Anne Currie
@annecurrie
Technologist, folk artist, scifi and non fiction author: O'Reilly's Building Green Software, The Cloud Native Attitude & the SciFi Panopticon series
Can AI ever be green? How do we raise the efficiency of AI data centres? In a fascinating Ep 20 of Asynchronous & Unreliable podcast I talk to Chad Gibson, CEO and co-founder of AI host and infrastructure company Neuralwatt about how AI can be (and is being) aligned with the energy transition.
I think folk had no clue how lovely the sandy beaches here are - by far the best in easy day trip from London
I've noticed some slagging off of Clacton. The North Essex coast is a beautiful part of the UK (taken this morning)
Did Justin Cormack succeed in re-creating Amazon s3 in his spare room? In a fascinating episode of Asynchronous & Unreliable, ex Docker CTO talks about experiments with large scale AI produced code, eventual consistency, and the role of language choice in steering AI code generation.
In this week's episode of tech podcast Asynchronous and Unreliable, @hollycummins.com and I chat about Lightswitch Ops, operational efficiency, security, Cloud Native architectures and the unexpectedly emergent superpower of turning things off and on again
My recollection was there was a big range in wealth. Were you wearing hand-me-down cords and a jumper your gran knitted or something from Tammy Girl.
Depeche Mode, Basildon 1980. Looking pretty much like everyone did TBH. We had cheap markets for clothes (Basildon, Romford market). I had friends who went to Basildon Market every week and bought something with their Saturday job money. Even I had a relax T shirt & florescent leg warmers (really)
Our most popular episode of Asynchronous and Unreliable podcast so far, by far, has been my interview with Martin Davidson on his experiments with using AI to generate the kind of software that we would probably label mission critical links below
Thought for the day: The Daleks, the Smash Martians, and Zippy are alternative history versions - all voiced by the same person - clearly the same character What if the Daleks had been made of felt? - Zippy What if the Daleks had been obsessed with mashed potatoes? The Smash Martians
Has the question moved from "Can AI write mission critical software?" to "how soon will it write all the mission critical software?"
Pied avocet! (Husband managed to grab the photo from a kayak in our local Essex saltmarsh bird sanctuary)
In an exponential world, binary choices are an expensive disaster. In episode 5 of Asynchronous and Unreliable podcast, Jon Berger and I explore why people have no clue about exponential concepts like five nines resilience and the ways you can handle that.
In the latest episode of Asynchronous and Unreliable tech podcast, writer, author and editor Charles Humble and I discuss 30 years of change (progress or not?) in the communication of complex tech subjects. Links below
Cloud good/Cloud bad? It's not as easy as that as my @oreilly.bsky.social co-author Sara Bergman and I discuss on new tech podcast, Asynchronous and Unreliable. (links in the comment)
The first episode of Asynchronous and Unreliable weekly podcast is now live!!!! See comments for links. Sara Bergman & I discuss all the things, including efficiency in all its forms & whether you should run calmness retreats based on the principles of distributed systems. Hugely fun to record!!!
What a hero image. I often feel the BBC has lost its way but its coverage of the Moon mission has been excellent. Positive, always the top story, loads of coverage. (for the non-retailers, the main image at the top of a site is called the hero. Rarely has that been more appropriate).
I've decided I need to embrace my identity as a folk artist! I was at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe last year and it reminded me how much better folk artist is as a name than naive artist.
NEW TECH PODCAST ALERT! Asynchronous & Unreliable In 2026 I'll be hosting Asynchronous & Unreliable, a new podcast on the most interesting concepts driving modern tech including but not limited to AI - because ChatGPT and pals are not the only things going on in technology
Wonderman must be the best thing on Disney+? Genuine tear in my eye at the end there
Seems an appropriate time to post the Ecologist magazine green parliament edition they used one of my paintings for a few years back (London 2112, Oil on canvas, 2012)
A thought I've had a lot recently is was Enid Blyton the most influential modern writer? AMA ;-) @charleshumble.bsky.social I think she is still the most prolific author in English.
Traditional Chinese translation just arrived in the post! @saraemilybergman.bsky.social
Currently reading A Christmas Carol for the first time. Read it. It's great. Full of very relevant thoughts. The TV versions are all simplified to the point of losing the true meaning (ironically). Much as I love the Muppet version, also read the v short book
I'm starting to feel that my new role in life might be just to repeat what the computer says back to my elderly relatives
Word of the (windy) day: thigmomorphogenesis. It's when plants adapt their growth depending on their physical environment. I am pinning my hopes on it as I watch my neighbours blue cedar, which if it fell with the prevailing wind - like today - would squash my house. www.ebsco.com/research-sta...
Re-watching Ever Decreasing Circles whilst coincidentally re-watching Billions. It feels oddly like the same show in two wildly different contexts - like Billions is the Comic Strip Presents Ever Decreasing Circles - a wildly Hollywoodized version of the premise. Have I gone mad? @markoneill.org
Rainy Sunday afternoon? Why not read a book? Utopia Five is now available under a CC license as a PDF download www.annecurrie.com. A take on modern AI, big data, surveillance, climate change, security and everything else, in the form of a fun thriller.