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Wired UK – July August 2017

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MINING ASTEROIDS BANGALORE'S WATER MAFIA BUILDING THE MATRIX<br />

IDEAS TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS<br />

FROM<br />

TESLA TO<br />

FACEBOOK:<br />

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AND WIN<br />

AMERICA'S CUP<br />

BEN AINSLIE'S<br />

RULES FOR PEAK<br />

PERFORMANCE<br />

<strong>UK</strong> EDITION<br />

JUL / AUG 17<br />

WIRED.CO.<strong>UK</strong>


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07-17 _ CONTENTS _ 0 0 5<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY (FRONT COVER): CHRIS CRISMAN. THIS PAGE: BENEDICT EVANS<br />

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The dinosaur detective<br />

Kenneth Lacovara uses<br />

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07-17 _ CONTENTS _ 0 0 7<br />

014 START<br />

News and obsessions<br />

047 GEAR<br />

Rated and reviewed<br />

069 PLAY<br />

WIRED culture<br />

Crowdfunded politics; tech<br />

conference bingo; credit cards on the<br />

dark web; handmade cameras; smart<br />

nations; reinforced submarines<br />

Paramotoring; geometric furniture;<br />

smart pens; smarter toys; Roksan<br />

turntable; 4k monitors; wine tools;<br />

VR PC backpack; hands-free clock<br />

WIRED’s festival guide; the new Spielberg on<br />

Netflix; lost languages; board-game revival; the<br />

Barbican’s mission to Mars; flower startups;<br />

Tinybop’s education apps; the Super 8 returns<br />

089 WORK SMARTER<br />

Accelerated learning<br />

106 FEATURE<br />

Sailing takes flight<br />

120 FEATURE<br />

Inside Improbable<br />

Andy Serkis’s productivity hacks;<br />

Sheryl Sandberg’s Option B;<br />

Munich city guide; Accel’s investor<br />

stories; José Neves’s life lessons<br />

Ben Ainslie is one of the world’s most<br />

successful sailors. WIRED joins him in<br />

Bermuda, where preparations for the<br />

35th America’s Cup are taking place<br />

London’s latest unicorn wants to create<br />

ultra-realistic and persistent virtual worlds<br />

to help us make smarter, simulation-based<br />

decisions. Its endgame? Building the Matrix<br />

130 FEATURE<br />

Elon Musk’s disruption factory<br />

Tesla isn’t just driving innovation in<br />

electric cars, it’s also changing how<br />

they’re made. WIRED visits the<br />

firm’s California plant for a closer look<br />

140 FEATURE<br />

The memory hacker<br />

Julia Shaw uses science to prove<br />

that some people’s memories of<br />

events are false. Now she’s tackling<br />

failures in the justice system<br />

148 FEATURE<br />

The new gold rush<br />

Planetary Resources wants to mine<br />

minerals and water from asteroids.<br />

If it succeeds, it could transform our<br />

quest to explore the Universe<br />

156 FEATURE<br />

The high-tech refugee<br />

Asem Hasna lost a leg in a shell attack<br />

in Syria. He recovered <strong>–</strong> and turned<br />

his attention to making 3D-printed<br />

prosthetics for fellow amputees<br />

164 FEATURE<br />

Bangalore’s water mafia<br />

The city known as the world’s tech<br />

support centre is running out of<br />

water. Now it faces a fight to survive,<br />

with local kingpins calling the shots<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: SEBASTIAN NEVOLS<br />

Right: Criminal psychologist<br />

Julia Shaw photographed in<br />

London for WIRED, April <strong>2017</strong>


008 _ MASTHEAD _ 07-17<br />

Editor Greg Williams<br />

Group commercial director Nick Sargent<br />

Creative director Andrew Diprose<br />

Group head of revenue Rachel Reidy<br />

Managing editor Mike Dent<br />

Senior commissioning editor João Medeiros<br />

Commissioning editor Oliver Franklin-Wallis<br />

Associate editor Rowland Manthorpe<br />

Senior editor Victoria Turk<br />

Staff writer Matt Burgess<br />

Director of photography Steve Peck<br />

Deputy director of photography Dalia Nassimi<br />

Deputy creative director Phill Fields<br />

Art director Mary Lees<br />

App producer Pip Pell<br />

App designer Ciaran Christopher<br />

Chief sub-editor Simon Ward<br />

Deputy chief sub-editor Tola Onanuga<br />

Director of editorial administration<br />

and rights Harriet Wilson<br />

Editorial business manager<br />

Stephanie Chrisostomou<br />

Human resources director Hazel McIntyre<br />

Finance director Pam Raynor<br />

Financial control director<br />

Penny Scott-Bayfield<br />

Deputy managing director Albert Read<br />

Managing director Nicholas Coleridge<br />

Chairman and chief executive,<br />

Condé Nast International Jonathan Newhouse<br />

Directors Jonathan Newhouse<br />

(chairman and chief executive)<br />

Nicholas Coleridge (managing director),<br />

Stephen Quinn, Pam Raynor,<br />

Jean Faulkner, Shelagh Crofts,<br />

Albert Read, Patricia Stevenson<br />

Please contact our editorial team via<br />

the following email addresses:<br />

Reader feedback: rants@wired.co.uk<br />

General editorial enquiries and requests<br />

for contributors’ guidelines:<br />

editorial@wired.co.uk<br />

Press releases to this address only<br />

please: pr@wired.co.uk<br />

Digital editor Victoria Woollaston<br />

Product editor Jeremy White<br />

Commissioning editor Liat Clark<br />

Senior editor James Temperton<br />

Engagement manager Andy Vandervell<br />

Interns Bonnie Christian, Alexandra Simon-Lewis<br />

Contributing editors Dan Ariely, David Baker,<br />

Rachel Botsman, Russell M Davies,<br />

Ben Hammersley, Adam Higginbotham,<br />

Kathryn Nave, Daniel Nye Griffiths,<br />

Tom Vanderbilt, Ed Yong<br />

Editor-at-large David Rowan<br />

Digital commercial director Malcolm Attwells<br />

Digital content and strategy director Dolly Jones<br />

Digital operations director Helen Placito<br />

Marketing director Jean Faulkner<br />

Deputy marketing and research director Gary Read<br />

Associate director, digital marketing Susie Brown<br />

Senior data manager Tim Westcott<br />

Senior marketing executive Celeste Buckley<br />

Condé Nast International director of<br />

communications Nicky Eaton<br />

Group property director Fiona Forsyth<br />

Circulation director Richard Kingerlee<br />

Newstrade circulation manager Elliott Spaulding<br />

Newstrade promotions manager Anna Pettinger<br />

Deputy publicity director Harriet Robertson<br />

Publicity manager Richard Pickard<br />

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Assistant marketing and promotions<br />

manager Claudia Long<br />

Creative design manager Anthea Denning<br />

Production director Sarah Jenson<br />

Commercial production manager Xenia Dilnot<br />

Production controller Emma Storey<br />

Production and digital co-ordinator Annie Franey<br />

Commercial and paper production<br />

controller Martin MacMillan<br />

Commercial production<br />

co-ordinator Jessica Beeby<br />

Advertising manager Silvia Weindling<br />

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partnerships Claire Dobson<br />

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SHE THEN USED A MIXTURE OF GLAZES TO ADD SUBTLE CONTRAST. PHOTOGRAPHY: ROGER STILLMAN


design by · made by


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07-17 _ FROM THE EDITOR _ 013<br />

Below: Land Rover BAR wing trimmer Paul Campbell-James (p106)<br />

Celebrating the visionaries<br />

changing the world<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRIS CRISMAN<br />

O<br />

ne of the questions our editors ask before<br />

commissioning any story is: why is this WIRED?<br />

Timeliness plays a big part in our decisionmaking,<br />

as does originality <strong>–</strong> just because a<br />

story has technology at its heart, doesn’t mean<br />

it’s imperative that we cover it (but thanks anyway if you’ve<br />

sent us a press release about your food-delivery app). From<br />

fake news to encrypted messages, technology is at the heart of<br />

today’s news cycle, which offers WIRED a broad range of opportunities<br />

to help you navigate a fast-changing, complex world.<br />

Flipping through the proofs of this issue, it’s clear that a determining<br />

factor in choosing the right features is boldness of vision:<br />

the person, technology, trend or idea that’s driving meaningful<br />

change in our lives. In this issue, there are three compelling and<br />

inspiring stories that do just that. Firstly, Richard Benson profiles<br />

Asem Hasna, a Syrian refugee who lost the lower part of his left leg in<br />

the conflict and is today helping those who face similar challenges<br />

by 3D-printing low-cost prosthetics and teaching tech skills to<br />

child refugees. WIRED commissioning editor Oliver Franklin-<br />

Wallis tells the story of British startup Improbable, which is<br />

building persistent virtual worlds and has become London’s<br />

latest unicorn. And senior commissioning editor João Medeiros<br />

had the arduous task of travelling to Bermuda to interview sailor<br />

Ben Ainslie, captain of the <strong>UK</strong>’s entry in the 35th America’s Cup.<br />

We hope you’re getting value from our new section,<br />

Work Smarter, which we introduced in our previous issue.<br />

It’s dedicated to entrepreneurship, workplace hacks and<br />

accelerated learning to give you a competitive edge.<br />

Expect interviews with professionals of substance on<br />

their productivity secrets, life lessons from founders and<br />

CEOs and practical insights on managing teams and<br />

office culture. We’ll also be unearthing new startups and<br />

emerging city hubs you might not already be familiar with.<br />

Our aim is to ensure that WIRED continues to be a<br />

powerful and inspirational resource. As ever, we remain<br />

relentlessly curious and make it our mission to bring<br />

you our own bold vision of what’s coming next.<br />

Greg Williams<br />

Editor<br />

DMA Magazine of the Year 2015 • DMA Cover of the Year 2015 • DMA Technology Magazine of the Year 2015 • DMA Magazine of the Year 2014 •<br />

BSME Art Director of the Year, Consumer 2013 • PPA Media Brand of the Year, Consumer 2013 • DMA Technology Magazine of the Year 2012 •<br />

DMA Editor of the Year 2012 • BSME Editor of the Year, Special Interest 2012 • D&AD Award: Covers 2012 • DMA Editor of the Year 2011 • DMA<br />

Magazine of the Year 2011 • DMA Technology Magazine of the Year 2011 • BSME Art Director of the Year, Consumer 2011 • D&AD Award: Entire<br />

Magazine 2011 • D&AD Award: Covers 2010 • Maggies Technology Cover 2010 • PPA Designer of the Year, Consumer 2010 • BSME Launch of the Year 2009


