac discusses the challenges and breakthroughs involved in creating a device that would redefine audio quality, convenience, and the future of the music industry. He reflects on the excitement of pushing technological boundaries during a pivotal era in consumer electronics. This episode goes beyond nostalgia, exploring the impact of innovation on culture and everyday life. How did the CD player change the music industry forever? What obstacles did developers face in bringing new technology to market? And what lessons can today's innovators learn from one of the most successful technological transitions in modern history? Join us for an engaging and insightful conversation that looks back at a groundbreaking moment in audio technology—where creativity and engineering came together to change the sound of the world.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.Please note that all XZBN radio and/or television shows are Copyright © REL-MAR McConnell Meda Company, Niagara, Ontario, Canada – www.rel-mar.com. For more Episodes of this show and all shows produced, broadcasted and syndicated from REL-MAR McConell Media Company and The 'X' Zone Broadcast Network and the 'X' Zone TV Channell, visit www.xzbn.net. For programming, distribution, and syndication inquiries, email programming@xzbn.net.We are proud to announce the we have launched TWATNews.com, launched in August 2025.TWATNews.com is an independent online news platform dedicated to uncovering the truth about Donald Trump and his ongoing influence in politics, business, and society. Unlike mainstream outlets that often sanitize, soften, or ignore stories that challenge Trump and his allies, TWATNews digs deeper to deliver hard-hitting articles, investigative features, and sharp commentary that mainstream media won't touch.These are stories and articles that you will not read anywhere else.Our mission is simple: to expose corruption, lies, and authoritarian tendencies while giving voice to the perspectives and evidence that are often marginalized or buried by corporate-controlled media
Anthropic Mythos garnered significant attention when it was launched in mid-April 2026. Yet despite it apparently presenting an unprecedented threat to global software, you don't have to look to closely to see that this was an effective product launch as much as a story about the grave security risks of today's AI models. But this isn't to say there aren't important implications for software developers, security professionals and other technologists. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, one of our new hosts Nate Schutta is joined by Chris Kramer to discuss Anthropic Mythos and Project Glasswing, unpacking what's hype and what really matters. A few links for this episode: Some more information about Project Glasswing: https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing A story about how a small Discord group briefly had access to Mythos: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/23/discord-group-has-claude-mythos-access How Mozilla used Mythos to discover Firefox bugs: https://www.wired.com/story/mozilla-used-anthropics-mythos-to-find-271-bugs-in-firefox/
Episode Summary:Will and Brandt continue to dig into the rapidly evolving world of agentic AI, with Will sharing hard-won lessons from burning through his OpenAI Codex quota and the growing appeal of Claude Cowork's new ability to run and manage tasks remotely from your phone. They also cover NVIDIA's OpenClaw announcement (NemoClaw), debate the rising anti-AI movement, and draw parallels between today's AI shift and the early days of the internet.Discussions Include:Managing AI credit quotas and the real cost of letting autonomous agents run unsupervisedClaude Cowork's remote phone control and what it means for agentic AI reaching everyday usersNVIDIA's OpenClaw fork and why a trusted brand name accelerates enterprise adoptionHow AI is changing the way we write, type, and interact with technology, including the death of the emdashThe anti-AI movement, AI slop, and why ignoring this technology may not be a long-term optionQuotable Quotes (Should you choose to share): "My OpenClaw setup is a very capable executive assistant with the knowledge of the entire internet. And it runs 24/7." - Will Curran "Nvidia wants to be the Levi's of the gold rush providing the picks and shovels and blue jeans." - Brandt Krueger "It's like saying you're against the calculator when the calculator is sitting right there and can do the math problem for you." - Will Curran "It's a paradigm shift. It is a big deal. It's not just a hype train. It's really changing the way that people are working." - Brandt Krueger (note that "paradigm shift" was said in a snotty tone and not seriously)Thing of the Episode (TOTE): Brandt: Rhino USA Folding Survival Shovel with Pick - rhinousainc.com/products/rhino-usa-survival-shovel Will: Project Nomad - projectnomad.us
What if clean, abundant energy is not just a future goal—but something that has been explored, discovered, or even overlooked in the past? In this intriguing and forward-thinking episode, Patrick J. Sullivan explores Free Energy: Here, Now, and Then, examining ideas around alternative energy, innovation, and the possibility of untapped power sources. Drawing from historical references, emerging concepts, and speculative technologies, Patrick discusses how the pursuit of free or low-cost energy has captured the imagination of inventors and researchers for generations. He explores the challenges of bringing unconventional energy ideas into the mainstream, as well as the debates surrounding feasibility, practicality, and acceptance. This episode invites listeners to think beyond current systems. Are there energy solutions that remain unexplored or underdeveloped? What barriers exist to innovation in this space? And how might breakthroughs in energy reshape the way we live, work, and interact with the world? Join us for a thought-provoking conversation that looks at the possibilities of energy beyond conventional limits—where curiosity meets innovation, and where the future of power may be more dynamic than we imagine.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.Please note that all XZBN radio and/or television shows are Copyright © REL-MAR McConnell Meda Company, Niagara, Ontario, Canada – www.rel-mar.com. For more Episodes of this show and all shows produced, broadcasted and syndicated from REL-MAR McConell Media Company and The 'X' Zone Broadcast Network and the 'X' Zone TV Channell, visit www.xzbn.net. For programming, distribution, and syndication inquiries, email programming@xzbn.net.We are proud to announce the we have launched TWATNews.com, launched in August 2025.TWATNews.com is an independent online news platform dedicated to uncovering the truth about Donald Trump and his ongoing influence in politics, business, and society. Unlike mainstream outlets that often sanitize, soften, or ignore stories that challenge Trump and his allies, TWATNews digs deeper to deliver hard-hitting articles, investigative features, and sharp commentary that mainstream media won't touch.These are stories and articles that you will not read anywhere else.Our mission is simple: to expose corruption, lies, and authoritarian tendencies while giving voice to the perspectives and evidence that are often marginalized or buried by corporate-controlled media
