Lore in the Machine: Forgotten Tech History

Daina Bouquin
  • 5.0 (4)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Every line of code has a story. Most of us just never hear it. Lore in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computing history or internet lore to surface the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world. If you've ever wondered who actually made something you use every day, and why you've never heard their name before, you'll feel at home here. This show is for the curious, not the credentialed. You don't need a technical background to follow along. You just need to be the kind of person who pulls on threads. New episodes every other week.

Episodes

  1. 2D AGO

    I’m Not a Robot: The Internet's Human Test

    You’ve done this so many times you don’t think about it anymore. A box appears. You squint at some blurry letters, type them out, check the box. It takes about ten seconds. You probably didn’t know that those ten seconds were going somewhere. For years, millions of people solving these security tests were quietly doing something else entirely. They were rescuing forgotten history that computers couldn’t read. In 1950, Alan Turing proposed a test where machines tried to pass as human. Half a century later, a graduate student inverted it. The machine would do the judging. And the humans would get to work. In this episode Turing's imitation game - the thought experiment that set the terms for AILuis von Ahn and Manuel Blum - the Carnegie Mellon graduate student and his professor who built the wall between humans and botsreCAPTCHA - the internet security test that became the largest digitization project in historyreCAPTCHA v3 - the invisible version Episode Music James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0"Whispers Invoke Paranoia""Do Not Look Back""Artifice" Additional Reading Pandey, K. (2022, July 25). History & evolution of CAPTCHA. Masai School. https://www.masaischool.com/blog/history-evolution-of-captcha/ Gugliotta, G. (2011, March 29). Deciphering Old Texts, One Woozy, Curvy Word at a Time. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/science/29recaptcha.html Weintraub, S. (2009, September). Google acquires reCAPTCHA in two-for-one deal. Computerworld. https://www.computerworld.com/article/1331965/google-acquires-recaptcha-in-two-for-one-deal.html Schwab, K. (2019, June 27). Google's new reCAPTCHA has a dark side. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90369697/googles-new-recaptcha-has-a-dark-side Support the show Lore in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin, each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show. You can follow the show on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. You can support it with a coffee.

    9 min

  2. APR 14

    The Silent Duel: David Blackwell and the Math Inside AI

    Two people walk toward each other on a dirt road. One bullet each. In a normal duel, a missed shot makes a sound. But in a silent duel, a miss would be invisible. You wouldn't know if your opponent was holding their fire, or had already taken their one shot. How would you know when to stop walking and take your own? In 2024, NVIDIA named the most powerful piece of AI hardware ever built after the man who spent his career thinking about this exact problem. His name was David Blackwell. In this episode David Blackwell: brilliant professor and researcher at the RAND Corporation. Seventh African American to earn a PhD in mathematics.Kriegsspiel: the blind chess variant that Blackwell played daily.Blackwell's silent duel: a thought experiment from Cold War-era game theory, and why related math ended up in machine learning textbooks.The economist's question: the most important question in the world at that moment, asked in good faith, and why every mathematician Blackwell knew gave the same useless answer. Episode Music James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0"Anti-Nostalgia""Who Are You At War With Now?""Alter Ego" Additional Reading AYE Conference. (n.d.). Activity sheet 1: David Blackwell and the theory of duels [PDF]. https://www.ayeconference.com/Articles/gameTheory.pdf Black, R. (2019). David Blackwell and the deadliest duel. Royal Fireworks Press. Blackwell, D. (2003). An oral history with David Blackwell [Oral history transcript; conducted by N. Wilmot, 2002–2003]. Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.tufts.edu/dist/8/3572/files/2015/11/blackwell.pdf NVIDIA. (2024). NVIDIA Blackwell architecture. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/technologies/blackwell-architecture/ -- Support the show Lore in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin, each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show. You can follow the show on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. You can support it with a coffee.

    11 min

  3. MAR 31

    Strangers with Keys: A Ritual to Secure the Internet

    Four times a year, a small group of people fly to a secure facility in either Virginia or California. They submit to retina scanners and palm readers. They enter a metal cage in a signal-proof room. They turn keys in unison. These people are volunteers, and they're there to perform a ritual to secure the internet's core directory.  If you build a master key for the internet, who do you trust to hold it? In this episode The Ceremony of the Keys - the 700-year-old nightly ritual at the Tower of London, and what it has to do with cyber securityThe Crypto Officers - who they are, and what they carryThe Ritual - over 100 scripted steps, a self-destructing lockbox, and a laptop with no memoryThe things that went wrong - because they do Episode Music James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0"Like an Empty Kaleidoscope""Single Lane Tunnel""The Absurd""Iconoclast" Additional Notes This episode is the follow-up to "Poison in the Cache."  If you want to see this ritual for yourself, you can. The root signing relies on radical transparency, so every step is shared. The list of ceremonies is available via the IANA along with the full list of Crypto Officers. Additional Reading Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. (2026, February 10). Root Zone KSK ceremony 60 annotated script [Ceremony script]. https://data.iana.org/ksk-ceremony/60/AT60_Annotated_Script.pdf Internet Hall of Fame. (2014, March 25). Our online safety is protected by one "stubborn lady." https://www.internethalloffame.org/2014/03/25/our-online-safety-protected-one-stubborn-lady/ McCarthy, K. (2020, February 13). Internet's safe-keepers forced to postpone crucial DNSSEC root key signing ceremony. The Register. https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/13/iana_dnssec_ksk_delay/ -- Support the show Lore in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin, each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show. You can follow the show on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. You can support it with a coffee.