A moment of<br />

reflection<br />

This is the world’s most<br />

powerful artificial sun.<br />

Synlight, a three-storey,<br />

350kW array of 149 conical<br />

reflectors enclosing xenon<br />

short-arc lamps, can<br />

generate light 10,000 times<br />

that of the solar radiation<br />

at the Earth’s surface.<br />

The €3.5 million (£3m)<br />

German Aerospace Center<br />

project, housed in a<br />

protective radiation<br />

chamber in Jülich, will<br />

explore the production of<br />

renewable fuel by<br />

extracting hydrogen from<br />

water vapour. “Making<br />

electricity renewable has<br />

already been done,”<br />

explains research director<br />

Bernhard Hoffschmidt.<br />

“But in the future there will<br />

be many applications for<br />

fuels that cannot be<br />

replaced with batteries.”<br />

One example is travel.<br />

Current battery weight<br />

and energy density are<br />

incompatible with flight,<br />

but hydrogen is light and<br />

clean. The array opened in<br />

March, and Hoffschmidt<br />

hopes it will be a precursor<br />

to a system that can<br />

amplify the light of the Sun<br />

in a carbon-neutral way.<br />

“Synlight is only a very<br />

big lab,” he says. “In the<br />

future, this should be done<br />

with mirrors concentrating<br />

natural sunlight.”<br />

Adam Born dlr.de


EDITED BY ROWLAND MANTHORPE _ START _ 015<br />

RENEWABLES


016 _ START _ PARTY PLATFORM<br />

Crowdfunded<br />

politics<br />

Bess Mayhew is using data to back progressive MPs<br />

and their campaigns before we cast our votes<br />

I<br />

n Brexit Britain, even<br />

the moderates are angry.<br />

“We need to get back<br />

to fighting,” says Bess<br />

Mayhew (pictured). “We<br />

have to be militant in our moderation.”<br />

Mayhew, 30, is founder and<br />

acting CEO of a “tech-driven political<br />

startup”. Launched in November 2016,<br />

More United raised £274,164 from<br />

almost 9,000 donors in a campaign she<br />

calls “the largest political crowdfund<br />

in history”. Now she’s preparing to<br />

use those funds in <strong>2017</strong>’s snap general<br />

election, by backing candidates from<br />

any party who support the group’s<br />

“progressive values” of diversity,<br />

tolerance <strong>–</strong> and the ability to win.<br />

More United began in the wake<br />

of the 2016 EU referendum, as a<br />

group of political liberals gathered<br />

to bemoan the turn events had<br />

taken. “We all felt that we needed to<br />

provide a central ballast in Parliament<br />

and the country,” Mayhew recalls.<br />

Former Liberal Democrat campaign<br />

and membership head Austin Rathe<br />

came up with the idea of crowdfunding<br />

<strong>–</strong> and Mayhew, who had<br />

been the party’s head of digital<br />

communications, agreed to lead a<br />

campaign. So is More United a branch<br />

of the Lib Dems? No, says Mayhew<br />

emphatically, citing the group’s<br />

name, a reference to a line in the<br />

maiden parliamentary speech of<br />

murdered Labour MP Jo Cox: “We are<br />

far more united and have far more in<br />

common than that which divides us.”<br />

More United is on a winning streak.<br />

The four-person group’s volunteers<br />

helped Liberal Democrat Sarah Olney<br />

win the Richmond Park by-election,<br />

before campaigning against <strong>UK</strong>IP<br />

leader Paul Nuttall in Stoke-on-Trent.<br />

“On the day we visited, we accounted<br />

for about a quarter of the total volunteers<br />

of the entire campaign,” Mayhew<br />

says. But the general election is the<br />

first time More United has handed out<br />

funds. That means checking potential<br />

candidates’ values <strong>–</strong> and, crucially,<br />

deciding if they can win.<br />

Although political parties receive<br />

donations in the millions, individual<br />

MPs have a campaign spending limit<br />

of £15,000. “Five or ten thousand<br />

pounds can make the difference,<br />

especially in a tight race,” Mayhew<br />

says. Using a range of national and<br />

local data, Westminster-based More<br />

United assesses where its money will<br />

make the biggest diference, before<br />

presenting its shortlist to a member<br />

vote. (Members comprise anyone who<br />

has given money.) While Mayhew<br />

says More United “is about electing<br />

people not parties”, the initial list of<br />

ten <strong>–</strong> which included Labour’s Clive<br />

Lewis and the Green Party’s Caroline<br />

Lucas <strong>–</strong> had one notable absence.<br />

Where were the Conservatives? “None<br />

applied,” says Mayhew. “But we’re<br />

talking. We will definitely have some.”<br />

RMmoreunited.co.uk<br />

GOVERNMENT<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: NICK WILSON


The <strong>Wired</strong><br />

credit report<br />

DATAVIZ<br />

Which nations have the most stolen card details<br />

on the dark web? WIRED decrypts the data<br />

URUGUAY<br />

US<br />

PORTUGAL<br />

DENMARK<br />

NEW ZEALAND<br />

THE NETHERLANDS<br />

0.3%<br />

36.7%<br />

0.6% 0.4% 0.5% 1.1%<br />

D<br />

ark-web forums and sites<br />

are flooded with stolen credit<br />

cards. “It’s extremely easy now<br />

to sell stolen credit-card information<br />

en masse,” says Nathan<br />

Jessop, an analyst at blockchain-intelligence<br />

startup Elliptic. To find out how much fraudsters<br />

are paying to get their hands on other<br />

people’s plastic, Elliptic researched some of<br />

the dark web’s largest marketplaces between<br />

January and February <strong>2017</strong> <strong>–</strong> and found<br />

a vast trade in illicit Bitcoin transactions.<br />

Previously, criminals could pay for illegal<br />

items online by using prepaid credit cards,<br />

but it was tricky to transfer money without<br />

leaving a trail that law enforcements could<br />

follow. Now, Jessop says, Bitcoin allows buyers<br />

and sellers to make transactions anonymously<br />

across borders without waiting for bank<br />

transfers. “This is important when you don’t<br />

trust anyone,” he explains. “These marketplaces<br />

specialise in selling illicit goods and<br />

only accept cryptocurrencies.”<br />

Developed for WIRED, this infographic<br />

shows the relative price of stolen cards <strong>–</strong> and<br />

how their widespread availability keeps prices<br />

low. A Turkish card is worth just $1.64 (£1.28),<br />

and, unlike other countries, the value doesn’t go<br />

up even if it’s accompanied by its owner’s date<br />

of birth. In Uruguay, where few cards come with<br />

these details, it more than triples the value.<br />

Despite their illicit operations, dark-web<br />

marketplaces are huge enterprises with<br />

customer support, marketing teams and hiring<br />

departments. Some of the largest websites<br />

make upwards of a few hundred million dollars<br />

a year, Jessop notes, and individual sellers are<br />

rated on the quality of their service and wares.<br />

“Every seller has a reputation,” he says. “The<br />

higher that trustworthiness, the more likely<br />

the credit-card information is going to work.”<br />

Matthew Reynolds elliptic.co<br />

39.6<br />

$8.45<br />

0.6%<br />

103<br />

$10.69<br />

66.6%<br />

81<br />

$7.48<br />

1.0% 0.6%<br />

76<br />

64<br />

0.6%<br />

$10.60 $10.71 $9.29<br />

1.3%<br />

53 51<br />

$9.73<br />

0.1% 69.5% 0.8% 2.1% 0.7% 0.2%<br />

+227% 0% +62% +105% +119% +160%


CYBERCRIME _ START _ 019<br />

FRANCE<br />

AUSTRALIA<br />

CANADA<br />

NORWAY<br />

FINLAND<br />

SWEDEN<br />

<strong>UK</strong><br />

SWITZERLAND<br />

BELGIUM<br />

SOUTH AFRICA<br />

GERMANY<br />

TURKEY<br />

ITALY<br />

SPAIN<br />

BRAZIL<br />

5.7% 2.6%<br />

5.4%<br />

7.8%<br />

0.7% 0.7% 0.9% 0.9% 1.0% 1.2%<br />

7.7% 4.4% 4.5% 5.2%<br />

11.7%<br />

6.0% 2.6%<br />

5.0%<br />

0.6%<br />

0.6% 0.7% 0.6% 0.6% 0.6%<br />

0.9%<br />

2.3%<br />

1.0% 0.9%<br />

1.3%<br />

5.6%<br />

47 44 41 40 39 38<br />

32 31<br />

26<br />

22<br />

13<br />

10 9 8 5<br />

$9.22<br />

$11.76 $11.68<br />

$10.21 $9.87<br />

$10.53<br />

$9.30<br />

$11.65<br />

$11.00 $11.00<br />

$10.56 $10.59 $10.82 $7.54<br />

$1.64<br />

76.5% 8.6% 66.0% 0.1% 0.4% 1.7% 75.2% 3.1% 7.5% 1.0% 50.5% 97% 4.1% 6.9% 5.5%<br />

INFOGRAPHIC: SIGNAL NOISE<br />

0% +118% 0% +15% +149% +90% 0% +26% +8% +72% 0% 0% +80% +113% +56%


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SINGAPORE-ON-THAMES _ START _ 0 2 1<br />

ILLUSTRATION: JULIE HOYAS<br />

smart nations can’t be<br />

willed into existence<br />

Will plans for urban innovation hubs cure the <strong>UK</strong>’s anxiety<br />

over an uncertain future? Just ask Singapore<br />

S<br />

ince I arrived in Singapore in<br />

2015, I often get the feeling that<br />

I’m living in the future. I cruise<br />

through immigration at Changi<br />

Airport, scanning my passport and<br />

thumb without breaking stride. I surf a 1Gbps<br />

fibre connection at home and work from a<br />

buzzing co-working space full of startups.<br />

Through the Grab ride-hailing app, I can call a<br />

Robocar, one of the first public trials to bring<br />

self-driving cars directly to consumers.<br />

Could this be the Britain of the future?<br />

Brexiteers suggest that, outside the regulatory<br />

constraints of the EU, the <strong>UK</strong> could become an<br />

international hub for business and innovation<br />

<strong>–</strong> a “Singapore-on-Thames”. The comparison<br />

invokes Singapore’s deregulated economic<br />

structure, as well as its tech-powered infrastructure.<br />

Yet, whereas the model is compelling in<br />

theory, on the ground the reality is not seamless.<br />

From New York to New Delhi, few “smart cities”<br />

can match Singapore’s commitment to experimentation.<br />

A state rich in capital and without<br />

lobbies to block pilot projects, when Singapore<br />

decides to implement, it does so nimbly and<br />

quickly. Surface-street trials of self-driving cars<br />

and buses address congestion. The Housing and<br />

Development Board (HDB) is testing internetof-things<br />

devices in government-built housing<br />

developments, including smart lighting,<br />

pneumatic waste-collection and sensors<br />

to monitor elderly people who have fallen.<br />

Incubator spaces, government contract incentives<br />

and coding programmes entice startups and<br />

entrepreneurs. In Singapore, it’s called Smart<br />

Nation, a master plan for development to make<br />

the “little red dot” a global technology leader.<br />

OPINION<br />

Yet even in this efficient, technocratic<br />

island paradise, not everything<br />

runs smoothly. Delays to the Smart<br />

Nation plan have triggered at least<br />

three diferent government reorganisations<br />

in as many years, with Singapore’s<br />

prime minister Lee Hsien Loong<br />

admitting that the programme is<br />

“not moving as fast as [it] ought to”.<br />

Rich data from an expansive sensor<br />

network has yet to be integrated across<br />

government. Plans for interoperable<br />

cashless payments fight against<br />

proprietary banking systems. At times,<br />

Smart Nation seems like little more<br />

than a branding campaign <strong>–</strong> buzzwords<br />

deployed as a rallying cry to coordinate<br />

ministries and draw attention<br />

to the country’s advancement.<br />

Even the few apps trotted out as<br />

exemplary successes <strong>–</strong> such as the<br />

Beeline crowdsourced public-transit<br />

routing service or myResponder for<br />

crowdsourcing first-aid volunteers<br />

<strong>–</strong> suffer from low adoption rates,<br />

because eforts are not grounded in<br />

citizens’ practical needs and desires.<br />

To preserve a sense of privacy, older<br />

participants in pilot smart flats cover<br />

motion sensors with towels, putting<br />

in sharp focus what it’s like for a<br />

human to make this so-called living<br />

lab their home. Local sceptics ask, “For<br />

whom is this nation smart?” Post-<br />

Brexit, Britons may find themselves<br />

wondering the same thing.<br />

Perhaps the biggest problem is<br />

that the master plan comes into<br />

conflict with the risk-averse and<br />

rules-based culture the state has<br />

long encouraged to ensure a harmonious<br />

society. Singapore is learning<br />

that a Smart Nation can’t be willed<br />

into existence. There’s a comparison<br />

here with the British communities<br />

who voted for Brexit. How will a<br />

“Singapore-on-Thames” proposal<br />

based largely on foreign investment<br />

and talent be greeted by groups<br />

who have made their opposition<br />

to immigration very clear?<br />

Look behind Singapore’s Smart<br />

Nation rhetoric and you find a<br />

familiar impulse: a survivalism<br />

that has driven campaigns to prove<br />

the country’s global relevance ever<br />

since its 1965 independence. Indeed,<br />

that may be what Singapore and<br />

Britain now share: technocentric<br />

visions for future progress on<br />

their own, with an undercurrent<br />

of existential angst acknowledging<br />

a perpetually vulnerable state.<br />

If there’s anything that Britain<br />

might learn from its fellow island<br />

nation, it’s that a smart plan cannot<br />

quell deep-seated anxiety about a<br />

tenuous future <strong>–</strong> the pressure to be<br />

exceptional is a powerful focus.<br />

Sara M Watson<br />

is a Singaporebased<br />

tecþology<br />

critic and a writerin-residence<br />

at<br />

Digital Asia Hub


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SWAT TEAM _ START _ 023<br />

TECHNOLOGY<br />

laser-guided pest control<br />

Intellectual Ventures’ fly swatter discriminates between nice and nasty bugs<br />

