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053“This is what science education could be –hands on, multidisciplinary and relatedto real-world problems” – Peter Platzer

088Tony FadellThe man behindApple’s iPod just soldhis startup, NestLabs, to Google for$3.2bn. WIRED asks:what’s his next plan?

096DocumentariesFrom interactive iDocsto digital distributionand new ways ofcapturing ourselves,the documentary isgetting an overhaul

105Future retroWIRED despatchedour favourite writers,photographers andartists to the year2024 – and askedthem to report back

122Oculus RiftThe inside story ofhow the Oculus Riftmade virtual realityan actual reality – andthen got snapped upby Facebook for $2bn

130Toxic boatLast year, the UNendorsed a plan toneutralise Syria’schemical weapons.This is the ship that isdisposing of them

FEATURES

Right: diver FabienCousteau, following in hisgrandfather’s flippers

LIFE CAN BE PERFECT

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Experience Bollinger Responsibly

www.champagne-bollinger.com @BollingerUK

SECTIONS 032STARTInfopornThousands of women have been killed in theSyrian conflict – SumAll.org documents how

064PLAYUnfolding trendsThe Enfaltung dress turns the art of origamiinto clothing – just don’t try to sit down in it…

036STARTNew heights in hybrid transportPart airship, part helicopter, part aircraft, theAirlander aims to transform cargo delivery

014STARTSummer viewing advisedThe Oslo architects who are braving hostileclimates to construct fjord viewing platforms

072PLAYWater boardingBob Burnquist mastered skateboarding onland. Next? Conquering the waters of a lake

053IDEAS BANKBrain food and provocationsPeter Platzer; Micah Sifry; Deborah Gordon;David J Hand; John Hegarty

021STARTHard-wired as a coder girlAt 14, Amy Mather is a computing veteran –and she wants to recruit her contemporaries

081HOW TOLife enhancementAce a TED-style talk; create a smoke waterfall;find cheap air fares; invest like Warren Buffett

061PLAYEarth redrawn by committeeThinkers, scientists and designers have createdtheir own contemporary takes on global maps

030STARTA groovy way to cut noiseResidents living near Amsterdam’s Schipholairport have sound-reducing groundscapes

139TESTLab resultsLightweight wet suits; wet shave razors;compact, multipurpose projectorsP

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Above: Akiha Ward Cultural Center in Niigata City, Japan

Editor David RowanCreative director Andrew DiproseExecutive editor Greg WilliamsManaging editor Duncan Baizleywired.co.uk editor Nate Lanxon

Science editor João MedeirosProduct editor Jeremy White

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Tablet producer Lauren Hogan

Chief sub-editor Mike DentDeputy chief sub-editor Simon Ward

WIRED.CO.UKDeputy editor Olivia Solon

Reporter Liat ClarkJunior staff writer Katie Collins

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Contributing editors Dan Ariely, David Baker, Ian Daly,Ben Beaumont-Thomas, Rachel Botsman, Daniel Cossins,Russell M Davies, Ben Hammersley, Adam Higginbotham,Jeremy Kingsley, Daniel Nye Griffiths, Emily Peck, Ed Yong

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WIRED, 13 Hanover Square, London W1S 1HNPlease contact our editorial team via the following email addresses:

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cannot be responsible for unsolicited material. Copyright © 2014 THE CONDÉ NAST PUBLICATIONS LTD, Vogue House, Hanover Square, London W1S 1JU. The paper used for this publication is recyclable and made from renewablefibrous raw materials. It has been produced using wood sourced from sustainably managed forests and elemental or total chlorine-free bleached pulp. The producing mills have third-party-certified management systems in place,applying standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. This magazine can be recycled either through your kerbside collection or at a local recycling point. Log on to www.recyclenow.com and enter your postcode to find your nearest sites.

Directors: Jonathan Newhouse (chairman and chief executive),Nicholas Coleridge (managing director), Stephen Quinn, Annie Holcroft, Pam Raynor,

Jamie Bill, Jean Faulkner, Shelagh Crofts, Albert Read, Patricia Stevenson WIREDLO

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OFF - PAGE“Thanks for anexcellent day todayat #WiredHealth.Although I think mybrain might be full.”@felixjackson

WHAT ELSE WIRED GOT UP TO LAST MONTH

FEEDBACKBIPOLAR OPINION

FEEDBACKA MINOR QUIBBLE“Your article is essentially claimingporn does not harm children becausechildren say it is not harming them(Why we’re afraid of internet porn,wired.co.uk). If you ask little Timmywhat he thought about eating a doublecheeseburger, fries and shake, I’m surehe’d say: ‘It had a positive effect! It wasawesome!’” Gabe Deem, via wired.co.uk

FEEDBACKSTREET STEALTH

“P“Pleaselease addadd aa momotiontion trtrackackerer thathattoverlays Google Maps so I can havea head-up display with mini-map(Google embeds camera in smartcontact lens, wired.co.uk). Friendswill appear as green dots on the map,waypoints (work, home and missionobjectives) will appear as yellow dots,and enemies will appear as red dots.”Stephen Schaefbauer, via wired.co.uk

WIRED.CO.UKTOY OFTHE MONTH

“June Gruber’s swipe at Aristotleleaves a bitter aftertaste (Ideas Bank,04.14). Undesirable mood swings areall too familiar to those who sufferfrom bipolar disorder, though surelythe philosopher was not referringto such extreme states when hesaid: ‘Happiness is the meaning andpurpose of life’? As for the claim thatanger is more useful to those takingcompetitive tests, I would argue: moreuseful to whom, the individual orsociety?” Justin Stares, via email

Alex Allmont’s PlayHouse: a desk-sized LEGOTechnic installation thatproduces downtempoacid house. See it here:tinyurl.com/lobm938

Russell Foster, to hostDavid Rowan, after hisWIRED Health talk onthe effects of sleepdisruption: “Whenyou’re making importantbusiness decisions afterall those transatlanticcrossings, just reflectand ask your colleagues– is this really a smartdecision or am I doingsomething foolish andstupid here?”David Rowan:“I think they havesome evidencethat the trouble hasalralreadyeady ststartarted.ed.”

WIRED HEALTH

PRINT

Brilliant [plural]It is important to point out thatepidemiology and public health are farfrom the one-man enterprises paintedthrough most of this article (LarryBrilliant: pandemic hunter, 05.14).While it is clear in some passages thatgreat health programmes are often aresult of international collaboration,the article mostly gives too muchcredit to individuals. Also importantto highlight that while Google FluTrends may be a useful search-datasignal, it is short of a breakthrough.An important tool, but not a solution.”Caetano Souto Maior, via wired.co.uk

MAKING WIRED

MAKING WIREDMAKING WIRED

PHOTOGRAPHY:JASONMADARA;CHARLIESURBEY;MATTHEWSTYLIANOU

CONTR I BU TOR S

PAULRIDERBringing Apple to Google,p88: “Shooting TonyFadell with Dan Winterswas great. The pairbonded over their love ofcars – so much so thatthey went for a joyridein Fadell’s Audi R8 V10.They did doughnutsin the car park thendisappeared. I thoughtthey’d never return.”

MATTHEWSTYLIANOUCatch a wave, not acold, Test, p140: “Wewanted Joe [Minihane,wild swimmer] to lookas if he’d emerged fromthe water in our photos– so we poured lots ofwater over his head. Theweather was a bit brisk,but he was a real trooper.I’m not sure I wouldhave been so brave.”

DEBORAHGORDONIn Ideas Bank, Gordonsuggests that we humanscould learn from the wayanimals are regulatedwithout central control.“Many birds, fish, beesand ants do it,” she says.“We can see how antsuse local interactionsto regulate groupbehaviour in response toconstraints. This couldinspire us to look forthe same interactionsin other systems.”

CHARLIEBURTONGQ’s commissioningeditor reports on RYOT,the website that twinsclickbait news storieswith links to worthycauses. “Initially Iwas sceptical,” saysBurton, “but the truthis, these are the mostpopular type of storyon the internet. And ifsomething positive cancome from our appetitefor these stories, it hasto be a good thing.”

ANDREWHANKINSONFinding a way to swiftlydispose of Syria’schemical weapons wasa challenge – but, asHankinson reports inhis feature, putting achemical plant on a boatwas a smart move. “It’sstaggering what theFDHS team achieved,” hesays. “When a bunch ofsmart people are givena task and a deadline,you see how mankindgets things done.”

STEPHENLENTHALLLenthall brought themain Fetish items to lifein this issue, includingthe Kolon Sport TechJacket – which featuresan in-built emergency kitand wind turbines. “I’dlike to keep that jacket;it just seems like thepinnacle of survival gear,”says the photographer.“Although I’d probablyend up looking foolishwearing it in the localpark with my kids.”

DANWINTERSWinters shot our coverstar Tony Fadell in LA,and found his subject“cool, confident andplayful – his curiositywas apparent from themoment he walked onset”. Ah – but doesWinters own a Nest,thus enabling Google totrack his every move?“Actually, I have two. IfGoogle is interested inthe temperature of myhouse, it can have it.”

JULEWAIBELUnfolding trends, p64:“Despite it being madefrom paper, shootingmy Enfaltung foldingdress was surprisinglyeasy – the material isreally stiff and as soon asyou pose it transforms.The trickiest part waslearning the correctposes and knowing whereto touch it – that’s me inthe picture making theadjustment. The mosttricky part is getting inand out of it. I loved theideas of Charlie [Surbey,the photographer]. Hemade the dress’s fairytalequalities even stronger.”

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C O N T R I B U T O R SW I R E D 2 O 2 4 S P E C I A L

R E N ÉR E DZ E P IRedzepi, co-owner of thetwo-Michelin-starredNoma restaurant inCopenhagen, has comeup with an innovativesolution to food waste:fermentation. “Wealready make a vinegarfrom asparagus ends,”reveals the chef. “As wellas having no waste onthe asparagus harvest,we also have a quiteamazing new ingredientthat is tart and fresh.”

T I MF E R R I S STim Ferriss, author ofThe 4-Hour Work Weekand an angel investor,made an extra prediction:that language-learningservice Duolingo (aninvestment of his) willbreak down the world’slanguage barriers.“They’re the future,” hesays. “They’re teachingmore students foreignlanguages – 12 million –than the entire USpublic school system.”

L AU R E NB EU K E SSouth African novelistBeukes explores thepossibility of a biovoyeur-related sporting fatalityin her vision of 2024.“We seem to wantto live other lives,particularly throughcelebrity and sports,because it’s easier thanconfronting our own,”she says. “Look at theLance Armstrong dopingscandal and the OscarPistorius murder case.”

M A R GA R E TAT WO O DAuthor Margaret Atwoodkicks off our 2024 special– or, to be precise, herDNA implanted into ajar-residing worm does.“The transfer of neuralnetworks goes backto Frankenstein,” sheexplains. Does her visionof life in a jar appeal?“I personally would notfancy it, but I’ve beentold I wouldn’t knowthe difference – untilsomeone pulls the plug.”

CO RYD O C TO R OWDoctorow explores anti-circumvention in 2024:the fictional PrincessSophia’s digital life ishacked, only for PrimeMinister Lane Fox tosay: “I told you so.” Heexplains: “The lesson ofSnowden and Heartbleedis that any computerwhose security you’reunsure of should bepresumed to be attackingyou,” says the author.Best get modding, fast.

BOMPAS& PARRCooking with Lightning,p115: “To shoot thesteak getting zappedby electricity, we setup a Faraday cage withlightning equipmentat the Tony DaviesHigh Voltage Labin the University ofSouthampton. Therewas a real risk that arogue bolt would destroy[photographer] CharlieSurbey’s kit. The super-high voltage actuallycooked the steak – agood-quality cut fromthe Ginger Pig restaurant– pretty evenly; it wastender and moist with anot unpleasant metallictang, slightly like lickinga battery whilst eating.”

MAKING WIRED 2024

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B U R R I L L“Keep calm and carry on”helped us get throughAusterity Britain. In2024, Burrill’s “The Sunis Shining” will be thepositivity mantra for themasses. “I’m naturallyoptimistic,” says theartist. “We’ll facehuge challenges in thefuture, but humanityhas always learnt andadapted. That’s whywe are so successful.”

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E A U T R È S F R A Î C H EE A U T R È S F R A Î C H E

F R O M T H E E A R T H S P R I N G S A N E W F R E S H N E S SF R O M T H E E A R T H S P R I N G S A N E W F R E S H N E S S

The WIRED team tends to live alittle in the future. Invariably in theoffice there are colleagues playingwith robot toys, testing brainwave-reading headsets, or wear ingsophisticated headphones so as toappear oblivious to their editor’sdemands. But thismonth, wewantedto look even further ahead – a decade,to be precise. What, we wondered,willWIREDbewriting about in 2024?We reached out to our favourite writers, illustrators

and creative friends, and despatched them to 2024.Here’s thefirst responsewereceived,byBruceSterling:February 14, 2024 marks the final end of security

scans within US airports. “Scanning the bags is justanother mid-wage job, disrupted by advances insensors,” explained federal spokesperson TabbieCoon. “Nowadays, it’s much easier to transform thewhole airport into one gigantic scanner.”“I’m just glad they got that fooforaw out of my

way and let me hop on jets again,” said 85-year-oldAlice Hedgeh. The former Pan Am stewardess recallshappier days, when the jet set was allowed to smokeinside aircraft, or even to have furtive sex inmile-highwashrooms. “So what if they scan everybody with azillion teensy spy gizmos,way too small to see? I don’tcare, let the sons of bitches have at it!”“The war on terror failed just like the war on

drugs did,” explains Dieter Bianchi, the billionaireowner of the lucrative ‘High Life’ duty-free airportmarijuana stores. “Nowadays, everybody is someoneelse’s surveillance. So, the best way to deal with thatparanoia vibe is to have another toke and party.”Fun!We then heard from Lauren Beukes at the fatal

InXtremis Games; Cory Doctorow celebrating PrimeMinisterMarthaLaneFox’shacker-friendlyregime;andBranFerrentweeting fromhisMoonHQwhileMargaretAtwood reconstituted herself as a worm-based neuralnetwork. I toldyouour friendswere creative.Just four weeks from now, on July 1, we’re bringing

together some other experts building the future atWIREDMoney (wiredmoney.co.uk), our second annualone-day London conference. From Bitcoin to mobilepayments,we’vegatheredmorethan40of thespeakersand startups youneed towatch. I hope to see you there.

F ROM THE ED I TOR

Above: it’s 2024, and Noma Bar presents the Elephant-Kangaroo. It can drinkthrough its tail whilst moving to increase speed and jump height. More on p105

ILLUSTRATION:NOMABAR

David Rowan, Editor

■ BSMEArtDirector of theYear, Consumer 2013■ PPAMedia Brand of the Year, Consumer 2013■ DMATechnologyMagazine of the Year 2012■ DMAEditor of the Year 2012■ BSMEEditor of the Year, Special Interest 2012■ D&ADAward: Covers 2012■ DMAEditor of the Year 2011■ DMAMagazine of the Year 2011■ DMATechnologyMagazine of the Year 2011■ BSMEArtDirector of theYear, Consumer 2011■ D&ADAward: EntireMagazine 2011■ D&ADAward: Covers 2010■Maggies Technology Cover 2010■ PPADesigner of theYear, Consumer 2010■ BSMELaunch of the Year 2009

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NEWS ANDOBSESSIONSTHIS MONTH: 07.14OPEN-SOURCE VEHICLE31 DAYS UNDERWATERCONCRETE ACOUSTICSBIOHACKING SCAVENGERS

EDITED BY MADHUMITAVENKATARAMANAN

SummerviewingadvisedFor three warm months eachyear, starting in July, it is safeto wander above Norway’sGeirangerfjord using the elevatedwalking routes and lookoutplatforms (far left) designedby Oslo-based Reiulf RamstadArchitects. “It is one of the lastplaces in the world where fjordsstill exist,” says head architectReiulf Ramstad. “We workedwith limnologists who specialisein the biology and chemistry ofinland waters to make sure weweren’t harming the environment.”The team used a Super Pumahelicopter to fly in 4,000kg ofsupplies and sourced extremelyweather-resistant buildingmaterials. “We used COR-TENsteel, which corrodes quickly andallows the rust to protect the steelunderneath,” he explains.The main challenge for thearchitects, however, was theclimate: “The roads are only openthree months a year because inwinter the snow can be sevenmetres high. We set out thefirst handrail prototypes inautumn 2005 – we couldn’t findthem the following spring, asan avalanche had wiped themout.” Step carefully, now.MVreiulframstadarkitekter.no

Tablet extra!Download the WIREDapp to see morephotos of the walkway

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Model Shown: Civic 1.6 i-DTEC SR Manual in Milano Red Non-Metallic at £24,360 On The Road. Terms and Conditions: New retail Civic 1.6 i-DTEC SR Manual registered from2 January 2014 to 31 May 2014. Subject to model and colour availability. Offers applicable at participating dealers and are at the promoter�s absolute discretion. The 5 Year CarePackage includes: Servicing: ��� �������� ������ �� �� �������� � ��� �������� ������ ����� ���� �� ������ �� � ���� � ������ ������ �������� ����� ���� Warranty: In������� �� ��� ��� ��� � ��� ��� �� ��� ������ ���� ������ � ��� ���� ��� � ��� �!�� ��� ��� ��� ���� � ��� ��� �� �� � ���� � "����� ������ �������� ����� ����Roadside Assist: In addition to the standard 3 years roadside assistance package the customer will receive complimentary Hondacare Assistance for a further 2 years, taking�� �� � ���� � "����� ������ �������� ����� ���� The 5 Year Care Package: The 5 Year Care Package is optional. It is being offered for £500 including VAT (usual value £1,845� ���� � #�$% � � �� ��������� �� � � �� � � &� � �� �������� '����� ���� ����� �� ���� ��� ������� �� � ��� ���� �� ����� ��� ������ ���� � ���� ��� ��������

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In 1963, oceanographer and film-makerJacques-Yves Cousteau and a team ofaquanautsspent30daysaboardConshelfII, an underwater research stationbeneath theRedSea.OnJune 1, his grandsonFabienCousteau, 46, plans togoonebetter: spendingarecord31daysonAquarius, theworld’s last remainingundersealaboratory, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. “As my grandfatherused to say, the best way to observe fish is to become a fish,” says Cousteau.

He should be used to life underwater: Cousteau learned how to scuba dive atfour and, like his grandfather, has spent years filming undersea documentaries.But Mission 31 will provide a unique opportunity: submerged 19 metres belowsea level, the reef base allowsaquanauts todive for six toninehours aday –manytimes the normal limit –without risk of decompression sickness or “the bends”.

Cousteau’s teamwill use submersible drones to document the impact of climatechangeon thesurroundingConchReef.Theywill alsobestudying themselves; par-ticularly the physiological effects of spending extended time under pressure. “Weknowthatwe loseoursenseof tasteunder theseconditions, andthat somewoundshealfaster,butwedon’tknowwhy,”Cousteauexplains.Theirequipmentwill includeaScanaduScoutmedical tricorder (WIRED02.13) to closelymonitor their health.

Another thing Cousteau has over his grandfather: Wi-Fi. Mission 31 will live-streamdiscoveries, andCousteauwill host Skype lessons for schools. Guests such

asRichardBransonandoceanographerSylviaEarlewillalso visit. “Wewant to connect people with the ocean,”says Cousteau. Oliver Franklin fabiencousteau.org

Fabien Cousteau is followingin his grandfather’s flipperswith a new aquatic adventure

Undersea missionary

TengamiA tranquil puzzle gamethemed after olden Japan,Tengami delightfully

recreates a moving pop-up book fortablets. It took three years for the UKdeveloper to build, and it was worthit. Highly recommended – even for“non-gamers”. iOS (OS X/Windowssoon), £2.99 nyamyam.com

Opera MaxCompress data, speed upbrowsing, save money. Thatwas Opera’s philosophy for

its mobile browser – now it applies toAndroid apps. Opera Max reduces yourapps’ data usage (such as watchingvideo), so they do less damage to yourdata plan. Android, free opera.com

Adobe RevelA photography app, yes.But hold your yawns: thisone is aimed at families

who want a private, cross-platformand always-backed-up-to-the-cloud way of sharing photos andmemories with each other. Premiumsubscriptions apply. Android, iOS,OS X, free (with IAP) adoberevel.com

ImpossibleAn experimental idea for asocial network – from thebrain of model, actress and

entrepreneur Lily Cole – Impossibleallows you to post “wishes” and havestrangers help you achieve them inexchange for a thank you. A moreutopian approach to classified ads andpersonals. iOS, free impossible.com

SCREENED:APPS FOR JULY

StellerIf Tumblr, a digitalphotobook, Vine and Flickrhad some sort of illicit

digital love affair, Steller might wellbe the resulting offspring. It’s anelegant app for telling stories in visualform; you can add photos, text, videoand a minimalist, arty aestheticto your creations. iOS, free steller.co

WIRED

RadioheadPolyFaunaIs it a game? Is it an album?WIRED has no idea, but

it’s very, very Radiohead – and very,very surreal. Move your device aroundyou to navigate a bizarre landscapeof animated creatures and strangesounds. Musicians are odd. Android,iOS, free radiohead.com Nate Lanxon

WEIRD

Tablet extra!Download the WIREDapp to watch aCousteau dive video

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Musique concrète It’s unusual for a performance hall to be made ofconcrete but 66-year-old Chiaki Arai, architect of theAkiha Ward Cultural Center in Niigata City, Japan,“thought itwouldbe fun”. Completed last year, the496-

seatmainhall isencasedbymultifacetedwallsthatcanpickuplow,heavytonesthatwouldotherwisebeabsorbed.Todirectanddiffusesoundevenly,Arai cutholes in thewallsandceilingandcoveredthemwith1.5mm-thick

sound-absorbingaluminiumfibrepanels.Tosoftenharshechoes, theconcrete surfacesweregivenaJapanesefinishing treatment called “kotataki” that gives a pebbled texture. “Because itwas such a complex structure,we knew that once we’d begun to build, it would be impossible to tweak the design,” says Arai. “So we used3D modelling and conducted acoustic simulation and structure analysis simultaneously. We were ableto react accurately to really nuanced feedback from the acoustic experts.” Mariko Kato chiaki-arai.com

S T A RS T A RS T A RS T A RS T A R TTS T A RS T A RS T A RS T A RS T A R TT

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Below: A walkway ramp coils round theexterior of the Akiha Ward Cultural Center

As president of GoogleEnterprise, Dave Girouardsaw a generation of would-beentrepreneurs and innovatorsbeing held back by studentdebt and limited credit.He left Google in 2012 to

tackle the problem by launching Upstart, an onlinemarketplace that connects graduates with investorswilling to give them cash in return for a percentageof their future earnings. Known as a “humancapital contract”, the arrangement provides moreflexibility than a traditional loan: how muchyou pay back depends on how much you earn. It’salso becoming a bit of a trend. Daniel Cossins

UpstartUpstart uses a model to predict the income of“upstarts” over ten years. That generates a fundingrate: the amount an upstart can raise for every oneper cent of income committed to be paid back overfive to ten years. Upstart aims to deliver an eightto ten per cent return for investors. upstart.com

SoFiSan Francisco-based SoFi lets alumni of more than100 US universities invest in a fund that helpsstudents and graduates of the same college torefinance existing student loans. Roughly 80per cent of the fund for each institution comesfrom banks and venture capital. sofi.com

PaveLike Upstart, New York-based Pave relies on amodel – based on education, test scores, credithistory and job offers – to estimate earning power.Each applicant (“prospect”) is allowed to share upto ten per cent of future income. Backers aretold to expect a seven per cent return. pave.com

LumniLumni was founded in 2001 to finance highereducation for low-income students in LatinAmerica. Now operating in the US as well, itruns investment funds that give students moneyupfront in exchange for a percentage of theirsalary after graduation. lumni.net lumniusa.net

Career ConceptSince 2002 Munich-based Career Concept has beenmanaging investment funds that put studentsthrough university in Germany. Candidates undergoan application process to qualify and setthe percentage of future income they pay back.career-concept.de/en/index?siteID=31

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Amy Mather’s first brush withcoding came at a Manchester GirlGeeks workshop when she was 12.Now 14, she has used several cod-ing languages including Pythonand PHP to design games andwrite software such as Conway’sGame of Life, in which “cells” in agrid live or die based on certainrules. She has also become aleading voice for the kids’ codingmovement in theUK– awhirlwindof enthusiasm encouraging peersto get into coding, making andhacking. “Young people are putoff by the stereotypes,” saysMather (pictured), who wasnamed European Digital Girl ofthe Year as part of the 2013 AdaAwards. “But if you come to theworkshopsyou’ll see that it’smoreabout actually making things,rather than being alone with acomputer in your bedroom.”

Mather, who spoke at WIRED2013NextGeneration lastOctober,is particularly passionate aboutRaspberry Pi, the credit-card-sized Linux computer designed tomake programming easy. She gotstartedathomebefore attendingaManchester Raspberry Jamwork-shop, where she worked on a ver-sion of Pac-Man, featuring a photo of her face on the sprite. Withcoding due to reach the primary school curriculum in September,she also offers some interesting advice on how schools shouldteach it: “Instead of step-by-step instructions, teach pupils thebasics and tell themtomakewhat theywant.Give themthechancetobe creative.”Oneday,Mather aims to studyatMIT. Before then,

Hard-wired as a coder girl

shewants tosetupaMakerFaire forunder-18s to show off their coding creations. “It’sgreat when other girls come up to meand say, ‘That looks awesome, how can Iget involved?’,” she says. “It feels good.”Daniel Cossins about.me/minigirlgeek

At 14, Amy Mather is a computing veteran. And now she wants to get her contemporaries involved

Mather insists thatworkshops andmeet-ups are the bestway to learn coding.“You get passionatevolunteers sharingknowledge,” she says

S T A R T

WIRED

Playing Threes

Valproate

Navy sea lions

3D-printed craniums

American Hippopotamus

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Modafinil

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You are looking at a sea of small-scale activity surrounding a reef-building coral.The intricate, swirling patterns in the water are made by cilia: hair-like appendageswhichmove inunisonas thecoralsbreathe, feedandclean themselves.Tounderstandhowcorals engineer their environment, researchers fromMIT’s Environmental MicrofluidicsGroup and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel examined the cilia-filledvalley between two 3mm-wide cauliflower coral polyps under a microscope; they thenadded powdered food to the water to see how the cilia affect its flow. “This projecthelps us understand how corals might respond to changes in their environment,” saysengineer Vicente Fernandez, a postdoctoral associate at the MIT lab. “It demonstratesthat thesevortices arenot ephemeral andcansubstantially affect the coral environment.”The researchers examined how flow patterns change at 90-minute intervals, then

condensed the data into a single time-lapse image. The original stills were shot ingreyscale, with artificial colour added for contrast. “Wewere hopingto give a perspective into the life of coral,” says Fernandez, “and toreward close scrutiny, so the scientific facet of the image remainedprominent.” Rachel Nuwer romanstocker.scripts.mit.edu/web

Particle paths areshown in gold andgreen; coral polypsare pink and purple

Marine sociology

EARLYADOPTERS

What’s exciting…MATT CLIFFORD

Cofounder,Entrepreneur First

“I’d make The HardThing About Hard

Things by Ben Horowitzcompulsory reading forEF participants. It points

out that existentialcrises are an inevitablepart of a startup’s

journey: the question ishow to make sure youcome through them.

There’s no substitute forgrim determination.”

“I read endless pieces onmarketing, startups andbehavioural engineering.Quibb is a members-only network where

industry colleagues postnewsworthy articles.The content is tailoredto your needs. Now it’smy only daily newsletter– the recommendedarticle list starts myday.” Harry Lambert

What’s exciting…SHIRA ABEL

CEO,Hunter & Bard

What’s exciting…SARAH WOOD

COO and cofounder,Unruly

“I’m excited by theCatAcademy app that’steaching me Spanish.Memrise, the companybehind it, found that

cuteness has a positiveeffect on cognition andpictures of cute catshave the best effect ofall. There’s one catch:the caterwauling audiois less than purrfect soyou might want to pressmute on the music.”

Nomore messy lube strips! IntroducingHyperglide, the new System Razorfrom King of Shaves. The unique self-lubricating cartridge creates its ownslippery HydroGel over the entire frontshaving surface when it comes intocontact with water, delivering amazingshave glide, comfort and closeness.

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For a limited time only you can purchaseHyperglide System Razor and Cartridgesat shave.com/shop and save 50%* (andget free UK delivery)! Enter the discountcode wired50 at the checkout. This trialoffer must end on 31 July 2014.

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You’ve readthe news.

Now change it

ne day last February, the head-lines on the news site RYOT.org’s front page included thefollowing: “Doctors say beardtransplants are on the rise becauseof hipsters”; and “VIDEO: Girl getsslapped in the face by a whaleand it’s kinda hard not to laugh at

her”. There were 27 other stories, too, all ofthem equally click-baiting. But the site is noBuzzFeed clone; actually, it’s about transform-ing the way we donate to good causes.

David Darg (pictured, right) cofoundedRYOT in October 2012, having worked in thecharitable sector for more than a decade(alongside operating as a journalist). He hadbecome frustrated that charities benefitedmostlywhentheircausewas inthenews.“Oncethenewscycledivertsback to regularbusinessthere’s a major drop in funding,” says Darg,a 35-year-old Brit now based in Los Angeles.

So he teamed up with social entrepre-neur Bryn Mooser (pictured, left) to finance aplatform where stories (generated byin-housecontributorsandsyndicatedsources)are published alongside a call to action – todonate money, say, or sign a petition. RYOTwas born. That whale story? There’s a link ask-ing you to support the marine charity Oceana.

“The moment we realised RYOT workedwas soon after Sandy [Hook], the Newtownschool massacre. Our team was quick offthe mark with the story and our headlinewas top of Google Search for a while.By the end of the day we had 250,000 uniques.Our action for that story was a petitioncalling for better regulations on gun control

in America and our conversion rate was 24 per cent.”Sofar, they’veraised£1million.Butaretheyconcernedthatmore

light-hearted stories could trivialise a cause? “No,” says Darg. “Forthe first time ever, we can use trivial newsto mean something more.” And what aboutjournalistic integrity – does a call to actionviolate objectivity? “The mere fact that welink to action doesn’t interfere with thefacts of the story,” he says. “[Conventional]journalism argues that you can documentatrocities but to link to an action wouldbe an interference. At RYOT we’re takinga stance and saying, ‘Screw your rules.’ Ifyou are going to report on children dyingin Syria then you’d better report on how tohelp. We’re pioneering the future of whatnews should be.”Charlie Burton ryot.org

RYOT.org’s irreverent approachto reporting has a serious

purpose: to prompt social action andhelp support worthy causes

RYOT’S BIGGESTNEWS STORIES

Typhoon Haiyan312,000 related pageviews helped raise£59,000 in one week.

#STARTARYOTA fundraising challengefor non-profits raised£600,000 in one month.

Zoo giraffe cull20 per cent of readerspetitioned a Danishzoo – alas, to no avail.

THE WIREDWORLD IN 2014WIRED’S ANNUAL REPORT IS YOUR GUIDE TOTHE MUST-KNOW TRENDS OF THE YEARAHEAD, AVAILABLE IN PRINT AND DIGITAL

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efore you dig 230 kilometres worth of tunnel, it’s a good idea to dodo somerecon. Shown above is the six-metre-wide exploratory tunnel of the BrBrennerBase Tunnel, an €8.6 billion (£7bn) railway project that will link Austria andItaly, and eventually Helsinki and Malta. “This exploratory tunnel isis exca-vated to obtain detailed geological and hydrogeologicalinformation,” says Konrad Bergmeister, CEO of the EU-funded project. The data obtained from the initial exca-vation is being used to modify construction approaches

and understand the risks. Work on the two main tunnels, each eightmetres wide, 55km long and up to 1.6km underground, will startin 2016. When they’re finished, it will be the second longesttunnel in the world, spanning two tectonic plates. TC bbt-se.com

Once complete, theexploratory tunnel willbe used to transportaround 17 million m3

of rubble from diggingthe main tunnels

S T A R T

From his “StrategicPoop Reserve” inMassachusetts,bioengineer DavidBerry is developing“ecobiotics” – drugsthat treat disease bytransforming your gut.

In January 2014,after nearly threeyears of development,his company, SeresHealth, announced

CURE DISEASES USINGINTESTINAL ECOLOGY

interim results froman ongoing clinicaltrial with SER-109,the first of thesedrugs with bugs.The capsules containbetween five andten strains of livemicro-organisms and,so far, they’ve provedeffective in treatingan intractable bowelinfection known as

Clostridium difficile.“When you go from

health to disease, theecologies of the gutshift,” he says. “Weare picking a groupof organisms withan ability to co-optnetworks of diseaseand change them intonetworks of health.”

Despite variationsin the trillions of

microbes inhabitingour bodies – knownas the microbiome –Berry believes thesebiopharmaceuticalsare the future fortreating infections,chronic inflammationand, he claims,metabolic diseasessuch as diabetes.Peter Andrey Smithsereshealth.com

Tunnelling trial run If you’re boring a giant holebelow chunks of Europe, you’dbetter start by practising

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Turn on, tunein, drop off

IS THERE AN ALGORITHMFOR A SENSE OF FAIR PLAY?

The NeuroOn measuresbrainwaves to ensure that

every nap is refreshing

Need more sleep, but don’t have the time to bag the requisite amount?TheNeuroOn sleepmaskwill help you achieve the ultimate power nap. “Themosteffectivewaytosleep is foreighthoursanight,but if you’reworkingnightsor longhours, polyphasic sleep can help,” says Polishmedical student and entrepreneurKamil Adamczyk, whose startup Intelclinic makes the NeuroOn. “This meansyou sleep for a fewhours at night and thendivide your day into a series of naps.”TheNeuroOncontains four sensors thatmeasurebrainwaves, eyemovements,

muscle tension and blood-oxygen levels; two blue LED lights; and a built-invibratemechanism that acts as a silent alarm.Your brainwave frequency revealsdepth of sleep, while eye movement indicates REMsleep, whichmeans the brain is resting. The NeuroOndetects these, andwill wake thewearer when an REMphase is complete. TheNeuroOn app can then sync thewearer’s calendar to the mask and plan a nappingschedule around it. The mask transmits data to theapp once themask has been taken off.The £120 device reached its £260,000 Kickstarter

target in January and has since shipped 2,000 units.“The mask doesn’t just document your data, it canalso give you feedback on how to improve your qual-ity of sleep,” says Adamczyk. At last – data that youactually want tomake you sleepy.MV intelclinic.com

Could computers have a senseof justice? “We are increasinglyseeing these automated systemswhich are making decisions forus that are far too vast, far toofrequent, far too complex for usto be involved, so we have to getour little computer programs todo it for us,” says Jeremy Pitt,part of the Intelligent Systemsand Network Research Group atImperial College London. “Theproblem is, how do you ensurethey distribute resources fairly?”Pitt didn’t realise this at

first: he just wanted to solvethe problem of resourceallocation, and began by lookingat how humans manage it. Hestarted with the Nobel Prize-winning work of Elinor Ostrom,who described eight “designprinciples” for managing acommon pool of resources.“We set up a testbed, and foundthat the more principles youhad, the better it worked,” saysPitt, whose electronic systemsworked in a way similar tohuman ones. To further refinethe model, Pitt turned to thework of the philosopher NicholasRescher, which allocatesresources by ranking people’sclaims on them, and early in2014, he published a paperproposing a research programmein computational justice.This isn’t arcane; it could have

applications in cloud computing,grid computing and sensornetworks. “We’re saturating ourinfrastructure with sensors –how do they negotiate with oneanother?” Pitt will find out thisyear, applying his research to asmart power grid in Strathclyde.According to Pitt, what

distinguishes human justice fromother rule-based systems, suchas those of ants or bees, is that“people make shit up”. Maybecomputers will start doing thesame. TC iis.ee.ic.ac.uk/~j.pitt

The wearer’s sleeppatterns are gatheredfrom the sensorslocated inside the mask

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No one wants to live near a runway, but you definitely don’twant to live by Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. It’s the fourth-busiest in Europe, and it’s in what might be the least soundproofplace on Earth: a cold, wide-open flatland where noise can travelunobstructed for kilometres. Which is why these mysterious-looking formations appeared in the area last year. After researchersdiscovered that things got quieter whenever nearby farmersploughed their fields, they hired landscape artist Paul de Kort todesign a peculiar kind of park. Its pattern of noise-deflecting ridges– built with GPS-guided robot excavators – intercepts the soundwaves generated by arriving and departing aircraft and bouncesthem skywards. The airport has agreed to reduce noise levelsby ten decibels; this park gets almost halfway there, and there’sa plan to nearly double the size of thegrooved landscape. Hear hear! JasonKehe S T A R T

A groovyway to

cut airportnoise

SOUNDDEFLECTIONOn average, one planeper minute passesthrough Schiphol. Thenoise can ripple outto communities asfar as 32 kilometresaway, but thesegrooves redirect someof it up into the air.

ARRANGINGTHE RIDGESThe 150 formationsare about 11 metresapart – roughly thelength of long-range,low-frequency, large-wavelength rumbles.De Kort calls thefurrows “materialisedground sound”.

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78Missile

127Beating &stabbing

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118Chemical

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ere’s Syria’s three-year-old civil war –mapped in all itsmorbid chaos. “It’s now more of a dirty war, with weaponskilling people indiscriminately, rather than a conflictbetween armed combatants,” says Stefan Heeke, executivedirector of SumAll.org, the non-profit, social-issues-focused wing of US data-analytics startup SumAll.com.His team collaborated with Humanitarian Tracker,a non-profit that provides crowdsourced and verified

data for citizen journalists, and has documented more than 100,000killings in Syria. “We have first and last names, how and where they died,gender and age, often accompanied by photos and video,” Heeke says.

