Crazy Wisdom

Aaron Lowry, a restoration expert passionate about antique technology, shares insights on the intertwining of technology and human life. He discusses the fragile trust in AI and digital infrastructure, advocating for individual sovereignty and transparency. The conversation delves into cultural shifts post-COVID and the historical misunderstandings of narratives around technology and politics. Lowry highlights the practical tech adoption by Mennonite and Amish communities and the importance of designing for long-term human flourishing while managing digital dependencies.

In this episode of Crazy Wisdom, Stewart Alsop talks with Will Bickford about the future of human intelligence, the exocortex, and the role of software as an extension of our minds. Will shares his thinking on brain-computer interfaces, PHEXT (a plain text protocol for structured data), and how high-dimensional formats could help us reframe the way we collaborate and think. They explore the abstraction layers of code and consciousness, and why Will believes that better tools for thought are not just about productivity, but about expanding the boundaries of what it means to be human. You can connect with Will in Twitter at @wbic16 or check out the links mentioned by Will in Github.Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation!Timestamps00:00 – Introduction to the concept of the exocortex and how current tools like plain text editors and version control systems serve as early forms of cognitive extension.​05:00 – Discussion on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), emphasizing non-invasive software interfaces as powerful tools for augmenting human cognition.​10:00 – Introduction to PHEXT, a plain text format designed to embed high-dimensional structure into simple syntax, facilitating interoperability between software systems.​15:00 – Exploration of software abstraction as a means of compressing vast domains of meaning into manageable forms, enhancing understanding rather than adding complexity.​20:00 – Conversation about the enduring power of text as an interface, highlighting its composability, hackability, and alignment with human symbolic processing.​25:00 – Examination of collaborative intelligence and the idea that intelligence emerges from distributed systems involving people, software, and shared ideas.​30:00 – Discussion on the importance of designing better communication protocols, like PHEXT, to create systems that align with human thought processes and enhance cognitive capabilities.​35:00 – Reflection on the broader implications of these technologies for the future of human intelligence and the potential for expanding the boundaries of human cognition.Key InsightsThe exocortex is already here, just not evenly distributed. Will frames the exocortex not as a distant sci-fi future, but as something emerging right now in the form of external software systems that augment our thinking. He suggests that tools like plain text editors, command-line interfaces, and version control systems are early prototypes of this distributed cognitive architecture—ways we already extend our minds beyond the biological brain.Brain-computer interfaces don’t need to be invasive to be powerful. Rather than focusing on neural implants, Will emphasizes software interfaces as the true terrain of BCIs. The bridge between brain and computer can be as simple—and profound—as the protocols we use to interact with machines. What matters is not tapping into neurons directly, but creating systems that think with us, where interface becomes cognition.PHEXT is a way to compress meaning while remaining readable. At the heart of Will’s work is PHEXT, a plain text format that embeds high-dimensional structure into simple syntax. It’s designed to let software interoperate through shared, human-readable representations of structured data—stripping away unnecessary complexity while still allowing for rich expressiveness. It's not just a format, but a philosophy of communication between systems and people.Software abstraction is about compression, not complexity. Will pushes back against the idea that abstraction means obfuscation. Instead, he sees abstraction as a way to compress vast domains of meaning into manageable forms. Good abstractions reveal rather than conceal—they help you see more with less. In this view, the challenge is not just to build new software, but to compress new layers of insight into form.Text is still the most powerful interface we have. Despite decades of graphical interfaces, Will argues that plain text remains the highest-bandwidth cognitive tool. Text allows for versioning, diffing, grepping—it plugs directly into the brain's symbolic machinery. It's composable, hackable, and lends itself naturally to abstraction. Rather than moving away from text, the future might involve making text higher-dimensional and more semantically rich.The future of thinking is collaborative, not just computational. One recurring theme is that intelligence doesn’t emerge in isolation—it’s distributed. Will sees the exocortex as something inherently social: a space where people, software, and ideas co-think. This means building interfaces not just for solo users, but for networked groups of minds working through shared representations.Designing better protocols is designing better minds. Will’s vision is protocol-first. He sees the structure of communication—between apps, between people, between thoughts—as the foundation of intelligence itself. By designing protocols like PHEXT that align with how we actually think, we can build software that doesn’t just respond to us, but participates in our thought processes.