T<br />

his device shoots flying pests<br />

with laser beams. Overkill?<br />

Not according to Intellectual<br />

Ventures, the Seattle-based<br />

firm behind the Photonic Fence,<br />

which the company says is a more targeted<br />

weapon than pesticide. The fence creates a<br />

30-Watt wall of near-infrared light that can<br />

identify specific species of insect. It can even<br />

tell the diference between male and female<br />

mosquitoes by analysing the way they fly.<br />

“We’re looking to tell it to kill only mosquitos,<br />

fruit flies or sand flies,” says Arty Makagon,<br />

technical lead for the project. “You can choose<br />

to eliminate all the small, flying things or<br />

you can choose to be very specific about the<br />

kinds of things you want to kill.”<br />

Cameras and optics on the Photonic Fence<br />

detect potential pests within a 100-metre<br />

range. It then assesses the insect’s form,<br />

velocity, acceleration and wing-beat frequency.<br />

“Once it validates a target as a bad bug, we<br />

deploy the lethal laser. Within 25 milliseconds<br />

you have a little insect carcass on the<br />

ground,” Makagon says. “Each wall<br />

segment is designed to interrogate<br />

and, if the target is on the kill list,<br />

it will provide a lethal dose to up to<br />

20 insects per second.” The company<br />

claims the machine, which has a kill<br />

zone of 30 metres wide and three<br />

metres high, destroys 99 per cent<br />

of the insects it identifies.<br />

When Intellectual Ventures<br />

co-founder and former Microsoft<br />

chief technology officer Nathan<br />

Myhrvold came up with the idea<br />

of a bug-killing fence in 2010, the<br />

intention was to use it to improve<br />

public health in Sub-Saharan Africa.<br />

Now, however, the Photonic Fence<br />

has become a commercial project<br />

with a particular target: the Asian<br />

citrus psyllid. This insect invader has<br />

reduced citrus production in Florida<br />

by at least 70 per cent over the last 15<br />

years. The device has been installed<br />

on a US Department of Agriculture<br />

site in the state for its first real-world<br />

test. If all goes to plan, Intellectual<br />

Ventures aims to market the Photonic<br />

Fence to farmers protecting crops<br />

from a multitude of other pests.<br />

“It turns out that everybody you<br />

talk about this to has a pest they<br />

want to kill,” Makagon says. “Some<br />

small, flying things that are really<br />

annoying and detrimental to their<br />

way of being.” Bonnie Christian<br />

intellectualventureslab.com<br />

Pictured: A mosquito being zapped by the Photonic<br />

Fence. Cameras feed data into a “target validation<br />

algorithm”, which decides whether to kill it or hold fire


THE DINOSAUR<br />

detective<br />

W<br />

hen Kenneth Lacovara spotted bones<br />

poking out of the soil in the Patagonian<br />

Desert in 2005, he didn’t think much<br />

of it. Then he began to dig. Lacovara<br />

and his team had stumbled across a<br />

two-metre-long femur, the leg bone of one of the largest<br />

land dinosaurs ever discovered. The findings marked the<br />

beginning of a four-year excavation, which unearthed<br />

145 bones from a 26-metre-long skeleton. Lacovara<br />

christened the dinosaur Dreadnoughtus schrani, which<br />

means “fears nothing”. “It’s mind-boggling to lie in the<br />

desert next to a femur that’s two metres long and imagine<br />

the creature that was attached,” says the 55-year-old.<br />

A palaeontologist based at Rowan University in New<br />

Jersey, Lacovara studies the Cretaceous Period and its<br />

dinosaurs <strong>–</strong> preferably the largest ones. “My wife says<br />

when I’m looking for my keys in the morning that I study<br />

big dinosaurs because I can’t find anything smaller,”<br />

he jokes. Case in point: the Dreadnoughtus, a 65-tonne<br />

herbivorous titanosaur, which probably roamed South<br />

America about 77 million years ago. “It’s as heavy as a<br />

Boeing 737. It’s staggering to imagine that these things<br />

were real. I’ve never quite got over that.”<br />

Lacovara’s search for the planet’s largest creatures<br />

has taken him on digs in Patagonia, Mongolia and North<br />

Africa. He’s known for his discovery of Paralititan, another<br />

huge titanosaur, in Egypt, and Suzhusauraus, a clawed<br />

creature with wing-like arms, in the Gobi Desert. But<br />

Dreadnoughtus remains his most celebrated discovery.<br />

“A 65-tonne Dreadnoughtus defending its territory in<br />

breeding season would have been a ridiculously hazardous<br />

animal to be around. It harked back to the dreadnoughts<br />

[20th-century British warships] so I gave it that name.”<br />

At his lab at Rowan, Lacovara is using 3D modelling and<br />

repurposed medical technologies to reveal how this<br />

ancient behemoth lumbered across Earth.<br />

Lacovara relies on the exquisite preservation of Dreadnoughtus’s<br />

bones. They show the scars of their muscle<br />

attachments in detail, which allows him to map these<br />

points on the virtual models used to make 3D prints of<br />

the bones. Using biomechanical modelling, Lacovara<br />

Right: Kenneth Lacovara with a dinosaur<br />

jawbone found at Edelman Fossil Park<br />

Kenneth Lacovara uses robotics and 3D mapping to piece<br />

together ancient creatures from the Cretaceous Period<br />

runs virtual experiments to examine<br />

the eiciency of these artificial limbs.<br />

He also uses robotics to mimic their<br />

motion. The models are driven by<br />

algorithm-powered motors to reveal<br />

the power required to propel the<br />

dinosaur’s limbs, as well as details<br />

about the cartilage between Dreadnoughtus’s<br />

joints. “The more eicient<br />

the motion becomes, the closer we<br />

get to the truth of these animals.<br />

Because if you’re 65 tonnes, you have<br />

to be eicient with every calorie you<br />

take in,” Lacovara says.<br />

His lab is also investigating the<br />

makeup of the bones and applying<br />

medical techniques to identify<br />

molecular traces of blood and tissue.<br />

For years, researchers believed fossils<br />

were mineralised bone. In fact, they<br />

carry organic remnants too, Lacovara<br />

says. Pioneering research by palaeontologist<br />

Mary Schweitzer at North<br />

Carolina State University relies on<br />

antibodies usually applied to birds<br />

to detect organic traces in bone.<br />

Because birds are close descendants<br />

of dinosaurs, antibodies that would<br />

ordinarily bind to their proteins can<br />

recognise ancient proteins too.<br />

With sequencing, hereditary information<br />

contained in those proteins can<br />

be deciphered, which may help palaeontologists<br />

situate a specimen in the<br />

family tree, and even identify a species.<br />

“What we’re looking at is barcodes<br />

on fossils,” Lacovara says. “I see this<br />

technology as being portable someday.<br />

A scrap of dinosaur bone would be<br />

useless to palaeontologists today, but<br />

in the future, we could sequence those<br />

proteins and say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know<br />

the Triceratops was in Europe. Isn’t<br />

that interesting?’” Every dinosaur<br />

specimen in Lacovara’s lab is 3D<br />

laser-scanned, allowing researchers<br />

to share findings. “To my knowledge,<br />

Dreadnoughtus was the first new<br />

dinosaur species published [online]<br />

along with its 3D images,” he says.<br />

Lacovara’s emphasis on accessible<br />

science is embodied in the<br />

Edelman Fossil Park, which he runs<br />

at Rowan University. The 26-hectare<br />

plot rests in an old quarry in New<br />

Jersey and contains a rich deposit of<br />

fossils from the Cretaceous period.<br />

The park is run as an educational dig<br />

site, where students can take guided<br />

tours with Lacovara to look for fossils.<br />

But for palaeontologists, it’s also an<br />

important research plot: the quarry<br />

contains a bone bed stacked with<br />

ancient skeletons of sharks, rays,<br />

crocodiles and fish. Other creatures<br />

are puzzlingly whole <strong>–</strong> not something<br />

you’d expect if they’d been deposited<br />

by the sea or a mudslide. All these<br />

signs point to a mass die-off, which<br />

Lacovara believes may have been<br />

caused by an asteroid that landed of<br />

the Gulf of Mexico 66 million years ago.<br />

If Lacovara can prove this to be case,<br />

Edelman Fossil Park will be the only<br />

place for visitors to view creatures<br />

killed on that calamitous day. This<br />

year, he hopes to have an answer to his<br />

theory, which could reveal unknown<br />

details about dinosaurs’ demise.<br />

Despite palaeontologists’ obsession<br />

with the past, it’s the future they’re<br />

concerned about. “All we have access<br />

to is the past. If we want to understand<br />

how the biosphere responds to<br />

climate change, that data is in the past.<br />

Without that, we’re flying completely<br />

blind into our environmental future.”<br />

Emma Bryce rowan.edu<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: BENEDICT EVANS


BONE DADDY _ START _ 025<br />

DISCOVERY


026 _ START _ EYES DOWN _ ESSENTIAL APPS<br />

tech conference bingo<br />

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“TEN X”<br />

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ABOUT COFFEE<br />

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WI-FI RAGE<br />

COMIC SANS IN<br />

PRESENTATION<br />

“4TH INDUSTRIAL<br />

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PUB CRAWL “BANTZ”<br />

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BREXIT RANT<br />

STEVE JOBS<br />

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WORDS: JAMES TEMPERTON. ILLUSTRATION: CRISPIN FINN<br />

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month<br />

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Gladiabots<br />

Create AI for your robots!<br />

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Beaker<br />

Turn your smartphone<br />

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MINI LIFT-OFF _ START _ 029<br />

This is the BGUSAT,<br />

Israel’s first research<br />

nanosatellite, now in<br />

orbit following its maiden<br />

launch in February.<br />

The minuscule<br />

instrument will analyse<br />

the atmosphere from an<br />

altitude of 480km, feeding<br />

data to researchers back<br />

on Earth. It’s the result of<br />

a collaboration between<br />

Israel’s Ben-Gurion<br />

University of the Negev<br />

(BGU), Israel Aerospace<br />

Industries and the<br />

Israeli government. “The<br />

objective is for us to look<br />

at the upper atmosphere,”<br />

explains Dan Blumberg,<br />

dean for research and<br />

development at BGU.<br />

Two on-board cameras<br />

will measure airglow <strong>–</strong> the<br />

faint light emitted by the<br />

atmosphere <strong>–</strong> and CO 2<br />

levels, cues that indicate<br />

atmospheric shifts related<br />

to climate change. The<br />

researchers are designing<br />

a hyperspectral-imaging<br />

camera (WIRED 11.16) to<br />

attach to the nanosat,<br />

which will make it<br />

possible to observe<br />

hundreds of wavelengths.<br />

“This will enable a<br />

multitude of agricultural,<br />

environmental and<br />

mapping applications,”<br />

Blumberg says.<br />

BGU hopes the BGUSAT<br />

will have applications<br />

beyond academia, such<br />

as landscape surveillance<br />

after earthquakes or<br />

tsunami, and space<br />

engineering, where fleets<br />

of nanosats could be<br />

deployed to maintain<br />

larger orbiting craft.<br />

“We’d like to build more,”<br />

Blumberg says.<br />

Emma Bryce wwwee.<br />

ee.bgu.ac.il/~bgusat<br />

SPACE<br />

O BGUSAT has two<br />

cameras: one for<br />

visible light, the<br />

other for shortwave<br />

infrared. It<br />

also houses a GR-<br />

712RC computer<br />

a giant leap<br />

for tiny tech<br />

Israel’s 30cm BGUSAT is logging the<br />

efects of climate change from space<br />

The BGUSAT’s body<br />

is about the same<br />

size as a milk carton<br />

and weighs just 5kg<br />

10cm<br />

30cm


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COOL RUNNINGS _ WARM WORMS _ START _ 031<br />

off-grid<br />

chiller<br />

Coolar’s solar-powered refrigerators<br />

could improve the way vaccines<br />

are stored in developing countries<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: JONAS HOLTHAUS; ADAM KLOSIN<br />

J<br />

ulia Römer’s refrigerators<br />

produce cold from heat. Many<br />

medicines <strong>–</strong> from asthma sprays<br />

to insulin to vaccines <strong>–</strong> must be<br />

cooled until moments before<br />

they’re used. But in large parts of the world,<br />

electricity is not readily available. So Römer,<br />

a technical-chemistry engineer, asked<br />

herself: What if you built a refrigerator that<br />

doesn’t use electricity? The answer was the<br />

catalyst for the startup, Coolar.<br />

In a conventional refrigerator, low<br />

temperatures are caused by the evaporation<br />

of a coolant. In Römer’s solar-powered<br />

version, the evaporating liquid is water. Her<br />

system uses silica gel to attract water after<br />

evaporation and create a cycle: a solar panel<br />

generates heat that causes the gel to dry,<br />

then the water evaporates and is returned to<br />

circulation. The solar chiller needs almost no<br />

maintenance and is easy to dispose of since<br />

it doesn’t contain any polluting substances.<br />

Coolar has four employees working on<br />

a prototype. “We have to move to a new<br />

workshop soon. The hobby phase is almost<br />

over,” says Römer, who funded the development<br />

with the £40,000 that Coolar won<br />

in a startup competition in 2016. Now the<br />

team is on the road, looking for investors<br />

and suitable pilot projects in countries such<br />

as Kenya. Depending on its size, one refrigerator<br />

can chill enough vaccines for up to<br />

4,000 people. That’s a pretty cool reason<br />

for going off-grid. Lina Hansen coolar.co<br />

ENGINEERING<br />

This glowing whorl is an engineered C. elegans nematode worm. New research led<br />

by Ben Lehner at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona revealed that it<br />

can transfer a genetic memory of environmental change across up to 14 generations<br />

<strong>–</strong> the first time this has been observed in a creature over such a long period. The<br />

worms were engineered to contain genes that produce fluorescent proteins.<br />

When exposed to temperatures of 25°C and above, they produced more protein,<br />

an effect that was carried through successive generations. Lehner says this can<br />

teach us about the long-term effect of environmental change on humans. “Most big<br />

discoveries can come from studying simple animals,” he says. Emma Bryce crg.eu<br />

worm protein<br />

can teach us<br />

about our dna


FOCUS ON<br />

FIRMWARE<br />

WIRED’s series on<br />

manufacturing visits<br />

Hasselblad’s digitalcamera<br />

factory in<br />

Gothenburg, Sweden<br />

1<br />

2


IMAGE RECOGNITION _ START _ 0 3 3<br />

TOOLKIT<br />

3<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: ALASTAIR PHILIP WIPER<br />