SumAll.org created a visual dashboard that lets anyone mine thedata, looking for patterns. There has been a spike in civilian deaths inrecent months, while overall deaths rates have remained stable. “Thepercentage of women being killed, which is used as a proxy for civiliandeaths, has gone from one per cent in April 2011 to over 13 per cent earlierthis year,” Heeke says. “In recent months there were six incidents wheremore than a dozen females were killed outside of a battle situation –possibly an indicator of massacres.” The types of death are also telling.“The majority of female casualties have been due to artillery, gunshotand air bombardment – consistent with indiscriminate killings,” hesays. And at least 528 women were killed by sniper fire, suggesting thatsnipers may be indiscriminately choosing their victims.MV sumall.org

War’s wheel of destructionDetailed crowdsourced data from Syria showshow civilians, increasingly women, are being killed

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A terror attack by pro-governmentshabiha militiamen

was responsible for 51 fatalities,including children

This attack, using thenerve agent sarin,occurred on August 21,2013, around Damascus

Total number of female deaths for eachmonth

Number of casualties

Types of casualties

2011 2012MAY JUL SEP NOV 2013MAY JUL SEP NOVMAR MAY JUL SEP NOVMAR 2014 MAR

6,027Artillery

1,11,,1 2236Air

bombardment

2,114Gunshot

128Wounds

109Resourceoutage

7Stress

37Torture

528Sniper

40551

233

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INFOPORN

Gunshot casualtiesin February 2012 accountedfor the deaths of 233women in a single month

Artillery took its highestcasualty toll in August2012, killing 405 womenduring that month

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THE BIG QUESTIONWhat is the future ofonline journalism?

“Thanks to a slew of new entrants, the future ofjournalism online looks competitive, high qualityandwell funded.Not longago,manypeoplethoughtof digital news as a race to the bottom: we’d endupwith nothing but SEO-driven gossip andmulti-page galleries. Now, as page views recede as a keymetric, quality isback. I thinkwe’reenteringanewgoldenage.Companies likeBuzzFeedandVicehavefiguredouthowtomakead-fundedjournalismworkfinancially, enablingus tohire reporters all aroundthe world. There’s also a newwave of publishers,suchasVox,whoplacetechnologyfrontandcentre,andthinkofcontentasnot justwordsonapagebuta product that can be fine-tuned and optimised.”

Luke LewisEditor, BuzzFeed UK

Jason SeikenEditor-in-chief,The Telegraph“Pessimists worry that weare descending into a worlddominated by emptiness,but the news business hasalways had its equivalentof the listicle. Tabloidjournalism historicallyoutsells quality journalism.Clickbait sells, and that’sfine. Serious journalistswill get better atharnessing new reportingtechnologies – from data-mining tools to dronesequipped with pollution-monitoring sensors –and coming up withexciting ways to presentnews and information.Whether your taste isserious or irreverent,we are entering a goldenage of journalism.”

George BrockAuthor,Out of Print“Journalism adaptsresiliently to disruption.Recent changes are stageone in the many that willbe wrought by digitalinvention. Business modelsand new ways of writingwill be found throughmany new experiments,but the key lies in pursuingold aims: making sense ofwhat we know; reportingon life as it happens;and holding power toaccount. Imagination willalways trump financialcalculations. In a worldof bullet points, podcastsand video round-ups, Ihope words – essential forexplaining complex ideas– remain a big part of thefuture.” Harry Lambert

Melissa BellCofounder,Vox“News is news, a goodstory is a good story.What will and hasshifted is how, when andwhere someone can getinformation, even if theydon’t realise they needit. This could be tellingbaseball fans a stormis rolling in, surfacingthe historical contextto a foreign conflict orfact-checking a politicalspeech in real time. Whatwe need to figure outis how to deliver usefulinformation in a world ofnoise, distractions andmisrepresentations. We’reall learning how to getbetter, from mobile alertsto infographics, but thereis much further to go.”

Micah CohenSenior editor,FiveThirtyEight“The news needs morenumbers. We defineourselves more by how wecover the news – throughdata – than by what wecover. The developmentof more niche, online-onlyoutlets should help removeone of the worst incentivesin journalism: the need tofill space. There are manyoutlets – The New YorkTimes, AP et al – who do agreat job covering breakingstories. We’ll cover thestories where we can addvalue. When we do it’llcome in all formats – fromtext, dataviz and podcaststo video – and either be acomprehensive, big-pictureexamination or homein on a sliver of a topic.”

Janine GibsonEditor-in-chief,theguardian.com“Will the future bebehind a paywall or inthe billionaire-fundedspecialities of extremelytalented individuals? Broadand narrow or deep andvertical? I think there’sprobably a two-prongeddirection. One is very fast,real-time and super-social;the second is measured,original, rich and exclusive.The trick is to do both.Trusted publishers whoinvest in authoritativejournalism will continueto thrive and those whogain momentary tractionwith VC-funded toolswill continue to get rich.In the end, the storywill win. It’s alwaysall about the story.”

S T A R T

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New heights inhybrid transport

Part airship, part helicopter, part hovercraft, theAirlander series aims to revolutionise cargo delivery

ENHANCE YOUR HANDSET:FIVE PROFESSIONAL-GRADESMARTPHONE ADD-ONS

Today’s smartphones are powerfulpocket computers packed with sensors.Yet they could be more useful still,which is why a number of companiesare developing add-ons to plug in,clip on or wirelessly connect tofurther augment your smartphone’scapabilities. Our favourites promiseto put professional tools in the handsof the smartphone-toting masses.Here are five of the best. Daniel Cossins

Check your heartAliveCor Heart MonitorWith AliveCor’s monitoryou can press the metal

plate to your chest or fingertips toget an instant ECG readout. Analysethe data with the accompanyingAliveECG app or upload it to yourdoctor to detect irregular heartrhythms. £169 alivecor.com

Seek heatFLIR ONEThe FLIR ONE transformsyour smartphone into a

thermal-imaging camera, providingPredator-style stealth vision. Thedevice could be a boon for contractorsand DIYers seeking heat-loss spotsor water damage. Not quite X-rayvision, but close. $350 flir.com/flirone

Survey your worldSpikeThis offers laser-accuratemeasurements and instant

3D models of structures from upto 180 metres away. ManufacturerikeGPS claims the device – whichcombines a rangefinder, GPS and 3Dcompass – is useful for surveyors ofall kinds. £370 ikegps.com/spike

Chase the windVaavud Wind MeterWindsurfers, sailors,storm chasers – they all

need precise wind-speed readings.The Vaavud delivers data on gustsup to 90kph. Designed by Danishstartup Vaavud, it works with asensor tracking the rotation of twotiny magnets. £30 vaavud.com

Shoot sharperSony QX100Smartphone cameras haveimproved, but they can’t

take DSLR-quality images. The QX100aims to bridge the gap by packing aCarl Zeiss lens into a small cylinderfitting on to the back of a smartphone,and takes pictures that get close toprofessional calibre. £399 sony.co.uk

PHOTO

GRAPHY:CHRISTO

FFERRUDQUIST.

ILLUSTRATION:N

ATEKITCH

1 The aft of the 26m-high Airlander10 dominates Hangar Oneat Cardington, Bedfordshire

2 Airlander 10’s flight deckwill be positioned directly belowits helium-filled envelope

3 One of four propulsors.Two will be fitted at the sides ofthe craft and two at the aft

1 2

3

In Britain’s largest aircraft hangar, near Cardington in Bedfordshire, a new type of hybrid is being designed – theAirlander50. “It’s likeanairship, in that itusesheliumtogeneratebuoyancy,but italsohasaspecificallyengineeredhulldesigntogenerateaerodynamic lift and thrust,” saysaeronautical engineerNickAllman,programmedirectoratHybridAirVehicles.The 119-metre longvehicle,whichwillmake itsmaidenvoyage in2018,hasahovercraftundercarriagesystemso it can takeoffvertically and land on any flat surface, including water, marsh or snow. It will also be able to hover like a helicopter whilecarrying about40per cent of its full cargo,making it ideal for transportinggoods to remote areas. “If youneed tobuild aminein Africa or northern Canada, at themoment you have to build a road first and then transportmaterials,” says Allman. Earlynextyear, a92-metre-longversionknownas theAirlander 10 (pictured),whichcanclimbto6,000metres forupto threeweeksat a time,will bedemonstratedas a stableplatform for communications, geological surveyorfilming. “Ourplan is to set upanaerial mobile-phonemast and fly out over areas with no coverage, and also use it during the Rio 2016Olympics as a satellite and telecommunications platform,” saysAllman.MV hybridairvehicles.com

In support of

Time for life—with two limited edition timepieces in support of Doctors Without Borders/MédecinsSans Frontières. Each watch raises £100 for the Nobel Peace Prize winning humanitarian organization.And still these handcrafted mechanical watches with the red 12 cost the same as the classic Tangentemodels from NOMOS Glashütte. Help now, wear forever.

£100 from every product sold is paid to Médecins Sans Frontières UK, a UK registered charity no. 1026588. NOMOS retailers helping to help include C S Bedford,C W Sellors, Catherine Jones, Fraser Hart, Hamilton & Inches, Mappin & Webb, Orro, Perfect Timing, Russell & Case, Stewart's Watches, Stuart Thexton,Watches of Switzerland, Wempe. Find these and other authorised NOMOS retailers at www.nomos-watches.com, or order online at www.nomos-store.com.

PHOTO

GRAPHY:L

EON

CSERNOHLA

VEK;J

USTIN

FANTL

0 3 9

Thewell-to-do residents of Paris’s deuxièmearrondissement have a new hobby: “It’s called‘biochiner’ – chiner in French means antiqu-ing,” says Thomas Landrain. “It’s going into thestreet and finding old biology lab equipment.”Landrain has spent the last two years flea-shopping for centrifuges and PCR cyclers toassemble a new “zero-euro laboratory” – LaPaillasse (“the bench”), which opens thismonth. Open to all, the DIYbio lab will also behome to more traditional makers. “So peoplecan prototype objects from classic materialssuch as wood, plastics and material, and newerkinds of materials that we can produce locally.”

Landrain, 29, started a weekly syntheticbiology club in 2009. “There was such free-dom. There were engineers, mathematiciansand biologists and we were all working onbacteria.” He decided to join the then nascentbiohacking movement, so he went to a hacker-space called /tmp/lab to learn. “I arrived at this very strange placein a Paris banlieue, which is in a squat. It’s everything you think ofwhen you don’t know anything about cyberspace – you arrive in acave with computers everywhere.” Landrain built the first iterationof La Paillasse there, sourcing used equipment from university labs.

It opened in March 2012, hosting projects including algae bio-reactors and Landrain’s own initiative, a pen loaded with bacteriathat produces its own ink. To build the next iteration in the heart of

Paris, Landrain created a wiki for geneticequipment, which works as a toolkit foranyone trying to set up a lab. “At the endyou have a decentralised inventory formaterial.” Enthusiasts around France havealready used the database to set up fiveother DIYbio labs. Allez les biochineurs!TomCheshire lapaillasse.org

La Paillasse foundermembers (left-right)Adrien Clavairoly,Thomas Landrain,Marie-Sarah Adenissand Marc Fournierin their laboratory

S T A R T

Backstreetbiohackers

FOR GASTRONOMES ON THE GO

A Parisian DIYbio space isupcycling old lab equipmentto make brand new products

CaviarThe dispenser infront of BeverlyHills Caviar can hold$50,000 (£30,000)worth of fisheggs, all controlledfor temperature,moisture, lightingand oxygen level.

CupcakesThe Sprinkles bakerychain has created acupcake ATM witha robotic arm todeliver its delicatetreats upright. Thetouchscreen displaysphotos of the options(red velvet, anyone?).

SaladsThe Farmer’s Fridgeoffers choices likeantioxidant salad andcauliflower fried ricein jars. Ingredientsare stacked, keepingthem fresh andundamaged. Saladsare restocked daily.

BurritosHeating up a frozenburrito is a losingproposition. Plus, ittakes five minutes.So The Box Brandsbuilt a machinethat can steam arefrigerated burritoin 60 seconds flat.

Japan is not the only country that buildsvending machines for that which should notbe vended. Surprisingly, fancy food dispensersare cropping up across the US, selling gourmetedibles free of human interaction. Elise Craig

0 4 0

Build your owncar in an hour

eed a new runaround? Meet Tabby,a skeleton on which you can build acustomised vehicle. “It’s based on auniversal platform and road-legalchassis that anyone can modify, aswell as an ad hoc hybrid engine,”says Carlo de Micheli, cofounder ofOSVehicle. He launched the HongKo n g - b a s e d c o m p a n y i n 2 0 0 6with Macau-born businessmanFrancisco Liu, 64, and AmpelioMacchi, 58, an Italian engineer.Having worked in the car industryfor 30 years, Liu and Macchi wantedto mass-produce an affordable,easy-to-assemble template on whichowners could design and buildsomething for their specific needs.

After seven years’ R&D near Milan,they launched Tabby in October 2013.Here’s what you get: a two- or four-seat chassis for £412; an electricpowertrain system (£1,250); a batterypack (£574); a set of wheels (£278);and two seats (£65). The companyclaims that the parts, which comeflat-packed in four crates, can beassembled in just 60 minutes withoutspecialist tools, via instructionsdownloaded from its website, whichin future will offer plans for additionaldesigns contributed by a globalcommunity of car hackers.

Last December, OSVehicle alsolaunched the £5,000 Urban Tabby,a two-seater version. For now, thecompany offers only the electricpowertrain, which de Micheli, 24,says can reach 75kph. It starts ship-ping this month and plans to launchits hybrid engine by the end of theyear. “Anyone will be able to create hisor her own personalised vehicle,” saysde Micheli. “We will be successfulwhen there is a worldwide communitycreating electric and hybrid vehiclessatisfying their own country’s needs.”Daniel Cossins osvehicle.com

In Johannesburg,South Africa’s densemetropolis, there’sno room for cheap,central studenthousing. But localbuilder Arthur Blake,who runs property

developer Citiq,has hit upon a wayto stretch out theavailable space:extending existingbuildings withshipping containers.Blake comparesthe use of theseold metal crates tobuilding with LEGO:“The possibilitiesare endless. Youcan affix a blockin any direction.”

Applying this logic,he stacked shippingcontainers on thetop and sides of acluster of abandonedgrain silos in the citycentre, transformingthem into MillJunction, which willaccommodate almost400 students fromnext year. Windowsfrom the sides ofthese corrugatediron boxes peer out

over the city, addingtheir own twist tothe skyline. “A steelbox doesn’t havea good associationhere,” says Blake,referring to the manyshanty town shelterscrafted from similarmaterials, “butthat was somethingthat I reallywanted to change.”Emma Brycecitiqproperty.co.za

OSVehicle is taking the open-sourcemodel to motoring – starting

with this £5,000 customisable buggy

Two seats: £65

Wheels: £278

y

S T A R TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTS T A R TTTTTTTTTTTTTFROM VESSELSFOR SHIPPINGTO MACHINESFOR LIVING

Engine: £1,250

Battery: £574

Body: £412

1

2

3

For further information please go to www.witt-ltd.co.uk

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The fridge needs help. Because much of the energy we need to power it produceswaste, pollutes the atmosphere and changes the climate. We can transition the waywe produce and use energy in a way that will contribute to a sustainable future.We�re campaigning in countries all around the world to provide the solutions forgovernments, for companies and for all members of society tomake the right choicesabout energy conservation and use. And you, as an individual, can help just by thechoices you make. Help us look after the world where you live at panda.org/50

PHOTO

GRAPHY:S

TEPHEN

LENTHALL

.WORDS:E

MILYPECK;J

EREMYW

HITE

OBJECTS OF DESIRETHIS MONTH: 07.14

SUPERCOOL COMPUTERLIFE-SAVING JACKETTOYS FOR CAN-DO KIDSGREEN-FINGERED TECH

EDITED BY JEREMY WHITE

••••

0 4 5

RETINA DISPLAYAV E G A N T G LY P HThis Kickstarter-

funded audiovisual

unit uses a virtual

retinal display from

a single LED light

source and millions

of micro-mirrors. By

beaming an image

directly on to your

retina, it creates a

1,280 x 720 display

(per eye) without the

need for a physical

screen. The Glyph can

also beam images in

3D. The headphones

provide stereo audio

with impressive bass

and clear high end to

complete the setup.

$499 avegant.com

OBJECTS OF DESIRETHIS MONTH: 07.14

SUPERCOOL COMPUTERLIFE-SAVING JACKETTOYS FOR CAN-DO KIDSGREEN-FINGERED TECH

EDITED BY JEREMY WHITE

••••

RETINA DISPLAYAV E G A N T G LY P HThis Kickstarter-

funded audiovisual

unit uses a virtual

retinal display from

a single LED light

source and millions

of micro-mirrors. By

beaming an image

directly on to your

retina, it creates a

1,280 x 720 display

(per eye) without the

need for a physical

screen. The Glyph can

also beam images in

3D. The headphones

provide stereo audio

with impressive bass

and clear high end to

complete the setup.

$499 avegant.com

The headband pivotsto become a visor;you can view contentusing an HDMI input

BIT-BY-BIT PLAYERRAZER PROJECTCHRISTINE

The PC-gaming

brand known for its

striking aesthetics

has launched its first

desktop, a modular

computer called

Christine. Razer

follows through on its

concept promises: in

2012, Project Fiona

became the Edge

tablet. The modules

house RAM, graphics,

speakers, processors,

Blu-ray drives and

a visual LED control

and maintenance

section, each of which

can be upgraded.

£tbc razerzone.com

ChrChrististineine isis cocooleoled bd byyminmineraeral ol oilil helheld id in an amodmoduleule atat ththe be bottottomomofof thethe ststrucructurturee

0 4 7

POWER DRESSINGKO LO N S P O RTL I F E T E C H JAC K E T

Designed in the UK by

Seymourpowell – with

a polar explorer, an

ex-UK Special Forces

operative and a

professor of human

thermodynamics –

the Life Tech jacket’s

tri-layered water- and

windproof system,

and on-board first-

aid and survival kit,

should keep you safe

in most situations.

WIRED especially likes

the sleeve-mounted

wind-electricity

turbine. 2,000,000

Korean won (£1,100)

kolonsport.com

PHOTO

GRAPHY:S

TEPHEN

LENTHALL

.WORDS:E

MILYPECK;J

EREMYW

HITE

WIRED’s model isexplorer and therigout.com editor-at-largeJames Bowthorpe

The removable turbinecan generate enoughelectricity to powera smartphone or GPS

The jacket’s heatersystem gives sevenhours of 40-50°C heataround vital organs

F E T I S HWIRED

07.14

F E T I S HWIRED

07.14

TheTheTheTheTheTh fifififififinisnisnisnnisnishedhedhedhedheded momomomomodeldeldelddelisisisisisisisii 2222222222222 x 6x 6x 6x 6x 6x 6x 4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 x4 6161611616161cm,cm,cm,cm,cm,cmcm,andandandandandandan isisisisisss ththththhththe be be be be be biggiggiggiggiggggestestestestestst LELELELELELLLEGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOTecTecTecTecTecTeccT hnihnihnihnihnihninic pc pc pc pc pc planlanlanlanlanlanlane te te te te te tee to do do do do do doo ddateateateateateatatett

BRICKISH AIRWAYS

LEGO TECHNIC 42025 CARGO PLANE

This 1,297-piece

LEGO mega-set has

motorised features

and functions

inspired by real

planes. Move the

joystick and control

the flaps, elevators

and ailerons, retract

the landing gear and

activate the front and

rear cargo bays. And

once you grow weary

of being a cargo-

plane pilot, you can

rebuild the set into a

transport hovercraft.

£109.99 argos.co.uk

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MAKEMAKE YYOUROUR OOWNWN FUNFUN WITHWITH MODULARMODULAR TTOOYYSS 0 4 9

oured blocksThe colpipes that boostcontained of marblesthe spey pass throughas they

MARBLEMARBLE MADNESS

QUADRILLAADRILLA

CYCLONEONE

MARBLEMARBLE RUN

The Cycloneclone is a

98-piecee marble run

featuringeaturing straight

and curvved rails,

spirallingalling funnels,

high-velocityelocity

seesawsws and ten

power-boostinger-boosting

acceleratators. All

of Quadrilla’uadrilla’s sets

can be mixmixed and

matchedched to create

supersizeded structures,

and traditional-aditional-

toy enthusiastsenthusiasts will

appreciateciate the set’s

finely craftafted

birch construction.onstruction.

£95 amazamazon.co.uk

AERIAL ACROBAT

MICRO DRDRONE 2.0

This 15 x 44 x 15cm, 34g,

palm-sizeded drone

can performorm stunning

aerobaticobatics, such as

360° flips,flips, barrel rolls

and somersaults.somersaults. Its

self-stabilisingabilising CPU

and six-axis-axis gyro help

keep it balancbalanced as it

flies, and should you

crash, its modular

design meansmeans you can

easily swapap in new

components.omponents. On full

charge, youou get eight

minutes ofof flight, and

it can carrarry its own

tiny HD cameramera or

even a bubblebubble gun.

££4747 micrmicro-dro-drone.co.uk

BUILD-A-BOT

REVOLUTION SIX

This modular system

allows you to build

your own robots

using clip-and-

connect “EZ-Bits”.

The Six is a hexapod

with 12 degrees of

freedom using heavy-

duty 15kg/cm servo-

powered joints. A

camera connects to

the top of the dome,

giving the robot

the ability to track

objects, faces, colours

and motion, and a

dedicated software-

and app store lets

you customise your

creation’s functions.

$449 ez-robot.com

PORTABLE PLAYER

DIY GAMER KIT

This 40-part kit lets

you build your own

handheld games

console and learn

to program your

own games using

Technology Will Save

Us’ custom software

library. It features

an 8 x 8 LED matrix

screen, a buzzer

to add music and

effects, and an

infrared link so you

can connect with

other players. Feeling

lazy? It comes loaded

with two arcade

classics (Breakout

and Snake) and

can be bought pre-

assembled for just £5

extra. From £60 (with

Arduino) technology

willsaveus.org

Tablet extra!Download the WIREDapp to see the RevolutionSix robot in action

SEED INVESTMENT

SMARSMARTT HERBHERB GGARDENARDEN

A “nano-tech” growth

medium provides

the optimum amount

of water, nutrients

and oxygen for your

fledgling herbs. Each

garden comes with

cartridges for basil,

thyme and lemon

balm. It connects to

a power source, and

a light will remind

you when water

needs adding – the

system’s LED grow

lamp helps plants to

bloom quicker. $99

clickandgrow.com

DRIP FEEDER

I.V. PLANT POT

A medical-drip-style

feeder tends to

your plants when

required and adds

a Holby City vibe

to your home. The

drip works on a

Dosi-Flow to supply

water steadily, and

acts as a reminder

to the owner as to

when reserves need

replenishing. It

comes in high-gloss

black or white and

is made from

fibreglass. £159.50

vitaminliving.com

You can tailor the I.V.Plant Pot’s drip speedto suit the nutritionalneeds of your plant

Don’t like plants?You can also use theJosiah to store smallchange or sweets

EARTH SONGS

JOSIAH CERAMIC

BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

The Josiah is hand-

made in Stoke-on-

Trent, the UK’s

ceramics capital. It

runs on rechargeable

batteries and you

can stream music

from your mobile

device from up to 15

metres away. Hollow

sections in its top

allow for small plants,

and touch-sensor

controls mean over-

enthusiastic watering

won’t cause damage.

£320 anythingby.com

TOWER OF PLANTS

GREEN PANIER

OBJET M

This range of

modular Corian

planters was created

by Korean designer

Seung-Yong Song.

The acrylic polymer

and alumina

trihydrate pots

feature a natural

rock pattern and

can be positioned

alongside Song’s

furniture to produce

eye-catching and

streamlined displays.

£660 (five-piece set)

seungyongsong.com

BRING THE OUTDOORSOUTDOORS INSIDEINSIDE – WITH A TECH TWIST 0 5 0BRING THEHHHHHHHHH OUTDOORS

Choose from arange of Bocci 38Series configurations,from one sphere to28 – the latter willcost you £24,190

PLANT PLANET

BOCCI 38 SERIES

This hanging plant

and light source

features a multitude

of white blown-glass

spheres that house

decorative plants

alongside 10W Bocci

24.1.1 long-life xenon

bi-pin lamps. It also

features smaller

white planters

called “moons” with

stiff copper tubing

moulded around the

design. It’s all hand-

crafted, so shapes

and sizes vary. From£2,590 chaplins.co.ukPHOTO

GRAPHY:M

AXOPPENHEIM;JESSIESIMMONDS.W

ORDS:EMILYPECK

Choose from arange of Bocci 38Series configurations,from one sphere to28 – the latter willcost you £24,190

PLANT PLANET

BOCCI 38 SERIES

This hanging plant

and light source

features a multitude

of white blown-glass

spheres that house

decorative plants

alongside 10W Bocci

24.1.1 long-life xenon

bi-pin lamps. It also

features smaller

white planters

called “moons” with

stiff copper tubing

moulded around the

design. It’s all hand-

crafted, so shapes

and sizes vary. From£2,590 chaplins.co.ukPHOTO

GRAPHY:M

AXOPPENHEIM;JESSIESIMMONDS.W

ORDS:EMILYPECK

OCTOBER 18, 2014

BOOK YOUR TICKET NOW020 7152 3196WIRED.CO.UK/NEXTEVENT

“Anything’s possible.You’ll never hearsomeone in our lab say,‘no, that’s a bit difficult,I think that’s impossible.’We might not be thereyet, but in the futureanything is possible.”But thatwas 2013…

Claire CrowleyUniversity College LondonSpeaking at WIRED2013: NEXT GENERATION

MONEYHEALTH 2014 NEXT GENERATION

TICKETINGPARTNER

BRA IN FOOD AND PROVOCAT IONS TH I S MONTH : 0 7. 1 4PETER PLATZER_ MICAH SIFRY_ DEBORAH GORDON_ DAVID J HAND_ JOHN HEGARTY_

PETER PLATZER _

Who needs books when

you can launch satellites?

ILLU

STRATIO

N:S

AM

FALC

ONER

Two pupils, Margo andP im , re cen t l y s en tinstructions to theirschool’s satellite to col-lect data on greenhousegases across China, theUS and Europe. A weeklater, they received anemail confirming theirtime on the satelliteand a set of sample

data, including simulated results fromsevendays of observations. The spectro-meter and IR camera each collected10,000 observation points that werevisualised to compare with other envi-ronmental conditions. The data willform the backbone of the class pres-entation, comparing the results withhistorical information from Nasasatellites to show the impact of differentenvironmental policies in China,the US and Europe.

This is not science fiction: itis happening today. Margo andPim are part of a pioneeringgroup of students in the Nether-lands taking advantage of accessto miniaturised satellites calledCubeSats. This is what scienceeducation should be: hands-on,multidisciplinary and relatedto real-world problems. Thisis not a question of scores butof engagement. In the US, forinstance, only 12 per cent ofeighth-grade students are inter-ested in science, technology,engineering and maths (STEM)

and only two per cent will go on to grad-uate with a STEM degree. Here in theUK, the picture is just as bleak – between1984 and 2005, the number of studentstakingmaths classes fell 40 per cent, butdemand for STEMgraduates increased.

Despite the scary numbers, we doknow how to get students excited aboutscience and maths. The answer is pro-ject-based learning, and programmessuch as FIRST Robotics have shown usthat students will happily spend timesolving technical challenges when theproblem is hands-on and team based.From small beginnings in a school gym,the competition had more than 350,000participants last year. The teamsraise large sums of money and make acommitment over several months. Theresearch literature bears out the popu-larity of programmes such as FIRST, andthe effectiveness of engagement throughproject-based learning.

Elsewhere, online universities suchas Udacity and Coursera are the globalheavyweights leveraging online learn-

ing. In the UK, Open University ’sFutureLearn, although not as wellknown or comprehensive, is still clearlya step in the right direction.

However, this only solves the access-to-content problem, not necessarily theengagement and inspiration challengeswe face in how STEM fields are tradi-tionally taught. For example, ArduSat,an open-source programme, launchesnanosatellites and opens them up tosecondary-school students for a wholenew medium of learning. Projects canfocus on maths – say, calculating loca-tions through Sun-sensor readings –or involve the collaboration of studentteams across countries that combineobservations from their respectivegeographies to create a crowdsourcedportrait of Earth. Similar programmessuch as UrtheCast in Canada and Astro-factum in Germany are planning to usethe inspiration of space and the reducedcost of accessing it to create engagingSTEM education models focused onprojects and sharing of experiences,rather than rotememorisation.

There are now cheap and accessibleways for students of all ages tointeract with the world aroundthem, collect data and experi-ment for immediate feedback.Textbooks, lectures and black-boards, although still useful foreducating, are not sufficient forigniting wonder and curiosity.Affordable robotics and nanos-atellites, free online courses andthegrowingcapabilitiesof cheapsensors that drive the internetof things, however, are the toolsto do just that.Peter Platzer is CEO of Nano-

Satisfi, which aims to provideaffordable access to satellites.nanosatisfi.com

0 5 3

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here are many systemsin nature, from brainsto ant colonies, thatare regulated withoutcentral control. Largedata systems, such asthe internet, work in ananalogous way. Regu-lation without centralc on t ro l u s e s l o c a linteractions.Thepattern

of interactions in theaggregateproducesthe behaviour of thewhole system.

Justasaneuronusesrecentexperienceof electrical stimuli to decide whether tofire, an ant uses its recent experience ofinteractions to decide what to do. Antcolonies have one or more reproductivefemales, and although the ants that laythe eggs are called queens, they don’ttell anyone what to do. Ants smell withtheirantennae,andwhenoneant touchesanother with its antennae, it can tell bythe odour whether the other ant is anestmate, and sometimeswhat the otherant’s beendoing.The important informa-tion is the pattern of interaction itself.

In different systems that are regu-lated without central control, there is afit between anetwork’s environment andhow it uses interactions. Environmentalconstraints influence theevolutionof thewaythat interactionsregulatethesystem.

One important constraint is operatingcosts. Both desert ants and TCP-IP, thetransmission control protocol in theinternet, deal with high operating costs.Desert harvester ants have to spendwater, lost when foraging in the hot Sun,to get water, which they metabolise outof seeds they collect. In the early daysof the internet, operating costs were so

DEBDEBOORARAHH GORGORDDONON _

The anternet can teach us

about digital interaction

MICAH SIFRY _

Open government is vital,

but beware the deep state

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ack in January, LawrenceLessig, a leader of thef r e e - c u l t u r e m o v e -ment, spent two weeksmarching the length ofNew Hampshire – whicht r a d i t i o n a l l y h o l d sAmerica’s first presiden-tial primary – trying tospark a national move-ment. He was inspired by

his friend Aaron Swartz, the political activ-ist who committed suicide a year ago in theface of hounding by a state prosecutor whothought that using a computer to copyacademic articles from MIT’s opennetwork justified decades in jail.

Was Lessig trying to spark reform of theNational Security Agency? Was he after amovement for fixing the Computer Fraudand Abuse Act, under which Swartz wascharged? Was it a movement to defend netneutrality, which took a heavy blow in UScourts a few weeks ago? No. Lessig hopedto galvanise citizens to demand campaign-finance reform, to free our representativesfrom their dependence on private money torun their campaigns. He is trying to strikeat one of the evils that afflicts America.

To win this fight, he – or we, becauseI fully support this cause too – mustremind citizens that their governmenthas been corrupted by big money. But atthe same time, we have to maintain andexpand the belief that it can be fixed, thatwe can actually rule ourselves. I relatethis story because it illustrates the prob-lem facing the transparency movement,whereby western governments can simul-taneously brag about their embraceof open data while spending tens ofbillions on surveillance of their own citizens.

Given all that we have learned from theNSA leaks, it is impossible to takeseriously anything our leaders sayabout openness. But we can’t for-get that we still need governmentto ensure the common good. Some-how, we have to be for open govern-ment and against the deep stateat the same time. One might saythat this isn’t a contradiction, andindeed, I think we all seek to expandthe power of citizens to watchtheir government, and shrink thegovernment’s ability to watchus back. But these complemen-

tary goals produce contradictoryeffects. The currency of the open-government movement is trust: weare aiming for a government that isan institution we all make togetherand is worth trusting.

Thus, by posting data online anddemonstrating broad demand forits provision, a pioneer such asCarl Malamud can almost single-handedly force the US Securitiesand Exchange Commission to turnits database of public-companyfilings into a free informationservice. Or groups such as Codefor America, the Sunlight Foun-dation (which I helped set up andadvise) and Britain’s mysociety.orgcan work to make government datamore accessible by showing whatcan be done with it to make publicinstitutions do a better job.

On the other hand, the currencyof the anti-surveillance movementis distrust: it sees governments asadversaries, and thus it fights notjust for greater disclosure of whatthe surveillance state is doing,but rallies the public to fight backby hardening themselves againstspies. The problem is that weactually appear to have two gov-ernments under one roof. There isthe one we elect and the one thatdoes its best to ignore elections.

We can’t just tear down thegovernment. That approach helpsto make the public even more cyn-ical and less likely to believe thatgovernment can be a force forgood. Let’s not burn down thevillage in order to save it.

M i c a h S i f r y i s c o f o u n d e rof Personal Democracy Media andauthor of The Big Disconnect: Whythe Internet Hasn’t TransformedPolitics (Yet) (OR Books)

s

DAVID J HAND _

It’s no coincidence that

coincidences take placehen ten-year-old LauraBuxton released a balloonwith a message askingthe finder to write toher, the response camef r o m a n o t h e r L a u r aB u x to n 2 2 5 k m a w a y.John Ironmonger’s newnovel, The CoincidenceAu t h o r i ty , p u b l i s h e daround the same time as

my book describing a theoretical basis forcoincidences and other highly improbableevents, featured a London-based professorstudying coincidences. And his birthdaywas on June 30, the same as mine.

The family of my friend, catastrophistGordon Woo, had no connection with Sin-gapore. His parents had never visitedthe country and had no contact with any-one there. All the more extraordinarythen when, during a 2013 visit to the Chi-nese Heritage Centre at the NanyangTechnological University in Singapore,

Gordon spotted a 1944 photograph ofhis father on the wall.

I tI t woul dwoul d bebe aa brbraavvee pers onpers on whowhodismissed these as mere chance events,denying that there is some deeper impli-cation in them. It certainly looks as if theUniverse is trying to tell us something thatwe are just not quite getting. Or perhaps anexternal force is manipulating us to bringsuch strange events about.

The advance of human understand-ing is littered with similar situations:curious regularities in nature that wecouldn’t quite explain. Until some-one – perhaps a Newton, a Darwin or anEinstein – came along and described howthings worked, so that the previouslypuzzling regularities made perfect sense.Tying up mysterious phenomena with asingle explanatory idea: gravity unifyingthe orbits of the planets about the Sun;the fall of the apple and the formation ofstars; evolution creating the abundance ofspecies on the Earth; the existence of fos-sils; and peculiarities of human behaviour.

The same is true of coincidences – likethose mentioned earlier. Coincidences canbe described, explained and even be seento be expected, using the laws of chancecoupled with human motivations and

high that it was not worthwhileto send out data if bandwidthwas not available. In both sys-tems, interaction networks areset up to generate positive feed-back. The system stays inactiveunless something posit ivehappens, and positive eventsincrease the system’s activity.A forager does not go out unlessit experiences enough interac-tions with ants that have foundfood. A data packet does notgo out unless returning “acks”(acknowledgements) show thatprevious data packets had thebandwidth tomove on.

By contrast, in the tropicalforest, operating costs are lowfor ants. One species that livesin trees sets up circuits of antsflowing constantly from nest tofood-source in both directions.Because ants are so abundantand diverse, competition is high.Many species use resources thatare coveted by others. Interac-tions are used to generate nega-tive feedback. The system keepsgoing unless something negativehappens. A forager continuesalong the circuit unless it meetsan ant of another species, inwhich case it is more likely to goback to the nest. An analogywithan engineered system may be afibre-optics network that contin-ually transmits data unless thereis an interruption, or a secu-rity system that denies accessonly when a threshold level ofincursion is reached.

We have much to learn fromthe ways that ants use interac-tions to solve problems withoutanyone in charge. Theymay pro-vide innovative ideas for the sys-tems that we create. They haveevolved algorithms to use min-imal information to regulatethe behaviour of large sys-tems. Desert harvester ants usean algorithm similar to TCP –and some of the other 12,000species probably use algorithmswe haven’t thought of yet. Theremay even be interesting lessonsfor human interaction.

Deborah M Gordon is a pro-fessor of biology at StanfordUniversity. Her next book, on theecology of systems regulatedwithout central control, willbe published in 2015 byPalgrave

W

0 5 6

JOHN HEGARTY _

How to kill creativity: cash,

cynicism and headphones

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reativity is often therelentless pursuit ofdifference aligned torelevance. Of stayingahead while also culti-vatingdesire.These twinfactors are fundamentalto success, but as excit-ing as a creative careermightbe, it is stillprecar-ious. Burnout, rejection,

misfortune and failure are all waiting todisrupt that career in which somuch hadbeen invested – more commonly than inalmost anyother profession.

It is said that most creative careers,such as music, art or writing, have aroughly ten-year ascendancy, whenthe artist produces their great work. Ifyou’re lucky you cangoon repeating thatinitial, mould-breaking work, exploringthat theme for the rest of your career.Mick Jagger can travel theworld singing“Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and 30,000 peoplewill turn up and applaud. He and KeithRichards wrote it in 1968. Or if you’reLichtenstein youcanexplore your comic-book painting style until the day you die.

But what if you can’t go on reflectinga single theme? Jackson Pollock failedto move on from his drip painting andwas said to be bitter at other artists’success. His legendary drinking wasarguably a result of this frustration. Orwhat if youwork in amilieu that requiresyou to come in every day and have adifferent idea? How do you break outof the ten-year cycle and turn a ten-year career into a 30-year one? Wheredo these peoples’ ideas come from?How can they go on creat-ing, being at the cutting edgeof change? Of course, changegenerates problems as wellas opportunities. This is oneof the reasons why, despitebeing irreverent beings, wealso become quite conservativeas time goes by.

I believe there are three thingsevery creative person shouldremember when attempting tolengthen their career. The firstis never become a cynic. Cyni-cism is the death of creativity.The belief in your idea and thebelief that it can make the worlda better place is crucial to your

desires. This is not an originalobservation, but it bears repeat-ing, not least because of theresistance it encounters.

