Momenta I Digital Thread

Dr. Thuc Vu is an entrepreneur and co-founder of OhmniLabs and Kambria, a decentralized open innovation platform focused on accelerating the development and adoption of the world's most advanced robotic technologies. Our conversation covered a range of topics, including the differences between industrial and consumer robotics, key advances in AI, the role of game theory in designing collaborative systems, and the promising opportunities for robotics in health care, education and senior care. We also explore the broader market dynamics in the robotics markets and the burgeoning tech scene in Vietnam.

Author Max Borders tackles an broad range of topics relating to his new book The Social Singularity: How decentralization will allow us to transcend politics, create global prosperity, and avoid the robot apocalypse. Our conversation covered the factors that have led to the current political disfunction in the US, how unbalanced incentives evolve over time and the profound implications of decentralization. Drawing from the arguments outlined in the book, Borders applies a philosophical lens to understand the roots of decentralization, and how blockchain and related technologies have the potential to reshape power dynamics in organizations, the evolution of hierarchies in society, and the structural dynamics of economies and culture.

For Dan Yarmoluk, Director of IoT for AETK Technologies, work takes him wherever the “rubber hits the road” in Industrial IoT. Based in the Midwest, Dan’s customers include traditional manufacturing firms with a conservative bias toward adoption of new technologies. One of the key observations is that early IoT projects often misaligned the type of data collected from machines, for instance lacking the granularity necessary to derive business value from data analytics. He discusses the value of being close to the customer, which is too often overlooked by vendors, as key to driving value from IoT initiatives, as well as his view that we are seeing an inflection in the market as more traditional companies are realizing the value of connected industry projects. While Dan’s an enthusiastic advocate for emerging technologies, he shares a pragmatic bias that’s key to success for more conservative industries in their digitization journey.

Rob Tiffany is a technologist, CTO, board member, blogger, entrepreneur and thought leader in the IoT market. Our conversation covered his origins in the 1990s building connected systems for vending machine business using technologies considered primitive by today’s standards. We follow the progression of the industry through the evolution of powerful enabling technologies while fundamental principles forged during his early experience inform the success of his work at larger companies including Microsoft and Hitachi. A key message to the industry is the need to focus on the basics like connecting machines for visibility and operational efficiencies – the more advanced technologies like AI and Blockchain are interesting, but there’s important value that’s being overlooked today – and real business needs to be met.

Guido Jouret is the Chief Digital Officer at ABB, a technology leader in power grids, electrification products, industrial automation and robotics and motion. Our conversation covered a wide range of topics, including the dynamics of digitizing traditional operational technologies, the importance of Industrial IoT platforms particularly ABB’s Ability platform, the multi-faceted partnership with Microsoft and the demands of bridging operational and information technology paradigms. The discussion highlighted several customer success stories in mining, autonomous shipping and utilities, addressing the massive potential of AI to transform industries and sectors including energy, power grids, transportation and manufacturing. The key for the future will be a digital operating system that will enable far more distributed networks to evolve, while finding people with the skills to address the increasingly complex technical demands of a connected world remains a challenge.

Charlie Oliver is the CEO and founder of ServedFresh Media and founder of Tech2025, a leading technology focused community based in the New York City area. Our conversation covered the emergence of online communities in the late 2000s and the genesis of Tech2025 in late 2016. She discusses the divide that exists between people that work in the tech industry and average citizens, and the potential value that emerges from putting people together from different backgrounds. Charlie shares her observations of the changing views of AI and tech companies by the public, and the need for to have collaborative conversations to avert further backlash against the tech industry. Charlie is an experience podcaster and communicator, and this conversation highlights the challenges and opportunities that emerge from curated communities.

Our conversation with Fred Krueger, CEO of Workcoin addressed a range of issues related to blockchain technology – the promise, the technological shortcomings, critical innovations to drive adoption and the critical role of stable coins. In the podcast, Fred shares what he saw that makes blockchain technology such a breakthrough, he discusses the technological shortcomings of the Ethereum blockchain and the challenges involved with the difficult user experience. Also, the coming generation of easy to use wallets such as EOS Lynx that will make it easy to transact cryptocurrencies and his expectation that we are on the verge of a major demand inflection as several technologies provide truly scalable infrastructure. He also discusses the market dynamics around the rise of freelancing that led him to found Workcoin, and the impact of regulation on how blockchain companies will increasingly be funded.

Our conversation with Vivek Wadhwa touched on a broad array of topics, following up on his two most recent books The Driver in the Driverless Car and Your Happiness Was Hacked: Why Tech Is Winning the Battle to Control Your Brain--and How to Fight Back. Our conversation covered the nature of exponential technologies as a foundation concept, along with the implications of AI/Machine Learning. He provided an optimistic outlook around self-driving cars and solar energy cost curves, with a bit of tempered enthusiasm around human gene-editing (CRISPr). The ways that technology is designed to hijack our attention, and how love, work and interpersonal relationships are being impacted are the focus of his new book, and he provides suggestions for us to better manage the disruption of technology in our lives.

Our conversation with Sloan Brakefied CEO and Jon Fox, Chairman of Fr8 Network covered the current state of the global supply chain, and the inherent inefficiencies of paper based processes. Brakefied and Fox discuss the unique technology challenges faced with the supply chain and how blockchain technology represents a new approach to solving long time challenges for market participants. The conversation touched on key use cases where blockchain technology could be transformative, the challenges of evangelizing new technologies and a look into the future.

David White is a principal at Ontos Global, a boutique consulting firm based in Berkeley, CA and the author of Rethinking Culture: Embodied Cognition and the Origin of Culture in Organizations. Our conversation explored his deep background into organizational culture, the evolution of cognitive anthropology and some of the misperception around culture - what it is, why it’s important, and why it’s so difficult for organizations to change. White discussed insights from the past 30 years of research into the brain, illuminating how organizational culture is shaped by the industry and the daily tasks of the people within. Our conversation explores the role of language, leadership and technology, challenges and new approaches for organizations to transform their culture to become more effective.