P<br />

hotography has changed since Victor Hasselblad<br />

started making cameras by hand 76 years ago.<br />

First used for reconnaissance in the second world<br />

war, Hasselblad’s cameras were carried by the<br />

Apollo 11 astronauts on the first mission to the<br />

Moon. But a tougher test awaited: the switch from film to digital.<br />

“The transition was a bit faster than we had anticipated,” says<br />

Ove Bengtson, the Swedish firm’s product manager. “Photographers<br />

were changing to relatively simple digital cameras,<br />

sacrificing image quality for the benefits of digital imaging.”<br />

Hasselblad responded in 2002 with a camera containing<br />

a film magazine and two digital backs. But the device didn’t<br />

sell well, and the next year the company ditched the hybrid<br />

approach. “We realised we needed to be able to supply a complete<br />

digital camera to survive,” Bengtson recalls. Enter the compact<br />

medium format X1D, which contains in its aluminium-milled case<br />

everything from a 50-megapixel CMOS sensor to a three-inch LCD<br />

touchscreen, complete with a built-in electronic viewfinder.<br />

Like all Hasselblad’s cameras, the X1D is assembled by hand<br />

at its 655-square-metre factory on the outskirts of Gothenburg,<br />

although product manager Bronius Rudnickas says that isn’t the<br />

most time-consuming part of the process: “We put the most time<br />

into calibrating and testing the production phase of the cameras.”<br />

(Every finished X1D is run through an average of 500 cycles<br />

to ensure it’s working.) Hasselblad received more preorders in<br />

the first ten days of the X1D’s announcement than it planned<br />

for the entire year’s production. Now its small team is doubling<br />

down on production to meet demand. WIRED visited the factory.<br />

Karsten Lemm and Alexandra Simon-Lewis hasselblad.com<br />

1<br />

Casing<br />

A plastic handle<br />

and aluminium<br />

housing helps<br />

keep the X1D’s<br />

weight down to<br />

725g <strong>–</strong> making<br />

it lighter than<br />

most mediumformat<br />

cameras.<br />

Aluminium also<br />

helps dissipate<br />

heat: handy if<br />

you’re recording<br />

with 50MP of<br />

resolution,<br />

which can cause<br />

overheating. It’s<br />

also dust- and<br />

weatherproof.<br />

2<br />

Assembly<br />

Twelve exposure<br />

units sit ready to<br />

be mounted on to<br />

X1D lenses. They<br />

are designed<br />

to sit directly<br />

on the lens, not<br />

the camera, to<br />

reduce vibration.<br />

Hasselblad<br />

works with<br />

Japanese<br />

manufacturer<br />

Nittoh on optics<br />

and autofocus<br />

electronics.<br />

3<br />

Handwork<br />

Dirt and dust<br />

are the greatest<br />

enemies of<br />

fine precision<br />

mechanics,<br />

so Hasselblad<br />

factory staff<br />

wear hairnets <strong>–</strong><br />

and the camera<br />

components<br />

don protective<br />

covers. Workers<br />

at the Swedish<br />

plant need to<br />

have a steady<br />

hand to minimise<br />

the risk of costly<br />

mistakes during<br />

production.


WIRED SECURITY. SEPTEMBER 28, <strong>2017</strong>. KINGS PLACE, LONDON<br />

WIRED SECURITY RETURNS TO LONDON TO DISCUSS THE LATEST INNOVATIONS, TRENDS AND THREATS IN<br />

CYBERSECURITY, ENTERPRISE DEFENCE AND SECURITY INTELLIGENCE. CONFIRMED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:<br />

ANDREI SOLDATOV<br />

INVESTIGATIVE<br />

JOURNALIST AND<br />

AUTHOR, THE RED WEB<br />

•<br />

Russian investigative<br />

journalist Andrei<br />

Soldatov co-founded<br />

Agentura.ru, a watchdog<br />

of the Russian secret<br />

services’ activities. He<br />

is the author of The Red<br />

Web, which highlights<br />

Russia’s digital<br />

dictators and online<br />

revolutionaries.<br />

CALEB BARLOW<br />

VICE PRESIDENT OF<br />

THREAT INTELLIGENCE,<br />

IBM SECURITY<br />

•<br />

Caleb Barlow leads<br />

several teams focused<br />

on threat intelligence,<br />

research and incident<br />

response and<br />

preparedness. He was<br />

behind IBM’s X-Force<br />

Command, the world’s<br />

most sophisticated<br />

cyber simulation<br />

environment.<br />

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YASMIN GREEN<br />

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Method, which uses<br />

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DMITRI ALPEROVITCH<br />

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company tracks<br />

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year. It uncovered the<br />

suspected Russian<br />

intelligence behind<br />

the Democratic<br />

National Committee’s<br />

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BEYZA UNAL<br />

RESEARCH FELLOW,<br />

CHATHAM HOUSE<br />

•<br />

A Chatham House<br />

specialist in nuclear<br />

weapons policy, Unal<br />

leads projects on<br />

chemical, biological,<br />

radiological and<br />

nuclear arms. She<br />

conducts research<br />

on cybersecurity and<br />

critical infrastructure<br />

protection, with a focus<br />

on civil nuclear plants.<br />

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BARRISTER BOT _ START _ 0 3 5<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: PHIL FISK. SET DESIGN: VICKY LEES<br />

T<br />

he Serious Fraud Oice (SFO) had a problem. Its investigation<br />

into corruption at Rolls-Royce was inching towards a conclusion,<br />

but four years of digging had produced 30 million documents. These<br />

needed to be sorted into “privileged” and “non-privileged”, a legal<br />

requirement that involves paying junior barristers to do months of<br />

repetitive paperwork. “We needed a way that was faster,” says Ben Denison, chief<br />

technology oicer at the SFO. So, in January 2016, he started working with RAVN.<br />

Pronounced “Raven”, the London startup builds robots that sift and sort data, not<br />

only neatly presented material, but also unstructured documents. “Where someone<br />

has scanned 300 pages, it’s not uncommon to put one page in upside down,” says<br />

co-founder Peter Wallqvist. “We need to deal with that real world of messy datasets.”<br />

The two teams started to feed material from the Rolls-Royce case into the AI. By<br />

<strong>July</strong> they had a viable system, and with the agreement of lawyers on both sides,<br />

they set the robot to work. The barristers were wading through 3,000 documents<br />

a day. RAVN processed 600,000 daily, at a cost of £50,000 <strong>–</strong> with fewer errors than<br />

the lawyers. “It cut out 80 per cent of the work,” says Denison. “It also saved us<br />

a lot of money.” For Rolls-Royce, it had the opposite efect. In January <strong>2017</strong>, the<br />

automotive company admitted to “truly vast, endemic” bribery and agreed to<br />

pay a fine of £671 million. “It’s hard to imagine a better outcome,” says Wallqvist.<br />

RAVN’s co-founders <strong>–</strong> Jan Van Hoecke, Simon Pecovnik, Sjoerd Smeets<br />

and Wallqvist <strong>–</strong> met at Autonomy, the <strong>UK</strong>’s first unicorn, where they worked<br />

Fraud buster<br />

Bad news for crooks: RAVN’s AI speeds up the<br />

document-sifting process <strong>–</strong> and produces<br />

more accurate results than human lawyers<br />

on early versions of AI-powered<br />

database management. In 2010,<br />

the four left to launch RAVN.<br />

The self-funded firm now has 51<br />

employees, revenues of £3 million<br />

and around 70 clients, mainly city<br />

law firms. BT, which recently signed a<br />

“very significant” deal, credits RAVN<br />

with annual savings of £100 million,<br />

thanks to automated checks that<br />

ensure its contracts are accurate.<br />

Plus, of course, there’s the SFO,<br />

which is using RAVN in increasingly<br />

clever ways. That means allowing it to<br />

make subjective judgements, including<br />

pointing investigators to data it thinks<br />

is relevant to a case. “This is potentially<br />

very valuable,” says Denison.<br />

Wallqvist believes the system<br />

can go even further and make not<br />

just assessments, but predictions.<br />

For example, by suggesting likely<br />

outcomes of mergers and acquisitions.<br />

“We’ve gone to the level of figuring<br />

out and structuring data,” says<br />

Wallqvist. “Now we have the ability<br />

to surface that record of the past to<br />

predict the future.” Today, Watson.<br />

Tomorrow, Holmes. RM ravn.co.uk<br />

Peter Wallqvist: “It’s a good trend that<br />

governments are brave enough<br />

to pull the trigger on things like this”<br />

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE


036 _ START _ TOKYO PANEL SHOW<br />

Early adopters<br />

ARCHITECTURE<br />

MARCELA SAPONE<br />

Co-founder,<br />

Hello Alfred<br />

“The Hyper app from Mic.com is a<br />

thoughtfully curated selection of the<br />

best online videos. It lets you easily<br />

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watch whenever you‘re free. In my<br />

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other topics that I want to learn about.”<br />

WHITNEY<br />

HAWKINGS<br />

CEO, FLOWERBX<br />

DIAMOND<br />

DISTRICT<br />

Tokyo architects Klein Dytham<br />

turned a former beer hall into<br />

an origami-inspired complex<br />

T<br />

his lacy façade is made from 5,315<br />

aluminium panels, capable of sliding<br />

on hidden rails. It’s the frontage of Ginza<br />

Place, on a corner of Ginza Crossing,<br />

Tokyo’s equivalent of Times Square.<br />

Tokyo-based architects Klein Dytham won a competition<br />

to redevelop the 7,350-square-metre former beer hall,<br />

now home to Nissan Crossing, in 2012. Its prominent<br />

location put the architects under pressure. “We do<br />

a lot of buildings, but if we got this wrong we’d have<br />

really messed up,” co-founder Mark Dytham explains.<br />

The 11-storey building is owned by Sapporo Brewing<br />

and the first two floors consist of Nissan showrooms.<br />

For the façade, Klein Dytham designed a three-part<br />

structure covered in diamond-shaped metal panels.<br />

Each sheet was bent in half and welded on one side.<br />

Working with Nissan, the architects adapted a glass<br />

coating to go over the panels’ paint. The challenge was in<br />

leaving a gap between the panels no smaller than 12mm<br />

to stop them scraping together during earthquakes. The<br />

solution? A horizontal rail bolted behind the panels.<br />

Dytham often drives past Nissan Crossing on his way<br />

to the Ginza shopping district. “I have to do a second<br />

take,” he says. “Did I do that?’” RM klein-dytham.com<br />

Left: The latticework design is inspired by sukashibori,<br />

a traditional technique used in Japanese metalwork<br />

“I’ve recently discovered Artsy, a site<br />

that promotes new artists, but not in<br />

an overtly commercial way. Rather, it<br />

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artists, in addition to providing a<br />

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LIZ WESSEL<br />

Co-founder and<br />

CEO, WayUp<br />

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TOGETHER WITH


NEW DEPTHS _ START _ 039<br />

SUBMARINE<br />

T<br />

his submarine can take two people 2,000 metres beneath the surface of the ocean <strong>–</strong><br />

and its makers aim to go even deeper. Florida-based Triton wants to explore the deepest<br />

two per cent of the ocean, but for the moment it’s confined to the relative shallows.<br />

“We’re revamping this model so it will be capable of carrying a pilot and a passenger to<br />

depths of 2,200 metres,” says Patrick Lahey, the company’s president. To achieve this,<br />

Triton needs to make the cabin of its 7500/2 model (pictured) thicker to withstand deep-ocean pressure.<br />

It’s currently made from 235mm-thick acrylic glass known as PMMA. The cabin for the new sub will be<br />

261mm, making it the thickest transparent acrylic barrier ever produced. “It’s now possible for a person to<br />

go to the deepest point in the Black Sea inside a transparent pressure boundary,” Lahey says. To mould the<br />

cabins to withstand such depths, the acrylic is cut to size and thermally formed in an autoclave.<br />

Originally designed as recreational vehicles for superyacht owners, Triton’s submersibles are now being<br />

used by marine scientists and documentary makers to research and film previously unseen corners of the<br />

ocean. But Lahey wants to go further, exploring the hadal zone, a series of underwater trenches that reach<br />

depths of 11,000 metres. “Ninety-eight per cent of the ocean lies within 6,000 metres of the surface, so if<br />

we can hit 6,000 metres we can explore most of the ocean. But the remaining two per cent is actually quite<br />

a big area,” he says. Triton has designed a model that could theoretically dive to this depth: “[The cabin]<br />

couldn’t be made of acrylic because it doesn’t have the strength to be exposed to those sorts of pressures<br />

<strong>–</strong> instead, it would be made of glass.” WIRED hopes it won’t be asked to do the test run. BC tritonsubs.com<br />

your carriage<br />

into the<br />

abyss awaits<br />

Triton is reinforcing its<br />

subs to take us to the<br />

ocean’s unseen worlds<br />

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040 _ START _ ONLINE TRAFFIC JAM<br />

