The Near Futurist

Near futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton concludes his chat with Name.com's product engineering lead Katie Wokasch (and finishes off this series of the Near Futurist!) continuing the discussion on vibe coding; when do you need an engineer and indeed why do you need an engineer at all if the code is written for you? And if an app can be made so easily to what extent is it part of your business?

Good news - if you need an app or website for your business you no longer need to understand coding as you used to. There's this thing called Vibe Coding which enables you to ask AI to code it for you but there are gotchas. In this episode Guy Clapperton talks to Katie Wokasch, product engineering lead at Name.com, where this leaves us.

In this second part of the interview between Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton and Plate-up co-founder and marketing director Jade de Thorpe, we continue to consider vibe coding and AI but also look at customer trust - and what sort of advice de Thorp would give others thinking of starting a business using this sort of technology. Should you wait until your offering is perfect?

In this series of the Near Futurist we've looked at some pretty grand stuff but technology is also good for the smaller things in life. This time we talk to Jade de Thorpe, marketing director of Plate-Up, about how something as simple as meal planning can be kickstarted with AI and Vibe Coding (more on vibe coding in a couple of weeks!)

Tropical rainforest damage, supply chain delays - so muck damage happens to the environment and we basically stand by and watch it. A company called Another Earth wants to do something more active and is developing synthetic data on our planet to support AI forecasting - co-founder and CEO Maya Pindeus explains to Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton why this is important.

Tropical rainforest damage, supply chain delays - so muck damage happens to the environment and we basically stand by and watch it. A company called Another Earth wants to do something more active and is developing synthetic data on our planet to support AI forecasting - co-founder and CEO Maya Pindeus explains to Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton why this is important.

Continuing the discussion with IOWN Global Forum with its technology director Dr. Masahisa Kawashima on why photonic networks are going to be important in the next few years. In this episode he explores more about the elimination of the need for personal computing and smartphones, how this will be good for the environment and of course the skill sets that will be required to put this into effect....

If you're as old as Near Futurist Guy Clapperton you'll remember dial-up networks while everything in the office was connected by cable; now we have wireless networks almost ubiquitously, having seen copper, ISDN and now fibre underpinnings. But wait for it - there's a new standard in the offing. In this episode we offer the first part of a chat with Dr. Masahisa Kawashima, technology durector of...

The concluding part of Guy Clapperton's interview with Emilee Tellez, field CTO of Veeam. How organised are hackers these days, how "professional" have they become - and how can someone follow Emilee herself in starting off in sales and ending up on the board as a technologist?

The Near Futurist remains on a security theme as Guy Clapperton explores best practice with EmileeTellez, field CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of Veeam in the first part of this interview. Why do board members so often think their tech is safe while the actual IT staff are panicking - and why, even now, are so few of the tech staff women?

The second part of Guy Clapperton's interview with Glen Williams, CEO of security specialist Cyberfort. This time we explore certifications and what you need to be aware of when engaging a security specialist; also why a certificate is a snapshot rather than a guarantee.

Tech security has gone way beyond basic antivirus protection - in this next interview spanning two weeks, Guy Clapperton talks to Glen Williams, CEO of Cyberfort, about how the threat is evolving and what really hasn't changed.

Guy Clapperton concludes his conversation with Lawrence Rosenberg of Rosenberg.media about the future of public relations and  communications - where AI is going to fit and more importantly why the human factor is going to be more important than ever. Also covered: ageism and false positives.

The fifth series of the Near Futurist kicks off with an interview with Lawrence Rosenberg. Fresh from his run on this years's "The Apprentice" he is setting up his own PR company, Rosenberg.media, and he has ideas on where the industry should be going.

Continuing Near Futurist Guy Clapperton's discussion with Manoj Chawla, inventor of the Studiobox - in part 2 we look at the practicality and ease of use of the device which aims to repair eye contact and improve communications and human contact over video channels.   To watch us discuss this on video have a look here:   https://youtu.be/Zbu0aUNeDwk   Above is a pic of the Studiobox itself:  

We're so used to video calls now that we hardly notice how naff they are. No eye contact, people looking around the room - whatever happened to human contact? A phone call is often better. Technology industry veteran Manoj Chawla has been looking into what's gone wrong and has a potential solution in his device called the Studiobox. Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton has been playing with it....

Continuing the conversation between Near Futurist Guy Clapperton and TomTom's global business manager for traffic, Douglas Gilmour. We finish the conversation by discussing increasingly smart and collaborative map projects and how they're going to affect our daily lives.

We all take satellite navigation for granted but maybe we shouldn't - it's finding its way into smart cities, fleet management, delivery and huge amounts of other areas. In this interview Near Futurist Guy Clapperton speaks to Douglas Gilmour, global develpment manager for traffic at TomTom to about how increasingly smart maps are making a huge difference to us. https://tomtom.com

In part two of this interview, Ten10 co-founder Ash Gawthorp continues his conversation with Guy Clapperton about the impact of sudden innovation in artificial intelligence on people and learning. They cover company culture and the ability to fail, learning patterns, how to avoid burnout - and the impact of sudden technological change on smaller organisations. Find out more about Ten10 at https://...

Artificial Intelligence has been hitting the news even more than usual as Chinese company Deep Seek has turned the market upside down, hitting numerous businesses dependent on the complexity of building AI where it hurts - in the share price. But what about the people using and developing skills in AI? In this episode, Near Futurist podcaster and speaker Guy Clapperton speaks to Ash Gawthorp, chie...

In this second part of the interview with Dimitra Simeonidou of Joiner, the academic project to explore what's coming next in 6G and beyond, Guy Clapperton asks about when to upgrade our devices, what the role of academia is in all this - and gets advised not to try to trademark the term "7G". Which is a shame.  More on the work of Prof. Simeonidou here .

You thought the conspiracy theories over 5G were bad but had stopped - well, we can only hope it won't all happen again because, wait for it, plans for 6G are afoot. Surely, asks Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton. we don't need it, isn't 5G fast enough? That's until our guest, Prof. Dimitra Simeonidou, head of the UK 6G Testbed, called Joiner (website https://www.bristol.ac.uk/research/groups...

In the second part of this interview with Smartrectuiters CEO Rebecca Carr, near futurist Guy Clapperton explores the advantages of using artificial intelligence for recruitment. AI isn't the whole answer - but it's going to offer a lot of shortcuts!

Should we be worried about AI in terms of job seeking? Rebecca Carr is a specialist who sees pros and cons. She speaks to Near Futurist Guy Clapperton in. part 1 of this interview.

We keep hearing that we're too stressed because we're always on and we spend too much time in front of screens. No argument there but technology can also help. Dr. Emilia Molimpakis of Thymia explains to Guy Clapperton that monitoring of employees in an anonymised, non-intrusive manner can expose all sorts of behaviours that indicate someone is heading for a crash. But to what extent should employ...