TO BREAK THE RULES,

YOU MUST FIRST MASTER

THEM.
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 The power of control.

Model shown is a Fiesta ST-3 3-Door 1.5 200PS Manual Petrol with optional Full LED Headlamps.
Fuel economy mpg ( l/100km): Combined 40.4 ( 7.0). *CO 2 emissions 136g/km.

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number of factors including the accessories fitted (post-registration), variations in weather, driving styles and vehicle load.
* There is a new test used for fuel consumption and CO 2 figures. The CO 2 figures shown, however, are based on the
outgoing test cycle and will be used to calculate vehicle tax on first registration.
This advertisement has been approved for issue by Pictet and Cie (Europe) S.A., London Branch, which is authorised and regulated by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) and subject to limited
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 Fe at ure

SOFTBANK’S
BIG PL AY

Under the leadership of

CEO Masayoshi Son,
Japanese conglomerate
SoftBank is taking
over tech, one firm at a time P.072
 CO N TEN TS
PHOTOGRAPHY: RYAN PFLUGER / AUGUST
The clearest water on Earth
The Silfra fissure, Iceland
 p. 016 S t ar t p . 1 1 4 F e a t ur e p. 1 2 8 Fe atu re

P OW E R D RE S SI N G S CR E E N IDOL TH E IL LU SI O N IS T S
Need some extra muscle? Try John Underkoffler had a career Conjurors and neuroscientists
slipping on the Seismic suit creating wild sci-fi interfaces are discovering how magic tricks
– an electrified onesie that can for Hollywood – until businesses can help us understand the inner
give you a performance boost asked him to build them for real workings of the human brain

p. 0 48 G ea r p. 1 22 Fea t ure

R OAD TR I P CREATIVIT Y CODED

ENTS
WIRED picks the best kit for Flashes of inspiration are seen CONT
an epic journey, from acoustic/ as a uniquely human trait – but
electric guitars to hybrid cars, as Marcus du Sautoy explains,
fire pits and cool sunglasses the AIs are rapidly catching up

p. 061 Work Smar ter

 WO R K/ PL AY Below : Buzz Aldrin

Coworking spaces are offering a hangs on to the side of
new service – childcare for the Agena Workstation
busy entrepreneurs who want to high above the Earth
mix parenthood with hotdesking on November 12, 1966

p. 0 8 2 Fe at ure

SA FE & S O U N D?
ASMR is a global phenomenon on
YouTube, with children creating
custom videos for adults who get
PHOTOGRAPHY: NASA, FROM THE NASA ARCHIVES: 60 YEARS IN SPACE, PUBLISHED BY TASCHEN FEB 25

a thrill from their peculiar sounds

p . 0 9 2 F e a t ur e

N AS A AT 6 0
The US space agency has been
going boldly for six decades.
We take an exclusive look inside
its vast archive of historic photos

p . 1 0 2 F e a t ur e

U NF INIS H ED
Massive Attack’s seminal album,
Mezzanine, is 20 years old. To
celebrate, its getting a remix
using DNA, AI – and spray paint
Editor Greg Williams Publishing director Nick Sargent

Group creative director Andrew Diprose Managing editor Mike Dent Group head of revenue Rachel Reidy

Executive editor Jeremy White Director of photography Dalia Nassimi Account director Silvia Weindling
Features director João Medeiros Art director Mary Lees Partnerships designer Jeffrey Lee
Digital editor James Temperton Digital art assistant Kieran Walsh Partnerships designer Duarte Soares
Senior editor Victoria Turk Brand partnerships director Harry Hughes
Senior editor Matt Burgess Brand partnerships manager Jessica Holden
Senior editor Gian Volpicelli Contributing editors Dan Ariely, Brand partnerships manager Josh Moore
Business editor Katia Moskvitch David Baker, Rachel Botsman, Liat Clark, Senior project manager Jessica Wolfe
Associate editor Sophie Charara Russell M Davies, Oliver Franklin-Wallis, Junior project manager Sian Bourke
Staff writer Matt Reynolds Ben Hammersley, Chris Haslam, PA to publishing director Keelan Duffy
Engagement manager Andy Vandervell Adam Higginbotham, Amit Katwala,
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For enquiries: wiredevents@condenast.co.uk
wired.co.uk/events

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administration and rights Group property director Fiona Forsyth Managing senior sales
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MATERIALS, WAX AND METAL INSPIRED THE CREATION OF THESE IMPOSSIBLE YET REALISTIC FORMS
WIRED LOGO: AARON KAUFMAN. DIGITALLY CONSTRUCTED USING CINEMA 4D. THE CONTRAST OF
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Eye/LOEWE/Nature

Menswear and accessories

inspired by the great outdoors loewe.com
 Warren du Preez &
Nick Thornton Jones

P H O T O G R A P H Y: B E N E D I C T R E D G R O V E ; A N D R E W D I P R O S E ; J A M E S D AY.
Bringing their slick,
surrealist aesthetic
NO W Y O U SE E IT… to our feature on
the reimagining of
Set designer Vicky Massive Attack’s
Lees employed a few Mezzanine, du Preez
tricks of her own for and Thornton Jones

I L L U S T R AT I O N : M AT T H E W G R E E N
the opening image photograph art-
to our magic feature: creating robot arms,
“I liked the idea of vintage studio tech,
bending your brain and Robert Del Naja
with an illusion, so I – who really does live,
tried to make readers breath and wear spray
question what they’re paint at all times.
C REATIN G seeing,” she says.
WI RE D “The two-way mirrors 0  
create a surreal vista
– the weird objects are
actually a bit of rubber
tubing, some bendy
garden wire, and few
bits of painted wood.”

D NA , A I, AR & 3D

Creative director Andrew Diprose visits the studio of Robert Del

Naja (AKA 3D) for our feature story, Unfinished Symphony: “The
place is heaven for anyone who is into graffiti, graphic design or
happens to be a huge Massive Attack fan. Everywhere you look you
see fantastic art, stencil prints, robots… even a full-size Doctor
Who Cyberman. 3D was the perfect host, and my whole shoot crew
geeked out on robotics, coding, AR and music production. The
mix of bleeding edge DNA technology and old-school spray paint Jo ao Mede iros Am eli a Tai t
stencil art was mind-blowing. The image above is Del Naja spraying WIRED’s features Tait explores the global
a DNA version of Mezzanine on to analogue vinyl. Very meta.” director profiles phenomenon of children
Masayoshi Son, becoming ASMR
founder of SoftBank, megastars on YouTube.
the Japanese company ”Humans love pleasure,
that’s driving the global whether that comes
tech scene with an from a slice of pizza
investment portfolio or someone tapping a
including giant startups microphone in a way that
Uber and Alibaba: “Son makes your brain tingle,”
is renowned for having she says. “Many adults
a 300-year plan for find children whispering
investing. He has a gift especially relaxing, and
for seeing an idea’s kids like to watch their
long-term potential.” peers do stuff online.”

S C AL E BUI L DI NG

This issue, photographer Benedict Redgrove tours the latest addition to the UK’s defences, the HMS
Prince of Wales: “Driving over the bridge from Edinburgh airport, you can see the ship just dwarfing
the buildings around it. The moment you get aboard and start walking around, it’s hard to describe just
how vast it feels. It’s also possibly the most expensive and technical building site I’ve ever been on.”
 innovation in batteries, LCDs, Wi-Fi and
the internet that has origins in the work
of physicists and chemists in previous
centuries. The impact brought about by
mobile technology can be traced back
to pioneers whose names are forgotten.
As I write, the annual jamboree of

‘Next big things’ technology, the Consumer Electronics

Show, is taking place in Las Vegas. As
every year, the consensus from those

don’t just appear attending is that there’s little new to

get excited about. This seems to miss
the point: events like CES conceal the

from nowhere slow, hard-to predict, drawn-out nature

of innovation and discovery. Trade
events bear little relation to meaningful
change, rather they are showbusiness –
a marketing platform for organisations
that have the relentless drumbeat of
quarterly earnings reports to adhere to.
The use-case is all. Many of the
emerging technologies of today are
F ROM THE You may not have heard of Bill Gross, mission wasn’t to create one of the seen as disappointing or “not where 
E DITOR but you have been productised by him. world’s most profitable businesses; we need them to be”. VR? Consumer
The software entrepreneur is respon- it was to organise all the world’s infor- adoption of the technology has been
sible for one of the most significant mation, initially via a search engine minimal. Why? Not enough products
economic models of the internet era. that had no commercial underpin- that excite people are being built
In 1996, Gross founded GoTo.com, a nings – AdWords wasn’t introduced because the technology is complex
search engine with the tagline “search until October 2000, two years after the and few developers have the skills to
made simple”. Search engines of the company was founded. Its pre-emi- build products. Machine learning? We’re
time, like Alta Vista, were strewn with nence has been built on its function- a long way off it being used for much
features such as email and weather ality, its uncluttered UI and delivery of more than pattern recognition. Block-
updates that made even finding a results with a high degree of relevance. chain? There are few clear use cases.
search bar challenging. Besides the Such is the way with innovation; much This is disappointment based on an
cleaner interface, GoTo distinguished like geologists examining strata in rock absence of product-fit. However, these
itself in another important way – all its formations, it’s possible to examine the technologies will continue to develop
search results would be sponsored. underpinnings of dominant players in incrementally, maybe becoming what
Gross’s idea seems obvious today every category. The iPhone is often we think they might become – or maybe
but, at the time, enabling commercial cited as a technology that made the something else entirely – because of
entities to buy keywords and elevating rest of the marketplace obsolete. But the bench work and research being
content according to the highest bidder the iPhone was the culmination of done in universities, laboratories and
was entirely new. Display adver- companies across the world. The notion
tising wasn’t an original idea – of the maverick individual is one that
but advertisers competing for the tech world likes to mythologise,
ILLUSTRATION: RAY ORANGES
eyeballs in real-time was. but the truth is that every “next big
GoTo rebranded as Overture thing” is created on the shoulders of
in 2001 to focus on being a third- others. Inter-generational, private,
party service provider to other public progress is the partnership
search engines. In 2003, it was that will ensure our continued advance.
bought by Yahoo!, as much of its
revenue was generated by GoTo.
Today, Gross’s vision can be
seen in Google Ads (rebranded Greg Williams
from AdWords in July 2018), the Editor
western internet’s dominant
commercial model, with
revenues in 2017 of $95 billion.
Of course, Google’s original

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of the Year 2011 • DMA Magazine of the Year 2011 • DMA Technology Magazine of the Year 2011 • BSME Art Director of the Year, Consumer 2011 • D&AD Award:
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HANDMADE IN ENGLAND
E T T I N G E R .CO.U K
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EDITED BY
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Need
muscle?
Try some
real power
dressing
 Ever felt a bit sluggish getting out of a chair, or
tire easily on a hike? What you need is to put on an
extra set of muscles. This is the idea behind Menlo
Park-based startup Seismic, which has developed
a body suit that contains integrated robotics to give
the wearer a subtle strength boost around their
core. Stand up, and the techno-onsie will read your >
PHOTOGRAPHY: CODY PICKENS
 movements and automatically engage
to support your lower back and hips.
Previously known as SuperFlex, The Länsisalmi power
Seismic was originally spun out of the substation in southern
SRI International research institute Finland needed an upgrade
in California, where co-founder and WEARABLE – but rather than just
CEO Rich Mahoney led the robotics TECH: INSIDE installing new equipment, it
team, including working on a DARPA THE SEISMIC got a full makeover from
programme to design lightweight, POWER SUIT architect Bratislav Toskovic,
wearable robotics for military applica- of Helsinki-based Parviainen.
tions. He realised that there could also “The main inspiration was
be a consumer market for a comfortable, electricity, and the visual
mobility-enhancing product. “The big A pack on each element of light,” he says.
insight was that we weren’t innovating thigh contains a “I wanted to convert the
around robotics,” he says. “We were lithium-ion battery concrete structures into
innovating around clothing.” and two artificial, glowing lanterns.” To achieve
The Seismic suit isn’t an exoskeleton; motorised muscles that, he clad the substation’s
it’s not intended to do the muscles’ that can expand three buildings with glass
work for them, but to contribute about and contract. panels and lined them with
15 to 30 per cent of the power required LED lights, which at night
(the actual amount depends on the transform the complex into
S TA RT wearer’s size). It consists of a textile a bright beacon. Behind its  
body suit that contains electric compo-
nents. Discreet, it can be worn alone
or as a base layer. Mahoney sees it These pull on
as adding a new kind of function- a fibre that runs
ality to fashion. You could dress for through the suit.
mobility, he says. “We want people The force is
to get dressed and not think, ‘I’m distributed by
putting something special on.’ Simply, gripping structures
‘I’m just putting my clothes on.’” in the fabric.
Seismic plans to enter the market in
some limited venues by mid-2019. They
haven’t settled on a price, but Mahoney
says it will be in the “bespoke, design-
er-level apparel range”. At this stage,
the suits are tailored to fit the individual, Sensors track
with plans for off-the-shelf sizes. movements,
The company is initially targeting the sending data
baby boomer generation. “As people to a pack at the
age, they begin to lose strength, and base of the spine
that generation has a high premium on containing a
maintaining an active lifestyle,” he says. microprocessor.
Next, Seismic wants to use machine
learning to enable the suit to adapt
to someone’s requirements and
preferences as they wear it. Take the
example of a teacher: perhaps the suit
could adapt to their class schedule
and automatically adjust the level of
support it provides throughout the day,
offering more assistance when they are
standing for long periods of time and
turning off when the school day ends.
Future products could also address
different parts of the body, such as the
shoulders and arms, ankles or knees.
Mahoney says the company has
received a lot of interest for worker
safety applications too, but that it
is currently positioning the suit as a
wellness product: “Your level of mobility
is directly linked to the quality of life you
have.” Victoria Turk myseismic.com
 glass walls, two 400kV which run down to the an alloy beloved of modern
transformers work to transformers via a steel architects for its rusty
distribute electricity to
800,000 residents in the
cities of Helsinki and Vantaa.
framework “portal”.
“Portals are usually ugly and
boring,” Toskovic says. “But
appearance. Toskovic says
their orange colour “blends
with its surroundings at any
A spark
of genius
PHOTOGRAPHY: MIKA HUISMAN

As the plant is visible from this location is so exposed: season”. Even better: they
a highway, Toskovic decided thousands of people see it need no further maintenance.
it could also be a landmark. daily.” He replaced the steel “They are [almost] 50 metres
Usually, energy reaches frames with two 47-metre- high. If one had to repaint Inspired by electricity, an
a substation through tall arches made of them, it would be a big job.” architect has transformed a
high-tension trunk lines, weathering COR-TEN steel, Gian Volpicelli parviainenark.fi dull Finnish substation

Länsisalmi power substation provides power to two Finnish cities and is a landmark for those driving past on a major highway
 S TA R T
PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER PRATO

In a warehouse in Oakland, California, a small crowd watches Will Roscoe tap a

phone with his thumb. At his feet, a radio-controlled car starts to move around
a racetrack – with no further input from Roscoe. The Frankenvehicle, which has a
camera and electronics zip-tied to its top, is called a Donkey Car. Roscoe is no
AI expert, but his creation uses neural network software similar to that which
Waymo’s street-legal autonomous minivans rely on to perceive the world. The car
learns to drive by watching a human steer the vehicle during demonstration runs.
A civil engineer by training, in 2016 Roscoe ran for a seat on the board of the Bay
The wacky
Area subway system. He pledged to replace trains with self-driving electric buses,
but finished third. Building his own autonomous vehicle seemed a way to show
voters that the technology wasn’t pure fancy. “I wanted
self-racer
to demonstrate it can work at a small scale,” he says.
He met fellow tinkerer Adam Conway, who built the
To stop a rogue vehicle and its autopilot using Google’s TensorFlow Will Roscoe has built a cute radio-
Donkey Car, Roscoe software, and after putting their designs online for others, controlled buggy with a difference:
says, “Just put your Donkey Cars of all shapes and sizes are now racing the Donkey Car can drive itself
foot in front of it” around in Hong Kong, Paris and Melbourne. Tom Simonite using neural network software
 he creator of the internet thinks it’s Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s new As well as funding the development
time for an update. In September 2018, mission is to help you take of Solid and apps for the platform,
Sir Tim Berners-Lee – the father of the back control of your data Inrupt will host free Solid pods to make
world wide web – launched the startup it easier for independent developers
Inrupt, co-founded with cybersecurity to create new apps. The company is
entrepreneur John Bruce, with a mission based in Boston, Massachusetts, and
“to restore rightful ownership of data is backed by the venture capital firm
back to every web user”. Glasswing Ventures. It currently has a
Since 2015, Berners-Lee (pictured staff of more than 20, plus an active open
right) has been working on a new web source development community that
infrastructure called Solid, which Bruce says numbers in the hundreds.
rethinks how web apps store and share Bruce and Berners-Lee aren’t waiting
S TA RT personal data. Inrupt aims to drive the for the current generation of tech giants 
development of the Solid platform from to switch to an open and decentralised
an innovative idea to a viable platform for
businesses and consumers. “My group in
CSAIL [Computer Sciences and Artificial
Inrupt: model: Amazon and Facebook are
unlikely to ever give up vast data caches
harvested from billions of users. But
Intelligence Laboratory] at MIT had
been working on Solid for some years,”
Berners-Lee says. “The initial goal of
the plan they hope their alternative model will
be adopted by an increasingly privacy-
aware population of web users and
Inrupt is to add the energy and resources
of a startup to the open-source efforts
to make the Solid movement happen.”
for the the organisations that wish to cater
to them. “In the web as we envision it,
entirely new businesses, ecosystems
Over the past three decades, the
web has evolved into something very
different to Berners-Lee’s original vision
next web and opportunities will emerge and
thrive, including hosting companies,
application providers, enterprise
of openness, co-operation and creativity. consultants, designers and developers,”
Most of the data we put online is now Bruce says. “Everyday web users will
siloed on the servers of companies like find incredible value in new kinds of apps
Google, Facebook and Twitter, and used that are impossible on today’s web.”
to sell us as an audience for targeted The company claims there are 1,200
advertising. We can download and new Solid community members, and
delete our online histories, but we still more than 30 open-source developers
can’t easily move our data between building apps on the platform. The
services. “Innovation and value creation current roster of Solid apps includes
are choked by powerful forces whose management apps, contact directory
focus is primarily on what generates and messaging tools, and a clutch of
profit or serves political agendas,” blogging, social and note-taking apps.
says John Bruce, who takes the role of “There is no single ‘killer app’,” Bruce
CEO at Inrupt, while Berners-Lee is CTO. says. “For different people, different
The big idea behind Solid is that apps will be life-changing.”
instead of a company storing all your For now, Bruce and Berners-Lee aren’t
personal data on its servers, you prepared to say much about how Inrupt
would keep it on your own personal plans to make money, save for that the
data “pod”, which is located on a Solid company will provide products and
server. You could run your own server services for businesses and individual
or host it with a provider, much as with users who want to implement Solid.
a personal website. You could then give Right: Sir Tim Berners-Lee, whose As Bruce sees it, the real opportunities
individual apps permission to read and Solid web infrastructure could are expected in businesses that have
PHOTOGRAPHY: NADAV KANDER

write to your pod. When you want to upend the ownership of user data yet to be invented. “Already, there is a
stop using an app, you just revoke its growing appetite for Solid from potential
access. The data remains on your pod, businesses and partners who recognise
and businesses making apps never that Solid can free them from stifling
have to worry about storing it, deleting data silos and create a blank slate for
it, or making it easily exportable. innovation.” KG Orphanides solid.mit.edu
 From Avatar to Alita:
how CGI got hyper real
he first thing you notice ambitious. “It came down The hair is entirely
about Alita: Battle Angel, to: the Alita script wasn’t CGI, as Salazar’s
the live-action adaptation ready and the Avatar script head was totally
of the manga by Yukito was,” Rodriguez says. covered by her suit
Kishiro, is the titular It was a blessing. Avatar
character’s eyes. The film’s became a stepping stone to
CGI cyborg protagonist getting the performance-
Alita, played by Rosa capture technology ready.
 Salazar via a head-to- “It wasn’t even there when STA RT
toe performance capture we started shooting – we
suit, looks human – except had to fine-tune it over two
for her eyes, which are years,” says Rodriguez.
unsettlingly large, like an As for the mixed response The eyes are key to
anime character made real. to her new face, Salazar the performance –
When they were first says she would have been even the corners
unveiled in a trailer at disappointed if people are fully animated
the end of 2017, audience hadn’t reacted strongly.
reaction was split. Some “The worst thing would
were unnerved by the have been people going,
“uncanny valley” effect. ‘Yes, I’ve seen that before,
“It’s just something we’ve I know what that is.’”
never seen before,” says Stephen Kelly Alita: Battle
director Robert Rodriguez. Angel opens on February 6
“We’ve been seeing anime
and manga eyes since
Astro Boy in the 50s, but
never photo-real.”
Rodriguez, who inherited
the Alita project from
producer James Cameron,
was initially concerned that
Cameron would pressure
him to tone the character
down. “But Jim didn’t even
blink an eye,” he says. “In
fact, he even said, ‘I think
the eyes need to be bigger.
The iris has to be bigger
in order to make it more
emotive, more relatable.’”
Cameron once intended
to direct himself, being
fascinated by the idea
of bringing Alita – a
deadly cyborg rebuilt by
a scientist (Christoph
Waltz) – to life through It took Salazar 90
performance capture. But mins a day to don
he became preoccupied her performance
with something equally capture suit
Systems similar to those that find packages in a warehouse have been deployed to arm the
Royal Navy’s deadly new supercarrier. WIRED inspects the colossal HMS Prince of Wales

High tech on the high seas

In the Rosyth dockyard in Scotland, final works are being the design,” says Vice Admiral Simon
carried out on HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s Lister, who is managing director of the
second supercarrier, following the commissioning of Aircraft Carrier Alliance, a partnership
HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2017 (see WIRED 04.17). between industry and the Ministry of
The new ship shares the design of its sister, but with Defence that is responsible for the
a few tweaks to the process from lessons learned the construction of the two ships.
first time around. “We’re not testing the design this time; At 280 metres long and with a
S TA RT we’re testing that we’ve built it completely accurately to displacement of 65,000 tonnes, the  
Queen Elizabeth-class carriers are the
largest warships ever constructed for
the Navy. Building such a large ship,
explains Lister, requires distributing
construction around the country to
manage the throughput of steel. The
carriers were built in parts before
being assembled at Rosyth using the
most powerful crane in Britain, which
is capable of lifting 1,000 tonnes and
is appropriately named Goliath.
The ship is designed specifically
for the Lockheed Martin F-35B fighter
jet. The F-35B is a short-take-off and
vertical-landing aircraft – a STOVL in
military parlance, describing the way it
can get airborne and touch down. This
Weapon delivery informs everything from the ship’s
- “ski jump” runway, which launches
The journey from the aircraft so that its wings are at
magazine to flight the ideal angle for take-off, to the
deck is highly special paint on the flight deck – an
mechanised. A lift aluminium coating that can withstand
takes munitions the intense heat generated by the
from stores deep plane’s vertical landing.
in the ship. They Despite the ship’s size, it requires
are then moved in a relatively small crew – around 700
pallets along tracks people in total – thanks in part to
(pictured above automated systems. One example
right) on platforms is the highly mechanised weapons
called moles. A handling system, a series of tracks,
crane hoists them moles, lifts and cranes that transport
to the preparation Twin peaks rear (pictured right) munitions from the deep magazines
area. The flight - acts primarily as to the preparation area and flight
deck is the final The Prince of an aircraft control deck. Stewart Sykes, flight deck and
PHOTOGRAPHY: BENEDICT REDGROVE

stage. The system Wales has a twin tower. However, aviation programme manager for the
automatically cuts island design. The both islands can Aircraft Carrier Alliance, compares the
out in rough seas. aircraft carrier’s multi-task and system to moving goods in an Amazon
forward island take over the roles warehouse. “Essentially that’s what
houses the bridge of the other in the highly mech is – just with the added
– the command event of “function complexity of installing it on a naval
centre – and the redundancy”. platform,” he says. Victoria Turk
 STA RT

Broadside
-
The cost of the
Prince of Wales
– the seventh
Royal Navy ship
to bear the name
– has proved
controversial.
Originally forecast
at £5.8bn, the
total build cost
of the two Queen
Elizabeth-class
carriers has risen
to £6.2bn. A plan
for the Prince of
Wales to have
catapult-assisted
take-off was
abandoned as
too expensive.
 Action station F-35B – is applied
- over the flight deck,
Under cover of a which is the size
protective tent of three football
(below) a special pitches. The metal
thermal coating crosses recessed
– to resist the into the floor at
intense heat regular intervals
generated by the tether the aircraft
Lockheed Martin so they don’t roll as
the ship negotiates
heavy seas.

