I spent last week in Austin at the first South by Southwest festival to occur in-person since 2019. I’ll admit that I had missed the frenetic energy of the weeklong multimedia event, which has become a part of my annual routine. I started attending SXSW in 2006 and have attended almost every year since. In 2016, in fact, I was inducted into the SXSW Hall of Fame, so I’m a certified fanboy. This year, I drank all the agave-based spirits, ate all the permutations of meat on tacos, rode all the electric scooters, and got a taste of a high-tech future that we increasingly recognize doesn’t simply happen but must be consciously shaped.