OUR NETWORKS<br />

UNDER THREAT<br />

The web could soon be fast-tracked for the<br />

moneyed few. Prepare to join the queue<br />

I<br />

magine: it’s 2025 and you are an<br />

engineer managing traffic in and<br />

out of a major city. You watch the<br />

roads fill up at rush hour as people<br />

in autonomous cars, trucks<br />

and buses buzz alongside pedestrians and<br />

cyclists guided by their internet-connected<br />

eyewear. Your job is to plan efficient, safe<br />

and environmentally friendly routes.<br />

Since this is the future, all your decisions<br />

are guided by data. Algorithms predict with<br />

astonishing accuracy what will happen when<br />

the weather changes, plans alter at the last<br />

minute and emergencies require people to<br />

leave their homes and jobs in a hurry. Still, even<br />

with all this information, your job isn’t easy.<br />

Every time you try to minimise congestion,<br />

you face the same problem: can you do any<br />

better than first-come, first-served?<br />

Today, police cars, ambulances and<br />

buses get special treatment on roads<br />

because of the contributions they<br />

make to public welfare and safety.<br />

But these narrow exceptions aside,<br />

our roads are managed without prioritisation.<br />

In the future, however, we<br />

will be able to make finer discriminations<br />

about who individual drivers<br />

are, what destinations they’ve set<br />

and what they’re expected to do<br />

when they arrive. Those distinctions<br />

will lead, inevitably, to decisions.<br />

Traffic engineers will assume the<br />

role of social planners.<br />

In theory, having such fine-grained<br />

control over traffic seems like the<br />

perfect use of big data and artificial<br />

intelligence. That’s why today’s<br />

policymakers are enthusiastically<br />

lobbying governments to invest<br />

in smart grids <strong>–</strong> electricity-supply<br />

networks that automatically detect<br />

and react to changes in usage. In<br />

practice, however, things are more<br />

complicated than that.<br />

To appreciate why, imagine being<br />

a traveller in 2025, instead of an<br />

engineer. Picture yourself in an autonomous<br />

car that’s made it halfway to<br />

your destination. Say you’re a parent<br />

travelling to your child’s football<br />

match, which they’ve been looking<br />

forward to for weeks. All of a sudden,<br />

your self-driving car turns around.<br />

Confused and upset, you say, “Siri,<br />

why am I being re-routed? Why is this<br />

happening to me?” In response, the<br />

digital assistant laconically replies,<br />

“Sorry, but there’s priority traffic<br />

heading in the centre of town.” What<br />

you don’t know for sure but deeply<br />

suspect is that the smart trafficmanagement<br />

software is programmed<br />

to assign a comparatively low value<br />

to “mundane” social outings such as<br />

amateur sports for children. Business<br />

deals, like the one your neighbour is<br />

heading to, count as more important<br />

in our connected world.<br />

At first glance, this scenario might<br />

seem like bad science fiction. In fact,<br />

it’s a very old and very real problem.<br />

For some time now, the related issues<br />

of control and intelligent infrastructure<br />

have fuelled the network<br />

neutrality debate. Proponents of<br />

network neutrality are concerned<br />

that if internet service providers get<br />

to charge Netflix, YouTube or any<br />

website for the privilege of being<br />

downloaded at a faster speed than<br />

others <strong>–</strong> allowing some companies<br />

to avoid becoming slowed down by<br />

network congestion <strong>–</strong> society would<br />

allow deep pockets to hijack our<br />

attention and interests.<br />

That network neutrality is under<br />

threat. Donald Trump has appointed<br />

Ajit Pai as chair of the Federal<br />

Communications Commission<br />

and he appears poised to roll back<br />

the 2015 Open Internet Order. It<br />

presents legally enforceable rules<br />

preventing broadband internet<br />

service providers from blocking<br />

or throttling traic or introducing<br />

paid prioritisation. Pai vehemently<br />

dissented from it in 2015 and it<br />

seems likely he’ll use his new position<br />

to try to dismantle it.<br />

It’s tempting to back him if it<br />

means we’ll be able to stream<br />

movies faster and bufer-free. But<br />

while smart systems seem attractive,<br />

they’ll inevitably be optimised for<br />

corporate profit and control. The<br />

principle of first-come, first-served<br />

is our best protection against this<br />

interference. We need it on the web<br />

<strong>–</strong> and out on the roads.<br />

OPINION<br />

Brett M<br />

Frischmann<br />

is professor of law<br />

at the Benjamin N<br />

Cardozo School<br />

of Law, New York<br />

Evan Selinger<br />

is professor of<br />

philosophy at<br />

Rochester Institute<br />

of Technology,<br />

New York<br />

ILLUSTRATION: DOUG CHAYKA


MICROSOFT CLOUD / WIRED PROMOTION<br />

MICROSOFT:<br />

SPORT<br />

AND<br />

THE<br />

CLOUD<br />

PERFORMANCE ISN’T JUST WHAT HAPPENS ON THE GOLF COURSE. FOR<br />

A MODERN GOLFER TO EXCEL, THE WORK BEGINS AWAY FROM THE FIRST<br />

TEE <strong>–</strong> ANALYSING EVERY ASPECT OF THEIR SWING, USING TECH TO<br />

HONE STRATEGY AND INTERROGATING DATA TO CRACK THE COURSE<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: CHARLIE SURBEY<br />

Right:<br />

Rachelle Navarro<br />

teeing off at<br />

The Golf Club at<br />

Newcastle, WA


PROFESSIONAL<br />

AND<br />

AMATEUR<br />

GOLF<br />

PERFORMANCE<br />

1 2<br />

3<br />

HOW NEW CLOUD-BASED GOLF<br />

TECHNOLOGIES ARE RECORDING AND<br />

ANALYSING EVERY ASPECT<br />

OF THE GAME, TO HELP GOLFERS<br />

MAKE BETTER DECISIONS<br />

1<br />

THROUGHOUT THE<br />

SWING <strong>–</strong> AND<br />

AS THE BALL IS<br />

STRUCK <strong>–</strong> DOPPLER<br />

RADAR TRACKS<br />

THE CLUB’S SPEED,<br />

ITS EXACT ARC<br />

AND MANY MORE<br />

DATA POINTS<br />

2<br />

A CONNECTED<br />

CLUB MEASURES<br />

THE MINUTE<br />

CHANGES IN<br />

PRESSURE THE<br />

GOLFER EXERTS<br />

ON THE GRIP,<br />

AS THEY STRIKE<br />

THE GOLF BALL<br />

3<br />

AS THE CLUB<br />

MAKES CONTACT<br />

WITH THE BALL, A<br />

SENSOR EMBEDDED<br />

IN THE TIP OF<br />

THE GRIP RECORDS<br />

THE POWER,<br />

SPEED AND ANGLE<br />

OF THE SWING


MICROSOFT CLOUD _ WIRED PROMOTION<br />

MICROSOFT:<br />

SPORT<br />

AND<br />

THE<br />

CLOUD<br />

4<br />

5<br />

6<br />

4<br />

AS THE BALL IS<br />

FIRED THROUGH<br />

THE AIR, DOPPLER<br />

RADAR MEASURES<br />

THE PHYSICS OF<br />

ITS FLIGHT <strong>–</strong> AND<br />

UPLOADS THE DATA<br />

TO THE CLOUD FOR<br />

ANALYSIS<br />

5<br />

UNDERSTANDING<br />

WHAT MAKES A<br />

GOOD GRIP <strong>–</strong> IN<br />

TERMS OF HOW<br />

THE CLUB IS<br />

HELD <strong>–</strong> ALLOWS<br />

FOR THE GOLFER<br />

TO BECOME MORE<br />

CONSISTENT<br />

6<br />

VIA CONNECTED<br />

CLUBS, AN AI<br />

CADDIE CAN LEARN<br />

HOW A GOLFER<br />

PLAYS, ENABLING<br />

IT TO RECOMMEND<br />

HOW THEY SHOULD<br />

APPROACH THE<br />

NEXT HOLE


PROFESSIONAL<br />

AND<br />

AMATEUR<br />

GOLF<br />

PERFORMANCE<br />

T<br />

he golfer drives the ball from the tee.<br />

Visible as a tiny white dot, it flies through<br />

the air and lands beyond the crest of a<br />

bunker, out of sight. The player can’t<br />

see the ball, but they know where it is.<br />

They also know its flight speed, spin and<br />

trajectory, the power of the club’s connection<br />

and the technique of their swing.<br />

All this is known because the sport is<br />

becoming connected like never before.<br />

“Technology is leading us towards<br />

the next phenomenon in the game,”<br />

says Gregg Rogers, owner of a string<br />

of golf shops and performance centres<br />

in Washington State. “We are already<br />

seeing young players starting to shoot<br />

abnormally low scores. Data and technology<br />

means everyone is going to<br />

improve and have more fun playing.”<br />

Rogers’ facility in Bellevue, just<br />

outside Seattle, is bristling with tools<br />

to help players get to the next level.<br />

Sensors beneath the indoor driving<br />

ranges measure pressure and changes<br />

in stance, simulators track shot distance<br />

and power and can accurately<br />

replicate the impact of wind and rain<br />

on a ball’s trajectory. Doppler radar<br />

tools track club motion and the golfer’s<br />

movement, and specialist clubs capture<br />

feedback on every swing.<br />

“It all helps with the fundamentals,”<br />

says Rogers, an energetic golf coach with<br />

30 years’ experience in the sport and<br />

50,000 lessons under his belt. “Line of<br />

posture, face direction, angle and loft <strong>–</strong><br />

it allows us to pinpoint the exact impact<br />

of these things on the swing.”<br />

DATA AND DRIVERS<br />

“When you look at a golf scorecard, it<br />

looks like an Excel sheet,” says Sal Syed,<br />

co-founder of Stamford-based Arccos<br />

Golf. “It’s the perfect sport for data<br />

analysis.” Syed’s startup uses a small<br />

club-embedded sensor to turn a player’s<br />

smartphone into a GPS range-finder that<br />

measures shot distances on more than<br />

40,000 courses, visualising each shot<br />

as a bird’s-eye view. Once captured <strong>–</strong><br />

along with other external information<br />

<strong>–</strong> the data is transmitted to the cloud.<br />

‘WHEN YOU LOOK AT<br />

A GOLF SCORECARD,<br />

IT LOOKS LIKE AN<br />

EXCEL SHEET. GOLF IS<br />

THE PERFECT SPORT<br />

FOR DATA ANALYSIS’<br />

SAL SYED, ARCCOS GOLF<br />

Above: Sal Syed,<br />

co-founder and<br />

CEO, Arccos Golf.<br />

Right: Gregg<br />

Rogers, founder,<br />

Gregg Rogers<br />

Golf Performance<br />

The next step is to apply machine<br />

learning to this trove of data to create<br />

what Syed and his team are calling “The<br />

World’s Smartest Caddie”.<br />

Relying on the historic data of a golfer,<br />

this AI caddie will begin to understand<br />

their game <strong>–</strong> know their average drive,<br />

whether they tend to skew left, or if they<br />

overestimate their chip. It can then offer<br />

objective, data-driven caddie advice.<br />

“When you’re golfing, you’re lost in<br />

the fog,” says Syed. “You’re making<br />

emotional decisions, but The World’s<br />

Smartest Caddie is going to help you<br />

look at those decisions objectively so<br />

you can score better and play better.”<br />

As a real-time platform, Arccos Golf<br />

requires significant data-storage capacity,<br />

but it’s also using the powerful<br />

machine-learning tools available from<br />

using Microsoft Cloud technologies.<br />

“The ability of storing vast amounts<br />

of data, the ability to access it when we<br />

need it and then quickly apply it when we<br />

need it wouldn’t be possible without the<br />

Microsoft Cloud,” Syed says.