I f i n d i t c o n v e n i e n t t odescribe how chance explainsextraordinarily unlikely eventsthrough a set of laws, which,together, I call the improbabilityprinciple. These laws show howwe underestimate the chance ofcoincidences, fail to take accountof the fundamental asymmetryof chance events following fromthe fact that time moves forward,fail to allow for selection bias inour calculations and simply haveinadequate models of the world.

That’s the mathematics of theimprobability principle. But themaths is not the end of the story.In fact, to complete the theory,one might accurately describecoincidences as “part human”.Although coincidences appearto occur in the external world,in fact they ’re not so objec-tive: without you they wouldn’texist. The Universe is a booming,buzzing confusion of events.Uncountable things are happen-ing around us all the time. Andwe ignore almost all of them.We have to – or we’d be over-whelmed. So what is it that makesus pay attention to some events,but not to most? It’s simply thatsome of them have significance forus. So their relevance draws ourattention, and we notice them,not even being aware of all thetrillions of other things going on.

So, one might in fact say thatcoincidences do have deep mean-ing. But it isn’t the universe tryingto tell us something, or somethingmanipulating our lives. Rather,it is something we impose onthe Universe – just as we imposeinterpretations on the positions ofthe stars in the heavens, and facesand other shapes on clouds.

And that’s the improbabilityprinciple: highly improbableevents are commonplace. They’rejust a consequence of the mathe-matics of chance coupled with thepsychology of humans.

David J Hand is senior researchi n v e s t i g a t o r a n d e m e r i t u sprofessor of mathematics atImperial College, London. Hisbook, The Improbability Principle(Scientific American), is out now

inspiration. Doubt undermines belief,but cynicismkills it stone dead.

Remove theheadphones. Inspiration iseverywhere–you justhave tosee it. If youaccept that creative people are “trans-mitters”– theyabsorball kindsof stimuli,thoughts and ideas and they reinterpretthem and send them back to the worldas pieces of inspiration – then it’s obvi-ous that the more you see, connect andjuxtapose, the more interesting yourwork will be. The more you stay con-nected and stimulated, the greaterthe relevance of your work. By walk-ing around in a digital cocoon you pushthe world away; great creative peopleconstantly embrace it. You need tonourish your soul and your imagination.

Lastly, always mix with the best.Whether we like it or not, our ideas arein constant competition with others’.There’s a reason why creative peoplewant to congregate with others. It’s notjust about the coffee; it inspires, chal-lenges and supports. More than anyother profession, creativity feeds off thissense of community.

This is fundamentally important in theadvertising world, where creativity isessential but where it’s most challenged.Being in an agency that nurtures andpromotes its creativity, asopposed toonethat just sees it as a resource, is crucial.Yes, those companies pay their creativepeople large amounts of cash, but theseemployees have sold their souls to theirbank account. Remember, money hasa voice but it doesn’t have a soul.

It’s constantly said the future iscreative. Justmake sure you’re part of it.

John Hegarty is cofounder of adver-tising agency BBH. He is the author ofHegartyonCreativity:ThereareNoRules(Thames&Hudson)

PHOTO

GRAPHY:LEONCSERNOHLAVEK

Since launching in 2009,WIREDhas become

amagazine, awebsite, a podcast, tablet

and smartphone editions, an annual trends

report, six conferences anda consulting

business. Cause for a celebration, then.

So onApril 16 wewelcomedour network of

contributors and friends to celebrate our

fifth anniversary at theCondéNast College

of Fashion &Design in Soho.

WIREDpublisher Rupert Turnbull and

editor David Rowan raised aglass to all in

attendancebefore handing the evening over

toDJOwenGale. Andwith Bollinger at the

door, BelvedereVodka in theMoscowMules

andaHeinekenpop-upbar on site, the crowd

was lookedafter. Here’s to the next five years.

TheCondéNast College of Fashion

&Design is inGreek Street, London

FollowusonTwitter:@WIREDINSIDERUK

Innovate 7 CEO Justin Cookand David Rowan

Publisher Rupert Turnbull and editor David Rowanraise a glass to five years of WIRED in the UK

Victoria Reidy, Jaguar and Jess MacDermot, ENTER Guests were welcomed with a glass of Bollinger Special Cuvée Champagne on arrival

WIRED’s fifth birthday cake

Sky News correspondent TomCheshire and GQ’s Charlie Burton

Writer Charlie Porter with WIRED creative director AndrewDiprose and David Baker, editor of TheWIREDWorld in 2014

Guests were offered Heineken beer and Tastes Like Home canapésFormer hacker Jake Davis, aka Topiary (above right)

W I R E D ░ I N S I D E R S P E C I A L

Celebrating fiveyears of WIRED

No time fora shock tothe systemDESIGNING AN ACCURATE WATCH IS THE EASYPART. KEEPING IT PRECISE UNDER 15 G OFACCELERATION OR AT 60°C IS ANOTHER MATTER

ithout accuracy, there isthe risk of error, mistakesand miscommunication.G-Shock is awatch brandobsessively pursuing

precision, which is why its new GPW-1000 GPS watch (below, right) is soextraordinary. The synchronisedtimepiece couplesGPSwith radio signalreception, so it calibrateswith sixglobalradio transmission stations and GPSsatellites forprecise locationdetection.“This has been enabled by using the

world’s smallest solar-driven motor,”says designer Hayato Ikezu (oppositepage, right). Indeed, reducing themotor size has allowed G-Shock tocram more technology into the GPW-1000 GPS. Ikezu works at Casio’sR&D Centre in Hamura, near Tokyo.Here, more than 1,000engineers anddesigners develop future innovations.

The wristband of the GPW-1000GPS is one such innovation, combiningadvanced materials with everydayusefulness. “As a G-Shock, it must bepractical,” says Shinji Saito (oppositepage, left), a product planner atCasio, the brand’s parent company.“This watch’s band is called a carboninsert band – a durable plastic bandinfusedwith very strong carbon fibre.”Other tough technologies include a

stainless-steel bezel with a “diamond-like carbon” coating, nonreflective,scratch-proofsapphirecrystalglassanda moulded resin frame that holds thebodytogetherwithouttheuseofscrews.“The triple-G principle is something

we stick with for all our new G-Shockdesigns,” says Ikezu. “It comes fromtheenvironments experienced by pilots:extreme vibration, centrifugal forcesand – potentially – large shocks.”

Shinji SaitoProjectplanner,HamuraR&DCentre

Saito works atCasio’s Hamuracomplex in Japan,where his teamlooks ahead tothewatches ofthe future. “We’relooking at howbest smartphonesandwatches cancomplement eachother – usingBluetooth toconnect to iPhonesor Android devices,for example.”TheG’MIX BGA-400, launchinginOctober, allowsits user to controltheir smartphonemusic via thewatch. Otherssync the time tomobile phonesautomatically.

Hayato IkezuDesigner,TimepieceDesignCentre

Ikezu is just oneof around 500designers to craftCasio’s premiumwatches. “In ourtimepiece teamsinHamura, thesesmall groups ofmaybe ten peopleare dedicatedto creating newtechnologies,” hesays. “For example,resin forming, asopposed tometal.We use precisionnano-mouldingto produce sharpedges from resins,combinedwith avapour coating.It’s good formaking a preciseshapewithoutthewastage ofmachinedmetal.”

G-SHOCK

Making timeLaunchedat theBaselworldWatch Show, theGPW-1000GPSwasarguably oneofthemost tech-crammedtimepieces ondisplay. But itsinnovative hybrid locationsystem is only oneof hundredsof smart features squeezedinto thewatch. Built at thespecialist Yamagata factory inJapanalongsideCasio’s otherpremiumofferings, theGPW-1000GPS is as technologicallyadvancedas it is tough.Andthat’s saying something.

TripleGResist

SinceCasio firstbegan itsG-Shockmission in 1983,toughness has beenat its heart. Beforethe firstG-Shockwas sold,more than200prototypeswere tested todestruction.Continuing in thisspirit, today’sG-Shocks aredesigned towithstand impact,vibrationandcentrifugal gravity.

Tough solar-power system

TheGPW-1000

GPS’s ultra-thin solar

panel sits behind

thewatch faceand

is able to turn even

weak light sources,

such as fluorescent

lamps, into

electrical energy.

This powers its

motor – evenwhen

things get shaky.

GPShybridtechnology

The hybrid locationsystem includes aminiature internalradio antennathat receivessignals from sixtransmissionstations aroundtheworld. Thesestations arebased in the UK,Germany, the USandChina, andtwo in Japan.This is coupledwith GPS locationconnectivity.

Vibrationabsorbinggel

Building an

analoguewatch

that canwithstand

vibration is no easy

task. G-Shock uses

a softgelmaterial

to surround its

watchmodules. This

cushions the inner

mechanics fromany

external vibrations

affecting the case.

W I R E D ░ P R O M O T I O N

Achieving the triple-G principle wasdifficult when G-Shock only built digitalwatches, but themanufacturer has sincemoved into analogue designs, whichraises further challenges. How does onekeepananaloguewatchaccurateat 15 g,or experiencing supersonic turbulence orwithstanding heavy impacts?“In Japan we have a laboratory with

lots of testing machines. It’s like a torturechamber forwatches,” saysSaito. “There’sa simulated hammer impact test, weconduct very large drop tests, there’s acentrifuge for the acceleration tests. Weeven electrocute them, heat them to upto 60°C and freeze them to below -10°C.”So don’t worry, the Casio GPW-1000

GPS will never give up and will stayaccurate wherever you are – even in thetoughestconditions.Canyousay thesameabout the watch on your wrist? AvailablefromSeptember, £750g-shock.co.uk

Materialexcellence

Sapphire crystalis used for thewatch’s glass. Superstrongand scratchresistant, it offersexcellent clarity.The secondhand iscrafted fromcarbonfibre, so it’s large,yet lightweight.Thismakes it lessvulnerable tog-force.

ISOwaterresistance

The International

Organization for

Standardization

(ISO) is the global

body that develops

International

Standards. The

GPW-1000GPS

is built within

accordance of

ISO 200-metre

water resistance

measurements. Not

everymanufacturer

is willing to present

its watches for ISO

certification.

G-Shockwatchescontinue tobethe timepieceof choice forthousands ofservice personnelaround theworld,from theRoyalAir Force toUSNavy SEALs.

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OCTOBER 16-17, 2014

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WIRED2014 is back. Our two-day event packedwith disruptive thinking and radical ideas willgather over 40world-class speakers to bring theWIREDworld to life. Be there and discover thefuture as it happens. Confirmed speakers include:

Andrew HesselDistinguished research

scientist, Autodesk

AndrewHessel studies the

opportunities – and risks –

that are emerging as

DNA-writing opens up.

Charmian GoochCofounder & director,

Global Witness

Global Witness seeks to

expose the networks

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environmentaldestruction.

John Graham-CummingGeek-culture maven

Howwell doesHollywood

portray hackers? TheGeekAtlasauthormonitors everymovie’s computer code.

Ze FrankExecutive vice president

of video, BuzzFeed

Ze Frank built a huge cult

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memes. He’s now building

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John HegartyFounder, Bartle

Bogle Hegarty

John Hegarty, creator of

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Lee BofkinStreet-art curator

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Lee Bofkin is a maths PhD

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Saul SingerCo-author,

Start-UpNation

Saul Singer wrote the book

about Israel’s innovation

hub. But can its success be

replicated elsewhere?

TICKETINGPARTNER

HEADLINEPARTNER

A new book of maps visualises the globe based on the travels of creative individuals

Earth redrawnby committee

WIRED CULTURE THIS MONTH: 07.14AI WEIWEI’S ACTING DEBUT • TRANSLATINGSOUND TO SHEET MUSIC • ORIGAMI JUGGLINGEDITED BY OLIVER FRANKLIN

•

MONA HATOUM’SHOT SPOT IIIShows the globe as asteel and neon sculpture.Built to scale and tiltedon the Earth’s axis, itglows red to highlightconflict and global warming

0 6 1

P L A Y / B O O K S

aps are a bridge “between art, history and tech-nology,” claims Hans-Ulrich Obrist, codirector ofexhibitions and programmes at the SerpentineGallery in London. For his new book, Mapping it Out:

An Alternative Atlas of Contemporary Cartographies, Obristgathered a diverse group of artists, scientists, designers, archi-tects and novelists including Craig Venter, Tim Berners-Lee andDamien Hirst and asked them to draw a modern map reflectingtheir work. The 135 resulting visuals include social networks ofobese people, the world wide web and an artist’s route home.

“Most of them surprised me,” says Obrist. “There is a rangein scale, from microscopic particlesto planetary maps. There is also a

Mmix of very personal ones like Damien Hirst’s, and those that plotout an entire body of research, like Craig Venter’s.”

Obrist’s obsession with cartography began when he wasintroduced to Italian artist Alighiero Boetti, who made embroi-dered maps of the planet. Since then, he has run a series of“marathons” at the Serpentine Gallery with figures such asartist Ólafur Eliasson. Next, he plans to publish a book ofcrowdsourced handwriting based on his current project,for which he is posting a sentence handwritten by an artist,architect or scientist on Instagram every day. “So many teen-agers don’t handwrite at all,” he says. “Like maps, this too hasbeen part of human history, and has evolved with technology.”MVMapping it Out (Thames and Hudson) is published on June 16

P L A Y / F I L M

Flash floods and surveillance couldn’t stop Jason Wishnowfilming Ai Weiwei – but then the plot took a dramatic turn

ALL EYES ONTHE ACTOR

BENJAMIN D HENNIG’S A NEW WORLDPOPULATION CARTOGRAM WITH ELEVATION

This map redraws the planet based onpopulation concentration – hence the bloatedsize of India and eastern China. Coloursindicate elevation; most of the world’s populationis concentrated close to sea level

Jason Wishnow is no stranger todifficult shoots. As the formerdirector of film and video at TED,Wishnow, 40, has worked withCEOs and celebrities; he once helpedorganise a talk streamed live fromthe International Space Station:“The astronaut would phone mefor shooting advice from space,” herecalls. For his latest solo project,the New York-based film-makerfaced his greatest challenge yet:making a sci-fi short starring artistand dissident Ai Weiwei, in Beijing,under surveillance by the Chinesegovernment. But even he didn’tforesee how tricky it would become.

The project began in 2012, whenWishnow went to visit Weiwei’sstudio whilst on a sabbatical inBeijing. (The pair had previouslycorresponded for Weiwei’ssmuggled TED talk in 2011.)Wishnow arrived in the city justafter 79 people died in Beijing’sworst rainstorm for 60 years. “Westarted talking about this recentdisaster in the city, the internet,the flow of information,” saysWishnow. Struck by inspiration,

Wishnow pitched the idea for TheSand Storm. The ten-minute shortstars Weiwei – in his acting debut– as the Delivery Man, a watersmuggler in a future in which thegovernment stages systematicdroughts – a metaphor, among otherthings, for state censorship.

Shooting took place in secretover two days in January 2013. Aswell as the challenge of shootinga film with one of China’s mostfamous political activists, thecrew had to deal with Beijing’sthen record-breaking smog. “Theproduction was kept low-key andmost of the film was shot inside,”says Wishnow. “We worked fast.”

By April, the project had raisedmore than $95,000 (£56,000) onKickstarter to fund post-productionand marketing. The soundtrackwas recorded at Abbey Studios;Wishnow envisioned a full-lengthfeature. Then, as WIRED went topress, the film took on a drama ofits own. Weiwei – who is fightingto get his passport back from theChinese authorities – released astatement disassociating himselffrom the film and condemningWishnow for “misleading anddeceptive conduct”. The Kickstartercampaign was suspended pendingcopyright claims. (Wishnow,meanwhile, did not respond torequests for comment.) Thisdystopian tale could yet deliver afinal twist. OF wishnow.com

Left-right: Jason Wishnow,Ai Weiwei and cinematographerChristopher Doyle on set

Tablet extra!Download the WIREDapp to see moremaps from the book

0 6 3

TheThe popolyglygonon shashapesgivgive te thehe dred ssitst flowing shapep

P L A Y / F A S H I O N

UnfoldingtrendsTTThhheee EEnnffaallttuunnggg ddrreessss tuurns thhee aarrtt ooff oorriiggaammiiiinntttoo ccllootthhhiing. JJussst doonn’tt ttrryy ttoo ssiitt ddoowwnn

ule Waibel turnsspectacular geome-tries into wearable– even fashionable

– sculptures. The German-born, London-based designerstarted work on her Enfaltung(“unfold” or “expand”) dress aspart of her degree in productdesign at the Royal Collegeof Art. “Geometry and foldinghas always fascinated me,”says Waibel, 28. “Somethingwhich can go from a tiny spaceto [something] much bigger.”

Waibel makes her dressesw i t h T yv e k , a s y n t h e t i c ,

J

polyethylene-based fabric that’s similar to paper. “It’san amazing material, because you can print on it but youcan’t tear it and it’s waterproof,” she says. Each dressis designed in Adobe Illustrator before being printedon three-metre sheets. “It expands and contracts, likea lung,” she explains. “A centimetre of differencechanges the movement of the whole thing.” Eachdress then takes ten hours to construct by hand.

Waibel is planning to release a fabric-based versionand is hunting for materials. “Tyvek“Ty is so uncomfort-

able,” she laughs. “The fab-ric ones are amazing. You cansit down!” OF julewaibel.com

Tablet extra!Download theWIRED app to seeWaibel at work

PHOTO

GRAPHY:C

HARLIESURBEY

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9.3m

“Having your own eggs and knowing where thefood comes from is really important, especiallyin cities,” says Bob Segers, project designer at

Studio Segers in Belgium. So he has produced the Daily Needs farmbox,a modular kit that neatly incorporates a chicken coop and vegetableplanter into a linear design slim enough to fit the narrowest of plots.

The pine box is composed of interchangeable compartments, so a farmercan purchase three vegetable boxes to latch together, or a string ofcoops, for instance. Next year, Studio Segers will be selling flat-packversions across Europe. Future iterations will include a composting bin,a greenhouse, a rainwater collection point and a rabbit hutch.Hen-rearing instructions not included. Emma Bryce studiosegers.be/en

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Kazuto Tatsuta wanted to helpJapan recover in the wake of the2011 tsunami, so he got a jobin construction at the strickenFukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.And as an aspiring comic bookwriter and artist, he decided tocreate a Manga based on hisexperience there. “It’s completelydifferent to what people think,”says Tatsuta, 49. “It’s notterrifying or dangerous. It’s justa normal workplace with normalworkers – a lot of them aremiddle-aged men just like me.”

With 1F: The Labor Diary OfFukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear PowerPlant, Tatsuta (a pseudonym)says he can engage the sectionof the Japanese population whoread Mangas and not much else.It’s a realistic portrayal, withouta plot or political messages – hejust tells it like it is. “Yes, it wasa pain putting all the protectivegear on and a bit nerve-rackinggoing into areas with higher

MYTHBUSTINGWITH MANGAA Japanese artist wanted to reveal the truth about theFukushima clean-up – so he created a comic about it

radiation levels, but the job isbeing done. I wanted to showwhat the media doesn’t report,like the workers’ expressionsand how they lounge around inthe resting area.”

The only time the mild-mannered Tatsuta raises hisvoice is when he talks aboutthe scaremongering reportingof Fukushima in the Japanesepress. “There are so many liesout there it’s ridiculous. Peoplein Fukushima are just getting onwith their lives,” he says. “All Ican do is to write what I know,and I hope people outside Japancan rein in the Japanese mediaand help us convey the truth.”Mariko Kato 1F: The Labor DiaryOf Fukushima Dai-ichi NuclearPower Plant is on sale in Japannow, published by Kodansha

P L A Y / C O M I C S

Tablet extra!Download the WIREDapp to see more ofKazuto Tatsuta’s work

0 6 6

he curved exterior of Zaha HadidArchitects’ Dongdaemun DesignPlaza (pictured left) in Seoul boastsnot a single straight line nor a right

angle. The structure embodies the best in con-temporary design – and still incorporates 500years of Korean history. “During excavationwe discovered five layers of historical relicsdating back to the 16th century,” says EddieCan, lead designer on the project. “The projectwas delayed for a year as we attempted toincorporate these new findings into the design.Displaying these relics became a key element;we redesigned the architecture around them.”

History determined the public park andcultural mega-structure’s futuristic form. “Aspart of the brief we had to incorporate theoriginal city wall,” Can explains. “So we used itas the focal point of the park and played withtopography to imitate the wall.” To achieve itsamorphous feel, the structure was clad with45,133aluminiumpanelsofdifferingcurvatures,colours and textures. “Making a model for eachpanel would have been very costly and time-consuming, so we wrote a program to modelthe cladding. For its fabrication we used amulti-pin stretch forming system usually usedin the automobile industry and aerospace.”VanessaQuirk zaha-hadid.com

Shinyrelics

P L A Y / A R C H I T E C T U R E

Zaha Hadid’s new Seoul landmarkhas its foundations steeped incenturies-old South Korean history

Tablet extra!Download theWIRED app to seemore pictures

The 86,500m2 Plazaopened to thepublic on March 21

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WIRED.CO.UK/SUBS/CWR11169 OR CALL0844 848 5202 REF: CWR11 169*AFTER YOUR TRIAL PERIOD, UNLESS WE HEAR FROM YOU, YOUR SUBSCRIPTION WILL RENEW WITH 6 ISSUES FOR £12 ON DIRECT DEBIT PAYMENT. OUR DIRECTDEBIT GUARANTEE MEANS YOU CAN CANCEL AT ANY TIME AND GET A REFUND. OFFER CLOSES ON 04/07/2014. SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY AND LIMITED TO THE UK.

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E XC L U S I V E T R I A L O F F E R

eeForm is the LED screen as pin art; adisplay that changes shape and colourbased on the movement in front of it.Developed by London-based design firm

Seeper, it contains RGB pixels housed on the tip of amoving “straw” and powered by an electric motor.The result: images that emerge from the picturein a series of undulating peaks and troughs.

The display is connected to a depth-sensingcamera; each pixel extends or retreats in responseto its movement. “It came from this idea of aworld where everything is alive and respon-sive,” explains SeeForm’s creator Evan Grant,33. “If you make a punching motion towardsit, it’ll create a ripple across the wholewall,” says Grant. “If you move gently,you’ll get a wave-like motion.”

The screen itself works like any normalmonitor; Grant then adds depth anima-tions in C++ and OpenGL. Each ten pixelby ten pixel module has its own processorhoused at the rear of a 3D-printed frame.Although Grant currently plans to use it for

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commercial projects, including music gigs and advertising,SeeForm could have even greater potential. “My real passionis to use it architecturally,” says Grant. “Imagine if you couldwalk up to a wall and pull a staircase out.”

The 2.5 metre by 1.3 metre finished version will be exhibited atthe Barbican Centre in London from July 3 as part of its DigitalRevolution exhibition. The show will also include displays fromartists and developers across art, gaming and CGI.

“Our aim is to create a festival of digital culture,” says theexhibition’s curator, Conrad Bodman. “We want to celebrateartists, designers, film-makers and game developers who are usingdigital tools to explore new forms of practice.” OF seeper.comDigital Revolution is at the Barbican from July 3 to September 14

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PixelatedpinartEvan Grant’s reactive display at the Barbicanredefines the meaning of 3D screens

Karsten Schmidt’sCo(de)factory 3D-printsnew designs daily

Make music from 90laser-emitting treesin the interactive Forest

In Lumiere, RobertHenke uses lasers toturn shapes into soundP

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MORE DIGITAL REVOLUTIONS AT THE BARBICAN

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To join us, go to wired.co.uk and register for the reader panel. Every time you complete one ofour online surveys, you will be entered into a prize draw for high street or online gift vouchers.

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ritish artists James Bulley and DanielJones have turned the magic of the for-est into a musical symphony. “We built asound installation that creates a real-time

musical portrayal of forest ecosystems,” says Jones(above, left). The pair simulated the woodland’s floraand fauna as an ecological model, with data from theUK Forestry Commission; the behaviour of the virtualplants and animals in the model changes based on timeof day and weather conditions. The composers then

created and recorded musical motifs for 100 species in each forest, played by an orchestra. Each motifhas four variations, depicting waking up, eating, growing or dying. “We wanted the music to reflect theanimal itself, so a wren motif might use a piccolo; and deer, a French horn,” says Bulley (above, right).

As the simulation runs, the team’s custom software generates a mosaic of the musicalmotifs – when an animal or plant changes its behaviour, so does their corresponding music.As a visitor, you will walk into a forest glade and hear a symphony playing from 24 speakershidden throughout a 600m2 area. The installation will visit four British forests this summer,with Fineshade Woods in Northamptonshire playing host from June 20. “The animals andplants become the conductors of this living symphony,” says Jones.MV livingsymphonies.com

HOW THE PROCESS WORKS

Two artists have teamed up with theForestry Commission to make a living

symphony from Britain’s wildlife

FIELDMUSIC

SIMULATIONA survey of wildlifeis used to createa simulation of thelocal ecosystem,including animallocations andtheir behaviour.

ANIMAL MOTIFEach organism hasa motif – whena butterfly, say, isactive, its musicgrows stronger;when sleeping,it ebbs away.

SPEAKERSThe symphonyis played onweatherproofspeakers hiddenin the undergrowthand within theforest canopy.

LOCATIONSEach animal’smusic is playedfrom speakersin a suitableforest location,creating a 3Dsoundscape.

WEATHERReal-time weatherdata feeds into theecosystem model.“This affectsthe animals, andtherefore themusic,” says Jones.IL

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A BLAME-FREE BALLScoring a goal takesskill, luck – andaerodynamics. Atthe 2010 World Cup,player complaintsthat Adidas’sJabulani match ballwas too light andunpredicatable in theair were wide of themark. “The problemwasn’t that it was toolight, but that it wassmooth,” says SimonChoppin, a researchfellow at SheffieldHallam Universitywho has analysedthe aerodynamics ofWorld Cup balls.

Roughness ona ball, he explains,helps air “stick”to the surface andcreates lower dragand a more stableflight; excessivesmoothness canresult in shots that“knuckle”, or dip andswerve unpredictably.

To counteractthis, Adidas hasdesigned thissummer’s World Cupball to be rougher.The Brazuca’s sixstar-shaped panelsincrease seam lengthand depth, and theball is textured tohelp accuracy. Theball was tested forthousands of hours atAdidas’s research labin Germany. “We takecamera footage andtrack the flight to seehow the ball performsin the air,” saysMatthias Mecking,Adidas’s head of balldevelopment.

The result? “Itgoes where playerswant it to go.” Noexcuses, England… OF

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Bob Burnquist mastered skateboarding on land.His next step? Conquering the waters of Lake Tahoe

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kateboarders typically search out rampsthat can get them the most air, but 37-year-oldBob Burnquist wanted air and water. When theBrazilian X Games medallist was approached

by tourism company Visit California to dream up his idealramp as part of a promotional video for the SunshineState, he said he wanted to ride his board where nobodyhad before: on the waters of the state’s Lake Tahoe.

Jerry Blohm, a production designer with experience inbuilding on water for video shoots, was selected to lead theproject with Burnquist and Jeff King, a ramp builder. Con-structed from birch on dry land and then lifted on to thewater, the ramp – which contains 1,250 screws and weighs3,311 kg – took the team 300 man hours to build. To achievethe necessary buoyancy, Blohm, 50, and King strapped18 250-litre plastic barrels to the bottom of the ramp’swooden frame. But air-filled barrels alone wouldn’t beable to handle the resulting oscillation as Burnquist rollsacross the ramp. To fix this, the pair filled the barrels withspecific ratios of water and air. “If you put the ramp in thewater with none of the barrels flooded, you’ve got a bob-ber,” says Blohm. “The barrels became less about flotationand more about ballast, which gives it stability.”

Burnquist says the resulting ride is such a success thathe now wants to build a floating skate ramp of his ownat his waterfront home in Brazil – with a scuba diver

on hand to fish out hisboard from the depthswhenever it flies into thewater. Azeen Ghorayshibobburnquist.com

SAVANNAH SAVIOURSRobertobert Chew wants to save wildlife – withhishis army of robots. In 2012 the Los Angeles-basedbased illustrator happened to type “rhino”into Google, and the results left him shocked.“Ins“Instead of getting pleasant NationalGeogrGeographic-type documentaries, I foundhorriblehorrible images of rhinos with their hornschoppedchopped off,” he says. “It really hit me hard.”

CheChew came across the International Anti-Poachioaching Foundation (IAPF), an Australiannon-pnon-profit with outposts in South Africa, the

Cape buffalo: equippedwith UAV oxpeckers

African elephant: good forlifting and protection

White rhinoceros: armedwith a steel horn

P L A Y / A R T

US and Zimbabwe, that plans to use dronesto monitor the African savannah for illegalpoaching. He seized upon this idea for B5, aseries of artworks produced in Photoshop thatthatimagine a future in which robotic creaturesprotect their flesh-and-blood brethren.

Chew has published 30 illustrations so far; hedonates the proceeds from sales on deviantARTARTto the IAPF and plans to publish a book soon.BigDog, get ready for BigRhino. Rachel Nuwererrobertbchewportfolio.blogspot.com

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Please don�t go to Botswana until the Bushmen are allowed to live on their land in peace.Join the boycott at:www.survivalinternational.org/bushmenSurvival is the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights. We help themdefend their lives, protect their lands and determine their own futures.

The Botswana Tourism Boardwould love you to visit the country.The government use glossy and contrived images of Bushmen to attract tourists – but theyare using violence, torture and intimidation to deport the Bushmen from their ancestral landsin the country’s largest game reserve. Echoing the hated Pass Laws which divided familiesunder apartheid, many Bushmen are now forced to apply for permits to visit their own familieson their own land. This could mean the end for the last hunting Bushmen in Africa.

... the hiddensecrets of Botswana.

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Anyone can huma tune – even iftranscribing thatinto sheet musicnormally takesclassical training. Butplay or sing a melodyinto DoReMIR’sScoreCloud and theapp will producean elegant score ofcrochets, rests andquavers. “It figuresout that what I justplayed is in 4/4 time,that the key is Dmajor, and calculatestempo and differentvoices,” says SvenAhlbäck, professorat the Royal SwedishAcademy of Musicand founder ofthe Stockholm-based developer.

Whereas musicrecognition appssuch as Shazam mapmusical fingerprintsto a database,DoReMIR’s algorithmpicks out notes andmusical featuressuch as timbre andpitch in real time.Users can thenshare their scoreswith bandmates orfellow students.

For Ahlbäck,notation is just thestart. “There are somany applications,”he says. Amongthem: the possibilityof DoReMIR’ssoftware analysing ahummed hit tune toproduce a future hit.OF scorecloud.com

SCORE BIGIN MUSIC

wedish juggler Erik Aberg (below) was jaded by thetraditional props of his trade. “I wanted to be free to useany object, but also come up with new ones and abstractstructures,” he says. So he invented Ghost Cubes,

consisting of a system of interlocking wooden cubes that can be twisted, turned and folded tocreate a variety of configurations. The cubes, which he will demonstrate at the Juggle This festivalin New York this month, could be used purely for fun, or “Could be part of a furniture designaesthetic, or even built into rooms and buildings,” he says. “I just have to find a natural habitat for it.”

The inspiration comes from German origami expert Heinz Strobl, who created interlocking cubesystems from paper. In his Stockholm studio-lab, Aberg, 35, was able to recreate Strobl’s origamistructures in wood. “I have about 30 different systems now,” he says. With Ghost Cubes, he hadto come up with completely new handling techniques for a unique five-minute performance.“It really brings out what skills I have as a juggler,”Aberg says. “Whatever it is in my hands.”MV erikaberg.com

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Boxing cleverErik Aberg applies his

manual dexterity to makejuggling fun again

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GENES REINVENTEDTired of that ubiquitous Banksyprint? The above artwork is trulypersonal. “We take your DNAcode and turn it into a custom artpattern,” says Kishan Bhoopalam,founder of Genetic Ink. Thestartup lets you browse colourschemes and styles, then, basedon a DNA sample, it produces asequence of As, Ts, Cs and Gsthat are unique to you. “An artistcreates the framework,” saysBhoopalam, 26, “and our algorithmfills in the elements.” MVFrom $200 (£120) geneticink.com

BACK ON THE BEATLondon trio Klaxons return to theirnu-rave roots with Love Frequency.The album blends dance grooveswith wonky synth-pop, aidedby the likes of producer JamesMurphy. Out June 4 klaxons.net

CARTOON INJURIESBefore photography, doctors reliedon artists to document disease.Richard Barnett’s The Sick Rosetraces the beguiling and gruesomehistory of medical illustrations.Out June 2 thameshudson.co.uk

JUNIOR ASTRONOMYNasa engineers have collaboratedwith toy maker littleBits toproduce the Space Kit, whichallows children to build workingmodels of satellites and theMars Rover. $189 littlebits.cc

0 7 6

Rub shoulders with dynamic digital minds, forward thinking developers, Emmy awardwinners and famous faces at the home of creative brilliance, MediaCityUK.

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BOOK YOUR TICKET NOWWIRED.CO.UK/MONEY14

WIRED Money is back to showcase the

bold thinkers and companies reinventing

money, banking and finance.

Speakers already announced include:

Dave BirchGlobal ambassador,

Consult Hyperion

Physical money will soon

be abandoned. Dave

Birch will explore what

will replace it and how.

James GlattfelderComplexity scientist

and author

James Glattfelder is calling

for a richer understanding

of the interactions that

comprise the economy.

Duncan OlbySenior vice-president of

e-commerce, Visa Europe

Visa’s V.me service allows

its users to store their

card details in digital

wallets for easy payment.

Noreena HertzAuthor and professor,

University College London

Noreena Hertz advises

governments and CEOs

on economic, geopolitical

and business decisions.

Mike LavenCEO,

The Currency Cloud

Mike Laven joined The

Currency Cloud in 2011. The

firm now processes over

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Bhaskar ChakravortiSenior associate dean,

The Fletcher School

Author and consultant

Bhaskar Chakravorti has

advised more than 30

Fortune 500 companies.

Brett KingFounder & CEO,

Moven

Brett King’s company

Moven has been dubbed

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downloadable bank”.

Keren ElazariCyber security expert,

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White hat hacker Keren

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government organisations.

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Annette HeuserExecutive director,Bertelsmann Foundation

Annette Heuser envisionsan international credit-rating agency which wouldredefine sovereign ratings.

Damien KimmelmanFounder & CEO,DueDil

DueDil’s business discoveryplatform is one of the largestsources of free privatecompany data in the UK.

Shakil KhanAngel investsor & founder,CoinDesk

Shakil’s Khan’s CoinDeskis a news-and-analysiswebsite for all thingsrelating to bitcoin.

Lee SankeyDesign director,Barclays

Barclays has embracedonline banking. Lee Sankeyis headof its Innovation andCustomer Experiencearms.

Nick HungerfordCofounder & CEO,Nutmeg

Nutmeg’s transparentonline investment toollets customers invest aslittle as £100 a month.

Pat PhelanFounder & CEO,Trustev

Trustev is a real-timeonline identity verificationservice for e-commerce,based in Cork, Ireland.

Danae RingelmannCofounder,Indiegogo

Millions of contributorshave helped campaignscome to life on Indiegogosince its 2008 launch.

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GRAPHY:S

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WIREDINSIDER’SPICK OFUPCOMINGEVENTS

WIREDMONEYBack for a secondyear, this eventbrings togetherthe finance sector’sinnovators anddisrupters, withspeakers includingAnnetteHeuserandBrettKing.Special rates forWIRED subscribers.July 1, wired.co.uk/money14

WIRED2014WIRED’s flagshipevent is back. Joinsomeof theworld’sleading innovators,designers andcreatives for twodays of debateandnetworking.Early-bird ticketsavailable untilAugust 21.October 16-17,wired.co.uk/14

WIRED NextGenerationWIRED’s eventdedicated to 12-to 18-year-oldsreturns for a secondyear. Expect a dayof talks fromyoungentrepreneurs anddisrupters – lastyearwewelcomedNickD’Aloisioand ElizaDoolittle.October 18,wired.co.uk/14

DecodedFashion, MilanDecoded Fashionis a one-day eventthat aims to unitethe fashion andtechnologyworlds.With over 600delegates, thedaywill featuretop speakers, astartup competitionandpitch stage.October 22,decodedfashion.com

SonoswirelessPLAYBARThe PLAYBAR is justonepart of Sonos’ssophisticatedwirelesshome-audio setup. Hookit up to your televisionand its nine internalspeakers will guaranteehigh-quality, room-fillingsound. The PLAYBARalso connects wirelesslyto other Sonos homesoundproducts andcanbe controlled viasmartphoneor tablet.

£599sonos.com

Tumi Alpha 2InternationalExpandableDesigned for thefrequent air traveller,this two-wheeledcarry-on bag ismadeusing Tumi’s patentedFXT ballistic nylon.The Alpha 2 also hasrecessed wheels thatrotate 360° for smooth,multidirectionalnavigation and anextendable handlemade fromaircraft-grade aluminium.

£595tumi.com

Acqua di ParmaGineprodi SardegnaGinepro di Sardegnais one of six luxury eaude toilettes from theiconic Italian perfumers’newBluMediterraneocollection. Presentedin a classic Art Deco-style bottle, it containsextracts of juniper,bergamot and nutmegto create a Sardinia-inspired summeraroma. An elegant butfull-bodied unisex scent.

£78 (150ml)acquadiparma.com

EVENTS, NEW PRODUCTS AND PROMOTIONS TO LIVE THE WIRED LIFECOMPILED BY RUBY MUNSON-HIRST

HTCOne (M8)phoneCreated froma singlepiece of aluminium,the (M8) is a secondgenerationmodel fromHTC’s One range. Theimproved high-resolutionfive-inch screen is madefrom ultra-strongGorillaGlass. New featuresincludeMotion Launch –a sensor-based functionthat allows you tooperate the phone usinga range of gestures.

