Code Red by Red Swan

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.

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.

🎯💌 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 ([email protected]) 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

🧨“To disrupt” means “to tear apart,” “to divide,” or “to destroy.” Sounds brutal? It is. It’s about creating something new through destruction.
💥“Traditional business models, products, technologies, services, and entire industries and markets are to be destroyed, upended, and revolutionized. A disruptive innovation is supposed to completely displace the old.”

💡Since this famous postulate by the Austrian-born political economist Joseph Schumpeter, the creative power of destruction fascinates people in the technology world as much as in business.
🤔But what many fail to notice: Most of the time, the creative power lies not in destruction, but in creating something new. 
🧾And it is not at all easy to destroy something that's already out there - like once a tax is in place it never goes away 😅 - , as my fantastic Code Red co-host, Silicon Valley based tech luminary, futurist, innovator, writer, philosopher, and idea generating machine Chris Kalaboukis (https://thinkfuture.com/) explains in this very first Episode of Code Red - Technology, Madness, and the Future of Humanity.

♥️: Join our Substack community for updates on the written Code Red Column as well as our monthly podcasts at https://coderedbyredswan.substack.com/

🎬 video concept & production by my great Red Swan Vienna Chief Creative Officer Xaver Kettele (thank you Xaver😊) 

🎵 music: audiojungle