During my opening speech at the Munich defense tech hackathon we ran in parallel to the Munich Security Conference (no endorsement or affiliation either direction to be clear), I wanted to drive home three reasons “Why” and one ask for “How” hackers and members should participate. The “Why” is a very clear story made up of long-lasting trends reinforced by headlines I pulled from 24h before the talk: 1/ We are already at war (whether we’ve realized or not) and it’s likely to continue 2/ The numbers are not on our side - Russia outspends and outmans non-Ukraine Europe any day and are replenishing the arsenals 3/ We can not count on the US to save us - in fact, as highlighted this past week, relying on the US is a liability The “How” is a request and an imperative. Nothing else will work. We can only use our technological superiority and adoption thereof - we can not control much else. And for this innovation to matter, it must be built at a monumental scale. In fact I refer to a local Monument in Munich - Bav…