Code Red by Red Swan

As we sail into the end of March, most New Year's resolutions are long forgotten and it's time for a reality check. Ready to grab life by the horns?

23% of people give up on their New Year’s resolutions one week into the new year. 43% quit by the end of January.

The new habit they wanted to form, all the exercise they said they intended to do, the diet that always starts tomorrow… Let’s face it: New Year’s Resolutions just don’t work. They never will. And technological devices are putting fuel into the fire.

In this Code Red Episode Silicon-Valley based 354-fold patent holder Chris Kalaboukis and I discuss why and what to do about it.

💭There is a difference between dreamers and doers. The cheap dopamine hits dreamers rely on don’t work long-term. They destroy your life. You want the real deal—you want to reshape the future instead.

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I hope you enjoy this month’s episode.

🎯If yes, I would love you to also join our Substack community♥️: https://substack.com/profile/33842661-red-swan?utm_source=profile-page

To the life you want to live, my dear friends ♥️.

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🎯💡If you'd like my help to develop future scenarios for your business, just toss me an email (office (at) redswan.at) and we'll chat about the options including publicly open scenario-workshops, in-house work-alongs with your team, one-on-one coaching for you personally, or monthly scenario sessions for your company, etc.

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🎬 Video, design concept & production by the incredibly talented Red Swan Chief Creative Officer (CCO) Xaver Kettele (🙏😊); photos&footage: Unsplash

🎵 music: audiojungle

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♥️ If you like, you can read the Code Red column which was the basis for our conversation here: https://open.substack.com/pub/coderedbyredswan/p/new-years-resolutions-dont-work-and?r=k5d5x&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web.

Many people think AI is a recent invention. But it’s not. In 2026 it will turn 70 years old. But autonomous cars are new, right? Also, not. The first driverless car hit the roads of New York in 1925 – that’s almost 100 years ago. In this brand new podcast episode Silicon-Valley based 354-fold patent holder Chris Kalaboukis and I talk about The Hype, the Myths, and Little Pieces of History of Artificial Intelligence. I hope you enjoy this month's episode of Code Red: Technology, Madness, and the Future of Humanity. The monthly podcast for people who are pissed-off about technology going rogue, want to do something about it, and wish to use technology in a positive way to create a better future for humanity. 🎯If yes, I would love you to also join our Substack community to get new episodes and columns directly into your inbox: https://coderedbyredswan.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web&r=k5d5x 🎬 Video, design concept & production by the incredibly talented Red Swan Chief Creative Officer (CCO) Xaver Kettele (🙏😊); photos&footage: Unsplash 🎵 music: audiojungle ♥️ You can also read the written Code Red column, which was the basis for our conversation, if you like: https://open.substack.com/pub/coderedbyredswan/p/ai-and-autonomous-cars-are-not-new?r=k5d5x&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web 🎯💡If you'd like the Red Swan team's help to develop future scenarios for your business or any other topic, just toss us an email (office (at) redswan.at) and we'll chat about the options including publicly open scenario-workshops, in-house work-alongs with your team, one-on-one coaching for you personally, or monthly scenario sessions for your company, etc.

I wish you a good day, or a good night, and in any case, a good life, my dear friends ♥️.

What is the path to real, sustainable success in the crazy startup world? There is certainly no one-size-fits-all recipe for this, but in this Code Red episode titled "Modern-Day Gladiators: Diving With Sharks and Fighting With Lions in the Startup Arena" former Yahoo! Head of IP Innovation Chris Kalaboukis - currently running 9 businesses - and Red Swan CEO Ursula Eysin (www.redswan.at) discuss useful ingredients for success.

We hope you enjoy this month’s episode, our dear friends ♥️.

🎯💌 If yes we would love you to join our Code Red Substack Community to get new episodes directly into your inbox ♥️: coderedbyredswan.substack.com

🎬 Video, design concept & production by the incredibly talented Red Swan Chief Creative Officer (CCO) Xaver Kettele (🙏😊); photos&footage: Unsplash

🎵 music: audiojungle

🎯💡If you'd like our help to develop future scenarios for your business, just toss us an email (office'at'redswan.at) and we'll chat about the options including publicly open scenario-workshops and panel discussions, in-house work-alongs with your team, one-on-one coaching for you personally, monthly scenario sessions for your company, etc.