What if memories of loved ones could live on—not just in our hearts, but in a way that future generations can see and hear? In this innovative and deeply meaningful episode, Robert Barrows explores The Video Enhanced Gravemarker, a concept that blends technology with remembrance to create a lasting, interactive legacy. Drawing from his vision and work, Robert discusses how traditional memorials can be transformed through the integration of video and digital storytelling. By preserving personal messages, life stories, and cherished memories, this approach offers a new way for families to connect with the past—bringing voices and faces forward in a powerful and emotional way. This episode goes beyond technology, touching on legacy, memory, and the human desire to be remembered. How can we preserve our stories for future generations? What does it mean to leave behind more than just a name and date? And how might innovations like this reshape the way we honor and celebrate lives lived? Join us for a heartfelt and forward-thinking conversation that explores the intersection of memory and innovation—where technology helps keep stories alive, and where remembrance becomes a living experience.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.Please note that all XZBN radio and/or television shows are Copyright © REL-MAR McConnell Meda Company, Niagara, Ontario, Canada – www.rel-mar.com. For more Episodes of this show and all shows produced, broadcasted and syndicated from REL-MAR McConell Media Company and The 'X' Zone Broadcast Network and the 'X' Zone TV Channell, visit www.xzbn.net. For programming, distribution, and syndication inquiries, email programming@xzbn.net.We are proud to announce the we have launched TWATNews.com, launched in August 2025.TWATNews.com is an independent online news platform dedicated to uncovering the truth about Donald Trump and his ongoing influence in politics, business, and society. Unlike mainstream outlets that often sanitize, soften, or ignore stories that challenge Trump and his allies, TWATNews digs deeper to deliver hard-hitting articles, investigative features, and sharp commentary that mainstream media won't touch.These are stories and articles that you will not read anywhere else.Our mission is simple: to expose corruption, lies, and authoritarian tendencies while giving voice to the perspectives and evidence that are often marginalized or buried by corporate-controlled media
In April 2026 we published a new edition of the Thoughtworks Technology Radar — volume 34. Like many recent volumes, this one was dominated by AI. However, while editions over the last couple of years have illustrated the dizzying proliferation of AI-related technologies, vol.34 indicates a degree of evolution in the field, demonstrated by a focus on consistency, reliability and mitigating the collaborative and individual challenges of working with AI. This is reflected in the four themes identified for this Radar: the challenge of evaluating technology in an agentic world; retaining principles, relinquishing patterns; securing permission-hungry agents; putting coding agents on a leash. On this special Technology Radar episode of the Technology Podcast, host Ken Mugrage is joined by Alessio Ferri and Jim Gumbley to discuss the key themes in Technology Radar Vol.34. Diving into topics ranging from cognitive debt, harness engineering and the lethal trifecta, listen to gain a deeper understanding not just of the latest Radar but, more importantly, what AI-assisted and agentic software engineering really look like today. Read the latest Thoughtworks Technology Radar: https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar
Sharing information with AI has quickly become second nature. But what are you really giving away?
There's been a lot of discussion and debate in recent months about exactly how software engineering will be reshaped by AI. While it remains to be seen what the discipline will look like once things quieten down (if they ever do), one thing has been somewhat neglected: what does software engineering actually feel like in this AI-intensive environment? If we're no longer writing code, or even interfacing with it in the way we're used to, what does that mean for our professional experience? On this episode of the Technology Podcast, host Ken Mugrage is joined by Nate Schutta to discuss the software engineering experience today and to dig deep into what the work feels like when AI agents change our relationship with code. Nate is one of the authors of Fundamentals of Software Engineering (alongside Dan Vega) and appeared on the podcast in May 2025 to discuss the book; with so much change having taken place since then, Nate is perfectly placed to offer a perspective on what software engineering means today for an industry navigating significant change. Learn more about The Fundamentals of Software Engineering: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/books/fundamentals-software-engineering-book Listen to Nate discuss the book on an earlier episode of the Technology Podcast: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/podcasts/technology-podcasts/exploring-fundamentals-software-engineering
Supply chains, server crashes, and building break-ins. Our latest episode is a reminder that cybersecurity doesn't stop at the screen.
Episode Summary:Will and Brandt celebrate their 250th episode by diving into their AI platform journeys, with Will sharing his switch from ChatGPT to Claude and his experiments with agentic AI systems. The conversation explores Claude Code features, OpenClaw setups, and the future of AI assistants running automated workflows. They also discuss the challenges of building complex automation systems and share their latest tech recommendations.Discussions Include:Will's migration from ChatGPT to Claude and the reasons behind the switchBuilding agentic AI workflows with OpenClaw and automation systemsThe evolution of AI coding assistants and Claude Code capabilitiesAudio and video routing in home studios using NDI and Dante protocolsRoborock vacuum recommendations and smart home automationQuotable Quotes (Should you choose to share):"Hardware is always gonna do a better job than software. That's why everything in my studio is hardware routed." - Brandt Krueger"I had my own personal Claude $20 a month plan and was loving that. I quit it because I was like, oh we've got this enterprise ChatGPT. And like a week later, I reupped my Claude plan. I was like no, not for my daily driver." - Brandt Krueger"My journey into Claude was primarily driven by the desire to find a better technology to try to improve my OpenClaw setup." - Will Curran"Claude doesn't have any native image generation but honestly, the interface is fantastic. I get better answers." - Will CurranAnd here's the referenced Claude "Hedcut" image showing it can't do image gen: .::::::::::. .:::::::::::::::::::. .:::::::::::::::::::::::. .:::::::::::::::::::::::::::. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: .:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::: .---------. .---------.:::::::: ::::::::| @@@@@@@@@ | | @@@@@@@@@ |::::::: ::::::::| @@@ . @@@ | | @@@ . @@@ |::::::: ::::::::| @@@@@@@@@ | | @@@@@@@@@ |::::::: :::::::: ·---------· ·---------·:::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::| |:::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::| |:::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::: ·· ::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::: ~~~~ ::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ········································· ···######################################## ·########################################### ·############################################ ·############################################ ·############################################ ·############################################ ·###################·######################## ·##################···####################### ·#################·····###################### ·################·······##################### ·###############·········#################### ·##############···········################### ·#############·············################## ·############···············################# ·###########·················################ ·##########···················############### ·#########···················##############· ·########···················#############· ·#######···················############· ·######···················###########· ·#####·················##########· ·####·················########· ·###·················#####· ·##·················##· .---- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ----. / | ................ | | ························ | | ···························· | ···························· / ···························· / ···························· / ···························/ / ···························· / / ····························/ / ··############################# / ·################################· / ·##################################· / ·####################################· / ·######################################· | ·########################################· | | ·##########################################· | | ·############################################·| | ·##############################################| | ·###############################################| |·################################################| |#################################################| |#################################################| |#################################################| |#################################################| |#################################################| |#################################################| ...
