When Technology Outpaces Human Performance with Alan Kearney

Send us Fan Mail

Night vision keeps getting smarter, but our brains do not update on the same schedule. We’re joined by defense expert Alan Kearney, a former Irish Defence Forces officer who now works in European defense industry, to explore a problem that reaches far beyond goggles and helmets: what happens when advanced soldier systems outpace human cognition in the exact moments stress is highest?

We start with the fundamentals of modern night vision and thermal fusion, then move into the messy reality of human performance. Under lethal threat, the sympathetic response and HPA axis change attention, memory, and perception. That’s where latency, digital overlays, AI cueing, and networked data can become more than “extra information” they can become friction. We talk human factors engineering, cognitive load, pattern recognition, and why an information feed is not the same thing as situational awareness.

From aviation lessons to procurement-room demo traps, we pressure-test the assumptions behind modernization. We also dig into mission command and the risks that come with total visibility, plus the long-term cost of over-reliance on tools that quietly erode core skills. The takeaway is not anti-tech. It’s a human-first approach: design systems that match neurobiology, and raise the baseline with realistic training and training to failure so warfighters are never learning the hard way.

If you care about military readiness, law enforcement performance, or how people make decisions under pressure, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with the biggest tradeoff you’ve seen between “more tech” and “better performance.”

Alans Article: https://mwi.westpoint.edu/night-vision-at-a-crossroads-when-technology-outpaces-the-neurobiology-of-close-combat/

Support the show

Website: https://www.arcadiacognerati.com/podcast

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thehumanbehaviorpodcast?si=Lzs4y2RuO_5N2UcV

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehumanbehaviorpodcast/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ArcadiaCognerati

More about Greg and Brian: https://arcadiacognerati.com/arcadia-cognerati-leadership-team/