MICROSOFT CLOUD / WIRED PROMOTION<br />

MICROSOFT:<br />

SPORT<br />

AND<br />

THE<br />

CLOUD<br />

TEEING OFF WITH TECHNOLOGY<br />

The emergence of such sportsscience<br />

tools is being driven by three<br />

converging forces: the abundance of<br />

cheap, low-energy sensors; the ubiquity<br />

of powerful mobile devices; and huge<br />

cloud storage capacity coupled with<br />

machine learning. Connected-sportswear<br />

brand Sensoria produces smart<br />

running socks and training gear, and its<br />

engineers are now taking on golf, working<br />

with the pro Bryson DeChambeau.<br />

“The most important thing in golf<br />

is how you grip the club,” says Davide<br />

Mauri, director of software development<br />

and cloud infrastructure at<br />

Sensoria. “But there is no objective<br />

way to say if you are gripping it correctly.<br />

Our idea is to put a sensor in<br />

the grip, so we can figure out how the<br />

best golfers hold the club. We can then<br />

analyse the pressure put on the grip<br />

throughout the swing, figure out the<br />

outcomes and try to correlate these to<br />

see if there’s a pattern that says ‘This<br />

‘WITH MACHINE<br />

LEARNING WE CAN<br />

FIND PATTERNS, FILTER<br />

DATA AND CREATE OR FIND<br />

RELATIONSHIPS. THERE’S<br />

SO MANY INSIGHTS STILL<br />

TO BE DERIVED FROM DATA<br />

AND ANALYTICS’<br />

MIKE DOWNEY, MICROSOFT<br />

is a good way to grip and this is not.’”<br />

Finding these correlations manually<br />

would be unworkable, so Sensoria uses<br />

Microsoft Cloud machine-learning tools<br />

to reduce the human workload.<br />

“The Microsoft Cloud is helping us to<br />

have an integrated developing environment,”<br />

says Mauri <strong>–</strong> who is yet to pick<br />

up a golf club. “This makes us more efficient,<br />

more competitive and we’re able<br />

to make better software in less time.”<br />

SPORTS, SCIENCE AND SERVERS<br />

In addition to golf, Microsoft has been<br />

working in football, motor racing and<br />

American football to help sports<br />

scientists find a competitive edge.<br />

“With machine learning we can find<br />

patterns, filter data and create or<br />

find relationships in data,” says Mike<br />

Downey, Microsoft’s director and<br />

principal evangelist for sports.<br />

Downey’s team entered golf at the<br />

top <strong>–</strong> with pro tours and players <strong>–</strong> but<br />

has since expanded its focus to the<br />

amateur game, with the likes of Arccos<br />

Golf, Sensoria and FlightScope <strong>–</strong> a firm<br />

using Doppler radar devices to track ball<br />

trajectory, spin and movement.<br />

“There are so many insights still to<br />

be derived from data and analytics,”<br />

Downey says. “The future’s about providing<br />

more powerful tools that can<br />

quickly help decision-makers to derive<br />

better insights that are more relevant to<br />

the challenges they’re facing.”<br />

For more, see cloud.microsoft.com<br />

REDEFINING HOW A<br />

SPORT IS PLAYED<br />

THE GAME OF GOLF IS BEING<br />

DISRUPTED BY DATA-<br />

HUNGRY STARTUPS SUCKING<br />

UP INFORMATION. THEY<br />

PROVIDE FASCINATING<br />

INSIGHTS INTO HOW<br />

TO PERFORM IN THIS<br />

TIME-HONOURED SPORT<br />

THE MYSTERY<br />

OF THE PUTT<br />

FLIGHTSCOPE’S<br />

DOPPLER RADAR<br />

TOOLS TRACK HOW<br />

THE BALL MOVES<br />

<strong>–</strong> EVEN HOW IT<br />

SKIDS, JUMPS AND<br />

ROLLS DURING<br />

PUTTING <strong>–</strong> SO<br />

PLAYERS KNOW<br />

WHAT HAPPENS<br />

AS SOON AS THE<br />

BALL IS STRUCK.<br />

MILITARY-GRADE<br />

HARDWARE<br />

ALSO WORKING<br />

IN TENNIS<br />

AND CRICKET,<br />

FLIGHTSCOPE<br />

IS BASED ON<br />

MISSILE-<br />

TRACKING TECH.<br />

IT WILL SOON<br />

INTRODUCE<br />

MICROSOFT<br />

CLOUD MACHINE-<br />

LEARNING.<br />

GETTING TO GRIPS<br />

WITH GOLF<br />

SENSORIA WANTS<br />

TO FIND OUT<br />

HOW THE BEST<br />

GOLFERS GRIP<br />

THEIR CLUBS, SO<br />

IT’S COUPLING<br />

MACHINE-<br />

LEARNING WITH<br />

DATA CAPTURED<br />

FROM A SMART<br />

CLUB TO ANALYSE<br />

PRO GAMEPLAY.<br />

FROM RUNNING<br />

LAPS TO THE LINKS<br />

USING SMART<br />

RUNNING SOCKS,<br />

GOLF GRIPS<br />

AND CONNECTED<br />

CLOTHING,<br />

SENSORIA SENDS<br />

PLAYER DATA TO<br />

THE CLOUD SO<br />

ITS TOOLS WORK<br />

ANYWHERE, GIVING<br />

PLAYERS KEY<br />

INSIGHTS.<br />

CLOUD ACCESS<br />

FOR ALL<br />

AT GREGG<br />

ROGERS’ GOLF<br />

PERFORMANCE,<br />

CLIENTS CAN<br />

USE A WEALTH<br />

OF TOOLS TO<br />

IMPROVE. BY<br />

COLLATING THE<br />

RESULTING DATA<br />

IN THE CLOUD,<br />

THEY CAN ACCESS<br />

IT ON THE GO.<br />

AUTOMATIC<br />

TRACKING<br />

ARCCOS GOLF<br />

SENDS DATA TO<br />

THE MICROSOFT<br />

CLOUD AS SOON<br />

AS A BALL IS<br />

STRUCK TO BUILD<br />

A PROFILE FOR<br />

EVERY PLAYER.<br />

THIS HELPS<br />

THEM IDENTIFY<br />

PATTERNS AND<br />

REFINE TACTICS.<br />

THE AI<br />

CADDIE<br />

BY BLENDING IN-<br />

DEPTH HISTORIC<br />

PLAYER DATA<br />

WITH MACHINE<br />

LEARNING,<br />

ARCCOS GOLF<br />

IS BUILDING<br />

“THE WORLD’S<br />

SMARTEST<br />

CADDIE” TO<br />

SUGGEST SHOTS<br />

AND CLUBS.<br />

DEMOCRATISING<br />

GOLF DATA<br />

THERE ARE FEW<br />

SPORTS WHERE THE<br />

AMATEURS GET THE<br />

SAME TOOLS AS THE<br />

PROS. BUT WITH<br />

THE AVAILABILITY<br />

OF TOP-FLIGHT<br />

TECHNOLOGY AND<br />

POWERFUL CLOUD<br />

ACCESS, GOLF IS<br />

DEMOCRATISING<br />

DATA’S POWER.


“ WELCOME HOME.<br />

OOPS, WE MEANT<br />

WELCOME TO WORK.”<br />

An inspiring, high-end work environment where ideas develop, businesses<br />

build, and relationships evolve.<br />

A place where you can get down to business, check emails and hold meetings,<br />

all this while you can enjoy a great cup of coffee and a healthy lunch.<br />

Call us on 0800 756 2908 or visit spacesworks.com/uk<br />

Offices, Memberships, Meeting Rooms.


EDITED BY JEREMY WHITE _ GEAR _047<br />

EXCLUSIVE<br />

Omen X Compact Desktop by HP<br />

At last <strong>–</strong> Rift and VIVE users can now<br />

explore the outer reaches of their<br />

virtual worlds without the constraints<br />

<strong>–</strong> or trip hazards <strong>–</strong> of cables. This<br />

wireless VR PC backpack, complete<br />

with USB 3.0, two USB Type-C, one<br />

HDMI-out, wireless display, mouse<br />

and keyboard, weighs in at a<br />

respectably light 4.5kg. HP has<br />

smartly navigated potential power<br />

issues by including a small backup<br />

battery that prevents the PC from<br />

shutting down while you swap out the<br />

main battery pack. £tbc store.hp.com<br />

WORDS: KATHRYN NAVE. PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDY BARTER<br />

GAMING


048 _ GEAR _ DO THE MATH<br />

Design_ geometry<br />

Give your home some mathematical inspiration from Möbius, Escher and Penrose<br />

Classic Möbius lamp<br />

Smarin Les Angles<br />

The eight geometric elements in this furniture range are based on the<br />

eminent mathematical physicist Roger Penrose’s diamond-shaped tiling<br />

system, which can tile any plane without periodic repetition. Les Angles<br />

translates those principles into the third dimension. Its interlocking<br />

wool cushions offer a wide range of configuration options to create<br />

flexible seating arrangements and structured dividers to fit any space.<br />

Available in grey, dark grey and azure blue. From €216 to €372 smarin.net<br />

A striking, luminescent<br />

Möbius strip around a cork<br />

column gives this lamp<br />

a highly unconventional<br />

exterior. Inside, however,<br />

things are more<br />

formulaic. Using the<br />

195-year-old Fourier<br />

transform, a crystalembedded<br />

Cortex-M4<br />

microprocessor<br />

algorithmically analyses<br />

sound patterns 100<br />

times a second for<br />

detection by an activating<br />

whistle. $2,300<br />

classic.engineering<br />

68cm<br />

Georg Jensen<br />

Möbius ring<br />

Launched by the Danish<br />

silversmith in 1904,<br />

Georg Jensen jewellery<br />

combines its creator’s<br />

fine-art background<br />

with forward-looking<br />

design principles. This<br />

sterling silver Möbius<br />

ring incorporates the<br />

influence of geometrical<br />

invention, while<br />

extending the singlesided<br />

strip for a second<br />

loop, to bring a new twist<br />

to the classic form.<br />

£195 georgjensen.com<br />

Dominik Raskin Tectonic rug<br />

The early days of 3D modelling demonstrated<br />

you can make just about anything from triangles<br />

<strong>–</strong> as long as you have enough of them. Mumbaibased<br />

designer Dominik Raskin has created a<br />

rug made from tessellating pieces of black stone<br />

veneer mounted on to a section of flexible cotton.<br />

This 110cm by 60cm floor covering can be laid flat<br />

or shaped into a range of angular topographical<br />

forms. £poa dominikraskin.com<br />

Cuatro cuatros 90º vase<br />

Bringing Escher’s<br />

mathematical trickery<br />

into the third dimension,<br />

this Corian vase has<br />

been perfectly aligned<br />

to create the illusion of<br />

an impossible solid form.<br />

€245 cuatrocuatros.<br />

bigcartel.com<br />

WORDS: KATHRYN NAVE. PHOTOGRAPHY:<br />

ANDY BARTER; ROGER STILLMAN


ANGULAR


PAY-AS-YOU-GO PICTURES _ GEAR _ 051<br />

Test_ Relonch 291<br />

A camera where you pay for the pictures, not the hardware? WIRED tries out a snappy concept<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY<br />

WIRED picked up a<br />

Relonch 291 camera from<br />

the company’s COO<br />

Yuriy Motin at McCarran<br />

International Airport,<br />

Las Vegas, ahead of<br />

January’s CES <strong>2017</strong>. It has<br />

no screen, no flash, no SD<br />

card and no adjustable<br />

settings: you just halfpress<br />

the shutter button<br />

to focus. A 4G connection<br />

automatically transfers<br />

photos to the Relonch<br />

server, where an algorithm<br />

edits what it deems to be<br />

the best images, then<br />

discards the rest. These<br />

photos are transferred to<br />

the Relonch app for<br />

perusal, but not until the<br />

following morning. Any<br />

images you want to keep<br />

will set you back around $1<br />

(78p) each, but there’s a<br />

twist: the camera’s free.<br />

Relonch is, in effect,<br />

attempting to recreate a<br />

bygone era of photography<br />

without you needing to<br />

learn a new skill. The<br />

company’s AI handles all<br />

that. It’s both an antidote<br />

to the instant gratification<br />

offered by smartphones<br />

and an alternative for “all<br />

those people who invested<br />

in an expensive DSLR, but<br />

never learned how to use<br />

them”, Motin explains.<br />

But does it work? It took<br />

time to adjust to having no<br />

controls <strong>–</strong> zoom was<br />

especially missed <strong>–</strong> or<br />

preview screen. A<br />

notification from the<br />

Relonch app told us when<br />

our photos were ready.<br />

Watermarked versions<br />

appear and you can<br />

choose the best shots to<br />

buy and download. Sadly,<br />

our photos were decidedly<br />

average. At times it was<br />

puzzling to ascertain why<br />

certain shots <strong>–</strong> a blurred<br />

casino restaurant and an<br />

accidental snap of the<br />

sidewalk <strong>–</strong> had made it<br />

through the algorithm.<br />

However, the AI-edited<br />

images did have welldefined<br />

colours and solid<br />

lighting. The viewfinder<br />

showed an aperture of<br />

f/2.0, so you’d expect<br />

plenty of light, but it also<br />

explains why portraits<br />

impressed more than<br />

landscape shots.<br />

Blending the style of an<br />

Instagram filter with the<br />

power of a DSLR is an<br />

interesting concept.<br />

Relonch can help<br />

reconnect you with the joy<br />

of taking pictures and<br />

make them look better,<br />

but when it comes to<br />

creating great shots, it<br />

doesn’t improve on the<br />

power of a good eye.<br />

7/10 £free (in-app<br />

purchases) relonch.com<br />

HOW WE TESTED<br />

WIRED used the Relonch<br />

camera around Las<br />

Vegas, taking portraits,<br />

action shots and still-life<br />

pictures in various<br />

lighting conditions. We<br />

then added marks for the<br />

app’s AI judgement.<br />

WORDS: CHRIS HASLAM<br />

Before<br />

Take a shot and the<br />

camera uploads your<br />

photo via 4G to the<br />

Relonch server<br />

to apply a filter.<br />

After<br />

Relonch will select<br />

the best shots for<br />

you to browse and<br />

decide whether to<br />

buy them or not.