In a thought-provoking discussion, Trent Gillham, known as Drunk Plato, reveals his insights on the power of memes and community narratives through his platform, Meme Deck. He examines the decline of traditional media and how AI is reshaping cultural frameworks. From the concept of hyperstition fueling innovation to the rise of meme coins in the cryptocurrency world, Trent highlights the intricate relationship between technology and belief systems. He also dives into the trust challenges posed by blockchain, all while offering a creative vision for storytelling in the digital age.

On this episode of Crazy Wisdom, I’m joined by David Pope, Commissioner on the Wyoming Stable Token Commission, and Executive Director Anthony Apollo, for a wide-ranging conversation that explores the bold, nuanced effort behind Wyoming’s first-of-its-kind state-issued stable token. I’m your host Stewart Alsop, and what unfolds in this dialogue is both a technical unpacking and philosophical meditation on trust, financial sovereignty, and what it means for a government to anchor itself in transparent, programmable value. We move through Anthony’s path from Wall Street to Web3, the infrastructure and intention behind tokenizing real-world assets, and how the U.S. dollar’s future could be shaped by state-level innovation. If you're curious to follow along with their work, everything from blockchain selection criteria to commission recordings can be found at stabletoken.wyo.gov.Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation!Timestamps00:00 – David Pope and Anthony Apollo introduce themselves, clarifying they speak personally, not for the Commission. You, Stewart, set an open tone, inviting curiosity and exploration.05:00 – Anthony shares his path from traditional finance to Ethereum and government, driven by frustration with legacy banking inefficiencies.10:00 – Tokenized bonds enter the conversation via the Spencer Dinwiddie project. Pope explains early challenges with defining “real-world assets.”15:00 – Legal limits of token ownership vs. asset title are unpacked. You question whether anything “real” has been tokenized yet.20:00 – Focus shifts to the Wyoming Stable Token: its constitutional roots and blockchain as a tool for fiat-backed stability without inflation.25:00 – Comparison with CBDCs: Apollo explains why Wyoming’s token is transparent, non-programmatic, and privacy-focused.30:00 – Legislative framework: the 102% backing rule, public audits, and how rulemaking differs from law. You explore flexibility and trust.35:00 – Global positioning: how Wyoming stands apart from other states and nations in crypto policy. You highlight U.S. federalism’s role.40:00 – Topics shift to velocity, peer-to-peer finance, and risk. You connect this to Urbit and decentralized systems.45:00 – Apollo unpacks the stable token’s role in reinforcing dollar hegemony, even as BRICS move away from it.50:00 – Wyoming’s transparency and governance as financial infrastructure. You reflect on meme coins and state legitimacy.55:00 – Discussion of Bitcoin reserves, legislative outcomes, and what’s ahead. The conversation ends with vision and clarity.Key InsightsWyoming is pioneering a new model for state-level financial infrastructure. Through the creation of the Wyoming Stable Token Commission, the state is developing a fully-backed, transparent stable token that aims to function as a public utility. Unlike privately issued stablecoins, this one is mandated by law to be 102% backed by U.S. dollars and short-term treasuries, ensuring high trust and reducing systemic risk.The stable token is not just a tech innovation—it’s a philosophical statement about trust. As David Pope emphasized, the transparency and auditability of blockchain-based financial instruments allow for a shift toward self-auditing systems, where trust isn’t assumed but proven. In contrast to the opaque operations of legacy banking systems, the stable token is designed to be programmatically verifiable.Tokenized real-world assets are coming, but we’re not there yet. Anthony Apollo and David Pope clarify that most "real-world assets" currently tokenized are actually equity or debt instruments that represent ownership structures, not the assets themselves. The next leap will involve making the token itself the title, enabling true fractional ownership of physical or financial assets without intermediary entities.This initiative strengthens the U.S. dollar rather than undermining it. By creating a transparent, efficient vehicle for global dollar transactions, the Wyoming Stable Token could bolster the dollar’s role in international finance. Instead of competing with the dollar, it reinforces its utility in an increasingly digital economy—offering a compelling alternative to central bank digital currencies that raise concerns around surveillance and control.Stable tokens have the potential to become major holders of U.S. debt. Anthony Apollo points out that the aggregate of all fiat-backed stable tokens already represents a top-tier holder of U.S. treasuries. As adoption grows, state-run stable tokens could play a crucial role in sovereign debt markets, filling gaps left by foreign governments divesting from U.S. securities.Public accountability is central to Wyoming’s approach. Unlike private entities that can change terms at will, the Wyoming Commission is legally bound to go through a public rulemaking process for any adjustments. This radical transparency offers both stability and public trust, setting a precedent for how digital public infrastructure can be governed.The ultimate goal is to build a bridge between traditional finance and the Web3 future. Rather than burn the old system down, Pope and Apollo are designing the stable token as a pragmatic transition layer—something institutions can trust and privacy advocates can respect. It’s about enabling safe experimentation and gradual transformation, not triggering collapse.