Episode 166, Logan and Brendan are challenged by technologyPodcast links:FDTC Extras https://open.spotify.com/show/0V0kHFI0zdSzKhF60C145v?si=a9b051c554cd46fbTo contact us send us an email to fromdublintocleveland@gmail.com or followthe Podcast on Facebook. To support us buy a shirt at:https://www.bonfire.com/store/from-dublin-to-cleveland/To buy Brendan's book use this link:https://www.amazon.com/GHOST-UNSAID-PART-ONE-PANOPTICON/dp/1948581647/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1645880560&sr=8-1To buy book 2 : https://www.amazon.com/GHOST-UNSAID-BOOK-RECKONING-Triumvirate/dp/B0CHGC7W73/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1F2ZZP1PPC70K&keywords=brendan+thomas+marrett+reckoning&qid=1695349473&sprefix=brendan+thomas+marre%2Caps%2C1009&sr=8-1Podcast theme music by Transistor.fmSounds and background music from Zapsplat.com
Managing distributed systems and complex workflows can be challenging. What happens when something fails? If a task isn't executed to completion, that can lead to serious problems. From transaction and billing failures to deploying software, even small issues can have significant consequences. This is one of the reasons for durable computing. Designed to isolate code from crashes, it preserves state so a task is completed even when something fails. To discuss durable computing, explore why it matters today and how we've been using it at Thoughtworks, Brandon Cook and John Coleman join host Alexey Boas on the Technology Podcast. They dive into the current platform ecosystem and what it means for developers — and requires of them. They also talk about the value of durable computing for AI, explaining why the concept of 'durable agents' offers an important of avenue of investigation in a world eager to embrace agentic systems. Learn more about durable computing in this blog post from July 2025: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/cloud/durable-computing-making-easier-resilience-distributed-systems
Episode Title:A Meshtastic New Career MoveEpisode Summary:Will walks Brandt through the ins and outs of Meshtastic, an off-the-grid mesh networking technology that allows users to send messages and share locations without relying on cellular networks or the internet. The duo explain how the decentralized system works by creating a network of independent nodes that relay messages across the airwaves. Plus, Brandt announces his exciting move from live event production into event tech as the new Director of Industry Relations & Partnerships at EventMobi.Discussions Include:What Meshtastic is and how it uses free 915 MHz radio spectrum for decentralized messagingThe node-based mesh network concept and how it differs from traditional cellular relianceReal-world setup and configuration of your first Meshtastic nodePractical applications for events, natural disasters, and off-grid team communicationBrandt's transition to EventMobi and the future of event technologyQuotable Quotes (Should you choose to share):"Meshtastic essentially is an off the grid way to message and share your location without the use of a cell network, internet, or anything like that." - Will Curran"The people are the network. So you're not relying on T-Mobile. You're not relying on any kind of AT&T or anybody like that." - Brandt Krueger"Hugely excited that you are now in that role and I know you're gonna do wonders- you're gonna kill it completely." - Will Curran
New Book: Climate Capital — Investing in the Tools for a Regenerative Future | An Interview with Tom Chi | An Analog Brain In A Digital Age With Marco Ciappelli What if the economy isn't broken — just badly designed? Tom Chi, Google X founding member, inventor of 77 patents, and venture capitalist at At One Ventures, joined me on An Analog Brain In A Digital Age to discuss his new book Climate Capital: Investing in the Tools for a Regenerative Future. From the streets of Florence to the strip malls of Silicon Valley, from the mechanics of attention capture to the physics of ecological economics, this conversation goes far beyond climate. It's about how we design the systems we live inside — and whether we have the will to redesign them before it's too late.
New Book: Lost in Time — Our Forgotten and Vanishing Knowledge | An Interview with Jack R. Bialik | An Analog Brain In A Digital Age With Marco Ciappelli There's a particular arrogance embedded in how we talk about progress. We speak about innovation as if it moves in one direction only — forward, upward, smarter, faster. But what if the line isn't straight? What if it loops, doubles back, and occasionally vanishes entirely? That's the uncomfortable question at the center of my conversation with Jack R. Bialik. His book Lost in Time: Our Forgotten and Vanishing Knowledge doesn't read like a history lesson. It reads like a case file — evidence, example by example, that the civilization we assume is the most advanced in human history is also, in some critical ways, deeply amnesiac. Take cataract surgery. We learned it in the 1700s, right? Except we didn't. Indians were performing it in 800 BC. The ancient Egyptians and Babylonians had diagrams of the procedure dating back to 2,400 BCE. The knowledge existed, worked, and then — somewhere in the chaos of collapsing empires and burning libraries — it vanished. We didn't progress past it. We forgot it, and then reinvented it from scratch, centuries later, convinced we were doing something new. Or the Baghdad Battery: clay pots, 2,000 years old, that when filled with acid can generate 1.1 volts of electricity. We don't know what they used them for. We don't know who figured it out. We just know it worked, it existed, and then it didn't anymore. This is what Bialik calls the pattern of loss — and it's not random. It follows catastrophe: the Library of Alexandria, the systematic destruction of Mayan records, the slow erosion of oral traditions as writing systems took over. Knowledge disappears when the systems that carry it collapse. And here's where the conversation gets uncomfortably relevant: we are building those systems right now, and we are not thinking about how long they'll last. The curator at the Computer History Museum told Bialik that to preserve the data from early IBM PCs and Macintosh computers, they had to print it on paper. The floppy drives had become brittle. The formats were unreadable. The digital archive was failing — and the only solution was to go analog. A vinyl record from the 1920s still plays. A CD from the 1980s may not survive another decade. I've been thinking about this since we recorded. My brain is analog — that's not just a podcast title, it's a philosophy. I grew up in Florence, surrounded by things that had survived centuries because they were made to last: stone, fresco, manuscript. Then I jumped on the digital train like everyone else, seduced by infinite libraries on my phone, music on demand, knowledge at my fingertips. But what Bialik is pointing out is that fingertips are fragile. And so are hard drives. The deeper issue isn't storage format. It's the distinction Bialik draws between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is the data — the cataract surgery technique, the battery design, the pyramid engineering. Wisdom is knowing why it matters, when to use it, and what the consequences might be. We've gotten extraordinarily good at accumulating knowledge. We are considerably worse at transmitting wisdom. And wisdom, Bialik argues, doesn't live in databases. It lives in the space between people — in stories, in teaching, in the slow transmission of judgment across generations. That's why oral tradition survived when everything else failed. Not because it was more sophisticated, but because it was more human. It didn't require a device to run on. I don't know how to solve the digital longevity problem. Neither does Bialik — not yet. But I think the first step is admitting we have one. That's actually one of the quietest, most powerful arguments in the book: be humble. We don't know everything. We never did. And some of the things we've lost might be exactly what we need right now. The question isn't just what we've forgotten. It's what we're forgetting today, while we're too busy scrolling to notice. Grab Lost in Time: Our Forgotten and Vanishing Knowledge — link below — and spend some time with a perspective that goes very, very far back. Which is maybe the only way to see very, very far forward. And if this kind of conversation is what you come here for, subscribe to the newsletter at marcociappelli.com. More of this. Less noise. — Marco Ciappelli Co-Founder ITSPmagazine & Studio C60 | Creative Director | Branding & Marketing Advisor | Personal Branding Coach | Journalist | Writer | Podcast: An Analog Brain In A Digital Age ⚠️ Beware: Pigs May Fly |
In January 2026, Thoughtworks launched AI/works™, an agentic development platform. It promises to make the capabilities of AI agents a reality for the enterprise, helping in areas including understanding complex legacy code, forward engineering new software solutions and agent governance. How, though, does it actually work in practice? And what does it mean for the organizations and teams Thoughtworks works with? In this episode of the Technology Podcast, new host Rickey Zachary is joined by Bharani Subramaniam (CTO for Thoughtworks India and the Middle East) and Shodhan Sheth (Head of Enterprise Modernization, Platforms and Cloud) to discuss AI/works™, taking in how the platform emerged from a number of recent Thoughtworks projects to how it's delivering value to businesses today. As well as an inside perspective on Thoughtworks' new platform, the episode also offers a deep and timely exploration of questions and challenges the rapid rise of AI agents in software engineering has surfaced across every part across industry. Learn more about AI/works™: https://www.thoughtworks.com/ai/works
How can you help your loved ones navigate and securely adopt AI tools ? Will Gardner, CEO of Childnet joins the show for a vital conversation about helping families use AI safely. We talk about Childnet's latest research and the practical ways you can become a digital role model and start better AI conversations at home.