Levers of power the demand placed

- on the ship’s prime
Below deck is the movers, which
Prince of Wales’ convert energy into
ship control centre movement. The
(right). The levers demand required is
on the left of the proportional to the
black console are speed of the ship.
the propulsion
BENEDICT REDGROVE

demand regulators.
PHOTOGRAPHY:

These determine
 Below: Alice Potts at the Open Cell biotech workspace in Shepherd’s Bush. Her work harnesses the properties of crystalised human sweat

START 

A quick glance into Alice Potts’ studio reveals

a collection of fashion accessories featuring a
vibrant colour palette and an unusual decorative
feature: crystallised human perspiration.
Potts, 26, is one of six residents at Open Cell, a
biotech workspace in Shepherd’s Bush, London,
which is made of shipping containers and provides
lab space for startups and creatives who bring
together science and fashion. A designer and

PHOTOGRAPHY: NICK WILSON

materials researcher, she was inspired to work
with bodily fluids during a post-gym session, when
she noticed the white crystals that had formed
across her top. “I was like, ‘Oh my god – could
you imagine if this was allowed to grow longer,
instead of rapidly dehydrating?’” she says. low in sodium,” Potts says. She is currently
Her current sweat-collecting regime involves working with personal trainer Francesco Zen to
working with athletes. Each individual is given an explore how combining the consumption of food
item of clothing to exercise and sweat in. Once the at specific times with exercise can affect the
sweat becomes embedded in the material, Potts volume of sweat that the body secretes.
collects any extra liquid using microfibre towels, Although Potts’ practice stresses individualism,
as well as asking participants to scrape it from her goal is to strip down gender, race and diet
clothing and wring it out into a container. “You can divides by focusing on a bodily function that unites
sweat a pint a day from your feet – that’s normal,” us all: “No matter where you come from or who
Potts explains. She then starts her crystallisation you are, we all sweat. It’s something every person
process and re-applies the wrung-out perspiration can relate to.” Arnelle Paterson alicepotts.com
to the still-sweaty garments, where the similarity
in molecular structure allows the crystals to form.
The designer is now exploring how different
applications of sweat can manipulate textiles
beyond mere aesthetics – for example, by
affecting a fabric’s flexibility or rigidity. As a former
tennis player, she is particularly interested in
sportswear innovation. “You could have materials
that are stiff, and then when you sweat, it becomes
more flexible, which allows greater movement
Sweat shops Put away the
deodorant –
Alice potts is
while supporting the body,” she says.
Visualising sweat could also act as a handy
biomarker for the wearer. “You could indicate
are the future an artist
exploring ways
to make human
your health at that point – if you’re dehydrated,
what your diet is like, or if your body is high or of fashion perspiration
beautiful
 London will remain the
VC capital of Europe
Despite Brexit uncertainty, UK tech is booming – but
attracting top talent may be tricky in the long run

 STA RT

he years living in the looming

shadow of Brexit have, against the odds,
been a golden period for UK tech. We’ve
witnessed multibillion-dollar exits –
including Zoopla’s and Farfetch’s – and
VC funding at record highs, with about
£2.6bn deployed in the UK in the first two
quarters of 2018 alone. If the UK finally
leaves the EU, that’s not going to change
– even though Brexit will mean a shift
in emphasis for the sector as a whole.
There are some reasons for optimism.
A technology startup’s success always
depends on three crucial ingredients:
access to capital, access to talent and
access to markets. Post-Brexit Britain
will remain well positioned on all three. Sequoia’s $50m funding of Graphcore to engineers from across Europe to join
Leaving the EU, though, does change Greylock’s investment in my own firm, and contribute to UK startups has been
Britain’s comparative advantages, and Entrepreneur First. The British Business crucial in enabling the UK’s tech boom
will determine what kind of startups Bank – Britain’s state-owned bank tasked over the past few years. The approaching
can thrive in the country’s ecosystem. with providing credit for small and end of freedom of movement for EU
London will remain the VC capital medium businesses – is flush with new citizens is a major blow, and one the
of Europe. According to KPMG, more cash, and has picked up much of the slack tech sector will not escape.
than twice as much venture capital left by the European Investment Fund. Yet UK tech will likely still be able to
was deployed in the UK as in Germany Access to talent will be a thornier attract talent, particularly at the highest
in the third quarter of 2018. London matter. The ability for talented software skill levels. That is for two key reasons.
remains the obvious location for inter-
ILLUSTRATION: JOE WALDRON

national funds seeking a European HQ, as

SoftBank’s presence in the UK testifies.
Since the referendum, top Silicon Valley Matt Clifford is the chief
funds have led large investments in executive and co-founder
globally ambitious UK companies, from of Entrepreneur First
 ‘The UK’s Tech
Nation Visa Scheme
First: the UK’s Tech Nation Visa Scheme to higher-education institutions is the
is one of the most generous in the world biggest hidden Brexit risk for startups: is one of the most
for extraordinary individuals – and the the sector must ally with universities
number of available visas has doubled to mitigate the worst hits to research generous in the world’
over the past two years. This is a real funding and collaboration.
win that the sector needs to defend Another risk has less to do with
and, if possible, extend. immigration rules and more to do
The second reason is Britain’s excep- with the national mood music. Even if
tionally strong universities. Times talented people can get into the country,
Higher Education ranks Oxford and does a post-Brexit Britain sound like means that startups and investors will
Cambridge as the world’s top two univer- somewhere they’ll be welcome? The have to be louder than ever.
sities, with Imperial College London UK government has done little to send Finally, markets. The UK is leaving the
joining them in the top ten. These and a much-needed welcome message; this world’s largest single market, but this
other institutions will continue to affects tech startups less than many other
provide the tech industry with world- companies. Israel, the original “Startup
class talent, particularly in areas such Nation”, has demonstrated that to
as AI. In turn, this means that disruption begin life in a small market forces entre-
preneurs to think global from day one.
Importantly, leaving the single market
will have the least impact on the most
STAR T ambitious startups. The EU’s regulatory  
harmony has always been somewhat
offset for startups by its linguistic and
cultural diversity. In any case, these
companies place no geographic bounds
on their aspirations. The UK’s prosaic but
fundamental strengths – a favourable
time zone and the English language –
will keep the country attractive as a
springboard to launch a global company.
What does this all mean for the UK’s
comparative advantages? Post-Brexit
Britain will be an excellent place for
startups that need access to abundant,
patient capital, world-leading talent
in areas of cutting-edge research and
large global customer bases. While
many companies fit the bill, the model
is particularly attractive for “deep tech”
startups. These are companies working
with new technologies, such as AI, virtual
reality or synthetic biology. As the
emerging success of UK companies such
as Darktrace, Improbable and Tractable
shows, the UK has strong foundations
in this area. It’s on those foundations
that the whole ecosystem – founders and
WIRED TIRED EXPIRED VCs, of course, but also the government
and universities – will need to build for
Open Source Mars Rovers SpotMini Aibo UK tech to continue to prosper.
The period since the referendum
Bartlet Reboot Picard Reboot Palm Reboot has been one of great uncertainty –
and that’s likely to continue for many
years. Whatever the eventual political
ILLUSTRATION: JOE WALDRON

DNA-Targeted Poisons Drone Assassinations Steerable Bullets

settlement, if the UK plays to its
Scutoids Frustrums Prismatoids strengths, it will be able to not only
save its technology ecosystem, but
Bot Psychology Culinary Anthropology Xenobiology also take decisive steps to becoming
the world’s Deep Tech Nation.
STAR T
 Meet the French mathematician appointed by President
Macron to develop France’s innovation strategy

Cédric Villani:
calculating the future
of European AI

 In his office in Paris’s National Assembly, Cédric Villani four “interdisciplinary AI institutes”, or “3IA”, where academics
opens a parcel: it contains a metallic spider. “Lovely,” he and industrials will work together on AI projects.
says, putting it on a shelf, where a collection of spider-shaped For the 3IA to be a success, on Villani’s advice, the
objects sit next to a photo of him with Mark Zuckerberg. government is now trying to stem the scientific “brain drain”.
Villani is on a mission. Well, several: the French mathe- To retain mathematicians, algorithmics experts and statis-
matician, winner of the 2010 Fields Medal – seen as maths’ ticians, who often leave low-paying roles for the US or China,
Nobel Prize – sits as an MP for Emmanuel Macron’s party a new law will allow them to take on better-paid consultancy
La République en Marche, teaches at the University of Lyon, work. Villani also suggested doubling researchers’ salaries,
and is running for the Paris 2020 mayoralty. But the expert but the government turned that down. For Nozha Boujemaa,
in mathematical analysis, famous for his academic achieve- research director at the National Institute for Research in
ments as well as for the spider-shaped pins on his suits, has Computer Science and Automation, which will co-ordinate
a bigger goal: making France a leader in artificial intelligence. the 3IA project, this is a problem: “We won’t be competitive
Appointed by the president to set enough,” she says. The €1.5bn budget
out a national AI strategy, in 2018 Villani FR AN CE ’S 1. Villani won the shows France’s limits, too. “One billion
published a report, “AI for Humanity”, POLITI CAL Fields Medal – is less than a regional budget in the US
laying out his vision. “We must valorise SCIE NTI ST one of the highest or China,” Boujemaa says.
our research, define our industrial honours given to Villani knows France can’t compete
priorities, work on the ethical and legal mathematicians with Chinese investment, but it’s not
framework and on AI training,” he says. – aged 36. about France, he says: it’s about Europe.
Following the report’s publication, “France will do nothing in the AI sector
President Macron announced €1.5bn, Three factors 2. One of Villani’s without Europe. We need networks of
over four years, to implement most of influencing heroes is Ludwig researchers and institutes throughout
Villani’s ideas. “I want France to be one mathematician Boltzmann, an Europe, to work with each other’s
of the leaders of the AI sector,” Macron Cédric Villani Austrian physicist strengths and good practices.” For
said in March. “We have the means, and who deduced an this reason, Villani finds Brexit “tragic”.
we will create the conditions.” “entropy formula”. “At a moment when we need all
Villani identified four sectors to prior- European skills, in a context of harsh
itise: health, defence, transport and the 3. He secured his competition worldwide, it is regrettable
environment. He concluded AI can be seat in Parliament to lose the UK’s remarkable expertise.
used for “common good”, and recom- by winning It is in France and the UK’s best interest
mended the creation of open data almost 70 per to keep close links in the AI sector.”
platforms for each sector. About 95 cent of the vote in Villani’s biggest challenge, though, is
per cent of his propositions are being his constituency. changing the cultural mindset. He gives
implemented by the government, Villani the example of two French ministry
PHOTOGRAPHY: LAURA STEVENS

says; health is the sector in which the creation of the data services where an algorithm was tested to improve the
platform is most advanced. But he estimates that the number office’s operations. Although its efficacy was proved, one
of AI students must be tripled to answer the sector’s needs. test was stopped, and Villani expects the other to stop, too,
Research is expected to play a pivotal role in Villani’s plan. because people were wary of the changes introduced by AI.
On November 6, 2018, the French minister for Research and “It’s about cultural adaptation,” he says. “We must convince
Innovation, Frédérique Vidal, announced the creation of everyone to co-operate.” Pauline Bock cedricvillani.org

Left: Cédric Villani, spider enthusiast and the architect of French AI and technology strategy
 E A R LY A D O P T E R S

WIRED asks three

entrepreneurs
about their
newest product
and plug-in finds.

Adam “The product we’ve

Goodall been trying out
Co-founder, is a Slack plugin
Coconut called HeyTaco!
It’s a simple
application that
lets the team give
each other digital
‘tacos’ to celebrate
awesome work.
We love the way
it helps celebrate
START everyone’s efforts,  
highlighting
important work to
the entire team.”

Tessa “I love what Nu

Cook Wardrobe are
Co-founder, trying to do, which
Olio is connecting

Meat’s new course people to share

clothes rather
than buy new ones
Pluripotent stem cells may put slaughter-free, lab-grown flesh on the menu when they fancy
a change. Like
us, they believe
“Would you eat it?” is a has low efficiency rates. Luining. “Farming would be that the future of
question Daan Luining “We established a unnecessary: that’s a huge the planet, and of
often asks his friends. He technology to completely environmental benefit.” our communities,
is referring to the “flesh” control the genes that are Meatable, based in the depends upon
his company, Meatable, is switched on, so that to Hague, expects to grow its us re-learning the
hoping to produce at scale get a mature muscle cell, first burger in two and a joy of sharing!”
in the near future: burgers for instance, only takes half years, and to be ready
that look like those sold a week,” Kotter says. to scale the technology
in supermarkets, but are, in Luining saw how this at an industry level in
ILLUSTRATION: ISRAEL G VARGAS; NICK D.BURTON

fact, entirely lab-grown. technology, called OPTi-OX, another three years. That Grace “Glitzbox is Rent
Three years ago, Luining could be applied to animal is because the OPTi-OX Gould the Runway for
met Mark Kotter, a cells, in order to develop the technology has so far been Founder, jewellery. Pay £50 a
researcher from the adult fat and muscle cells proven in mice, rats and SODA month and get the
University of Cambridge needed to create burgers. humans, but is yet coolest designer
who was working on As pluripotent stem cells to be adapted for cows and jewellery delivered.
pluripotent stem cells. can multiply infinitely, this other animal cells. Once Each box contains
These are cells that are could in theory produce it is ready, the company up to £400 of
yet to develop into an industrial quantities hopes to sell the meat jewellery – and if
adult cell with a specific of meat without the space at about £15 a kilo. And you decide you want
function – such as muscle needed for livestock. it has already received to keep your Mei-Li
tissue – defined by a gene. “Imagine having meat about £2.7m in a funding Rose rings or V
A pluripotent stem cell can factories right in the round led by BlueYard Jewellery pendant,
be programmed to develop middle of cities,” says Capital. But the question they deduct the
into a specific adult cell, remains: would you eat it? cost from your
but the process can Daphné Leprince-Ringuet card.” Sanjana
typically take 50 days, and meatable.com Varghese
 W I R E D ’S W E E K LY A N A LY S I S O F

THE BIGGEST STORIES IN

T E C H N O L O G Y, S C I E N C E , B U S I N E S S A N D I D E A S

THE PODCAST
THE WIRED UK PODCAST
AVA I L A B L E O N I T U N E S
 The electro-pop innovator
programming emotion
For her first album in eight years, Robyn balanced human
feelings with music from a new suite of digital music tools

START Swedish musician Robyn has earned  

a reputation as one of pop music’s
innovators, with her trademark
genre of electro-pop blending catchy
beats with often heart-rending lyrics.
Nowhere is this more evident than
on her 2018 album Honey, her first in
eight years, which saw her learn how
to use new tools. But Robyn’s tech
credentials stretch well beyond her
records: in 2013, she was awarded
the Stockholm KTH Royal Institute of
Technology’s Great Prize, and in 2015
launched Tekla Festival to encourage
women into technology.
Ahead of a tour, which comes to
London’s Alexandra Palace on April
12 and 13, Robyn spoke to WIRED.

WIRED: What were you setting out to

do when you made Honey?
Robyn: I wasn’t in the happiest place
when I made this album. Getting back
into the studio required me to be soft
and sensual, and just get myself excited
about stuff again, which was counterin-
tuitive to me because I’m a person who
usually pushes through things. I had to
do the opposite, which was just to relax.
It was a wonderful time, actually.

After eight years, how had your You’ve been getting more involved in
approach to making music changed? the production side of music. Have
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARK PECKMEZIAN.

I didn’t know how to make the music that you had to learn new skills to do that?
I wanted to make by myself. I started by Yes. The work I did was about becoming
ILLUSTRATION: LALALIMOLA

working with [British producer] Joseph fluent in it. I’m impatient, so a lot of times
Mount. At the same time, I was working when I sit down with new technology, I
on my own productions or demos, at Robyn: “Technology is the decide to leave it because I don’t like
least to be able to describe to him and culture we are in. For me, it’s when it’s keeping me from doing the
others what it was that I was thinking. never been a nerdy interest” things that I want to do. It’s easier for me
to do it with someone else who knows
the technology better than I do. But this
was just me and the software.

Which tools have you been using?

I was using the music program Logic
and then a software synth called Sawer,
which is a remake of an old analog synth.
I used my analog and physical LinnDrum
drum machine, and another controller
which is just a digital controller that you
can use to programme drums with. A
lot of the sounds I’ve used are things
that I’ve collected over the years, but
also sounds that I was able to get from
Christian Falk, my old collaborator [the NEED TO
producer and musician, who died in KNOW THE
2014]. It’s a mix between new and old. L AT E S T
NEWS?
You embrace technology but there’s JUST ASK
a human element to your music, too… AN EMOJI
An interest in technology is still
viewed as something off-centre or as
a counterculture, when it really is the
culture we are in at the moment and When SAM In February 2018, on breaking news
will be more and more as a human race. sees a fire emoji he moved the events, we’ve
For me, it’s never been a nerdy interest. paired with a headquarters had to dig in and
photo of a fire, it to London. The understand the
Tekla Festival in Sweden returns in knows whether programme has importance of
April. What inspired you to start that? you’re enjoying been trained to emojis,” Neufeld
The idea came from a discussion about a cosy fireplace decode several says. “SAM
this at KTH, the University of Technology or witnessing a languages, has that deep
in Sweden, where they asked me to do a terrifying inferno. including slang understanding
seminar. My friend Lina Thomsgård had If it’s the latter, – most recently of how users
heard about this government initiative it will alert the learning regional communicate on
to get women into KTH programmes. relevant parties: variations of places like Twitter.”
I was thinking about these things airlines needing Arabic. Thanks Initially developed
myself. It became a way to create a place to know about to a partnership for the media,
where girls and young women could disruptions, with Snap, SAM the company
just be exposed to things that I hadn’t security firms, Desk can also counts the BBC,
been exposed to when I was their age. and journalists access the visual Associated Press,
looking for a story. data in public Reuters and The
What inspired you to get more SAM is an AI Snapchat stories New York Times
involved i  n technology? program that – including emojis as clients. But
I always asked other people to help me harvests real-time and stickers – and SAM also caters
instead of learning it myself. I think, for eyewitness data use them to train to schools,
a lot of girls, learning it on your own is from social media SAM’s AI. commodity traders
bigger than for boys, because we don’t to detect events. “Social media isn’t and airlines: Aer
have other women showing us how to do Within minutes of a very conventional Lingus uses
it. We’re not included in the boys’ club. the Westminster metadata SAM to monitor
terrorist attack, structure. To get everything –
Outside of music, what technology SAM identified ahead of the media from strikes to
are you most excited about? the crisis solely bad weather –
AI is interesting. It might be something through social that might affect
very different to what we think. It’s media data. flights; it then
interesting how it’s used within health – Former journalist communicates
that is going to really affect people. VT James Neufeld the information
first launched to customers.
Robyn is performing at London’s SAM Desk in Breanna Mroczek
Alexandra Palace on April 12 and 13 2013 in Canada. samdesk.io
START  

In an abandoned London
theatre, four screens are
flying perfectly synchronised
but to attach a screen to a
drone, impeding its flight,
was a different challenge.
Drone troupers
around the dancer Zakiya “Most drones are used to Lights, special effects and even dance partners
Wellington, flickering with collect information – video have taken to the air for a new form of performance
graphics and flooding the and photography – but
stage with light and images. these are here to distribute
The action in Bradley G information,” says Bryn
Munkowitz’s video is the Williams, a co-founder of
vindication of Dave Green’s Flying Screens with Green.
ten-year mission to combine To achieve this, he equipped
flying drones and screens. each of the drones with two
Green’s software and 0.8mm-thick screens made
lighting turned stadium up of 3,060 LEDs. Attached
seating at the London via a special carbon-fibre
Olympics into the world’s frame to a VulcanUAV drone,
PHOTOGRAPHY: ANTONIO PAGANO

biggest video display – they add just 273g overall.

Green envisions the
technology being used for
advertising and special
Each drone is equipped effects at concerts. It’s
with two 0.8mm-thick screens, currently too risky to fly
made up of 3,060 LEDs the 7kg drone in front of an
audience without a safety
net, but Green is confident
this will be resolved soon.
WIRED’s hot tip for the
BBC: commission Strictly In Munkowitz’s video, dancer
Come Droning right now. Zakiya Wellington performs
Matt Reynolds resgb.com with four drone companions
 WIRED PARTNERSHIP | SIEMENS

Why the workers of Your next job interview

tomorrow will embrace could be with a bot –
their AI colleagues and that’s a good thing
ILLUSTRATION: BRATISLAV MILENKOVIC

E M P OW E R E D E M PLOYM E N T
TYPOGRAPHY: GIANLUCA ALLA.

From quantum technology to true diversity, global shifts in

technology and society are transforming our professional culture
WIRED PARTNERSHIP | SIEMENS

THE DIGITISED REVOLUTION

SH A PI NG T H E
FU TU R E OF WOR K

The automated future sounds like a scary place for

humans – but with the right approach, we will all benefit

By Janina Kugel, CHRO and Member of the Managing Board at Siemens

The digital future offers great to give people more ownership and
potential, but needs the right approach responsibility for what they are doing.
so that all will benefit. It’s not the This is possible even in an industrial
structural change alone that makes setting, as we were able to demonstrate
the difference – we’ve had industrial at our burner manufacturing facility,
revolutions before and we were pretty based at the gas turbine factory in
good in dealing with them. What’s new Berlin. Here, traditional hierarchies
is the enormous speed of the current were smashed and workers at all levels
industrial revolution, which is being were given the ability to self-organise
fuelled by digitalisation. their production site. Management,
We cannot change the speed of the meanwhile, assumed the role of
revolution – so we need to adapt to coaches, trusting the team to make
it. We must be agile, self-organised the right decisions while keeping them
and flexible – organisations need accountable. The result? The burner
manufacturing plant achieved a 400
per cent increase in production volume
– and at half the usual costs.
Another key for success is diversity
The current – as a global company with almost
380,000 employees, it is one of our
industrial biggest assets. It enhances our
innovative strength and unleashes the
revolution is potential of our employees: diverse
teams prove highly capable in adapting
fuelled by to a changing environment, and thus
contribute directly to our business
digitalisation success. That’s why we want to make
the most of our people’s diversity with
regard to everything from cultural
background, ethnicity and origin to
sexual orientation and gender identity.
 WIRED PARTNERSHIP | SIEMENS
MICHELE MARCONI
ILLUSTRATION:

We must keep
ourselves up
to date – both
individuals and
organisations

If we fail to include the broadest pool

of talent, we won’t be able to stay fit as
an organisation – and if that happens,
someone else will drive the change.
Diversity is also crucial when
looking at AI. A big risk is that the
people who program algorithms aren’t
aware of their unconscious bias and
that they are working in monocul-
tures. Only diverse teams are capable
of minimising the risk of unconscious
prejudices. That’s why diversity is so
important when it comes to AI.
Without lifelong learning, shaping
the future of work will not be possible.
Unless you retire within the next
12 months, you can’t be sure that
whatever skills you have today will be
sufficient until the end of your career. If
we want to retain our competitiveness
and keep up with future developments,
we must keep ourselves up to date –
each of us individually, but also the
organisations we are working in. That’s
why we are creating a learning organi-
sation. Siemens already spends around
€500 million a year on training and
further education. Despite our best
efforts, we know that we don’t have all
the necessary skills and intelligence
in-house. Which is why we have created
ecosystems that pursue external talent
and actively seek partnerships with
startups all over the world.
Finally, our leadership style needs
to create the necessary conditions for
fostering success – embracing flexi-
bility and trust. If we humans don’t
begin this process, organisations will
never change. siemens.com/careers

Digitalisation will affect every area of human life – it will bring huge
change, but for those who can adapt, there will be huge benefits
WIRED PARTNERSHIP | SIEMENS

RECRUITMENT

DE EPFAKE CANDIDATE
In the next decade, jobseekers and recruiters will pit duelling AIs, avatars and bots against
each other in an effort to automate the application process. But the technology might
also mean that some applicants are too good to be real – and that’s because they aren’t

The average person is expected to they should present a clear case as to and Ranstad use the service, which
change jobs 12 times in their lifetime, why you should be hired.” The company mimics conversations with real-life
and the technology industry is already provides a CV writing service, spending recruiters. “Having that human touch
responding to this demand. Applicant an hour interviewing its clients to craft that makes it feel like a personalised
tracking systems are winnowing out a keyword-optimised resume. process is important,” says Somani. Up
ILLUSTRATION: BRATISLAV MILENKOVIC

the weakest candidates before Chatbots are also helping companies to four times the number of candidates
presenting a shortlist to a human. save time. Frustrated by the hours who start an application complete it
It means CVs must be machine- wasted on email correspondence with when done through Allyo, he claims,
readable and SEO-friendly, says Victoria potential recruits, Ankit Somani and while the administrative burden is
McLean of CityCV. “If it isn’t, it won’t Sahil Sahni left their respective jobs at reduced by 20 to 40 per cent. Some
even get in front of a human. CVs are Google and McKinsey to found Allyo, firms hiring for low-skilled jobs use
now personal marketing documents – an AI recruitment company. G4S, AT&T Allyo for their entire hiring process.
 WIRED PARTNERSHIP | SIEMENS

If AI can create an ideal CV for you,

why not let it ace the interview, too?

Elsewhere, Utah-based HireVue has M A N VS M AC H I NE

raised $93 million to date to train its
algorithm to interpret personality
t ra i t s f ro m c a n d i d a te s ’ f a c i a l The AI revolution will work best
movements during video interviews. when it complements human
Unilever, Goldman Sachs and IBM are skills, and future jobs will rely on
all clients. PepsiCo, Ikea and L’Oréal are humans utilising unique assets
outsourcing recruitment to Robot Vera. such as creativity and empathy
A tool from Russian startup Stafory,
Vera scans job sites for candidates, calls
them up and interviews them via video. There are three myths about the
Companies will have to ensure these 90% future of work, according to Daniel
powerful algorithms are built without Susskind, fellow in economics at
human biases, in order to draw upon a Balliol College and co-author of
diverse talent pool, but there is another Reduction in The Future of the Professions.
danger to this increased efficiency: hire time The first is the Terminator myth,
algorithms can be gamed. Hilton which says machines will displace
Allyo tries to defend against this by introduced people. “They also complement or
making it difficult to reverse engineer video-interview enhance people – like GPS for a cab
the process. Every application has a monitoring driver,” Susskind explains.
verified identity attached to it. A person service HireVue, The second is the intelligence
would have to create hundreds of fake and saw the myth, which says that machines
identities to find out the answers to the time it took to have to copy the way humans think
questions that would guarantee them hire employees to outperform us. “Huge increases
an interview – something that would plummet. in processing power and data
raise a red flag in the system. storage means that machines can
AI and chatbots could also be used decide if a freckle is cancerous
by jobseekers – configured to field without knowing anything about
interviews and application emails for medicine.” says Susskind.
you. “By the late 2000s, autocompletion The final myth debunks the lump
of online forms became the norm,” says of labour fallacy – that improving
Somani. “In five to ten years, you’ll see technology will create new jobs.
bot-to-bot conversations.” “Machines may be best placed to do
In November 2018, newsreader the new tasks,” Susskind points out.
Zhang Zhao took to his regular spot on Where machines struggle,
Chinese state news agency Xinhua, however, is with things we humans
same as usual. Then he began to speak. find easy to do with our hands, from
In robotic English, the world’s first AI caring to creating, he explains.
news reader, Qiu Hao, modelled on “A few decades ago, automatic
Zhao, got to work. This is an innocent 56% car-washes were everywhere. Now
example of Deepfaking, which is more it’s groups of people working for a
broadly used for embarrassing lower wage washing cars faster and
celebrities, but the job hunting market Want to use better. And until they invent
could utilise its principles. Startups new interviewing artificial empathy, machines will
such as Los Angeles’ Pinscreen and tools find it harder to help people.”
Montreal’s Lyrebird are already 9,000 HR Our direction of travel is towards
working on mimicking your facial professionals technological unemployment –
features from photos, and your voice told LinkedIn unless we develop creative skills,
from short sound files. Pasadena-based new interviewing from artistic to engineering, that
ObEN creates a 3D avatar that can step tools, including AIs can’t yet replicate. “AI doesn’t
in for everyday tasks. Recruiters that AI, are “very” have imagination,” Susskind says.
outsource to AI to save time and money, or “extremely” “We’ve been struggling to grow
will be forced to innovate counter- important to their the economic pie for thousands of
attacks to identify when candidates hiring process. years – and now we have solved it,”
are doing the same. Or, it will be a case he explains. “The problem now
of whomever has the best tech, wins. is how can everyone get a slice?”
WIRED PARTNERSHIP | SIEMENS

AU TOMATION
FOR THE PEOPLE
AI can be used to augment the effectiveness of
human workers – from nudges that rebalance
workloads, to freeing up time for creative thinking

12%
How much
harder happy
people work Robots aren’t coming for your job workforces, and how to get the most
Researchers at – they’re actually coming to help. In out of your technology and your people
the University of the future, work will be augmented, simultaneously,” says Brauer. Ensuring
Warwick revealed with robots, chatbots, artificial intel- the tech solves a problem, rather than
happy employees ligence, virtual and augmented reality creating a whole host of new ones for
are 12 per cent helping us do our jobs more effectively its workforce, requires continuous
more productive and making work more fulfilling. experimentation. Rigorous pilots with
than less fulfilled Whether your role is in an office or on key employees not only help predict
colleagues. a factory floor, these technologies will the outcome of using AI or VR in the
become as commonplace and integral office, but how it will impact upon staff.
to your job as computers are today. It ensures evidence for such change, but
But this doesn’t mean buying a bunch also helps slow the pace of that change,
of VR headsets will save a company so the process doesn’t overwhelm the
from being left behind. Instead, workforce. And you might well find a
emerging technologies should only cutting-edge, overhyped technology
be used to address specific problems. doesn’t actually work better that the
Artificial intelligence won’t run entire systems you currently have in place.
newsrooms, for example, but rather In short, all companies and their staff
take on small tasks, such as the Financial will need to get better at learning and
Times’ source-scanning bot that looks experimentation. “A great company is
for gender balance in stories. At Disney, a great university,” says Jian Jun Hu,
bots are already looking for dead pixels chief cybersecurity officer at Siemens
8.5% on-screen, saving staff time so they can China. Trying new technologies to
focus on creative work. “Eventually, build this augmented workforce
they’ll have hundreds of bots that are will require leadership to guide the
Employee part of an ecosystem of support,” says learning, accept some trials won’t work
productivity Chris Brauer, director of innovation at out, and not fear failure. “We need to
boost from the Institute for Management Studies attract more leaders and talents who
Wearable at Goldsmiths, University of London. keep the curiosity to learn and dare to
technologies “That helps them to focus on the try in an agile way, especially with new
Researchers interesting aspects of their jobs.” or interdisciplinary subjects,” he adds.
at Goldsmiths, HR departments have moved on Machine learning and automation
the University from focusing on the innovations will enable internal experiments, too.
of London, themselves and the potential for HR startup Humu takes the psychology
found wearable job losses, to effectively reskilling around change management and nudge
devices can boost employees so they can work alongside theory – that behavioural change can be
productivity by emerging technologies. “It’s evolved achieved via positive reinforcement –
8.5 per cent. fully into a discussion about augmented and applies it using digital notifications.
 WIRED PARTNERSHIP | SIEMENS

Your most valued colleague could be an AI – they’ll take on the boring

tasks, so you’ve got more time to focus on what matters

7.2m
Number of jobs
AI will create
Humu co-founder Jessie Wisdom is behaviour change – an email reminding AI will automate
an ex-Googler with a PhD in behavioural an overworked manager to go home on 7m jobs over the
economics, and has spent years working time, or a notification in a messaging next 20 years –
on projects designed to help people app asking a staffer to share their but also create
make better decisions. “Anyone who thoughts on a meeting. 7.2m, PwC says.
has been part of any organisation knows Services like this may help managers
that change is a big challenge – and even discover whether their staff are indeed
the best intentions to make work better unhappy with automation, or enjoying
are often met with resistance,” she says. its potential benefits. “One of the places
“People don’t tend to like to change where technology can really help is
– it’s one of the most fundamental through automating away the things
management challenges.” that get in the way of people finding
To help, Humu uses small, person- meaning or fulfilment in their job, and
alised recommendations, or “nudges”. giving them more time to actually focus
Data is first pulled in from Humu’s on the things that matter for them,”
ow n p e rs o n a l i s e d s u r ve ys a n d Wisdom says. “As more and more
combined with existing corporate of our jobs become automated, the
data. Algorithms use this to identify relationships become really important,
which teams need to work on what, to and a lot of what we do is help build
achieve a targeted change. This could relationships between people.”
range from increasing productivity to The augmented workplace of the
encouraging diversity and inclusivity. future isn’t just one filled with robots
Nudges are then sent out to prompt and VR. It’ll be better for humans, too. $20.4b
2019 forecast
for spending on
‘It’s a discussion about AR and VR
IDC predicts a 68
getting the most out of per cent leap in
spending on AR
technology and people’
ILLUSTRATION: GIACOMO BAGNARA

and VR in 2019,
led mainly by
business uses.