In this episode of Crazy Wisdom, Stewart Alsop speaks with German Jurado about the strange loop between computation and biology, the emergence of reasoning in AI models, and what it means to "stand on the shoulders" of evolutionary systems. They talk about CRISPR not just as a gene-editing tool, but as a memory architecture encoded in bacterial immunity; they question whether LLMs are reasoning or just mimicking it; and they explore how scientists navigate the unknown with a kind of embodied intuition. For more about German’s work, you can connect with him through email at germanjurado7@gmail.com.Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation!Timestamps00:00 - Stewart introduces German Jurado and opens with a reflection on how biology intersects with multiple disciplines—physics, chemistry, computation.05:00 - They explore the nature of life’s interaction with matter, touching on how biology is about the interface between organic systems and the material world.10:00 - German explains how bioinformatics emerged to handle the complexity of modern biology, especially in genomics, and how it spans structural biology, systems biology, and more.15:00 - Introduction of AI into the scientific process—how models are being used in drug discovery and to represent biological processes with increasing fidelity.20:00 - Stewart and German talk about using LLMs like GPT to read and interpret dense scientific literature, changing the pace and style of research.25:00 - The conversation turns to societal implications—how these tools might influence institutions, and the decentralization of expertise.30:00 - Competitive dynamics between AI labs, the scaling of context windows, and speculation on where the frontier is heading.35:00 - Stewart reflects on English as the dominant language of science and the implications for access and translation of knowledge.40:00 - Historical thread: they discuss the Republic of Letters, how the structure of knowledge-sharing has evolved, and what AI might do to that structure.45:00 - Wrap-up thoughts on reasoning, intuition, and the idea of scientists as co-evolving participants in both natural and artificial systems.50:00 - Final reflections and thank-yous, German shares where to find more of his thinking, and Stewart closes the loop on the conversation.Key InsightsCRISPR as a memory system – Rather than viewing CRISPR solely as a gene-editing tool, German Jurado frames it as a memory architecture—an evolved mechanism through which bacteria store fragments of viral DNA as a kind of immune memory. This perspective shifts CRISPR into a broader conceptual space, where memory is not just cognitive but deeply biological.AI models as pattern recognizers, not yet reasoners – While large language models can mimic reasoning impressively, Jurado suggests they primarily excel at statistical pattern matching. The distinction between reasoning and simulation becomes central, raising the question: are these systems truly thinking, or just very good at appearing to?The loop between computation and biology – One of the core themes is the strange feedback loop where biology inspires computational models (like neural networks), and those models in turn are used to probe and understand biological systems. It's a recursive relationship that’s accelerating scientific insight but also complicating our definitions of intelligence and understanding.Scientific discovery as embodied and intuitive – Jurado highlights that real science often begins in the gut, in a kind of embodied intuition before it becomes formalized. This challenges the myth of science as purely rational or step-by-step and instead suggests that hunches, sensory experience, and emotional resonance play a crucial role.Proteins as computational objects – Proteins aren’t just biochemical entities—they’re shaped by information. Their structure, function, and folding dynamics can be seen as computations, and tools like AlphaFold are beginning to unpack that informational complexity in ways that blur the line between physics and code.Human alignment is messier than AI alignment – While AI alignment gets a lot of attention, Jurado points out that human alignment—between scientists, institutions, and across cultures—is historically chaotic. This reframes the AI alignment debate in a broader evolutionary and historical context, questioning whether we're holding machines to stricter standards than ourselves.Standing on the shoulders of evolutionary processes – Evolution is not just a backdrop but an active epistemic force. Jurado sees scientists as participants in a much older system of experimentation and iteration—evolution itself. In this view, we’re not just designing models; we’re being shaped by them, in a co-evolution of tools and understanding.

Naman Mishra, CTO of Repello AI and an expert in AI security, dives into the complexities of securing large language models. He discusses layered vulnerabilities and highlights alarming risks like prompt injection and data leaks, including a fascinating anecdote about a Windows activation key leaked by ChatGPT. Naman emphasizes the importance of continuous red teaming as a proactive approach to security, and explores the crucial role of ethical hackers. The conversation sheds light on the urgent need for robust security measures in AI technologies, especially in sensitive sectors.