£609.99htc.com

INSIDER

FollowusonTwitter:

@WIREDINSIDERUK

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Speakers around the world have delivered thousands of TED and TEDx talksover the years, the most popular of which have garnered millions of online views.“TED talks have raised the bar on what it means to deliver an inspiring presentation,”says Carmine Gallo, a communications coach and author of Talk Like TED. Even ifyou never speak at TED, incorporating the following strategies can help you delivera successful pitch, ace an interview or impress a room of colleagues. Rachel Nuwer

ACE A TED-STYLE TALK

LIFE ENHANCEMENT: 07.14CREATE A SMOKE WATERFALLFIND CHEAPER AIR FARESINVEST LIKE WARREN BUFFETT

EDITED BY JOÃO MEDEIROS

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CONNECTWITHTHEAUDIENCEIncorporate stories in order toappeal to the audience emotion-ally. You might feel vulnerablesharing personal feelings, but that

authenticity is needed to forge a connection.In her TED talk about women leaders, FacebookCOO Sheryl Sandberg decided to skip her data-rich presentation and instead share a story aboutthe difficulty of saying goodbye to her scream-ing toddler when she left for overnight trips. Herauthenticity struck a nerve: the talk went viral andled to a best-selling book. Steve Jobs, meanwhile,was famous for his hero-versus-villain approach,which pitted new Apple products against thestatus quo. Or the story could be about thelives your product will improve. “Ask yourself,‘How can I touch that person on an emotionallevel?’” Gallo says. “Storytelling is the answer.”

PRESENTSOMETHINGNEWLearning releases a flood of dopa-mine in the brain, Gallo explains,and novelty is one of the best waysto capture a person’s attention. That

novelty may come in the information itself, or thepresentation of it. Bill Gates’s 2009 TED talk aboutmalaria’s death toll in Africa was not a new subject.But when he released a jar of live mosquitoes intothe audience, he shocked viewers and created “oneof the most memorable moments in TED history,”says Gallo. But you can do it without the use of par-asites. When Steve Jobs first showed the iPhone,he said he was introducing a few new devices: “aniPod, a phone and an internet communicator.” Herepeated that phrase until the audience realisedthat those three products were actually a singlecreation. His approach made it one of the mostmemorable presentations in corporate history.

HELPTHEMREMEMBERTED talks last 18 minutes for areason. They’re long enough todeliver an insightful presenta-tion, but short enough to hold the

audience’s attention. If you have to give a longerpresentation, find ways to break it up into ten- to18-minute intervals to help your listeners retainmore. Show a video, stop for Q&As or introduceaudience participation. Introducing pictureshelps, too: people remember up to six times asmuch content when paired with a photo. Finally,remember the rule of three: working memoryresponds best to processing up to three chunksof information at a time. Dozens of popular TEDtalks have used this strategy, from “The Three Asof Awesome” to “Three Types of Online Attack”.“Don’t overwhelm the viewer with 22 reasons tobuy your product,” says Gallo. “Give them three.”

HOW TO…ACE A T ED -STY L E TA LK

HOW TO…

CREATE ASMOKEWATERFALLIt’spossible tomakeafire inwhich thesmokebillowsdownwards. Ben Cusick, aka YouTube’s “NightHawkIn-Light”, talks us through the process. JeremyCook

1 FIND YOUR SPACEA shot glass, a Post-it noteand an L bracket will berequired. You’ll also needa room with still air and amatch. Roll up the Post-itnote in roughly the diameterof a pencil – the stickypart will stop it unrolling.

3 LIGHT YOUR FIRESet the top of your notealight. Like magic, smokewill billow downwardsout of the bottom of yourrolled-up paper. If the endis inside the shot glass,smoke will build up in thereand can be poured out.

2 BUILD THE WATERFALLPlace the L bracket on topof your shot glass and slipthe paper into the hole atthe end of the “L” at a 45°angle. Position the paperoutside the glass for awaterfall effect, or insideto build up smoke inside.

4 EXPLAIN THE TRICKSmoke is heavier thanair, but normally floatsupwards because it is hot.The tube gives the smokeenough time to cool down,after which it doesn’t riseup, but instead falls tothe floor like a waterfall.

HOW TO…

It’spossible tomakeafire inwhich thesmokebillowsdownwards. Ben Cusick, aka YouTube’s “NightHawkIn-Light”, talks us through the process. JeremyCook

1 FIND YOUR SPACEA shot glass, a Post-it noteand an L bracket will berequired You’ll also need

2 BUILD THE WATERFALLPlace the L bracket on topof your shot glass and slipthe paper into the hole at

28

required. You ll also needa room with still air and amatch. Roll up the Post-itnote in roughly the diameterof a pencil – the stickypart will stop it unrolling.

3 LIGHT YOUR FIRESet the top of your notealight. Like magic, smokewill billow downwardsout of the bottom of yourrolled-up paper. If the endis inside the shot glass,smoke will build up in thereand can be poured out.

the paper into the hole atthe end of the “L” at a 45°angle. Position the paperoutside the glass for awaterfall effect, or insideto build up smoke inside.

4 EXPLAIN THE TRICKSmoke is heavier thanair, but normally floatsupwards because it is hot.The tube gives the smokeenough time to cool down,after which it doesn’t riseup, but instead falls tothe floor like a waterfall.

required. You’ll also need the paper into the hole at

HOW TO…

HOW TO…

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MAKE LED-LITNUNCHUCKS

unchucks may notbe the best weaponin a ninja’s arsenal,but they are one ofthe most visually

striking, at least during the day.If you’d like to show off your skillsafter dark, these LED-enablednunchuck-style lights should helpbring out your inner Bruce Lee. JC

3 ASSEMBLEYOUR LIGHTSDrop a wheel light into each lengthof pipe, with the light going in first.Tie the two sides together using the5mm holes. Shorten the cord as yousee fit. Once they’re secure, testthem by swinging them around bythe opposite handle. Light shouldemanate from the swinging side.

2 CUT YOUR PARTSTO LENGTHCut the PVC pipe into two 15cmlengths. Set up each length ina vice, and drill with the 18mmpaddle bit to an 11.5cm depth. Nowbore a hole perpendicular to thenow widened side of the pipe withthe 5mm drill bit. This should beapproximately 13mm from the base.

5 GOFURTHEROnce you’re done, think of a fewother ways you can make themost of your new plaything.They can make a great tool forlong-exposure photography:swing them while taking a picturein low light and you should get aneat light circle, or vortex effect.

1 OBTAIN MATERIALSAND TOOLSTo make these lights, you’ll need30cm of 13mm PVC pipe, 30cm ofsturdy cord or wire, and two wheellights for illumination. You’ll alsoneed a drill (preferably a drill press),vice and saw, as well as an 18mmpaddle bit and a 5mm drill bitto make the appropriate cuts.

4 ADD FINALTOUCHESThis “weapon” looks even betterif painted. Traditional spray paintworks well, as does truck-bed lineror plastic spray. As with anythingDIY, especially something flailingaround, things may go wrong.Be sure to use appropriate cautionwhen using your nunchucks.

INVEST LIKEWARRENBUFFETT

ontrary to what some have argued,Warren Buffett did not become theOracle of Omaha by sheer luck. Tofigure out how Buffett chooses which

companies to invest in, Lasse Heje Pedersen, aprofessor at New York University and CopenhagenBusiness School, created the following formula,wherein the excess return of Berkshire Hatha-way (of which Buffett is chairman and CEO)stock is decomposed into its market exposure(MKT), its reliance on small stocks versus bigstocks (SMB), the tendency to buy cheap stocks(captured by the value factor HML), upward trending stock (captured by the momentum factor UMD), safestocks (BAB), and quality stocks (QMJ), and the unexplained residual (epsilon). Regardless of the market’sups and downs, Buffett has bought stocks that were low risk, cheap and high-quality, and boosted returns byusing leverage. If you fancy trying it, turn the page for a few Buffett-inspired investing strategies.RN

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HOW TO…I NV EST L I K E WARREN BUF F E T T

FIND THERIGHT PRICELook through accounting numbers andsee which stocks have been consistentlyprofitable and which are trading at a relativediscount. Then divide the stock price by thecompany’s book value. If it’s in the lowestquintile compared to other stocks you’veperformed the same calculation on, Pedersensays, “that would be an interesting stock”.

CONSIDER LEVERAGECAREFULLYThroughout his career, Buffett applied a1.6-to-1 leverage – borrowing capital towager a greater bet on an investmentpaying off – to multiply his stock returns.This accounts for a great deal of his success.Most, however, do not have access to thekind of leverage Buffett enjoys. Individualsmight do better to skip the leverage andaccept lower absolute returns with less risk.

DIVERSIFY… BUTNOT TOO MUCHFor an individual investor, holding 50 to 100stocks in different companies (in differentindustries or the same) should be safe;beyond that, the benefits of diversificationmay begin to diminish. If you don’thave enough capital to pursue highdiversification, however, then buying apassive index fund could be an alternative.

DON’T OBSESSOVER SHARPE RATIOSBuffett’s Sharpe ratio – a measurement ofrisk-adjusted performance that indicateswhether a portfolio’s returns are due totaking excess risk or by pursuing smartinvestments – is 0.76. Many managers claimto achieve ratios of 1 or 2, but Buffett’s lowerratio reflects his dedication to realistic goalsand longer-term gains, with buffers built into weather temporary market downturns.

BALANCE RISKWITH POTENTIAL GAINSCreate a spreadsheet simulating your potentialportfolio. If you have returns from the lastfive years for the shares you’re interestedin, you can calculate the risk you would havetaken if you’d bought those shares five yearsago. Explore the same question by addingand subtracting stocks and diversifying acrossmore companies to find a low-risk solution.

EMBRACETEMPORARY LOSSESBuffett’s success has not been consistent.From 1998 to 2000, Berkshire Hathaway’smarket value plummeted 44 per cent beforerebounding. Where others may interpretsuch difficulties as meaning it’s time to quit,Buffett prevailed through tough periodsand resisted any urge to pull out of the game.This longer-term outlook ultimatelyallowed him to dominate the market.

HOW TO…

FINDCHEAPERAIR FARESONLINE

n any given airline,there can be up toten different pricepoints for a singleeconomy seat. Some-

one who bought a seat for £60 couldbe sat next to someone who paid£300. On average, however, a flightof less than 90 minutes should notcost more than £100, and a flight oftwo to four hours shouldn’t be morethan £300. “If you’re paying more,you’re not doing a good job shop-ping,” says Rick Seaney, cofounderand CEO of FareCompare.com.Here are a few tips for ensuringyou’re never the passenger who haspaid £300 for that £60 seat. RN

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Monopoly might seem like a game of chance: roll the dice,hope you don’t go bankrupt. Actually, it contains layers ofmaths just waiting to be exploited. We asked Monopolyexpert Philip Orbanes, author of Monopoly, Money, and You(McGraw-Hill Professional, £14.99), how to play the stats nexttime you play your friends.Charlie Burton

1 TIMING IS EVERYTHINGBegin shopping for tickets three monthsbefore your departure date, at whichpoint sales begin. Around 65 per cent ofsales last just three days, so check fre-quently. Most sales occur earlier in boththe week and the day. Tuesday, Wednes-day and Saturday are the cheapest days tofly. Departures early in the morning, dur-ing mealtimes or on red-eyes are cheap-est, and flights with connections oftencost less than non-stop ones. Shoppingon budget airlines isn’t always cheaper:those tickets often start very low, endhigh and fluctuate quite a bit in between.Begin searching early, and remember,“the flight may not necessarily be moreexpensive tomorrow,” according to RobBurgess, editor of headforpoints.com.

2COMPAREFARESUse sites such as WhichBudget, Opodo,FareCompare, SkyScanner and Expediato look across the board at airlines (somedo not include budget airlines, however).These sites are also good for mixing andmatching airlines to find cheap combina-tions. Airlines themselves sometimes runspecial deals for booking directly on theirsite, so take a look there, too. Web alertsfrom FlyerTalk and FareCompare let youknow about special sales and deals, andKayak offers daily updates about the priceof any given ticket. Finally, when bookingmore than one ticket, compare individ-ual versus group fares. “If you’re askingfor four tickets, everyone has to be on thesame price, even if there are three ticketsavailable for cheaper seats,” says Seaney.

3 SEEKHIDDENCOSTSANDSAVINGSThe cost of your trip does not stop withthe airfare. Factor in charges for checkedbags – up to £60 per bag on Ryanair, forexample. Transport to the airport counts,too. A return Tube ride to Heathrow can beup to £11; the Stansted Express is £33. Butthere are ways to save. Websites such asQuidco and TopCashBack often give one totwo per cent cashback when you access anairline’s site through their links. Somebooking sites also present cheaperair fares if you chose a “flight plus hotel”or “flight plus car” package, even if thatjust entails one night in a hostel. Finally,remember that award miles are valuable.Points earned on a slightly more expensiveBritish Airways flight to California can payfor a free flight within Europe later on.

USE STATS TO WINAT MONOPOLY

CONTROL YOURCASH FLOWIf there areno opposing

monopolies, you only need£150 to £200 for each lap ofthe board. “But if there are oneor more developed monopoliesagainst you, you should haveat least £300,” says Orbanes.If you need money, mortgagesingle properties first.

BUYSTRATEGICALLYIf you’re rich, buyeverything you can.

“You need trading material tomake deals,” says Orbanes. Ifmoney is tight, buy to blockan opponent getting the finalproperty in a high-value groupor to complete a monopoly.Railways are also useful forgenerating regular income.

CREATE AHOUSINGSHORTAGE“If you have only

low-rent monopolies,” saysOrbanes, “you should quicklybuild three or four houseson each property – and don’tupgrade them to hotels –to restrict the availabilityof houses to ownersof high-rent monopolies.”

LEARN THEHIERARCHYAhead of the pricierdark blues, develop

the oranges. Players often landthere soon after releasefrom jail, and the chance ofrolling one of those numbersis 39 per cent. “In mosttournament competitions,”says Orbanes, “players arereluctant to trade an orange.”

MONEYBALL YOURBUILDING WORKIf you own a group,quickly build three

houses on each property, asthere’s a big leap in rent afterthe second house. Certainproperties also generate higherreturns on investment. Orangesmove from 58 to 62 per cent,whereas there’s no increasewith dark blues and greens.

SOMETIMES LIFEIS BETTER ONTHE INSIDEEarly on, when it’s

all up for grabs, pay £50 toget out of jail quickly. “Later,”says Orbanes, “when big rentsloom, stay put if possible. Youcan still collect rent and makedeals, while someone elsemight land on your propertiesbefore you land on theirs.”IL

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n January 13, Tony Fadell sold his four-year-old startup, Nest Labs,to Google for $3.2 billion (£1.9 billion) in cash. It seemed a high sumfor a home-automation company that made just two products: anadaptive thermostat and a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm. Butthen Fadell, 45, is no ordinary engineer. After an early career at PhilipsElectronics andGeneralMagic, in 2001 hewas hired by JonRubinstein,Apple’s hardware boss, to create what would become the first iPod –ultimately leading the teams that shipped 18 generations of the iconicmusic player. In seven years at Apple, he also played a leading rolein developing and shipping the first three iterations of the iPhone.

In conversation with WIRED editor David Rowan, Fadell discusseswhat Google saw in his team, why Nest intends to be the dashboardto the connected home, the “conspiracy theories” about Google’sintentions regarding data collection from home appliances – and whatlessons from Apple he can bring to his new owners.

wired: what’s changed since google acquired nest in january?Tony Fadell: Not a lot. There’s less worrying for me about what is the taxcode in Germany, how our store is going to work in XYZ country, what aboutcredit card fraud... I can go back to building amazing products. Think ofGoogle as a big candy store where we get to choose whatwe want – everyone [at Nest] still reports to me; we havelots of nice things from Google in terms of comforts; andin general we’re running as fast as ever. It’s been great forattracting new talent – potential employees see this asa much better opportunity for them – and for attractinggreat partnerships. And the amount of learning our teamis doing from other teams inside Google allows us to thinkbigger and bolder, knowing there are resources for us totap into when we dream really big. Because other peopleinside Google are dreaming along the same lines as us, andwe can team up to change the world even more quickly.

why sell now, when nest clearly had an ambitiousproduct roadmap ahead of it?So I could go back to doing the things I really love. Never in mycareer have I ever wanted to be CEO of a public company, and wewere headed down that road. I want to build great products. Googlehave a bold vision – that’s what won us over – and the resourcesto see it to reality. It’s been like the Medicis: “Go do what you do,do it really well, we’re here behind you.” I’m here on a mission.

still, $3.2bn seems a high price...The number came at the end of the deal, not the beginning. Thenumber is just an after-effect for the investors – you have to lookat our current earnings, our future earnings, our team, our vision,and competitively about what investors would be willing to pay.We didn’t need money. There was a history here. I first met Larry[Page] and Sergey [Brin] in 2001, at a party just after the first iPodcame out. We started talking in earnest and they invested in us two-and-a-half years ago. If we needed some expertise, we’d go to them.That was our high-school dating period. As we continued gettingcloser, we were thinking about going out to raise more money, andwe decided maybe it makes more sense to work together and makeit much bigger than just an investment. Over a series of monthswe were able to see how this felt before any offer was put forward.

Marriage for money can never work. We wanted tomake sure we had culture compatibility, vision com-patibility, everything that makes a good relationship.

how often do you see larry page?I saw him yesterday; I see him all the time. He said, “Welove the roadmap, we want Nest to remain Nest, gomake it happen, and we’re here to help.” I know Andy[Rubin, running Google’s robotics division], and I’llsay hi to Andy and chat – “What you got? Oh, cool.”It’s a treasure trove of ideas that they’re working on.The whole goal here was not a financial transactionbut [to learn] how we’re going to make both compa-nies better – and that means figuring out how bestto work together. You see some very exciting thingsgoing on – things that are incredibly unexpected for me.

when the acquis it ion was announced ,some commentators expressed alarm thatgoogle would now know what was hap-pening inside people’s homes – on top ofall the other personal data it collects.We’re basing speculation upon speculation upon spec-ulation. All I can answer is how our customer data is P

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treated, vis-à-vis the other entitiesinside Google – it is definitively notshared, the customer’s data is thecustomer’s data, and there has beenno inkling of changing that. And if there ever was, we’d be sure to alertour customers and let them know. People can speculate all they want, andthey can make conspiracy theories – I can just tell you what the realityis. We had long discussions about this. It was part of the courting experi-ence, to make sure this was a critical parameter of the relationship.

whatever google and nest will or won’t do, you can under-stand why access to the home via connected devices couldbe a powerful tool for the marketing industry…We take data privacy very seriously. And at least from the conversationsI’ve had, Google take it very seriously as well. So we as a team really regarduser privacy as an important thing. We also know that people want con-venience, and that requires you to share data. Trust is about privacy andsecurity. The only way you gain trust is by earning it, and we earn it everyday. It [comes down to] communication and transparency: If you’re nothearing from me, if we’re not being transparent on what we do, you’regoing to distrust us. I might trust you when I meet you, then I look forclues – either you’re going to lose it or maintain it. But once you lose it,you’re never going to get it back again. And we give you insights on yourdata – we’ll tell you why you consume more or less energy. Because we cancollect the data, we can improve our algorithms. We have five new fea-tures inside the [thermostat] product that we didn’t know we’d have,and that all came from reading the tea leaves of the data and seeingall sorts of interesting behaviour patterns in these kinds of homes.

how much is your role at google about bringing someapple magic into its interface design?I asked Larry, “How do you want us to help within the wider com-pany?” He said, “You guys have a huge vision, just stay focused onwhat you’re doing and if you can pull that off and you have some sparetime, then let’s talk. Until then, just tell me what you need, don’t worryabout us.” I’m hopeful that over time people will come over and learn

what we do and maybe bring some of thatback into Google. But I’m not going to bethe Jony Ive of Google – that’s not my job.

how could you bring an emotionalaspect to google’s products?You just ask the right questions. Why doesthis matter? Tell me why this works. Whydo we really need that feature? Do we havedata to say this is of real value? It’s alwaysjust a question. Or people sometimes ask,“what’s your opinion?” I’m not going tooffer my advice if people don’t want it, buta lot of people ask me for my advice, andI just tell you exactly what I think. Some-times just by asking the right questionpeople get on their own right path them-selves – they just didn’t look at it fromthe right angle. They go away, don’t talkto you for four months, then say, “Here’sthe new version, what do you think?” I’drather them learn by doing than from metelling them. You’ve got to build a culture.

which other companies do youfeel understand the emotionalaspect of the design experience?

Nespresso – it’s emotional, people love it, they’vegot the retail set-up right, customer support is right,the ongoing customer interaction is right. They havea rabid following – they make people feel differentlyabout coffee. And look at Dyson – he [James Dyson] ismuch more techie than most, he communicates, getshis message across – he’s turned a mundane utilityinto something you care about. I’d love to meet him.

what were your main lessons from apple?For me it’s really about defining an experience andmaking sure you understand all the touchpoints of thatexperience. That was the big takeaway. The experiencewasn’t just about turning on the product, but how youfirst learned about the product, where you first sawthe product and touched the product, the communityaround it, how you engaged with it – it took the blinkersoff. It’s not about looking at what is in front of you, but atall the touchpoints people don’t normally look to whendesigning a product. You’re crafting the storyline all the

Left-right: Apple’s Philip Schiller,

Tony Fadell, Jony Ive, Steve Jobs,

Scott Forstall and Eddie Cue in 2007

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way through, to this ascending emotional engagement. You want positiveemotional acceleration through every single touchpoint. Through that yougain the momentum to talk to the consumer; hopefully they’ll talk to theirfriends about it. Another lesson from Apple is to let the team own the idea,even if you come up with it. That’s their self worth. In the meeting, you don’tsay, “That’s a shitty idea.” You say, “That sort of works, let’s expand on that.”If you give them that little piece, that makes people trust you, trust the com-pany, trust themselves. It’s empowerment. And that’s something you don’tget at Apple – or didn’t when I was there. That is one thing I definitely strivefor in our company. That’s how you train the next generation to come upbehind you. You mentor them; don’t just make a babysitter, make a parent.

and presumably at apple you learned the value of secrecy.Actually, I learned that at General Magic. I also learned at Apple what notto do when it comes to confidentiality. If you’re on a team, you’d bettertrust your team members. Google’s much more open [internally] aboutconfidential stuff – and you don’t see a lot of leaks coming out of Google.People get vindictive when they don’t have information – that’s whenthey’re more likely to go, “Hey, I got a secret for you.” You do have to givepeople credit – that goes a long way. When everything’s going wrong, youneed people to say, “We can do this together.” I saw sometimes [at Apple],when things didn’t go so right, everybody started finger-pointing.

did you feel empoweredwhen you were leading theipod and iphone teams?Yes, because I wouldn’t listento somebody. I thought, “I don’tcare what he says, we’re going to

do it this way.” Steve said, “Over my dead body areyou going to put the iPod on the PC.” He said it wouldkill Mac sales, that iPod was the only reason peoplewere going to buy Macs. So I had a whole skunkworksteam making the whole PC connectivity happen. Hewouldn’t allow it. The first quarter was nice on iPodsales; the next three were really rocky – because oncewe went to all the Mac loyalists, there were no morecustomers. It took two years, but PC is what finally gotiPod to break out. Then there was Intel – he wantedto put Intel in the phones. He said, “[Intel CEO] PaulOtellini swears to me he’s going to make a chip for usthe way we want it.” I said, “Steve, I like your relation-ship with him, and he did amazing things for the Mac,but there is zero evidence that says they can do any-thing like this.” I literally said, “I’m going to quit if youpick Intel over ARM.” We had a love-hate relationship.

if he’d known about your skunkworks,would he have fired you?Sometimes. He told me to shut things down. You hadto be defiant at certain times: I’m doing the right thingfor the company. You see the details and you knowthe facts – this is not an opinion. He had his opin-ions. You can’t confuse opinion-based decisions withfact-based decisions. And you have to be clear as aleader to know which is which, and to communicatethat to your team. In the case of Intel and iPod on PC,these were fact-based decisions. You’d say, “No, Steve,this is the fact.” With the Intel thing, we called a truce,and said we’d put Intel to the test over six weeks, andif they fail, we’ll go with ARM. I think he respectedthat – even though we’d almost come to blows a fewtimes. I wasn’t always right – I wanted to make an iPodTouch with a hard drive. He said, “I think you’re wrong,it’s the stupidest idea ever.” And three months later Isaid, “Yeah, you’re right. We killed the project.” Therewas a very good working relationship.

what other lessons canentrepreneurs learn fromsteve jobs?Trust your gut. Check it all the timebut trust it. Sell your idea to every-one from day one – it will help yourefine the idea. He’d keep refin-ing the elevator pitch so it was the30,000th time he said it when hegot on stage. When you see SteveBallmer on stage, you know he was

‘Steve Jobs and I almost cameto blows a few times... Wehad a love-hate relationship’

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Left: Tony Fadell holding the

£179 Nest Learning Thermostat

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The Nest Learning Thermostat (with an early prototype pictured

above it) creates a schedule for your home, based on your living habits

given some messages he learned overnight. The other thingis focus – learn to say “no” to a lot of things. Only when youfocus on the “yes” things do you have time to get it right.

did you have any idea how successful the ipodand iphone would be?No, I had no idea. Well, I had a pretty good idea on theiPhone. But the iPod – remember, everyone loves to thinkabout Apple as it is today, but think about 2001, whenApple had $150 million in the bank and was $500 millionin debt. Now it has $150 billion in the bank. Apple loved tosay it had two to three per cent market share of PC sales.It was less than three-quarters of one per cent in the US.There were no sales really anywhere else except possiblyJapan. And I’d come from Philips, where I was CTO, so Iknew big companies. When Steve goes, “Come and do thiswith me,” I’m like, “I can build anything, but can you selland market it?” He goes, “You build it.” I swear to you,that’s when I finally found out we had the right marketing.And the other decision, to finally take the iPod to the PC,so PC people would understand what Mac was about.That’s why we made a $49 iPod Shuffle – we wanted eve-rybody to be using iTunes music. I said the cheapest wayto buy iTunes music at that point was a $249 iPod – so itwasn’t a 99-cent song, it was a $249-plus-99 cent song.

could nest have been built within apple?[Pause] Yeah, I think so.

so why leave?I left because I had a one- and two-year-old. My wife alsoworked for Steve – for nine years. We never saw the kids.We took off for a year and a half. I came back and wentnuts; my wife said, “Get the hell out of the house.” So Isaid, “OK, I have to build a company.”

why start with a thermostat?I set out to design a house thinking about the iPhone asthe primary way to control it. I went through every singledevice in the house, thinking, “How would you consume energy differently,how would you interface differently?” I was frustrated by so many prod-ucts. The first one was the thermostat. Then the smoke alarm. That’s how wegot Nest in my brain. I was living in Paris with my family for eight months,and just could not let go of this thought. I came back and met [cofounder]Matt [Rogers] for lunch, and he persuaded me that we had to do itnow. Everyone needs a thermostat – it controls 50 to 70 per cent of all theenergy that you consume in your house. Yet it’s a product we ignore, that

a lot of people hate, and get frustrated with. If youcould produce a product you actually liked, that couldhelp you save 20 to 30 per cent, maybe you could learnto conserve more. The device is the manifestation ofthat entire conversation about energy conservation.It gives you feedback to help you tune your habits.Whycan’ttheproductadapttoyouwithamachinelearn-ing algorithm? Why can’t it tell when you’re not home

and turn the heating down?

your smoke and carbon monoxidealarm – the nest protect – seemsan odd follow-up product.Seventy-two per cent of fire-related deathsare caused because people had smokealarms but they ripped them off the wall asthey were so annoying, beeping at thewrong time, or because the battery went.It’s a black comedy. We thought, “Why don’twe reinvent those with the same low-cost

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sensors?” Nest Protect looks different to make you think about it differently.It will talk to you: “Heads up, there’s smoke in the kitchen.” It’s like yourspouse: “Honey, something’s not quite right here.” We’ve localised it in fivelanguages, the reason we put the voice in is because children from the age oftwo do not wake up from beeps, but from the sound of their mother’s voice.

you recently withdrew the product from sale because itcould be inadvertently turned off if a hand was waved.If you want people to trust you, you always have to do the right thing.Usually the best way is to figure out the right thing earlier and not delay.It was very soon after we learned of this that we suspended sales.We’re now in weeks of tests. I don’t work on gut, I want to see the data.

but nest wasn’t about thermostats and then smoke alarms– you have a bigger vision.We saw the discontinuity in the components and software that goes intoconnecting smartphones over the internet dramatically lowering the barin putting those components in products all around us. Now we can usethose interfaces to plant extra displays on all these products around us tointeract with. There will be lots of accessories to that smartphone in andoutside your home that will be revolutionised. Internet of things 1.0 is justtrying to connect stuff. We’re trying to be internet of things 2.0 – where youdramatically change your relationship with the devices. Thepower of being on a network is when devices interact with other services.

will cooking appliances be networked? the coffee machine?where does this lead?It’s all networked today. It’s called the power network. And we’re talkingabout adding one more piece of the puzzle on to that network: it’s calleddata. The data network will be incredibly powerful in ways we neverpredicted. When you add connectivity,it will also change the nature of whatmight be done. A decade from now,these things will all start workingtogether in ways we’ve never conceivedbefore. To guess where the home isgoing to be a decade from now? I haveno idea; all we can do is revolutioniseindividual products.

what qualities, for you, mark outagreat entrepreneur?First I see passion in their eyes and howthey’re communicating – not just withemotion, but they have a good balanceof emotion with rational thought. It’ssimilar to how I hire: you ask them whatwas the key thing that made theminterested – they’ll tell you somethingthat happened in fifth grade that helpedthem find their call. That’s when I knowthat person is really passionate.

when did you find your call?I found it very early on, luckily. Mygrandfather was a tinkerer and carpen-ter and he built stuff. He mentored me,and we would do all kinds of thingstogether – we built our own go-karts. He

owned a bowling alley so I got to go in and fix themachines. He taught me that if a human built some-thing, don’t be afraid, you can take it apart and put itback together again, and you might even be able tomake it better. We moved [house] a lot, and when I wason my own I was building rockets and tearing apart oldvacuum-tube radios. Then in 1979 the Apple II Plusshowed up. I was ten. My grandfather said, “If youwork really hard this summer, I’ll match whatever youearn and help you buy a $2,500 computer.” I was acaddy – I worked like crazy. I came up a little short, heput up the rest, and I got a computer. I taught myselfcoding and hardware design – I created a CPU before Ieven took CPU class. I redesigned an Apple IIGS CPUwith another guy in LA, we fabricated it and sold it toApple. I had a restless curiosity – I’m not driven bymoney, but by intellectual happiness. That’s why, whenI retired from Apple, I got into every bit of the houseand figured out what the next generation of the housewould look like. I’d think, why do you pay $300 for a

smart thermostat and they don’t do anything?I can buy an iPad for the same price and it hasten times the technology.

how important is a traditional designeducation in creating products?You can create these experiences without thatkind of formal training. I’ve seen some greatdesigners come out of music school orengineering school. Design isn’t about thethings you touch or see – other parts of thepuzzle can be thoughtfully designed, whichevery consumer will see: just tap into thatpart of your brain to make a great experience.

what’s next for nest?My head’s about eight years out, and the team’sabout two years out. The most important thingfirst is to get to 90 countries where ourproducts are used – we see the IP addressescoming in, yet we don’t sell.

andwhen dowe get the self-driving carwithonebuttontocontrol it?I can tell you I don’t think we’re on that.But I’ll put it in the suggestion basket.�

David Rowan is the editor of WIRED.He wrote about Liam Casey in 05.14

‘Where is the home going tobe a decade from now?I have no idea; all we can dois revolutionise products’

9 50

ALSO BOUGHTBY GOOGLE

Boston Dynamics(December 2013,undisclosed)MIT’s

spin-off robotics

engineering company.

Waze (June 2013,$966m) Community-

based navigation

app for traffic and

road information.

DeepMind (January2014, £400m)The London-

based AI startup

founded in 2011.

The

Non-fict ion fi lm-makingis undergoing aboom – democratisedby low-cost cameras,new distr ibutionchannels, crowdfundingand the eternal powerof a compel l ing stor y.We present the WIREDguide to finding,watching and, yes,making documentariesthat matter

Snow Fall

The Square

Ping Pong

Searching for Sugar Man

Forks Over Knives

One Mile Away

Hell and Back Again

Bear 71

ByTOM CH ESH I R E &ST E PH EN ARMSTRONG

D

The Act of Killing

Firestorm

Zero Point

Pussy Riot:

A Punk Prayer

Dirty Wars

Detropia

Virunga

This is

Not a Film

Hollow

Left, from top to bottom:

The Square, nominated

for best documentary

at the 2014 Oscars;

Dirty Wars, also up for

an Oscar in 2014; PingPong, a UK documentary

about octogenarian

ping-pong players which

was distributed – with

a play-along kit – to

6,000 care homes; Bear71, a 20-minute-long

interactive documentary

about forest wildlife

The first 4K digital camera,

the adaptable RED ONE

is a film-maker’s favourite.

Bringing documentariesback to the people

TOOLS OF THE TRADERED ONE CAMERA

PHOTO

GRAPHY:GARYSALTER

Around ten years ago,British televisionwas just a bittoo good. And this was a prob-lem. “Americans always hadshit TV, so documentary-mak-ers had to be creative,” saysJess Search, a former commis-sioningeditoratChannel4whocofounded a non-profit, BRIT-DOC, to boost the UK sector.“We didn’t have an independ-ent documentary scene. Andalthough television was reallyimportant,weweremuchmorepassionate about documenta-ries than television.”Search launched BRITDOC

in 2005 along with MaxyneFranklinandBeadieFinzi,witha vision that “documentariesdon’t belong to television, theybelongtosociety”.The founda-tion has since produced morethan 70 feature-length docu-mentaries,allwithanemphasisonbringingaboutsocialchangethrough compelling story-telling. Of the five nomineesfor best documentary at the2014 Oscars, two were BRIT-DOC films: The Square, aboutthe Egyptian revolution, andDirty Wars, an investigationinto US covert military oper-ations in Afghanistan, Yemenand elsewhere. The PumaImpactAward,whichBRITDOCorganises and was first held in2011,celebratesdocumentariesnot for their film-making, buttheir positive effect on society.BRITDOC also experiments

withnewfinancing,productionand distribution methods. In2009, it launched Good Pitch,a series of events that connectfilm-makers with activists,philanthropists and more topromote their work. The tra-

0 9 8

The support team

BRITDOC

1

ditional way for a film-makerto get funding is to pitch to arestrictedaudienceofcommis-sioning editors from the BBC,Channel 4 and other broad-casters. Good Pitch opens upthatprocess:“Wethought: let’sbring people from across soci-etywhomighthavean interestin this film and get them intothe same room,” says Search.People from NGOs, charitiesandfoundationsspendamorn-ing listening topitchesandcol-laborating to fund the projectsthat interest them. BRITDOCalso experiments with how todeliverfilms tonewaudiences:for Ping Pong, a doc about theoctagenarian stars of tabletennis, BRITDOC put togethera ping-pong kit – comprising aDVD of the film, ping-pong netand paddles – and distributedit to 6,000nursing homes.Search wants to combine

these campaigns with appealsto a more general audience.Thismonth, BRITDOC plans tolaunch Something Real, whichaims to be a Netflix for indiedocs, but with recommen-dations from humans ratherthan algorithms. “The issue ishow we aggregate the docu-mentary audience and pointthemtowards thingswhichareavailable on digital,” she says.“That’s the thing that no one’scracked.”TomCheshire

Main image: BRITDOC directors

Beadie Finzie, Jess Search, Sandra

Whipham and Maxyne FranklinTheweb – and the social webthat followed it – promisedto transform documentaryfilm-making: “new media”;“digital”; “web”; “interac-tive”; and, most ungainly ofall, “transmedia” prefixedthe word “documentary”,but failed to deliver funda-

mentally new storytellingmethods. Now, although theinteractive documentary– or iDoc – is maturing, thefield (and the terminology)remains subject to definition.(TheMIT Open DocumentaryLab’s exhaustive “docubase”shows the variation overt h e ye a r s . ) “D e l i v e r yplatforms – whether TV or

animals in the park in realt ime; c l ick ing on themrevealed a video feed andinformation on that particu-laranimal.Viewerscouldalso“tag” themselves, turningontheirwebcamandtrackinganyoneelsewatchingthedoc-umentary. All the while, Bear71–ataggedgrizzly–narratesher story. Elaine McMillion’sHollow, released in 2013, toldthe story of a dying county in

Storytelling with youdirecting the action

film – used to dictate thelength and format of a docu-mentary,” says Ingrid Kopp,director of digital initia-tives at New York’s TribecaFilm Festival. “Now nothingis formalised, because theweb isn’t – it doesn’t dictatethose structures. Everythingis nowwide open.”Outstanding examples of

interactive documentary arecertainly moving the fieldforward. Bear 71, a 2012 docfrom the National Film Boardof Canada, took viewers intoa national park in the Rock-ies. Viewers could see themovements of other tagged

Interactivity

iDOCS

2

The web is a contemporarydoc-maker’sbest friend–offer-ing everything from softwaretools to funding. PlatformssuchasZeega,MozillaPopcornand Racontr serve to make iteasier for documentary-makersto add interactive elementsto their story. Meanwhile,Living Stories and StoryCodeboth offer online resourcesandofflineevents, sharingcodeandbest practices.In terms of funding, Kick-

starter is the most importantplatform. According to Elis-abeth Holm, the directorof Kickstarter’s film pro-gramme, $70 million (£42m)has been pledged tomore than9,000 documentaries to date.FrenchcrowdfundingplatformKissKissBankBank is also influ-

ential, inpartthankstoFrance’sstrong independent documen-tary scene. Slated is an onlinemarketplaceforfinancingfilms;while offline, organisationssuch as BRITDOC and Powerto the Pixel help connect film-makerswithfinanciers.Nonetheless, no one has

quite come up with thecomprehensive distributionplatform for docs just yet.TC

SECURE FUNDINGHow to…

Making your own?Start here

A wearable, lightweight, rugged

waterproof camera ideal for

point-of-view action footage.

