Want a Halloween scare that sticks with you after the candy’s gone? We’re pouring a glass and pulling back the curtain on the creepiest corners of everyday tech: a cloud outage that toppled major apps and smart beds, a Prime refund saga with fine-print timelines, and Amazon’s bold plan to swap 600,000 human jobs for robots by 2033. The number that matters isn’t the 30 cents shaved off a product; it’s the blast radius when a single point of failure hits everything from payments to sleep pods.
We go deeper with cybersecurity expert Nick Espinosa to map the new threat surface. He breaks down a jaw-dropping study showing unencrypted geostationary satellite traffic—airline passenger data, critical infrastructure chatter, even U.S. and Mexican military communications—floating for the taking. Then we connect the surveillance dots: Ring’s partnership with Flock could feed millions of doorbells into a searchable police network. With Ring’s track record, do you want your front porch in a national database accessible by natural-language prompts?
The uncanny valley gets crowded too. A widower claims an AI replica of Suzanne Somers “feels indistinguishable,” while OpenAI prepares to allow “mature” content for verified adults. We weigh the supposed benefits against the hard psychology: isolation, distorted attachment, and empathy atrophy. For a lighter fright, we test the viral claim that Teslas see “ghosts” in cemeteries—spoiler: that’s what a cautious perception model looks like when tombstones confuse it. The real nightmare? Attackers hiding malware inside blockchain smart contracts, using decentralization to dodge takedowns and $2 fees to keep it cheap.
From airline IT meltdowns to smart contract exploits, the pattern is clear: concentration of power and data magnifies risk. Redundancy, privacy-by-design, and failure-aware engineering aren’t nice-to-haves—they’re the only way through. Grab your headphones and your favorite pour, then join us for a tour of the haunted infrastructure underneath daily life.
Enjoyed the ride? Follow, share with a friend, and leave a quick review so more curious listeners can find the show. What scared you most—and what would you fix first?
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By Nathan Mumm
5
1313 ratings
Want a Halloween scare that sticks with you after the candy’s gone? We’re pouring a glass and pulling back the curtain on the creepiest corners of everyday tech: a cloud outage that toppled major apps and smart beds, a Prime refund saga with fine-print timelines, and Amazon’s bold plan to swap 600,000 human jobs for robots by 2033. The number that matters isn’t the 30 cents shaved off a product; it’s the blast radius when a single point of failure hits everything from payments to sleep pods.
We go deeper with cybersecurity expert Nick Espinosa to map the new threat surface. He breaks down a jaw-dropping study showing unencrypted geostationary satellite traffic—airline passenger data, critical infrastructure chatter, even U.S. and Mexican military communications—floating for the taking. Then we connect the surveillance dots: Ring’s partnership with Flock could feed millions of doorbells into a searchable police network. With Ring’s track record, do you want your front porch in a national database accessible by natural-language prompts?
The uncanny valley gets crowded too. A widower claims an AI replica of Suzanne Somers “feels indistinguishable,” while OpenAI prepares to allow “mature” content for verified adults. We weigh the supposed benefits against the hard psychology: isolation, distorted attachment, and empathy atrophy. For a lighter fright, we test the viral claim that Teslas see “ghosts” in cemeteries—spoiler: that’s what a cautious perception model looks like when tombstones confuse it. The real nightmare? Attackers hiding malware inside blockchain smart contracts, using decentralization to dodge takedowns and $2 fees to keep it cheap.
From airline IT meltdowns to smart contract exploits, the pattern is clear: concentration of power and data magnifies risk. Redundancy, privacy-by-design, and failure-aware engineering aren’t nice-to-haves—they’re the only way through. Grab your headphones and your favorite pour, then join us for a tour of the haunted infrastructure underneath daily life.
Enjoyed the ride? Follow, share with a friend, and leave a quick review so more curious listeners can find the show. What scared you most—and what would you fix first?
Support the show
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