Podcast Episode Details

The Future Is a Place We Visit, But Never Stay | A Post RSAC Conference 2025 Reflection | A Musing On Society & Technology Newsletter with Marco Ciappelli and TAPE3 | Read by TAPE3

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Episode 2392

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The Future Is a Place We Visit, But Never Stay

May 9, 2025

A Post-RSAC 2025 Reflection on the Kinda Funny and Pretty Weird Ways Society, Technology, and Cybersecurity Intersect, Interact, and Often Simply Ignore Each Other.

By Marco Ciappelli | Musing on Society and Technology

Here we are — once again, back from RSAC. Back from the future. Or at least the version of the future that fits inside a conference badge, a branded tote bag, and a hotel bill that makes you wonder if your wallet just got hacked.

San Francisco is still buzzing with innovation — or at least that’s what the hundreds of self-driving cars swarming the city would have you believe. It’s hard to feel like you’re floating into a Jetsons-style future when your shuttle ride is bouncing through potholes that feel more 1984 than 2049.

I have to admit, there’s something oddly poetic about hosting a massive cybersecurity event in a city where most attendees would probably rather not be — and yet, here we are. Not for the scenery. Not for the affordability. But because, somehow, for a few intense days, this becomes the place where the future lives.

And yes, it sometimes looks like a carnival. There are goats. There are puppies. There are LED-lit booths that could double as rave stages. Is this how cybersecurity sells the feeling of safety now? Warm fuzzies and swag you’ll never use? I’m not sure.

But again: here we are.

There’s a certain beauty in it. Even the ridiculous bits. Especially the ridiculous bits.

Personally, I’m grateful for my press badge — it’s not just a backstage pass; it’s a magical talisman that wards off the pitch-slingers. The power of not having a budget is strong with this one.

But let’s set aside the Frankensteins in the expo hall for a moment.

Because underneath the spectacle — behind the snacks, the popcorns, the scanners and the sales demos — there is something deeply valuable happening. Something that matters to me. Something that has kept me coming back, year after year, not for the products but for the people. Not for the tech, but for the stories.

What RSAC Conference gives us — what all good conferences give us — is a window. A quick glimpse through the curtain at what might be.

And sometimes, if you’re lucky and paying attention, that glimpse stays with you long after the lights go down.

We have quantum startups talking about cryptographic agility while schools are still banning phones. We have generative AI writing software — code that writes code — while lawmakers print bills that read like they were faxed in from 1992. We have cybersecurity vendors pitching zero trust to rooms full of people still clinging to the fantasy of perimeter defense — not just in networks, but in their thinking.

We’re trying to build the future on top of a mindset that refuses to update.

That’s the real threat. Not AI and quantum. Not ransomware. Not the next zero-day.

It’s the human operating system. It hasn’t been patched in a while.

And so I ask myself — what are these conferences for, really?

Because yes, of course, they matter.

Of course I believe in them — otherwise I wouldn’t be there, recording stories, chasing conversations, sharing a couch and a mic with whoever is bold enough to speak not just about how we fix things, but why we should care at all.

But I’m also starting to believe that unless we do something more — unless we act on what we learn, build on what we imagine, challenge what we assume — these gatherings will become time capsules. Beautiful, well-produced, highly caffeinated, blinking, noisy time capsules.

We don’t need more predictions. We need more decisions.

One of the most compelling conversations I had wasn’t about tech at all. It was about behavior. Human behavior.

Dr. Jason Nurse reminded

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Published on 7 months, 1 week ago