AI, decentralized networks, and political swarms

What happens when trust—the glue holding society together—starts to crumble under the weight of AI, decentralized networks, and political swarms? In the premier episode of Trust Revolution, host Shawn Yeager sits down with John Robb, a former Special Ops officer turned tech visionary, to explore this question. With a career spanning the battlefield and Silicon Valley, Robb offers sharp insights into how “red” and “blue” network swarms are reshaping U.S. politics, how AI-driven augmented reality might disconnect us from reality, and how social AIs could spark the next economic revolution. From the fertility crisis to the future of decentralized systems, this conversation unpacks the challenges and opportunities in a world where trust is increasingly fragile.

John Robb is a US Air Force Academy graduate, a former Special Ops officer, and a tech entrepreneur. He founded Gomez and served as CEO of Userland Software, a key player in the development of RSS technology. Robb is also the author of Brave New War and a leading strategist focused on decentralized systems and artificial intelligence.

Trust is the glue holding society together—and it's starting to crumble.
— John Robb

Timestamps

00:03 John Robb's background: Special Ops to Silicon Valley
02:06 UserLand Software and the birth of RSS
07:22 Defining trust: tribal origins to modern workarounds
10:29 Centralized systems, AI, and information lockdown
14:55 Musk's Twitter acquisition as turning point
18:35 Network swarms and moral warfare
25:23 Red network: open source insurgency origins
29:15 Blue network formation and corporate alignment
36:44 AI deepfakes and rewiring reality
43:13 Corporations extracting employee data for AI
48:35 Data ownership and digital feudalism
52:53 Social AI and virtual workers
57:44 Future trends: fertility crisis, AI as consumers

Resources

About John Robb

John Robb is a US Air Force Academy graduate, former Special Ops officer, and tech entrepreneur. He founded Gomez and served as CEO of Userland Software, a key player in the development of RSS technology. Robb is the author of Brave New War and a leading strategist focused on decentralized systems and artificial intelligence.

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