Perry Knoppert, the founder of The Octopus Movement and a passionate advocate for neurodiversity, joins the discussion from the Netherlands. He shares fascinating octopus facts that reveal their evolutionary adaptations, likening it to personal growth. The conversation dives into the transformative role of AI in education and the unique strengths of neurodivergent minds. Perry argues that frustration can fuel creativity, emphasizing the need for educational systems to embrace individual learning paths instead of rigid structures.

On this episode of the Crazy Wisdom Podcast, I, Stewart Alsop, sit down with Federico Ast, founder of Kleros, to explore how decentralized justice systems can resolve both crypto-native and real-world disputes. We talk about the pilot with the Supreme Court in Mendoza, Argentina, where Kleros is helping small claims courts resolve cases faster and more transparently, and how this ties into a broader vision for digital governance using tools like proof of humanity and soulbound tokens. We also get into the philosophical and institutional implications of building a digital republic, and how blockchain can offer new models of legitimacy and truth-making. Show notes and more about Federico’s work can be found via his Twitter: @federicoast (https://twitter.com/federicoast) and by joining the Kleros Telegram community.Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation!00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome00:38 Claros Pilot Program in Mendoza02:00 Claros and the Legal System05:13 Personal Journey into Crypto07:16 Challenges and Innovations in Kleros18:02 Proof of Humanity and Soulbound Tokens26:54 Incentives and Proof of Humanity27:01 Interesting DAO Court Cases27:21 Prediction Markets and Disputes31:36 Customer Service and Dispute Resolution38:21 Governance and Online Communities40:02 Future of Civilization and Technology47:16 Bounties and Legal Systems49:06 Conclusion and Contact InformationKey InsightsDecentralized Justice Can Bridge the Gap Between Traditional Legal Systems and Web3: Federico Ast explains how Kleros functions as a decentralized dispute resolution system, offering a faster, more transparent, and more accessible alternative to conventional courts. In places like Mendoza, Argentina, Kleros has been piloted in collaboration with the Supreme Court to help resolve small claims that would otherwise take years, demonstrating how blockchain tools can support real-world judicial systems rather than replace them.Crypto Tools Are Most Powerful When Rooted in Real-World Problems: Ast emphasizes that his motivation for building in the blockchain space came not from hype but from firsthand experience with institutional inefficiencies in Argentina—such as corruption, inaccessible courts, and predatory financial systems. For him, crypto is a means to address these structural issues, not an end in itself. This grounded approach contrasts with many in the space who begin with the technology and try to retrofit a use case.Proof of Humanity and Soulbound Tokens Expand the Scope of Legitimate Governance: To address concerns over who gets to participate in decentralized juries, Kleros integrates identity verification through Proof of Humanity and uses non-transferable Soulbound Tokens to grant eligibility. These innovations allow communities—whether geographic, organizational, or digital—to define their own membership criteria, making decentralized courts feel more legitimate and relevant to participants.Decentralized Courts Can Handle Complex, Subjective Disputes: While early versions of Kleros were built for binary disputes (yes/no, Alice vs. Bob), real-world conflicts are often more nuanced. Over time, the platform evolved to support more flexible decision-making, including proportional fault, ranked outcomes, and variable payouts. This adaptability allows Kleros to handle a broader spectrum of disputes, including ambiguous or interpretive cases like those found in prediction markets.Incentive Systems Create New Forms of Justice Participation: Kleros applies game theory to create juror incentives that reward honest and aligned decisions. In systems like Proof of Humanity, it even gamifies fraud detection by offering financial bounties to those who uncover duplicate or fake identities. These economic incentives encourage voluntary participation in public-good functions such as identity verification and dispute resolution.Kleros Offers a Middle Ground Between Corporate Automation and Legal Bureaucracy: Many companies use rigid, automated systems to deny customer claims, leaving individuals with no real recourse except to complain on social media. Kleros offers an intermediate option: a transparent, peer-based adjudication process that can resolve disputes quickly. In pilot programs with fintech companies like Lemon, over 90% of users who lost their case still accepted the result and remained customers, showing how fairness in process can build trust even when outcomes disappoint.Digital Communities Are Becoming the New Foundations of Governance: Ast points out that many people now feel more connected to online communities than to their local or national institutions. Blockchain governance—enabled by tools like Kleros, Proof of Humanity, and decentralized IDs—allows these communities to build their own civil infrastructure. This marks a shift toward what he calls a “digital republic,” where shared values and participation, rather than geography, form the basis of collective decision-making and legitimacy.