CHRIS
BRAUER
D I R E C T O R O F I N N O VA T I O N , G O L D S M I T H S
WIRED PARTNERSHIP | SIEMENS

THE FUTURE
OF T H E
WORK PL AC E
Organisations need to plan for a
flexible, collaborative workforce

In the real world, evolution at

work is rarely simple. A change in
hierarchy or a new administrative
system can force a team to spend
months adapting. But what if
your company decides to operate
without physical headquarters, or
implements a policy of working from
home, or swaps desktop computers
for augmented reality headsets?
Companies can prepare their
infrastructure for the future, and
many are already building drone
landing-pads on rooftops and
equipping every meeting room with
collaborative smartboards.
But integral to all these changes
ultimately being positive, are the
people and teams that implement
them. Siemens’ FutureMakers
initiative highlights just that.
Among the 380,000 staff are
mathematicians using artificial
intelligence to detect cancer faster,
engineers helping entire cities adapt
to changing energy demands, and
architects designing our future
networks and interactions. Beyond
the new hardware, collaborative tech
tools and AI assistants, there is one
theme that binds anyone working in
this sphere: flexibility. And not just
for clients – customer-centricity is a
necessity in a competitive
environment – but for employees.
Jobs, working hours, working
locations – anything that impacts
the employee can be flexible and
adaptable. Given a happy employee
works 12 per cent harder, according
to economists at the University of
Warwick, this is not surprising.
Here are three of Siemens’
FutureMakers syncing people and
technologies to make change work. Aleshia Eckard, who is designing people-led spaces
 WIRED PARTNERSHIP | SIEMENS

A L E SH I A
EC KH A RD
In a competitive future market, organisations must offer
adaptability to both jobseekers and employees

Office design in the future will not schedules. “Work has to work for
follow trends. Instead, each business both those a 20-minute walk from
will build their organisation based on the office, and living an hour away.”
flexibility and adaptability. Siemens has partnered with the
“We’ve seen cubicles and we’ve Tech Square ATL membership
seen no walls,” says Aleshia Eckard, community to give Siemens
digital excellence architect for employees access to The Garage, an
Siemens. “Virtual working has its 800m2 co-working space located
pros and cons. The future is tailored adjacent to Georgia Tech in the heart
space, because people are different of Atlanta’s tech scene. “Siemens
and they all work differently. employees will be able to go there,
Businesses will conform to people, have a coffee, save on their carbon
not individuals to a work space.” footprint and interact with younger
Personal computing combined talent, which is great for knowledge
with rises in the cost of prime real exchange and recruitment.” A
estate made virtual working growing population, increasing
attractive to young talent. But it does traffic and slow progress on mass
not work for everyone. “The best transit will impede recruitment. “But
work environments have been if we can get an office space close to
creative ecosystems that are both them and to new transport, we can get
physical and virtual,” say Eckard. “I talent faster than other companies.”
love working virtually, but it’s good Flexibility and adaptability is not just
to go into an office and share ideas.” about employee retention. In a
Eckard, a trained architect, is used competitive future, no jobseeker will
to taking a creative and logical settle for anything less than exactly
approach to improving systems – what they are looking for.
includes the workforce itself and its
physical environment. That
environment, she says, must change
based on what people need. Many ‘ The future is
organisations will still have campus-
style HQs – “these will become tailored space,
grander and community driven” –
but still retain smaller, satellite because people
ILLUSTRATION: LOUISE POMEROY

campuses. Interactive community

spaces will be important, as will are different’
green spaces, quiet spaces, private
rooms, group spaces for problem
solving, and virtual spaces that are
fitted with the best audiovisual ALESHIA
equipment, enabling colleagues to ECKHARD
read each others’ expressions better. D I G I TA L E XC E L L E N C E
Flexibility must also extend to A R C H I T E C T, S I E M E N S
WIRED PARTNERSHIP | SIEMENS

Rosa Riera is ensuring that Siemens is in a position to recruit top talent more specific questions before they
that is more demanding and questioning than ever before start somewhere,” Riera says. At the
core of Riera’s work is the employee
experience, bringing together
culture, technology and the work
environment. “It’s not just an HR
thing,” she says. “It’s our job to think
ahead, and then collaborate with
different departments and functions
to help drive the culture in a way that
enhances the employer brand.” One
focus is diversity, which widens the
talent pool and favours innovative
thinking: “The way we worked in the
past will probably not help us solve
the issues of the future.”
Such change isn’t easy. Ensuring
existing staff are brought along for
the ride is part of the work, Riera
explains. “Dialogue is important,”
she says, adding that Siemens holds
town-hall style meetings, and uses an
internal social network and tools
such as Slack to communicate and
share. Executives and board
members have even taken to social
media: “They share what they’re
working on and what they care
RO SA RI ERA about.” That helps make the
company’s direction clearer to staff,
To boost hiring, innovation and your company’s and also encourages them to speak
future, rethink the employee experience up. “It makes it clear that it’s allowed
and desirable to share and talk about
your jobs. The beautiful thing that is
if you focus on people, the chances are
high that talent will react positively.”
How do you improve your hiring, Startup culture has changed that.
boost innovation, and bring your Now, top talent wants flexibility, flat
company into the future? By totally hierarchy and purpose-driven work.
reworking the employee experience. “They don’t associate these things
Rosa Riera, vice president employer with big companies,” she says, even if
branding and social innovation at that’s not accurate. Her own ‘There’s a shift
Siemens, believes companies should employer, she notes, offers flexible
be employee-first and use digital working, innovation labs, and in what people
technologies to offer a personalised opportunities for personal and
approach to hiring and employment. professional growth. To highlight the want from
“The thing with many big brands is diversity of working environments,
that over time there are shifts in the cultures, and sites, Siemens even employers’
talent market in terms of what created short VR documentaries that
people want from an employer,” says show what it’s like to work in other
Riera. Previously, talent would flock parts of the organisation.
to a well-known, global brand like Top talent also ignores corporate ROSA RIERA
Siemens. “They provided many messages in favour of conversations V I C E P R E S I D E N T, E M P L O Y E R
elements that people couldn’t get with people who work at a company BRANDING AND SOCIAL
anywhere else, like working in a already. Social media and employer I N N O VA T I O N , S I E M E N S
global environment and access to rating sites such as Glassdoor have
development opportunities,” she become important sources of
before explains. “And we benefited information about an employer.
from this for a long time.” “People are much more likely to ask
 WIRED PARTNERSHIP | SIEMENS

PE TER S CHOPF How do you ensure the beer never

runs dry at an event like Oktoberfest?
Embed every keg with a secure
Combining AR with the Internet of Things could empower industrial sensor, connect those sensors to your
workers with real-time data that adapts before their very eyes analytics platform, and the emerging
patterns will allow organisers to
allocate resources based on demand.
This is MindSphere, Siemens’
Internet of Things platform for
industry. Industry will rely on
simulations like these, augmented
reality and big data analytics to
advance and remain competitive,
says Peter Schopf, MindSphere
senior manager in business
development and strategy.
“Holograms will be flying around so
engineers can compare technical
drawings to the real model,
overlapping them to check
differences and make annotations.
Right now, people look up data on
smartphones or tablets – how much
more intuitive would it be if you
could visualise sensor data in AR?”
If all this sounds familiar, that’s
because it’s a use-case Microsoft put
forward with its HoloLens mixed
reality headset back in 2016. Without
an IoT platform easy enough for
companies to use, however, that
future has been just out of reach.
There are obvious efficiency and
cost benefits to working this way –
MindSphere is already being used for
“predictive maintenance”, allowing
engineers to combine data from a
range of locations and sources,
visualise it, and see where faults
might occur. “We need to give
customers the benefit of interacting
seamlessly with the industrial IoT –
AR is key to that,” says Schopf.
Anyone with basic knowledge of
MindSphere has the ability to create
simple graphs and diagrams. But
Siemens and other partners are
producing apps for the open
ecosystem, and Siemens’ acquisition
Peter Schopf, Head of Mid-Market Account Executives for of app-building and testing platform
Siemens‘ IoT platform MindSphere, is building systems that will Mendix, which it bought for $730
enable engineers to combine data and collaborate easily million in October 2018, will speed
this up. The goal is to have a platform
that can easily structure any type of
data, from any machine, for easy
plug-and-play cross-collaborations.
#FutureMakers
Shaping the
future. Today.

medium.com/futuremakers
Ulli Waltinger, Founder & Technology Head of Siemens AI Lab, Siemens Germany
Laying out the
plans for Ford’s
City of Tomorrow
The urban environment has never been so
smart – but our use of its data is dumb. What’s
needed is a fresh approach to the metropolis

How do you move around your city? Most of us

never think about the thousands of data points,
and the hundreds of interactions involved in criss-
crossing a typical urban landscape. Whether it’s
the changing of traffic signals, or the thousands
of lines of computer code controlling trains and
trams, keeping a city moving is a huge challenge.
You only notice the strings keeping everything
together when one snaps and causes traffic snags.
Yet the issues around urban mobility are certain
to become bigger and more urgent in the future.
Cities are expanding. Just over half of the world’s
population lives in a city, according to the UN – a
number expected to rise by 2.5 billion to 66 per cent
of us by 2050. “Villages have grown into towns,
and towns have grown into cities for thousands of
years,” says Tim Stonor of Space Syntax, an archi-

tecture and urban planning company. With that

density of connection, we see plenty of benefits:
“cities are the crucibles of creativity,” he says.
“You get the creation of societies and cultures.”
But as already stretched services are pushed
even further, problems arise. Central among them:
how can cities ensure people and goods can still
get around efficiently – and sustainably?
“A city like London has a population growth
challenge,” explains Tim Schwanen, director of the
Transport Studies unit at the University of Oxford.
It has a rapidly expanding population hurtling
towards nine million, but still relies on outmoded
methods of planning, transport and bureaucracy.
“Google knows more about our high streets than
our planning departments do,” says Euan Mills
of Future Cities Catapult, a think tank focused
on reinventing the world’s cities, and a former
advisor to the Mayor of London. Policy makers,
city planners, transport companies and public
Urban planners will promote people over vehicles transport providers all collect data of some sort
– but it’s often not good enough quality, and rarely
shared. It also regularly overlooks how populations
actually use their cities. It’s the perfect storm of
lack of time, awareness and resources.
 Hyperloop connections will seamlessly link megacities W I RE D C O N S U LTI N G | F O RD

decisions make our cities smoother experiences.

The company tracked one million kilometres of
vehicle and driver behaviour – enough to drive
around the Earth 20 times – in and around London.
The 500 million data points revealed likely hotspots
for accidents – information that can help city
planners pre-emptively tackle problems.
City planning should involve key stakeholders
– the citizens. “There’s the assumption that this
needs to be provided by big firms,” says Schwanen.
“But you can have more grassroots-driven,
bottom-up organisations that allow decentralised
and informal sharing of ideas to trickle up.”
Whether developing liveable cities in Valencia,
or transforming the last mile in Cologne, Ford are
looking at the problems and bottlenecks in urban
mobility, and how the solutions can benefit us all.
These are issues that town planners call “wicked
problems”, a concept from the 1960s. “It’s where
the way you define the problem can set you on a
trajectory to address it,” says Schwanen.
Which is why Ford’s City of Tomorrow symposium
is so crucial: by bringing together the best minds
from disparate backgrounds, it’s possible to
redefine the problems, to build collaboration
between private and public enterprise, and to
help educate and involve the public at grassroots.
Just as the free flow of a city relies on hundreds
of seamless interactions, so developing those
connections between the key players in the future
mobility of the world’s cities is vital. “Doing things
in a particular way, you get a narrow way of thinking
about what is possible,” says Schwanen. Until now.

To build trust in transformation and to create

the cities we need for the future, it’s crucial to work
together to pool resources and share expertise.
“We have a vision that we call the City of
Tomorrow,” explains Sarah-Jayne Williams, Smart
Mobility Director at Ford’s European arm. “The
details of how that plays out is what we want to
explore.” Ford’s City of Tomorrow symposium
provides a platform to lead the path to the future.
Ford’s series of events, which visited Valencia on
November 5, Cologne on November 28 and London
on December 6, brought together designers, city
planners, policy makers, investors, future mobility
experts and everyday citizens to rethink the city.
“The vision Henry Ford had 100 years ago was,
if you provided people with freedom of movement,
it’d drive the future of progress,” says Williams.
“That model is no longer sustainable.” We can’t Rail and trams will be key to liberating cities of traffic
each drive a car individually, bringing cities to a halt.
ILLUSTRATION: PANDA YOGHURT

“The way we plan cities is surprisingly outdated,”

adds Mills. “When planning departments talk about
digital technology, they mean they use PDFs and ‘Google knows more about
receive emails. Internet-era planning departments our high streets than our urban
should be about data and intelligent analysis.” Ford planning departments do’
is leading the way with helping ensure data-driven - Euan Mills, Future Cities Catapult
S T R E E T H AW K _____ ARC VECTOR

Billed as the world’s first motorcycle with integrated multisensory HMI (Human
Machine Interface), the 339-Volt all-electric Vector comes with a connected
helmet and sensor-packed jacket to enhance the ride and improve safety. It
weighs just 220kg but boasts 133bhp and 292ftlb of torque, enabling it to go
0-100kph in 3.1 seconds. Range has been calculated at 580km (urban) and with
a fast-charger you’ll be fully juiced in 45 minutes. As a monocoque, the battery,
motor and tech are all housed in a carbon tub that allows the suspension to attach
directly, making it super stiff and 25 per cent lighter than anything else available.
£90,000 arcvehicle.com

+ ARC Vector Helmet

The helmet features a HUD
built into the visor that can
display speed, GPS and revs,
plus a rear-view camera for
enhanced awareness.

++ ARC Vector Jacket

Made by UK bike protection
specialists Knox, this sensor-
laden haptic jacket will
“tap”-vibrate your shoulder
to alert you, should a car
approach from behind.
THE BEST KIT FOR: DRIVING | SURFING | CAMPING | GIGGING & BIKING. Edited by Jeremy White
 GE AR  

WORDS: CHRIS HASLAM; JEREMY WHITE. PHOTOGRAPHY: SUN LEE

WANDER_ TRACK_ DRIVE_ SAFETY_
Garmin inReach Mini Tile Pro Chris Digital Co-Driver Zus Smart Tire Monitor

Weighing a mere 100g, this The Tile Bluetooth tracking Chris’s modus operandi Why let a pothole remind you
matchbox-sized life-saver keyring was a roaring is a simple but effective of the need to give your tyres
offers a guaranteed 100 per success, not least because one: to give you, the driver, attention, when you can
cent global Iridium GPS signal if you double-tapped it your as much control over your receive real-time information
(with subscription) and two- phone would ring, even on smartphone as possible on pressure (PSI/kPa/Bar),
way satellite communication, silent. They’ve made the Pro while you’re on the move, slow punctures and potential
so it’s easy to stay connected infinitely more practical by without you needing to go problems via a smartphone
via SMS, or, if things turn boosting the range from 30 to near your phone. Controlled app? Supplied with four
hairy, send SOS alerts to 90 metres and by allowing you using speech and gestures, lockable sensors that fit
the GEOS international to replace the CR2032 battery this windscreen-mounted easily on each tyre valve, you
emergency response centre. (after around a year’s use). auto-Echo-Dot-alike (for then plug the hub into your
The 23mm screen can’t And if you do lose something, want of a better description) car’s power supply and sync
show much, but will provide you can call on Tile’s network can be used to receive and with the app. Refreshingly, it’s
location, compass and way- of users, so everyone using reply to messages, make designed to be easy to switch
points, and can be linked to the app within range of your calls, listen to music and, between cars, which means
the Garmin Earthmate app. lost item can look for it, too. of course, follow directions. you can pimp your hire car.
£299 garmin.com £30 each thetileapp.com £300 chris.com $89.99 nonda.co
 Volvo XC40 CAR WARS Range Rover Evoque 2019
>

>
_ ___ _

Volvo’s entry into the compact SUV arena has C O M PA C T The Evoque has been a huge success, so it’s
been a critical success, and rightly so. Not no surprise the new version has cutting-edge
only does the XC40 have a T5 all-wheel-drive S U V B AT T L E tech. Fitted with a mild hybrid powertrain,
version with a 247 horsepower 2.0-litre turbo with a full plug-in hybrid variant coming later,
engine, a fully electric model is coming. An it features Jaguar Land Rover’s Ground View
imminent hybrid model twins the 1.5-litre system, which removes the visual obstruction
three-cylinder engine of the T3 with an of the bonnet by presenting the driver with a
electric motor. Ideal for long journeys, there’s camera view of the road below the front axle.
pilot assist, run-off road protection, cross Another camera fitted to the rear windscreen
traffic alert and a 360-degree camera, plus an fixes an issue with the old model – you
infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and couldn’t see out the back. The camera sends
Android Auto. And this new model comes with HD video to the interior mirror, which can flick
a new model of ownership: “Care by Volvo”, between reflection or digital display, giving
which works much like a subscription. you an unrestricted view of the road behind.
From £28,310 volvocars.com From £31,600 landrover.co.uk
 Smarter energy.
Greater power.
Powerhead 500 Synchronized
The STIGA new Powerhead 500 synchronised adds a smarter way to manage
energy. Two synchronised Lithium-Ion batteries working to create smarter
energy usage, longer life span and even greater power.

Lawnmowers that are fitted with two batteries that work simultaneously with no
need to switch batteries during mowing; this is done automatically utilising power
from both batteries improving energy usage and reducing the ‘wear & tear’ to both
the battery and powerhead.

Within the 500 Series System is a range of handheld garden tools with batteries
that are inter-changeable from tool to tool. A brushcutter, grass trimmer, leaf
blower and hedge trimmer feature within this innovative range, with just basic
maintenance, no carbon emissions, user comfort, lower noise levels and greatly
reduced vibrations the 500 Series sets a new standard in the battery world

SMARTER EVEN LONGER

ENERGY USAGE GREATER POWER LIFE SPAN

Same battery fit’s all HEDGE TRIMMER LEAF BLOWER BRUSHCUTTER GRASS TRIMMER

YOUR GARDEN, YOUR LIFE

www.stigalawnmowers.co.uk/500series
 Play guitar? You likely own separate acoustic and
electrics – and hanker after one that can be both. Fender
believes it has cracked it. The Acoustasonic can not
PHOTOGRAPHY: SUN LEE. WORDS: JEREMY WHITE

only reproduce the sounds of six or seven different

types of acoustic, it can also sound remarkably like a
Fender electric. You can hook up any pedal, including
overdrive, and thanks to some digital wizardry courtesy Boss Katana Air
of the Fishman-designed Acoustic Engine, play heavy The world’s first portable wireless 20W
distortion that’s free from feedback, and mimic a variety guitar amplifier uses a smart, motion-
of axes. It sounds too good to be true, and WIRED was sensing transmitter and runs on a battery.
unconvinced until we tried it, then we became believers. £337 boss.info
£1,649 fender.com

__ __ _ FE ND E R

ACOUS TA SONIC

T ELE C A STE R

  G E AR

The SIRS (“stringed instrument resonance system”) is a special funnel that allows
for greater sound resonance without amplification, despite the guitar’s slim profile
Described by Leica as “inconspicuous, Wireless connection means
lightweight and compact”, this you can transfer images
classically proportioned, elegant via the Leica FOTOS app
and easily accessible camera has a
17MP Four Thirds sensor that cleverly
allows the camera to maintain the
same field-of-view at 16:9, 3:2 and
4:3 aspect ratios. It has a 24-75mm
equivalent F1.7-2.8 Leica DC lens and
all the manual control you need to get
to grips when weaning yourself off
your smartphone’s camera. The D-Lux
also has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
£995 uk.leica-camera.com

GEA R

SN A P D E CI SI O N __ __ _ L EIC A D- LUX 7
 COMPUTER_ DRINK_ CONNECT_ POWER UP_
iPad Pro (2018) Ember travel mug Nighthawk Mobile Router River Mobile Power Station

The iPad Pro has been given WIRED has long admired With support for up to 20 Wi- Charge it up before you go,
a makeover, with a tiny bezel Ember’s ability to keep our Fi devices on a single wireless and River’s mobile power
increasing the size of the coffee at the perfect app- connection, this dual-band bank (412Wh, 114,000mAh
screen without upping the controlled temperature, but mobile router could keep an at 3.6V) will keep all your
dimensions, so the 10.5-inch with the launch of this 355ml entire minibus happily online. tech going for days on end.
screen is now 11 inches, while travel mug, the thermostatic Combining ultrafast download For such a compact unit
the 12.9-inch screen has a control system – that keeps speeds up to 1Gbps (upload at (25 x 16 x 20.8cm) it can
smaller casing. The Home your cuppa at a temperature 150Mbps max) the Nighthawk pump out a mighty 500W
Button is replaced by Face ID of your choosing between MR1100 can also serve as a (300AC, 200DC), can be
and a series of gesture 50 and 62.5°C – makes media hub for streaming, teamed up with solar panels
controls, the Lightning cable much more sense. No more thanks to one Ethernet and and has 11 independent
is now a USB-C, and the Apple tepid disappointments while two USB ports for wireless outputs including AC, 4x
Pencil charges wirelessly driving, and thanks to the beaming from microSD or USB, 2x USB-C, 2x DC. Such
from the iPad’s edge – but it’s 360-degree sip-lid design, it USB, and it can even offload comprehensive connections
the battery life that makes feels like you’re drinking from seamlessly when you move make it ideal for everything
this ideal for a road trip. a ceramic mug, not plastic. from the car to the hotel. from laptops to hairdryers.
From £769 apple.com £159 ember.com $199 netgear.com $499 ecoflow.com

055
PHOTOGRAPHY: SUN LEE. WORDS: CHRIS HASLAM
 PROJECT_
Nebula Capsule II

Few things are more enjoyable than sitting Far smaller than it really has any right to
around an open fire as the Sun goes down, but be, this can-sized, Android-powered,
the pleasure gained from the heat and embers Wi-Fi-connected 5W Bluetooth speaker
is often cancelled out when the wind changes and 720p HD DLP can throw a 100-inch
direction, sending wood smoke into your eyes. autofocusing screen on to any surface
Thankfully, BioLite’s app-controlled FirePit – WIRED tried it on a tepee wall after
challenges the elements and wins thanks to dark with great results – all controlled
its powerful 10,400mAh Li-Ion powered fan that via a smartphone app. Unlike most pico
not only keeps the fire burning at the perfect projectors, the Capsule II manages a
temperature for up to 24hrs (assuming you three-hour battery life and better-than-
keep adding logs), but blows the embers, average sound quality, not to mention
minimising the smoke created by fresh logs – 360-degree audio so it projects dialogue in
and it can also boost your smartphone battery. all directions for a movie-style experience.
£269 bioliteenergy.com $399 anker.com

B U R N T O F F E R I N G __ __ _

G E AR BIOLITE FIREPIT

PHOTOGRAPHY: SUN LEE. WORDS: CHRIS HASLAM

NOISE OFF_ BRILLIANCE_

Kube Cooler Biolite Solarhome 620

Admittedly WIRED would prefer to be on This is an effortlessly practical off-

a different beach if someone else showed grid power solution that, rather handily,
up with this ridiculously powerful 350W packs down to the size of a shoebox.
amplifier, 360-degree speaker and 37-litre The SolarHome 620 consists of a six-Watt
cool box combination (585mm x 451mm x solar panel feeding electricity into a 20-
433mm). That’s because Kube is capable Wh control box with an LCD display for
of a deafening 120dB volume – streamed monitoring charge levels, which, in turn,
over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi – and with an powers three hanging LED lights – each
enormous 300,000mAh battery you can of them with a surprisingly bright and
expect it to play, and play, and play, for gratifying 100-lumen output – plus two
20 hours on a single charge, while the USB ports for power-ups at night. And, as
IPX4 rating ensures your electrics stay nice if all that wasn’t enough to pack in, there’s
and safe from unfortunate splashes. also a built-in MP3/FM radio system.
£899 kubesound.com £159.95 bioliteenergy.com
 CASE NOTE _____

R I MO WA ES S EN T I A L L IT E

It has been four decades

since Rimowa transformed
the luxury luggage sector
with their iconic aluminium
trunks, and 19 years since
they did the same thing
with polycarbonate –
and today, Essential Lite
remains one of the toughest
and lightest (2.2kg) wheelie
bags available. With a
37-litre capacity and
four of the smoothest ball-
bearing assisted rolling
wheels, you’ll never again
00 0 fall flat as you stride G EA R
from airport-lounge shag
pile to concourse tiles.
£400 rimowa.com
 While specs currently remain sparse, Harley-Davidson’s updated EV looks a world away from its
first attempt in 2014; only one per cent has made it through to this electric monster. We do know
that it will feature a V-Twin electric motor, over-sized hollow 18-inch wheels, Michelin sport tyres,
adjustable Showa suspension and seven riding modes. Music and GPS will be accessed through
touchscreen and charging will be through most household outlets. £tbc harley-davidson.com

E - B I K E __ __ _

H A R L E Y- D AV I D S O N

LIVEWIRE

G EA R 

The motor is a
55kW, oil-cooled,
longitudinally
mounted electric
 VISION_ WEAR A B LE S _ _ _ _ _
Vuarnet Tom Sunglasses

Inspired by the iconic style of cult TV

hero Magnum, P.I., Tom is a retro pilot-
style acetate frame made with lateral
reinforcements and five-barrel hinges to
reduce the chance of bum breakages.
But it’s the Nightlynx lenses that guarantee
they make it into WIRED’s glovebox, as
they significantly improve contrast and
perception of distance, even in low light.
€230 vuarnet.com
PHOTOGRAPHY: SUN LEE. WORDS: CHRIS HASLAM

TIME_
Seiko Prospex Street Series L AY E R __ __ _ B E L S TA F F / M C L A R E N 8 5 0 .S 0 0 3

A modern reworking of the classic 1975 When it comes to the majority of

Seiko Tuna dive watch, the online-only fashion collaborations with automotive
Prospex Street Series retains the brands, the results often tend to look
substantial 51mm diameter, 200-metre a little too Alan Partridge for WIRED’s
water resistance and chunky three- tastes, but we do have to admit there’s
dimensional bezel of the original, but is an understated, elegant and utterly
now available in navy, green and grey, with considered look to the whole Belstaff
a leather imprint silicone strap. It’s also x McLaren partnership. Our pick of the
powered by Seiko’s in-house solar calibre collection is this modern Harrington-
PHOTOGRAPHY: XXXXXXXXX

V157 movement, making it hugely practical. style driving jacket in dark shale that’s
And there’s no need to be nervous about made from a three-layer, water-resistant
lack of sunshine: it can keep perfect time for stretch nylon outer, with heat-sealed
up to ten months in total darkness. seams and laser-perforated ventilation.
$450 seiko.co.uk £495 belstaff.co.uk
WIR ED PAR TN ERSHI P | A CC E NTU RE

Want AI? Fix

the data first
Smart algorithms are only as good as
the inputs they receive – data hygiene
is key to programming for success

The last few years have been auspicious

for artificial intelligence, which has been
embraced as a tool for business sectors as
wide ranging as cybersecurity, customer
service and analytics. Data scientists are
now ubiquitous in most industries.
As AI’s influence continues to grow, one
potential pitfall has emerged: the data. The
vast troves of data created by companies
enables machine learning, the technique
whereby algorithms are trained.
However, this data is not always usable,
explains Fernando Lucini, AI lead for
Accenture UK and Ireland. Different kinds

ILLUSTRATION: MAÏTÉ FRANCHI

of data can be scattered throughout a
business, “which presents two questions:
how to get it together, then how to use
it in a way that’s valuable?” Lucini says.
A big issue is the data’s “dirtiness”:
missing information, inconsistencies,
errors. “It’s problematic if you try to use To help businesses, AIs need a clear view of all the data
machine learning on a dataset where some
entries are empty or inconsistent,” Lucini
explains. “You can’t count on this data.”
“Businesses do have a sense of the
value of their data. They have a notion, an Finding that value relies on focused use-cases. “Things
educated instinct, that there are answers go very badly when your effort is open-ended,” Lucini says.
somewhere within it,” Lucini adds. “There In his opinion, one of the key trends we are likely to witness
often are, but they will need data scientists in 2019 is the progressive “industrialisation of AI”.
to work with the data and help realise the Until now, many companies seeking AI capabilities
value. But if the insight is hidden behind have been acting unsystematically. “One or two years have
too many issues within the data, maybe been spent on AI experiments, and many companies feel
they won’t be able to sort it out, making that they haven’t seen the return they might have expected,”
it harder to identify value the next time.” Lucini says. “This is the year things need to change.”
How to proceed? Good data hygiene
would help, but Lucini says companies
don’t often clean and de-silo their data ‘Without strong data
because they don’t see the use in devoting foundations, there’s no AI’
time and resources to it – a catch 22. – Fernando Lucini, Accenture
Research suggests that 79 per cent
of businesses base critical decisions on
data without properly investing in its verifi- AI industrialisation needs a framework to help a company
cation. This is risky: take United Airlines, discover AI’s value; a plan to involve all relevant parts of the
which missed $1bn in revenue – its pricing company; an approach that aids data scientists in getting the
models were built on outdated information. data; and a reliable data structure. “We can dream up many
“Examples like this, as well as instances ways that AI can make a business hugely successful, but
within your business,” are how Lucini says [companies] need to look at their data through a new lens,”
we can convince sceptical executives. Lucini says. “Without strong data foundations, there’s no AI.”
 A R E YO U S I T T I N G
C O M F O R T A B LY ?