With good reason, we find it difficult to relinquish control to technological devices. This is particularly evident in the idea of self-driving cars, but even small things, such as the refrigerator that automatically restocks milk without being asked for it, meet with resistance.

Human beings are creatures of free will and staunch defenders of our own agency.

And any technological advancement that fails to acknowledge this essential human trait is doomed to fall short.

Further more: Trying to define the future based on yesterday's data is never a good idea.

Very welcome to the Code Red: Technology, Madness, and the Future of Humanity. The monthly videocast for people who are pissed-off about technology going rogue, want to do something about it, and wish to use technology in a positive way to create a better future for humanity.

In Episode 3, I discuss why nobody seems to want the undead autonomous refrigerator that promises to automatically reorder milk for 20 years. I delve into this topic with Chris Kalaboukis, a Silicon Valley-based tech luminary, futurist, innovator, inventor, writer, and idea-generating machine.

How did I come across the refrigerator story?

Nearly two decades ago, I attended a talk by a bright-eyed researcher who impressed the audience with tales of an intelligent refrigerator that could – almost unbelievably – reorder milk all on its own. I was impressed, too. Fast-forward 18 years, and I find myself seated in the same auditorium, listening to the same researcher touting the same revolutionary appliance. The autonomous fridge, it seems, is still a milk-ordering powerhouse. Yet somehow this miracle product has failed to catch fire in the marketplace.

What happened? Did it fall prey to lactose intolerance?

Unlikely.

Since then, other “intelligent” assistants have joined the refrigerator in its endeavor to restock consumer goods: From the Amazon Dash Button to Alexa to Google Home and beyond, an army of devices now stands at the ready, poised to reorder not just milk, but a dizzying array of goods and services. And yet, even in this era of hyperconnectivity, no one seems to want the poor autonomous refrigerator.

I hope you enjoy this month’s Code Red Videocast episode entitled "Honey, the Refrigerator Reordered Milk, Again!", my dear friends ♥️. 

🎯💌 Subscribe to Code Red to get the new episodes directly into your inbox ♥️: coderedbyredswan.substack.com or follow us on YouTube @coderedbyredswan

🎬 Video, design concept & production by the incredibly talented Red Swan Vienna Chief Creative Officer (CCO) Xaver Kettele (🙏😊) 

🎵 music: audiojungle

🎯💡If you'd like our help to develop future scenarios for your business, or any other topic, just toss us an email (office@redswan.at) and we'll chat about the options including publicly open scenario-workshops and panel discussions, in-house work-alongs with your team, one-on-one coaching for you personally, monthly scenario sessions for your company, etc.

In this Code Red Episode we discuss the incredible story of Google Glass tracing back to an Austrian R&D project back in 2004 and how one of the Austrian team members became Google's head of Google Glass.

Austrian Professor Alois Ferscha describes his work with the "Spectacles" project as both his greatest success and his greatest failure. The project was a collaborative effort between Ferscha's team at Johannes Kepler University (JKU) Linz and the Austrian eyewear manufacturer Silhouette, resulting in the creation of a pair of cutting-edge data glasses back in 2004. 

As Google Glass, the technology became a world sensation - without Prof. Ferscha's involvement.

👓As early as 2003, Professor Alois Ferscha and his team of researchers at JKU began toying with the idea of creating a computer built into eyeglasses. A year later, they partnered with Austrian eyewear manufacturer Silhouette to bring their vision to life.

🔚In 2007, the prototype of the data glasses was completed. But then the project came to an abrupt end because Silhouette had other challenges to overcome and could not bring the product to market.

🏁Google, on the other hand, could!

✨In 2013, a member of Professor Ferscha's former Spectacles research team presented the technology from back then in Zurich, Switzerland. Only in his presentation, it was called Google Glass. And he was now heading the Google Glass division at the world's largest search engine company.

💭In Code Red Episode 2 we discuss this Google Glass Story with 354fold patent holder Chris Kalaboukis who was running Yahoo!'s innovation program for five years and explains that a team at Yahoo! had also developed similar technologies in 2007.

🎯💌 Subscribe to Code Red to get the new episodes directly into your inbox ♥️: coderedbyredswan.substack.com

🎬 Video, design concept & production by the incredibly talented Red Swan Chief Creative Officer (CCO) Xaver Kettele (🙏😊)

🎵 music: audiojungle