DRINK<br />

WIRED’s tester says the Château Siaurac’s<br />

flavour was enhanced after 15 seconds


LIQUID ASSETS _ GEAR _ 0 5 3<br />

Vinturi Deluxe Red Wine Aerator<br />

With its curvaceous acrylic tower stand (left), Vinturi’s compact design<br />

will hold your wine glass while the aerator does its job. “Aerating<br />

wine lets it oxidise and evaporate so the flavours can mellow out, and<br />

this can often be a time-consuming process,” says Maria Moaca, our<br />

tester. “This device claims to aerate the wine as you pour, without<br />

having to let it stand and breathe so you don’t have to plan ahead.”<br />

But while Moaca felt that the apparatus started the aeration process,<br />

helping to “soften the tannins and bring out the full flavours of<br />

the wine without having to let it breathe”, she wasn’t impressed<br />

with how the wine splashed over the glass when she was pouring.<br />

7/10 £60 root7.com Time taken to aerate 15 seconds<br />

Size 34.3cm (h) x 8.9cm (w) x 25.4cm (d) Wine tested 2009<br />

Château Siaurac, Lalande-de-Pomerol, France<br />

HOW WE TESTED<br />

WIRED asked Maria Moaca,<br />

head sommelier at Hotel<br />

du Vin & Bistro Wimbledon<br />

[hotelduvin.com], to test a<br />

selection of the latest<br />

wine gadgets. Each<br />

was rated according to<br />

factors including<br />

practicality, design<br />

and value for money.<br />

Kikkerland Steel Ring<br />

with Screen Wine Bottle<br />

Thermometer<br />

Displaying serving<br />

temperatures for up<br />

to 13 wine varieties,<br />

this thermometer has<br />

a stainless-steel cuff<br />

designed to fit a variety<br />

of bottle shapes. “Each<br />

wine has an ideal serving<br />

temperature, but the<br />

readings were not always<br />

accurate,” Moaca says.<br />

“In one instance, the<br />

temperature was 8°C and<br />

the ring was showing 12°C.”<br />

5/10 £8 amazon.co.uk<br />

Time taken to use<br />

55 seconds<br />

Size 3.5cm diameter<br />

Wine tested 2015<br />

Auntsfield Sauvignon<br />

Blanc; 2011 Château<br />

Bauduc Sauternes<br />

WORDS: EMILY PECK. PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDY BARTER; ROGER STILLMAN<br />

Coravin Model Two<br />

Wine System<br />

This device lets you pour<br />

wine without removing<br />

the cork, thus protecting<br />

it from oxidation. “I like<br />

this product,” Moaca<br />

says. “I used it on an<br />

unopened bottle and then,<br />

24 hours later, opened it<br />

the traditional way and<br />

it tasted the same <strong>–</strong> just<br />

as it should.” She found<br />

its previous model timeconsuming<br />

to use and<br />

frustrating during a busy<br />

period. However, she was<br />

pleased with this new<br />

version. “Wine comes out<br />

20 per cent faster now, so<br />

I would recommend it for<br />

sommeliers or wine lovers<br />

and collectors.”<br />

8/10 £249 coravin.co.uk<br />

Time taken to pour<br />

a glass 90 seconds<br />

Size 21cm (h) x 14cm (w)<br />

x 6.35cm (l)<br />

Wine tested 2012 Andre<br />

Kientzler Pinot Blanc<br />

Rouge 02<br />

Wine Breather<br />

The Rouge 02 claims to<br />

reduce the breathing<br />

process from one hour to<br />

less than a minute. Insert<br />

it into the bottle or glass<br />

and press the start/stop<br />

button to “pass bubbling<br />

air through the wine”. “This<br />

worked very effectively,<br />

compared to the Vinturi<br />

model,” Moaca notes. “I<br />

aerated a glass of wine<br />

and it had a better flavour<br />

and aroma as a result.”<br />

She concluded that it was<br />

easy to use, clean and a<br />

fun and useful gadget for<br />

home or restaurant use.<br />

9/10 £20 lakeland.co.uk<br />

Time taken to aerate<br />

six seconds<br />

Size 29.5cm (h) x<br />

3.5cm diameter<br />

Wine tested 2013 Rioja<br />

Crianza Ramon Bilbao<br />

Test_ wine tools<br />

WIRED uncorks the latest kit to vamp up your vino<br />

Crosslee Hostess Double Wine Chiller HW02MA<br />

This plug-in device can be used to warm wine as well as chill it, from<br />

between 5°C and 19°C. Moaca liked the fact you can select a preset temperature<br />

for most grape varieties. “The display said a bottle was chilled fairly<br />

quickly, but when the wine was decanted it was actually a few degrees<br />

below the display,” she said. “It was good for personal use and is easily<br />

portable, especially for someone who doesn’t want a fridge full of wine.”<br />

6/10 £80 lakeland.co.uk Time taken to chill wine one hour and 20 minutes<br />

Time taken to warm wine 25 minutes Size 27cm (h) x 25cm (w) x 27cm (d)<br />

Wines tested William Fèvre Chablis; 2015 Beaujolais Chenas, France


054 _ GEAR _ AUDIO<br />

Roksan<br />

The Pink<br />

Radius 7<br />

Designed and made in<br />

north-west London, the<br />

Radius 7 is built using a<br />

combination of precisionmachined<br />

stainless steel,<br />

brass, aluminium and, for<br />

the first time, pink-tinged<br />

acrylic (which denotes<br />

that, laudably, a portion of<br />

profits go to Breast<br />

Cancer Care). Supplied<br />

with a Nima Unipivot<br />

Tonearm and using the<br />

phenomenally accurate<br />

speed-control tecþology<br />

used on its flagship<br />

Xerxes turntable, the<br />

Radius 7 offers high<br />

performance as well as<br />

eye-catching aesthetics.<br />

To further enhance the<br />

transparent design, LED<br />

lights glow blue when<br />

playing at 33rpm and red<br />

for 45rpm. And, unlike<br />

many platters at this<br />

price, its electronic speed<br />

selection means there is<br />

no need to remove the<br />

belt to switch speeds.<br />

£1,700 roksan.co.uk<br />

TURNTABLE<br />

WORDS: CHRIS HASLAM. PHOTOGRAPHY: SUN LEE


Visit wired.co.uk or<br />

download our digital<br />

edition for more


DIGITAL PLAYGROUND _ GEAR _ 0 5 7<br />

TOYS<br />

Infantino B Kids BV<br />

Sensory Discovery Robot<br />

Winner of Best New Toy at the <strong>2017</strong> Toy Fair,<br />

the Discovery Robot beeps, flashes and pulls<br />

funny expressions as your baby bashes, yanks,<br />

chews and generally abuses it. Rotate its head<br />

and hear clicking, press the hand and its<br />

eyes spin, then push and pull its feet for more<br />

visual and sonic stimulation. £14 bkids.eu<br />

Maglev Model Train<br />

Lini Cube<br />

Jimu Robot TankBot Kit<br />

The concept for the<br />

magnetic levitating<br />

train dates back to 1902;<br />

the first commercially<br />

usable track opened in<br />

Birmingham in 1984. While<br />

we’re all waiting for the<br />

hyperloop to take the idea<br />

to the next level, here’s a<br />

small-scale version<br />

for your kids to play<br />

with. Build your own<br />

smooth-running, highspeed<br />

maglev track<br />

(below), albeit one that<br />

fits in your living room.<br />

$tbc toysmith.com<br />

With 105 ways to plug<br />

one cube into another<br />

(a typical LEGO brick<br />

manages just nine),<br />

Lini Cube is a versatile<br />

building block allowing<br />

for true 3D model-making.<br />

In a smart development, it<br />

adopts Selinko’s internet<br />

of things technology:<br />

each pack of cubes<br />

features an NFC chip,<br />

which helps tackle toy<br />

counterfeiters, who<br />

account for an annual<br />

sector loss of £1.25<br />

million. €197 lini.design<br />

Jimu TankBot teaches<br />

robotic construction and<br />

coding. By using its free<br />

iOS app, kids can follow<br />

3D instructions to<br />

program movement of the<br />

tank-treaded toy by its<br />

six servo motors. The<br />

kit’s 190 interlocking<br />

pieces allow you to build<br />

the pre-designed<br />

TankBot, then modify it. It<br />

also includes an infrared<br />

sensor that tracks lines<br />

and senses objects to<br />

manoeuvre around or pick<br />

up. £145 jimurobots.com<br />

40cm<br />

WORDS: CHRIS HASLAM; JEREMY WHITE. PHOTOGRAPHY:<br />

ANDY BARTER; ROGER STILLMAN; CHARLIE SURBEY<br />

PowerUp FPV<br />

At last: a paper plane you<br />

can pilot <strong>–</strong> just download<br />

the PowerUp app,<br />

reach for your Google<br />

Cardboard and enjoy a<br />

different view of the<br />

world. PowerUp has<br />

engineered an 80g paperaeroplane<br />

motor with a<br />

built-in wide-angle<br />

camera, microphone and<br />

Wi-Fi connectivity with<br />

a range of 92 metres.<br />

Tilt your head to control<br />

its movements, and <strong>–</strong><br />

depending on the design<br />

<strong>–</strong> your sheet of 120gsm<br />

can reach speeds of<br />

up to 32kph. £199<br />

poweruptoys.com<br />

Design_ smart toys<br />

Get kids piloting planes and running maglev trains with these clever curios<br />

121cm<br />

Table Pong Project<br />

YouTuber Daniel Perdomo has taken the classic<br />

70s video game and turned it into a real-world<br />

proposition. With no previous technical<br />

knowledge <strong>–</strong> the paddle controllers are made<br />

from old hard drives and engineering principles<br />

picked up online <strong>–</strong> Perdomo and his team have<br />

made the virtual tangible, without diminishing<br />

the game’s appeal. $tbc tablepongproject.com


058 _ GEAR _ NEW FACES<br />

A full RGBW palette allows<br />

infinite colour options, with<br />

a range of programmable<br />

patterns to reflect<br />

the clock’s environment<br />

CLOCK<br />

WORDS: KATHRYN NAVE. PHOTOGRAPHY: MITCH PAYNE<br />

Rousseau Design Tempus<br />

The Tempus clock takes a hands-free approach to timekeeping, with three concentric LED rings<br />

indicating hours, minutes and seconds (the time on the example here is 8:57.33). Measuring 900mm in<br />

diameter, it can be wall-mounted or floor-standing, and is available in a wide range of materials and finishes<br />

including carbon fibre, DuPont Corian, white marble and American walnut. From £5,950 rousseau.co.uk