Putting your lumbar care on the back seat can

affect both health and productivity, so
sit up and pay attention to our posture guide



Herman Miller
High-Back Cosm £959
hermanmiller.co.uk

EDITED BY
K AT I A M O S K V I T C H
PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSEPH SHIN. ILLUSTRATION: RAMI NEIMI

ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE + PRODUC TIVIT Y HACKS + ACCELER ATED LE ARNING

 SE AT SM A R T S

< continued

At 42.3 hours per week, British

office workers labour the longest in
Europe, so your chair is important.
But don’t just think about comfort,
says Stephen Bowden, a chartered
ergonomist at consultancy Morgan
Maxwell: sitting incorrectly can cause
lasting pain. “Musculoskeletal issues
are one of the biggest costs for British Cuckooz Nest has all the hallmarks of a trendy
businesses, up there with stress coworking space: light and airy, minimalist

PHOTOGRAPHY: DAN BURN-FORTI.

and depression,” he says. Here are furniture, scatter cushions and Instagram-worthy

ILLUSTRATION: RAMI NEIMI

four office additions that can help. houseplants. But there are sounds that immediately
mark it out as a different kind of place: a noise of
babies can be heard over the tapping on keyboards.
It’s one of only a handful of coworking spaces
in the UK that not only provide desks, offices and
meeting rooms, but also childcare onsite. Based
in Farringdon, London, Cuckooz Nest offers 21
W OR K 4ME task chair nursery places to children from newborns to
S MARTER This bold chair designed two-year-olds, alongside 36 desk spaces.  
by Martin Ballendat Despite launching less than a year ago, the
includes an active seating business is already profitable and has a waiting
mechanism, enabling you list, says one of the co-founders, Charlie Rosier. She
to work out core muscles, launched Cuckooz Nest because she wanted to help
such as your pelvic floor. women stay in work. The idea came to her shortly
after she and her business partner Fabienne O’Neill
had started their serviced apartment business
Cuckooz in 2016. Rosier had given birth to her
daughter and wanted to return to work six weeks
Sissel SitFit cushion later, but could not find suitable childcare, so started
The SitFit cushion helps taking her baby to the office. “I didn’t want to give
build back musculature, STANDING up my 15-year career for having a child,” she says.
as well as strengthen the DESKS A nursery place at Cuckooz Nest costs between
pelvic floor. The ever- £10.80 and £20 per hour. In London, the average
changing shape ensures full-time nursery place is £6.08 per hour, according
core muscles keep moving. People with to the Money Advice Service – a total of £305.92 per
neck, back or leg week for a child under two. But traditional nurseries
pain can benefit don’t offer a lot of flexibility – parents can either
from alternating get a part-time or a full-time place. A full-time
with sitting, says nanny, meanwhile, costs on average £616 per week,
David Rempel, plus taxes and national insurance. But at Cuckooz,
Knoll Life chair a professor of members only pay for the hours they use, rather
The Life chair is a sleek, medicine at the than full-term periods as most nurseries require.
high-tech take on the University of For Ilany Oliveira, a mother who runs her own
traditional office chair. California. But exporting business, working there has been
The meshed seat pan is benefits of sit- life-changing. Before Cuckooz Nest opened its
shaped to alleviate key stand desks doors in April 2018, Oliveira was struggling to find
pressure points in the legs. are overhyped, childcare due to waiting lists at local nurseries. She
he adds – and worked at home with her husband, so it would have
standing won’t been too disruptive having a nanny, she says. So she
make you found herself trying to work when her baby slept,
more active. usually between 7pm and 2am. “I was exhausted,”
Exercise ball she recalls. Now she uses Cuckooz Next five days a
The shifting surface of week – with her daughter playing just metres away.
an exercise ball is meant There are people who come here from as far
to engage users’ core away as Bromley and Peckham. And soon, says
abdominal and back O’Neill, Cuckooz Nest will be expanding to two
muscles as they strain new locations – so there’s clearly lots of demand
to maintain balance. for childcare in coworking spaces.
Chris Stokel-Walker That’s not surprising, considering the rapid
growth of self-employment in recent years. In
2017, there were some 4.8 million self-employed
 FLEXIBLE PARENTING

W O R K / P L AY people in the UK. And an estimated 1.91 million UK workers

are freelancers – a 46 per cent increase since 2008. So
why are there only a handful of coworking spaces in the UK?

BALANCE It’s a tough industry – only 40 per cent of all coworking

spaces are profitable, according to the 2017 Global Coworking
Survey. Opening onsite childcare on top means complying with
Coworking spaces are cornering a new additional regulations. To get Ofsted registration, businesses
market – busy entrepreneurs’ kids need to ensure that there’s enough space and that the ratio of
staff to children is correct. They also have to factor in high rent,
insurance and licenses. Finally, they have to strike the balance
between desks and the size of areas dedicated to babies.
Other coworking crèches like Third Door and Entre-
prenursery, also in London, have overcome
these challenges, but Second Home has had
to delay its launch by several months, and is
now planning to open at some point in 2019.
In 2017, Elizabeth Moody-Stuart
shuttered Officrèche, the Brighton-based
coworking crèche she founded six years
earlier. She says it provided a supportive
network for parents, but the margins were
too thin. “Childcare is an expensive add-on
for a coworking space,” she says.
Overall, childcare seems to have failed
to keep pace with the changing world of
work. Nationally, there is a drastic shortage
of places. Childcare costs in England are
among the highest of any developed
country, according to the OECD. The expense
is especially tough for non-salaried workers
with fluctuating work, who do not want
to pay for childcare during quieter periods.
“The whole issue around the childcare
system and provisions is extraordinarily
complicated to navigate,” says Jane van
Zyl, chief executive of Working Families, a
work-life balance charity. Coworking crèches
might be a step in the right direction. “A good
idea is a good idea, and will create better ideas
as it moves forward,” she says. Or perhaps
one solution could be to follow the example
of Huckletree West, a London space with a
family room – but no staff to take care of the
babies. Whatever users’ preferred options,
it seems that childcare will be a growing
opportunity in 2019. Sarah Shearman

Left to right: Fabienne O’Neill, toddler Orla,

and her mum, Charlie Rosier, at Cuckooz Nest
 FIVE FIRMS
MAKING
1 STRIDES 4

‘ W E TA L K A B O U T T H I N G S ‘KNOWING EACH OTHER ON

W E W O U L D N ’ T TA L K THIS AUTHENTIC LEVEL BUILDS
ABOUT FACE TO FACE’ TRUST AND RESPECT’

PETER BROWN NIK WHITFIELD

Peter Brown, chief executive When cyber security firm

of the advertising agency Panaseer was started
Prophecy Unlimited, started in 2014 from Nik Whitfield’s
running with clients in Bristol basement in Surrey, the
a year ago. “It’s not for every four founders would finish
client,” he says. “But when work early once a week to go
we run, we’ll talk about things running. Four years later, and
we wouldn’t talk about face to with a team of 35, the running
 face. It’s a different dynamic; group has been joined by
there’s less pressure.” clubs for yoga and climbing.
Brown, a keen cyclist, has 3 “They all help us connect
also led colleagues on an to each other in different
annual Bristol to London ride ‘ W E H AV E S E E N ways,” says Whitfield. “When
for the past few years. MORE TEAM SPIRIT we exercise together, we’re
Exercise helps him to unwind. AND ENERGY’ at our most human – we’re
“What I’ve found good is sweating and pushing our
having something pretty TIM FUNG limits. Knowing each other
extreme to push my body, and on this authentic level builds
the endorphins I get. It’s a Giving every employee two trust and respect in a way
fantastic release for me. It’s personal trainer sessions that no contrived team-
replaced going to the pub.” every week – during working building session ever could.”
hours – has brought the
Airtasker team closer
2 together, says Tim Fung, 5
co-founder of the startup
‘ I T R E A L LY based in Sydney, Australia. ‘GETTING YOUR BLOOD
CHANGES YOUR “We have seen more team PUMPING GIVES
PERSPECTIVE’ spirit and energy, and the YOU SO MANY IDEAS’
scheme has had a tangible
MIHAELA SMADILO effect on morale,” he says. AMBER WILLIAMSON
“I’m a firm believer time lost
At the fintech company on exercise is made back and Being tired becomes the
Oradian in Zagreb, Croatia, more in terms of improved norm for an entrepreneur,
all one-to-one reviews productivity.” Fung himself according to Amber
happen while walking in the tries to run before work Williamson, founder of
city. Management meetings to clear his head because, London-based Digital Willow.
are hikes on nearby Mount he says, “it improves “You need to figure out how
Medvednica, and team focus, reduces stress, and to squeeze more juice out
members often walk, bike increases motivation”. of your own battery.” For
ILLUSTRATION: MARLY GALLARDO; RAMI NIEMI

or run together. Mihaela Williamson, the answer is a

Smadilo, head of talent and treadmill desk, which she
culture, says taking work uses on a high incline. She
discussions outside of the says she’s been able to write
boardroom has really helped. emails, do sales training,
“You’re more direct, more take client calls and interview
genuine, more human people while walking on it,
almost,” she says. “Three and describes the benefits
hours walking in a forest on a as life-changing. “There’s
brainstorming session really something about getting
changes your perspective your blood pumping that
and brings more passion.” gives you so many ideas.”
 Meet the scientists, practitioners and researchers transforming
the landscape for health providers and patients. Join us for
a one-day symposium of thought-provoking keynotes, engaging
fireside chats and a Test Lab showcase of next-gen health tech.

Save 20%
on the full
ticket price.
Book with
code MAG20
online at WIRED Health. March 26,
wired.uk/
health-tickets. 2019. London, UK

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 COMIC

LEGENDARY ADMAN RORY SUTHERLAND HELPS A CHARITY THINK OUTSIDE THE ENVELOPE

H O W I R R AT I O N A L I T Y D E L I V E R S

WORK
0 67 S M AR T ER
ILLUSTRATION: RAMI NIEMI
 PRODUCTIVITY

Q&A
T I M E LY M A N A G E M E N T
Balancing a packed schedule with nurturing a team, Elizabeth Varley
has turned TechHub’s coworking culture into a transatlantic business

W OR K
S M AR TER

Elizabeth Varley: For Elizabeth Varley, productivity isn’t just a virtue – it’s her business. As co-founder
an entrepreneur and CEO of TechHub, she builds coworking spaces to help startups perform at their
whose company best. The firm operates in six cities worldwide, and over the past eight years has supported
operates in six thousands of companies that have collectively raised more than $1bn. Varley is a
cities worldwide high-achiever herself – she sits on boards at both Imperial College London and the Open
Data Institute. With TechHub’s New York opening creating a whole new set of transatlantic
demands on her time, WIRED asks her: how does she fit in so much? Charlie Burton

Q&A

Do you always reply How do you know when it’s  How do you judge whether to
to an email? time to go home? say no to something?
“It’s just not possible to read every “Email is a really good indicator. When “My friend Amanda told me that I need to
email. Accepting this made a huge I am reading one, closing it, marking it as think, ‘Would I do that thing tomorrow?’
difference to my productivity.” unread, I’m like: ‘OK, my brain is done.’” And if I think ‘no’ then I should say no.”
 PRODUCTIVITY

A D AY AT H O M E
IS VALUABLE

“I work from home on

KEEP MEETINGS a Wednesday every week. WAKING UP TO THE
TO THE POINT I get up, I don’t have to WORKING WEEK
travel anywhere, I don’t
“There are some people on have to get dressed, I don’t “I tend to group my
my team who tend to go have to worry about what meetings into Tuesdays
into a lot of detail and my hair looks like, or any and Thursdays. On
narrative when presenting of that external stuff that Mondays I might still have
data. That’s something I doesn’t really matter to meetings, but they’ll tend
find challenging, unless it’s your job but still takes time to be internal meetings,
the point of the meeting. and effort, and I sit down so that I’m around for the
 I like to focus on strategy with my laptop. Everybody team. Fridays are wild-card
and action. We can expand in my team knows that day. But whatever the day,
the conversation if that’s the day their inboxes I wake up at around 6am.
necessary, but I’m not will fill up with things I People often wonder how
a fan of going through need to delegate or send I do it – but really I’m
everything just ‘because’.” on. I also use that day for just a morning person.”
bigger things I find much
PHOTOGRAPHY: SAM BARKER. HAIR & MAKEUP: JESS CHEETHAM.

harder to get done if I’m

GIVE YOURSELF having to stop every now GET YOUR TEAM
SPACE and again for a meeting.” BEHIND YOU

“I live on a garden square “I certainly made mistakes

and every morning I walk when learning to be a
through the garden to get ‘I did, at one leader. I had to recognise
ILLUSTRATION: RAMI NIEMI

to the Tube to go to work. time, have an that other people are not
I have a rule I started last Action Required motivated like me – and
year: I do not look at my folder that I’d they don’t necessarily
phone in the garden. p ut emails in. know that they’re doing
It takes me one or two W h at I realised a good job unless you’re
minutes to walk across it, is that, for me, it explicit about saying:
not long, but it’s this was a case ‘I think you’re doing a really
moment that’s just for me. of out of sight, good job.’ So being
I look around and see the out of mind’ more proactive about
changing seasons, the verbalising those things
squirrels running around has made a massive
– and just enjoy it.” difference to the team.”

EMBRACE SIRI, HAVE A ‘ONE KEEP A ROLLING

EMBRACE ALARMS TOUCH’ POLICY TO-DO LIST

“I had never used Siri until “I have a copy of David “I did, at one time, have an
I saw a friend go ‘Set alarm, Allen’s Getting Things Action Required folder
8am’ – and I was like, ‘Oh, Done. Ironically, I never that I’d put emails in. What
that’s so useful!’ Manually finished it, but I try to I realised is that, for me, it
it takes about seven apply the idea of a piece was a case of ‘out of sight,
presses to get there. If it’s of paper not being in your out of mind’. So I keep
something urgent, I’ll set hand more than once emails about things that
an alarm rather than a to emails: if it’s quick to I need to address in my
reminder, as you can still answer, I answer it inbox. Those messages can
put text against an alarm. immediately; if it needs easily get buried, so I use
I do that because I have to to go to someone else, a text file to make a note of
actively turn it off.” it gets sent immediately.” everything I need to do.”
 THE INSIDER
WIRED EVENT EDIT

insider WIRED HEALTH

Francis Crick Institute,
London
Events, new products and promotions wired.uk/health-event
Compiled by Avalon Ffooks March 26, 2019

Join us at the seventh annual

WIRED Health conference
taking place on March 26,
2019 at The Francis Crick
Institute in London, as we set
to map the future of health.

THE LINE-UP
This year’s stellar speakers
include Mary Lou Jepsen,
the engineering executive at
Facebook, Oculus, Google and
Intel behind Openwater, which
is creating a portable MRI;
Daniel M Davis, professor of
immunology at the University
of Manchester, and author of
The Beautiful Cure; and Karyn
McCluskey, chief executive of
Community Justice Scotland
and the co-creator of the
Violence Reduction Unit.

PREVIOUS SPEAKERS
WIRED Prior events included key
INSIDER figures in the health sector,
including Peter Piot, the co-
discoverer of the Ebola virus;
Dame Sally Davies, the chief
medical officer of England;
and Craig Venter, chairman
and founder of the J Craig
Venter Institute.

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 071
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STORIES
LO N G - F O R M

“I want to give you a gift. Invest $100 billion in my fund; I give you $1 trillion.” Masayoshi Son p72
 João Medeiros

Silicon Valley VCs have always invested in startups that disrupt

entire industries. But what happens if the disruptors are disrupted?
Led by the charismatic Masayoshi Son, Japanese conglomerate
SoftBank’s Vision Fund is taking over tech, one company at a time
Masayoshi Son, in the
Tokyo Shiodome Building,
SoftBank’s global HQ
 $117.5 million mansion in Woodside, California. Most describe 
the legendary investor – known as Masa – as soft-spoken, a
man with a modest bearing and a prescient vision of the future:
a reputation substantiated by his achievements.
In the 1970s, Son emigrated to America to study. At the time,
he had only a rudimentary knowledge of English, and made
his first million by importing Japanese arcade games such as
Space Invaders. It was Son who, in 1996, offered budding
entrepreneur Jerry Yang, then CEO of a struggling startup
called Yahoo!, $100m in investment. His insight paid off.
By 2000, Yahoo! had become the dominant web search
engine in the pre-crash era of the internet.
That was the year Son met a young Chinese teacher
and founder of an e-commerce firm called Alibaba. He
told Jack Ma to accept $20m in investment, with the

SPLASH NEWS. PREVIOUS SPREAD:

PHOTOGRAPHY: BENEDICT EVANS.
promise that he would transform Ma’s company into the

RYAN PFLUGER / AUGUST

next Yahoo! Today, when Son makes a new investment,
he sometimes tells founders that they too can be as big
as Alibaba, as big as one of the biggest companies in the
world. “In 2000, he already knew that China was going to
be big so he just decided to invest,” Eugene Izhikevich, CEO
of the AI startup Brain, says. “After the dot.com bubble
collapse, he was investing in China. You had to drive on a
dirt road between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. He has a gift
of seeing things before they become reality. What’s obvious
to him becomes, ten years later, obvious to everyone else.”
At the event in Tokyo, Son proceeded to introduce CEOs to
the stage. First, he welcomed the founder of robotics company
Boston Dynamics, Marc Raibert, a man who wants to change
the morning of July 20, 2017, at the luxurious Prince Park Tower
hotel in Tokyo, Masayoshi Son emerged on stage in front of
a packed conference hall, his diminutive silhouette backlit
by bright white lights. Son, the CEO of Japanese internet,
energy and financial conglomerate SoftBank Group, was
dressed simply, as is his habit, in a grey suit and a striped shirt.
He smiled and introduced himself in Japanese. R ADICAL INVESTING:
Son is known for his fanciful analogies and long speeches. In SoftBank’s less
2010, his talk about his “300-year plan for the future” opened well-known ventures
with a reflection on the nature of sorrow, with Son asking
rhetorically, “What is the saddest thing in life? What gives
you utmost happiness?” In 2016, he equated the Internet of Futuristic cameras such
Things (IoT) to the Cambrian era’s explosion of life, comparing as the pocket-sized L16 –
the evolutionary advantage conferred to the first species with which, at a price of $1,950,
eyes to the combination of sensors and AI enabled by the IoT. uses 16 lenses to capture
Addressing hundreds of technologists and entrepre- 52-megapixel photos –
neurs, he compared SoftBank to the gentry of the Industrial put Dave Grannan and
Revolution, a privileged class that invested in technology Rajiv Laroia’s startup Vivek Ramaswamy’s Swiss
and science for the common good. Two months earlier, on SoftBank’s radar. It startup buys experimental
SoftBank had launched a $100 billion investment arm, views Light’s technology, drugs that have been
the Vision Fund – the biggest tech fund in history. In Son’s which uses software to dropped from tests by large
metaphor, the Vision Fund was the gentry of the information combine images from pharmaceutical firms.
revolution. “I really don’t want to go to sleep,” he said. multiple lenses into one Its subsidiary, Datavant,
“I don’t want to waste time. These are very exciting times.” high-quality image, as uses AI to aggregate and
Many of the CEOs in the audience that day were recipients a potential replacement analyse healthcare data
of the fund’s investment. Without exception, they had all met for laser-based sensors and accelerate clinical
Son privately, either in his office in Shiodome, Tokyo, or in his in self-driving cars. trials. Put all that data
together, says SoftBank
partner Akshay Naheta,
and you “create a smart
brain that can be a better
predictor of the probability
of success in a clinic trial.”

Left: Masayoshi Son addresses

entrepreneurs in 2017
Right: Helmy Eltoukhy, chief
executive of Guardant Health
the world by building robots with biomechanical abilities He detailed his plan to deploy 900 non-geostationary satellites 
superior to those of humans. (SoftBank bought the company that would ensure the remotest corners of the world would
from Alphabet for an undisclosed sum.) Raibert brought with have access to the internet by 2027. As he finished, Wyler
him Spot Mini, a four-legged robot that promptly started thanked SoftBank for its support. “We’re going to change the
demonstrating its locomotor skills. “Masa, I think you may world, we’re going to connect everybody into this internet,”
have to back up because you’re in the way,” Raibert warned Son. Son responded as he accompanied him off stage.
“We don’t have it detecting people yet.” Raibert finished by Artificial intelligence – and its accessory components of
stating his belief that “robots will be bigger than the internet”, ubiquitous data, high-speed connections and autonomous
and thanked SoftBank for backing him up. Son thanked robots – was the common denominator between the speakers
him in return and said: “We’re going to change the world that day: Helmy Eltoukhy, chief executive of Guardant Health,
together. We’re going to put lots of AI into robots.” wanted to conquer cancer with data; Matt Barnard, founder
Next was Greg Wyler, founder of OneWeb, who pointed out of indoor farming platform Plenty, was using machine
that, for all the talk about a hyperconnected future, the reality learning to grow plants in an optimised environment; and
is that 54 per cent of the planet had no access to the internet. Bill Huang, the entrepreneur behind startup Cloud Minds,

Jean Liu, president

of DiDi. SoftBank and
DiDi have partnered
to launch a taxi-hailing
service in Japan
 wanted to build the world’s first cloud-based robot. “All of sceptical about the acquisition, but Son was adamant. Besides,
a sudden we could help guide a blind person with sensors,” he had a strategic advantage. Prior to the acquisition, Son
he proclaimed. “We can replace guide dogs!” had travelled to California to meet Steve Jobs. He brought
Before the final talks, Son took to the stage again and with him a hand-drawn sketch of a smartphone and showed
reminisced: “When I was 17 years old, the very first time it to the Apple CEO. (“It looked like a toad with the battery
PHOTOGRAPHY: TRUNK XU

