AI Stress Test
Episodes
The new castles are built from rules, not stone
05 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly 1,000 years ago, medieval architects discovered something revolutionary: a single wall could be breached, but concentric castles - where each c...
Why the FDA's food label revolution predicts AI's transparency future
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Over 35 years ago, the US FDA began transforming fragmented nutrition disclosure into a single mandatory standard - a regulatory evolution that moved ...
Why corporate AI adoption in 2026 mirrors the PC's inevitable ascent
22 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Over 44 years ago, IBM did something remarkable - it turned legitimacy into a market strategy. A $4,000 computer package that had seemed absurd to mos...
Build vs. buy, the cycle continues
16 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The 1960s-70s mainframe era established a pattern; enterprises rejected commercial software offerings, choosing instead to build custom applications i...
From fragmentation to dangerous consensus
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Between 1830 and 1886, American railways faced a coordination crisis: 23 independent gauge decisions created a fragmented network where the Southern R...
From fragmentation to dangerous consensus
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Between 1830 and 1886, American railways faced a coordination crisis: 23 independent gauge decisions created a fragmented network where the Southern R...
New classes, new skills
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
New classes, new skills … Between the 1850s and the 1930s, capitalism experienced a permanent separation of ownership from control as professional m...
When ‘safe until proven otherwise’ becomes dangerous
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When ‘safe until proven otherwise’ becomes dangerous ... Over a century ago, in 1906, the first documented death from asbestos exposure was record...
Renaissance blueprints, AI control systems
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Renaissance blueprints, AI control systems … Over 540 years ago, following a plague that decimated up to half of Milan's population, Leonardo da Vin...
The economics of asymmetric advantage have fundamentally changed
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The economics of asymmetric advantage have fundamentally changed … Over 37 years ago, Robert Morris released a self-propagating worm that infected r...
When evolution stops being random
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When evolution stops being random … Over 80 years ago, Alexander Fleming witnessed what he feared most - bacteria evolving resistance to penicillin ...
Invisible sources of contamination
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over 171 years ago, a contaminated water pump in Victorian London killed 616 people in a month because the poison was invisible to inspection, undetec...
From nuclear testing moratoriums to AI safety thresholds
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over 33 years ago, the US conducted its final nuclear test - transitioning to a science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program that maintains civilizatio...