None of Your Goddamn BusinessJohn Morgan Salomon said something during our conversation that I haven't stopped thinking about. We were discussing encryption, privacy laws, the usual terrain — and he cut through all of it with five words: "It's none of your goddamn business."Not elegant. Not diplomatic. But exactly right.John has spent 30 years in information security. He's Swiss, lives in Spain, advises governments and startups, and uses his real name on social media despite spending his career thinking about privacy. When someone like that tells you he's worried, you should probably pay attention.The immediate concern is something called "Chat Control" — a proposed EU law that would mandate access to encrypted communications on your phone. It's failed twice. It's now in its third iteration. The Danish Information Commissioner is pushing it. Germany and Poland are resisting. The European Parliament is next.The justification is familiar: child abuse materials, terrorism, drug trafficking. These are the straw man arguments that appear every time someone wants to break encryption. And John walked me through the pattern: tragedy strikes, laws pass in the emotional fervor, and those laws never go away. The Patriot Act. RIPA in the UK. The Clipper Chip the FBI tried to push in the 1990s. Same playbook, different decade.Here's the rhetorical trap: "Do you support terrorism? Do you support child abuse?" There's only one acceptable answer. And once you give it, you've already conceded the frame. You're now arguing about implementation rather than principle.But the principle matters. John calls it the panopticon — the Victorian-era prison design where all cells face inward toward a central guard tower. No walls. Total visibility. The transparent citizen. If you can see what everyone is doing, you can spot evil early. That's the theory.The reality is different. Once you build the infrastructure to monitor everyone, the question becomes: who decides what "evil" looks like? Child pornographers, sure. Terrorists, obviously. But what about LGBTQ individuals in countries where their existence is criminalized? John told me about visiting Chile in 2006, where his gay neighbor could only hold his partner's hand inside a hidden bar. That was a democracy. It was also a place where being yourself was punishable by prison.The targets expand. They always do. Catholics in 1960s America. Migrants today. Anyone who thinks differently from whoever holds power at any given moment. These laws don't just catch criminals — they set precedents. And precedents outlive the people who set them.John made another point that landed hard: the privacy we've already lost probably isn't coming back. Supermarket loyalty cards. Surveillance cameras. Social media profiles. Cookie consent dialogs we click through without reading. That version of privacy is dead. But there's another kind — the kind that prevents all that ambient data from being weaponized against you as an individual. The kind that stops your encrypted messages from becoming evidence of thought crimes. That privacy still exists. For now.Technology won't save us. John was clear about that. Neither will it destroy us. Technology is just an element in a much larger equation that includes human nature, greed, apathy, and the willingness of citizens to actually engage. He sent emails to 40 Spanish members of European Parliament about Chat Control. One responded.That's the real problem. Not the law. Not the technology. The apathy.Republic comes from "res publica" — the thing of the people. Benjamin Franklin supposedly said it best: "A republic, if you can keep it." Keeping it requires attention. Requires understanding what's at stake. Requires saying, when necessary: this is none of your goddamn business.Stay curious. Stay Human. Subscribe to the podcast. And if you have thoughts, drop them in the comments — I actually read them.Marco CiappelliSubscribe to the Redefining Society and Technology podcast. Stay curious. Stay human.> https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7079849705156870144/Marco Ciappelli: https://www.marcociappelli.com/John Salomon Experienced, international information security leader. vCISO, board & startup advisor, strategist.https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsalomon/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Episode Summary: Will and Brandt swap real-world stories about AI tools going off the rails, from hallucinated brand standards and fabricated form fields to image compression issues that break OCR workflows. They compare experiences across ChatGPT, Claude, and other platforms, unpack why defaults and guardrails matter, and discuss when advanced modes like agent or thinking actually help. Along the way, Will shares hands-on wins using Cursor and home automation, while Brandt highlights the risks of AI making things up instead of admitting uncertainty. Discussions Include:Brandt's experiences with ChatGPT hallucinating brand standards and form data when source files or images were unreadableWill and Brandt comparing Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, projects, GPTs, and agent mode behaviorThe dangers of AI defaults, image compression, and systems that refuse to say “I don't know”Will's recent successes using Cursor, Home Assistant, and automation powered by AI toolsQuotable Quotes (Should you choose to share): “So I fed it a blank document and it completely made up an entire brand standard and held me to it as I wrote my document.” - Brandt Krueger “Rather than saying, I don't have any data, it just completely made stuff up.” - Brandt Krueger “AI right now is just trying to be so helpful that they have programmed it to not say, I don't know.” - Will Curran “The fact that I have to go in here and say, do not make things up, is terrible for consumers.” - Brandt Krueger
It's a brand new season of Random but Memorable — and we're kicking things off with practical security for the people you care about most.
