John Robb flew in the Air Force with special operations and later became the world’s first professional internet analyst at Forrester Research. He wrote Brave New War and publishes the Global Guerrillas Report. We asked him how networks are changing conflict.
Three domains
We open on Boyd’s moral, mental and physical domains. John explains how social networks have become weapons. Fast transients confuse and confound competitors.
Online conflict
Fourth- and fifth-generation warfare now center on online conflict. The Edelman Trust Barometer shows public trust shifting from governments to corporations. Small groups and lone operators can use technology and networks against much larger threats. They disrupt core systems, including trust relationships and moral infrastructure.
Networks and our brains
Tribes, institutions and markets now share the stage with networks. Suppressing mismatches and information flow carries risk. Globalization has raised uncertainty and entropy. John shares what scares him, compares the decision-making of Sam Bankman-Fried and Elon Musk, and looks at what offloading thinking to machines does to our brains.
Networks now shape orientation at scale, and John has watched that coming for decades.
Which network shapes how your team sees the world most?
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Written by Ponch Rivera with AI assistance in production. The full conversation is in the player below.
Written by Ponch Rivera with AI assistance in production. The full conversation is in the player below.
https://youtube.com/@nowayoutpodcast
Written by Ponch Rivera with AI assistance in production. The full conversation is in the player below.