I saw a photo of a microprocessor made me cry. I was stuck out,” Son said in a 2016 interview with The Nikkei.) Jobs
overwhelmed.” He then introduced Simon Segars, the CEO hated the ugly sketch but he told Son that his intuition was
of British chip-design firm Arm Holdings. “Our first processors right. Jobs had been developing the first prototypes of the
were the size of a shirt button,” Segars began. “Now we can iPhone. Son left from the meeting with a commitment that,
deliver thousands of times more processing power with a chip in case the Vodafone acquisition went ahead, he would be
the size of a pinhead.” Arm microprocessors were being used granted an exclusive deal to distribute the iPhone in Japan.
in robotic surgery, autonomous vehicles and smart cameras, Segars and Son kept in contact, meeting a couple more
but the AI future would be unrealistic – too power-hungry and times in 2006, then again in 2014 and 2015. By the time Segars
beset by time lags – if all that data had to be sent to the cloud replaced East as chief executive in 2013, Arm – just as Son
for processing and then back. “If every person with an Android predicted – had consolidated its marketshare in the chip
does three minutes of voice recognition a day, Google would industry, licensing its product to Apple, Samsung, Nvidia and
have to double their data centres,” Segars said. The next gener- Qualcomm. And as Son determined, Vodafone Japan (now
ation of microprocessors would have to incorporate AI and SoftBank Mobile) had become one of Japan’s leading mobile
process data on the sensor itself. “We can’t do it on our own,” companies – thanks to its exclusivity deal with Apple’s iPhone.
he told the audience. “We have to work together in partnership In June 2016, Segars met Son for dinner at the latter’s
with other companies to deploy these technologies.” mansion in California. Segars would later describe it as the
At the end of the talk, Son shook Segars’ hand. He said that most important job interview of his life. He just didn’t know
Arm is indispensable not just to SoftBank, but to the whole it at the time. During that meeting, Segars shared with Son
of humankind. “And now they are a member of our family,” the dilemma that he was facing at Arm – but noted that it also
Son continued, turning to the crowd.“If we can join forces, presented multiple huge opportunities. With the smartphone
we can be the gentry of this new generation, making the future market saturated and growth margins reduced, Arm would
a better place to live.” He then bowed and left the stage. have to significantly lower profit margins in order to make
long-term investments in areas such as AI, sensors, 5G and
Son has obsessively been trying to make SoftBank the autonomous vehicles. “We had to have tough conversations
world’s biggest company since the day he founded it in 1981, with our stakeholders,” Segars says. “I remember being asked
as a PC software distributor (SoftBank stands for Bank of why all our margins were going down, and explaining that
Software) – the day when he, a 24-year old entrepreneur, stood we’re investing in the long-term opportunities. I still vividly
on a crate in front of his two employees and excitedly promised remember the look of shock on one guy’s face.”
that one day they would be the greatest in the world. Those A few days after their meeting, Son called Segars: “I need
employees quit a few days later, but Son, now 61, relentlessly to speak to your chairman as soon as I can.” “I’m sorry, It’s
pursued his ambition, his “300-year vision”: a technology not going to happen,” Segars replied. Arm’s chairman, Stuart
revolution that will ultimately culminate in the singularity, Chambers, was holidaying on a yacht in the Mediterranean.
a point in history where AI supersedes human intelligence But Son insisted: “No, no, no. You’ve got to make this happen.
and redefines every single industry in the global economy. I am going to fly you out. Get into the nearest port, I will fly
In that version of the future, SoftBank won’t be the next you there and I will fly out – and we will have this meeting.”
Google, the next Apple, or the next Microsoft – Son doesn’t They met at The Pineapple, a seafood restaurant on the
believe that one brand or one business model could ever be marina in Marmaris, on the Turkish riviera. Son had booked
capable of delivering the singularity. What will do so is what out every table – when Segars and Chambers arrived,
Son calls the “cluster of number ones” strategy: a SoftBank-led there was no one inside apart from the waiters. When Son
ecosystem of AI companies, spanning all industries from arrived, he sat down and told the British executives that he
healthcare to transportation, from ride-hailing to robotics, a wanted to buy Arm, and made them a series of promises:
diversity that underpins the Vision Fund’s investment portfolio.
“We want to form a coalition of like-minded comrade entre-
preneurs,” Son told the audience at the 2017 conference.
“A revolution can never be realised with the power of one.” And
at the centre of that ecosystem is the company that designs
the small, low-power processors present in 95 per cent of all
smartphones, not to mention most smart speakers, health The India-based digital A German online car dealer
trackers, drones and TVs: Arm Holdings. wallet startup exceeds founded by Hakan Koç and
Son became familiar with Segars in 2006, when he first 450 million transactions Christian Bertermann,
met the then CEO of Arm, Warren East, and Segars was one of a month for more than it has more than 50,000
the firm’s first employees. At the time, Arm already enjoyed a 30 million customers. partner dealers across 30
dominant stake in the nascent mobile market. This fact alone “Most UK challenger countries, selling more
impressed Son. He knew that mobiles would soon outperform banks have single-digit than 40,000 cars every
PCs, and as a result the internet’s centre of gravity would move million customers,” says month. “Few people can
from desktops to the smartphone. Son envisaged that the SoftBank partner Munish actually move cars very
low-power, high-processing architecture of the Arm micro- Varma. Paytm has recently efficiently from, let’s say,
chips would be the centre of the future digital economy. partnered with Yahoo! France to Romania,” says
That insight was behind SoftBank’s acquisition of Vodafone Japan to overhaul the SoftBank partner Akshay
Japan, a struggling mobile carrier beset by connectivity latter’s payment system, Naheta. “They’ve got the
issues and unfashionable handsets, a few weeks prior to his and launched a new logistics figured out and
meeting with the Arm executives. SoftBank’s board had been service called PayPay. now have a massive brand.”
the company would remain an independent subsidiary of involved in the early days of Arm and is regarded 
Softbank; he wouldn’t interfere in the day-to-day management as one of the UK’s most influential entrepreneurs,
of Arm; and the company would be allowed to invest all the told the BBC it was a “sad day” for British tech.
profits into research and development. That afternoon, Son travelled to Cambridge to
“I was trying to play it as cool as I possibly could,” Segars meet the members of Arm’s executive committee.
recalls. “We listened and you do what you’re supposed to “He was beaming like a kid who just got a new toy,”
do, which is not agree to anything, say as little as possible.” Haas remembers. “He was saying, ‘This is the most
Segars and Chambers returned to Cambridge and relayed exciting day of my life. I have been watching this
the offer to the Arm board. In a week, a price was agreed; due company for 30 years. I’ve just been so impressed
diligence was concluded in just two weeks; the whole process with everything the company’s done.’”
took ten weeks. “To acquire a FTSE 100 company in that short A month later, Arm’s executive team travelled
period of time was breathtaking,” says Ian Houghton, the to San Carlos, California, to meet Son and their
vice-president of investor relations for Arm. Rene Haas, the counterparts at SoftBank International. The
president of Arm’s Intellectual Property Group agrees: “These British kicked off the meeting with a presentation
processes can drag on for years, but this was crazy fast. They about revenue plans and forecasts for the next
were like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. Move this thing.’ It went four quarters. “He couldn’t be less interested,”
literally at the speed of light. I don’t think physics would’ve Haas says. “He was playing on his iPad.” However,
allowed it to go any faster in terms of regulatory laws that had when they started talking about the vision for the
to take place. It went down about as fast as it can possibly go.” company, Son grew enthusiastic and he shared
One Sunday, Arm’s executive committee, which up to that his own 300-year vision. By 2035 there will be a
point had not been privy to the ongoing negotiations, received trillion connected devices, he said – a vast Internet
a text message from Segars convening a meeting that evening. of Things of autonomous vehicles, smart robots and
“I did what Simon told me not to do and I texted another artificially intelligent sensors, and Arm would be the
member of the exec committee who was due at the meeting,” company behind all these devices. “He was literally
says Haas. “We were all like, ‘Simon is resigning? We had no showing revenue charts and numbers out to 2035,”
idea.’” That evening the Arm executives met in the company Haas says. “I remember thinking that very first time,
boardroom. As well as beer and crisps, Segars served up a ‘Is this theatrics?’ But now I realise he just thinks
revelation. “The cat is out of the bag,” he told them. “Tomorrow in a really big way. And you start thinking that if
it will be formally announced that SoftBank has bought Arm.” you can possibly pull all this off, it’s actually crazy.”
To many of those in the room, the announcement made
no sense. Why would SoftBank, a Japanese telco, buy Arm, a
chip IP licensing firm? “I was thinking: who’s this Masa guy?”
Haas recalls. “What is he about? Does he really understand Right: Stewart The acquisition of Arm was Europe’s biggest ever
what we do? I went home and googled SoftBank and Masa.” Butterfield, technology deal. It also marked the moment that
On Monday, 18 July, 2016, Son started the day with an co-founder of many people in Britain, including business and
early meeting with then British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Slack, in which technology insiders, had first heard of SoftBank.
George Osborne. Following the Brexit referendum the SoftBank took That this relatively unknown Japanese telco was
month before, the government was apprehensive about a $250m stake in fact a heavyweight global investor came as a
a foreign takeover of what was the UK’s most valuable revelation to most, despite its run of big-ticket
technology company. Son agreed a post-offer undertaking purchases. In 2013, SoftBank acquired US telco
– a series of legally binding promises to the UK’s takeover Sprint for $22.2 billion, and Finnish games
panel that, in the next five years, SoftBank would double developer Supercell for $1.5 billion. In 2014, it
the headcount and keep the headquarters in Cambridge. had launched an investment outpost in California
That morning, the announcement of the acquisition was – a precursor to the Vision Fund called SoftBank
made: Arm had been bought by SoftBank for the price of £17 International, which had made early investments
a share – £24 billion in total. Hermann Hauser, who had been in companies such as ride-sharing startups DiDi
in China and Ola Cabs in India, and Tokopedia, an
Indonesian e-commerce company that currently
has 80 million users. “We were a bit under the
radar,” David Thévenon, a partner at SoftBank,
says. “People were always confused by the name
SoftBank. ‘Are you a bank? Are you a mobile
A Californian construction Founded in 2013 by Ritesh operator?’ We had to keep explaining that we had
company set up by Michael Agarwal when he was 19, been doing international investments for years.”
Marks, Fritz Wolff and this is an India-based And once SoftBank was finally a recognisable
Jim Davidson, it covers hospitality startup. In the name there was a new complication: it needed more
every step from design second half of 2017, Oyo money to keep investing. Finding a solution for that
to assembly, building Home was launched: an problem was the remit of a former Deutsche Bank
features off site that Airbnb-type marketplace debt trader by the name of Rajeev Misra.
are then put together on for short-term managed Misra grew up in New Delhi. In 1981, he enrolled at
site. The goal is complete rentals that operates the University of Pennsylvania to study mechanical
PHOTOGRAPHY: F. SCOTT SCHAFER

vertical integration of all in leisure destinations engineering and computer science. He then worked
the steps in construction across India, including at Los Alamos designing satellites, and on software
to allow a price guarantee Pondicherry, Shimla simulations at a Philadelphia-based startup called
early in the process. It is and Goa. Today, it has Reality Technologies, before returning to business
in discussions with firms hotels in the UK, China, school. Misra met Son in 2002, when he was global
like Plenty and WeWork. Indonesia and Singapore. head of credit, emerging markets at Deutsche Bank.
 0 00
PHOTOGRAPHY: XXXXXXXXX
He lent money to SoftBank and then helped it to structure 080
the complex takeover of Vodafone Japan. They re-connected
eight years later at a wedding in the summer of 2014. Alibaba CEO Eugene Izhikevich Founded in 2010 in San
– the company in which Son had invested $20m in 2010 – had is developing brains for Francisco, Mapbox’s online
recently pulled off the largest IPO in history. The windfall robots. His first product map customisation is
allowed SoftBank to expand globally, and Son wanted Misra allows cleaning machines now used by websites and
to work for him again. “I didn’t know exactly what I was going to navigate an indoor apps including Facebook,
to do, but it sounded exciting,” Misra recalls. environment by avoiding Snapchat, The Weather
To buy the British company, SoftBank was forced to sell obstacles. Brain has now Channel and National
shares in Alibaba and Supercell; the whole deal pushed the signed a deal with Walmart. Geographic. Mapbox
Japanese company’s debt to $105 billion. “We wanted to “Take cleaning machines: takes data from open
make investments in the AI revolution that was coming, they could be robots if you sources such as Nasa,
and in all these companies going to disrupt every industry could put a brain inside and proprietary ones such
on the planet,” Misra says. “Financial services, cars, hotels, them,” he says. “Instead, as DigitalGlobe, as well
office space, residential brokerage, you name it. We felt we we use people to push, to as from its own users to
were restricted because we spend a lot of money. We said, pull, which is not the best refine its maps. SoftBank
let’s raise money. Let’s become the biggest investment use of human intelligence.” invested $164m in 2017.
fund on the planet.” Masa called it the Vision Fund.
The investment hypothesis underpinning the Vision Fund
centres around scale: a winner-takes-all strategy. They
targeted companies with 50 to 80 per cent market share,
and over-invested to enable these companies to grow fast that year, Son told Bin Salman: “I want to give you a Masa
and globally. “That’s something I learned from Masa,” Misra gift, the Tokyo gift, a $1 trillion gift.” Bin Salman responded:
says. “Is it more important to grow fast or to be efficient? “OK, now it’s interesting.” Son replied: “Here’s how I can
Efficient means getting your costs right and your profits give you a $1 trillion gift: you invest $100 billion in my fund,
right. It’s not about counting the number of dollars that you I give you a trillion.” Son left the meeting with a non-binding
spend on stationery that’s important, and building step by commitment of $45 billion over the next five years.
step in the US or in India. Our view is that companies need Six weeks later, the two men met again in Riyadh, the Saudi
to scale first. Once you scale, you’ll get everything else right. capital. Son visited Aramco, the state oil company, and spent
The global barriers are coming down, so if you don’t become time with the executives of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.
global fast, someone else will do it.” By then Apple, Qualcomm, Foxconn, Sharp and Abu Dhabi’s
And for that, of course, they were going to need capital – Mubadala had also committed a further $20 billion, and
and lots of it. Initially, the fund was going to start with $30 SoftBank added $28 billion from its own balance sheet. A
billion –a huge sum, but not unheard of among global funds. signing ceremony in Riyadh was held in May 2017 to coincide
That was until Masa decided that $100 billion would be better. with Donald Trump’s first overseas trip as US president – and
Misra and Son put together a presentation that showcased the $100 billion Vision Fund was officially launched.
the fund’s investment track record – it’s portfolio at the time SoftBank, which had never managed third-party money at
already included Arm, Sprint, SoftBank Mobile, Alibaba and this scale and had never launched a regulated fund, now owned
Yahoo! Japan – and honed their sales pitch. In 2016, between the biggest investment fund in history, equal to all the money
September and December, they travelled the world, meeting raised by US VCs in the previous 30 months. The fund’s CEO,
companies in the US, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds Rajeev Misra, was under pressure. “We now had fiduciary
in Asia and the Middle East. Though politely received, their responsibility to all these companies, to our partners, to the
proposal was mostly met with disbelief, with $100 billion for people of Saudi Arabia. And did we get the first call for someone
a single investment fund being viewed as a totally unrealistic looking for capital two years ago?” Misra recalls. “No.”
sum to attempt to raise, regardless of ambition.
However, in spite of the broadly sceptical reception, a few One afternoon in December 2018, Misra welcomed WIRED
were intrigued by SoftBank’s proposition. One such person to the headquarters of the Vision Fund, in a four-storey
was Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Edwardian building in London’s Mayfair. He was barefoot
A 500-strong Saudi delegation visited Tokyo in May 2017. and had rolled up his shirt sleeves, revealing a Shamballa
Before meeting Bin Salman, Son and Misra first pitched the bracelet on one wrist. During the conversation, his mood
idea of the Vision Fund to the prince’s closest advisers, intro- shifted between enthusiastic and pensive, at which point he
duced by two former colleagues of Misra’s at Deutsche Bank. would pause and puff on an electronic cigarette.
A few days later, they received the Crown Prince at the palatial Currently, Misra’s Vision Fund has a portfolio of more than
Geihinkan state guesthouse in central Tokyo. According to 60 companies. This includes an estimated $7 billion stake in
an interview Son gave to financier David Rubenstein later US graphics processor manufacturer Nvidia; a $502 million
stake in British startup Improbable, which develops large-
scale virtual reality worlds for gaming and training; and a
$250m stake in the productivity platform Slack. A consortium
led by SoftBank has also invested around $8 billion in Uber.
Misra heads a team of managing partners – seven of them
based at the fund’s Silicon Valley outpost, two in Japan, and
two in London – who scrutinise dozens of companies weekly in
search of potential opportunities for investment. They come
together on a regular basis to collectively review the spread
of deals presented by individual partners.
These ideas are then peer-reviewed, with due diligence
being undertaken by an independent team in a rigorous vetting
 process that can take months to complete. At a later stage, from the partnerships and business opportunities that
the deals are submitted to SoftBank’s Investment Advisor come with being a part of the SoftBank family.
Committee, which includes Son and Misra. If there is consensus This is a global network that includes Apple,
about an idea, the entrepreneur is then invited to sit down with Qualcomm, Sharp, Alibaba, Sprint (the fourth-largest
Son, who meets every single founder before a deal is closed. carrier in the US), Yahoo! Japan (which, unlike its
“When I met him, in early 2017, I explained how my US parent, remains the most popular website in its
company had become a leading hotel company in India,” country) and SoftBank Mobile, whose $23.5 billion
says Ritesh Agarwal, chief executive officer of Oyo Rooms, IPO last December was the second biggest market
India’s largest hotel network. “I didn’t think the timing was listing of all time. The Vision Fund is also one of the
right to expand to China. He told me that I should absolutely biggest foreign investors in India, China and Europe.
expand to China – and consider spending a lot of time there. It has a presence in Mumbai, Singapore, Riyadh and
In November, we set up our first hotel in Shenzhen. We are Abu Dhabi. “When you think about investment, when
now among the top five hotel chains in China. His ability you look at most of the American firms, they don’t do
to think far ahead is unparalleled.” global, very few of them do true global stuff,” Thévenon
The lower limit for a Vision Fund investment is $100 million, says. “SoftBank, however, is everywhere.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: JAKE CHESSUM

but most are between $500 million to a few billion, typically Companies have autonomy to pursue these
for 20 to 40 per cent of the company. “It’s changed the game partnerships, but these are often win-win synergies
for investing in a dramatic way,” Michael Marks, CEO of the US that can accelerate growth globally. Consider the
construction startup Katerra, observes. “Tech companies are example of Ping An Good Doctor, an AI provider of
becoming billion-dollar businesses. I think that SoftBank was first-line healthcare, which signed an agreement
just the first to see that it could deploy much more capital and with south-east Asian ride-sharing company Grab. In
get big returns. It over-invests to anoint the winners. It may China, a trip to the doctor can last three hours for only
turn out it’s a colossal risk and doesn’t work out, but I think 90 seconds of consultation, so Ping wants to use
it will. It’s a fascinating experiment,” Marks says. Grab’s geolocation platforms to accelerate the initial
Of course, investments alone and the abundance of capital triage and screening process of patients.
don’t reveal the true nature of SoftBank’s underlying strength: Rajeev Misra, Oyo Rooms, has, through deploying a machine
Son’s “cluster of number ones” strategy, the complex network CEO of the $100 learning platform, managed to standardised its hotel
of affiliated and portfolio companies whose whole is theoreti- billion SoftBank experience globally – from tech-enabled check-ins to
cally greater than the sum of its parts – an added value derived Vision Fund housekeeping. It ran a partnership campaign with
DiDi in China using the slogan: “Ride comfortably
with DiDi and stay comfortably with Oyo.”
Paytm, an Indian mobile wallet startup that
processes 450 million transactions a month, recently
launched PayPay in Japan with Yahoo! Japan.
And then, of course, there is Arm. In collabo-
ration with Mapbox, Segars’ chip-design firm has
already developed software that allows Arm-enabled
devices automatically to classify road boundaries,
lane markings, curbs, crossings and traffic signs.
Boston Dynamics is also deploying Arm processors in
the motor control of its latest robots.
These are the sorts of partnerships SoftBank has
fostered, and they will allow Arm to remain at the
centre of gravity of Son’s vision of the singularity,
enabling a future that is populated by robots, drones,
autonomous vehicles and a trillion connected devices.
“I think another very common theme that runs
through all of our investments is really around data,”
Jeffrey Housenbold, a managing partner at the Vision
Fund, says. “It’s really about data and the merger of
human and machine in this notion of the singularity
and artificial intelligence. How do we process that
data in order to make the world a better place – to
make people happier, to enrich their lives, to provide
better products and services? It doesn’t matter
if it’s by using data to enable drug discovery or trying
to make food delivery more efficient. Data runs
across almost every one of our companies.”
That’s Masayoshi Son’s vision: a future where every
time that we use our smartphone, or call a taxi, or
order a meal, or stay in a hotel, or make a payment,
or receive medical treatment, we will be doing so in a
PHOTOGRAPHY: XXXXXXXXX

data transaction with a company that belongs to the

SoftBank family. And, as Son likes to say: “Whoever
controls data controls the world.”

João Medeiros is features director of WIRED

 Right now, children are filming themselves chewing,
whispering and tapping to give their adult audience
an “autonomous sensory meridian response”. The Chinese
government banned them, and PayPal blocked their
payments, yet some still earn thousands. But at what cost?

Safe & sound?

By Amelia Tait
Photography :
JUCO
08 5 On June 3 2018, Makenna Kelly, a 13-year-old eating cookies and milk. In an 11-minute video, Kelly
from Fort Collins, Colorado, uploaded the video tapped on the biscuits with her pink fingernails
that propelled her to internet stardom. Entitled: before biting into them and slurping them down
with a jar of milk. More than 300,000 watched it.

“Eating Kelly’s mum, 40-year-old veterinary physician

Nichole Lacy, only found out about her daughter’s
channel a month after it was created, at which point
she started to monitor it daily, handling the email

Raw requests. (Kelly is no longer allowed to look at the

emailed requests she gets – two of which were
“inappropriate” and promptly deleted.)
Life with MaK currently has nearly 1.3 million

Honeycomb – subscribers – which means that Kelly has a lot of

money. The teenager earns revenue from adverts
that play on her YouTube channel (estimated at
$500 per day), plus sponsorships from brands and

EXTREMELY payments for custom videos. She was named one

of Teen Vogue’s “21 under 21” in November 2018.
But the biggest ASMR artist, or “ASMRtist”, on
YouTube is 21-year-old Taylor Darling – aka ASMR

Sticky Darling – who has more than 2.1 million subscribers

and earns an estimated $1,000 a day in advertising.
Global megabrands such as IKEA, Sony, McDonald’s
and Toyota have all created ASMR-inspired adverts,

Mouth and in October 2018, platinum rapper Cardi B made

an ASMR video that has gone on to be viewed more
than 13 million times. It’s no longer surprising
that 75 per cent of children want to be YouTubers,

Sounds” but these kids don’t want to be the next beauty-

blogging Zoella or game-streaming PewDiePie. They
want to be the next brain-tingling ASMR Darling.
it featured the teenager chewing fistfuls of pure
honeycomb directly in front of a microphone for 16
minutes. In the following months, it was viewed 12
million times. By October, Kelly (pictured left and
previous spread) had a million YouTube subscribers.
“I jumped all around and I celebrated with apple
*
cider and it was just really, really fun… I got hy-per,”
she laughs, stressing the syllables. The term ASMR was coined in 2010 by Jennifer
The video was for those who experience “ASMR”. Allen, a 39-year-old who works for a cybersecurity
Short for “autonomous sensory meridian response”, company. “For years I had thought, ‘Jeez, maybe I
ASMR is a euphoric feeling certain people get from have a brain tumour or something,’” she recalls. “If
specific auditory stimuli. Those who experience it you don’t have an answer for a bodily phenomenon
can be triggered by whispering, chewing or tapping you kind of fill in the blanks eventually.”
@ GIBI.ASMR sounds, eliciting bodily responses from feeling From 1999 onwards, Allen searched steadfastly
AGE : 24 tingles to simply become incredibly relaxed. for others like her online. In the late noughties,
MAJOR : SOFT SOUNDS “I just tried it because I thought it would help she stumbled upon a SteadyHealth.com forum in
1.5M SUBSCRIBERS out my channel, and it did, yeah,” Kelly says of her which a user named okaywhatever51838 discussed
honeycomb video. When she started her channel in a “weird sensation” that “feels good”.
Gibi produces role-play March 2018, Kelly made more traditional YouTube “Nobody had any answers, so I decided to try to
videos that focus on videos – in which she filmed herself applying help everyone co-ordinate,” says Allen, who created
resonances that can help make-up and eating different foreign snacks. “It a Facebook group to spread the term that she had
her audience to relax was exciting,” she says of going viral, “because come up with. “It’s been an exponential rise since
and drift off to a deep sleep. I was like, this could actually be my dream. I’ve then. I think because it’s a genuine experience that
always wanted a lot of subscribers.” many people never had a way of qualifying before.”
While most girls her age earned their pocket For outsiders, ASMR has always been weird. “One
money babysitting, Kelly spent the summer of 2018 thing that’s interesting about the ASMR experience
in her bedroom, filming 50 custom-made ASMR is that it’s about close personal attention,” says Dr
videos. She would receive daily email requests from Giulia Poerio, of Sheffield University’s psychology
subscribers to her channel for a bespoke video, department, who has undertaken multiple ASMR
shoot the footage, receive the money over PayPal studies. Role-play videos are a thriving industry
(ten minutes cost $50, whereas for $30 – about £23 in the ASMR community – online, you can watch
– you’d get a five-minute clip), and upload the video someone pretend to be your dentist, masseuse,
Left: Makenna Kelly, 13. to her YouTube channel, Life with MaK. or even a receptionist checking you into a hotel.
Her YouTube channel, “People asked for really weird things,” she “They’re basically a simulation of what would
Life With MaK, has nearly explains, “like tapping on a TV or playing with happen if you got ASMR in real life,” Poerio explains.
1,300,000 subscribers string.” One stranger paid Kelly $50 to film herself “Multiple triggers are layered to get an effect.”
 The bizarreness of this footage means ASMR isn’t Most importantly for Hunnicutt, Aoki seems 08 6
without controversies. In June 2018, the Chinese to love making the videos simply for their own
government banned ASMR videos, branding sake, and isn’t pushed to perform. Like many
them “vulgar” and “pornographic”. Following in five-year-olds, she also loves trying on her mother’s
August, PayPal began blocking the accounts of lipsticks; but unlike most five-year-olds, Aoki was
ASMRtists who received money to make custom encouraged to rummage through her mother’s
videos (although the company later denied it has a make-up bag – and a camera captured the results.
policy against ASMR content). For those who don’t “I put all the lipstick on!” Aoki grins, explaining that
experience ASMR, the videos can seem fetishistic. this video was her favourite to make.
Beyond the weirdness of whispering and making “If you can’t experience it you’re gonna either @ KLUNA.TIK
“mouth sounds”, as in Kelly’s honeycomb video, think it’s weird or you’re gonna think it’s creepy,” AGE : UNKNOWN
some people nickname ASMR a “brain orgasm”. Hunnicutt says. Aoki – now playing with her toys MAJOR : STUNT EATING
In June 2018, Poerio conducted a study of the in the corner of the room – thinks aloud. “IT’S NOT 5.7M SUBSCRIBERS
physiological responses around ASMR. Videos CREEPY!” she shouts emphatically (although it’s

SET DESIGNER: DANE JOHNSON

designed to trigger ASMR were played to 50 people worth noting that with her childish rhotacism, it Kluna eats unusual
who get ASMR and a control group of 50 non-ASMR comes out as “cweepy”). Like many ASMRtists, she “food”, such as sand or
participants. “We found that people who experience notes that these videos help people with insomnia, balloons. This is more
ASMR showed significant reductions in their heart PTSD and stress. “I mean there’s always some macabre audio-visual
rates compared with non-ASMR participants,” weirdos in the world, but you can’t stop helping ASMR – all the posts warn
Poerio explains. “These reductions are compa- others just because there are those people.” not to try this at home.
rable to other stress-reduction techniques such as
mindfulness and music therapy.” Poerio says this
finding is crucial, because reduced heart rates prove
people who enjoy ASMR are not sexually aroused.
“I compare it to getting the world’s best massage,
but no one has to be touching you because you
*
can feel it by watching ASMR videos,” says Craig
Richard, a professor of biopharmaceutical sciences In October 2017, Anthony Fleck, a 24-year-old
at Shenandoah University, and founder of the ASMR fan, reported a channel by a “little girl”
website ASMR University. YouTuber whose commenters asked her to suck
Richard, who is also the author of Brain Tingles: on pickles and lick lollipops.
The Secret to Triggering Autonomous Sensory “I can’t speak for everybody but as an adult man
Meridian Response for Improved Sleep, Stress I have no reason to ever want to watch a kid make
Relief, and Head-to-Toe Euphoria, estimates that ASMR videos,” Fleck says. “I saw her channel and
about 20 per cent of the population experience it only took a few seconds of scrolling through the
strong ASMR. What triggers people may come down comments to see all these people asking her to do
to individual preferences. “The key to triggering really perverse things that she obviously didn’t
ASMR is to create gentle sounds,” he says. Richard’s understand she shouldn’t be doing.”
own triggers include eye tests and the old PBS series Fleck reported the channel to YouTube and
The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. asked others in the ASMR community to do the
According to YouTube estimates, there are more same. “I reported it under child abuse, which you
than 45 million ASMR videos uploaded to the site, think would immediately throw up a red flag, but
and over the past year there has been a marked the channel stayed.” Months later, the channel
increase in children making ASMR-related videos. disappeared – though it’s unclear if it was removed
Richard hypothesises that our brain is probably by YouTube or the girl herself.
more receptive to an unknown child than a strange “I don’t think enough is done,” Fleck says. “This
adult, making it easier for some individuals to be little girl was wearing sweatshirts with her school’s
relaxed by ASMR videos featuring children. name on them, you have the danger of being doxxed,
The unanswered question remains: is it right for people finding out where you are.” Thankfully, Fleck
children to trigger – as the title of Richard’s book feels members of the ASMR community look out for
puts it – “head-to-toe euphoria” in adults? each other. “It’s just a little difficult, because other
For instance, on her ASMR Toddler YouTube than reaching out to get YouTube to do something,
channel, five-year-old Aoki Hunnicutt (pictured we’re kind of powerless.”
following spread) whispers, plays with her dolls’ What does a YouTuber do when they want to
hair and chews gum for delighted fans. In her complain about YouTube? They make a YouTube
most-watched video, she role-plays as a make-up video. In October 2018, Makenna Kelly became
artist by pretending to apply products to the viewer. the topic of outraged videos after she uploaded a
(She also gets distracted and picks her nose.) role-play entitled “ASMR – SASSY Police Officer/
“For me, something about when kids whisper, Cop”. In the video, Kelly wore a police officer
it’s, oh my god, it’s so relaxing,” enthuses Desiree costume and knee-high boots while wielding a
Hunnicutt, Aoki’s mother, who started watching baton. Her “sassy” behaviour – smacking her lips,
ASMR videos in 2011. Hunnicutt says that she was singing the Pussycat Dolls song “Don’t Cha” and
motivated to create the ASMR Toddler channel in talking about Tinder dates – was interpreted as
order to help people. “I see comments where people sexual by some viewers.
are like, ‘Oh my goodness, I watch every night and “We got a lot of hate,” her mother says. “In
it helps me fall asleep,’” she says. “To me that’s the video she’s wearing a Halloween costume of
perfect, that’s what we’re trying to do.” super-thin fabric – and this is probably too much
 information – but she’s wearing a bra in the video, hundreds of videos with a troubling number of views.
like a bralette, but it kind of looks like she’s not So, do parents or YouTube bear the ultimate
wearing one.” I look over at Kelly, who hides her responsibility for the safety of these young
head in her hands. “So there’s all that stuff going creators? While we wait for an answer, child
around where it’s like, OK, but I can’t cut her nipples ASMRtists are taking things into their own hands.
off for the video,” Lacy explains.
The pair have no regrets about the role-play,
which they scripted together and say is simply a
comedy video. “It’s like, you can’t blame me for
your mind working that way,” Kelly says. “It’s not
my problem your mind is in the gutter and stuff.”
*
Two weeks after we speak, and seven weeks
after it was first uploaded, the “sassy cop” video The website for ASMRtist United looks remarkably
is taken down by YouTube. The company made the like it was created by a child – which it was. The
decision to delete it a week after being contacted site was founded in August 2017 by 14-year-old
for comment by WIRED for this feature. Jacob Daniel, whose “company” offers advice to
“We believe technology presents great oppor- ASMRtists under the age of 18. There is a guide on
tunities for young people to express themselves how to filter out sexual comments, advice on coping
creatively and access useful information, but we with cyberbullying, and a post entitled: “How do I
also know we have a responsibility to protect young stop my school from finding my channel?”
“There are a lot of young ASMRtists, and I try
to tell them, let your parents know,” says Daniel,
who has 24,000 subscribers on his channel Jacob-
Jacob15. He looks out for other ASMRtists (he
also reported the channel of the young girl licking
lollipops) and offers help to young YouTubers.
“Someone told one of our members, ‘Oh, I have
your address, I’m going to give it to a bunch of
paedophiles,’” Daniel says. “This member called
me, crying and sobbing, and I felt so horrible.” The
child told his parents, and gave up making videos.
“I know I’m only 14,” Daniel says, “but we have
strict, strict rules. If we get a report on anything,
we report it to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children… I’ve been on YouTube since I
was about five. I’ve got a lot of hate comments so I
know how to handle everything.” His channel is full
of disclaimers. Under all his videos are the words
“Account Monitored and Managed by Parents”,
which he says he wrote as a strategy to reduce the
amount of hate comments posted.
“He does things with the computer and editing
that I know nothing of,” says Daniel’s 53-year-old
mother, Parker Prunkl, with a grin. “I know
Microsoft Word and Excel but his editing… I think
he’ll grow up into the film industry.”
creators and families and consider the potential Although Prunkl is proud of her son and helps
impact of emerging trends on them,” said Claire him film videos and buy props, Daniel still seems
Lilley, YouTube’s child safety policy manager. very much in charge. When I first emailed Prunkl
“We’ve been working with experts to update our to set up an interview with her son, she was polite
enforcement guidelines for reviewers to remove and excited. Daniel later confessed he was actually
ASMR videos featuring minors engaged in more the one who responded to my email.
intimate or inappropriate acts,” Lilley commented. Daniel is clearly a savvy child – although excitable
“We are working alongside experts to make sure and eccentric, he talks soberly about safety on
that we are protecting young creators while also YouTube, clapping his hands as he tells children
allowing ASMR content that connects creators and to “be, be safe”. He advises kids to use fake names,
viewers in positive ways.” access their email with VPNs, and avoid making
@ASMR.CRACKLE YouTube banned Kelly’s channel for three days custom Skype calls with viewers. For all his intel-
AGE : 26 in November, but eventually reinstated it after ligence, however, Daniel is still a child. He and
MAJOR : SOAP CUTTING discussions with the family. The company’s delayed Prunkl show off a series of wigs they play with at
170,000 FOLLOWERS decision against its largest child ASMRtist leaves home – he dons a purple one with red horns; Prunkl
PROP STYLIST: DANE JOHNSON