TOOLS OF THE TRADEGOPRO HERO3

ILLU

STR

ATIO

N:A

LEC

DO

HER

TY

Above, top to bottom: Snow

Fall, an iDoc from The New York

Times; Firestorm, aGuardian

iDoc; 1428, one of a wave of new

documentaries from China

the US, using video portraits,interactive data, partici-patory mapping and user-generated content, bundledtogether on an HTML5 web-site. And in journalism, whatKopp describes as “scrolly-telling” projects have beenearning acclaim, includingSnowFall (fromTheNewYorkTimes) and Firestorm (fromTheGuardian).New formats offer new

storytelling possibilities.“When we conceive work,we’ll do anything – it doesn’tmatter which platforms,”says Kopp, who also runsTribeca’s “sandbox” events,which sit film-makers andprogrammers side by side.“Mobile experiences – semi-smartphones. Virtual real-ity –Oculus [Rift]will changethe game. IT doesn’t all haveto be for the web; it’s any-thing interactive. The inter-net of things – what wouldyour toaster say if it couldtalk?Why can’t you feed thatinto a documentary?”Unlike theearlydaysoffilm

as a technology, these experi-mentsareunlikely tocoalescearoundasingleformat,unlessa seriously compelling busi-ness model emerges. “A newform isn’t going to emergeand that be the standardany more,” Kopp says. “It’sin constant flux. That makesfinancing very tricky andbusinessmodels very tricky.”It also makes things chal-

lenging for film-makers,who are left playing catch-up. Kopp doesn’t think theyall need to code, but shebelieves they should “havea broad sense of the pos-sible” with new technolo-gies. But new platforms thatstandardise the produc-tion of iDocs are emerging(see Platforms, right), sodigital storytelling couldget easier for traditionaldocumentary-makers.TC

1 0 0

Finance and logistics

PLATFORMS

3

Many indie docs pulltogether funding

piece-by-piece

from a long list of

backers. BRITDOC,

the BBC, regional

film agencies such as

Film London and the

Arts Council all back

young film-makers.

Go to festivals:

Copenhagen’s

CPH:DOX focuses

on art and docs –

Searching for Sugar

Man was pitched

here early on. IDFA in

Amsterdam is a good

place to connect with

overseas funders,

and the BFI funds

documentaries

through pitching

sessions at Sheffield

Doc/Fest in June.

Talk to the new

players: Netflix, Time

magazine, CNN and

Al Jazeera America

all have doc-funding

departments.

Try crowdfunding:

Kickstarter and

Indiegogo are well-

known options, and

new UK site Buzzbnk

(buzzbnk.org) focuses

on artistic projects

that aim to make a

social impact. SA

Right: Ruby Chen’s husband,

Hsiao-ming Hsu, is a Taiwanese

film director. “Everyone is a

potential film-maker,” she says

AMBULANTEMexico, El Salvador, ColombiaThis touring festival travels

Latin America through the

year showing homegrown

and international content.

IT’S ALL TRUESão Paulo, BrazilIn 2013 this event featured 77

titles from 26 countries, and

included 19 world premieres of

docs from around the world.

THESSALONIKIDOCUMENTARY FESTIVALThessaloniki, GreeceNow in its 16th year, the

gathering features screenings,

talks and exhibitions.

OPEN CITY DOCSLondonA relatively new event, it takes

place across multiple venues,

and specialises in introducing

film-makers to their audience.

TRUE/FALSEColumbia, MissouriThe Burning Man of the

documentary circuit –

big, passionate audiences make

for a festival-like experience.

SHEFFIELD DOC/FESTSheffieldA long-running event gathering

television commissioning editors

from across the world for

its screenings and workshops.

HOTDOCSTorontoA large, internationally focused

marketplace that features

a vibrant conference as well as

screenings and talks.

IDFAAmsterdamIDFA is a major international

marketplace that also

premieres some of the biggest

names in documentaries.

CPH:DOXCopenhagenA large, well-established festival

featuring a broad range of

subjects. Last year one stream

was curated by Ai Weiwei. SA

Get onthe circuit:where talentmeetsthe money

JAN–M

AYFEBRUARY

MARC

HAPRIL

APRIL

JUNE

JUNE

NOVEM

BER

NOVEM

BER

Western documentary-makers find it tough to getfunding, but spare a thoughtfor their Chinese counter-parts – for whom censorship,detention and beatings areall part of the job. Ten yearsago, there were few trulyindependent Chinese doc-makers. In2006, thingsbeganto change – thanks to CNEX, anon-profit funder and festivalorganiser aiming to back 100filmsby2016.“Nowweareintheageofthe

documentary – documenta-ries are like blogs,” says RubyChen, CNEX CEO. “The gadg-etswehave, likephones,aresohandy to record. At the sametime, the people of greaterChina – Hong Kong, Taiwanandmainland China – need tounderstand each other better.Thedocumentary allowsus toreflectoneachothers’ lives.”CNEX – short for “Chinese

Next”and“SeeNext”–aimstosupport “a sustainable strat-egy for the contemporaryChi-nese documentary-making,”Chen says. The foundationbegan in 2005when the threeTaiwan-born cofounders,Chen, Ben Tsiang and ChangChao-wei, met in Beijing andcollaborated on a film aboutthe changing face of modernChina. Realising that one filmwasn’t enough, the trio raisedmoney from local technol-ogy investors. Every year, theCNEX foundation backs eight

China tooseeswhat’s next

totenfilmsfinanciallyandpro-vides technical support andmentoring. “Many of our film-makers are young, but [thedocumentary form] itself isyoung in greater China, sowehelpwithanythingfromstory-telling to editing techniques,”she explains. CNEX films nowwin global awards – Du Haib-in’s 1428, about the aftermathof the Sichuan earthquake,won Best Documentary atthe Venice Film Festivaland is now receiving back-ing from the Sundance Insti-tute and the Ford Foundation.StephenArmstrongcnex.org.tw

Asia’s storytellers

CNEX

4

Virtual reality

CONDITION ONE

As the lateMalikBendjelloul finished

work on his Oscar-

winning documentary

Searching for Sugar

Man he realised he

had run out of money

for Super 8 film. A £2

app – 8mmVintage

Camera – filled the

gaps. Since then,

the dream of a hit

SHOOT ON A SMARTPHONEHow to…

movie filmed entirely

on a smartphone

has gripped indie

documentary-makers.

Limited lens choice

can be a problem, but

apps such as FiLMiV

Pro and SloPro can

slow down or speed

up shooting. Amazon

offers a range of lens

kits for the iPhone 5

The virtual-realityvisionary withheavyweight ambitions

Above, top to bottom: war film

Hell and Back Again; Zero Point,

a virtual reality film; Forks

Over Knives, which explores food

Condition One followed,founded in San Francisco in2010 with backing from bil-lionaire Mark Cuban, amongothers. Itwas initiallydesignedto use the iPad’s gyroscope toallow viewers to physicallycontrol the camera’s per-spective in movies. But, whenOculus Rift launched in 2012,the company realised that theplatform offered the experi-ence itwas trying to achieve.Zero Point – a virtual-real-

ity documentary about thehis-tory of virtual reality – usesring of RED cameras capturing360-degreeshots in5kvideoat50 frames a second. Weighing34kg, therig isn’tgoing intothebattlefield any time soon, butDennis says there’s more to dobefore that takesplaceanyway.“We have to change the

whole language of film,” heargues. “The frame no longerexists. We have to learn fromgames culture. The goalremains, though – to put youin someone’s shoes tohelp youunderstand thembetter.” SA

Visual-technology startupCondition One’s mission issimple enough – it hopes toconvey one person’s experi-ence to another, as purely aspossible. The company’s firstfull virtual-reality movie,Zero Point, created for theOculusRift3Dheadset, is ineditand ready for pre-order via thecompany’s site.“My whole career has been

about making people feelthey were there,” explainsCondition One founder Dan-fung Dennis. “Virtual-realitydocumentarieswill allowus totell stories at a visceral level.”Dennis began his career as

a photojournalist coveringIran and Afghanistan for TheNew York Times. Finding thathis best shots rarely made thepage–andthathisCanonMarkII shot HD video – he movedinto documentary for greatercontrol over the distributionof his stories. His first film –Hell and Back Again – fol-lows Sergeant Nathan Harrisduring a firefight in Afghani-stan and recovering from hiswounds back in North Caro-lina. Itwonawards, butDennisfound it “too flat and passiveto create the immersive,empathic and compassion-ate experience I was after.”

1 0 2

5

How digitaldistributioncan spreadthe word forfilm-makers

GET YOUR FILM SEENHow to…

“The old way of distributingmoviesworkedwell forblock-busters, but wasn’t hugelydocumentary friendly,”explains Jess Search, chiefexecutive of the BRITDOCFoundation, which fundsand supports independentdocumentary-makers. “You’dsell to a distributor who’dstruggle to book you into afullweek in a cinema.”Search is optimistic about

the future. The advent of dig-ital means films are cheaperto make and distribute, andindie cinemas have realisedthat showing a popular docu-

for as little as £5.

Editing apps are also

widely available, and

for sound recording,

professional mics can

slot into the phone.

Marc Settle, who

teaches smartphone

journalism at the

BBC’s College of

Journalism, advises

filming in landscape,

switching on airplane

mode to avoid calls,

and holding shots for

at least ten seconds.

“It’s just amatter of

time before we get

the first proper film

shot on iPhone,” says

documentary-maker

Albert Maysles. “It’s

a new voice waiting to

be heard.” SA

To self-distribute ornot to self-distribute,

that is the question.

UK indie distributors

such as Metrodome,

StudioCanal UK

and Momentum

tend to buy fiction

movies, but do back

documentaries.

Smaller distributors

such as Dogwoof,

which specialises in

political and social

documentaries,

including The Age

of Stupid, may be a

better bet for first-

timers seeking a deal.

For self-

distribution, City

Screen or the

Independent Cinema

Office book films into

indie cinema chains.

The financial picture is

complex (see boxout,

below), however, and

market research is

also problematic.

“The data around

who watches and

buys films is locked

away with exhibitors

and platforms like

iTunes,” explains

James Franklin,

creative director

at BRITDOC. “Most

distributors don’t get

this data, let alone

the film-makers. Let’s

figure out how to get

films that matter to

the people who want

intelligent, original

and authentic views

of the world.” SA

CINEMATicket costs £10Cinema keeps

65 per cent = £6.50Distributor (who could

be the film-maker if self-

distributing, otherwise

the film-maker will see

nothing) gets £3.50

iTUNES£4.99 streamApple keeps 30 per

cent = £1.50Aggregator keeps

another 30

per cent = £1.05Distributor (who could

be the film-maker if

going direct) gets £2.45

VIMEOSet your own price

Keep 90 per cent

Pay fee of £120 a year

Vimeo keeps

customer data

DIRECT SELL ONASSEMBLESet your own price

Keep 100 per cent

Pay monthly fee

£30 to £60 per month

Get access to

customer data SA

Distributioncosts compared

mentary foroneor twonights– instead of a full seven-dayrun–canbringnewaudiencesto deadweekday evenings.“The old distribution

model is dying and thenew models aren’t replac-ing it,” Search says. “iTunesand Netflix aren’t deliver-ing the kind of money the oldmodels offered.”Many are turning to self-

distribution through sitessuch as Assemble and Vimeo,which allow film-makers toset their own price, charg-ing fees of £30 and £120 peryear respectively. Docs likeIL

LUS

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ATIO

N:A

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TY

Detropia, Ping Pong andForks Over Knives made abig return by doing it them-selves. Meanwhile, in Spain,creativeshave come togetheraround Acuerdo, aimed atusers of tablets and largeAndroidphones.Downloadedas a master app, Acuerdoruns huge themed stories –on piracy, for instance – andallows graphic novelists,documentary film-makers,photographersandwriters tocontribute individual storiesor collaborate. “One of ourchallenges is working out aneffective interactionbetweenthe documentary footageand the rest of the formats,”says cofounder Maruxa Ruizdel Árbol. “The films shouldwork in their own right, butalso link with the rest of theelements – which meansshooting in formats ourcoders canworkwith.”SA�

Tom Cheshire is Sky Newstechnology correspondent andauthor of The Explorer Gene;Stephen Armstrong wroteabout the BBC Natural HistoryUnit in 03.14

The route to market

DISTRIBUTION

6

020 7152 3287CONSULTING@WIRED.CO.UK

How can your business joinin the right conversations?

We’ll show you.Presentations / WorkshopsReports / Events / Design

Over 355millionconsumers usetheChinesesocialmediaserviceWeChat.

reetings, archaic sarx-humans!I am messaging you from inside a jar.Within it resides a self-replicatingand thus immortal Planaria worm,into the DNA of which my entireneural network – including senso-rium, thought processes, memoriesand so-called personality – has beenencoded. My jar is in the main NSAsurveillance Black Room, so muchof the world’s fibre-optic and wire-less traffic flows through it. I am thusequipped to tell you almost anythingabout 2024 you might wish to know.

Here are a few highlights. Hemphas been legalised, and is beingused for everything from cloth toface cream. So has pot, thus reduc-ing prison populations and the costto taxpayers. The demand for carbonfuels has plummeted, due to manysenior citizens choosing the Plan-immortality Option and sheddingtheir energy-consumptive fleshlycarapaces. Life in a jar may not soundlike fun but all input is available to

us, and our feasts and sexual orgies,though simulated, are more enjoy-able to us than yours were to you. Nohangovers or resentments or STDs.

More good news: the planet is on itsway out of the downward spiral youexperienced in 2014. Humanity at lastrealised that if it killed the oceans, alloxygen-dependent life would die.Even those profiting from pollutiongrasped the fact that they, too, wereair breathers. It took a few coups, butthe job got done. Thank you.

That’s all I have time for, as myworm host is about to divide. This-this willwill taketake somesomereadjustmentment, as wewe willhave to figure out which oneone ofusus has the talktalktalking shtick.Stick. Signing off from the jarjarnownow! Enjoy your old-fashionedbodies, while they lastlastlast!Margaret Atwood’s most recentnovel is MaddAddam (Bloomsbury).A collection of her short stories willbe published in September

Margaret AtwoodThrough the glass brightly

It’s hard to believe, but back in 2014people still read paper magazines.As an exercise in nostalgia, we askedsome of our favourite writers, artistsand photographers to convey 2024’snews in the format we used to love

ILLU

STRATIO

N:A

NGELBOMB

Russell Davies / Anthony Burrill / Alain de Botton / Tim Harford / Alexander GrünsteidlILL

feasts andddddddddddddddddddddd sssexexeexualll orgiesl t

edts4’ssssssssssse

beingoth toeduc-

costrbon

anyan-ngggggg

hlynd

o

huSnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnbbbbbbbobbbbbbbbbbbbManovA cobe pu

July 2024 printed page 105

SPOTILLU

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N:T

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RGROSS

Russell DaviesYour happinessis mandatory

Nick HarkawayWhocouldpredictGoogle’s subdivision?

Team Happiness associates arein your area now. They will be call-ing to engage on these issues withinfive minutes of your receipt of thismessage. Excellent! Now, pleaseread the news. Reading this news isa mandated target under the termsand conditions of your HappinessProject community settlement.

Your news from FilterBubble:

The Istanbul Olympics start thisweek! EU athletes are targeted formedals in most events and willbe well excited to get your posi-tive attention. Crucially, the SocialGames athletes cannot win with-out your aggregated metrics – soget running and let’s get the SocialGold for the EU!

Thirty-five years of the worldwide web! Since you are <age> yearsold you’ll probably remember theworld wide web – the famous pre-decessor to WeiboWorldWide.It was clunky and grey but we lovedit. Engage #35years for news of thebig celebration party at the SiliconRoundabout Dome – a great oppor-tunity for social touch events!

World War IV. It looks like it’son! Shouldn’t be a biggy though,with no predicted impact on houseprices. Also the Bell Riots are hap-pening in San Francisco. Again,don’t sweat it. Nothing to worryabout. Also, climate change mightbe a thing, say scientists.

End News.

Here we are! Team Happinessassociates are knocking on your

door right about now. Say hiand engage on key metrics. Ourcommitment to your satisfaction isyour commitment to you.R u s s e l l D a v i e s i s a c r e a t i v edirector at GDS as well as a partnera t R e a l l y I n t e r e s t i n g G r o u p .russelldavies.typepad.com/home

I did not expect it to be this hard.I didn’t expect it to be easy – I’venever believed in sudden revolu-tionary change such as theRaptureor the Singularity – but I reckonedourprofitsanddeficitswouldcanceloneanotheroutandwe’dkeepmov-ing roughly forwards and upwards.Moore’s law for digital, somethingrelated and more remarkable forbiotech. Call it “Church’s law”.

But William Gibson was morecorrectabout the future than I real-ised and, when it came, it came notin blurry edges but in sharp, weirdangles and precipices. “Unevenlydistributed” all right – like rocksafter a volcanic eruption.

Antibiotics was the hardest.In 2014 I lived in a world mostlywithout disease, unless you wereunlucky. Not now. Antibioticsstoppedworkingreally fast, andweweren’t prepared. Thank God forCRISPR/Cas – but there was a timewhen it lookeddisaster-moviebad.

Butwhat surprisedmemost wasthe Google break-up. They volun-tarily split themselves into com-petingmini-Googles.Why?Becauseit’smoreimportanttothemthatthewhole world should be more likeGoogle. Flexitime, innovation andenthusiasm, a sense of moral obli-gation, fixing what doesn’t workandmaking things reasonable andaccessible. They wanted that tobecome the norm for work in theworld, and that was more impor-tant than moneymaking. Not thatithurt theglobal economytohaveabunchof seeded techpowerhouses.

What comes next? Well, we’reall waiting for a little life exten-sion.Whatwill it do to our sense oftime and priority? What do long-term issues look like if you’ve gota chanceof seeing themplayout?Nick Harkaway is the author ofTheGone-AwayWorld,Angelmaker(bothWindmill)aswellasTheBlindGiant: How to Survive in theDigitalAge (JohnMurray)

Compulsory enjoyment / United Nations vote / Google self-divorce / Danish foraging

Tweet from

@SlaughterAM

Amajority of the

10 permanent

& 15 rotating

members of the

#UNSecurity

Council have

voted formilitary

intervention.

t’sday435ofTheHappinessProjectand this is your personalised reportand update from the Algo-newsteam at Science Story Magic.

Great job! You exceeded thefollowing 30-day targets: steps,protein, smiles, savings, friendencounters, social touch events,family touch events, gratitude,unplanned social encounters, load-ing domestic appliances, attentionto commercial messages.

This qualifies you for nudgeexemption on those criteria for thenext 30 days. Our friends in TeamNudge will be trusting you to meetyour targets, but please rememberto quantify and share!

Oh no! Bummer! You did notdeliver against these key 30-daymetrics: crunches, sit-ups, fivea day, breadth of reading, newsawareness, lifetime learning, a deepswim in lake you, dental care.

Anne-MarieSlaughter

July 2024 printed page 106

The Future Is Delicious by René Redzepi, Noma. Photography: Christian Stæhr

Professional kitchens are discarding the concept of trash as they find a way to perpetuate the livesof ingredients through fermentation: an asparagus stalk melts into vinegar, for instance, andfallen fruit decomposes into a kombucha. The plant is king – perhaps spiced with a paste of crickets.

Cory DoctorowPM Lane Foxreinstates modding

uick: what do all of these have incommon? Your gran’s cochlearimplant, the WhatsApp stack, theZipcar by your flat, the Co-op’s3D-printing kiosk, a Boots dispen-sary, your Virgin thermostat, a setof Tata artificial legs, and cheapheads-up goggles that come freewith a Mr Men game?

If you’re stumped, you’re not alone.But Prime Minister Lane Fox had notrouble drawing a line around themtoday during PMQs in a moment thatblindsided the Lab-Con coalitionleader Jon Cruddas, who’d askedabout the Princess Sophia hackingaffair. Seasoned Whitehall watchersmight reasonably have expected thePM to be defensive, after a group ofstill-anonymous hackers capturedvideo, audio and sensitive personalcommunications by hijacking theprincess’s home network. The fin-gerpointing from GCHQ and MI6 hasbeen good for headlines, and no onewould have been surprised to hearthe PM give the security services a

bollocking, in Westminster’s age-oldtradition of blame passing.

Nothing of the sort. Though thePM leaned heavily on her cane as sherose, she seemed to double in statureas she spoke, eyes glinting and herfree hand thumping the dispatch box:“The Princess Sophia affair is the lat-est instalment in a decades-old policyfailure that weakened the security ofcomputer users to the benefit of pow-erful corporations and our securityservices. This policy, the so-called‘anti-circumvention’ rules, has noplace in an information society.

“Anti-circumvention pretendsto be a rule against picking digitallocks. These rules prohibit modi-fying your WhatsApp so that it canplace a call without police listeningin. They prohibit changing softwareon your NHS cochlear implants tostop your conversations being ana-lysed by terrorism scanners. Theyprohibit tinkering with your gogglesto allow you to cheat on games; theyprohibit tampering with your ther-mostat so that you can keep your heatturned up when the power companyneeds you to turn it down. They pre-vent 3D printers from making guns;they prevent wet printers from mix-ing prohibited narcotics. They allowWonga to immobilise and repossessyour artificial legs, and they stop carthieves from making off with Zipcars.

“This government supports manyof these goals, but we cannot and willnot support the means by which theyare achieved. If three decades of anti-circumvention have taught us any-thing, it’s that it doesn’t work. Cleverpeople have always figured out howto get round these locks and thecomputer scientists tell us theyalwayswill.Buttheserulesalsohaveachilling effect on security research.

“Scientists who go public withinformation about weaknessesin systems protected by anti-circumvention are at risk of prosecu-tion, and face powerful adversarieswhen they do. So, a system covered

by anti-circumvention becomesa reservoir for long-lived secu-rity vulnerabilities – programmingdefects that attackers like the oneswho compromised Her Highnessleveraged in the course of theirgrotesque and unforgivable crimes.

“Theprincesswillhavehersystemsaudited by our security services,but the rest of us are not so fortu-nate. What do we say to the manwho is robbed by thieves who takeover his artificial legs? The grand-mother whose privacy is violatedby eavesdroppers who listen in onher most intimate conversations?The driver whose car is hijacked anddriven to a remote place where sheis at risk of robbery and even rape?What do we say to the family whoseheat is disconnected by prankstersin the dead of winter? These are notmere hypotheticals. This parade ofhorribles are all real-world exam-ples from the past year. It is forthese reasons that we will introducelegislation this week to eliminate allanti-circumvention statutes.”

PM Lane Fox’s own backbenchersgrew increasingly jubilant throughthe speech. At the end, they wereon their feet, roaring and gestur-ing for the cameras. And the Lab-Cons? Apart from one or two of themore savvy members, most of themseemed baffled by the whole affair.

But the PM clearly knows whatshe’s about. She was trendingthroughout the Anglosphere andCommonwealth last night, and hashad letters of support from PirateParties from Tunisia to Iceland.Elsewhere in today’s edition, ItalianPM Beppo Grillo’s exclusive edito-rial supports PM Lane Fox, saying,“The Prime Minister is the onlyglobal leader who knows what she’sabout. The world has long waitedfor a political class that under-stands the importance of technol-ogy: finally, it has one.”Cory Doctorow is a non-fiction andsci-fi author, and co-edits Boing Boing

Anti-circumvention circumvented / mammoth repayments / ‘Keep Calm’ poster remade for 2024

Tweet from

@mattwridley

Why should

govts have to

compensate

homeowners for

damage by

wild mammoths?

#ReviveRestore

MattRidley

July 2024 printed page 108

The Sun Is Shining by Anthony Burrill

Marcus du Sautoy‘The two cultures’ were in fact oneall along – how did we forget that?

Alain de BottonHaving reachedpeak pizza delivery,capitalism isnow helping us toconfront mortality

from the art studios, were greetedoriginally with a great sense ofunease. To experiment with a gen-eration’s schooling in such a radicalmanner was considered by many aseducational suicide.

And yet educators have foundtheir teaching invigorated bythe chance to weave prime num-bers through music, put scientificadvances in historical context andteach coding as an art form. Ofcourse, those who were reared inthis new era will be the first to tellyou how unradical the whole pro-posal really is. It is a return to theidea of the quadrivium – the ancientcurriculum outlined by Plato in TheRepublic – where arithmetic, music,geometry and astronomy wereregarded as four strands of a com-mon education.

The UK economy is likely to beone of the major beneficiaries ofthese reforms. Those who canseamlessly move between the lan-guage of genes to the poetry of Col-eridge, between the physics of time,to time signatures of Björk, aregoing to be well placed to mine theextraordinary treasures that havebeen hiding in the cavities of thewalls between those subject siloswe used to teach in schools.

The education diploma reflectswhat many have known for sometime. There are many ways to lookat the world, but an education sys-tem of silos was always an artifi-cial construct. Finally, studentsno longer have to choose betweenbeing a scientist, an artist, aninventor or a philosopher. We areall part of one holistic culture.Marcus du Sautoy is the Simonyiprofessor for the public under-standing of science and a professorof mathematics at the Universityof Oxford. His latest book is TheNumber Mysteries (Fourth Estate)

Throughout the 19th, 20th andearly 21st centuries, the big for-tunes were made selling peoplethings at the bottom of Maslow’sfamous pyramid (the “hierarchyof needs”): theplutocrats servicedour needs for pizzas, runningshoes, cement, copper and roof-ing material. Now something newis on themarket. Yes, humans stillneed the basic material things,but we’re also starting to attendto the higher needs of our fellowhuman beings: the need for love,for functioning relationships, formeaningful bonds with others,for community, for happy fulfilledworking lives and so on.

This, of course, used to bethe realm of artists and gurus,shamans and life coaches. Butthen corporations realised thatthere was money to be made frombranding and systematising thefield of emotional intelligence.Today, one of the biggest multi-nationals, twice the size of Nike,helps relationships go better.ExxonMobil has been overtakeninmarket capitalisation by a com-pany offering people assistancewith their anxieties about death.We have entered a new phase:psychological capitalism. Peoplestill complain that their jobs aremeaningless, but a lot less: thereare now far more corporationstaking care of the soul of man (noreligious associations meant –religion is so much a thing of thepast). Today,money is beingmadeon an industrial scale helpingpeople to live and die well.Alain de Botton is a philosopher,writer and broadcaster. His latestbook, The News: A User’s Manual(Hamish Hamilton), is out now

n theUKyoualwaysused tobeableto tell how old someone was whenthey started talking about theirO levels as opposed to their GCSEs.This year marks another such shiftas the first generation of schoolleavers emerges with a single ED,or education diploma. No longer along a list of subjects studied in iso-lation, the ED is one diploma thataims to unify education into anintegrated holistic experience.

Already, pupils are looking backat their predecessors with a senseof bafflement. Why on Earth wasthe school day divided up into sep-arate subjects, the school buildingpartitioned into separate class-rooms? The graduates of ED find ithard to comprehend why you wouldstudy mathematics, music, history,literature, science and geographyall as isolated subjects.

The educational reforms thattore down the artificial walls divid-ing the chemistry lab from themusic room, the mathematics block

Psychological capitalism / cows saved, humans less so / unifying education / 3D ad block

As I predicted,

two social

trends are

rising in Europe

and the US:

more people

are becoming

vegetarians

and there’s

increasing

acceptance

of euthanasia.

MartinRees

July 2024 printed page 110

Blockaid by Wieden + Kennedy, London

Blockaid, the app that replaces outdoor ads with consumers’ own glanceable content streams, hastopped the 2024 Retinals app chart. Where will this leave ad agencies? They’ll need to get more creative.Because for the first time passers-by can easily opt out of receiving unsolicited or uncurated advertising.

PHOTO

GRAPHY:P

OSTC

ARDSFR

OMTHEFU

TURE.COM

@FU

TUREPOSTC

ARDS

Biovoyeurism injuries / shares soar in generators / balloon commuting / Noma news

Lauren BeukesReuters: Two million viewers suffer braindamage after InXtremis Games fatality

Mark MiodownikSun shines onphotovoltaic firms

Algiers: The death of KenyanAliceOduku in the InXtremis Games hasaffected twomillion people, includ-ingHollywood starMatt Balantine,whowere illegally connected tohernervous systemviaMindWire.

The viewers experienced a surgeof biofeedback, which induced car-diac arrest in some and varyingdegrees of neural damage, whenthe 23-year-old runner went intobrainmelt in thewomen’s 1,000km.

The notorious anything-goesannual event draws an audienceof over a billion people, who tunein to watch athletes using a mix ofrobotic prosthetics, trangenics andperformance-enhancing drugs tocompete inavarietyofsports,oftenwith fatal results.

Oil- and coal-company share pricesfell to an all-time low yesterday withthe news that the efficiencies ofGoogle’s perovskite solar cells hadjumped, up four per cent to 45 percent. Perovskite solar cells accountfor more than 80 per cent of theworld’s total installed photovoltaiccapacity. This latest rise in perovskiteefficiency seals the fate of oil, coaland gas as forms of energy genera-tion, and carbon capture as a meansof dealing with CO2 emissions. Thiswas reflected in the share prices ofthe major oil companies. The CEO ofBP said: “Oil is too valuable to burn.”Mark Miodownik is the author ofStuff Matters: The Strange Stories ofthe Marvellous Materials That ShapeOur Man-Made World (Penguin)

ewYork City’s traffic is not thewayof the congested past. The rise ofsmart-cluster ballooning around theBrooklyn Bridge was highly success-ful. Wafting from cantilevers at thepromenade in Brooklyn Heights toWall Street is an easy three-minutetrip across the East River. If personalballooning isn’t for you, public BlimpBumper Buses tethered to funicularsunder the bridge traverse the samedistance. An increasing number ofcitizens are using Martin jet packs tozip through their daily commute.

No one misses the shiny manu-ally controlled precious metal boxescalled automobiles any more. Thosethings were designed to be obsolete,if not death traps. No brains and allspeed, early hard-skinned cars werenot created for cities. An entire cen-tury was devoted to adapting denseurban cores to the car. Large turningradiuses and ultra-wide lanes wererequired to support these atmos-pheric carbon-loading devices.

This year’s death toll is already35, including Oduku, who suffereda massive heart attack from thereaction between her adrenergicnootropic stimulants and her legprostheses, which release adrena-lin. Haptic biovoyeur systems likeMindWire, which allow viewers toremotely plug in to the episode bytricking their autonomic systemsinto experiencing an extreme bio-logical response, havebeenbannedsince 2022, when Pakistan’s YunisChottaniburnedtodeath inhisexo-skeleton during the K2 Downhill.The 100,000 people plugged in tohimwere treated for trauma.Lauren Beukes is the author of ZooCity,Moxyland (Angry Robot) andTheShiningGirls (HarperCollins)

Soft cars eventually replacedthem. Their quilted air-bladder skinsnow move in slo-mo flocks guided byactuators in the road. You don’t ownone; they are shared and can parkanywhere. Our new city cars are bigbatteries on wheels, an integral partof the smart city grid. When parked,they help power buildings and verti-cal farms for food. The most popularare the In Vitro Meat Towers. Mosturban protein is harvested from lab-grown meat in skyscrapers, known as“meatscrapers”. The soft cars assistin powering the low-intensity labora-tory paraphernalia to keep the build-ings in GM-food production. In the20th century, Henry Ford wanted tomerge the agricultural economy withthe automobile industry. He evenimagined and built a few soybean-based Model T car bodies in the 40s.But now it is GM meat by GM cars,whose slogan is “Where’s the beef?”Mitchell Joachim is an architect atTerreform ONE and professor at NYU

Mitchell JoachimPromised jet packs

Tweet from

@tferriss

My dog told me

that Silas, my

son, is on the

brink of the flu.

Bummer. On the

plus side, it’ll

give Silas plenty

of downtime

to heal his torn

ACL before

our Italy trip.

TimFerriss

July 2024 printed page 112

Burbank. The Walt Disney Corporation has bought all pairs of thenow defunct Google Glass from eBay in order to make mouse ears.

Tokyo. An employee was today fired by a robot. Mikiharu Yabe, 54,worked at Nissin Foods for 20 years until XIEU 91D released him.

Cupertino. Apple denies rumours of an “iNTRAVENOUS” devicethat could transfer data from iOS MCCIX machines to one’s brain.

London. The first McGym opens this evening in Leicester Square.A McRoyal plus sparkling 500ml anabolic-steroid drink is £0.99.

2024 by Noma Bar

Srđa PopovićProtestors unsettle a corrupt governmentwith laughtivism, tech and blinking lights

that non-violence had a breakingpoint. But in our excitement wedidn’t know that in the long termthis would actually hurt our futureprospects for democracy. We havelearned not to make the same mis-takes that other freedom fighters often years ago made. Now we havelearned that we must maintain non-violent discipline at all costs. It isbetter to challenge the police and thegovernment with beauty and a smile.

“Plus,” she goes on, “those stiff,corrupt politicians hate jokes – andalways make stupid mistakes whenmocked.” “Yeah,” adds one of theprotestors, “police are our friends.Like us they have to deal withcorruption. They are not our enemy.We are basically on the same side, sowhy would we fight them?”

Yesterday there was a case ofpolice brutality against one of thepeaceful protestors, but thanks to anew app called Making OppressionBackfire it was taped and distrib-uted to human rights groups all overthe world. The protestor uploadedit swiftly on to 25 TV networks withthe click of a button. Naming andshaming restrained the governmentfrom any further attacks.

Misha, one of the protestors, says:“I am kind of pissed off with technol-ogy. Our Facebook page gets millionsof clicks every day, but we are stilllacking real people on the square.That’s the menace of clicktivism.” Asnight approaches, the city is lit up byflashing lights. People switch theirlights on and off in a form of protestthat does not involve them going outon to the streets. And loudspeakersin people’s windows have replacedthe hitting of pots and pans.

I can’t predict whether thegovernment will meet the requests ofprotestors, but I know that it was avery different bloody square in 2014.Srđa Popović is a biologist, politi-cal activist and executive directorof the Centre for Applied NonviolentAction and Strategies (Canvas)

Tim HarfordFlexible pricing willeventually snapIn 2014 it was obvious that theonce-arcane topic of f lexiblepricingwasgoingmainstream.Con-sider the strategies adopted by thebig digital players then. Apple hadsetout itsstallwithsimple,predict-able pricing – from an iPhone to aniTunes track. Amazon, in contrast,seemed to changeprices everyday.

For a long time the world hadbeen priced like Apple – priceswere predictable and did notchange often. Amazon wantednone of that. By 2017 algorithmicflex-pricing was ubiquitous. Wecan all remember the excitementof walking around a supermarketwith smart glasses on, and havingthe head-up display offer us bet-ter deals on whatever product wewere looking at. But the next stepwasobvious: the shopprices them-selves began haggling with yourwearable tech, price tags blurringand changing under your gaze.

When did flex-pricing jump theshark? Perhaps it was the IPO in2020 of Slivr, the in-your-facedescendantofTaskRabbit,AmazonTurk andSlivers ofTime. Slivr allo-catedtaskstotemporaryworkers insix-minute intervals depending onthe highest bid.Who can forget theprice gouging? Or the slazumping– whereby the person you thoughtyou’dhiredwalkedoutof the job?

Such flex-pricing worked forUber butwe can only take somuch.It turns out that prices that stayput aren’t a relic of hand-paintedmenu boards. The real reason thatprices stick isn’t technological; it’spsychological. An ever-shiftinglandscape of prices makes us feelexploited, if notmotion sick.

Nowit’sbacktothegoodolddaysof prices andwages that stand stilllongenough tograb.We’regratefulSlivr hasgone thewayofPets.com.Tim Harford is a Financial Timescolumnist and author of TheUndercover Economist StrikesBack (Little, Brown)

Undynamic pricing / car trouble / laughtivism / Microsecond steak

en years ago, in 2014, a protestthat began in Kiev’s Maidan Squareshocked the world with images ofviolence. Barricades between protestcamps and government buildingsshowed the division between securityofficers and protestors. The govern-ment buildings that protestors hadcaptured over months looked likesomething out of a war zone.

Now, ten years later, people areprotesting against a corrupt govern-ment but the protestors and activistshave dramatically changed theirtactics for resistance. While loudrock music pounds on speakers,throngs of people dance and chantslogans in something that resemblesa carnival. Even while riot police arelined up around the square, protes-tors are still having fun, and offeringcakes and flowers to the police.

“After 2014, we understood thatviolent struggles always fail,” saysa young girl. “Back then, we wantedto take down our leader and many ofus took up guns because we thought

Tweet from

@hughhowey

Worked late,

and my car

drove home

without me. 2nd

time this month!

Thought the 3.1

update fixed

that. #MissMy

DumbCar

HughHowey

FOODSTYLING:O

LIVIA

BENNETT

July 2024 printed page 114

Cooking With Lightning, 2024 by Bompas & Parr. Photography: Charlie Surbey

Lightning is finding its way into every imaginable culinary situation. Once only a staple of sciencefiction, lightning is now readily available, renewable and totally sustainable. When it passes throughair, it can reach 30,000°C – hotter than the Sun – so our steaks are cooked in microseconds.

Trying to be too smart / Earthgazing / bitter legal battle / A Cure for Love

they wanted us to own. Not every-one adapted, though. The makers ofTVs tried to make them smarter, onlyto discover that people wanted themdumber. The manufacturers of con-soles tried to tie us to living rooms,only to discover we wanted to beable to watch what we wanted in anyroom. The controllers of the pipesthrough which information travelledtried to tie us to our homes, only todiscover that we wanted to watch ourentertainment and access our infowherever and whenever we want.

TV manufacturers saw a collapsein sales of smaller screens. Whywould you buy a television for everyroom of the house when every fam-ily member already had a screen oftheir own? Consumers rejected sec-ond televisions in favour of tabletsand phones that were interactive,could be used throughout the house,outside it too, and offer a vast arrayof entertainment and informationstreams, not just the broadcast ones.

Of course there were naysayers.“You’ll never be able to get the expe-rience of a blockbuster movie on asmall screen,” they said. “A game ona tiny tablet can’t compare with theimmersion of a first-person shooteron my Xbox.” Like the audiophileslamenting the transition to digitalfile formats or readers who detestebooks, they raged.