In this episode of Crazy Wisdom, host Stewart Alsop talks with Rosario Parlanti, a longtime crypto investor and real estate attorney, about the shifting landscape of decentralization, AI, and finance. They explore the power struggles between centralized and decentralized systems, the role of AI agents in finance and infrastructure, and the legal gray areas emerging around autonomous technology. Rosario shares insights on trusted execution environments, token incentives, and how projects like Phala Network are building decentralized cloud computing. They also discuss the changing narrative around Bitcoin, the potential for AI-driven financial autonomy, and the future of censorship-resistant platforms. Follow Rosario on X @DeepinWhale and check out Phala Network to learn more.Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation!Timestamps00:00 Introduction to the Crazy Wisdom Podcast00:25 Understanding Decentralized Cloud Infrastructure04:40 Centralization vs. Decentralization: A Philosophical Debate06:56 Political Implications of Centralization17:19 Technical Aspects of Phala Network24:33 Crypto and AI: The Future Intersection25:11 The Convergence of Crypto and AI25:59 Challenges with Centralized Cloud Services27:36 Decentralized Cloud Solutions for AI30:32 Legal and Ethical Implications of AI Agents32:59 The Future of Decentralized Technologies41:56 Crypto's Role in Global Financial Freedom49:27 Closing Thoughts and Future ProspectsKey InsightsDecentralization is not absolute, but a spectrum. Rosario Parlanti explains that decentralization doesn’t mean eliminating central hubs entirely, but rather reducing choke points where power is overly concentrated. Whether in finance, cloud computing, or governance, every system faces forces pushing toward centralization for efficiency and control, while counterforces work to redistribute power and increase resilience.Trusted execution environments (TEE) are crucial for decentralized cloud computing. Rosario highlights how Phala Network uses TEEs, a hardware-based security measure that isolates sensitive data from external access. This ensures that decentralized cloud services can operate securely, preventing unauthorized access while allowing independent providers to host data and run applications outside the control of major corporations like Amazon and Google.AI agents will need decentralized infrastructure to function autonomously. The conversation touches on the growing power of AI-driven autonomous agents, which can execute financial trades, conduct research, and even generate content. However, running such agents on centralized cloud providers like AWS could create regulatory and operational risks. Decentralized cloud networks like Phala offer a way for these agents to operate freely, without interference from governments or corporations.Regulatory arbitrage will shape the future of AI and crypto. Rosario describes how businesses and individuals are already leveraging jurisdiction shopping—structuring AI entities or financial operations in countries with more favorable regulations. He speculates that AI agents could be housed within offshore LLCs or irrevocable trusts, creating legal distance between their creators and their actions, raising new ethical and legal challenges.Bitcoin’s narrative has shifted from currency to investment asset. Originally envisioned as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, Bitcoin has increasingly been treated as digital gold, largely due to the influence of institutional investors and regulatory frameworks like Bitcoin ETFs. Rosario argues that this shift in perception has led to Bitcoin being co-opted by the very financial institutions it was meant to disrupt.The rise of AI-driven financial autonomy could bypass traditional banking and regulation. The combination of AI, smart contracts, and decentralized finance (DeFi) could enable AI agents to conduct financial transactions without human oversight. This could range from algorithmic trading to managing business operations, potentially reducing reliance on traditional banking systems and challenging the ability of governments to enforce financial regulations.The accelerating clash between technology and governance will redefine global power structures. As AI and decentralized systems gain momentum, traditional nation-state mechanisms for controlling information, currency, and infrastructure will face unprecedented challenges. Rosario and Stewart discuss how this shift mirrors previous disruptions—such as social media’s impact on information control—and speculate on whether governments will adapt, resist, or attempt to co-opt these emerging technologies.

