Topic: Punch Cards

Mimi Smith-Dvorak compares the AI revolution to her grandfather's experience as a shoemaker during the transition to steam power. She recounts her own history as a teletype and keypunch operator, describing a night when her office accidentally received a message from Henry Kissinger intended for the White House. The FBI eventually arrived to seize the sensitive transmission in a black suitcase.

IBM's lobbying for the CISPA cybersecurity bill is criticized by the hosts, who bring up the company's historical ties to Nazi Germany. They cite Edwin Black's book IBM and the Holocaust, which details how IBM's Hollerith punch card systems were used to identify and track Jewish populations for the Nazis. They argue this legacy makes IBM's involvement in modern data-sharing bills deeply concerning.