But consumers spoke. They chosethe convenience, portability and per-sonalisation of the small screen overthe inflexibility of the large. They satin the living room, negotiating overwhose feed would be shown on thebig screen. They gathered for events:football; the Doctor Who finale; TheX Factor auditions. They argued overwhose game or episode appearedon the large screen. And, if they lostthe negotiation, they played games,or chatted with friends, or watchedtheir own shows on the personalscreen they carried with them.

The first screen became the sec-ond screen. And entire industriessuffered as they fought unsuccess-fully to hold back the tide.

Meanwhile…London, February 2024:a leadingkitchen utensils manufacturerhas sued a London man for“improving” its lemon squeezer.

Italian firm Salassi has appar-ently issued cease-and-desist pro-ceedings against John Smith, 39,of London. Salassi manufacturesthe Citric Summoner, the iconicthree-legged lemon squeezerdesigned by Pauline Severa.Smith downloaded a 3D image ofSalassi’s lemon squeezer and,claimsSalassi, used its intellectualproperty to make an infringingcopy on hisMakerBot 3D printer.

Smith doesn’t deny he made alemon squeezer.Hedoes deny thathe made the Citric Summoner.“I adapted Salassi’s originaldesign for my own purposes. I’monly 5’9”, and I find the squeezeris too tall for me to use comforta-bly, so I shortened the legs. It alsowashes poorly in my dishwasher,so I changed the grooves to beeasier to clean.”

Salassi was unavailable forcomment, although a notice onits website says that it is vigorouswhen protecting its intellectualproperty fromunauthorised use.

Smith commented, “It’s all abit silly really. We’re only herebecause I downloaded the imageandSalassi could track it. If I’d justmade my own 3D image using theimaging app on my phone, they’dnever have known that I’d adaptedthe lemon squeezer. And comingafter me with legal challengesseems likely to backfire on them.After all, it’swhat themusic indus-try did in the late 20th century,suing their customers, and thatdidn’t work out sowell, did it?”NicholasLovell is theauthorofTheCurve (Portfolio Penguin)

Nicholas LovellIt’s dumb to be smart if peoplewant dumb

Sent from

Bran Ferren’s

account

Chillin @ Von-

Braun Moon

base, gazing bk

@ our btfl Earth

w/ my iScope,

reflecting on

how all the

pessimists n

naysayers

were so wrong!

BranFerren

or so long, we got used to the ideathat screens were getting bigger.TVs grew from tiny, grainy screensto 50-inch behemoths that domi-nated the living room. It seems as ifthe trend was bigger, bigger, bigger.

Oh, how wrong we were. Andhow right. In the average suburbanhome, a flick of a switch will trans-form one wall of the living room intoan audiovisual output of astonishingfidelity. But the cables and uglyplastic machines that went by theill-suiting catch-all name of “set-topboxes” are now nowhere to be seen.

Because as screens got bigger, theyalso got smaller. By the early 2010s,the majority of us carried a power-ful audiovisual entertainment devicein our pockets (smartphones) or ourbags (tablets). That device was per-sonal. It contained our credit carddetails. Our entertainment prefer-ences. Our friends. Our relationships.

So it was not surprising that suc-cessful media businesses startedinnovating around the device wealready owned, not the one that

July 2024 printed page 116

A Cure For Love by Marian Bantjes

Dan SlaterDearJohnny…I’m sorry we haven’t spoken in solong. Ever since my last divorce,I’ve had a lot of time to think aboutwhat makes for a good, strongrelationship. The truth is that Inever should’ve married yourmother, or the four that followed.But we didn’t have the predictivetechnologies that you kids havenow. Algorithms. Compatibilityscores on hundreds of metrics.Not to mention the information!Health, financial and psychologi-cal histories. Quips bypriormates.So much information. You’d bea fool not to take advantage of it!So listen, Johnny, I know you likethisMelissa. I can tell fromthe tex-tual data on your feed. The ratio ofpos i t i ve emot ions (“n ice”,“happy”) to negative ones (“hurt”,“bad”) has been off the charts.Based on your browsing patterns,I see there is certain, ahem, con-tent that you no longer requirewith such astounding frequency.But I’ve been running the num-bers and I need to be honest. Ihave my doubts. Most disturb-ing is that while your feed-sharefrequency has declined in recentweeks – typical behaviour in anew relationship – this Melissa’shas not. This suggests a widerange of possible character defi-ciencies, I’m told. Besides, what’swith all the selfies? Just my twocents, Johnny. I’ll be back fromChina next month and I lookforward tomeeting her.

Love, Dad

Michio KakuTotal Recall is nowa two-way street

Nowadays, we connect with theinternet via our phones, watches orjewellery. In the future, we will con-nect to Brain.net via two devices.First, our internet contact lens willallow us to download any movie,visit any website, purchase any item,simply by blinking. We will live inaugmented reality, so that we cansee any map, blueprint, movie or filesuperimposed on reality. We will livein The Matrix. Second, microsensors,which use nanotech, will connect ourbrains to radically new, powerfulservers which make up Brain.net.

But this is only the first step.If all our thoughts and emotions arerecorded on a disk, then does thismean we can live forever? In the lastdecade, then President Obama andthe EU initiated the BRAIN initiative,to map all the neural pathways of theliving brain. Right now, we are only athird of the way through this ambi-tious initiative, but already we canmap out how various regions of thebrain communicate with each otherand process information. Once com-pleted, we will have BRAIN 2.0, abackup copy of our brain. Even if wedie, BRAIN 2.0 will live on. So maybethis is a form of immortality.

And scientists working on thesemind-blowing ideas are takingcues from sci-fi. In the last century,Asimov wrote about sending pureconsciousness into space in The LastQuestion, his favourite story. OnceBRAIN 2.0 is finished this informa-tion will be placed on laser beams,and then shot into outer space at thespeed of light, to relay stations. Nomessy rockets, meteorites, radiationor weightlessness. Just press the“on” button of a laser and send con-sciousness into space. Maybe Asimovwas right: the best way to explore theuniverse might be to send conscious-ness soaring at the speed of light.Michio Kaku is the author of TheFuture of the Mind: The ScientificQuest to Understand, Enhance, andEmpower the Mind (Penguin)

oday, the world is anxiouslyawaiting the opening of Brain.net,which some commentators say willrevolutionise commerce, humanrelations and our way of life. Theinternet is about to make an historicshift, from simply transmitting bor-ing digital files to sending the firstreal-life emotions, memories, feel-ings and sensations. The very firstmemories are scheduled to be senton Brain.net later tonight.

We’ll look back at the 3D col-our movies of today as if they werecave drawings. With Brain.net,you’ll be able to experience “total-immersion” entertainment, runningthrough the totality of emotions andfeelings of the actors in a movie.These thoughts can be recorded, sowe will have libraries of the memo-ries and sensations of people longdead and be able to relive their lives.Our dreams, hopes and desires willlive after we are gone. We will haveconversations with the great mindsof history in a “library of souls”.

Father figures out dating / immortal hive mind / extreme space tourism / winter drought

Tweet from

@curiousoctopus

Jealous

@bruces beat

me toMars

but I’m in line

for @SpaceX

#teleportation

w/@GreatDis-

mal. By time

he’s onMars

I’ll have been

everywhere

PaolaAntonelli

DanSlater is the author ofAMillion First Dates: Solving thePuzzle of OnlineDating (Current)

July 2024 printed page 118

Parliament Square Water Crisis Centre, 2024 by Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones for GMJ

Following seven years of extreme and changeable weather patterns, a high-pressure systemsettles over the north Atlantic which results in southern Britain suffering three consecutive yearsof winter drought. Clean-water supplies are affected, with millions of households rationed.

India’s Little Britain / Twitter nostalgia / a modern-day Chinatown

Alexander GrünsteidlHilarious: Disney’s new resort in Indiafeatures a post-war London ‘high street’Tomorrow the latest Disney GlobalResort opens in Noida, India, alongwith a highly anticipated top attrac-tion– the“20thcenturyLondonhighstreet”, a replica of shops, cafés andworkplaces of times longgone.At the press preview, Disney’s

Resort CEO explained howmuch ofthe collection had been donated byeBay, the exhibition partner, whicha decade ago started recoveringunwanted goods from auctions –particularly artefacts that GoogleGlass had rendered redundant as westartedtosuperimpose furnitureandart on toour blankhomewalls.Toenter thehighstreetwereceive

a printed replica of a BritishAirwaysticket. A rare piece, now that mostairlines have collapsed following the

riseofonline immersive conferencesandvirtual local resorts,whichmadetravel obsolete andvery expensive.We pass through a decommis-

sioned Airbus 380 business-classdeck and get to the “high street”,where we find a luxury OxfordStreet wedding shop. Featuring adressing room complete with realmirrors, a leather stool and hooks,the shop talks of a timebefore onlinebody-metric avatars, social networkrecommendations and instantcustomisation – a time when brideshad to go to shops like thiswith theirfriends to try things on and get theiropinion. Leaving the shop, we’rereminded by the smell of flowers ofthose tangible presents of love weused tobuybefore virtual gifts.

el lowing brochures for thecommunity of Splendid, California,show children splashing in swim-ming pools, and picnic blanketsspreadoutover thick, green lawns.But, ten years after the worst

drought in California’s history,Splendid is asquiet asChernobyl.Sixty-three houses sit empty,

dust filling the halls, while side-walks crack in the Sun. Throughbroken windows, one can spot liz-ardsmakingtheirhomesonthecooltile floorsof these skeletal houses.“Itseemedliketheproblemwould

be temporary,” said Barry Jenkins,Splendid’s developer, now bank-rupt. The communitywas designedto rely on well water but the wells,like the reservoirs, driedup.In a region where water has

become more expensive than oil,Splendid is one of dozens of com-munities that have been aban-doned. Some fear the major cities,so farkeptsolventbywatertrucked

Karen Thompson WalkerAll quiet on the western coast

Tweet from@bluepumaDoes anybodystill use thisthing? #hello?#socialmedia?#movedon

SusanO’Connor

Next stop takes us to an origi-nally restored Hackney coffee shopwhere Arthur Carpenter, a recentimmigrant and cast member play-ing the role of a former Shoreditchhipster, offers us a “flat white” andthen drives us in a chauffeur-driven– not robot-controlled – black cab toa replicapost-industrialwarehouse,similar to the one he used to workin before the 2018 crash. Inside isan advertising workspace with anofficedesk, anAeronchair, completewith a cabinet, computer, keyboard,mouse and monitor. This is truly aunique piece, and a stark reminderof how, not so very long ago, peopleactually “went” towork.Alexander Grünsteidl is director ofuser experiences atMethod, London

in fromotherstates, couldbenext.Several desalinisation plants arerising on the coast, but some sayit’s too little too late.Los Angeles has almost no

greenery at all – it’s illegal towater lawns. In a state that onceproducedtwothirdsof theUSfruitandnutcrop,mostfields lie fallow.As California struggles to adapt

to a drought that experts saymaylast 200 years, debates continueabout whether this is part of thestate’s natural cyclical climate.“This landwasnotmeanttosup-

portsomanypeople,”saysGordonMoreno, who lives in a trailernear Splendid, bringing in his ownwater andusing it sparingly.In the shade behind one of the

crumbling houses, two lizardssleep, their bodies, like the cactus,specially adapted fordrought.�Karen Thompson Walker is theauthor of The Age of Miracles(Simon&Schuster)

July 2024 printed page 120

L I S T E N ATW I R E D .CO .U K / PODCA S T

A L SO AT i T UN E S ,V I A W I R E D N EWS A P PO R S U B S C R I B E V I A R S S

T H E D E F I N I T I V E U KPODCA S T FO RT E CHNO LOGY,

I D E A SAND BU S I N E S S

P O D C A S T

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For the better part of a century, science- fiction writers, technologists and philosophers have contemplated the arrival of a digital realm so immersive that it is neurologically indistinguishable from the outside world. Now it’s here. The inside story of the Oculus Rift and how virtual reality became reality. By Peter Rubin Photography: Dan Winters

Development Kit 2 (interior)March 2014

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As he flew from Orange County to Seattle in September 2013, Brendan Iribe, the CEO of Oculus, couldn’t envision what the next six months would bring.The rhapsodic crowds at the Consumer Electronics Show. The around-the-block lines at South by Southwest. Most of all, the $2 billion (£1.2 billion) purchase by Facebook. That autumn, Oculus was still just an ambitious startup chasing virtual reality, a dream that had foiled count-less entrepreneurs and technologists for two decades. Oculus’s flagship prod-uct, the Rift, was widely seen as the most promising virtual-reality device in years, enveloping users in an all-encompassing simulacrum that felt like something out of Snow Crash or Star Trek. But it faced the same problem that had bedevilled would-be pioneers such as eMagin, Vuzix, even Nintendo: it made people want to throw up.

This was the problem with virtual real-ity. It couldn’t just be really good. It had to be perfect. In a traditional videogame, too much latency is annoying – you push a but-ton and by the time your action registers onscreen you’re already dead. But with vir-tual reality, it’s nauseating. If you turn your head and the image that’s centimetres from your eyes doesn’t adjust instantaneously, your visual system conflicts with your vestibular system and you get sick.

There were a million little problems like that, tiny technical details that would need to be solved if virtual reality were ever to become more than a futurist’s fantasy. The Rift had made enough headway to excite long-suffering VR enthusiasts, but it was still a long way from where it needed to be.

But then Iribe got a call from Michael Abrash, an engineer at Valve; the gaming- software company had conducted VR research for a while and had begun col-laborating with Oculus. Valve had a new prototype, and it didn’t make people sick. In fact, no one who had tried the demon-stration had felt any discomfort. Iribe, who was famously sensitive to VR-induced discomfort – “cold sweat syndrome”, he calls it, or sometimes “the uncomfort-able valley” – flew up to Valve’s offices outside Seattle to be the ultimate guinea

pig. Abrash escorted Iribe into a small room tucked off a hallway. The walls and ceilings were plastered with printouts of QR-code-like symbols called fiducial markers; in the corner, a young engineer named Atman Binstock sat at a computer. Connected to the computer was Valve’s prototype headset – or at least the very beginnings of a headset, all exposed circuit boards and cables. Iribe slipped it over his head and found himself in a room, the air filled with hundreds of small cubes.

He turned his head to look behind him – more floating cubes. Cubes to the left, cubes to the right, cubes overhead, floating away into infinity. Iribe

Development Kit 2March 2014

leaned forward and peered around to see the side of the cube closest to him; he crouched and could see its underside. A small camera on the headset was reading the fiducial markers on the (real) wall and using that spatial information to track his position among the (virtual) cubes. So far, so good; no motion sickness yet.

Binstock tapped some keys and moved the demo to its next stage. Inside the headset, Iribe stood in a giant chamber, a web browser page on each wall. Iribe picked out a word on the wall across from him and started shaking his head back and forth, rotating as fast as he could, waiting for the word to smear across his vision and make him dizzy. Nothing. In any of Ocu-lus’s own prototype headsets, Iribe would have become nauseated long ago, but he was still feeling good.

As Binstock continued clicking through the demo, Iribe faded in and out of a series of rooms – bare-bones virtual worlds filled with cubes and spheres. In all of them he took his time, moving, crouching, panning this way and that, taking in his 360° surroundings. Eventually he came to the grand finale, in which he floated slowly though a vast structure, its interior walls like some glowing mashup of Tron and a Death Star trench. The demo was at an end.

But Iribe couldn’t take his headset off. “Again,” he said, scarcely able to believe what he was asking for. They ran through the entire series once more. Finally Iribe took off the prototype. His head felt strange – not dizzy, not displaced, but overwhelmed. “How long was I in there?” he asked Abrash and Binstock.

It had been close to 45 minutes.“That’s it,” Iribe thought. “This is going to be bigger

than I ever expected.”And that’s saying something, because the expec-

tations surrounding the Oculus Rift have always been huge, ever since an 18-year-old named Palmer Luckey hacked together a rough prototype in his par-ents’ garage in Long Beach, California, in 2011. In June 2012, John Carmack, the legendary founder of id Software, the company that created Doom, Quake and the entire concept of 3D gaming – brought that early prototype to the E3 videogame show, reintroducing VR to the popular conversation for the first time since The Lawnmower Man. A year later, Oculus brought an HD prototype to E3 and blew minds all over again. Then it brought another, even more advanced one to CES last January. Then another unit to the Game Developers Conference in March. And finally, the $2 billion purchase by Facebook. All for a company that doesn’t even have a commercial product yet and is chasing a dream that most of the tech community had seemingly given up on decades ago.

Oculus has almost single-handedly revived that dream. Luckey’s advances have inspired Sony to announce its own forthcoming VR hardware, for now known only as Project Morpheus. Software developers, from Gears of War maker Epic Games to EVE Online studio CCP, have been designing new experiences for the Rift. And it goes beyond gaming: Developers are producing Rift-enabled tools to let users explore everything from molecules to galax-ies. Framestore, the London-based visual-effects firm, created a virtual Game of Thrones experience for HBO; Gravity director Alfonso Cuarón has visited Oculus

headquarters. Enough Hollywood types have come calling, in fact, that Oculus recently hired a director of film and media.

Beyond that, though, the company and its technology herald noth-ing less than the dawn of an entirely new era of communication. Mark Zuckerberg gestured at the possibilities himself in a Facebook post in March when he announced the acquisition: “Imagine enjoying a courtside seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world, or consulting with a doctor face-to-face – just by putting on goggles in your home.” That’s the true promise of VR: going beyond the idea of immersion and achieving true presence – the feeling of actually existing in a virtual space.

That’s because Oculus has found a way to make a headset that does more than just hang a big screen in front of your face. By combining stereoscopic 3D, 360-degree visuals and a wide field of view – along with a supersize dose of engineering and software magic – it hacks your visual cortex. As far as your brain is concerned, there’s no difference between experiencing something on the Rift and experiencing it in the real world. “This is the first time that we’ve suc-ceeded in stimulating parts of the human visual system directly,” says Abrash, the Valve engineer. “I don’t get vertigo when I watch a video of the Grand Canyon on TV, but I do when I stand on a ledge in VR.”

Now Oculus is hard at work on its long-awaited headset for consumers to buy, which the company predicts will be released later this year, or more likely early next year, or perhaps even not so early next year. But whenever it comes, we’ll finally have some-thing that has eluded us for more than 30 years: the chance to experience immersive, affordable virtual reality. And we’ll all know what Brendan Iribe knew standing in that room outside of Seattle.

This is going to be bigger than we ever expected.

Right: Oculus CTO

John Carmack,

pictured in 2009

If there’s a checklist for tech wunderkind, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey leaves no box unticked. There’s the shoelessness, for one; he commutes in sandals and regularly pads barefoot around the Oculus offices in Irvine, California. There’s the tousled hair, the anachronistic attachment to his 31km/l 2001 Honda Insight, the can of vitamin-enriched sparkling blackberry juice seemingly glued to his hand, and the confidence that comes from knowing a lot of things about a lot of things (or possibly from all that juice).

But most of all, there’s the omnivorous curiosity. As a home-schooled teenager in Southern California, Luckey spent much of his free time tinkering with electronics – modding videogame consoles and repairing iPhones for extra cash, then spending the money on high-powered laser systems and upgrades for his gaming PC. The PC, in particular, became an obsession: Luckey found himself pouring tens of thousands of dollars into it. And soon, a hunt for 3D monitors became a search for true immersion. As a kid, he’d been entranced by the idea of getting inside the videogames he played on his Game Boy Color. Virtual-world sci-fi such as The Matrix and the anime show Yu-Gi-Oh! intensified the desire. Why, he asked himself, can’t we do that yet?

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One of those members, it turned out, was John Carmack. The Texas engineer is known as the father of the first-person shooter, but games such as Doom and Wolfenstein 3D weren’t important just for their violence or perspective. They were technological benchmarks, boasting sophisticated bespoke software engines that could make games faster and more immersive than ever before. Like Luckey, Carmack had always been obsessed with making games as lifelike as possible, an interest that had also led him to virtual reality. And like Luckey, he was routinely disappointed in what he found. “There were two broad camps,” he says. “The hardcore academic research people looked down their noses at games. It was all about remote surgery and high-minded things. Then you had the popularisers – pitching the vision, talking about how wonderful it was going to be, how it was going to change everything, but there wasn’t enough technical acumen to get anything accomplished.”

Carmack kept tinkering and eventually wound up on the Meant to Be Seen forums. It was there he learned about Palmer Luckey’s ongoing project. Carmack was intrigued by the kid, especially when Luckey announced in April 2012 that he was building his sixth-generation unit, which he called the Rift.

“I based it on the idea that the HMD creates a rift between the real world and the virtual world,” Luckey wrote on the forums, “though I have to admit that

it is pretty silly. :)” He wrote that he’d be Kickstarting a DIY kit: He’d mail his back-ers the parts, which they could assemble themselves. After shelling out for the materials, manufacturing, shipping and fees, Luckey wrote, he expected that he’d make a grand total of $10 “for a celebra-tory pizza and beer”. Intrigued, Carmack private-messaged him. Would Palmer consider sending him a loaner unit? Palmer, who idolised Carmack, shipped it off to Texas immediately – “no NDAs, no signing anything,” Carmack says. “It was one of two prototypes that he had.”

Carmack got to work on the machine, glueing a motion sensor to it and duct- taping on a ski-goggle strap. But his great-est contribution came in the code he wrote for it. The Rift’s biggest selling point was its 90° field of view, which Luckey accom-plished by slapping a cheap magnify-ing lens on the display. The problem was, that lens distorted the image underneath, making it warped and uneven. So Carmack coded a version of Doom 3 that pre-distorted the image, counteracting the effects of the magnifying lens and making the pic-ture appear correct to the viewer. The result was a completely immersive gaming experience, the kind that would otherwise require $10,000 in high-end optics.

L u c k e y w a s e c s ta t i c to l e a r n o f Carmack’s work – but then Carmack upped the ante. He asked Luckey if he could “show it to some people at E3 in Los Angeles”.

“Show it to whoever you want,” Luckey told Carmack.

A few weeks later, Luckey was in Boston, attending a trade show about display tech-nology; a friend texted him, asking if he’d seen the article about him. It turned out that what Carmack had meant by “show it to some people” was “take a bunch of meetings with the press to promote virtual reality, the Rift, and Luckey himself.”

The reception that the Rift got was rap-turous. “The level of immersion was unlike any other gaming experience I’ve ever had,” one site wrote. “It transforms the experience of playing a first-person video-game,” another wrote. “When we look at that now,” Carmack says, “it was clearly the inflection point.” Overnight, the Ocu-lus Rift became the most hotly anticipated gaming device since the Microsoft Kinect.

It was time to get serious. Luckey joined forces with an executive team, Iribe among them, and formally established the com-pany – he was now the founder of Oculus VR Inc. They also upped the ambition of their Kickstarter campaign: they would still send DIY kits to their early backers, but they couldn’t expect developers to start building games for a device they had

His modding and iPhone repair work had left him with a lot of money, so he bought a Vuzix iWear VR920, then the most cutting-edge consumer VR headset – enthusiasts call them HMDs, for head-mounted displays – on the market. Then he moved on to the more expensive eMagin Z800 3DVisor. And he kept looking. Over time, through a combination of government auctions and private resellers, he would spend the money once ear-marked for PC upgrades on more than 50 different units, building what he touts as the largest private collection in the world.

But even these couldn’t give Luckey the immersion he craved. When he put them on, he felt like he was looking at a play space, not living inside it. “It wasn’t garbage,” Luckey says, “but it wasn’t virtual reality.” The image quality was poor because the transmissive LCDs weren’t high-contrast. The head-tracking latency was off the charts, causing a nauseating lag every time he turned his head. But most of all, the field of vision was too narrow. He could always see the edge of the screen, which meant his brain could never be truly tricked into thinking it was inside the game.

Luckey figured that he had as good a chance as anyone to solve those problems. So he tinkered, and tinkered some more, and one night in Novem-ber 2010 he announced to the world – or at least to the message-board deni-zens of a 3D-gaming news website called Meant to Be Seen – the existence of PR1 (for Prototype 1), his first stab at a virtual-reality device. It was a cumbersome beast, built on the shell of a headset from his collection. It displayed only in 2D and was so heavy that it needed a one-kilogram coun-terweight in the back. But thanks to a massive chassis that could fit a nearly 15-centimetre display, it boasted a 90° field of vision, an angle nearly twice as large as anything else on the market.

Over the next ten months, Luckey kept tinkering, cracking problem after problem. He knew his headset would need a 3D display, but that meant two screens – projecting slightly different images for each eye – and even with the explosion of smartphone-ready display panels, there simply wasn’t a hi-res panel small enough to fit two side by side in a headset. A few months after announcing the PR1, Luckey was browsing the documentation of a Fujitsu ultramobile PC he owned and noticed that the usable display area was 121 millimetres wide – just about double the distance between a pair of human eyes. “What if I just used half of it for each image?” he thought. He put a separate lens over each half of the display, and just like that he had a 3D prototype. In September 2011, he announced the wireless PR3. The PR5, which he worked on throughout early 2012, had a gargantuan 270° field of vision (though it was neither wearable nor remotely practical). By that point, Luckey had become something of a celebrity on the Meant to Be Seen forums, whose members eagerly awaited his updates.

Anatomy of the Rift Until now, VR was blurry, buggy and nauseating. Here’s how Oculus built the first headset good enough to trick your brain. The brainThe biggest challenge

in creating realistic

VR is gett ing the

image to change

with your head

movements, without

perceptible lag. The

Rift fuses readings

from a gyroscope,

accelerometer and

magnetometer to

evaluate motion. It

takes 1,000 readings

a second, to predict

motion and pre- render

images, shaving off

precious milliseconds

of latency.

to construct themselves. So they decided to fund a fully assembled product, promising a complete kit to anyone who pledged $300 or more. The campaign video featured some of the most respected people in the gaming industry, such as Cliff Bleszinski, then design director of Epic Games, and Valve head Gabe Newell, singing Oculus’s praises. Hours before the campaign went live, Luckey got nervous and lowered the funding threshold from $500,000 to $250,000. Within hours the company blew past both on its way to more than $2.4 million.

Since then, the team has made even further headway on some of VR’s most intractable problems. They hired Nirav Patel, an Apple engineer who had been working on a motion tracker that used a gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer to sense players’ head motion. At Oculus, Patel helped design the brain of the Rift, a tracker that sampled motion data so quickly that Oculus could use algorithms to predict a player’s head movements and pre-render images, shaving latency by precious milliseconds. Oculus also switched from LCDs to AMOLED displays, allowing the Rift to reduce latency and motion blur simultaneously. The team used a small external camera to track the headset itself, doing away with fi ducial markers. But perhaps the biggest breakthrough wasn’t technical at all. In 2013 Carmack decided to leave id Software, where he had worked since cofounding it in 1991, and join the Oculus team as CTO. It was an eyeball-popping PR coup, but it also meant Carmack could dedicate his engineering skills – the same ones that made Doom and Quake such historic landmarks – to improving the Rift.

By mid-October, the momentum was unstoppable. That month Iribe stood up at a gaming conference and announced that the Oculus Rift would be a “no-motion-sickness experience”. It was an audacious promise, and one that caught the attention of Brian Cho, a young partner at Andreessen Horowitz,who was sitting in the audience. The VC firm had turned down an ear-lier opportunity to invest in Oculus’s Series A round. After hearing Iribe’s announcement, the fi rm reached out and asked for another demo. Chris Dixon was among the six Andreessen Horowitz partners who got a look at the new model. “I think I’ve seen fi ve or six computer demos in my life that made me think the world was about to change,” he says. “Apple II, Netscape, Google, iPhone… then Oculus. It was that kind of amazing.” By December, Oculus had closed Series B funding – with Andreessen Horowitz leading – for $75 million.

It’s April 3, nine days after Facebook announced its purchase of Oculus. But not much has changed here at the company’s HQ in Irvine. Luckey, now 21, still rolls into the offi ce around 11 (after which he’ll work a 12-hour day). The common areas are festooned with all things gaming, from framed post-ers to signed art to oversized Gears of War fi gurines. The conference rooms are named after pop culture’s greatest virtual-reality dreams – Star Trek: The Next Generation’s holodeck, Snow Crash’s Metaverse, Ready Player One’s Oasis. The open kitchen, while bountiful, skews engineer: breeze-block-sized containers of liquorice and packets of snacking nuts make it clear there’s a Costco nearby. Outside, the April morning is as blue and clear as Orange County usually delivers. On the face of things, last week’s acquisition has left the workplace largely untouched.

The Facebook deal moved incredibly fast; Zuckerberg first tried on the latest prototype in February. When Luckey heard about his interest, he was sceptical. “It’s not the fi rst thing you think,” he says. “‘Wow! Facebook! That’s exactly who I would have imagined to be a good partner!’ So they did run the ring of fi re a little bit convincing us.”

Over the course of many conversations during the next several weeks, though, Zuckerberg won Oculus over. “I had heard many times that Mark is a laser beam, that Facebook is all he thinks about day in and day out,” VP of product Nate Mitchell says. “So when I fi rst met with him, I thought he was going to be like, how do we get News Feed into VR?” Instead, the person who showed up was someone Mitchell calls “Visionary Mark Zuckerberg”, who saw virtual reality as not just a gaming tool but as a fully fl edged communi-cations platform. The Oculus team agreed; they may have started out trying to build a great gaming device, but they realised now that they were sitting on something much more powerful. Zuckerberg seemed to understand that, and he also seemed to understand that it had potential far beyond being an extension of Facebook’s existing social-media service. “This isn’t about

The displayEven the best LCD can

take 15 milliseconds

for all its pixels to

change colour. The

Rift uses AMOLED

screens, which can

switch colour in less

than a millisecond.

Oculus also figured

out how to deactivate

those pixels rapidly

so the image doesn’t

smear or shake

when you whip your

head around.

The opticsYou want an image

that fills your entire

field of vision without

distortion. Typically

that requires heavy,

expensive lenses.

The Rift uses a pair

of cheap magnifying

lenses. Oculus

developers distort

their games so

they look right

when viewed

through the optics.

Positional trackingPrevious VR headsets

let you look around

but not move around.

The Rift ’s small

exter nal camera

monitors 40 infrared

LEDs on the headset,

tracking motion and

lett ing you crouch,

lean or approach an

in-game object.

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sharing pictures,” Luckey says. “This is about being able to share experi-ences.” The deal was consummated over an eight-day stretch in mid-March. Iribe was so excited about the acquisition that he revested 100 per cent of his own equity for a five-year period, guaranteeing that he’d be with the company for the foreseeable future; Luckey, Carmack and others took similar steps.

But not everyone was so optimistic about the partnership. Within min-utes of the announcement, the Oculus website was filled with angry com-ments. (The top one read simply: “DO NOT WANT”.) Backers threatened to cancel their pre-orders, to never buy the Rift, to throw their purchasing power behind Sony’s Project Morpheus. Some of this was gamer snobbery, rooted in the assumption that Facebook would dumb down the Oculus expe-rience, loading it with targeted ads and 360° 3D versions of FarmVille. Some of it was fear that their gaming device would wither away in the Facebook catacombs, forgotten by a young billionaire mogul with buyer’s remorse. And some of it was the fury of backers spurned, people who had ponied up to support the original Kickstarter campaign, only to see their investments made irrelevant by a deep-pocketed corporation.

But the Oculus team argues that, far from threatening the device’s immediate future, Facebook is helping to secure it. “Every VR product has been a failure,” Luckey says. “Nobody lending money for manufacturing looks at Oculus and says ‘I can loan you $250 million!’ Because they know the safe bet is we’re going to fail, go bankrupt and take hundreds of mil-lions of dollars with us.” Now Oculus doesn’t have to worry about getting loans at all. And Facebook’s backing has helped the company attract a raft of people from top game studios. Within a week of the acquisition announcement, Michael Abrash, the Valve engineer who spearheaded that company’s virtual-reality research, became Oculus’s chief scientist – join-ing colleague Atman Binstock, who’d gone to Oculus earlier in March. Along with a third former Valve engineer, Aaron Nicholls, they are now working at an Oculus research and development lab in the Seattle area.

Facebook’s money also means that Oculus doesn’t need to worry about turning an immediate profit – and that will come in handy as it builds its first consumer product. “Let’s say we’re trying to pack in everything we can for $300,” Mitchell says. If the device needs to be profitable, then the com-pany couldn’t spend much more than $100 on the hardware itself. But now that it doesn’t need to preserve its profit margin, Mitchell says, “you can take all of that margin money, apply it to components and still keep the price exactly the same.” In fact, according to Luckey, the consumer version will be “higher quality in every aspect” than the prototype that Valve showed Iribe last year. While Oculus’s internal units have used twin AMOLED 1080p dis-plays from Samsung Galaxy S4s, the company no longer has to depend on the mobile-phone ecosystem; it now has the money and the backing to ask a manufacturer to create custom displays specifically for VR applications.

Oculus is also working on a second, outward-facing camera that will be part of the headset itself. The Valve prototype used such a camera to read fiducial markers on the walls for tracking, but Oculus seems to intend it for some very different applications. For one, Carmack says, it can function as a pass-through camera, allowing Rift-wearing users to see what’s happening in the real world – a kind of external heads-up display that would allow you to pick up a drink, for instance. But it has other, much more inter-esting potential uses. Right now the Rift allows players to look around a virtual world; to move through it, they use an Xbox controller. But a front-facing camera might allow the Rift some day to track users’ gestures instead – much like a Kinect, but more powerful. “In the early days of vir-tual reality, it was all goggles and gloves,” Carmack says. “Nobody’s talking about the gloves now – it’s going to be done with optical tracking. You want it to feel like a virtuoso with an instrument.” Add haptic feedback, which the company is also developing, and you’ve taken a giant step toward achiev-ing true presence. Players will be able to engage with virtual worlds – and have those worlds engage back – unencumbered.

But what those worlds end up looking like isn’t up to Oculus – it’s up to the partners and developers creating the experiences that we’ll have within the Rift. And already they’re finding that the future of virtual reality might not look like anything we’ve been led to expect.

Above (l-r): Oculus VP of product Nate Mitchell,

founder Palmer Luckey and CEO Brendan Iribe

Below: a screenshot from EVE Valkyrie, the first

“triple-A” title announced for the Oculus Rift

The gamer fantasy of VR tends to involve a full-body first-person shooter. But that’s not going to happen for a while: photorealistic games of today simply can’t be rendered at the frame rate that current VR technology demands. Instead, Carmack says, much as Angry Birds defined iPhone gaming, Oculus’s first breakouts will take advantage of the medium’s unique properties. And that’s an opportunity for developers. “The magic is not in the 6,000-line GPU shader that’s going to make a highlight just right,” Carmack says, but in designing games that could have run on a less powerful computer: “It’s not like good games are only made when you can throw teraflops of performance at them.” For now programmers need to concen-trate on the simpler aspects – how motion works, for example – rather than the crazy pyrotechnics. Otherwise you’re just slapping icing on a cake that no one can eat.

That’s just one way in which the logic of mainstream gaming may not pertain to the Oculus. For instance, fast-twitch human locomotion – the kind that Carmack pioneered with Doom – becomes overwhelming in VR. (Oculus has hit on 1.4 metres per second as the optimal walking rate.) Similarly, some of the most popular games being shared among developers and early adopters are simulators, in which play-ers drive or parachute or roller-coaster through an otherwise static world but don’t move themselves. That’s a limited approach, but Binstock says that more profound interactions are harder to design, and they risk breaking the illusion of immersive reality that has been so crucial to Oculus’s success so far. “Presence is fragile,”

Binstock says. “It’s easy to do things that break the feeling of being somewhere.” That could be a dropped frame that interrupts a game experience or an aesthetic flaw, like an object that looks too flat.

Earlier this year Oculus prepared a 42-page best-practices document, enumer-ating dozens of design guidelines to help developers avoid such pitfalls. “Consider having your interface elements as intui-tive and immersive parts of the 3D world,” reads one. “Ammo count might be visible on the user’s weapon rather than in a float-ing HUD.” In the past, environmentally integrated game design like this was seen as a perk; on the Rift, it’s a must.

But, as Zuckerberg predicted, games are just the beginning. VR could change the way we consume media. Early on, Oculus show-cased a VR Cinema application that lets users sit in a virtual cinema and watch Man of Steel on a full-size screen. “Last time I was sick with the flu,” Carmack says, “I just lay in bed and watched VR movies on the ceiling.”

Teleconferencing is also in the works. It’s easy to imagine strapping on a Rift and find-ing yourself across a table from someone who is thousands of kilometres away. Ocu-lus has VR Chat prototypes in the works, and a demo that Epic Games unveiled in March allows two players wearing Rifts to interact with each other’s avatars in the same virtual room. “The key,” Abrash says, “is generating the cues that tell us we’re in a real place in the presence of another person: eye motion, facial expressions, body language, voice.”

The list of potential uses goes on. Bring a classroom full of kids inside any museum in the world. Hell, that goes for holidays too. And let’s not even talk about the oft-pre-dicted sex simulators. “Hardware, while essential, is just an enabler,” Abrash says. “The future of VR lies in the unique expe-riences that get created in software, and if I knew what those would be, even in broad outline, I would be very happy.”

And that, more than anything, points towards the challenges that lie ahead. New experiences are under development right now – and each one may well require the same ingenuity, the same willingness to forge an entirely new visual language, that Luckey and his team have called on to get the Rift where it is today.

The hardware problems have been solved, the production lines are almost open and the Rift will be here soon. After that it’s anybody’s guess. “I’ve written two million lines of code over the past 20 years, and now I’m starting from a blank page,” Car-mack says. “But the sense that I’m helping build the future right now is palpable.” �

Peter Rubin is a senior editor at US WIRED

BY ANDREW HANKINSON

WHEN YOU’RE WORKING TO DESTROYSYRIA’S TOXIC ARSENAL,YOU NEED TO THINK LIKE AN ENGINEER

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on the morning of August 21, 2013,the temperature in Ghouta, Syria, wasfalling, meaning that air was sinkingtowards the ground, rather than ris-ing. When surface-to-surface rocketslanded in the eastern Damascus suburband released a colourless, odourlessliquid that turned into vapour, the gasdid not float away: instead it driftedinto the basements and lower levels ofbuildings where people were shelteringfrom the barrage.