questions about whether the phenomenon can shows me her doll. They talk excitedly about the
From her base in Leeds, be adequately monitored. Videos featuring the pranks they play on the public, wearing the wigs
Nazish Mahmood cuts sexualisation of minors are banned by the site, to order food in takeaway shops.
soap on Instagram and ASMR “mouth sound” videos now fall within “I didn’t know he was gonna have a channel this
and YouTube. The trend this remit. Yet at the time of writing, a search for big, I thought it was a phase or a hobby,” Prunkl says.
evolved from slime videos. “child ASMR mouth sounds” on YouTube brings up “This is a whole new world to me, the ASMR thing –
According to YouTube estimates,
there are more than 45 million
ASMR videos uploaded to the site
to tell you the truth, I didn’t know what it was and not push Makenna to answer in a favourable way, 090
he kept explaining it to me until I figured it out.” nor is she pushing her daughter into stardom in
Daniel and Prunkl might have it figured out but, pursuit of fame or riches. “She makes significantly
like Makenna Kelly, they still experience troubling more money than I do and works significantly less
comments. An older man sends Daniel letters and than I do,” laughs Lacy, sitting with her legs tucked
once drove past him on the street and shouted at underneath her in the middle of the family’s modest
him. Prunkl describes the man as “fixated”. apartment. “She doesn’t have to babysit or dog-sit
“In one letter he made a stylised JacobJacob15 or anything, so it works out good.” Her daughter
ASMR logo, and I looked and found out he took my smiles shyly, showing off pink braces: “I do want
channel name and basically put it on a swastika,” to babysit though! I like kids.”
Daniel says. “And he said he was sending me a “She has definitely set herself up for a good
motivational armband. I know a lot about history, future. I don’t want to give exact figures,” says
and I know who had motivational armbands.” Lacy – who Kelly calls her “momager”. Lacy gives
Daniel and Prunkl keep a folder full of this her daughter $300 pocket money every month. @ MASSAGEASMR
man’s transgressions and have notified the local “The rest of the money is in a savings account. When AGE : 44
police. “Sometimes it scares me,” Daniel confesses, she gets older, she’ll have the opportunity to buy a MAJOR: VIRTUAL MASSAGE
quieter now. “It does scare me that this guy could home, a car, within reason. She swears she’s gonna 745,000 SUBSCRIBERS
be anywhere.” Similarly, Kelly fears her address get a Lamborghini, and we said absolutely not.”

PROP STYLIST (PREVIOUS SPREAD):

could leak online, and takes steps to counter this. “Hey!” Kelly retorts. “When I have the money I’m Australian masseuse
For these families, such concerns are just another gonna get it!” She is an animated child, fashion- Dimitry offers viewers a
part of YouTube fame. “He’s putting himself out conscious in an off-the-shoulder dress, her brand virtual “spa” experience,

DANE JOHNSON
there. You’re gonna expect some people to do things new bob haircut swinging as she speaks. Her via a medley of finger-
if you’re putting yourself out there,” says Prunkl, iridescent rainbow false nails flash in the November tapping and material-
“no different from a singer or a movie star.” sunlight that her two cats – the hairless Gwenie and manipulation sensations.
the hairy Aggie – are soaking up.
Kelly knows that she inspires other kids to take up
ASMR – children at school ask for advice on videos.

* At one football game, kids swamped her for photos.

“It was like… crazy,” Kelly whispers dramatically.
“I walked past this group of cheerleaders and they
all got quiet. They came up one after another and
The left side of Makenna Kelly’s bedroom is just like were like, ‘Let’s take a picture.’”
any other child’s. Her silver and white bedspread Emotionally, Kelly and Daniel seem equipped to
matches a feature wall, she has a dresser with her deal with this backlash. (Aoki Hunnicutt remains
own TV, and her nickname – “Kenna” – is spelled blissfully unaware of negativity, and much else to do
out in wooden letters above the window. On the with fame – at one point in our interview, she asks
right side of her room, however, things are less with concern: “Mummy, I thought we were going
ordinary. There are three professional studio lights to do an interview?”) Yet while they are fine with @ SASITTUBE
and a tripod, a silver plaque congratulating her on their fame, it may trouble the young stars to lose it. AGE : 36
100,000 YouTube subscribers and a framed letter “We talked to her about how it’s good today MAJOR : EATING SOUNDS
from Susan Wojcicki, YouTube’s CEO. Sellotaped but might be gone tomorrow,” Lacy says. With 4.5M SUBSCRIBERS
on the closet door is the fan mail. YouTube’s stricter regulations, child ASMRtists
“I love you so much!” writes 11-year-old Keeley. may be replaced by an as yet unknown breed of Mukbang (from muk-ja,
“You inspire me to keep filming videos.” Some kids internet celebrity. Desiree Hunnicutt is hoping Korean for eating, and
have drawn Kelly, others her cats. One child sent that Aoki’s early debut on YouTube will allow her bang-song, broadcasting)
ten dollars and asked to be mentioned in a video. to start a business. “I believe in Aoki figuring out is huge in ASMR videos.
Audrey (who signs off as “your biggest fan”) what it is that she wants to do in life even early on Canadian Sas specialises
writes that Kelly inspires her, but she’s scared to and I hope it actually helps her,” she says. in crunchy or wet eating.
start making ASMR videos because “I don’t want With the summer over and homework to focus
to be made fun of at school or something”. on, Kelly isn’t making any more custom videos. She
Mockery is a problem for any child in the continues to upload her regular videos two or three
limelight – one of Jacob Daniel’s fellow ASMRtist times a week, but doesn’t want to do it for ever.
United founders quit YouTube after being picked “I don’t know, I might continue doing YouTube
on at school. Kelly says there are rumours that one for a few more years but I definitely don’t want it
girl at school said she was “annoying”, but most to be my job when I’m older, because I like going
people think her channel is “cool”. out of the house for a job,” she says, now restless at
Yet Kelly isn’t just a famous ASMRtist – she is also the end of our interview, telling her mum she’d like
a meme. People edit her videos into short clips and to grab some chicken nuggets. (I wonder, will she
share them with relatable captions. “She did not film herself eating them?) Kelly would like to be an
get at it first, she just kind of thought, well, memes actor, or a dermatologist, or a teacher – she’s young
can be mean,” says Lacy, who had to explain to her enough to neither know nor really care.
daughter what a meme was. “Now she thinks they’re Whatever career path she chooses, however, one
hilarious, she’s seen a million of herself.” thing is almost guaranteed. Makenna Kelly will most
Lacy is no cliché pageant mum. Lounging on the likely be the first person to buy a Lamborghini with Right and previous
sofa with wet hair and a grey T-shirt emblazoned money earned from eating cookies and milk.  left-hand page:
with a peace sign, she sits back, scrolling on her five-year-old ASMR
phone, to let her child speak candidly. She does Amelia Tait wrote about Bumble in 10.17 star Aoki Hunnicutt
 0 00
PHOTOGRAPHY: XXXXXXXXX
N
A
  
 Fo r t he fi rs t t ime,
Nas a has o pe ne d up
i ts arc hiv es, whi ch
re co rd 60 y ea rs o f
aeronautics and
space travel. WIRED
o f f e rs a n e xc l u s i v e
p re v iew of images
f ro m Ta s c h e n’s

S
c el eb ra tor y book

A
 Navy divers from the USS
Wasp, in the Pacific Ocean,
during retrieval of the two-
person crew of the Gemini
6A spacecraft in 1965. At
the time, landing in bodies
Previous: Alan Shepard in the of water was considered the
capsule of Freedom 7 on May safest option for keeping a
5, 1961, the day he became crew alive and minimising
the first American in space – damage to the vehicle
a huge achievement despite after re-entry. The capsule
the fact that Russia’s Yuri is currently on display in
Gagarin had beaten the US the Stafford Air & Space
into space by three weeks. Museum, in Oklahoma.
Shepard took a 15-minute
suborbital flight around the
planet, eventually splashing
down near the Bahamas.

Neil Armstrong descends the

ladder of the Apollo 11 lunar
module, on to the surface of
the Moon in 1969. But if he
was first, who is taking the
picture? As Armstrong exited The prime and backup crews
the craft, he pulled a cord, for the Gemini 11 spacecraft
which released a camera on a (which flew in 1966) relax
tether, enabling the historic by the Mission Simulator at
WORDS: SANJANA VARGHESE

first steps to be captured. Cape Kennedy. On the far

Half a billion people around right is Neil Armstrong, who
the world watched on TV as was a backup command pilot
images of the iconic “One at the time. The astronauts
small step…” moment were
broadcast back to Earth.    regularly undertook training
to prepare for accidents and
worst-case scenarios that
might happen while in space.
 Borne on three parachutes, Charlie Duke, one of the
the Apollo 16 capsule astronauts on the Apollo 16
descends into the Pacific flight, dropped this photo
Ocean in 1972. Apollo 16 was of his family, at their home
the penultimate spacecraft in Texas, on to the surface
to reach the Moon; landing on the Moon during one of
in the lunar highlands – as his excursions. The actual
opposed to the lunar maria photograph will have
sites of earlier missions – faded, because of exposure
it gave the astronauts the to harsh lunar conditions,
opportunity to collect almost but this image of the event
100kg of geologically is preserved in the
older samples of material. Nasa archives in Houston.

Buzz Aldrin tests a gas

powered jet pack near a
Gemini capsule in the 1960s.
For astronauts, getting The space shuttle Discovery,
into space is only part of docked at the International
the challenge – moving Space Station in 2005. Its
around and returning to the first flight was in 1984 and it
spacecraft in a bulky suit was operational for 27 years,
are added complications. flying 238 million km. Notable
Inventions like the jet pack missions include carrying
would have helped, but it the Hubble Space Telescope

   didn’t receive a successful

test run until the 1980s.
into orbit, before its final trip
into space on February
24, 2011. Discovery is now
on display at Washington
Dulles International Airport.
<< Previous: inside the All images from The Nasa Archives:
International Space Station, 60 Years in Space, published by
around 400km above Earth, Taschen on February 25
flight engineer Chris Cassidy
floats inside the Cupola, a
dome 3m in diameter that is
equipped with seven silica-
borosilicate glass windows.
  
It was flown to the station
in 2010 on a mission by the
space shuttle Endeavour.
Yelena Serova trains for
Expedition 41, her flight to the
International Space Station,
in 2014. Serova was the
fourth female cosmonaut,
but the first Russian woman
to go to the International
Space Station, on a mission
that lasted from September
2014 to March 2015. As a
Russian cosmonaut, she
trained for the journey in a
Soyuz spacecraft simulator.
On return, the Soyuz capsule
landed in Kazakhstan.

A Russian Soyuz rocket

launches from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Soyuz launch systems
were created in the 1960s,
and have proved extremely
reliable – the Russian Space
Agency has continued to
use the booster elements
(the bottom part of the
spacecraft) in modern
space missions. With 1,700
flights, these are the most
widely used launch systems
around the world. A Soyuz
vehicle is kept docked at the
International Space Station
at all times, in case
an escape craft is needed.

Nasa’s Anechoic Chambers

are among the quietest
places anywhere on Earth.
The walls absorb almost all
stray echoes, whether sound
or radio. This 1972 model of a
shuttle, being tested for radio
characteristics, has thruster
pods on the wing-tips. 
UNFINISHED SYMPHONY
A I R E M I X E S.
DNA ARCHIVING.
A R C O N C E R T S.
IT’S BEEN
20 YEARS SINCE
MEZZANINE,
A N D MASSIVE
AT TACK’S
EXPERIMENT
IS STILL
RUNNING…
BY STEPHEN ARMSTRONG
PHOTOGRAPHY :
WARREN DU PREEZ &
NICK THORNTON JONES
 Right: Robert Del Naja in his studio, wearing his paint-spray respirator

late 90s, he set up the equivalent of an Draw Something – allowing users to

in-house startup that developed artists’ blend sound, music, images and text
digital streaming, blogging, ringtones in their posts – and on ways to tag and
On a warm July evening in 2013, an and artwork. In 1998 he helped David share music to generate the audio in
excited crowd gathered in the derelict Bowie create a fully-fledged e-com- games, creating musical mind maps
Mayfield train depot in Manchester, merce-driven ISP – David.com – a for computers to compose on the fly.
surrounded on three sides of the vast precursor to massive virtual worlds “They were taking the AI tools of the
Edwardian station by translucent such as Second Life. Users would sign utopian tech companies and using
screens flickering with images of in, choose from a range of avatars, them to make art,” Del Naja explains.
Helmand, teenage Siberian gangs, and join text-based chatrooms. Bowie “He had these mind maps on the wall –
bleak 70s New York, Vladimir Putin, himself often assumed a rabbit avatar some were diagrams of the human brain
Bambi and Jane Fonda. As the images and joined in the conversations. labelled with the brain parts we use to
strobed then slowed, bass-shaking “He understood how music was tag smells or process emotion and
cover versions of Barbra Streisand going to become like water – available retrieve things. Some were metabrains
songs, bubblegum pop, Nirvana and everywhere for free,” Melchior explains. – maps of the way people connected.
Russian punk classics rumbled “He created and sold Bowie bonds – He was using them to see how content
through the speakers. securitised rights to future royalties and understanding worked in the
The show – a chopped-up riff on a based on past sales. He was cashing human brain – we access data, click
post-9/11 world – was a joint venture out for tens of millions before everyone on anything we have, then rearrange it
between Bristol-based Massive Attack caught on – he knew the music would be and change it into another idea.
and Adam Curtis, the film-maker behind worth less over time. David.com became “For me, everything was in a box
provocative documentary series like The Ultrastar – the first artist-owned online before that – your phone and your
Power of Nightmares and All Watched merchandising company, creating internet had their limits set. I could see
Over by Machines of Loving Grace. T-shirts and posters for acts such as everything spread out in front of me and
“It was a strange gig to play live – we U2, the Rolling Stones and Sting. It was saw there wasn’t anything we couldn’t
were working to a timecode set by the like an Amazon for artists well before organise then reorganise, then redis-
video, and because the audience were Radiohead, and it meant when people cover and redistribute.
surrounded by screens they often had bought Rolling Stones merchandise, “Anyone in the creative industry
their backs to us,” Massive Attack’s Bowie also got a royalty.” who didn’t do that would lose control
co-founder Robert Del Naja – otherwise Melchior and Cooper were advising to the labels and tech giants who were
known as 3D – recalls. “I’m not sure we US-based augmented reality startup stitching things up.”
got it right until the end.” Magic Leap. Watching Massive Attack’s Massive Attack’s music has always
When the gig finished, Del Naja show, Melchior sensed an opportunity. relied on collaborators – while tracks
headed for his dressing room, where “The creative energy and innovation were built entirely from samples, other
he bumped into an old friend who was of that show was perfectly suited to musicians always inspired different
waiting backstage – Ray Cooper, who the brave new world of mixed reality things for the band. Tracey Thorn’s
had originally signed Massive Attack to spectacle,” Melchior explains. haunting vocals added a mournful
their first label in 1988. The three men chatted for hours. longing to “Protection”; Shara Nelson’s
Cooper had brought along a colleague, On Massive Attack’s recent tours, Del deep, warm range made “Unfinished
Andrew Melchior. Melchior had been Naja had been trying to include locally Sympathy” feel like an old soul tune over
one of the first in the music industry to sampled headlines, images and stories the top of grinding samples.
recognise how technology could help in the band’s newsfeed-style light show, “Each time you find the muse you see
artists. Working at EMI and Virgin in the flashing text across screens dotted things in a new way,” Del Naja explains.
around the stage. He wondered how “If you don’t keep changing that muse
he could adapt the onscreen narrative you end up building comfortable
each night based on audience reaction. routines where there’s no tension and
Melchior and Del Naja also shared everyone knows how to behave. When
‘ T H E Y W E R E TA K I N G an obsession with The Sims computer you get to that point of comfort, there’s
game. Melchior knew its creator, the not a lot more to explore.”
THE AI TOOLS OF legendary Will Wright. He suggested Del Now, as Wright demoed his software,
Naja take a trip to California, first to see Del Naja found himself becoming fasci-
THE UTOPIAN how Magic Leap was using music in its
AR headset, and then to talk to Wright.
T E C H C O M PA N I E S In September 2013, they met him at
the HQ of his startup, Stupid Fun Club.
AND USING For the past few years Wright had been
working on Thread, a social media app
THEM TO MAKE ART’ that combined Instagram, Spotify and
nated by the AI’s relentless attempts to and villains all over my exercise books.”
generate or perfect images, responses In the 80s he fell in love with the
or behaviours – trying, failing and burgeoning street art/graffiti scene
repeating without any flashes of temper in New York. One night in 1983 – after
or sullen degrading of performance. leaving school with one art A-level – he
“I thought the tension between went out with a stencil of a breakdancer
competing AIs or the tension between and started painting walls himself.
human and AI could be equally creative,” Nothing that he created survived for
he says. “To work in a world where movie 24 hours. “That made me think of art
trailers are created by AI, we needed to as ephemeral – when you’ve done
be creating the algorithms ourselves something, you move on, and then it’s
– employing technology rather than gone,” Del Naja muses.
have it make us unemployed.” The He started hanging around in the
question was: could AI help him create Dug Out, a tiny basement bar playing
something entirely new? Could AI an eclectic mix of dub reggae, punk,
become his collaborator and muse? soul, jazz and early hip hop, providing a
magnet for the late-night party crowd.
There he got to know the Wild Bunch,
key players in Bristol’s lively sound
system scene, where unlicensed
Massive Attack’s studio stretches parties were held in borrowed spaces.
across two floors of a building on an This renegade approach meant the
industrial estate near Bristol Temple systems had to be infinitely adaptable
Meads railway station. The ground – with every member able to fulfil the
floor has music studios and a virtual roles of selecter (who picked the right
reality studio equipped with motion records to keep everyone dancing),
capture cameras. The upper floor mixer (who put the records on and mixed
has an assembly line of robotic arms the sound live), DJ (who fulfilled the role
alongside old Wurlitzer organs. of MC, rapping or singing new lyrics over
Del Naja is slim, unshaven, with a instrumentals), and box man (in charge
loose mass of hair that looks like he’s of setting up and maintaining the huge
growing out a crop. Languid and mellow, speakers and bass bins).
he smiles a lot, especially when talking The Wild Bunch recruited Del Naja
about robots and AI. He says it feels like to spread the outfit’s name using his
a natural extension to the way he’s been graffiti skills, as well as decorating
creating art ever since he was a teenage venues, selling beer out of the boot
graffiti artist working with spray cans of a car, crewing the speaker stack,
and chopped-up stencils on the streets and performing as an MC, often all of
of Bristol back in the 1980s. these on the same night.
Del Naja was born in St Andrews, “Everyone wanted the volume turned
a Victorian suburb nestling next to up to the top,” Del Naja gives a quiet
Bristol’s culturally diverse neigh- smile. “You had to be the loudest.
bourhood of St Pauls, where the riots of Carnival day outside Grant’s house on
the early 80s meant that there was still Campbell Street, there would be a whole
a measure of tension between the police bunch of sound systems at the end
and the community. Del Naja wasn’t of each road, so you had to make sure
a troublemaker, but he wasn’t hugely yours was the loudest. You had to push
academic, either. “I enjoyed art more all the technology to its limit.”
than anything,” he remembers. “I was In 1986, the Wild Bunch signed to a
obsessed with comics, so I used to draw major label, releasing a few singles and
images of Spider-Man, superheroes an album before producer Nellee Hooper
left to join rival London sound system
Soul II Soul (eventually producing and
remixing for artists including Madonna
and Björk), and Miles Johnson – DJ
Right: a 2016 CNN-style transfer Milo – moved to New York. Besides Del
by Pindar Van Amen with Robert Naja, the two remaining members were
Del Naja and Antony Micallef Andrew “Mushroom” Vowles, a hip-hop
 Right: Del Naja and ABB IRB1200, a robot arm. It has used convolutional 
neural networks to draw its own interpretation of the Blue Lines album art

fanatic with mixed Dominican-British of electronica, dub reggae, soul and hip As Massive Attack were preparing
ancestry, and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall, hop spawned a new genre – trip hop. to tour, he started collaborating on
whose love of music began with the The band used guest singers including visuals with United Visual Artists, a
reggae parties his parents used to throw Shara Nelson, reggae legend Horace London-based collective comprising
when he was a kid. They recruited the Andy, French funk performer Wally artist Matt Clark, director Chris Bird and
local rapper Adrian “Tricky” Thaws and Badarou and pop star Neneh Cherry. developer Ash Nehru. Nehru created
founded Massive Attack. The album’s lush, melancholy single software that could sample data and
When recording with the Wild Bunch “Unfinished Sympathy” was described headlines lifted from local and interna-
they’d been inspired by their studio in 2012 by The Guardian as “the greatest tional media, then play them in the local
encounters with cheap, simple samplers British soul record ever made”. language across a giant video screen
like the Akai S9000, which was mounted The group used the same technology – from the Iraq war, through socio-po-
in an effects rack in studios, and the for its 1994 follow-up, Protection litical crises, and on to trashy headlines
Akai MPC60, a compact and intuitive – although the sprawling mass of from celebrity gossip magazines. The
device that could sample and playback collaborators was in constant flux. visuals impressed Alex Poots, head of
using a series of buttons arranged in a Nelson left, to be replaced by Everything the Manchester International Festival,
telephone-style keypad. The MPC60 But the Girl’s Tracey Thorn; Hooper who invited the band to create a show.
allowed kids from Bristol to create tracks returned to produce the record; and Del Naja asked for a collaborator – and
on a single machine without knowing the Scottish classical pianist Craig chose Adam Curtis.
how to play an instrument. Armstrong played keyboards. “The contradictions and manipulation
“Sampling made absolute sense to For 1998’s Mezzanine, things became of information leading up to the war
us,” Del Naja explains. “It was collage, complicated. Del Naja – who hated was the first moment in my life I felt
segments joined together. You could critics calling Protection “dinner party convinced that power and news sources
tap out beats on the MPC, then design music” – wanted a harder sound and had to be questioned,” he recalls. “I
crazy pitch and duration. You’d use and started using live guitars and drums, wanted our stage show to harvest infor-
abuse that technology, but what makes sampling post-punk and new wave mation from the web, chop it up and
the album interesting is that the music tracks. Hip-hop loving Vowles was translate it into local language, mixing
written on top of those samples also pushing in the opposite direction political and tabloid news from interna-
had merit as really nice songs.” – bringing in clattering drums and tional and local sources.” His problem
The band recorded their debut album deep bass loops. At one point Vowles was that he had always drawn energy
in 1991 using just the Akai S9000 and thought of offering “Teardrop”, the from creative tension, and at that point
the MPC60. Called Blue Lines, its fusion strongest single on the album, to he had no musical collaborators.
Madonna, while Del Naja pushed for
Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser. The
tensions sometimes spilled out in
public. During one press interview,
Vowles and Del Naja had a stand-up
row about the merits of Puff Daddy in
front of a stunned journalist. Shortly after their trip to Silicon
From then on, the two were never Valley in 2013, Del Naja appointed
in the studio at the same time, with Andrew Melchior as the band’s chief
Del Naja spending hours alone with technical officer. Melchior’s job would be
producer Neil Davidge, who would find to discover, and introduce Del Naja to,
himself working on four different tracks new forms of technology, in the process
in a single day, swapping between turning Massive Attack into the first
samples from Isaac Hayes, The Cure band to collaborate with AI.
and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band: a Del Naja wanted to create and play
process he describes as “messy”. music that changed as the listener
This adversarial environment proved moved through space – the way that
astonishingly fruitful musically – he had heard it while moving through
Spray and play: the can containing the Mezzanine sold four million copies and Magic Leap’s augmented rooms, and the
“DNA” of album Mezzanine – spray remains the band’s most successful sharing and machine remixing he’d seen
on a wall and the music goes on too album – but it was disastrous for the in Will Wright’s work. “If artists didn’t
band. Shortly after its release the group
split. Del Naja and Davidge produced a
fourth, less successful album called
100th Window in 2003, the year coalition
forces invaded Iraq – a war to which Del
Naja was passionately opposed.
take control of this future of music, we’d 2016. Christened Fantom, it uses Pure ‘ I WA N T E D
be powerless again,” explains Del Naja. Data live mix patches – algorithms
Wright introduced Melchior and that sample changes in time of day, O U R S TA G E S H O W
Del Naja to producer and composer speed of movement, social media
Robert Thomas, chief creative officer notifications, how the phone is carried TO HARVEST
at music app company RjDj. The and GPS position, and use them all to
technologist had just created an iOS effectively remix the track in real time. I N F O R M AT I O N
app for the movie Inception, which The platform came with an EP of new
mimicked the film’s dream worlds. material called Ritual Spirit. FROM THE
Thomas had adapted the open source “Instead of going to the Mad
software Pure Data – which can take Professor to make a dub version, we W E B, C H O P I T
any kind of input to control any kind could put this app in someone’s pocket
of output, generating 3D graphics and and create mixes using the sensors UP AND
video from music or even controlling on the phone,” Del Naja explains. “I’ve
external hardware like stage lighting had years of procrastination, never T R A N S L AT E I T ’
and robotics. In the Inception app, Pure being able to decide on the finished
Data took inputs from the iPhone’s mic, product. Suddenly that was no longer
camera and global position and used a problem. Ironically, by using tightly
them to modify the movie soundtrack. programmed algorithms we were
With Thomas, Massive Attack breaking patterns, creating the most
launched its first platform in January flexible and constantly changing music.”

