Books

In his book, Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith lays out a series of important considerations for the continued adoption of artificial intelligence into an ever increasing amount of applications and daily uses. While artificial intelligence has historically held a rather loose definition, Brad Smith quotes Dave Heiner of Microsoft who describes AI as “a computer system that can learn from experience by discerning patterns in data fed to it and thereby make decisions” (Tools and Weapons pg. 194). This ability to learn based on experience and modeling is integral to creating flexible systems that can react to their environments in meaningful ways. ...

Rural Broadband: The Electricity of the Twenty-First Century Electricity is truly one of humanity’s most impactful and profound discoveries. We’ve successfully harnessed electrons to rid our world of darkness at a moment’s notice, communicate with other people over large distances, drive our cars, restart human hearts, and so much more. The harnessing of electricity has been an innovation that has seen no bounds. It has wove itself into the very fabric of humanity and had drastic effects that one no could have possibly predicted. ...

Cyber Security: The Wake-up Call for the World Humans love shortcuts. We love finding better, easier, and quicker ways of doing things. This has allowed us to innovate and automate away many of the mundane parts of life. It also has allowed us to progress the general standard of living exponentially. This shortcut nature usually proves us well. We’re scrappy, we’re creative, and we know how to handle hard things. However, a critical ingredient to healthy progression is ethical direction. When Ethics are lacking, individuals and groups tend to look for shortcuts that bypass important issues such as human rights and ownership. ...

Within Tools and Weapons is a treasure trove of knowledge about how to appropriately balance the exhilarating speed, agility, and enabling power of technical innovation with the important aspects of protecting human rights and working towards the benefit of society. Brad Smith comes from a background as a lawyer and general counsel of Microsoft where he has helped navigate many complex legal and ethical issues for the company and the tech sector as a whole. He has had a front row seat to complex world issues and has met and worked with leaders the world over. He has also worked hard to stay connected to the vast and unique users of not only the technology supplied by Microsoft but groups worldwide. This post is part of a series where I give some of my thoughts and takeaways from Tools and Weapons. ...

The Unicorn Project is written as a quasi-sequel to the widely popular book, The Phoenix Project. This book is written in the third person (whereas the Phoenix Project is written in the first-person point of view of Bill Palmer) and follows the adventures of Maxine, a rockstar developer with years of experience pushing critical code into production. Maxine works on a team that manages some critical control systems for Parts Unlimited, a major auto part manufacturer. However, when a critical system goes down she is left holding the bag and is exiled to the all so dreaded Phoenix Project, an initiative designed to bring Parts Unlimited into the eCommerce age. She arrives there right as Bill Palmer shows up to the scene as well. ...