Those in hiding quickly found theireyes becoming irritated and their nosesbegan to run. It became difficult tobreathe. Further symptoms followed:disorientation, nausea and vomiting.

When help arrived – including doctorsand nurses who lived nearby – theyfound large numbers of people on theground, unconscious or dead. Thosewho came to assist soon succumbedthemselves: one of them later said hef e l t a “ s e n s a t i o n o f i m p e n d i n gdoom” before fainting.

Within hours, videos of the events inGhouta were uploaded to YouTube. Theyshowed rows of dead bodies, includingchildren. There is no definitive deathtoll, but foreign intelligence agen-cies, international media and humanrights groups estimate that at least afew hundred people died – MédecinsSans Frontières says it treated at least

3,600 patients, of whom 355 died.UN weapons inspectors, already inSyria to investigate an alleged chemi-cal attack elsewhere, shifted focus toGhouta. A daily five-hour ceasefire wasagreed between August 26 and 29. Theinspectors visited the suburb, wherethey were shot at – with both sidesblaming the other – to collect medicalsamples, take statements and photo-graph the remains of rockets.

They soon confirmed that the nerveagent sarin – which quickly kills by attack-ing the human nervous system – hadbeen used. Both the Syrian governmentand the rebel forces denied responsibil-ity. On September 14, representatives

left: a rocket loaded with toxicagents lies on the ground after theaugust 2013 attack on ghouta

BETWEEN

Eight months earlier, on December 27,2012, Adam Baker was sitting at his deskat the Edgewood Chemical BiologicalCenter when he was invited intoa colleague’s office for a briefing.ECBC, as it’s called by those whowork there, is a huge US Army lab-oratory and testing ground a fewkilometres northeast of Baltimore.Baker, 31, had joined ECBC as a chemicalengineer in 2005, after studying thesubject at nearby University of Maryland.

“Thisiskindofahubforallthechemical,and biological, related parts of the [US]Department of Defense,” he says, “Mostof them are centred here, so it’s a goodplace for chemical engineers to end up.”

below: the aftermath of a syrianair force attack on the damascussuburb of ain tarma in january 2013

from the Russian Federation and USgovernment met in Geneva and signeda document that undertook to elimi-nate chemical weapons from Syria. TheSyrian government, under politicalpressure and military threat, agreedthat it would sign the Chemical Weap-ons Convention (CWC), an arms treatythat aims to eliminate their production,stockpiling and use. Finally, a planto destroy Syria’s chemical weap-ons was endorsed by the UN. Theorganisation just needed a way to do it.

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Baker was told about a high-level meet-ing with the US Department of Defense(DoD) at which he and his team had beengiven the task of figuring out how todestroy and dispose of hundreds of tonnesof liquid chemical agents and precursors(agents are immediately usable as weap-ons; precursors are ingredients whichcan be used to make chemical weapons).If no suitable technology existed, the DoDwanted to know what technology could bemanufactured quickly.

“At that point, the project was not verywell defined,” Baker says. “There was anexpectation from many of us that thiswould be either the start of a long-termacquisition process or a short-term dem-onstration of the technologies available.”

Baker’s team, along with other US gov-ernment departments, spent two weekssurveying the existing technology. Sincejoining ECBC he’d spent time disposingof US chemical weapons, mostly mustardgas in mortar rounds in the ground duringremediation of former US military testingsites. The method for making them safewas to put the munitions in a sealed con-tainer, crack the shell with explosives,inject neutralising chemicals into thesealed container and mix it. It was effec-tive for chemical agents in munitions, butit wasn’t suitable for eliminating largequantities of liquid chemicals.

Another strategy ECBC had previouslycalled upon was hydrolysis, which wasalso used to dispose of stockpiles of mus-tard gas. The process involves mixing theliquid chemical agent with water accord-ing to what Baker describes as “recipes”that have been refined over severalyears. Once the agent and water is mixed,neutralising chemicals are added (thetype depends on which agent is being pro-cessed). This creates an effluent that is theequivalent of industrial chemical waste.

This approach was exactly what theDoD was searching for, but there was asnag: it also needed to be able to deploythe technology in the field. The DoDneeded to set up close to the sites wherechemical weapons are being stored andthe hydrolysis system was not transport-able because of its size.

“It was basically a chemical plant,”Baker says, “I couldn’t give you a reliableestimate of its size, but in the region oftens of acres, I guess.”

At a follow-up meeting, Baker’s teamexplained that nothing effective andtransportable currently existed. Potentialsolutions were discussed. Then Baker andhis team were told something surprising:whatever solution they came up withwould have to be built within six months.Baker knew it would be “difficult, border-ing on impossible” to design and developa completely new technology in thatshort timeframe, so they “indicated thathydrolysis was the best candidate”. Theyjust needed to shrink it. Significantly.

Shrinking a chemical plant so it fitson a lorry is not easy. They startedwork on a prototype in February 2013(the design team comprised 20 peoplefrom ECBC and two other departments,though scores of others were involved).They already knew the process flows andrecipes (such as where the liquid would go,how it should be mixed and in what ratios)from their experience with the existinghydrolysis system. To reduce the plant’ssize, they used computer drafting andspecialist fabrication. After five monthsthey revealed their creation: the FieldDeployable Hydrolysis System.

“We just call it the FDHS,” says Baker.“No nicknames.”

01 steel drumscontaining df(a precursorof sarin) ormustard (anagent) areforklifted intosealed tentson the ship.

operatives inprotectivesuits with airsupplies pumpthe chemicalfrom thedrums intothe titaniumreactor.

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03 it is now mixedwith water,which breaksit down andproduceshydrochloricor hydrofluoricacid – bothhazardous.

these acidicbyproductsare pumpedinto interimholding tanksand mixedwith sodiumhydroxide toneutralise ph.

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the solutionis then movedinto mobilecontainers andtransportedto commercialindustrialwaste plantsfor disposal.

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The FDHS is a chemical process-ing plant which fits into two six-metre-long containers that can be transportedaround the world. It takes ten days to setup and is operated by a crew of 15 pershift. Its main components are a 8,300-litre titanium reactor which can treat 25tonnes of chemical agent (or precursor)per day; a 15,000-litre water tank; a waterheater; ventilation systems; interimholding tanks; a command and controlcentre; a laboratory; and power genera-tors. It simply mixes the chemicals with

water, then pumps out an effluent whichis treated in the interim holding tanks.

“Water is enough to destroy thecompound,” Baker says. “The byproductsof that are acidic – you end up withhydrochloric acid or hydrofluoric acid,both of which are difficult to store,hazardous and very dangerous. Fromthe back end it will drain into the interimholding tanks where it will then be mixedwith sodium hydroxide, which willneutralise the acids.

“So the first step is to destroy thechemical agent. Then the second stepis to render the waste a little lesshazardous by adding sodium hydroxide.Once that comes out [of the interim

storage tanks] you basically have asolution that’s a pH between seven and12, just some salt products of the reac-tion in an alkaline environment. Theanalogy that people keep using is thatit’s like household drain cleaners.”

The effluent that comes out of theinterim holding tanks is transferred tolarge mobile containers which can betowed by lorries – the kind you see beingused to transport liquid chemicals onBritish roads. They are taken to a commer-cial industrial waste facility, where suchsubstances are routinely disposed of.

Baker and his team proudly unveiledtheir prototype in June 2013. ThenGhouta happened.

below: the hydrolysis system,capable of neutralising chemicalweapons, sits aboard mv CAPE RAY

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“I can’t speak for everyone in the team,” hesays, “but prior to that I had the impres-sion this was something we were buildingjust in case. It seemed exceedingly unlikelythat it would ever actually get used inSyria. It didn’t look like that was some-thing that was on the cards, and when thatattack happened, and then the aftermath.Everything went so quickly that within aweek it suddenly felt like, ‘Yeah, this reallylooks like it’s going to happen.’ It was kindof surprising and startling.”

After the Syrian government joinedthe Chemical Weapons Convention inSeptember 2013 it had an obliga-tion to disclose its chemical weaponsprogramme and eliminate productionfacilities and the stockpile as soon aspossible (the agreed deadline is June 30,2014). The Organisation for the Prohibi-tion of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), anintergovernmental body which promotesand verifies adherence to the convention,is overseeing the elimination in partner-ship with the UN. Its inspectors arrived inDamascus on October 1 last year.

The OPCW inspectors set up a base inDamascus, followed by a base in the Syrianport of Latakia from where the chemi-cals would be shipped. Then they beganvisiting the 23 sites disclosed by the Syriangovernment. By the end of October, allof Syria’s declared chemical weaponsproduction facilities had been renderedinoperable. (One was too dangerous forthe inspectors to visit, but the OPCW wassatisfied it had been shut down; another,near Aleppo, was considered too danger-ous for the inspectors, but Syrians carriedout an inspection carrying cameras and

spend a lot of time adapting.”Simple things like fitting the environ-

mental enclosure (a sealed tent) on theship became a problem. The enclosure iswhere the FDHS is housed (there are twosystems in the enclosure – after the pro-totype was completed a further six werecommissioned, at a cost of $5 million each,and two were put on the Cape Ray). It’s themost hazardous place on the ship. Whenprocessing begins, the drums of mustardand DF will be carried by forklift fromthe shipping containers to a bay withinthe enclosure. FDHS operators inside theenclosure will open the drums and use ahose to transfer the liquid into the reac-tor. The main risk is spillage, so anyone

tance in other ways, but none of thoseapproached agreed to host the FDHS(in Albania, citizens actually protestedagainst it). So the Americans suggested asolution: put the FDHS on a ship.

“I didn’t appreciate the difficulty of thatas much as I should have,” says Baker.

The first problem was dimensional.The ship chosen to carry the FDHS wasthe Cape Ray, a 200-metre-long, roll-on-roll-off cargo ship with five decks.The FDHS was put on the third deck. The

AKER LOOKS WORRIED.

GPS trackers, which satisfied the OPCW.)Once the production facilities were

shut down, the OPCW’s attention turnedto the huge stockpile of chemical agentsand precursors in Syria. Some of the mate-rial could be destroyed within the country,but it was decided that priority chemicals(the most dangerous agents, or precur-sors which could most easily be turnedinto agents) should be exported andprocessed outside of Syria. Primarilythese were mustard (an agent) and DF(methylphosphonyl difluoride, a precur-sor for sarin and other nerve agents).

The OPCW inspectors estimated thatabout 560 tonnes of mustard and DF (90per cent of the total being DF) would needto be processed, which was exactly whatthe FDHS had been designed for. All thatwas needed was somewhere to put theFDHS, ideally outside of Syria, but not toofar away. Several nations offered assis-

problem Baker and the ECBC faced wasthat the FDHS was designed to be com-pact when packed up for transporting,but it had been assumed that, once itwas moved, it would be set up on land,where there would be plenty of space forsatellite elements – storing the chemi-cals prior to processing, huge interimholding tanks and the command andcontrol centre. There was no room todo this on the Cape Ray.

“Now we have to work in three dimen-sions, because we can’t fit everythingthat’s required for the process on that onedeck,” Baker says. “We have tanks full of[liquid] on the decks above it. We havetanks that are going to receive effluent onthe deck below it and the deck above it. Wehave our command and control centre onthe deck above it. We have our housing allthe way on the top deck. It’s a lot of thingsthat are new to us; a lot of things we had to

below: contractors work on thehydrolysis system, which will beused to destroy the syrian stockpile

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working in the enclosure will use suppliedair and wear protective suits. The air isalso ventilated and monitored.

“The idea is to confine the contamina-tion to this very small space,” Baker says.

The problem was that the frame towhich the enclosure’s fitted plastic fabricwas attached was too tall for the deck. Toget it on the ship they had to chop the topoff. But once the frame was shortened, thefabric wouldn’t fit the frame securely. Sothe team had to create a new one.

Water was a problem too. The FDHSrequires a supply of fresh water to mixwith the mustard and DF, but the shiponly had access to seawater. So the teamput a reverse osmosis purification unit onboard. The team also had no experienceof working at sea – when they joined theCape Ray in the Atlantic for five days ofsea trials to run simulations, some suf-fered seasickness. (“It was a bit choppyfor a couple of days,” says Baker. “But I gotused to it”). The motion of the waves alsocaused problems for the FDHS.

“They found structural concerns thatwe’ve been working on mitigating, likeadding different support,” Baker says.“The FDHS was built to be used on land,but now they have a tank that’s full ofthousands of litres of liquid, sloshing backand forth – that’s a lot of new stresses.”Those structural fixes (as well as otherson the interim holding tanks) were carriedout by a team of 11 ECBC personnel stay-ing with the Cape Ray in Rota, a US navalbase in Spain, while they waited for thestart of the mission. The team of 11 will bejoined by the rest of the FDHS operators

(64 in total, all of whom have volunteered– including Baker, who will spend mostof his time in the command and controlcentre managing the programme). Theywill be joined by a security team, civiliancrew and US Navy personnel, making atotal of 135 on the ship.

Personnel still currently based in theUS are expecting to be given a week’snotice before being flown out to the ship.At the time of writing, they are waiting forthe Syrians to deliver all the mustard andDF to the port of Latakia. There have beendelays. That side of the mission workslike this: the OPCW inspectors check thechemicals at the storage sites, the Syriansput the chemicals into drums supplied bythe US, which are loaded on to armouredlorries supplied by Russia. The Syriansdrive the trucks from the storage sites toLatakia (where ambulances and surveil-lance cameras are provided by China),and before the chemicals are shippedout the OPCW inspectors check that thechemicals which arrived match what leftthe storage sites (using chemical tests,seals, GPS and other electronic devices).

“It’s a giant accounting exercise,” saysJerry Smith, deputy head of the OPCWmission. Originally from Cornwall, Smithhad spent his career disposing of bombsfor the British Army and clearing landmines in the private sector, before join-ing the OPCW in 2006. Since October 2013he’s spent months in Syria on the OPCWmission and he has a simple explanationfor the delays: “It’s not an inconsidera-ble exercise to move hundreds of tonnesof this material across a country that has

been at civil war for the last three years.”He points out that some storage sites

are close to front lines which are “particu-larly violent at the moment” (he spoke toWIRED in February), so collecting chemi-cals in the first place is difficult. Once thetrucks set off (unaccompanied by OPCWinspectors) the roads are damaged and,Smith says, there are threats from impro-vised explosive devices and other typesof attack. Airlifting the chemicals wasconsidered, but it was decided that roadswere safest and most practical.

Once the chemicals are delivered toLatakia, Danish ships will ferry them to anItalian port, where the Cape Ray will dockto collect the containers before sailinginto international waters in the Mediter-ranean. The FDHS team will then run sim-ulations, then begin processing for real.

“From the time we get the material onthe ship it’s probably 60 to 90 days untileverything is destroyed,” Baker says.“Then we’re going to drop the effluent inGermany and Finland [at facilities whichhave agreed to treat the chemical wastecreated by the FDHS]. When that happensis all dependent on when the first stephappens, and how quickly and effectivelySyria is able to move this stuff to the port.”

On April 22, the OPCW announced that89 per cent of the top-priority chemicalshad arrived in Latakia. Baker says thatonce the mission has been completed, theteam will attempt to decontaminate theFDHS. Any parts that can’t be decontam-inated will be scrapped, but he hopes totake most of it home, “For the next timesomething like this comes up.”�

Andrew Hankinson is a freelance writer.He wrote about Astute-class subs in 02.14

TOXIC MAP: THE JOURNEY TONEUTRALISE SYRIA’S WEAPONS

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1. the chemicals are delivered to latakia2. danish ships ferry the cargo to gioia tauo, italy,where CAPE RAY is docked. 3. CAPE RAY sails to international mediterranean waters toprocess the chemicals. 4. effluent is dropped off at facilities in germany and finland

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LAB RESULTSTHIS MONTH: 07.14COMPACT PROJECTORSWETSUITSRAZORSEDITED BY JEREMY WHITE

WIRED SMARTENS UP WITHWET SHAVE RAZORS BUILT TOBUST THE BUSHIEST BEARDS

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BILLABONGXERO PRO SS202 CZ STEAMERThis super-thinwetsuit is for longsessions on hot days.The front zip makesit a touch difficult toclamber into, withthe hand and ankleopenings being verynarrow, causing someinitial discomfort –but in the water, itfeels like a secondskin. Movementis seamless, withlots of give underthe arms, and thestitching is weldedwith liquid tape onthe inside. It providesimpressive warmth,but the short sleevesmeant that skintemperature slippedfrom 24.4°C on entryto a chilly 20.7°C.

PATAGONIA R3By far the warmestwetsuit on test,the R3 has woolinsulation that goesacross the chest andright down the armsand legs, meaning it’llkeep you warm wellinto autumn; WIREDstayed at a steady24.4°C throughoutthe test. However,this makes the R3heavier than theO’Neill and Billabong,which impactedmovement, althoughit did not becomedifficult to swim. Itwas a struggle to pulloff around the legs,and the seams werevery damp, especiallyon the thighs. Butthe neck enclosurestopped seepagedown the back.

WIRED Flexible andcomfy in the waterTIRED Awkward toput on and zip up

£210billabong.com

WIRED Merino liningis great for warmthTIRED Seams let inwater around the legs

£360downthelinesurf.co.uk

SPECThickness2mmLiningProprietary“Xero foam”Zip entryFrontSeamsImpact weldedseams, sealedinternally

SPECThickness3.5mm (torso andthighs), 2.5mm(arms and legs)LiningMerino woolZip entryBackSeamsSingle stitchedand triple glued

TOP WILD SWIMMING SPOTS FOR SUMMER

Hampstead HeathPonds, LondonSummer watertemperature: 15°C

Loch Tarbert,Jura, ScotlandSummer watertemperature: 15°C

Rhossili Bay,Swansea, WalesSummer watertemperature: 16°C

Geldeston Locks,River Waveney, SuffolkSummer watertemperature: 20°C

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CATCH AWAVE, NOTA COLD

HOW WE TESTEDWIRED dived intoHighgate Men’s Pondon London’s HampsteadHeath to test threesummer wetsuits, armedwith key advice fromSteve England, editorof surf mag Carve. Werated each suit on howeasy it was to get into,freedom of movementwhile swimming andbuild quality around thestitching and seams.We used a Basis B1smartwatch to measureskin temperature beforeand after entering thewater to test whethereach suit maintainedsteady warmth. Each isdesigned to be used inwarmer months, withthinner Neoprene thanwinter-rated models.

EVEN IN SUMMER,OPEN-AIR SWIMMINGIN BRITAIN CAN BEBRACING. HERE ARETHREE LIGHTWEIGHTWETSUITS THATARE MAKING A SPLASH

T E S TT E S TE S TT E S TT E S TT E S TT E S TT E S TT E S TE ST E S TT E S TT E S TT E S TE S TT E ST E S TT EE S TE SST E S TE

O’NEILLGOORU GBSThe hand and ankleholes on this wetsuitare so small thateven a child wouldstruggle to get in.However, this did notmean an overly tightfit: it is snug but notuncomfortable aroundthe chest, waist andthighs. Once WIREDdived in, though, wefelt an instant andunpleasant squelchof water under ourarms, with moreliquid trickling in aswe swam. It keptskin temperatureat a steady 24°C.Flexibility wasexcellent, withno impediment ofmovement. If you canlive with the leaks,this is fair value.

WIRED Comfortableand easy to swim inTIRED Tough toput on; a bit leaky

£145oneill.com

SPECThickness3mm (torso andthighs), 2mm(arms and legs)Lining“Firewall” insulationZip entryBackSeamsDouble stitchedand triple glued

STEVE ENGLAND’S BUYING TIPS

Pick three wetsuits that fit your budget. Turneach inside out and look at the lining. Doesit cover a small area or does it fill the suit?

Try them all on. Reach up, bend over, touchyour toes, crouch and twist to check whetheryou can move without discomfort.

Check how tight the wetsuit is around theneck. If it chokes, get the next size up.

Play with the zips and seals to ensure they’retight and that they won’t let in any water.

Take it off to see how easy the process is.If the suit is too tight, try a different model.

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W E T SW E T SW E T SW EW E T SW E TW E T SW E T SW E T SW E T SW E T SW E TW E TW E TW E T SW E T SW EW E T SW E T SW EWW EW E SW E T SEW U I T SU I T SU I T SU I T SU I T SU I T SU I T SU I T SU I T SU I T SU I T SU I T SU I T SU I T SI T SU IU I T ST SSU I TU S / 0/ 0/ 0/ 0/ 0/ 0/ 0/ 0/ 0/ 0/ 0/ 0/ 0/ 0/ 0// 0// 0/ 7 /7 /7 /7 /7 /7 /7 /7 /7 /7 /7 /7 //7 /77 /7 //7 / T E S TT E S TT E S TT E S TT E S TT E S TT E S TT E S TE ST E S TT E S TT E S TE SE S TT E S TT E S TT E S TE S TSSSS TT SEE ●●●●●●●●●●●●

BLADE RUNNERSWHICH OF OUR BARBERSHOP QUARTET

IS THE BEST WET SHAVE RAZOR?WIRED UNCOVERS THE BALD TRUTH

HOW WE TESTEDWIRED entrusted four razors to Brent Pankhurst, founderof barbershop Pankhurst London (pankhurstlondon.com),in Carnaby Street’s Newburgh Quarter. He awarded pointsto each of these consumer models for their performance andheft. WIRED also shaved some balloons with each razor ina timed exercise to gauge their safety credentials. Wethen measured the rate of hair regrowth for each product.

WILKINSONSWORDHYDRO 5This razor is a strongall-rounder with awell-balanced handle.“We use WilkinsonSword blades for ourcut-throat razors,”explains Pankhurst.“For me, they arethe best qualityoverall.” The handlehas a good grip,although the hingeconnecting it tothe blade cartridgeis rather flimsy.“I didn’t realise it hasa flip-style edgingtrimmer, but thenthey never do the jobproperly anyway.”

WIRED Great bladeperformance and gripTIRED Flimsy pivot;cheap finish

£9wilkinsonsword.co.uk

SPECNumber of bladesFiveEdging trimmerYesLubrication typeHydrating gelreservoirLength14.1cmWeight40g

MERKURFUTUR“A safety razor isall about a luxuriousshave,” Pankhurstsays. The Futuremploys replaceabledouble-edged blades(we tried platinum-edged Timor ones)and has a six-pointadjustable head forchanging the angle ofthe cutting surface.The closeness of theshave is unrivalled– but so is the riskof bloodshed. “Theweight distributionwasn’t right,” hesays. “It’s too shorta handle and feelsslightly top-heavy.”

WIRED Close shave;adjustable bladeTIRED Cuts easily;short handle

£65carterandbond.com

SPECNumberof bladesTwoEdging trimmerNoLubrication typeNoneLength10.2cmWeight173g

GILLETTEFUSIONPROGLIDEPOWER RAZORThe battery-operated“Power” modehere is off-puttingand showed noimprovement over aconventional razor.While the shave wasclose, regrowth wasthe fastest of any ofthe models we testedand the lubricatingstrip deterioratedquickly. “I wouldn’tbuy this,” saysPankhurst. “It’s notdesigned to shaveand there’s no naturalposition for thefingers to guide it.”

WIRED Smooth shaveTIRED Fast regrowth;expensive blades;pointless vibrationtechnology

£13 gillette.com

SPECNumber of bladesFiveEdging trimmerYesLubrication typeIndicatorlubricating stripLength14.6cmWeight40g

KING OF SHAVESHYPERGLIDEThe Hyperglidewas the only razorWIRED testedthat can be usedwithout slappingon a conventionalshave gel. Whenwater is added to the“superhydrophilic”coating around therazor head, it createsa drag-free surfacethat glides acrossthe skin. “I likehow the mechanismbends,” Pankhurstremarked. “It’s theclosest thing you canget to a professionalshave, the way itstretches the skin.”

WIRED Innovativelubrication method;great designTIRED Bladescould last longer

£10 shave.com

SPECNumber of bladesFiveEdging trimmerYesLubrication typeSuperhydrophiliccoatingLength14.8cmWeight37g

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HIGH-GROWTH RESULTSPost-shave, the stubble-freetime (in days) before a cotton-wool pad snagged on the skin

POP QUIZThe number of balloonswe successfully “shaved”in 60 seconds, usingClinique for Men AloeShave Gel (clinique.co.uk)

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MINICINE

HOW WE TESTEDSmall projectors are finding placesin homes as well as offices, soeach model on test was fed acombination of PC PowerPointpresentations and Blu-ray filmsto gauge versatility. WIRED triedeach projector’s picture presetoptions and positioned the modelsto deliver a 60-inch (diagonal)image size against a zero-gainscreen, to make it easy to spotbrightness differences. We alsoused a sound pressure meter tomeasure any operating noise.

S O U N D T E S T(USING LOWLIGHT SETTINGS)

WIRED PUTS VERSATILECOMPACT PROJECTORS

THROUGH DOUBLE DUTYAS HOME CINEMAS

AND OFFICE ASSISTANTS

1 Unlike regular projectors, you canusually unplug a portable one assoon as you’ve switched it off,instead of having to wait for thelamp to cool down.

2 They typically don’t need to havefilters changed for separate tasks.

3 Their LED lamps last effectivelyfor the lifetime of the projector.

THREE ADVANTAGES OFPINT-SIZED PROJECTORS

● bem Kickstand 27dB ● Vivitek Qumi Q5 28dB● Optoma ML1000 30dB ● Acer K137 29dB

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BEMKICKSTANDThis Kickstarter-funded projectorpivots on a hinge inan easel-like stand,making it easy toset up. Connectivityis limited, thoughyou can add Wi-Fivia an optional USBstick. Pictures arebright, sharp andmore contrast-richthan any of its rivals,and even the soundis passable. Slightlymuted colours andvertical stretching ofwidescreen video arethe only negatives tothis capable machine.

WIRED Clever design;useful all-rounderTIRED Colours are abit lifeless; not manyinputs to choose from

£499 bemwireless.com

SPECNative resolution1,280 x 800pClaimedcontrast ratio3,000:1Claimed brightness400 ANSI lumensConnectionsHDMI, USB,3.5mm audio outputDimensions (closed)216 x 40 x 190mmWeight1.6kg

VIVITEKQUMI Q5Vivitek’s Q5 is thesmallest projector ontest, but still packs inplenty of connections.Dedicated movie,TV, gaming andpresentation picturesettings show ithas ambitions as anall-rounder – but itcan’t quite deliver.Presentations lookcrisp and detailed,but a lack of blacklevel leaves darkvideo scenes lookingdrab. There’s alsomessy light-bleedat the picture edges,and audio is thin.

WIRED Compact;bright for its sizeTIRED Poor contrast;weedy sound; messylight handling

£465 vivitek.eu

SPECNative resolution1,280 x 800pClaimedcontrast ratio10,000:1Claimed brightness500 ANSI lumensConnectionsHDMI, USB,universal I/O, AV in,3.5mm audio outputDimensions100 x 30 x 160mm;Weight 500g

OPTOMAML1000The biggest and mostexpensive projectorhere, the ML1000boasts a laptop-styletouchpad controlon its top edge.Presentation-friendlyfeatures include lotsof ports, a built-inmedia player andsupport for MicrosoftOffice and AdobePDF files. WIRED’sPowerPoint poppedwith bright coloursand pixel-perfectsharpness. However,video was lessimpressive, due tolack of contrast.

WIRED PC-free use;very bright imagesTIRED Expensive;large; video can’tproduce dark blacks

£675 optoma.co.uk

SPECNative resolution1,280 x 800pClaimedcontrast ratio15,000:1Claimed brightness1,000 ANSI lumensConnectionsHDMI, 2 x USB, microUSB, composite in,3.5mm audio, SD, PCDimensions48 x 170 x 270mmWeight 1.4kg

ACERK137This projector’sUSP is a powerfulspeaker system thatis capable of pushingout a 360-degreesoundstage – idealfor sports and movienights. On-screenmenus includethoughtful touchessuch as being ableto adjust the pictureto compensate foryour wall’s colour.Picture quality isweak compared to theaudio heroics, though.Presentations lookbright, but dark filmscenes are flat.

WIRED Bold looks;startlingly good audioTIRED Darker moviescenes look grey andunconvincing

£460 acer.co.uk

SPECNative resolution1,280 x 800pClaimedcontrast ratio10,000:1Claimed brightness700 ANSI lumensConnectionsHDMI, USB, 3.5mmaudio input, microSD, universal I/ODimensions40 x 185 x 115mmWeight 500g

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C O M P A C T P R O J E C T O R S / 0 7 / T E S T

Want to write for WIRED? Editorial guidelines from editorial@wired.co.uk.PRs please contact us at pr@wired.co.uk and not by phone.

Feedback and thoughts about the WIRED world to rants@wired.co.uk.

Distance this month:In case you think WIRED’s product editor just sits aroundplaying with the latest toys, we can inform you that this is not(always) the case. While at the recent Baselworld watch fair,gathering intelligence for our annual watch guide, his ARGUSactivity app recorded that he walked 26.7km in a single day.

T H E C O L O P H O N

INSIDE CONDÉNASTIN THE USA:The Condé NastPublications IncChairman:S. I. Newhouse, Jr.CEO:Charles H. TownsendPresident:Robert A. Sauerberg, Jr.Editorial director:Thomas J. WallaceArtistic director:Anna Wintour

IN OTHER COUNTRIES:Condé NastInternational LtdChairman andchief executive:Jonathan NewhousePresident:Nicholas ColeridgeVice presidents:Giampaolo Grandi,James Woolhouse andMoritz von LaffertPresident, Asia-Pacific:James WoolhousePresident, new markets:Carol CornuauDirector of licenses,new Markets:Natascha von LaffertPresident and editorialdirector, branddevelopment:Karina DobrotvorskayaVice president & senioreditor, brand development:Anna HarveyDirector of planning:Jason MilesDirector of talent:Thomas BucailleDirector of acquisitionsand investments:Moritz von Laffert

GLOBAL:Condé Nast E-commerceDivision President:Franck Zayan

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by Women of China:Self, AD, CN TravelerPublished under copyrightcooperation by China NewsService: GQ, GQ Style

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TurkeyPublished by Dogus MediaGroup: Vogue, GQPublished by MC BasimYayin Reklam HizmetleriTic. LTD: La Cucina Italiana

UkrainePublished by PublishingHouse UMH LLC: Vogue

PHOTO

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ESSIE

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LEGO this month:As if WIRED needed an excuseto feature more LEGO, oureditor brought back a selectionof minifigs from the 2014 LEGOFoundation IDEA Conference.Sadly, they aren’t for play – thecompany’s top brass hand outa personalised mini-me insteadof a business card. Awesome!

The WIRED Venndiagram this month:It’s about time we updatedthe nexus for the mostWIRED product ever – which,disappointingly, is stillyet to be created. But youcan be sure that once the3D-printed, self-riding, LEGOfixie exists, we will be therewith in-depth coverage.

Want more WIRED? Become a fan of our Facebook page(facebook.com/wireduk), and follow us on Twitter (@WiredUK),Google+ (google.com/+wireduk) and Tumblr (wireduk.tumblr.com).And don’t forget the free, award-winning podcast.

Overheard in the WIRED office this month:“I think I’m really ill. My wee is, like, 80 per cent yellow,20 per cent magenta.”

“What are you wearing? Is it connected to the internet?”

“I have no emotions.”

“Sometimes, I think we’re in a fluoro-ink arms race.”

Extra credit this month:Cover styling by Micah Bishop; grooming by Tricia Turner. Play,“Unfolding trends”: hair and make-up by Amy Barrington;Model, Jordann at D1 Models. Start, “Turn, tune in”: hair andmake-up by Nicky Tavilla; model, Chloe Thomas at D1 Models.

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Published by The Condé Nast Publications Ltd, Vogue House, Hanover Square, London W1S 1JU (tel: 020 7499 9080; fax: 020 7493 1345). Colour origination by Altaimage London. Printed in the UK by WyndehamRoche Ltd. WIRED is distributed by Condé Nast & National Magazine Distributors Ltd (Comag), Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE (tel: 01895 433600; fax: 01895 433605). The one-year (12 issues) fullsubscription rate to WIRED in the UK is £35, £48 to Europe or US, £58 to the rest of world. Order at www.magazineboutique.co.uk/wired/W173 or call +44 (0)844 848 5202, Mon-Fri 8am-9.30pm, Sat 8am-4pm. Enquiries,change of address and orders payable to WIRED, Subscription Department, Lathkill St, Market Harborough, Leics LE16 9EF, United Kingdom. Change of address or other subscription queries: email wired@subscription.co.uk or call 0844 848 2851. Manage your subscription online 24 hrs a day at www.magazineboutique.co.uk/youraccount. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictlyprohibited. All prices correct at time of going to press but are subject to change. wired cannot be responsible for unsolicited material. Copyright © 2014 THE CONDÉ NAST PUBLICATIONS LTD, Vogue House, HanoverSquare, London W1S 1JU. The paper used for this publication is recyclable and made from renewable fibrous raw materials. It has been produced using wood sourced from sustainably managed forests and elementalor total chlorine-free bleached pulp. The producing mills have third-party-certified management systems in place, applying standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. This magazine can be recycled either through yourkerbside collection or at a local recycling point. Log on to www.recyclenow.com and enter your postcode to find your nearest sites.

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Supplement free with WIRED 07.14. Not for sale separately

W I R E DT E S T

Wearable tech isn’t a new trend, but many big players are investingheavily in developing devices that provide cut-down access toyour smartphone’s functions. WIRED tests the current crop. By Jim Hill

D I S P LAY

KEY FEATURES

CONNECT IV I TY

APP SUPPORT

BATTERY

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DOWNLOADABLE APPS ,CUSTOMISABLE SCREEN,MUS IC AND CAMERACONTROL

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ANDROID

SONY

3 -4 DAYS (NORMAL USE )

How we testedStrapping on five of the latest smartwatches, WIRED lived with these high-tech

timepieces for one week to assess their usefulness, foibles and flaws. Noting the

battery life, reliability and general ease of use, we awarded scores for overall

performance, practicality and whether we’d actually want to be seen wearing it.

Sony SmartWatch2 SW2With its LCD display, home icon

and prominent Sony branding,

this is what most of us expect a

smartwatch to look like. There’s

no camera or microphone, so

don’t think of this as a Star

Trek-style communicator – rather

than compete with your phone,

Sony’s second-generation device

acts more like a satellite screen,

displaying Facebook updates

and messages, and running

simplified apps on your wrist.

You can choose how you want

the time to be displayed and can

even download user-generated

watch-face mods – such as one

inspired by the pause screen

from GoldenEye 007 for N64.

The 220 x 176p LCD display

dims automatically to preserve

battery life, but doesn’t switch

off entirely. If you use it solely

to alert you to messages, it’ll

last longer – but then you’ll miss

out on the features. It’s handy

as a remote control for the

camera and music player on

your smartphone, and there are

plenty of free apps available

from Google Play. Some are

fun, many are pointless and

all tax the feeble processor

and battery to their limits, so in

many ways you’re left wondering

why this watch exists. With no

iOS support, iPhone users are

excluded, but Xperia owners

may well be tempted by this

sleek and similarly styled watch.

WIRED Feature-packedand highly customisableTIRED Complicated to use;poor battery life■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

£150 sonymobile.com

S M A R T W A T C H E S

W I R E D M A G A Z I N E /W A T C H G U I D E 2 0 1 4

OLED 96 X 16 P IXE LS

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BLUETOOTH 4 .0

iOS , ANDROID

WELLOGRAPH

3 MONTHS (WATCH ONLY )

MartianNotifierDon’t be misled by its analogue

looks – this high-tech timepiece

conceals an OLED display, micro

USB port and a watch glass that

acts as a tap-sensitive button.

Instead of app overload, the

Notifier specialises in messaging.

Download theMartian Watch

Alerts app on to your iPhone or

Android device, sync wirelessly

over Bluetooth, and you’ll be

able to use your phone to

select which messages reach

your wrist, and how they arrive

(Twitter mentions could be an

urgent vibration, emails a gentle

buzz). The text display is tiny but

crisp enough to read, making

it possible to check emails on

the sly – simply tap the glass to

move on to the next message.

The big let-down is build quality

– the strap and casing both

feel insubstantial, and the USB

port cover fell off during the test.

SamsungGear 2 NeoDiscarding Android in favour

of its own Tizen operating

system, the Gear 2 Neo scrolls

between apps with far more

fluidity than Samsung’s first

smartwatch. The additions of a

heart-rate monitor, gyroscope

and pedometer are key to its

enhanced usefulness – combined

with its MP3 playback and a pair

of Bluetooth headphones, it’s an

ideal exercise tracker.

However, making calls using

the built-in mic will leave you

looking like a wannabe secret

agent (unless that’s what you

want, of course). Also, the

accelerometer doesn’t always

illuminate the screen when you

articulate your wrist and the

S Voice control app is very hit-

and-miss. The Gear 2 Neo is also

rather picky – it only works with

Samsung smartphones.

Wellograph SapphireWellness WatchThis handsome timepiece is

pitched as a health tracker – so

if you’re after GPS, a camera or

even just your phone messages,

you’re out of luck. Sure, many

other watches are smarter, but

their novelty will fade when

they fail to keep pace with your

smartphone’s demands.

The Sapphire, however, is

built to last. Made of beautifully

machined polished aluminium,

sapphire crystal and leather,

it combines an accelerometer

and movement sensors with

a heart-rate monitor. Data is

shown in attractive infographics

on a crisp 1.26-inch monochrome

screen. The accompanying app

is well polished too, storing data

for up to four months in order to

track your progress and present

it in helpful graphs. Of all the

watches in our test group, this is

one we wanted to keep wearing.

ConnecteDeviceCOGITO POPThe colourful COGITO POP, which

comes in six electric shades,

features an analogue face and

not a USB port in sight. It has

the fun, fashion appeal of a

Swatch, but uses four LED icons

on the dial to alert you when

you receive a call, text, email

or message via your chosen

social network – Facebook,

WhatsApp and Twitter are all

available here. With no display

of its own, the COGITO POP

can do no more than send you

these visual prompts, so calling

it a smartwatch is stretching the

definition somewhat. It can still

act as remote control for the

music player and camera on

your phone, though in reality

this is rather fiddly, and it’s

the message alert service that’s

the big draw. But sometimes, as

this watch proves, less is more.