‘I F A F U T U R E C I V I L I S AT I O N
CAN SEQUENCE DNA, THEY
CAN LISTEN TO MEZZANINE’
‘REPURPOSE YOUR The problem the band faced was recognition by algorithms in Fantom,
copyright. Massive Attack relied heavily but also to ensure that the original
O W N M AT E R I A L on samples, which meant ensuring copyright holders could get paid.
hundreds of publishers, labels and Blokur had been founded in 2017 by
INTO DNA AND artists got a credit and a share of music industry veterans Andrés Martin-
royalties for songs sampled. The band Lopez and Phil Barry, who lead the team
P U T T H AT I N T O A secured a special agreement from all of that released Radiohead frontman Thom
them to allow Ritual Spirit to be released Yorke’s 2014 solo album on BitTorrent.
S P R AY PA I N T for free. But for Fantom to work, Del Naja The app used technology that samples
realised, he needed to ensure that the audio signatures by identifying the
C A N : T H AT ’ S original artists were recognised. unique blend of pitch, tone, volume,
“YouTube can’t recognise the source tune, voice, instruments and all the
MAKING IT INTO of a piece of music if it’s too distorted,” other elements that make up a song’s
Melchior says. “The risk with Fantom fingerprint. It then leaves a copy of the
SOMETHING NEW’ was that tracks stitched together fingerprint – along with the names of
from different bits of music needed the rights holders, from the performer to
to provide proper rights attribution.” the songwriter, the publishing company
Melchior approached London- and the record label – on the Ethereum
based startup Blokur to guarantee that blockchain. The blockchain is like a vast
Massive Attack’s sample-heavy music irrevocable ledger, a record of ownership
could be remixed and distorted beyond that cannot be altered. Algorithms can
  Left: Del Naja’s studio setup includes (l-r) a Moog System 55, a DAW/Ableton Live (plus cup of tea), and a Neve Genesys

use this fingerprint to automatically a computer scientist at Goldsmiths sampling and recording – including
reconcile rights. If there’s any dispute, College in London. Grierson specialises the use of synthetic DNA. “Repurpose
the fingerprint is there – as full proof of in neural networks. They solve problems your own material into DNA and put that
who should get paid. in a similar way to a human brain – they into a spray paint can – that’s making
“We’ve been working with music process inputs (“that’s a lion”); examine it into something new, then distrib-
companies and musicians to ensure them against patterns we already know uting in a whole new way,” Del Naja
rights information is as accurate as (“lions are creatures that kill”); and explains. “If you store something on a
possible, but Massive Attack wanted generate outputs (“run away”). Like different medium, you change it. You’re
something slightly different,” explains humans, Grierson’s networks recognise resampling on a molecular level, and
Barry. “The point about Fantom is that patterns – but only from the data sets repurposing into something different.”
it remixes songs largely based on that they are trained on. To achieve this, Melchior contacted
samples. Before the rights holders of Intrigued by the remixing possibil- Swiss scientist Robert Grass, professor
the sample allowed the band to use ities of neural nets, Grierson’s team at Zurich’s Functional Materials
their material on an app that remixes, developed one in Massive Attack’s Laboratory, who had been working on
distorts and even adds elements, Bristol studio to build a generative a technique for coding books and music
they needed to be sure each time their synthesiser: a neural network with using strands of DNA. Grass took the
sample was played they’d get paid.” AIs that had been trained only on four building blocks of DNA – adenine,
Blokur devised a system that assigns Mezzanine. The networks can take any cytosine, guanine and thymine – and
a signature to a track’s stems – the input and process it as some version of converted binary digital signals into
individual channels such as vocal or some part of the album. This synthesiser a quaternary code, using adenine as
bassline – tagging every sample and allows anyone to modify any part of the 00, cytosine as 01, guanine as 10 and
recording them on the blockchain. This album, but can also be left on its own to thymine as 11, and coding the whole
stem signature means that no matter remix and adapt the songs in real time. album into strands of DNA.
what new effects have been applied – “The most interesting parts were the Towards the end of 2018, the band
no matter how distorted or mashed up mistakes the AI made,” Del Naja explains. used this process to synthesise and
it becomes as the AI remixes it – the “You don’t want a perfect version of the store thousands of copies of Mezzanine,
stem can still be identified. original audio to come out the other end. encoding them in tiny silicon beads,
With this resolved, the band hoped to You want it to combine the bass and the which were then inserted into a spray
store the song stems in the cloud – to harpsichord somehow, or the drums and paint can. The beads are strong enough
be played by the Fantom platform in real the vocal, to become one new sound, and to survive for thousands of years,
time. Melchior recruited Mick Grierson, that’s all about the mistakes.” meaning graffiti artists could create
street art with paint that contains
millions of DNA versions of Mezzanine.
Currently, it would take a portable
real-time genetic sequencer roughly
a week to play the album.
“You could use a sequencer to
In 2018, Mezzanine was 20 years old. read the information in real-time and
Now the band – Daddy G, Del Naja and generate a code that automatically
various collaborators – are heading out reverts to music,” says Grass. “That
on an anniversary tour with some of would mean we wouldn’t need to use
the original singers, including Cocteau huge server farms to store music.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREW MELCHIOR

Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser and stalwart Melchior expects a future synthetic

Horace Andy. “It’s because we messed DNA culture bank along the lines of
up the anniversary of Blue Lines,” Del the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. “Our
Naja explains. “We didn’t engage, civilisation could crash into dust and
refused to get behind promoting, didn’t rebuild itself using different technology,
do any live dates. That was 2011 and the meaning they couldn’t access our
world was very different then. We’d lost computers or disks,” he says. “Since
Robert Del Naja and Andrew Melchior control of our back catalogue in deals every human has DNA, any future civili-
discuss robotics and art for a by labels with streaming services – sation will probably try to work out how
potential project with the Autodesk we’d all been sold off. So what do we do to sequence DNA. If they can sequence
AI team at Pier 9, via a Skype call now? How do we keep control?” DNA, they can listen to Mezzanine. The
He decided to take a different first thing a future civilisation could learn
approach to Mezzanine – he would about us might be Massive Attack.” 
repurpose the band’s own material,
altering the catalogue as he went. He Stephen Armstrong wrote about
also started to think of new ways of violence and crime in Glasgow in 01.19
JOHN
UNDERKOFFLER
MADE A
CAREER
OUT OF
DREAMING
UP WILD
HUMAN-
COMPUTER
I N T E R FAC E S
FOR
H O L LY W O O D
MOVIES
– UNTIL
REAL-WORLD
BUSINESSES
ASKED IF
HE COULD
AC T U A L LY
BUILD THEM
 I N T E R FAC E
VISUALIS
ATION
OBL
ONG
 by PreCrime chief John Anderton, played  
by Cruise. For that purpose Underkoffler
decided to adapt a technology he had
been developing called g-speak, a spatial
computing programme that allowed the
user to control on-screen pixels with
simple manual gestures.
G-speak had been inspired by the
research of Colombian-American neuro-
physiologist Rodolfo Llinás. Llinás writes
that as homo sapiens evolved as a species,
our awareness of our surroundings
increased so that we knew where to hunt,
when to eat, and when to run. Everything
that we see, taste, hear, sense and feel
is new information – and the more of
these inputs we can glean from our
packed a bag, set off for the airport environment, the better equipped we are
and left Boston for good. An MIT PhD to deal with it. Underkoffler believes that
research student who was obsessed by the same rules apply to user interfaces.
data representation and user interfaces, The more they are able to replicate how
he was about to join his dream project humans interact with the world, the
as the official science adviser for a new more our interactions with computers
movie called Minority Report. will come to feel natural and intuitive.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, with G-speak allows data to be shared across
Tom Cruise playing the lead role, this multiple machines, surfaces (from
was a long- gestating adaptation of screens to tables) and users.
a Philip K Dick short story located in For Minority Report, Underkoffler
the Washington DC of 2054 – a future used his early research around g-speak
where criminal activity has been all to develop a unique gestural interface
but obliterated thanks to precogs, that was unlike anything previously seen
psychics who can predict crimes before on screen. To demonstrate to Spielberg
they happen, and a specialist police and the cast how g-speak would work,
unit, PreCrime, which is licensed to Underkoffler excused himself from the
pre-emptively arrest criminals. film set for a few days, jerry-rigged a
Embedded with the art department, green screen in a friend’s back garden,
Underkoffler spent a year helping to and filmed himself executing sequences
design the film’s futurescape. The brief of gestural commands. After watching
from Spielberg was to make the film’s Underkoffler’s trial video, Spielberg
tech immediately visually legible. The was enthused, ordering a script
director also didn’t want typical “sci-fi re-write to allow more characters to
gadgets”. In his mind, the film was a noir, use Underkoffler’s interface.
and the tech should be based on devices G-speak takes centre stage in the
that were contemporary in 2001. opening scenes, in which Cruise needs
Underkoffler took a then brand-new to locate a would-be murderer as the
technology, E Ink, and extrapolated clock ticks down. Donning a pair of
this to foldable digital newspapers interface-enabling gloves, Cruise
seen in the film’s subway scene. Maglev raises his arms like a conductor, and
transportation tech, then in devel- the precog’s vision appears on a clear,
opment in Germany and Japan, became curved screen in front of him. We see
the basis for the self-driving cars that snatches of a woman in bed, an angry
could move up the sides of buildings and man raising his arm, then stabbing
dock with individual apartments. New downwards. Cruise and his PreCrime
technologies such as fMRI – functional team know who will die, and when – but
magnetic resonance imaging – inspired not where the murder will take place.
the complex headgear by which the
dreams of the precogs were recorded.
The most challenging task facing the
production was the question of how to
visually represent the precog visions,
and how this data could be manipulated LEFT: IN MINORITY REPORT, TOM CRUISE
D O N S I N T E R FAC E - E N A B L I N G G L OV E S
T O N AV I G A T E C L U E S I N A N I M P E N D I N G
MURDER RIGHT: JOHN UNDERKOFFLER
 Holding his left hand up, palm
towards him, thumb and first two fingers
outstretched like a pistol, Cruise is able
to pause the video. By sweeping his
hands to the right, as if trying to toss
a paper ball into a bin, he dismisses
the image on screen. By extending two
fingers, then tracing a loop in the air, he
spreads out a digital file with mugshots
of possible perpetrators. It’s a flurry of
movements, fluid and natural, each
bearing Underkoffler’s signature.
Cruise’s character is required to
zoom in on a newspaper that has
been left on the lawn of the victim’s
home. Underkoffler had not designed
a specific zoom movement, so he and
Cruise pondered what to do. “What if I
did this?” said Cruise, extending his left
arm towards the giant curved screen
and bending his wrist so the left hand
formed a “stop” at the end of the arm.
By sliding his right hand along his arm,
he could access different zoom levels.
“My arm is like a UI slider.”
In the wake of the critical and box
office success of Minority Report,
Underkoffler was recruited to work
on a number of blockbusters. For Hulk
(2003), he was asked to conceive the
gamma-radiation accident that leaves
Bruce Banner with an angry green giant
residing inside him. On Aeon Flux (2005),
Underkoffler pondered what possible
building material might be used in an
isolated city in an otherwise ruined
world – bamboo, it turned out.
Following the release of Minority
Report in 2002, Underkoffler had also
begun receiving calls from Fortune 500
companies, including Accenture, Wells
Fargo and Fujitsu, inquiring whether
the tech they had seen on the cinema
screen was real. And if g-speak wasn’t
real, well, could Underkoffler develop it
for them? After the fourth or fifth call
asking the same question, he started to
think it might be an idea to get back into
the lab and give it a go.
As his six years in Hollywood rolled
by, Underkoffler felt the urge to return
to his unfinished research projects
growing, until it became irresistible. “To
spend a year of one’s life [working on a
film]… that commitment should be more
directly meaningful and more personal,” of fields and woodland – in the middle 
he says. “I’m a designer and engineer, of which he came across an old dump,
and obsessed with user interface. I felt housing the refuse of the previous
like I had to get back to it.” half-century. “There were these beautiful
His mission wouldn’t be restricted to old glass bottles,” Underkoffler recalls.
developing data-sharing technology; “It was a decaying record of life from
he wanted to change how we interact the past five decades. It was an amazing
with computers entirely. More than 30 history lesson.” To Underkoffler, these
years after the advent of the Apple Mac bottles represented a past that was not
operating system, interfaces have mostly restricted to a museum display case or
remained unchanged. Yet since 1984, a textbook, but something that he could
memory, graphics power, processor hold and feel in his hands.
speeds and disk capacity have been In 1980, his parents invested in their
magnified by between 10,000 and one first home computer, an Apple II Plus,
million per cent. Despite these advances, and Underkoffler began writing code
how we interface with computers has in every spare moment. “There was a
barely changed in those decades. fantastic computer enthusiast magazine
The mistake, Underkoffler argues, Underkoffler spent his childhood on a called Softalk,” he explains. “It would
wasn’t that we got user interfaces farm 55 kilometres outside Philadelphia. publish programmes in machine
wrong back in 1984, but that they His mother had trained as a nurse, and language and you’d type them in. The
stopped evolving. An upgrade was long his father worked in a family-owned beautiful thing about these machines is
overdue, he believed. In 2006, he left company manufacturing synthetic tights that you could become the custodian of
Hollywood, founded Oblong Industries after the Second World War. this entire, infinitely expandable world.”
and dedicated himself to bringing the Growing up, Underkoffler and his two Five years later, Underkoffler enrolled
g-speak interface to the world. brothers had free rein over 44 hectares at the MIT Media Lab, set up that year to
encourage collaborative research across
a range of disciplines, from technology
to media, art and design. “There was a
perpetual amount of excitement,” he
remembers. “It was like being in the
inside of a neutron star.” One of his
lecturers was Muriel Cooper, a graphic
designer who ran the Visible Language
Workshop. She believed that society was
moving away from a focus on mecha-
nised processes and placing a new value
on raw information – requiring new ways
of visualising and communicating data.
Cooper’s design philosophy was the
inspiration behind the early versions of
g-speak. In 1998 Underkoffler created the
Luminous Room, a project in which the
ordinary lightbulb was replaced with
internet-connected projector cameras,
dubbed “I/O Bulbs”. The idea was that
by enabling data to be projected on to
any surface in a room, this data would
be liberated from the computer screen,
and, for the first time, situated in the
real world. This also meant that data share the distinction of rejecting the This, he tells me, is the antidote to
could be manipulated without a mouse “real world” that we recognise every irksome corporate meetings in which
or keyboard. As such, it was one of the day in favour of surreal visuals that can a single person hogs the only USB
earliest hints of the capabilities of what be manipulated in unconventional ways port, subjecting their colleagues to
would eventually become g-speak. – something that Underkoffler was to a dry PowerPoint presentation. To
One exploration of the Luminous make reality with the Luminous Room demonstrate this, Scully pulls up fake
Room was the “Chess & Bottle system”, project. Who previously had thought of architectural blueprints. They appear
which allowed text, images and live video storing videos in a vase, after all? on the three horizontal screens, to the
to be displayed on screen – then, with right of our live link to Underkoffler, who
a particular gesture (in this instance, can now also see them on his screen.
turning a vase 180 degrees), the data Mezzanine runs on g-speak, but
would be incorporated into a vessel instead of Cruise’s sensor-embedded
transported across the screen, and gloves, it is controlled by a wand – a
unpacked on the far side. If the glass sleek remote that uses infrared sensors
bottles of Underkoffler’s youth had in the ceiling. In order to use the wand
brought him information from another to manipulate the data on the screen,
time, the g-speak glass vessels were each pixel is given an x, y and z co-
able to transport data of many different ordinate instead of the usual numerical
mediums in real time. code, allowing it to be controlled via 3D
Urp was another project that used the movements. By pressing a button on the
I/O Bulb – deployed by an architectural wand and moving the device towards
design tool to project digital shadows the screen, I am able to zoom in on a
on to a workbench. The shadows would section of the blueprints. Holding the
lengthen and shorten depending on same button down and drawing a square
the placement of small architectural around the image produces a screen
models. This allows designers to see in a first floor office off Shoreditch grab. The grab appears in a bank of saved
the shadow that a building would cast High Street. Oblong employs some images at the bottom of our screen. By
at any particular latitude, season or time 120 people, and provides software to clicking on it again, I’m able to drag it
of day. The simulated material could 150 of the Fortune 500 companies. on to the left-most screen.
also be changed, so that in one instant a Padraig Scully, Oblong’s technical The three screens now display my
shadow formed by a brick wall could be account manager, leads me into a screen grab, the live link with Under-
displayed, and in the next, the reflection conference room with six screens set koffler, and the original blueprints. In
from a glass partition of the same size. into the walls. This, Scully explains, is LA, Underkoffler can see the exact same
Inspired by the Media Lab’s ethos, Oblong’s prime product: Mezzanine, a information. And using his own wand,
Underkoffler’s ideology around user video-conferencing software that runs he’s able to draw on top of my grab,
interfaces drew from various sources. on g-speak and allows team members highlighting a particular section.
He cites science fiction author William to share and manipulate each other’s Next, Scully turns to a whiteboard
Gibson’s writing on a shared virtual on-screen data, live. It’s used by more at the back of the room and writes
environment that melds virtual space than 150 customers on six continents, a message to Underkoffler. Using the
with virtually enhanced physical objects including JLL and Inmarsat in London, wand again, he’s able to photograph
– cyberspace, or the “metaverse”. The and Boeing and Nasa in the US. the board and transport the message
1981 Atari arcade game Tempest, in In Oblong’s LA headquarters, Under- to the screen. In LA, Underkoffler is able
which the player shoots geometric koffler is waiting to take our call in a to use his own whiteboard to write on
shapes, was another influence. Both room with its own Mezanine setup. top of Scully’s words or scrub them out

L E F T : J O H N U N D E R KO F F L E R A N D A 4 5 - S C R E E N D I S P L AY
RIGHT: IN 1998, THE MIT I/O BULB COULD PROJECT
L I V E , A DA P TA B L E DATA O N TO R E A L - WO R L D S U R FAC E S
entirely. Scully then pulls up a series of “Projects that previously took five weeks  
mock designs for a range of fictional fruit can now be completed in five hours.”
drinks. On screen, he is able to underlay Not only that, he argues, but it allows
different logos into mock iPhone, web corporations to share ideas in a 3D space.
and billboard adverts. Using the wand Underkoffler holds up a smartphone.
he moves them to the three vertical side “It’s horrible that everything I want to
screens, where we’re able to instantly see has to be on this little screen,” he
compare them: the electronic equivalent says. “Some things require more seeing.”
of pinning printouts to a cork board.
By allowing information to be
manipulated by an entire creative
team at once, Mezzanine seeks to make
meetings more efficient. There is no
need to pause while designers re-work
an idea, or latecomers wait for an extra BELOW: JOHN UNDERKOFFLER IN
printout. As Underkoffler explains: OBLONG’S LOS ANGELES HQ

very much the home of the down

-and-outs. Oblong Industries has had
its HQ in the neighbouring Arts District
since 2008. Other startups moved
there only recently, along with sushi
restaurants and a brewing company. It
is a favourite area for film crews, with
fake shoot-outs and car chases taking
place on a near-weekly basis. Recently,
Underkoffler remarks, a petrol station
appeared nearby, much to the elation of
his staff. A week later, it blew up. It had
been a movie set all along.
The Oblong HQ is a warehouse space
with open-plan workstations and
beautiful, 100-year-old wooden roof
beams. In previous lives, Underkoffler
has discovered, it was a sweatshop,
and a pornographer’s set. Today it is a
bright, modern space with swathes of
coloured paint on the walls, and a stack
of bicycles next to a dining area that
resembles a trendy coffee shop. Banks
of computer monitors hold the attention
of employees in chinos and T-shirts,
code scrolling across their screens.
In Underkoffler’s office, a small
space on the top floor, he discusses the
transition from an academic researcher
to the leader of a company developing
usable tech for a real-world market.
“As a researcher, it’s your job to invent
new ways of looking at the world, and
you do so with a set of theories about
what’ll be useful,” he says as he pours
coffee. “But you’re not actually limited by
on-the-ground details that would affect
usability. In the commercial realm, those
details are intensely critical.”
In other words, should your ground-
breaking new tech design not fit
consumer requirements, it has little
use. By the same token, Underkoffler
believes that putting too much focus
on real-world applications can limit
creativity. As in most things, a balance
between optimism and pragmatism
offers the best approach.
A case in point is Oblong’s work
for Saudi Aramco. The company’s
GigaPOWERS system is the world’s As a demonstration, engineer Pete
most sophisticated oil and gas reservoir Hawkins pulls up a representation of
simulator. The problem was that the the Earth, with coloured dots hovering
stakeholders, drilling foreman and around the surface. These, he explains,
engineers, all needed to interact denote seismic data. They are arranged
with the system in real time, and on by magnitude: dots further out are the
a massive visual scale. Three abutted less common, larger earthquakes; those
high-definition projectors were used to closer are smaller, more frequent quakes.
visualise the relevant reservoir, allowing Colours indicate the depth of the quakes.
developers to ask questions like: “What Blue is shallow, red something to worry
happens to production if we move that about. The potential life-saving applica-
wellhead 500 metres north?” The system tions of such a system are immediately
would let anyone pick it up and move it obvious, promoting analysis in a way
on screen, and see what would happen. that’s difficult to do with a spreadsheet.
Fo r G e n e ra l E l e c t r i c , O b l o n g “Our goal is to get beyond columns
constructed an interactive map of a of data,” Hawkins explains. “In an Excel
smart grid energy management system. spreadsheet, our experience with the
Problems included finding the best way data is limited. By putting this in human ABOVE: SAUDI ARAMCO’S GIGAPOWERS
to navigate the space; how to zoom in terms we get more of a human take.” S YS T E M I N T E R FAC E , C R E AT E D BY O B L O N G
from national to street level to view To date, Oblong’s most successful TO SIMULATE OIL AND GAS RESERVOIRS
downed power lines in real time; and collaboration has been with IBM. In
how to allow a variety of workers to particular, building a visual face for
use the system at once, each working its abstract Watson technology. The
on different tasks and using a range of solution was the bank of 45 screens, with
input modalities, from smart wands to visuals displaying stock market data in everywhere, not just in conference
tablets and web browsers. real time as a swirl of brightly coloured rooms. Should larger technology
The majority of such problems are pixels, each representing a particular companies get on board, he believes
tackled at Oblong’s R&D and Proto- market trend. Geometry had again g-speak could become ubiquitous in
typing Warehouse, a 15-minute walk afforded an elegant solution. as little as two years. Underkoffler
from the Arts District office. Two-thirds “People ask about a portable VR mentions Microsoft in passing, but
of the warehouse space operates as a version [of the software], but that’s not cannot discuss specific companies or
traditional storage facility, with stacks a shared experience,” explains B Cavello, details of any discussions that they may
of wooden crates ready to be loaded into from Watson. “When you’re making – or may not – have had.
lorries and shipped around the world; decisions, and checking people’s facial “I’ve been wondering for a while
the rest is where the developers live. expression to see everyone is on the same what’s the right place to ignite the
On a typical day, ten engineers work page, that level of disconnect doesn’t conversation around user interface and
at the back of the warehouse space. In really work. Having a space where you extending human capability,” he muses.
the corner of this zone stands a vast can have a conversation and navigate the “I’m not convinced that the place to do
semi-circle comprising 45 screens, content immersively is really valuable.” it is in a computer science context. It
reaching some two metres high and Underkoffler believes that for g-speak occurred to me that experimental archi-
all but enclosing a user inside. The to fully realise its capabilities, new user tects are the minds that are [best] set
set-up boasts over 90 million pixels. interface technology needs to appear up to talk about spacial interface, [and
the] social and cognitive interactions
that architecture already designs for.”
Whether or not we’re all using
g-speak by 2021, the future of user inter-
faces is likely already in front of us, and
may be more simple than it seems. “If
we don’t know how to design something,
we ask what people would do in the real
world, with other people,” Underkoffler
says. “That is always the answer.” 

Tom Ward wrote about Anthony Geffen’s

Atlantic Productions in 11.18

LEFT: THE REMOTE

WAND THAT CONTROLS
MEZZANINE G-SPEAK
 

THE

CREATIVITY
CODE
FL ASHES OF INSPIRATION ARE CONSIDERED A HUMAN GIFT
T H AT D R I V E S I N N O VAT I O N – B U T T H E M O N O P O LY I S O V E R
AI CAN BE PROGRAMMED TO INVENT AND REFINE IDEAS
A N D C O N N E C T I O N S. W I L L M A C H I N E S D E V E L O P I N G E N U I T Y ?