    12 min

  4. MAR 17

    Poison in the Cache: Dan Kaminsky Saves the Internet

    Every time you type a web address, you're trusting a directory. A vast, invisible system that translates the names you know into the numbers that actually move data across the internet. You trust it the way a town trusts its well. In 2008, a security researcher named Dan Kaminsky discovered that the well had no lid. In this episode DNS - the Domain Name System and why it mattersDan Kaminsky - security researcher and internet advocate Cache poisoning - the class of attack Dan found hiding in the internet's foundationThe patch - a secret meeting, a deadline, and a synchronized fix Episode Music James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0"Closest Strangers""Single Lane Tunnel" "The Dweller on the Threshold""A Different World by Night"  Additional Reading Choi, S. G. (n.d.). Remote DNS attacks and DNS defenses [Lecture notes, IT432 Advanced Computer and Network Security]. U.S. Naval Academy. https://www.usna.edu/Users/cs/choi/it432/lec/l07/lec.html Vixie, P. (2008, July 14). Not a guessing game. CircleID. https://circleid.com/posts/87143_dns_not_a_guessing_game/ Internet Hall of Fame. (2022, March 23). A dedicated approach to Internet security: Daniel Kaminsky. https://www.internethalloffame.org/2022/03/23/dedicated-approach-internet-security-daniel-kaminsky/ Kaminsky, D. (2008). Black Ops 2008: It's the end of the cache as we know it [Conference presentation, DEF CON 16]. Video: https://media.blackhat.com/bh-usa-08/video/bh-us-08-Kaminsky/black-hat-usa-08-kaminsky-blackops08-hires.m4v (Note: this is Kaminsky's DEF CON Black Ops talk, not Black Hat) -- Support the show Lore in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin, each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show. You can follow the show on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. You can support it with a coffee.

    8 min

  5. MAR 3

    Lipstick and Runes: Hedy Lamarr and the History of Bluetooth

    Look at your phone settings. There's a small angular icon there that you've probably never thought about much. It's a bind rune showing two characters from the ancient Younger Futhark alphabet, fused together. It's on billions of devices worldwide. How that symbol ended up there is two stories separated by half a century. One starts with a Hollywood actress listening at a dinner table full of fascists. The other starts with two engineers bombing a pitch meeting and ending up in a Canadian pub. In this episode Hedy Lamarr - after the cameras and the dinner partiesThe patent - a collaboration and what the Navy said about itTwo engineers in a pub - a failed pitch meeting and a conversation about Vikings and a Danish king Episode Music James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0"Morning Bell" "Noctivagant (Orchestral Version)" "Moonlit Skyline" Additional Reading Sinclair. (2018, May 17). How the pianola played a part in Hedy Lamarr's invention. American Masters, PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/blog/bombshell-hedy-lamarr-story-pianola-played-part-hedy-lamarrs-invention/ Lamarr, H. (1966). Ecstasy and me: My life as a woman. Bartholomew House. https://archive.org/details/ecstasymemylife00lama Bedi, J. (2015, November 12). A movie star, some player pianos, and torpedoes. Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, Smithsonian Institution. https://invention.si.edu/invention-stories/movie-star-some-player-pianos-and-torpedoes Kardach, J. (n.d.). Naming Bluetooth. https://www.kardach.com/bluetooth/naming_bluetooth Rhodes, R. (2011). Hedy's Folly: The life and breakthrough inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the most beautiful woman in the world. Doubleday. https://archive.org/details/hedysfollylifea00rhod_0 -- Support the show Lore in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin, each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show. You can follow the show on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. You can support it with a coffee.

    11 min

  6. MAR 3

    Drink Me, Eat Me, README: What Programmers Learned from Alice in Wonderland

    Every software project has one. It's easy to scroll past. Most of the time it's just a manual telling you system requirements, installation steps, and known bugs.  But the README file owes a debt to Lewis Carroll, and a quiet trick built into its name that has been manipulating computers for decades.  In this episode, we follow the README from its earliest appearances through the conventions that made it a standard, and to the programmers who decided it could be much more than documentation. In this episode Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - the literary origin programmers point to as inspirationThe ASCII trick - the quiet reason README is written in all capitalsThe printer in the woods - a README that went somewhere unexpected Episode Music James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0"Dasein" "Scarecrow" by James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0"Found Poetry" by James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0Additional Reading Raymond, E. S. (Ed.). (2003). README file. In The Jargon File (Version 4.4.7). http://catb.org/jargon/html/R/README-file.html [ADG]. (ca. 1981). README.TXT [Software documentation, DECUS program 20-0079]. DECUS. https://pdp-10.trailing-edge.com/decus_20tap3_198111/01/decus/20-0079/readme.txt.html Yokota, E. [eed3si9n]. (2012, October 19). README [GitHub Gist]. https://gist.github.com/eed3si9n/3920236 -- Support the show Lore in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin, each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show. You can follow the show on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. You can support it with a coffee.