At the Guitar Center Foundation, music is treated as a shared resource rather than a luxury. During this conversation at the NAMM Show 2026, Michelle Wolff, representing the Foundation, explains how access to real instruments can change the trajectory of a student, a patient, or a veteran simply by making music possible in the first place.The Foundation's work centers on donating thousands of instruments to schools, hospitals, and veteran centers, with a focus on communities where funding for music programs is often the first thing cut. Through a structured grant process, organizations apply for instruments quarterly, with roughly 150 requests reviewed each cycle. About 30 of those requests are fulfilled, helping sustain programs that might otherwise disappear.Beyond instrument donations, the Foundation is expanding how it shows up in communities. Plans include live donation events that bring instruments directly into schools and hospitals, often paired with artist participation to create meaningful, memorable moments. New donor and ambassador programs are also taking shape, designed to broaden awareness and bring more voices into the mission.Partnerships play a major role in that effort. The conversation highlights recent collaboration tied to the 100 Billion Meals initiative, where music, visual art, and social impact intersect to amplify multiple causes at once. These partnerships extend the Foundation's reach while reinforcing the idea that music can support broader humanitarian goals.Wolff also shares a personal connection to the mission. As a former vocal performance major at the University of Texas Butler School of Music, she understands how deeply musicians identify with their craft. After experiencing vocal injury herself, she speaks to the importance of supporting musicians through change and helping them build identities that extend beyond a single instrument, without losing music as a core part of who they are.That perspective brings the Foundation's work full circle. Access to instruments is not only about creating future professionals. It is about expression, resilience, and giving people the chance to discover what music can mean in their own lives.Part of ITSPmagazine's On Location Coverage at NAMM 2026.
The Last Touch: Why AI Will Never Be an ArtistI had one of those conversations... the kind where you're nodding along, then suddenly stop because someone just articulated something you've been feeling but couldn't quite name.Andrea Isoni is a Chief AI Officer. He builds and delivers AI solutions for a living. And yet, sitting across from him (virtually, but still), I heard something I rarely hear from people deep in the AI industry: a clear, unromantic take on what this technology actually is — and what it isn't.His argument is elegant in its simplicity. Think about Michelangelo. We picture him alone with a chisel, carving David from marble. But that's not how it worked. Michelangelo ran a workshop. He had apprentices — skilled craftspeople who did the bulk of the work. The master would look at a semi-finished piece, decide what needed refinement, and add the final touch.That final touch is everything.Andrea draws the same line with chefs. A Michelin-starred kitchen isn't one person cooking. It's a team executing the chef's vision. But the chef decides what's on the menu. The chef check the dish before it leaves. The chef adds that last adjustment that transforms good into memorable.AI, in this framework, is the newest apprentice. It can do the bulk work. It can generate drafts, produce code, create images. But it cannot — and here's the key — provide that final touch. Because that touch comes from somewhere AI doesn't have access to: lived experience, suffering, joy, the accumulated weight of being human in a particular time and place.This matters beyond art. Andrea calls it the "hacker economy" — a future where AI handles the volume, but humans handle the value. Think about code generation. Yes, AI can write software. But code with a bug doesn't work. Period. Someone has to fix that last bug. And in a world where AI produces most of the code, the value of fixing that one critical bug increases exponentially. The work becomes rarer but more valuable. Less frequent, but essential.We went somewhere unexpected in our conversation — to electricity. What does AI "need"? Not food. Not warmth. Electricity. So if AI ever developed something like feelings, they wouldn't be tied to hunger or cold or human vulnerability. They'd be tied to power supply. The most important being to an AI wouldn't be a human — it would be whoever controls the electricity grid.That's not a being we can relate to. And that's the point.Andrea brought up Guernica. Picasso's masterpiece isn't just innovative in style — it captures something society was feeling in 1937, the horror of the Spanish Civil War. Great art does two things: it innovates, and it expresses something the collective needs expressed. AI might be able to generate the first. It cannot do the second. It doesn't know what we feel. It doesn't know what moment we're living through. It doesn't have that weight of context.The research community calls this "world models" — the attempt to give AI some built-in understanding of reality. A dog doesn't need to be taught to swim; it's born knowing. Humans have similar innate knowledge, layered with everything we learn from family, culture, experience. AI starts from zero. Every time.Andrea put it simply: AI contextualization today is close to zero.I left the conversation thinking about what we protect when we acknowledge AI's limits. Not anti-technology. Not fear. Just clarity. The "last touch" isn't a romantic notion — it's what makes something resonate. And that resonance comes from us.Stay curious. Subscribe to the podcast. And if you have thoughts, drop them in the comments — I actually read them.Marco CiappelliSubscribe to the Redefining Society and Technology podcast. Stay curious. Stay human.> https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7079849705156870144/Marco Ciappelli: https://www.marcociappelli.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In this episode I sit down with the evil genius, who built an entire custom app using AI. And we're giving you the prompt FOR FREE! You take our prompt, implement it in your context, and you have a fun, custom sniper game for your next summer camp, winter retrat or d-now! [FREE] AI SNIPER APP BUILDER https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-ai-sniper-147099707?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link SHOW NOTES Shownotes & Transcripts https://www.hybridministry.xyz/186 ❄️ WINTER SOCIAL MEDIA PACK https://www.patreon.com/posts/winter-seasonal-144943791?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link HYBRID HERO MEMBERS GET IT FREE! https://www.patreon.com/hybridministry
If AI agents really are the future of how work will be done — in software engineering and beyond — the platforms on which they are built, run and maintained will be crucial. This is a topic two Thoughtworkers, Ben O'Mahony and Fabian Nonnenmacher, are currently writing about. Although not due to be published until early 2027, the first two chapters of Building AI Agent Platforms are now available as part of O'Reilly's Early Release scheme. Its goal is to provide readers with a complete roadmap for developing AI agent platforms, from agent development to architectural principles to observability and governance. In this episode of the Technology Podcast, the authors speak to regular host Ken Mugrage about the book, why agent platforms are a critical part of any AI strategy and some of the challenges of developing and maintaining them. Listen for an early look at what looks set to be a valuable book in the world of AI development and to gain a clearer perspective on what agentic AI really means at the start of 2026. Learn more about Building AI Agent Platforms: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/building-ai-agent/0642572243906/