BY M A RC U S DU SAU T OY
PHOTOGRAPHY: LEVON BISS | ILLUSTRATION: BERKE YAZICIOGLU
 Mathematician and author Marcus Du Sautoy,
photographed by WIRED in London, January 2019
 

simple groups is a tour de force of Philip Glass took ideas he learned from
exploratory creativity. Starting from working with Ravi Shankar and used
“THE CHIEF the simple definition of a group of them to create the additive process that
ENEMY OF symmetries – a structure defined by is at the heart of his minimalist music.
CREATIVITY four simple axioms – mathematicians Zaha Hadid combined her knowledge of
IS spent 150 years producing a list of every architecture with her love of the pure
GOOD SENSE”. conceivable element of symmetry, forms of the Russian painter Kazimir
culminating in the discovery of the Malevich to create a unique style of
PABLO Monster Symmetry Group, which has curvaceous buildings. In cooking, too,
PICASSO more symmetries than there are atoms creative master chefs have fused cuisines
in the Earth and yet fits into no pattern from opposite ends of the globe.
of other groups. This form of mathe- There are interesting hints that this
matical creativity involves pushing the sort of creativity might also be perfect
The value placed on creativity in modern limits while adhering to the rules of the for the world of AI. Take an algorithm
times has led to a range of writers and game. It is like the explorer who thrusts that plays the blues and combine it with
thinkers trying to articulate what it into the unknown but is still bound by the music of Boulez and you will end up
is, how to stimulate it, and why it is the limits of our planet. with a strange hybrid composition that
important. It was while sitting on a Boden believes that exploration might just create a new sound world.
committee at the Royal Society assessing accounts for 97 per cent of human Of course, it could also be a dismal
what impact machine learning was likely creativity. This is the sort of creativity cacophony. The coder needs to find two
to have on society in the coming decades that is perfect for a computational genres that can be fused algorithmically
that I first encountered the theories of mechanism that can perform many more in an interesting way.
Margaret Boden. Her ideas struck me calculations than the human brain. But It is Margaret Boden’s third form of
as the most relevant when it came to is it enough? When we think of truly creativity that is the more mysterious
addressing creativity in machines. original creative acts, we generally and elusive, and that is transforma-
Boden is an original thinker who imagine something utterly unexpected. tional creativity. This describes those
has managed to fuse many disciplines: The second sort of creativity involves rare moments that are complete
philosopher, psychologist, physician, combination. Think of how an artist gamechangers. Every art form has these
AI expert and cognitive scientist. In her might take two completely different gear shifts. Think of Picasso and Cubism,
eighties now, with white hair flying like constructs and seek to combine them. Schoenberg and atonality, Joyce and
sparks and an ever active brain, she is Often the rules governing one world will modernism. These moments are like
enjoying engaging enthusiastically with suggest an interesting framework for the phase changes, as when water suddenly
the prospect of what these “tin cans”, other. Combination is a powerful tool in goes from a liquid to a solid.
as she likes to call computers, might be the realm of mathematical creativity. This was the image that Goethe hit on
capable of. To this end, she has identified The eventual solution of the Poincaré when he sought to describe wrestling
three different types of human creativity. Conjecture, which describes the possible for two years with how to write The
Exploratory creativity involves taking shapes of our universe, was arrived Sorrows of Young Werther, only for a
what is there and exploring its outer at by applying very different tools to chance event to act as a sudden catalyst:
edges, extending the limits of what is understand flow over surfaces. It was “At that instant, the plan of Werther was
possible while remaining bound by the the creative genius of Grigori Perelman found; the whole shot together from all
rules. Bach’s music is the culmination of that realised the way a liquid flows over directions, and became a solid mass,
a journey Baroque composers embarked a surface could unexpectedly help to as the water in a vase, which is just at
on to explore tonality by weaving classify the surfaces that might exist.
together different voices. His preludes My research takes tools from number
and fugues push what is possible before theory to understand primes and applies WE HAVE AN
breaking the genre open and entering the them to classify possible symmetries. AWFUL HABIT
Classical era of Mozart and Beethoven. The symmetries of geometric objects at
Renoir and Pissarro re-conceived how first sight don’t look like numbers. But OF ROMANTICISING
we could visualise the world around applying the language that has helped
us, but it was Monet who really pushed us navigate the mysteries of the primes, CREATIVE GENIUS.
the boundaries, painting his water lilies and replacing primes by symmetrical
over and over until his flecks of colour objects, has revealed surprising insights THE SOLITARY ARTIST
dissolved into a new form of abstraction. into the theory of symmetry. IS A MY TH
Mathematics revels in this type of The arts have also benefited greatly
creativity. The classification of finite from this form of cross-fertilisation.
 

the freezing point, is changed by the to choose what to drop or what fresh minus one when the data it is fed will tell
slightest concussion into ice.” constraint to introduce such that you it that there is no number whose square
Quite often these transformational end up with a new thing of value. can be negative? A truly creative act
moments hinge on changing the rules If I were asked to identify a transfor- sometimes requires us to step outside
of the game, or dropping an assumption mational moment in mathematics, the the system and create a new reality. Can
that previous generations had been creation of the square root of minus one a complex algorithm do that?
working under. The square of a number in the mid-16th century would be a good The emergence of the Romantic
is always positive. All molecules come candidate. This was a number that many movement in music is in many ways
in long lines not chains. Music must mathematicians believed did not exist. It a catalogue of rule breaking. Instead
be written inside a harmonic scale was referred to as an imaginary number of moving between close key signa-
structure. Faces have eyes on either (a derogatory term Descartes came up tures as Classical composers had done,
side of the nose. At first glance it would with to indicate that of course there was upstarts like Schubert chose to shift
seem hard to program such a decisive no such thing). And yet its creation did key in ways that deliberately broke
break, and yet there is a meta-rule for not contradict previous mathematics. expectations. Schumann left chords
this type of creativity. You start by It turned out it had been our mistake to unresolved that Haydn or Mozart would
dropping constraints and see what exclude it. How can a computer come up have felt the need to complete. Chopin
emerges. The art, the creative act, is with the concept of the square root of in turn composed dense moments of

Above, from left : Beethoven, Bach and Mozart look down on a “torus”, an element in the geometry of the Poincaré conjecture
 

chromatic runs and challenged rhythmic to name the nature of the thread which
expectations with his unusual accented connected what I previously knew with
passages and bending of tempos. The that which made my success possible”.
move from one musical movement to Yet the fact that an artist may be
another – from Medieval to Baroque to unable to articulate where their ideas
Classical to Romantic to Impressionist came from does not mean that they
to Expressionist and beyond – is a story followed no rules. Art is a conscious
of breaking the rules. Each movement expression of the myriad of logical gates
is dependent on the one before to that make up our unconscious thought
appreciate its creativity. It almost goes processes. There was of course a thread
without saying that historical context of logic that connected Gauss’s thoughts:
plays an important role in allowing us it was just hard for him to articulate what
to define something as new. Creativity he was up to – or perhaps he wanted to
is not an absolute but a relative activity. covering his creative tracks. Gauss is preserve the mystery, to fuel his image
We are creative within our culture credited with creating modern number as a creative genius. Coleridge’s claim
and frame of reference. theory with the publication in 1798 of that the drug-induced vision of “Kubla
Can a computer initiate this kind of one of the great mathematical works of Khan” came to him in its entirety belies
phase change and move us into a new all time: Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. all the preparatory material that shows
musical or mathematical state? That When people tried to read the book to the poet working on the ideas before that
seems a challenge. Algorithms learn uncover where he got his ideas, they fateful day when he was interrupted by
how to act based on the data that they were mystified. The work has been the person from Porlock. Of course, this
interact with. Won’t this mean that they described as a book of seven seals. Gauss makes for a good story. Even my own
will always be condemned to producing seems to pull ideas, like rabbits, out of account of creation will focus on the flash
more of the same? a hat, without ever really giving us an of inspiration rather than the years of
As Picasso once said: “The chief enemy inkling of how he achieved this magic. preparatory work I put in.
of creativity is good sense.” That sounds When challenged, he retorted that an We have an awful habit of roman-
on the face of it very much against the architect does not leave the scaffolding ticising creative genius. The solitary
spirit of the machine. And yet you can after the house is complete. Gauss, like artist is frankly a myth. In most instances
program a system to behave irrationally. Ramanujan, attributed one revelation to what looks like a step change is actually
You can create a meta-rule that will “the grace of God”, saying he was “unable a continuous growth. Brian Eno talks
instruct it to change course. As we shall
see, this is in fact something machine
learning is quite good at.

CAN CREATIVITY BE TAUGHT?

Many artists like to fuel their own
creation myth, appealing to external
forces as responsible for their creativity.
In Ancient Greece poets were said to be
possessed by the muses, who breathed
inspiration into the minds of men,
sometimes sending them insane in
the process. For Plato, “a poet is holy,
and never able to compose until he has
become inspired, and is beside himself
and reason is no longer in him… for no
art does he utter but by power divine”.
Ramanujan, the great Indian mathe-
matician, likewise attributed his
great insights to ideas he received in
his dreams from his family goddess
Namagiri. Is creativity a form of
madness or a gift of the divine?
One of my mathematical heroes, Carl
Friedrich Gauss, was one of the worst at

Top : mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. Above : can a machine program creativity?
 

about the idea of “scenius”, not genius, to The more we can come out of our silos
acknowledge the community from which EDUCATION AND and share our ideas and problems,
creative intelligence often emerges. The BUSINESS, the more creative we are likely to be.
American writer Joyce Carol Oates BOTH REALMS This is where a lot of the low-hanging
agrees: “Creative work, like scientific THAT ABHOR fruit is to be found.
work, should be greeted as a communal FAILURE, At first sight transformational
effort – an attempt by an individual to ARE OFTEN creativity seems hard to harness as a
give voice to many voices, an attempt TERRIBLE strategy. But again the goal is to test
to synthesize and explore and analyse.” ENVIRONMENTS the status quo by dropping some of the
What does it take to stimulate FOR FOSTERING constraints that have been put in place.
creativity? Might it be possible to CREATIVITY Try seeing what happens if we change
program it into a machine? Are there one of the basic rules we have accepted
rules we can follow to become creative? as part of the fabric of our subject. These
Can creativity, in other words, be a creativity” and “historical creativity”. are dangerous moments because you
learned skill? Some would say that to Many of us achieve acts of personal can collapse the system, but this brings
teach or program is to show people how creativity that may be novel to us me to one of the most important ingre-
to imitate what has gone before, and that but historically old news. These are dients needed to foster creativity – and
imitation and rule-following are both what Boden calls moments of psycho- that is embracing failure.
incompatible with creativity. And yet we logical creativity. It is by repeated acts Unless you are prepared to fail, you
have examples of creative individuals all of personal creativity that ultimately will not take the risks that will allow
around us who have studied and learned one hopes to produce something that you to break out and create something
and improved their skills. If we study is recognised by others as new and new. This is why our education system
what they do, could we imitate them and of value. While historical creativity and our business environment, both
ultimately become creative ourselves? is rare, it emerges from encouraging realms that abhor failure, are often
These are questions I find myself psychological creativity. terrible environments for fostering
asking every term. To receive their PhDs, My recipe for eliciting creativity creativity. It is important to celebrate
doctoral candidates in mathematics have in students follows the three modes the failures as much as the successes
to create a new mathematical construct. of creativity that Boden identified. in my students. Sure, the failures won’t
They have to come up with something Exploration is perhaps the most obvious make it into the PhD thesis, but we learn
that has never been done before. My path. First understand how we’ve come so much from failure. When I meet my
task is to teach them how to do that. Of to the place we are now and then try students I repeat again and again Samuel
course, at some level they have been to push the boundaries just a little bit Beckett’s call to “fail again, fail better”.
training to do this already. Solving further. This involves deep immersion Are these strategies that can be
problems involves personal creativity in what we have created to date. Out of written into code? In the past the
even if the answer is already known. that deep understanding might emerge top-down approach to coding meant
That training is an absolute pre– something never seen before. It is often there was little prospect of creativity
requisite for the jump into the unknown. important to impress on students that in the output of the code. Coders were
By rehearsing how others have come to there isn’t very often some big bang never too surprised by what their
their breakthroughs you hope to provide that resounds with the act of creation. algorithms produced. There was no
the environment to foster your own It is gradual. As Van Gogh wrote: “Great room for experimentation or failure.
creativity. And yet that jump is far from things are not done by impulse but by a But this all changed recently: because an
guaranteed. I can’t take anyone off the series of small things brought together.” algorithm, built on code that learns from
street and teach them to be a creative Boden’s second strategy, combina- its failures, did something that was new,
mathematician. Maybe with ten years tional creativity, is a powerful weapon, shocked its creators, and had incredible
of training, but not every brain seems I find, in stimulating new ideas. I value. This algorithm won a game that
able to achieve mathematical creativity. often encourage students to attend many believed was beyond the abilities
Some people appear able to achieve seminars and read papers in subjects of a machine to master. It was a game
creativity in one field but not another, yet that don’t appear to connect with that required creativity to play.
it is difficult to understand what makes the problem they are tackling. A line It was the news of this breakthrough
one brain a chess champion and another of thought from a disparate bit of the that triggered my recent existential
a Nobel-winning novelist. mathematical universe might resonate crisis as a mathematician. 
Margaret Boden recognises that with the problem at hand and stimulate
creativity isn’t just about being Shake- a new idea. Some of the most creative This is an edited extract from Marcus Du
speare or Einstein. She distinguishes bits of science are happening today at Sautoy’s new book, The Creativity Code,
between what she calls “psychological the junctions between the disciplines. published on March 7 (HarperCollins)
By David Baker

Photography: James Day

discovering how magic helps us

better understand the

human brain
 

pull out the seven of spades and show it to him.

He gets me to sign my name on it. Then he
slides it back into the pack, puts the cards
back in their box and puts the box on the
table in front of us. “Now,” he says with a
grin, “the magic begins.” Filho is 51, tall,
handsome and infectiously enthusiastic
about the power of illusions. Born in
Brazil, he’s been a keen magician since
adolescence. He came to Britain in 2012
to work in advertising before, in 2015,
setting up Abracademy, to bring magic
– and, in particular, the skills needed
to perform it – to the rest of us. “I think
magic has a such a positive twist,” he
says. “It brings this soft approach that’s
hard to explain, this role of creating
something beautiful.”
But he is also fascinated by the
relationship between magic and neuroscience and
psychology, and set up Academy Labs to explore this
connection. “Magic has lived in the ‘glitches’ of the
brain for a long time,” he says: “How you see things,
how you form beliefs, how you experience wonder.
And it has the capacity to create wonder by creating
something that people can’t explain. You just say
‘Wow’, and then comes: ‘How do you do that?’ So
we explore what happens when we experience
something like that. We’re very interested in going
deep, deep down into the brain.”
On this summer afternoon at Abracademy’s base
in Hackney’s Container Park, Filho has been trying
to create something beautiful, and new. We stand on
either side of a small felt-topped table – the cards in
their box between us – and Filho is a little nervous.
“Now, there are three ways we could get your card
out of the box,” he says. “We could use telekinesis
and draw it out… but we’re not going to do that. We
could make it rise up to the top of the pack… but
HAND MODEL: JONATHAN @ HIRED HANDS. SUIT & SHIRT: BEGGARS RUN

we’re not going to do that. Or...” He looks me in the

eye, that grin turning into puzzlement. “Do you hear
that? Do you hear anything?”
To be honest, at first I don’t. I’m confused for a
second. And then, a faint buzzing, as if Container
OPENING SPREAD: SET DESIGN: VICKY LEES.

Park has a wasp problem. It’s getting louder and it’s

a little alarming. “Look behind you,” says Filho, with
mock amazement. “What’s that?”
Flying gently towards me from the far end of
the room is a drone, with my signed card hanging
by a wire. The room collapses into laughter and
applause, and a big sense of relief. “We really
weren’t sure if it was going to work,” Filho admits.

RUBENS FILHO is a magician and founder of Abracademy

00 0
 GUSTAV KUHN is exploring how magic tricks can dislodge deeply held beliefs

or much of human history, science and magic

were practically the same thing. In the
late 19th century, psychologists were
intrigued by stage magicians and
seance psychics and their ability to play
with the minds of their audiences.
And magicians returned the favour,
snapping up scientific innovations
in optics and electromagnetism.
That all changed in the 20th century.
“From about 1910 there was very little study
of magic,” says Gustav Kuhn, 44, a reader in
psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London –
and a professional magician. “That was probably
because of the influence of behaviourism. Magic
is all about experiences; behaviourists were more
interested in actions and reactions,” he says. “For
me, there was always a very close link between
magic and psychology. To be a good magician you
really need to understand how the brain works.”
Kuhn grew up in Switzerland and moved to
Britain in 1993 to work as a magician. He “fell into”
academia. “I was lucky to meet some researchers
who were using eye-tracking technology to study
how attention can be misdirected. And soon I
realised that magic provides us with a really useful
tool to study some of these perceptual areas.”
We don’t see things literally happening in front of
our eyes, says Kuhn, because the brain is a brilliant
economiser of resources. “We have to filter out
information, otherwise we would get overwhelmed.
The brain selects the stuff that’s really important. So
we can be looking at something, but the information
doesn’t reach our conscious experience.”
Try this by looking at the wall opposite you.
Unless you have been thinking about decorating,
you will notice marks that you were unaware of. It’s
not that photons from those marks never landed
on your retina. It’s just that the brain discarded that
data as unimportant. Magicians have understood mouth,” he says, “go to light it, and then notice it
this phenomenon for centuries: in many illusions, was the wrong way round.” He mimes astonishment.
the sleight of hand is not hidden – but we don’t “So I take it out and, at the same time, move my
notice. Most magicians will tell you that they other hand, holding the lighter, down to table level,
achieve this “misdirection” by getting the audience and drop the lighter into my lap. I then move
to look away when the rabbit is popped into the hat. that hand up to my line of sight, snap my fingers
Kuhn suspected otherwise – and decided to use and, hey presto, the lighter had disappeared.”
magic to prove that when magicians palm a coin or Not that great a trick, as Kuhn is the first to
switch cards, we are looking directly at them. He acknowledge. But from a perceptual point of view,
set up in the University of Sussex students’ union the magic was just about to happen. At the same
bar with a cigarette, lighter (this was before the time as snapping his fingers, he simply let go of the
UK’s smoking ban) and eye-tracker, and performed cigarette with his other hand, so it fell into his lap.
a simple illusion. “I would put a cigarette in my He then stared at that hand as if the cigarette had
vanished. “What we found,” he says, “is that most
people would not see the cigarette falling, including
some looking directly at it. We had shown that what


people see is not related to where they are looking.”

This has big implications. “Take driving,” he
says. “We used to think that mobile phone use was
distracting because people were taking their eyes off Gustav Kuhn
the road. But what this research tells us is that it’s
not about where you’re looking, it’s about your mind
being distracted. Really, we should ban everybody
from holding conversations on the phone. If your
mind is distracted, you simply don’t see things.” lmost all magicians will tell you that magic
Inattentional blindness is now a huge research takes place not during the illusion
area. But Kuhn is even more interested in what is itself but in the time afterwards, when
perhaps a more alarming aspect of magic: how it the brain tries to make sense of what
can easily dislodge what we think are deeply held it has seen. In the café at Goldsmiths,
beliefs. “It’s usually assumed that beliefs are almost where Abracademy Labs has its base,
like traits, things that are very hard to shift,” he I meet its head, Kuhn’s colleague
says. “A lot of the studies on belief are correlational, Hugo Caffaratti. An Argentinian-born
as it’s difficult to manipulate belief in an ethical way. magician and neuroscientist, Caffaratti
But magic is all about pushing the boundaries of is, like Kuhn, confident about magic’s
what people believe to be possible, and it provides potential as a means of scientific research – a tool
us with a very useful tool to see whether we can for examining the messiness of real life.
actually change beliefs. And what we are finding “Psychology,” Caffaratti says, “is fascinated by
now is that there are experiments that can.” things such as, say, the gaps in our perception that
lead us to wander around looking for our glasses
when they are on our heads. But how do you take
that into the lab? Well, with just a deck of cards
and a little table you have millions of illusions that
play on the same gaps in our perception and can be
repeated in exactly the same way, again and again.”
Caffaratti was captivated by magic as a child.

MAGIC MOMENT
By 21 he was admitted to the Spanish Society of
Illusionists, where he met Francisco-Amilcar Riega
Bello, known to everyone as Amilkar. He showed
Some of the best tricks involve no marked cards or disappearing Caffaratti that magic is “not about being fast with
rabbits, just misdirection and a sense of theatre. Here’s one. your hands. It’s about attacking the brain.”
The Spanish school argued that magic was
entirely about exploiting what Filho calls the
“glitches” of the brain, the vulnerabilities of the
way we perceive the world and ourselves, and
which we, for the most part, are unaware of. We
perceive only a fraction of what is around us. (Kuhn
reckons it is as little as ten per cent.) Our memories
1. Ask someone to 2. Fan the cards so 3. Take out two and even our core beliefs are ridiculously malleable.
check and shuffle only you see them. cards; put them And our choices – as any magician asking us to “pick
a pack of cards. Note the two at the to one side. If the a card, any card” knows – may be much less free
Make sure they rear, furthest from rear cards were a than we think. Perception, memory, free will: these
understand there you (on the far left black six and a red are weapons in the hands of a skilled magician.
is nothing odd or right, according two, remove a red “Magic breaks the natural inferences that we
about the deck. to the fan here). six and black two. make of the world,” Caffaratti says. “When you see
a magic trick, your brain searches your memories
to see if you have seen something similar. And, if
it can’t find it, it kind of says, ‘What is this?’ A ball
that can disappear, a table that levitates, these are
not the usual categories that help us perceive the
world. So there is a delay before we perceive them.”
As a PhD student at the University of Leicester,
Caffaratti set out to prove the physical existence of
4. Ask them to 5. They gather 6. Have them turn that delay, while at the same time demonstrating
deal face down - the pack and deal the top card on magic’s potential as a neuroscientific tool. He
ILLUSTRATION: JORI BOLTON

your rear cards will again – but making each pile to reveal videoed himself performing a routine called Chop
be first. Suggest two piles, dealing the two from your Cup, involving a cup and a ball, which was made
they shuffle and one at a time, back fan. Turn the two famous by the British magician Paul Daniels.
deal some more, and forth until set aside – they “It’s an amazing routine,” he says. “The ball
so it feels random. they have run out. are companions! appears and disappears under the cup in incredible
conditions. You put the ball under the cup, lift up HUGO CAFFARATTI has shown the brain is slower to process the “impossible”
the cup, and it’s not there. You put the ball under
the cup again and it’s in your pocket. Now it’s
underneath the cup. Now it has disappeared
again. It’s a great illusion – and the important
thing is you can repeat it again and again.” Usually it tells them to go away; this is a place of
Caffaratti connected his test subjects to an science, not superstition. But someone has come to
electroencephalography monitor, which measures their attention recently who seems worth a second
electrical activity in the brain, and showed them look, and we’re going to see him in action. But first
the video. He was looking for traces – known as the Kuhn would like us to complete a questionnaire. He
event-related potentials (ERPs) – of the perceptual passes a four-page handout down the aisles and asks
processes that are at play when we perceive magic. us to complete page one – rating on a scale of zero
ERPs are changes in voltage that indicate that the to seven how much we believe in “supernatural”
brain has responded to a specific stimulus (in this phenomena such as reincarnation, poltergeists,
case, the appearance or disappearance of the ball). communicating with the dead and so on. Once we
What Caffaratti found was that the unexpected have filled it in, he asks us to turn to page two.
outcome of the magic trick elicited strong ERPs Here we are presented with a short paragraph
that were significantly delayed compared with about what we are about to see. Kuhn asks us
those triggered by an event that wasn’t magical. to paraphrase this information in the space
When subjects were shown a series of “normal” underneath, to ensure that we have understood it
events – the ball placed under the cup, for example, properly. Half of the audience, he tells me later, is
and still there when the cup was lifted – their informed that the man we are about to see claims to
brains showed a particular ERP, known as P300, have psychic powers. The other half is told that he is
approximately 300 milliseconds after the event. a skilled magician and that everything we’re going
“But when the magic trick happened,” he says, to witness is an illusion. Then the show begins.
“a P300 was elicited about 50ms later. We were The lights dim and a young man takes us through
seeing that, when it’s magic, it takes more time.” a wonderfully entertaining psychic routine. He
What the results demonstrated was that an correctly guesses, to oohs and aahs from the
“impossible” event, such as a magic trick, takes a crowd, how hidden dice thrown by members of the
greater amount of time to be processed, compared audience have landed. He tells random people in the
with something the brain is familiar with. theatre surprisingly intimate details about their
The fact that what was physically the same lives. As a finale, he brings someone up on stage and
object, in this case, a magician’s ball, elicited relays a message from her deceased grandfather.
different responses, depending on whether the She reels in astonishment as the audience gasp and
object appeared “magically” or not, helped to applaud. The show is over, our psychic takes a bow,
confirm a long-held idea in psychology: that and pretty much everyone is wide-eyed.
our perception – the way in which we make sense But not with disbelief. Now we have to fill in the
of the world – relies not only on the raw data same questionnaire – reincarnation, poltergeists,
coming in to the brain from our senses, but also communicating with the dead and so on – as before.
on our pre-existing knowledge of the world, And the results are surprising. Again and again,
which is stored in our memory. when Kuhn stages this experiment, it does not
Caffaratti had shown what happens when matter what the audience members have been told
searching that second stream draws a blank. He in advance – afterwards, people tend to believe
had lifted the lid on the neuroscience of wonder. more strongly in the supernatural than they did
before seeing the show. And remember, these are
prospective psychology students.
“We have shown,” Kuhn says, “that you can
change someone’s belief through a really strong
demonstration of something that people previously
thought impossible or very unlikely. You can move
them down the continuum quite a long way.”
am sitting in the back row of a lecture theatre in The psychic is introduced as Matt Tompkins,
Kuhn’s department at Goldsmiths. It’s a semi-professional magician and researcher in
the summer holidays, and the faculty experimental psychology at Oxford; the dice are
is holding an open day for prospective revealed to be rigged; the questions are general
students. A hundred 17- and 18-year- enough for Matt to work out something from his
olds trickle in, neatly dressed in school target’s answers (a mentalist trick called “cold
uniforms. They’re here to hear about reading”); and the woman who was stunned to hear
life as a Goldsmiths undergraduate. from her grandfather is revealed as a stooge.
But first they are going to be the subjects Kuhn is troubled by results like this. “Magic is all
of a psychology experiment. about giving people false explanations for what you
Kuhn stands up and explains what is going have done physically,” he says. “Mentalism does
to happen. He says the department is often this a lot, pretending to read people’s minds, when
approached by people claiming to be psychics. obviously that’s impossible. But our research shows
 that these types of performances really do
change people’s beliefs, and that puts me
in a difficult position. On the one hand I
work as a scientist who is trying to inform
people and debunk myths about the brain;
yet I am using magic to misinform them.
So that has led me to a point where I feel
there are, ethically, magic tricks that I
would like to do – but cannot.”
Despite this research, not everyone
agrees that magic has shown it has a big
role to play in advancing our knowledge
of psychology and neuroscience. “I
think a lot of magic tricks are very good
illustrations of stuff psychologists
already know,” says Richard Wiseman,
professor of the public understanding
of psychology at the University of
Hertfordshire, and himself a magician.
Kuhn is unperturbed. “When I started
this work in 2004, 2005, a lot of fellow
scientists laughed a little bit,” he says.
“They said it was kind of quaint and cool,
but can it actually tell us anything of
interest? And I think now we are showing
they are wrong.” He points to the large
number of papers he and his colleagues
have published that use magic illusions to
throw light on the workings of the mind –
particularly on how easy it is to manipulate
decision-making and deeply held opinions.
In a world of fake news, he says, magic’s
strong connection with deception will
help us understand more about the mind’s
limitations when it comes to working out
what is true and what is not.
For Kuhn, the scientific study of magic
today is in a similar place to the study
of consciousness in the 1980s. “Any
academic going into psychology then,”
he says, “and saying they were studying
consciousness would have been told
that can’t be a serious science because
you can’t measure it. Now it’s one of
the coolest topics in science.” And he
has shown that all of us – scientists and
lay people alike – need to be a little less
confident of what we know to be “true”.
As we file out of the lecture theatre into
the late-afternoon sun, two prospective
psychology undergraduates behind me
are still talking about the show.
“I know what he said about the dice
and stuff,” said one, a girl who was about
17, “but I still think there was something
weird about that guy. He could read
minds.” “Definitely,” said her friend, a
male student. “That definitely exists.” 

David Baker wrote about the need for

Gustav Kuhn internet reform in issue 01.18
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 The winning bid for an AI artwork hailed as the world’s first
to be sold at auction in October 2018. Portrait of Edmond
de Belamy, created by the French collective Obvious, went
for 40 times its original estimate at Christie's in New York
British public support for the legalisation of cannabis
– a record high for the country, according to a poll
by Populus – after the home secretary approved the
prescribing of medical cannabis in November 2018

The estimated amount of tax revenue that would be paid

out by large technology companies such as Microsoft
and Google between 2020 and 2023 under chancellor
Philip Hammond’s proposed digital tax. The measure
would levy a two per cent tax on tech companies’ sales
in the UK, as opposed to the current tax on profits
T H E WIR E D On average, the number of photos and videos posted by
I NDE X parents of their offspring by the time they are 13. A report
by the UK Children’s Commissioner found that children
WE SOU R CE growing up today are the first generation to be “datafied”
E V ER Y TH ING

That's all it took Alibaba to rack up $1bn in sales on its Plastic scrap the UK exported to Malaysia between January
Singles’ Day blowout on November 11, 2018. Total spend and August 2018, after China banned imports of British
in China's annual shopping frenzy, created in 2009 recycling. The environmental group Unearthed discovered
for lonely hearts to buy themselves gifts, is over $25bn the waste piled up in illegal dumps up to three metres tall

ILLUSTRATION: GIACOMO GAMBINERI. WORDS: DAPHNE LEPRINCE-RINGUET. SOURCES: POPULUS.CO.UK; UNEARTHED.GREENPEACE.ORG; EDITION.CNN.COM; BBC.CO.UK;
The value of a

ICO.ORG.UK; RECYCLEFORLONDON.COM; CHILDRENSCOMMISSIONER.GOV.UK; JOURNALS.PLOS.ORG; ELECTRICINSIGHTS.CO.UK; NEWS.SKY.COM; DEZEEN.COM

lawsuit filed by
Satanic Temple
The percentage of Facebook’s revenue activists against
represented by the £500,000 fine levied Netflix series
on the company by the UK Information The Chilling
Commissioner’s Office in October 2018 Adventures of
for breaching the Data Protection Act Sabrina . They
alleged the show
copied their
Baphomet icon
This is the amount of food binned – but have now
by Londoners every year: 60 per settled amicably
cent of it is still edible, and it
costs £1.4bn, or £840 a household

Wind, solar,
biomass and
hydro energy
capacity
in the UK
from July to
September
2018 – the
first time that
renewable Estimated global spend to treat illnesses caused by red
capacity has and processed meat, according to researchers from the
overtaken UK, US and Australia. They calculated that 22,000 lives
fossil fuels could be saved annually by raising taxes on the products
Help us end the
Wild West Web

Sajid Javid Jeremy Wright

Every day 9 grooming offences are recorded nspcc.org.uk/wildwestweb

by the police. We’re calling on Home Secretary
Sajid Javid and Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright
to introduce new social media laws to protect Text DONATE to 70030 and donate £4
children from online abuse. to the NSPCC to help fight for every childhood.*

Children’s safety is at stake, now is the time for *Text costs £4 plus your standard network rate. 100% will go to the NSPCC.
action. Together we can end the #WildWestWeb.