Richard Thieme - Saturday 18th August 2012

A WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS: CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND THE NECESSARY COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE OF EVERYDAY LIFE

Richard Thieme speaks professionally about the challenges posed by new technologies and the future, and how we might reinvent ourselves to meet these challenges. Clients range from GE and Microsoft to the National Security Agency, FBI, US Secret Service and US Dept of the Treasury. Formerly an Episcopalian minister, Thieme has also spoken for sixteen years for the Black Hat Briefings on intelligence and corporate security, and at Def Con, an annual computer hackers' convention. Thieme's books include: Islands in the Clickstream (2004) and Mind Games, A Collection of Nineteen Stories of Brave New Worlds and Alternate Realities (2010).

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Display case with Richard Thieme's books, Challenge Coins, T Shirts and other artefacts

Challenge Coin - U.S. Department of Defence
Given to Thieme by Assistant Secretary of Defence after he mediated a discussion between the Department of Defence and a group of hostile hackers. The Assistant Secretary of Defence was both relieved and grateful to Thieme for getting them through the experience.

DEF CON Hacker Conference - Twentieth Anniversary Programme 2012 (detail)

Collection of challenge coins
Challenge coins are small coins or medallions that bear an organisation's insignia or emblem and are carried by an organisation's members. They are normally presented within the military and intelligence communities to acknowledge a job that has been done well. It is the only currency within the communities that can be publically exchanged, and is taken seriously in a world where public acknowledgment is hard to come by. They are so called, as traditionally people would slam their collection of coins down onto the bar, and the one who was deficient would buy the round of drinks. Richard Thieme has a total of six challenge coins, of which five are on display here.