CES 2026 Just Showed Us the Future. It's More Practical Than You Think.CES has always been part crystal ball, part carnival. But something shifted this year.I caught up with Brian Comiskey—Senior Director of Innovation and Trends at CTA and a futurist by trade—days after 148,000 people walked the Las Vegas floor. What he described wasn't the usual parade of flashy prototypes destined for tech graveyards. This was different. This was technology getting serious about actually being useful.Three mega trends defined the show: intelligent transformation, longevity, and engineering tomorrow. Fancy terms, but they translate to something concrete: AI that works, health tech that extends lives, and innovations that move us, power us, and feed us. Not technology for its own sake. Technology with a job to do.The AI conversation has matured. A year ago, generative AI was the headline—impressive demos, uncertain applications. Now the use cases are landing. Industrial AI is optimizing factory operations through digital twins. Agentic AI is handling enterprise workflows autonomously. And physical AI—robotics—is getting genuinely capable. Brian pointed to robotic vacuums that now have arms, wash floors, and mop. Not revolutionary in isolation, but symbolic of something larger: AI escaping the screen and entering the physical world.Humanoid robots took a visible leap. Companies like Sharpa and Real Hand showcased machines folding laundry, picking up papers, playing ping pong. The movement is becoming fluid, dexterous, human-like. LG even introduced a consumer-facing humanoid. We're past the novelty phase. The question now is integration—how these machines will collaborate, cowork, and coexist with humans.Then there's energy—the quiet enabler hiding behind the AI headlines.Korea Hydro Nuclear Power demonstrated small modular reactors. Next-generation nuclear that could cleanly power cities with minimal waste. A company called Flint Paper Battery showcased recyclable batteries using zinc instead of lithium and cobalt. These aren't sexy announcements. They're foundational.Brian framed it well: AI demands energy. Quantum computing demands energy. The future demands energy. Without solving that equation, everything else stalls. The good news? AI itself is being deployed for grid modernization, load balancing, and optimizing renewable cycles. The technologies aren't competing—they're converging.Quantum made the leap from theory to presence. CES launched a new area called Foundry this year, featuring innovations from D-Wave and Quantum Computing Inc. Brian still sees quantum as a 2030s defining technology, but we're in the back half of the 2020s now. The runway is shorter than we thought.His predictions for 2026: quantum goes more mainstream, humanoid robotics moves beyond enterprise into consumer markets, and space technologies start playing a bigger role in connectivity and research. The threads are weaving together.Technology conversations often drift toward dystopia—job displacement, surveillance, environmental cost. Brian sees it differently. The convergence of AI, quantum, and clean energy could push things toward something better. The pieces exist. The question is whether we assemble them wisely.CES is a snapshot. One moment in the relentless march. But this year's snapshot suggests technology is entering a phase where substance wins over spectacle.That's a future worth watching.This episode is part of the Redefining Society and Technology podcast's CES 2026 coverage. Subscribe to stay informed as technology and humanity continue to intersect.Subscribe to the Redefining Society and Technology podcast. Stay curious. Stay human.> https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7079849705156870144/Marco Ciappelli: https://www.marcociappelli.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jensen Huang Just Won IEEE's Highest Honor. The Reason Tells Us Everything About Where Tech Is Headed.IEEE announced Jensen Huang as its 2026 Medal of Honor recipient at CES this week. The NVIDIA founder joins a lineage stretching back to 1917—over a century of recognizing people who didn't just advance technology, but advanced humanity through technology.That distinction matters more than ever.I spoke with Mary Ellen Randall, IEEE's 2026 President and CEO, from the floor of CES Las Vegas. The timing felt significant. Here we are, surrounded by the latest gadgets and AI demonstrations, having a conversation about something deeper: what all this technology is actually for.IEEE isn't a small operation. It's the world's largest technical professional society—500,000 members across 190 countries, 38 technical societies, and 142 years of history that traces back to when the telegraph was connecting continents and electricity was the revolutionary new thing. Back then, engineers gathered to exchange ideas, challenge each other's thinking, and push innovation forward responsibly.The methods have evolved. The mission hasn't."We're dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity," Randall told me. Not advancing technology for its own sake. Not for quarterly earnings. For humanity. It sounds like a slogan until you realize it's been their operating principle since before radio existed.What struck me was her framing of this moment. Randall sees parallels to the Renaissance—painters working with sculptors, sharing ideas with scientists, cross-pollinating across disciplines to create explosive growth. "I believe we're in another time like that," she said. "And IEEE plays a crucial role because we are the way to get together and exchange ideas on a very rapid scale."The Jensen Huang selection reflects this philosophy. Yes, NVIDIA built the hardware that powers AI. But the Medal of Honor citation focuses on something broader—the entire ecosystem NVIDIA created that enables AI advancement across healthcare, autonomous systems, drug discovery, and beyond. It's not just about chips. It's about what the chips make possible.That ecosystem thinking matters when AI is moving faster than our ethical frameworks can keep pace. IEEE is developing standards to address bias in AI models. They've created certification programs for ethical AI development. They even have standards for protecting young people online—work that doesn't make headlines but shapes the digital environment we all inhabit."Technology is a double-edged sword," Randall acknowledged. "But we've worked very hard to move it forward in a very responsible and ethical way."What does responsible look like when everything is accelerating? IEEE's answer involves convening experts to challenge each other, peer-reviewing research to maintain trust, and developing standards that create guardrails without killing innovation. It's the slow, unglamorous work that lets the exciting breakthroughs happen safely.The organization includes 189,000 student members—the next generation of engineers who will inherit both the tools and the responsibilities we're creating now. "Engineering with purpose" is the phrase Randall kept returning to. People don't join IEEE just for career advancement. They join because they want to do good.I asked about the future. Her answer circled back to history: the Renaissance happened when different disciplines intersected and people exchanged ideas freely. We have better tools for that now—virtual conferences, global collaboration, instant communication. The question is whether we use them wisely.We live in a Hybrid Analog Digital Society where the choices engineers make today ripple through everything tomorrow. Organizations like IEEE exist to ensure those choices serve humanity, not just shareholder returns.Jensen Huang's Medal of Honor isn't just recognition of past achievement. It's a statement about what kind of innovation matters.Subscribe to the Redefining Society and Technology podcast. Stay curious. Stay human.My Newsletter? Yes, of course, it is here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7079849705156870144/Marco Ciappelli: https://www.marcociappelli.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
You can grasp the basics of software architecture by learning design patterns, but you probably won't master it — to do that you have to get to grips with antipatterns too. Often these lessons are hard-won through experience, derived from seeing what happens when architectural decisions (or the lack of them) collide with the messy reality of the real world. While there's obviously no replacement for practical experience, Neal Ford, Mark Richards and Raju Gandhi want to share theirs to give architects the opportunity to avoid common antipatterns and pitfalls and make smarter decisions. That's what they're doing with their forthcoming book (due September 2026) Architecture Patterns, Antipatterns and Pitfalls. On this episode of the Technology Podcast, host Neal is joined by his co-authors and their editor from O'Reilly, Sarah Grey, to discuss the book and to explore why getting to know on antipatterns and pitfalls matters as much as learning design patterns. Learn more about Software Architecture Patterns, Antipatterns and Pitfalls: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/software-architecture-patterns/0642572221119/ Listen to Neal and Mark discuss the various intersections of software architecture on an episode of the Technology Podcast from 2025: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/podcasts/technology-podcasts/exploring-intersections-software-architecture
Happy New Year!
