The Sound of Silence
Happy New Year 2026! Almost Three Years of Silence
so, i’ve been tardy. What’s happenned over the last three years that seem to be remarkable? The most natural thing to do is ask an LLM. Let’s let it co-author (a markdown file no less) summarizing the most relevant events of the last three years. Here goes!
The Last Three Years in Review (2023–2025)
A Technical, Scientific, and Geopolitical Timeline
The past three years have been unusually dense with change. Advances in artificial intelligence, renewed great-power competition, supply-chain realignments, and breakthroughs in science have all reshaped how societies operate—and how technologists build systems.
This post summarizes the most consequential technical, scientific, and geopolitical events from 2023 through 2025, presented in a timeline format with links for deeper reading.
2023: Acceleration and Realignment
🤖 Generative AI Goes Mainstream
- Large Language Models (LLMs) rapidly entered consumer and enterprise workflows.
- Multimodal AI (text, images, audio, video) became practical at scale.
- Early regulation discussions began around safety, copyright, and data provenance.
Why it mattered:
AI shifted from “experimental” to infrastructure, affecting software engineering, education, cybersecurity, and creative industries.
🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_artificial_intelligence
🌍 War in Ukraine Enters a Prolonged Phase
- The Russia–Ukraine war transitioned into attritional warfare.
- Drones, satellite intelligence, and electronic warfare became central.
- NATO expansion continued with Finland joining.
Why it mattered:
Modern warfare highlighted the importance of commercial satellites, encrypted comms, and resilient infrastructure.
🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine
🔋 Energy Transition Accelerates
- Record global investment in renewable energy.
- Battery technology improvements drove EV adoption.
- Grid resilience and storage became critical challenges.
Why it mattered:
Energy became a software + hardware problem, driving demand for smart grids, forecasting, and power electronics.
🔗 https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-investment-2023
🧬 CRISPR and Gene Therapies Reach Clinical Maturity
- FDA approvals for CRISPR-based treatments.
- Gene editing moved from research to treatment pipelines.
Why it mattered:
Biotech began to mirror software’s rapid iteration cycle—raising ethical, regulatory, and data challenges.
🔗 https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements
2024: Regulation, Compute, and Conflict
🏛️ Governments Move to Regulate AI
- EU passed the AI Act, the world’s first broad AI regulatory framework.
- U.S. issued executive orders on AI safety and national security.
- AI audits, model transparency, and data governance became requirements.
Why it mattered:
Software teams now had to design for compliance, explainability, and auditability.
🔗 https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/european-approach-artificial-intelligence
🧠 Compute Becomes a Strategic Resource
- GPU and accelerator shortages persisted.
- Nations began treating compute capacity like oil or steel.
- Cloud providers expanded sovereign cloud offerings.
Why it mattered:
Access to compute shaped who could innovate, train models, and compete globally.
🔗 https://www.brookings.edu/articles/compute-is-power/
🌏 China–U.S. Tech Decoupling Deepens
- Export controls expanded on semiconductors and AI hardware.
- Parallel tech stacks emerged (chips, cloud, AI models).
- Supply chains re-shored or “friend-shored.”
Why it mattered:
Global systems fractured into interoperability islands, complicating open-source and standards efforts.
🔗 https://www.csis.org/analysis/us-china-technology-competition
🛰️ Space Becomes Operational, Not Experimental
- Starlink and other LEO constellations scaled dramatically.
- Space assets became integral to defense, logistics, and communications.
Why it mattered:
Space infrastructure became critical infrastructure, increasing both capability and risk.
🔗 https://www.nasa.gov/spaceeconomy/
2025: Systems Thinking Era
🧩 AI Agents and Automation Ecosystems
- AI systems moved from chat interfaces to agentic workflows.
- Autonomous research, coding, and operations tools emerged.
- Human-in-the-loop design became a best practice.
Why it mattered:
Engineering shifted from writing code to designing systems of delegation and verification.
🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_agent
🔐 Cybersecurity Focuses on Infrastructure Resilience
- Attacks increasingly targeted supply chains, firmware, and physical systems.
- Zero Trust and hardware-backed identity gained traction.
- OT (Operational Technology) security became a top concern.
Why it mattered:
Security expanded beyond IT into power, water, telecom, and transportation systems.
🔗 https://www.cisa.gov/critical-infrastructure-security
🌡️ Climate Impacts Drive Policy and Engineering Change
- Extreme weather events stressed grids, networks, and logistics.
- Climate modeling and prediction became operational priorities.
- Adaptation engineering gained urgency.
Why it mattered:
Climate risk became a first-order design constraint for infrastructure and software systems.
🌐 Multipolar World Becomes the Default
- No single nation dominated geopolitics or technology.
- Regional alliances strengthened.
- Standards bodies and international coordination grew more complex.
Why it mattered:
Builders now operate in a world where assumptions of global uniformity no longer hold.
🔗 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/multipolar-world
Key Takeaways
- AI is now infrastructure, not a feature.
- Compute, energy, and data are strategic resources.
- Geopolitics directly shapes engineering decisions.
- Resilience beats optimization in a volatile world.
- Systems thinking is the defining skill of this era.
Closing Thoughts
The 2023–2025 period may be remembered as the moment when technology, geopolitics, and science fully converged. The challenge ahead is not just innovation—but building systems that are robust, ethical, and resilient under real-world pressure.
If you’re building technology today, you’re no longer operating in isolation—you’re participating in history.