    8 min

  7. MAR 3

    The Bug, The Cat, and The Wooden Mouse: The Unexpected History of the Computer Mouse

    In 1968, a researcher named Douglas Engelbart took the stage in San Francisco and showed a thousand computer professionals something they had never seen: text editing, clickable links, and video conferencing, all controlled by a small wooden block with a wire trailing out the back. But the mouse didn't begin with Engelbart. In this episode, we follow the tangled history of the world's most common computer peripheral and its origins as a Cold War secret. We'll also find out why your cursor is tilted 45 degrees. In this episode The Mother of All Demos - the 1968 presentation that changed computingDATAR - a classified Cold War radar project, and an unlikely contribution to computing historyThe Rollkugel - a German parallel invention and a patent rejectionXerox PARC and Apple - how the mouse finally reached the world Music James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0"Brocken Spectre""Shape of a Gun" "Hedgehog's Dilemma""Eternal Light" Additional Reading The Mother of All Demos. (n.d.). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos Computer History Museum. (n.d.). DATAR trackball (Object ID 500004669). CHM Revolution: Input & Output. https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/350/1881 Bardini, T. (2000). Bootstrapping: Douglas Engelbart, coevolution, and the origins of personal computing. Stanford University Press. https://archive.org/details/bootstrapping00thie Hill-Khurana, J. (2020, May). A brief history of the mouse cursor, from Engelbart to PARC. https://jameshk.com/mouse-cursor -- Support the show Lore in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin, each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show. You can follow the show on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. You can support it with a coffee.

    10 min

  8. MAR 3

    UFOs, Model Trains, and Code's 'Sacred Syllable': The Origins of Foo

    Every programmer knows 'foo' as the "insert name here" of software development. But where did it come from? And what does it have to do with 'bar'? In this episode, we trace the history of foo in programming back through three unlikely chapters: a Depression-era comic strip, a WWII air squadron, and a group of MIT students who built a computer underneath a model train set. The story runs through hacker culture, computing folklore, and a very strange corner of World War II history. In this episode Bill Holman and Smokey Stover - a 1930s comic strip and a catchphrase that accidentally entered the computing lexiconThe Foo Fighters - not the band; the original phenomenon, and the airmen who named itThe Tech Model Railroad Club - MIT's legendary hacker origin story, and why their emergency switch matters more than you'd think Episode music  George L. Cobb,  Public Domain"Procrastination Rag (1927)"James Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0"The Illusion of Cold""Man Alone Chimes the Hour" Additional Reading Eastlake, D., Manros, C., & Raymond, E. (2001, April 1). Etymology of "Foo" (RFC 3092). Internet Engineering Task Force. https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3092.txt Smokey Stover LLC. (n.d.). Smokey Stover online. https://www.smokey-stover.com/ What were the mysterious "foo fighters" sighted by WWII night flyers? (2016, July 20). Air & Space Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/what-were-mysterious-foo-fighters-sighted-ww2-night-flyers-180959847/ Samson, P. R. (2005). The TMRC dictionary (Annotated 1st ed., originally compiled 1959). https://www.gricer.com/tmrc/dictionary1959.html  Support the show Lore in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin, each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show. You can follow the show on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. You can support it with a coffee.

    9 min

  9. SEASON 1, EPISODE 1 TRAILER

    Trailer: Unexpected Stories from Computing History

    Every function, framework, and flicker of code has a story.     Introducing Lore in the Machine, a new podcast hosted by Daina Bouquin that uncovers the hidden histories and surprising origins woven into the fabric of computing. Join us as we look beyond the glass screens to find the jokes, late-night desperation, and impossible dreams that built our digital world.    The first episodes are loading. Find Lore in the Machine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your favorite podcast app. Support the show Lore in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Hosted by Daina Bouquin, each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computer history. These are the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world.  If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show. You can follow the show on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. You can support it with a coffee.

    2 min

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Every line of code has a story. Most of us just never hear it. Lore in the Machine is a narrative technology podcast about the forgotten history of computing, software, and the internet. Each episode uncovers the true story behind a piece of computing history or internet lore to surface the forgotten people, decisions, and accidents that quietly shaped the digital world. If you've ever wondered who actually made something you use every day, and why you've never heard their name before, you'll feel at home here. This show is for the curious, not the credentialed. You don't need a technical background to follow along. You just need to be the kind of person who pulls on threads. New episodes every other week.

Information