On this episode of the Crazy Wisdom Podcast, host Stewart Alsop welcomes Jessica Talisman, a senior information architect deeply immersed in the worlds of taxonomy, ontology, and knowledge management. The conversation spans the evolution of libraries, the shifting nature of public and private access to knowledge, and the role of institutions like the Internet Archive in preserving digital history. They also explore the fragility of information in the digital age, the ongoing battle over access to knowledge, and how AI is shaping—and being shaped by—structured data and knowledge graphs. To connect with Jessica Talisman, you can reach her via LinkedIn.  Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation!Timestamps00:05 – Libraries, Democracy, Public vs. Private Knowledge Jessica explains how libraries have historically shifted between public and private control, shaping access to knowledge and democracy.00:10 – Internet Archive, Cyberattacks, Digital Preservation Stewart describes visiting the Internet Archive post-cyberattack, sparking a discussion on threats to digital preservation and free information.00:15 – AI, Structured Data, Ontologies, NIH, PubMed Jessica breaks down how AI trains on structured data from sources like NIH and PubMed but often lacks alignment with authoritative knowledge.00:20 – Linked Data, Knowledge Graphs, Semantic Web, Tim Berners-Lee They explore how linked data enables machines to understand connections between knowledge, referencing the vision behind the semantic web.00:25 – Entity Management, Cataloging, Provenance, Authority Jessica explains how libraries are transitioning from cataloging books to managing entities, ensuring provenance and verifiable knowledge.00:30 – Digital Dark Ages, Knowledge Loss, Corporate Control Stewart compares today’s deletion of digital content to historical knowledge loss, warning about the fragility of digital memory.00:35 – War on Truth, Book Bans, Algorithmic Bias, Censorship They discuss how knowledge suppression—from book bans to algorithmic censorship—threatens free access to information.00:40 – AI, Search Engines, Metadata, Schema.org, RDF Jessica highlights how AI and search engines depend on structured metadata but often fail to prioritize authoritative sources.00:45 – Power Over Knowledge, Open vs. Closed Systems, AI Ethics They debate the battle between corporations, governments, and open-source efforts to control how knowledge is structured and accessed.00:50 – Librarians, AI Misinformation, Knowledge Organization Jessica emphasizes that librarians and structured knowledge systems are essential in combating misinformation in AI.00:55 – Future of Digital Memory, AI, Ethics, Information Access They reflect on whether AI and linked data will expand knowledge access or accelerate digital decay and misinformation.Key InsightsThe Evolution of Libraries Reflects Power Struggles Over Knowledge: Libraries have historically oscillated between being public and private institutions, reflecting broader societal shifts in who controls access to knowledge. Jessica Talisman highlights how figures like Andrew Carnegie helped establish the modern public library system, reinforcing libraries as democratic spaces where information is accessible to all. However, she also notes that as knowledge becomes digitized, new battles emerge over who owns and controls digital information​​.The Internet Archive Faces Systematic Attacks on Knowledge: Stewart Alsop shares his firsthand experience visiting the Internet Archive just after it had suffered a major cyberattack. This incident is part of a larger trend in which libraries and knowledge repositories worldwide, including those in Canada, have been targeted. The conversation raises concerns that these attacks are not random but part of a broader, well-funded effort to undermine access to information​​.AI and Knowledge Graphs Are Deeply Intertwined: AI systems, particularly large language models (LLMs), rely on structured data sources such as knowledge graphs, ontologies, and linked data. Talisman explains how institutions like the NIH and PubMed provide openly available, structured knowledge that AI systems train on. Yet, she points out a critical gap—AI often lacks alignment with real-world, authoritative sources, which leads to inaccuracies in machine-generated knowledge​​.Libraries Are Moving From Cataloging to Entity Management: Traditional library systems were built around cataloging books and documents, but modern libraries are transitioning toward entity management, which organizes knowledge in a way that allows for more dynamic connections. Linked data and knowledge graphs enable this shift, making it easier to navigate vast repositories of information while maintaining provenance and authority​​.The War on Truth and Information Is Accelerating: The episode touches on the increasing threats to truth and reliable information, from book bans to algorithmic suppression of knowledge. Talisman underscores the crucial role librarians play in preserving access to primary sources and maintaining records of historical truth. As AI becomes more prominent in knowledge dissemination, the need for robust, verifiable sources becomes even more urgent​​.Linked Data is the Foundation of Digital Knowledge: The conversation explores how linked data protocols, such as those championed by Tim Berners-Lee, allow machines and AI to interpret and connect information across the web. Talisman explains that institutions like NIH publish their taxonomies in RDF format, making them accessible as structured, authoritative sources. However, many organizations fail to leverage this interconnected data, leading to inefficiencies in knowledge management​​.Preserving Digital Memory is a Civilization-Defining Challenge: In the digital age, the loss of information is more severe than ever. Alsop compares the current state of digital impermanence to the Dark Ages, where crucial knowledge risks disappearing due to corporate decisions, cyberattacks, and lack of preservation infrastructure. Talisman agrees, emphasizing that digital archives like the Internet Archive, WorldCat, and Wikimedia are foundational to maintaining a collective human memory​​.