(05:55) Biggest Potential: 227. She Sells Seashells… and Reinvents Recycling(08:14) The Teaser: 220. How Popcorn Popped an Idea for Sustainable Manufacturing(10:38) Intersection: 233. Reading a Fish's Mind to Build Smarter Robots(12:58) The Pleaser: 224. Geothermal Could Save the Grid(16:08) Novel: 219. Edible Robots Bring Tech to the Dessert Table(19:10) The Rocker: 210. Origami-Inspired Concrete Construction(22:15) Farb's Favorite: 226. Stop & Go No More: AI Cuts Intersection Emissions(27:38) The Showstopper: 237. Vibe Manufacturing: MIT's AI Text-to-Manufacturing System(31:18) Honorable Mention: 212. One Cure For All Snake Venoms Via AI--As always, you can find these and other interesting & impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.To learn more about this show, please visit our shows page. By following the page, you will get automatic updates by email when a new show is published. Be sure to give us a follow and review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and most of your favorite podcast platforms! Become a founding reader of our newsletter: http://read.thenextbyte.com/ As always, you can find these and other interesting & impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.
The 'age of intent' is a phrase that's been around for a number of years. However, with the rise of AI agents in 2025 it has the potential to become a key trend for 2026. It describes a new way of thinking about digital interaction in which the gap between human intention and output are reduced even further through AI assistance. Thoughtworks' APAC CTO Sarah Taraporewalla has been exploring the age of intent in recent months; she's written a series of blog posts that tackle what this new phase of digital interaction means for businesses and how they can prepare themselves. On the latest episode of the Technology Podcast, Sarah joins host Lilly Ryan to discuss the concept the age of intent and its implications for the future of digital experiences. Read Sara Taraporewalla's series on the age of intent: The interface is dead. Time for the age of intent: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/generative-ai/the-interface-is-dead-time-for-the-age-of-intent From prototype to transformation: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/generative-ai/the-age-of-intent-from-prototype-to-transformation What it takes to become an intent-ready organization: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/generative-ai/the-age-of-intent-from-prototype-to-transformation Rethinking value in the AI economy: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/generative-ai/the-age-of-intent-rethinking-value-in-AI-economy
In this end-of-year AwesomeCast, hosts Michael Sorg and Katie Dudas are joined by original AwesomeCast co-host Rob De La Cretaz for a wide-ranging discussion on the biggest tech shifts of 2025 — and what's coming next. The panel breaks down how AI tools became genuinely useful in everyday workflows, from content production and health tracking to decision-making and trend analysis. Rob shares why Bambu Labs 3D printers represent a turning point in consumer and professional 3D printing, removing friction and making rapid prototyping accessible for creators, engineers, and hobbyists alike. The episode also covers the evolving role of AI in media creation, concerns around over-reliance and trust, and why human-made content may soon become a premium feature. Intern Mac reflects on changing career paths into media production, while the crew revisits their 2025 tech predictions, holds themselves accountable, and locks in bold forecasts for 2026. Plus: Chachi's Video Game Minute, AI competition heating up, Apple Vision Pro speculation, and why “AI inside” may need clearer definitions moving forward.
As NAMM approaches its 125th year, the conversation around The NAMM Show 2026 centers less on products alone and more on the people, relationships, and creative energy that sustain the music industry. In this episode, John Mlynczak, President and CEO of NAMM, joins Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli to frame the upcoming show as a moment shaped by resilience, adaptation, and shared purpose.Mlynczak positions NAMM's history as a long record of responding to disruption. Musical genres shift. Technologies rise and fall. Companies appear and disappear. Music itself remains. That continuity shapes how NAMM views its role today, particularly amid global trade pressures and ongoing debates around AI in music creation. These pressures are not framed as endpoints, but as forces the industry has encountered many times before, each eventually reshaped into opportunity.A major theme is the renewed emphasis on human connection. While innovation remains central, differentiation increasingly comes through artists, creators, and authentic storytelling. Product launches are no longer just technical showcases. They are expressions of identity, collaboration, and trust between musicians and the tools they choose. According to Mlynczak, this shift is driving a larger presence of artists and creators at The NAMM Show 2026, reinforcing the idea that brands are ultimately represented by people, not specifications.Education also plays a defining role. With more than 200 sessions planned, alongside new half-day and full-day summits, The NAMM Show 2026 expands its commitment to learning across experience levels and professional communities. Retailers, educators, engineers, marketers, and performers each have distinct paths through the show, designed intentionally rather than left to chance. Data-driven planning allows NAMM to understand how attendees engage, enabling more tailored experiences now and in the years ahead.Underlying it all is energy. Not hype, but momentum built through in-person connection. The NAMM Show is described as a space where competitors share ideas, musicians find inspiration, and creativity compounds simply by being present. For those who attend, The NAMM Show 2026 serves as a springboard into the year ahead, shaped by music's enduring ability to connect, adapt, and move people forward.The NAMM Show 2026 is taking place from January 20-24, 2026 | Anaheim Convention Center • Southern California — Coverage provided by ITSPmagazine — Follow our coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/cybersecurity-technology-society-events/the-namm-show-2026GUEST:Guest: John Mlynczak, President and CEO of NAMM | View Website | Visit NAMMHOSTS:Sean Martin, Co-Founder, ITSPmagazine and Studio C60 | Website: https://www.seanmartin.comMarco Ciappelli, Co-Founder, ITSPmagazine and Studio C60 | Website: https://www.marcociappelli.comNAMM Organization: https://www.namm.org/The NAMM Show 2026: https://www.namm.org/thenammshow/attendCatch more stories from NAMM Show 2026 coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/cybersecurity-technology-society-events/the-namm-show-2026Music Evolves: Sonic Frontiers Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7290890771828719616/More from Marco Ciappelli on Redefining Society and Technology Podcast: https://redefiningsocietyandtechnologypodcast.com/Want to share an Event Briefing as part of our event coverage? Learn More