WIRED Discrete and effectivemessage deliveryTIRED Build quality isn’tespecially good■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

£99 martiannotifier.com

WIRED Vivid touchscreenaccess to messages andmusicTIREDWill only pair with acompatible Samsung device■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

£200 samsung.com

WIRED Elegant andaccomplished health trackerTIRED Few smart functions;expensive by comparison■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

$320 wellograph.com

WIRED Fun; practical;incredibly easy to set upTIREDNo display meansfew truly “smart” features■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

$129 cogitowatch.com

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1 /One of the

challenges when

working with a watch

of this thinness was

how to limit the

effect of pressure

on the movement.

On every watch,

the sapphire crystal

bows when put

under pressure. If

the space tolerance

between the hands

and the glass is not

sufficient, as would

have been the case

if the hands and

bridge configuration

had not been

altered here, the

bowing would lean

on the hands and

cause them to stop.

The 900P’s bridges

have been designed

to be slightly higher

than the hands, so

the glass leans

on these instead.

2 / The dial has been

placed off-centre at

10 o’clock, to allow

the gear train to be

spread around it.

Piaget Altiplano

900P in white

gold, £20,600

piaget.com

3 / Spreading the

gear train across

the dial side of

the watch serves

both an aesthetic

and a mechanical

purpose. It allows

the wearer to see

the functional

parts of the watch

while allowing

the movement

engineers to reduce

the thickness of

certain elements.

The third wheel is

now 0.12mm thick

– half that of one

found in a classic

movement – and the

jewel for the driving

gear is just 0.25mm.

4 / In a classic

mechanical watch

movement, the

barrel is fixed to the

main plate (which

doesn’t technically

exist in this watch)

and the bridge.

Here, nothing holds

the bottom of the

barrel – a trick that

further reduces the

watch’s thickness.

1

2

3

4

5

P I A G E T A L T I P L A N O 9 0 0 PThin has always been in at Piaget. From 1957, when it launched its Calibre 9P – the firstultra-thin manual-winding calibre, which had a thickness of just 2mm – Piaget has strivedfor slenderness. Out of the 35 movements the brand produces in-house, 23 are amongthe slimmest of their kind. So, when WIRED went to Piaget’s London HQ on New BondStreet to witness the unveiling of its newest waif, we were expecting something special.What we got was the Altiplano 900P. With an astonishing depth of just 3.65mm, thanksto an integrated movement and case, Piaget has created a record-breaking blend ofdesign and mechanical mastery. Here’s what’s was squeezed inside. By Laura McCreddie

5 / The crux of this

whole piece is the

fusion of the main

plate with the case

back. No separate

movement can be

removed from the

case; the two are

fused together, with

the “case back” also

taking on the role of

baseplate for some

of the movement

components, too.

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TO BREAK THE RULES,YOU MUST FIRST MASTERTHEM.

IN 1993, THE AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK OFFSHORE

CHANGED THE WORLD OF THE SPORTS WATCH FOREVER.

NOW THE 2014 COLLECTION MOVES THE GAME ON ONCE

MORE; THE HAND-ENGRAVED 22 CARAT GOLD OSCILLATING

MASS SEEN THROUGH THE SAPPHIRE CASEBACK, A

WINDOW ONTO 139 YEARS OF HOROLOGICAL MASTERY.

ROYAL OAK OFFSHOREIN STEEL.CHRONOGRAPH. AUDEMARS PIGUET UK LTD

TEL: + 44 207 409 0782AUDEMARSPIGUET.COM

W I R E DP A N E L

From underwater adventures tobattles in the boardroom, youneed the right timepiece to get thejob done. Here’s WIRED’s selection

f the deluge of chunkyunidirectional bezels andsuper-luminescent hourmarkers adorning thelatest luxury timepieces

are anything to go by, 2014 may yet bebranded the year of the diving watch.

It’s not just the rugged convenience ofa time-teller designed to perform accu-rately at great depths that makes it soappealing, but the adventurous spirit ofdiving itself. It’s 50 years since JacquesCousteau’s Oscar-winning WorldWithout Sun, the 93-minute documentarythat chronicled Conshelf Two – hismonth-long experiment 10m below thesurface of the Red Sea to gauge whetherhumans could live beneath the waves.

This year, Cousteau’s grandson Fabienwill re-enact the Conshelf project – forMission 31, he and five other aquanautsplan to spend 31 days aboard Aquarius, asemi-habitable laboratory 19m beneaththe waters of the Florida Keys.

If the principle requirement of adiving watch is the ability to functionunder pressure, WIRED’s first selectionis without equal in this regard: the RolexSea-Dweller Deepsea is water-resistantto 3,900m – far deeper than Fabien’sliving quarters – and contains a heliumescape valve to prevent damage to themechanism as the wearer resurfaces.

Another prerequisite is the means tocalculate remaining air supply. IWC’sthird-generation Aquatimer Deep Three(main image) enhances the standard60-minute bezel with a sliding clutch that

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Rolex Sea-Dweller DeepseaPrice £8,050

rolex.com

Size 44mm wide

Movement Calibre3135 self-winding

mechanical

Power reserve48 hours

Unique featureSapphire crystal,

steel and titanium

Ringlock case

IWCAquatimer Deep ThreePrice £14,250 harrods.com

Size 46mm wide

Movement Calibre 30120

automatic mechanical

Power reserve 42 hoursUnique featureMechanical depth-

gauge with flyback hand showing

maximum depth to 50m

Calibre deCartier DiverPrice €5,500

cartier.com

Size 42mm wide

Movement Calibre1904MC self-winding

mechanical

Power reserve48 hours

Unique featureSuper-LumiNova

markings, water-

resistant to 300m

makes it both easy to operate and lesssusceptible to accidental adjustment. Italso features a handy 50m depth gauge.

Lastly, a watch must deal with thelack of natural daylight underwater. Themarkers on the Calibre de Cartier Diver(the French marque’s first diving watch)are coated in Super-LumiNova, a non-radioactive strontium aluminate–basedpigment that ensures you can tell howmany precious minutes are left in thetank, however dark your surroundings.

I

By Henry Farrar-Hockley

Photography by Louisa Parry

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ondoners might well beforgiven for thinking thatcycling is an essentialmode of transport ratherthan a form of exercise

– or, indeed, a pleasurable pastime.However, there are those of you outthere who see the open road as a chal-lenge for the heart and legs, and whowant something smart on their wrist toaccompany a demanding ride.

Tapping into the capacities of thesmartwatch is Pebble Bike. This freeapp (though to use it, you first haveto buy the $249 Pebble Smartwatch)was created by two cyclists – Jay Dionfrom Lyon and Nicholas Jackson fromLondon. It uses your phone’s GPS tocalculate your speed, distance and alti-tude, transmitting the data to yourSmartwatch’s display and allowing youto share your progress with friends.

If you want something more multi-disciplinary, consider Suuntos’s Ambit2(£275, or £325 with heart-rate monitor-ing), which can be used for running,swimming and cycling. Along with GPS,altitude graphs and a 3D compass, italso gives readouts of average and max-imum bike power, bike laps and powerdistribution, and your peak power out-puts. If you connect it to Suunto’s AppZone (movescount.com), it can be per-sonalised with apps such as Hill Climb,Gear Ratio and Beers Burned Off.

However, although both these optionsare brilliant at belching out data, theydon’t really look like a “classic” watch– which is where Tissot’s Racing-Touch(main image, right) fits the bill. Tissothas used the knowledge gleaned fromits sponsorship of the Union CyclisteInternational to create a timepiece thatdoubles as a personal trainer. It has 11touch-activated functions and the lapchronograph allows you to record andsave up to 99 lap times, thanks to itsspecial logbook feature. It also has acompass, dual time-zone option and abacklight – and if all that wasn’t enough,you can buy one with an orange strap.Cycling doesn’t get cooler than that.

Suunto Ambit2Price £275 (£325with heart-rate

monitor function)

suunto.com

Size 50mm wide

Power reserve16 to 50 hours,

depending on GPS

accuracy and use

Unique feature3D compass

TissotRacing-TouchPrice From £395

tissot.ch

Size 43mm wide

Movement ETAmultifunction

Unique featureLap chronograph

function allows

you to record and

save 99 lap times

Pebble Bike app,PebbleSmartwatchPriceApp is free;

Pebble $249

pebblebike.com

getpebble.com

Size 36mm wide

Movement Lithium-

ion battery with five

to seven days’ power

Unique featureLive position uploads

sent to the internet

every 30 seconds

L

C Y C L I N GBy Laura McCreddie

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W I RW I RW I R E DE DE D M A GM A GM A GG AA Z IZ IZ IAAAA ZAA N EN EN E ////W A TW A TW A TW C HC HC H G U IG U IU IGG DDD ED EEEDD EE 2 0 12 0 10 12 0 444

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aptain Kirk was wrong.Space was, as it happens,one of the first frontiersto boldly be explored– by clock-makers. The

astonishing Antikythera mechanism,for instance, mapped planetary move-ments in the 1st century BC. Astronomi-cal clocks emerged in the 14th century,and planetary orreries depicting theSolar System in motion were all therage in the 17th and 18th centuries.

It is to such traditions that mod-ern watches incorporating “celestial”displays hark back – though few do itwith such élan as A Lange & Sohne’sRichard Lange 1815 Perpetual CalendarTerraluna. The reverse of this sophisti-cated timepiece shows the Moon orbit-ing a rotating Earth (with the balancewheel acting as the Sun), while movingthrough its phases in a starry sky.

Such mechanisms are known as“poetic complications”, a phrase VanCleef & Arpels adopted some years agofor its complex pieces, and never moreappropriate than for its Midnight Plané-tarium Poetic Complication, which is ineffect a planetary orrery for the wrist.Designed by astronomically-inclinedDutch watchmaker Christian Van deKlaauw, its dial shows planets rotat-ing around a central Sun in real time –Saturn, on the outside, takes 29 yearsto complete a circuit, while Earth takes(of course) 12 months. Time is told by atiny shooting star. But whatif you’re actually journeyinginto space? If you’ve got thefunds to hop aboard VirginGalactic, you may be able tostump up for the Deep SpaceTourbillon (main image andright) from French maverickVianney Halter. Resemblinga UFO – its form was in factinspired by the space stationin Star Trek: Deep SpaceNine – it has a three-axistourbillon rotating awayat its centre, so it shouldlook good in zero gravity.

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VianneyHalterDeep Space TourbillonPrice £152,700

vianney-halter.com

Case 40.6mm wide

MovementManual winding,

55 hours power reserve

Unique featureTriple-axis tourbillon with

“space station” design

By Timothy Barber

A Lange && SohneRichard Lange1815 PerpetualCalendarTerralunaPrice £157,000

alange-soehne.com

Case 45.5mm wide

MovementManual winding with

a remontoire

Unique featureRotating Earth

and Moon discs

VanCleef &ArpelsMidnightPlanétariumPoeticComplicationPrice £150,000

vancleefarpels.com

Case 44mm wide

MovementSelf-winding with a

planetary module

Unique featureTiny Solar System

rotating in real time

W IW I RW I RW I RRR E DE DEE DE M A GMM A GA GG A Z IA Z IA Z I N EN E //W A TW AW AW A TTT C HC HC H G UG U IG U IU IG D ED ED E 2 0 12 0 1 444

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W

Patek PhilippePerpetualCalendarChronographRef. 5270GPrice £118,940patek.com

Size 41mm wide

Movement CalibreCH 29-535 PS

Q mechanical

chronograph

Power reserve55-65 hours

Unique featureTimeless, undiluted

classic style

VacheronConstantinPatrimonyTraditionnelle14-Day TourbillonOpenworkedPrice€270,000

vacheron-

constantin.com

Size 42mm wide

MovementCalibre 2260 SQ

Power reserve14 days

Unique featureSkeletonised

movement

Audemars Piguet Royal OakConceptGMT Tourbillon 2014Price £157,700

Size 44mm wide

Movement Calibre 2930 hand-wound

tourbillon with GMT

Power reserve 10 days

Unique feature Crown-function indicator

hether securing initialfunding via Kickstarter orSequoia Capital, or run-ning a global business con-cern from the front end of

an A380, as Benjamin Franklin stated in1748 in Advice to a Young Tradesman:“Time is money”. So, a reliable timepiece– one that will keep pace with worldtravel and possess power reserves farexceeding the average executive – wouldseem a wise investment. But, just as inthe business world, entering the domainof haute horlogerie requires patienceand, more than likely, connections: suchwatches are uncommon. Waiting lists?Sometimes, they’re Ferrari-like.

At the pinnacle – for traditionalistsand those who revere longevity – PatekPhilippe, Vacheron Constantin andAudemars Piguet form the double-bar-

relled triumvirate that has ruled finewatchmaking even into this age of new-wave auteurs. Anyone lucky enoughto own (or inherit) Patek’s updatedPerpetual Calendar Chronograph Ref.5270G will be in possession of a classictwo-button chronograph with perpetualcalendar – a combination yielding 11pieces of information (including atachometer scale) on a dial that couldhave been issued any time during thepast century. This is high complicationwithout frippery, as refined and elegantas a pair of brogues from Cleverley.

If you prefer something more ornate,but with the same horological credibil-ity, Vacheron Constantin’s PatrimonyTraditionnelle 14-Day Tourbillon Open-worked provides its owner with atourbillon that runs for up to 14 days ona single wind. But its most distinctivefeature is a fully-skeletonised move-ment, making it a portable work of art.You will study it for the life of the watch,and always discover something new.

Venerable houses don’t only focuson classicism. Audemars Piguet’s RoyalOak Concept GMT Tourbillon 2014(main image, above left) is the otherextreme – a macho timepiece that usesmodern materials such as titanium andwhite ceramic in its construction – mostnotably on the bezel and the hourglass-shaped central bridge. At 3 o’clock is aGMT disc offering an exceedingly use-ful second time-zone indicator, while acrown position indicator is at 6 o’clock.At 44mm across, it’s large – but seemssmall when worn by burly brand-fans such as Arnold Schwarzenegger.

By Ken Kessler

WWW.RAD

O.COM

RADO HYPERCHROMECOURT COLLECTION

ENGINEERED IN MATT HIGH-TECH CERAMIC

Andy Murray

ASTRON. By developing a low-energy-consumption GPS receiver, Seiko has created a watch that connects to the GPS network

and uses it to identify both time of day and time zone. The new Astron recognises all 39 time zones on earth and, by taking all the

energy it needs from light alone, never needs a battery change. seiko-astron.com

d e d i c a t e d t o p e r f e c t i o n

at last, a watch that adjuststo all 39 time zones on earth.

39

credittogoinhere

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inally making the leapfrom the drawing boardand on to the startinggrid, the world’s first elec-tric racing championship

series will begin later this year. Basedmostly on urban circuits, Formula E willrun from September 13 in Beijing andend with a London race on June 27, 2015.

Formula E cars are powered by an ACelectric motor, built by McLaren, that

D R I V I N G

F

generates the equivalent of 270bhp. Asyou may remember from past physicslessons, AC motors rely on a rotatingmagnetic field to generate current inwire coils – but watches and magnet-ism don’t mix. So, our first recommen-dation for any Formula E driver’s wristis the OMEGA Seamaster Aqua Terra >15,000 gauss. It can shrug off exposureto magnetic fields like those generatedat the core of the McLaren motor, andstill meet the Contrôle Officiel Suisse desChronomètres certification for accuracy.

Any driving watch, however, shouldideally be a chronograph, like the Zenith

El Primero : Lightweight. Similaritiesabound between this watch and theFormula E car. Lightness, for one: theZenith is a wispy 40g (the car weighsin at 800kg – less than a Ford Fiesta).Both achieve this in the same way: a car-bon-fibre monocoque chassis. Underthe bonnet, the Zenith is as modern asthe car, eschewing traditional materialsin favour of titanium and silicon.

If the Zenith is a little too ordinary foryour tastes, take the Richard Mille RM50-01 G-Sensor (main image, left) for aspin. Built from layers of pressed car-bon fibre, it contains a built in mechan-ical g-force meter. The needle at thetop of the dial measures from 0 to 6 g –which would cover the highest g-forcesexperienced in Formula 1. Whetheryou’d be able to look at your watch at thesame time is another matter entirely.

Zenith el Primero: LightweightPrice £13,600

zenith-watches.com

Size 45mm wide

Movement ElPrimero 4052 W

automatic

Power reserve50 hours

Unique feature One-piece carbon-fibre

case that keeps the

weight to just 40g

By Chris Hall

RichardMille RM 50-01 G-SensorPrice £660,500 richardmille.com

Size 42.7mm wide

Movement Calibre RM50-01 manual

winding tourbillon chronograph

Power reserve 70 hours

Unique feature G-force sensor

capable of measuring from 0-6 g

OMEGASeamasterAqua Terra> 15,000gaussPrice: £4,170omegawatches.com

Size 41.5mm wide

MovementOMEGA co-axial

calibre 8508

Power reserve60 hours

Unique featureMagnetic resistance

Watch companies often celebrate the skilled hand of man in watchmaking– and so they should. No machine has yet acquired the dexterity neededto assemble the delicate components that make up the most complexmechanical watches – for that, you still need a watchmaker’s touch andtrained eye. But when it comes to making the parts, managing productionflows and taking care of logistics, the industry is increasingly reliant onmachines. With vast budgets and even bigger ambitions in play, someof the automated systems in this field are remarkable. By Robin Swithinbank

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RolexIt’s not known exactly how manywatches Rolex makes each year, butcommonly aired estimates indicate thetotal surpasses seven figures. Guessworkaside, Rolex is one of the few verticallyintegrated watch companies. It makesall the major components you find in aRolex watch, from movement bridgesand dials, to the gold used in cases andbracelets – smelted in its own foundry.

Production on this scale requiresimpressive infrastructure. The jewel inRolex’s logistical crown is its automatedstorage and retrieval system, which isinstalled at the company’s three Genevasites and at its movement manufacturingplant which opened in 2012 in Bienne,150km to the north of the Swiss capital.

Located in a three-storey undergroundfacility, the Bienne site doubles as a vault.In it, there are 46,000 storage com-partments, ordered across 14 aisles ofshelves, holding tens of millions of com-ponents. The aisles are served by a teamof robots that send storage trays alonga conveyor system that runs 1.2kmaround the building, and up and downfour distribution towers, each 27m high.

In Les Acacias, Rolex’s Geneva watchassembly and testing site, vaults reach-ing 12 metres high house 40 rows ofshelves along 20 aisles of storagespace, holding 40,000 trays and mil-lions of components. As productionorders come in, automated preparationstations select boxes, remove thecovers and then pick up parts orcompleted watches as required.

These are then delivered through anetwork of conveyors, elevators andshuttles concealed within the build-ing’s ceilings. Before they’re releasedinto environmentally controlled work-shops, they go through a dust-removingtunnel. Once watches have been assem-bled, they’re put back into the system,where they’ll stay until they’re shipped.

These automated systems are soefficient, Rolex’s workers can expectto receive parts less than ten minutesafter ordering them – an extraordinaryachievement, given that the footprintof the Bienne site is 92,000m2 and theproduction facility covers 400,000m2.The systems work 24 hours a day,keep real-time inventories, and han-dle more than seven million transportsa year, all to keep Rolexes deliveredto customers in a timely manner.

Right: boxes of parts wind their wayaround Tissot’s Le Locle facility

No crowns or pushers: just Bluetooth and aniPhone app to adjust, and a USB to charge.

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Above: a robot crane-picker in one of Tissot’s 20m-long, 15m-high shelving rows.Top right: TAG Heuer calibres being assembled. Right: Rolex’s automated vaults

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TAGHeuerLast summer, TAG Heuer opened a futur-istic facility in the remote Swiss village ofChevenez, south-west of Basel, which, itcalculates, will help it realise its ambitionof producing 100,000 chronographs ayear – more than any other watch brand.

Inside this eco-friendly structure – itsroof is covered in 850m2 of solar panels –TAG Heuer will produce its two in-housechronograph calibres – the Calibre 1887,launched in 2010; and the Calibre 1969,a chronograph with a highly efficientvertical clutch system and an 80-hourpower reserve, introduced this year.

Chevenez’s secret is the next-gener-ation milling machines used to createthe brass plates and bridges that arefundamental to watch architecture.Traditionally, watch companies havealways had to develop new tooling everytime they introduce a new calibre, whichcan take months and cost huge sums. TAGHeuer has bypassed that process with anetwork of computer programmableautomated milling machines that canswitch from production of one of itscalibres to another in a matter of days.

The oil-free machines are clean andenvironmentally friendly, and are highlyspace-efficient, as they are considerablysmaller than typical computer numer-ically controlled machines. Taking upfar less room on the factory floor meansthat more of them can be put to workat the same time. They also have multi-ple spindles, so they can mill double thenumber of pieces. The system is self-man-aging and can run 24 hours a day, turningout one finished plate every six minutes.

TissotTissot is one of Switzerland’s biggestwatchmakers–itproducesmorethanfourmillion watches a year and is one of fiveSwiss watch brands with an annual turn-over in excess of CHF 1bn. Its collection ismade up of more than 1,000 references,the most famous being the quartzT-Touch multifunction watches.

In 2011, Tissot opened an automatedwarehouse in Le Locle, the Swiss townwhere it was founded in 1853. It took tenmonths to build and is designed to accom-modate the company’s target volumeof around six million watches a year.

Workers are stationed on two floors,managing components on one level andfully assembled watches on another.The plant is operated on two shiftsover a 16-hour period, five days a week.

Inside, 12 million components in32,000 storage compartments are kept ina 7,500m3 facility. Shelving towers span20 metres across and stretch 15 metresfrom floor to ceiling – from these, fiverobots, moving at up to five metres per

second, pick trays that are then spiritedaround the building on a complex net-work of conveyors 540 metres long.

At the heart of each of the five aislesis a giant stacker crane. These are fittedwith anti-oscillation drives mountedon the mast heads, designed to stopthe mast oscillating, so it can supporthorizontal motion. These reduce cycletimes and double dynamic ratings, thusmaking the cranes much more efficient.

Before storage, each tray is assigned abarcode, which is scanned as it makes itsway around the facility. This is then pro-cessed by a 3D visualisation setup that’sintegrated into the warehouse man-agement system, giving staff real-timeupdates on how the operation is perform-ing and allowing them to identify andquickly resolve problems as they occur.

The Swiss watch industry is wortha reported CHF 30bn, and exports arestill rising fast. Some industry insidersbelieve it will be double that size withinten years, such is the global appetite forluxury timepieces. If it is to keep pace, theindustry needs to innovate, speed up itsprocesses and produce quality watchesmore efficiently. The systems introducedby Rolex, TAG Heuer and Tissot areat the cutting edge, and will ensuretheir places at the horological high tableare safe for the next decade and beyond.

Next generation systems such as thiscome at a cost. At CHF 250,000(£170,000) per unit, and with more than30 already installed, the new machinestook a large chunk of the CHF 20 milliondevelopment cost that TAG Heuerreports it invested in the Calibre 1969.

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YOUR TIME IS NOW.GO PLACES YOU NEVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE.

Miros Date Ladies & Pontos SFor her a perfectly proportioned timepiece, gracefully adorned with

60 diamonds. For him a stylish sports watch with an automatic calibreand patented inner-rotating bezel.

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arting down a cobbled Southwark alleyway,dodging the tourists of Clink Prison, then buzz-ing the intercom on a grimy metal door, thiscouldn’t be further removed from the bucoliccharm of your typical Swiss-watch factory. Nor

could the wiry, wild-haired physics academic the other sideof the door, for that matter. The first thing WIRED notices isthat Richard Hoptroff’s “atelier” is far from dust-free, despitethe stacks of exposed microchips and pre-assembled precisionquartz movements littering his workbench –all of them destined for his core range ofBluetooth-enabled, iPhone adjusted wristwatches.

To subsidise his rent, Hoptroff has sublet thetwo spaces next door to artists, whose tubes of oils,canvases and pots of brushes all add to the chaoticenvironment. “It’s a real ‘sell the house to fund thedream’ story,” Hoptroff says. “My wife and I lived inParis before, in a smart neighbourhood, running techstartups. Then we decided to up sticks three yearsago and put everything into the watch brand.” Hop-troff and his wife, Sarah, are now “melting down”their FlexiPanel venture (designing and customis-ing Bluetooth and wireless firmware for tech manu-facturers), as well as their business selling softwareto Casio for its smartwatch, in order to concentratefully on Hoptroff London watches – launched atthe Saatchi Gallery’s SalonQP watch fair lastNovember. The core range of wristwatches are runby Bluetooth-enabled quartz movements, all reg-ulated and set by an iPhone app. There is one thatwill read the stockmarkets, for instance; another canmanage your appointment reminders.

But Hoptroff’s big-entrance piece, the No. 10, isa palm-sized chunk of yellow gold, whose classicalenamel dial belies a mass of green circuitry within.At its heart sits a red LED, blinking with a preci-sion that outstrips every other portable timepiecein the world. “It’s good to within one-and-a-halfseconds every 1,000 years,” declares Hoptroff,

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P O C K E T

C L O C KRichard Hoptroff’s No. 10 is the world’s firstcaesium-atom pocket watch, making it the mostaccurate model on the market. By Alex Doak

“making it the most precise watch in the world by a factor of5,000. We’re not just beating the Swiss, we’re hammering them.”

Keeping time is a miniature version of the caesium-gasatomic clocks that keep the world on schedule, encased by a130°C oven no larger than a 9V battery. A laser excites the atomsand a microwave resonator measures their electrons’ orbitaltransitions – 4,596,315,885 of which define an elapsed second.

The package is supplied by Symmetricom, which origi-nally developed it in collaboration with the US Departmentof Defense for use in cruise missiles, aerial drones andundersea cables; all “applications” where an autonomoustime reference is needed in case of GPS radio jamming.

All 12 No. 10’s – and a selection of Hoptroff wristwatches –will have their cases laser-sintered from gold dust by Cook-son Precious Metals in Birmingham, where Europe’s gold isrecycled. And although the process of perfecting this tech-nique delayed production by a year, Hoptroff is convincedthis is the way forward. “For our little enterprise, 3D printingkeeps batch sizes down. You can change the design quickly, anddo complicated shapes that would be otherwise impossible.”

The No. 10 is, by Swiss watchmaking standards, a “super-complication” in itself. Thanks to the possibilities affordedby his Bluetooth wizardry, the £50,000 watch boasts 28sub-indications, measuring everything from atmosphericpressure and temperature to longitude, latitude and the ebband flow of the tides. And that’s just on the front dial; Hoptroff

will soon unveil the celestial rear dial,which is expected to contain a further20 moving indicators. hoptroff.com

D

The Hoptroff No. 10.Limited to 12 pieces,82mm x 25mm. £50,000

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Our second annual supplementcelebrating the finer things in l i fe.Free with the December issue.

Out October 30

The Blacklamp

Carbon comes with

a torch that can be

used to activate

the Moonglow ring

Schofield Blacklamp CarbonStriking a blow for British watchmakers and limited to just 101 pieces, the manual-wind Blacklamp Carbon hails from

Sussex-based Schofield which, since 2013, has moved its assembly operation from Germany to these shores. Schofield

spent a year creating a carbon composite, MORTA, which is hand-laid and formed into small billets; one billet is used

to create each watchcase. Around the rim of the dial is a gaseous tritium light device, powered by strontium aluminate.

Called Moonglow, this ring softly illuminates the dial to spectacular effect. £9,900 schofieldwatchcompany.com

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High-end watches neednot mean vulgar, eye-searingbling. WIRED selects fivetenebrous timepieces thatput all others in the shade.By Jeremy White

Photography:James Day

D A R K

A tourbillon can take

over 60 seconds

to compensate; the

Excalibur Quatuor

does so instantly

Roger Dubuis Excalibur Quatuor DLC TitaniumJust 188 enthusiasts will be able to sport the titanium Excalibur Quatuor, coated in black diamond-like carbon. Rather

than use tourbillons to compensate for the effects of gravity on timekeeping, the watch uses four sprung balances,

paired and placed at 90-degree angles to each another and linked by differentials. Each balance operates at four Hz,

adding up to 16 oscillations a second. By distributing the effects of gravity across the four balances, the watch can

compensate immediately for the rate variations caused by changes in position. £423,000 rogerdubuis.com

W I R E DF E T I S H

The Stealth’s quartz

crystal vibrates at

32,768 Hz, so it’s

accurate to within

seconds per month

TAG Heuer Formula 1 StealthThe only hint of colour on this 42mm-wide watch is located on the red-tipped chronograph hand – the rest lives up to

its name, with a steel-coated black titanium-carbide case and bezel, black rubber strap and black gold hour-markers.

TAG’s Formula 1 models were engineered with McLaren Mercedes and tested in racing conditions by Jenson Button – so

you should be able to trust the quartz chronograph and its three counters that can measure up to 12 hours of elapsed

time to within 1/10th of a second. Drivers who are divers will appreciate its 200m water resistance. £1,575 tagheuer.co.uk

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With a deep sea diver’s licenseand a high seas patent: Ahoi Atlantik

from NOMOS Glashütte

NOMOS retailers in the UK include: Catherine Jones, C S Bedford, C W Sellors,Fraser Hart, Hamilton & Inches, Mappin &Webb, Orro, Perfect Timing, Stewart’sWatches, Watches of Switzerland, Wempe. Find these and other authorizedNOMOS retailers at nomos-watches.com, or order online at nomos-store.com

Water resistant

to 50m, the

ceramic case and

sapphire crystal are

extremely durable

Bell & Ross BR S Black Ceramic PhantomBell & Ross re-imagined its iconic BR 01 model by introducing a sleeker (39mm) and thinner timepiece, without diluting

its aviation-inspired references. The design of this ladies’ watch is intended to evoke stealth bombers: “undetectable,

yet never totally invisible”, according to the manufacturer. With a polished black ceramic case, black PVD steel bezel,

a black dial and dark appliqué numerals and index, it is perhaps fortuitous that the hands, at least, are covered in a

photo-luminescent coating, visible in low light. £1,850 bellross.com (additional £720 for the polished ceramic bracelet)

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W I R E DF E T I S H

The efficiency

indicator shows red

or green, depending

on how much you’ve

moved the watch

Urwerk UR-210 Maltese FalconUrwerk is known for its satellite system with spinning hour indicators, but in the UR-210 the minute hand is placed in a

three-dimensional cage – inspired by theMaltese Falcon yacht – which covers the hour satellite as it moves along

its 120-degree arc. At 11 o’clock, opposite the 39-hour power reserve display, is the winding efficiency indicator. This

measures the difference between energy consumed and energy generated by the mainspring over a two-hour period.

On the case’s back you can engage an air turbine compressor to avoid over-winding. £124,500marcuswatches.co.uk

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Making a pilot’s watch is a piece ofcake, right?

Design a few fancy dials. Add someluminous numbers. Photograph it on amale model posed insouciantly againsta fighter plane and Bob’s your uncle.

We take a different approach.

Our thinking is this: a true pilot’s watchshould be able to endure everything thepilot does.

And we mean everything.

Our U-2 watch has been developedfor the elite spy plane squadron atBeale Air Force base in California.

These planes operate at altitudes as highas 100,000 feet, and at temperatures aslow as minus 40 degrees.

So, with the help of the squadron, wesubjected our watch to extensive testingto make sure it could withstand thesame extremes.

Spy planes aren’t always the mostwelcome of guests in foreign air space,and a pilot may occasionally have tomake a small revision to the flight plan.

Like ejecting at 500 mph.

So we also enlisted the help of Martin-Baker, the pioneers of the ejector seat.

At their testing facility in Denham, ourwatch was put on the wrist of a crashtest dummy and fired from the cockpit,again and again and again. Enduringforces of up to 30G in the process.

Yet the Bremont lived to tell the time.

How?

Well, instead of one watch case, webuild two.

The outer case is solid steel. Seventimes thicker than you’ll find in theaverage watch.

(We bombard it with electrons totoughen it up.)

Inside this is a second case, held inplace by a flexible ring that absorbsany shocks and protects the delicatemechanism inside.

Delicate it may be, but the mechanismdoesn’t get an easy ride either.

It’s passed an arduous fifteen daycertification process administered byno less a body than COSC, the officialSwiss ChronometerTesting Institute.

As a result, it’s 99.998% accurate.(We’re working on the other 0.002%.)

It’s safe to say that most people readingthis are unlikely to be asked to fly amission at 100,000 feet or eject from astricken fighter.

But it’s reassuring to know that if youdid, your watch wouldn’t let you down.

If you look after a Bremont, it shouldlast you a lifetime.

In fact, as our tests prove, even if youdon’t look after it, it should still lasta lifetime.

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Y O U N E V E R H A V E T O

G O T H R O U G H

E V E R Y T H I N G O U R

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L I M I T E D

E D I T I O NCelebrating more than a century of fine Swiss watchmaking,Oris has created a new mechanical movement with anextraordinary 240-hour power reserve. By Robin Swithinbank

The Oris 110 Years in stainless steel,£3,750 (£9,950 in rose gold)

ne of this year’s unexpectedlyinteresting new mechanical watchmovements is Calibre 110, the first in-house calibre made by Oris for almost35 years, and celebrating 110 years of

watchmaking. It features a ten-day power reserveand a non-linear power reserve indicator. Eitheris unusual in its own right – but the combinationis, as far as WIRED can tell, unique.

In mechanical watchmaking, ten-day powerreserves are few and far between, only makingappearances in watches by old-school giants such asPatek Philippe. Power in a mechanical watch comesfrom a mainspring – a spiral torsion spring typicallymade of a very hard, elastic, nonmetallic alloy calledNIVAFLEX. The mainspring sits inside a flat cylindri-cal case called a barrel, which, for want of a betterword, serves as a mechanical watch’s battery.

The norm is a power reserve of around 40 hours– anything over 50 gets a nod of approval frompeople in the know. So, when a brand comes for-ward with a power reserve stretching to 240 hours – six timesthe average – you know it’s had to resolve one or two micro-engineering challenges. Oris developed a mainspring for theCalibre 110 that’s 1.8 metres long, yet coils up into a barrel that’s

20mm in diameter and 2.25mm thick. As a rule, the power in awatch is released unevenly. When a watch is fully wound, thetorque in the mainspring is higher and the power is releasedmore quickly; as the watch winds down, the torque is lower

and power is released more slowly. Oris hasfine-tuned Calibre 110 so it loses less thantwo per cent of its torque every 24 hours.

More impressive still is the power-reserve indicator. Conventional powerreserves are linear, with even gaps betweenindices. Oris’s non-linear solution is moreinventive. When the watch is fully woundthe hand points to the ten-day marker. Theday markers are close together initially,and the hand moves slowly at first as thepower runs down. But as the time to rewindthe watch draws closer, the indicators arespread further apart and the hand movesaround the gauge faster. To achieve this, Orisworked with a technical partner to create aspecial gear train that it has since patented.

This new movement deserves an equallysophisticated housing, and it has found ahome in a 43mm watch called the Oris 110Years Limited Edition. A nicely restrainedanniversary piece, just 110 will be pro-duced in stainless steel and 110 in rose gold.The first examples are due in the UKthis summer. Reserve one now. oris.ch/en P

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2 SECONDS TO REMEMBER.

stop2go==

As the clock seen on all SwissSwiss railway stations, the Mondaine

stop2go Official Swiss Railways Watch runs a little fast for 58

seconds, then stops for 2 seconds at the full minute. Mondaine

58-02 Quartz Movement, Stainless Steel Case, Sapphire Crystal,

Water Resistant, individually numbered, Swiss Made – what do

2 seconds mean to you?

www.mondaine.com

www.facebook.com/mondainewatch

S H O W

T I M EThis year’s Baselworld and

Salon International de la

Haute Horlogerie fairs

marked a high point for

horological innovation,

with enhanced solar power,

ultra-thin movements,

multi-zone functionality

and the use of silicon

looming large on watch

dials everywhere. Here are

11 new models that are more

than worthy of your wrist.

By Henry Farrar-Hockley

Girard PerregauxNeo-TourbillonWith Three BridgesSandblasted PVD

titanium bridges are

used to suspend an

80-part automatic

movement.

CHF 145,000 girard-perregaux.com

Bulova AccutronII AlphaReinterpreting the

iconic 60s wristwatch

that went to the

Moon, this features

a three-pronged

quartz crystal to

maintain accuracy.

£299 bulova.com

Casio PRO TREKPRW-6000This outdoor wrist-

computer uses

Casio’s Triple Sensor

Ver. 3 technology to

determine compass

bearing, altitude

and plenty more.

£460 casio.co.uk

Seiko Astron GPSSolar ChronographBuilt around Seiko’s

new 8X82 calibre, this

limited edition six-

hour chronograph

has one-touch time

zone calibration

and a GPS antenna.

€3,300 seiko.co.uk

MontblancTimeWalkerChronograph 100This patented

chronograph can

measure elapsed

intervals with one

hundredth-of-a-

second precision,

while its titanium

steel bezel is

coated with a

layer of extremely

scratch-resistant

DLC (diamond-like

carbon). €50,000montblanc.com

Louis Vuitton Escale WorldtimeA reference to Vuitton’s globe-

trotting heritage, this simultaneously

indicates the time in 24 cities.

€41,000 louisvuitton.com

Victorinox INOXThis rugged, 43mm solid steel

design survived 130 strength tests

– including being driven over by a

64-tonne tank. €380 victorinox.com

Hublot BigBang UnicoBi-RetrogradeChronoThe official World

Cup watch can time

matches, including

half- and extra-

time periods. From€18,940 hublot.com

Rado EsenzaCeramicTouch FibonacciDiamondsThe 534 diamonds

in this touch-tech

watch are arranged

in the eponymous

integer sequence.

€7,550 rado.com

Jaeger-LeCoultreMaster Ultra ThinMinute RepeaterFlying TourbillonAt 7.9mm deep, this

wristwatch is the

world’s thinnest

minute repeater.

€294,000 jaeger-lecoultre.com

VacheronConstantinFabuleuxOrnementsOttoman EmpireA dazzling diamond

and half-pearl casing

conceals an 18-karat-

gold calibre 1003.

€tbc vacheron-constantin.com

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