What can technology from 100 years ago teach us about the systems we are building today? In Episode 62, Reliasquatch sits down with Silus Barnaby to compare the simple, rugged and repairable machines of the past with today’s increasingly intelligent—and increasingly complex—technology. We get into equipment like the nearly century-old machinery at Buckingham Fountain, unintended consequences of “quick wins,” and an uncomfortable question: when did progress start meaning we have to make everything complicated?
Then Jun joins Reliasquatch as the conversation shifts to HRI Labs and the human-machine interface. The research underway at Human Reliability Intelligence Labs is already changing how we think about industrial reliability, human-in-the-loop systems, and even what is happening behind the scenes in technologies such as EMPOWER V3.1. We’re not giving away the store, but there is a much bigger connection between people, machines, performance, and reliability than most of industry is considering today.
And because it’s September, we fuel the chaos with a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte.
100 years ago: simple, robust, repairable, built to last.
Today: smarter, connected, data-rich…and sometimes unnecessarily complicated.
Tomorrow: maybe the answer is taking the best lessons from both.
☕ Grab your coffee and join Reliasquatch, Silus and Jun for another conversation where we challenge conventional thinking, question the processes “we’ve always used,” and explore what comes next.
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