Dr. Steve Mancini: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-steve-m-b59a525/Marco Ciappelli: https://www.marcociappelli.com/Nothing Has Changed in Cybersecurity Since War Games — And That's Why We're in Trouble"Nothing has changed."That's not what you expect to hear from someone with four decades in cybersecurity. The industry thrives on selling the next revolution, the newest threat, the latest solution. But Dr. Steve Mancini—cybersecurity professor, Homeland Security veteran, and Italy's Honorary Consul in Pittsburgh—wasn't buying any of it. And honestly? Neither was I.He took me back to his Commodore 64 days, writing basic war dialers after watching War Games. The method? Dial numbers, find an open line, try passwords until one works. Translate that to today: run an Nmap scan, find an open port, brute force your way in. The principle is identical. Only the speed has changed.This resonated deeply with how I think about our Hybrid Analog Digital Society. We're so consumed with the digital evolution—the folding screens, the AI assistants, the cloud computing—that we forget the human vulnerabilities underneath remain stubbornly analog. Social engineering worked in the 1930s, it worked when I was a kid in Florence, and it works today in your inbox.Steve shared a story about a family member who received a scam call. The caller asked if their social security number "had a six in it." A one-in-nine guess. Yet that simple psychological trick led to remote software being installed on their computer. Technology gets smarter; human psychology stays the same.What struck me most was his observation about his students—a generation so immersed in technology that they've become numb to breaches. "So what?" has become the default response. The data sells, the breaches happen, you get two years of free credit monitoring, and life goes on. Groundhog Day.But the deeper concern isn't the breaches. It's what this technological immersion is doing to our capacity for critical thinking, for human instinct. Steve pointed out something that should unsettle us: the algorithms feeding content to young minds are designed for addiction, manipulating brain chemistry with endorphin kicks from endless scrolling. We won't know the full effects of a generation raised on smartphones until they're forty, having scrolled through social media for thirty years.I asked what we can do. His answer was simple but profound: humans need to decide how much they want technology in their lives. Parents putting smartphones in six-year-olds' hands might want to reconsider. Schools clinging to the idea that they're "teaching technology" miss the point—students already know the apps better than their professors. What they don't know is how to think without them.He's gone back to paper and pencil tests. Old school. Because when the power goes out—literally or metaphorically—you need a brain that works independently.Ancient cultures, Steve reminded me, built civilizations with nothing but their minds, parchment, and each other. They were, in many ways, a thousand times smarter than us because they had no crutches. Now we call our smartphones "smart" while they make us incrementally dumber.This isn't anti-technology doom-saying. Neither Steve nor I oppose technological progress. The conversation acknowledged AI's genuine benefits in medicine, in solving specific problems. But this relentless push for the "easy button"—the promise that you don't have to think, just click—that's where we lose something essential.The ultimate breach, we concluded, isn't someone stealing your data. It's breaching the mind itself. When we can no longer think, reason, or function without the device in our pocket, the hackers have already won—and they didn't need to write a single line of code.Subscribe to the Redefining Society and Technology podcast. Stay curious. Stay human.My Newsletter? Yes, of course, it is here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7079849705156870144/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Black Friday season is upon us!
Author Kate O'Neill's Book "What Matters Next": AI, Meaning, and Why We Can't Delegate Creativity | Redefining Society and Technology with Marco CiappelliKate O'Neill: https://www.koinsights.com/books/what-matters-next-book/Marco Ciappelli: https://www.marcociappelli.com/ When Kate O'Neill tells me that AI's most statistically probable outcome is actually its least meaningful one, I realize we're talking about something information theory has known for decades - but nobody's applying to the way we're using ChatGPT.She's a linguist who became a tech pioneer, one of Netflix's first hundred employees, someone who saw the first graphical web browser and got chills knowing everything was about to change. Her new book "What Matters Next" isn't another panic piece about AI or a blind celebration of automation. It's asking the question nobody seems to want to answer: what happens when we optimize for probability instead of meaning?I've been wrestling with this myself. The more I use AI tools for content, analysis, brainstorming - the more I notice something's missing. The creativity isn't there. It's brilliant for summarization, execution, repetitive tasks. But there's a flatness to it, a regression to the mean that strips away the very thing that makes human communication worth having.Kate puts it plainly: "There is nothing more human than meaning-making. From semantic meaning all the way out to the philosophical, cosmic worldview - what matters and why we're here."Every time we hit "generate" and just accept what the algorithm produces, we're choosing efficiency over meaning. We're delegating the creative process to a system optimized for statistical likelihood, not significance.She laughs when I tell her about my own paradox - that AI sometimes takes MORE time, not less. There's this old developer concept called "yak shaving," where you spend ten times longer writing a program to automate five steps instead of just doing them. But the real insight isn't about time management. It's about understanding the relationship between our thoughts and the tools we use to express them.In her book "What Matters Next," Kate's message is that we need to stay in the loop. Use AI for ugly first drafts, sure. Let it expedite workflow. But keep going back and forth, inserting yourself, bringing meaning and purpose back into the process. Otherwise, we create what she calls "garbage that none of us want to exist in the world with."I wrote recently about the paradox of learning when we rely entirely on machines. If AI only knows what we've done in the past, and we don't inject new meaning into that loop, it becomes closed. It's like doomscrolling through algorithms that only feed you what you already like - you never discover anything new, never grow, never challenge yourself.We're living in a Hybrid Analog Digital Society where these tools are unavoidable and genuinely powerful. The question isn't whether to use them. It's how to use them in ways that amplify human creativity rather than flatten it, that enhance meaning rather than optimize it away.The dominant narrative right now is efficiency, productivity, automation. But what if the real value isn't doing things faster - it's doing things that actually matter? Technology should serve humanity's purpose. Not the other way around. And that purpose can't be dictated by algorithms trained on statistical likelihood. It has to come from us, from the messy, unpredictable, meaningful work of being human.My Newsletter? Yes, of course, it is here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7079849705156870144/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
AI in Healthcare: Who Benefits, Who Pays, and Who's at Risk in Our Hybrid Analog Digital Society
Ever wondered what happens to your online accounts when you're gone?
____________Podcast Redefining Society and Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappellihttps://redefiningsocietyandtechnologypodcast.com ____________Host Marco CiappelliCo-Founder & CMO @ITSPmagazine | Master Degree in Political Science - Sociology of Communication l Branding & Marketing Advisor | Journalist | Writer | Podcast Host | #Technology #Cybersecurity #Society
____________Podcast Redefining Society and Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappellihttps://redefiningsocietyandtechnologypodcast.com ____________Host Marco CiappelliCo-Founder & CMO @ITSPmagazine | Master Degree in Political Science - Sociology of Communication l Branding & Marketing Advisor | Journalist | Writer | Podcast Host | #Technology #Cybersecurity #Society
Ever wondered how easy it is to hack a car?