OLED TV Like No Other<br />

The World’s Number One OLED TV Brand<br />

<br />

<br />

Multi HDR with<br />

Dolby Vision<br />

Dolby AtmosÆ<br />

Over a billion colours for a rich,<br />

brilliant picture<br />

Unparalleled details and image<br />

depth beyond that of any LED TV<br />

Advance multiple HDR solutions<br />

with scene by scene adjustment<br />

Experience cinematic sound<br />

in motion all around you<br />

Discover more: lg.com/uk/lgoled


060 _ GEAR _ DETAILED LOOK<br />

LG UltraWide 38UC99-W<br />

The artwork used for this test is taken from<br />

the Microsculpture body of work by WIRED<br />

photographer Levon Biss. microsculpture.net<br />

HOW WE TESTED<br />

Curved-screen monitors<br />

with a 21:9 aspect ratio<br />

should come with a wideload<br />

warning. The aim<br />

of creating VR-like<br />

immersion results in a<br />

panel with exaggerated<br />

proportions courtesy of a<br />

display just 15 inches high.<br />

The screen excels with<br />

landscape imagery or<br />

viewing three windows<br />

abreast. However, the<br />

Quad HD display (that’s<br />

four times the resolution<br />

of 720p HD) suffers from<br />

a lack of true 4K and<br />

struggles with contrast.<br />

Its design ethic appears<br />

similar to Acer, albeit with<br />

better quality. The base<br />

offers adjustments and<br />

port choice is reasonable,<br />

but the LG is lacking<br />

something its elongated<br />

dimensions cannot save.<br />

6/10 £1,199 lg.com/uk<br />

Size 38 inches<br />

Panel type IPS<br />

Resolution 3840 x 1600<br />

pixels Brightness 300 nit<br />

Colour supported 1.07bn<br />

Ports 2 x HDMI, USB-C,<br />

2 x USB, DisplayPort<br />

WIRED hooked up a 2016 MacBook Pro to each<br />

display at its highest resolution and with a 60Hz<br />

refresh rate. We then used Photoshop with a<br />

scaled-up interface for images at a 1:1 ratio and<br />

streamed shows in UHD through Netflix.<br />

Philips Brilliance<br />

with MultiView<br />

Philips’ curved Ultra HD<br />

LCD display has been<br />

beautifully conceived<br />

with a super-slim bezel<br />

and a silver/white<br />

combination to leave LG<br />

and Acer lagging. Its<br />

“Brilliance” tag is<br />

justified by a vast colour<br />

gamut from the vertical<br />

alignment panel that<br />

blocks unwanted<br />

backlighting for higher<br />

contrast. Results are<br />

impressive, as is the<br />

MultiView feature which<br />

allows split-screen HD<br />

viewing from up to four<br />

inputs. Panel size<br />

restricts the stand to a<br />

tilt option, but with good<br />

port connectivity and a<br />

raft of optimisation<br />

settings, this is pretty<br />

much the finished<br />

article for discerning<br />

professionals.<br />

9/10 £599 philips.co.uk<br />

Display size 40 inches<br />

Panel type VA LCD<br />

Resolution 3840 x 2160<br />

pixels Brightness 300 nit<br />

Colours supported<br />

1.07bn Ports 2 x HDMI,<br />

VGA, 4 x USB, DisplayPort<br />

WORDS: JAMES DAY. PHOTOGRAPHY: SUN LEE; LEVON BISS<br />

SCREENS


O The Acer S277HK’S<br />

brushed-aluminium stand<br />

has a tilt range of -5° to 15°<br />

Acer S277HK<br />

Acer’s sub-£500 screen<br />

exudes the sort of stylish<br />

design that all computer<br />

displays should aspire to.<br />

A hairline bezel and offset<br />

stand make this a real<br />

head-turner. The 27-inch<br />

4K panel is perfectly<br />

adequate, and colour<br />

accuracy is a feather in<br />

Acer’s cap, too. So, it’s<br />

got the looks, but<br />

practicality is where<br />

things start to unravel.<br />

The quirky stand is<br />

hamstrung by a lack of<br />

height adjustment, and<br />

the white plastic rear<br />

feels budget. An exposed<br />

port cluster lacks USB<br />

connectivity and<br />

encourages messy wiring.<br />

With some wise tweaks,<br />

Acer would have<br />

a winner on its hands;<br />

as it stands, we’re left<br />

feeling frustrated.<br />

7/10 £499 acer.co.uk<br />

Display size 27 inches<br />

Panel type IPS<br />

Resolution 3840 x 2160<br />

pixels Brightness 300 nit<br />

Colours supported 1.07bn<br />

Ports HDMI, DVI-D,<br />

DisplayPort<br />

ViewSonic XG2700<br />

The XG2700 is a gaming<br />

display with Golf GTI-style<br />

“go faster” red stripes,<br />

and the positive VW<br />

comparisons don’t end<br />

there. Even though the<br />

exterior is entirely plastic,<br />

it doesn’t feel cheap. In<br />

addition, the 4K panel is<br />

packed with features to<br />

produce, pound-forpound,<br />

the best picture.<br />

WIRED was blown away by<br />

the image quality, lack of<br />

motion blur, superb colour<br />

accuracy and contrast. A<br />

generous rear-port cluster<br />

is coupled with a clever<br />

cable tidying loop, and<br />

the base is also the most<br />

versatile in our line-up <strong>–</strong> it<br />

even sports a portrait<br />

mode. Its styling won’t be<br />

to everyone’s liking, but<br />

ViewSonic scores big<br />

with a stellar performer<br />

at a tempting price.<br />

9/10 £499 viewsonic.com<br />

Display size 27 inches<br />

Panel type IPS<br />

Resolution 3840 x 2160<br />

pixels Brightness 300 nit<br />

Colours supported 1.07bn<br />

Ports 3 x HDMI,<br />

5 x USB, DisplayPort,<br />

Mini DisplayPort<br />

Test_ 4k monitors<br />

WIRED assessed four ultra-high-definition computer<br />

displays designed to give you a visual upgrade


ROTARY CLUB _ GEAR _ 0 6 3<br />

1<br />

2<br />

TRANSPORT<br />

4<br />

3<br />

6<br />

6<br />

7<br />

WORDS: MATT BURGESS. PHOTOGRAPHY: SUN LEE<br />

8<br />

Gearhead_ paramotoring<br />

9<br />

Upgrade your commute with WIRED’s essential items for 007-style entrances<br />

1 APCO Free Air Com III<br />

2 Naviter Oudie 4<br />

3 Parajet Maverick<br />

4 Gin Windy flying suit<br />

5 Phantom Nova<br />

This has visor options and<br />

air vents to keep your head<br />

cool; there’s also a comms<br />

headset for group flying.<br />

£110 apcoaviation.com<br />

GPS and gyros let you<br />

know exactly where you’re<br />

heading, and it provides<br />

thermals and wind info, too.<br />

£500 naviter.com<br />

A titanium chassis of just<br />

8.4kg and a 25hp engine<br />

with a ten-litre fuel tank will<br />

keep you soaring for hours.<br />

From £4,333 parajet.com<br />

This suit’s four pockets<br />

keep your items safe, and<br />

a microfibre-lined collar<br />

stops the wind from getting<br />

in. £219 gingliders.com<br />

A 4.8kg wing made with<br />

3,000 components, the<br />

Phantom Nova is designed<br />

to ensure the pilot remains<br />

in control. £5,849 nova.eu<br />

6 GoPro HERO5 Black<br />

Voice control makes<br />

capturing shots easy and<br />

a touch display enables<br />

previewing of images while<br />

in-flight. £400 gopro.com<br />

7 High Adventure Itsy<br />

Bitsy Touch Gloves<br />

These have touchscreensensitive<br />

tips to let you tap<br />

your devices in-flight.<br />

£116 highadventure.ch<br />

8 Gin Yeti Cross<br />

A backup parachute is<br />

vital, and Yeti Cross’s<br />

square design will prevent<br />

a pendulum-like descent.<br />

£449 gingliders.com<br />

9 Trespass Rhythmic<br />

men’s DLX trainers<br />

The hard soles can take<br />

bumpy landings while a<br />

cushioned midsole gives<br />

comfort. £63 trespass.com<br />

5<br />

8.79m


Moleskine Smart Writing Set<br />

Most smart-writing systems require a compromise on either the pen, paper<br />

or both. By contrast, almost every element of this set feels premium, from<br />

its ivory-paged notebooks to the svelte aluminium pen. The accompanying<br />

app is equally slick, letting you change writing colour and file pages into<br />

virtual notebooks. Handwriting is captured by an infrared camera. WIRED<br />

particularly liked the pen’s LED. Not so attractive: the ugly lid and fivehour<br />

battery life. 9/10 £199.99 moleskine.com Transcription error rate 4.5 per<br />

cent Compatibility iOS and Android Battery life Five hours Voice sync? Yes<br />

Test_ smart pens<br />

WIRED gets to grip with digital-writing tools. Which one rewrote the rules?<br />

Montblanc<br />

Augmented Paper<br />

The Augmented Paper<br />

makes a promising first<br />

impression with its<br />

velvet-wrapped leather<br />

folio and a nice design.<br />

Things quickly go downhill,<br />

sadly. The pen’s pressure<br />

sensitivity is poor and<br />

failed to capture many<br />

strokes. There’s no live<br />

capture, so you have to<br />

press a button to send<br />

each page to the device.<br />

And the accompanying<br />

app is unintuitive, with no<br />

ability to organise notes<br />

into collections. There is,<br />

however, capability<br />

for virtual page editing.<br />

3/10 £530 montblanc.com<br />

Transcription error rate<br />

N/A <strong>–</strong> the folio failed to<br />

capture most of the<br />

AxiDraw’s strokes.<br />

Compatibility iOS and<br />

Android Battery life Eight<br />

hours Voice sync? No<br />

HOW WE<br />

TESTED<br />

WIRED used the AxiDraw<br />

V3 machine to write lines<br />

of upper- and lower-case<br />

text. Perfect repeatability<br />

of cursive letter forms,<br />

programmed using Inkscape<br />

software, let us measure<br />

handwriting capture and<br />

transcription accuracy.<br />

Equil Smartpen 2<br />

Livescribe 3<br />

Livescribe is the original<br />

smart-pen company, but<br />

a lack of competition has<br />

done the company no<br />

favours. This most recent<br />

offering is four years old<br />

and has a chunky plastic<br />

barrel that’s almost twice<br />

the width of the others<br />

on test. The ability to<br />

sync recorded audio to<br />

handwriting is useful, but<br />

its accompanying app<br />

is glitchy, with limited<br />

features and no ability<br />

to change ink colours or<br />

make edits. Files can,<br />

however, be exported<br />

for editing in other<br />

applications. Handwriting<br />

capture, however, is where<br />

the Livescribe shines.<br />

The pen requires minimal<br />

pressure, resulting in<br />

a more natural writing<br />

experience. The app<br />

renders text instantly<br />

and smoothly, and<br />

rounds off unevenness.<br />

6/10 £129 livescribe.com<br />

Transcription error rate<br />

Four per cent<br />

Device compatibility<br />

iOS and Android<br />

Battery life 15 hours<br />

Voice sync? Yes<br />

Wrapped in a smart iPad-style magnetic cover, this triangular case<br />

includes a receiver that clips on to the top of your paper. It also has a<br />

slim, white pen equipped with a handy integrated charging system.<br />

The use of ultrasound and infrared, rather than specialised paper,<br />

to track the pen’s position allows you to use any notebook, napkin or<br />

envelope that you have to hand. A clever bonus is the ability to clip<br />

the receiver to the top of your tablet and insert a plastic tip into the<br />

pen for extra accuracy. Designed for drawing as well as handwriting<br />

capture, the Smartpen 2 ofers 600 levels of pressure sensitivity and<br />

has a dedicated sketching app with a rich set of tools.<br />

9/10 £199 myequil.com Transcription error rate Four per cent<br />

Compatibility iOS and Android Battery life Eight hours Voice sync? No<br />

WORDS: KATHRYN NAVE. PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDY BARTER


PEN FOR YOUR THOUGHTS _ GEAR _ 065<br />

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Price correct at time of going to press.<br />

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Travel time from the development is estimated and may vary.


HP _ WIRED PARTNERSHIP<br />

SOLVING HEADACHES<br />

IN THE HEALTH SECTOR<br />

IDEAS FROM THE HP SOLUTIONS DAY <strong>–</strong> AND WHY THE HEALTHCARE<br />

SYSTEM SIMPLY CANNOT CONTINUE WITH BUSINESS AS USUAL<br />

hen it comes to digitisation,<br />

healthcare offers<br />

enormous potential for<br />

W change. By integrating<br />

such innovations as big<br />

data and augmented<br />

reality, medicine may break in to exciting<br />

new areas. But progress is slow, and in the<br />

day-to-day running of hospitals and medical<br />

practices the fax machine still rules.<br />

HP Solutions Day <strong>2017</strong>, an event held in<br />

Spreitenbach, Switzerland on April 5, gave<br />

a panel of leading minds the chance to<br />

address such contradictions.<br />

The awkward duality which healthcare<br />

finds itself in was detailed by Marc Strasser,<br />

CIO of the University Hospital of Basel. “Once,<br />

when a doctor prescribed a drug, they used<br />

to scribble something on a piece of paper<br />

and hand it over <strong>–</strong> finished,” said Strasser.<br />

“Today, they must authenticate themselves<br />

in the system and record the data in a structured<br />

manner. They have more work.”<br />

The potential of time- and cost-saving<br />

technologies was acknowledged by Karsten<br />

Lemm, senior editor at WIRED Germany. Citing<br />

a report into digitisation, Lemm suggested<br />

that an individual hospital patient’s administrative<br />

costs could be reduced by up to 800<br />

per cent. However, Christian Schatzmann,<br />

CIO of Spital Thurgau AG hospital group,<br />

offered that often resources aren’t saved,<br />

they are redistributed or “simply used<br />

elsewhere”. Spital Thurgau treats more than<br />

30,000 inpatients per year. Using the introduction<br />

of the computer as an example of<br />

problematic digitisation, Schatzmann said<br />

documentation hadn’t declined as anticipated<br />

<strong>–</strong> “We just work more accurately.”<br />

Ways and means of protecting resources<br />

may remain unclear, but the HP Solutions<br />

Day panel unanimously supported the digitising<br />

of the entire upstream and downstream<br />

processes of medical treatment. One solution<br />

discussed <strong>–</strong> and currently under trial <strong>–</strong> has<br />

patients sign up to a hospital-connected<br />

app. Strasser commented that the University<br />

Hospital of Basel is looking at plans for<br />

patients to be discharged earlier and remotely<br />

monitored are “high on the list of priorities”.<br />

The conversation shifted to health<br />

monitoring, and how there is a clear division<br />

between professional health monitoring and<br />

everyday, consumer monitoring.<br />

“I have no platform at all to integrate this,”<br />

said Schatzmann of the data that everyday<br />

wearables produce. Strasser reinforced<br />

this, saying: “Consumer gadgets are not<br />

integrated with us <strong>–</strong> there will be special<br />

devices that can be delivered by the hospital.”<br />

The connected, but not integrated state<br />

of wearable health monitoring highlights the<br />

READ MORE:<br />

THE HOSPITAL<br />

OF THE FUTURE<br />

AI doctors “Fitbit<br />

for brains” and an<br />

eco-ambulance.<br />

wired.uk/hotf<br />

ongoing challenges of digitising healthcare.<br />

While full integration of products and<br />

services may take time, the next generation<br />

of doctors are keen to take up the mantle.<br />

Health IT consultant Jürg Lindenmann said<br />

of his younger colleagues: “They say to us,<br />

‘My God! You can’t work like this anymore!’”<br />

For more, see wired.uk/hp-reinventors<br />

THE DOCTOR OF<br />

THE FUTURE<br />

The innovators<br />

transforming<br />

healthcare.<br />

wired.uk/dotf<br />

HP<br />

ILLUSTRATION: BEN WISEMAN


Bots<br />

like us:<br />

a view<br />

of the<br />

uncanny<br />

valley<br />

WIRED CULTURE _ EDITED PAGE BY JAMES TITLE TEMPERTON _ SECTION _ 006 09<br />

ROBOTS<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: MAX AGUILERA-HELLWEG FROM HUMANOID (BLAST BOOKS}<br />

if a robot were to look at you<br />

with a twinkle in its eye, you<br />

wouldn’t be blamed for running<br />

away in terror. But it doesn’t bother<br />

Max Aguilera-Hellweg, who’s been<br />

photographing anthropomorphic<br />

androids since 2010. “I’ve never<br />

found myself afraid of them,” he<br />

says. In fact, he’d love for his<br />

subjects to appear more lifelike.<br />

A student of anatomy <strong>–</strong> Aguilera-<br />

Hellweg graduated from medical<br />

school at the age of 48 <strong>–</strong> he looks<br />

for “the right angle to find that bit<br />

of humanness”. His new book,<br />

Humanoid reminds us that<br />

robots aren’t human <strong>–</strong> we only<br />

make them so. Charley Locke<br />

Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishi guro didn’t stop at creating this gemin oid, or twin, of himself.<br />

He also had plastic surgery to maintain the likeness as he aged


Bong Joon-ho co-wrote Okja with British writer Jon Ronson<br />

PROFILE<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES


THE DIRECTOR’S CUT _ PLAY _ 071<br />

Why ‘the new Spielberg’ chose<br />

streaming before the big screen<br />

Quentin Tarantino compared him to a master of cinema <strong>–</strong> but Bong Joon-ho’s more concerned with control<br />

B<br />

ong joon-ho doesn’t drive much<br />

these days. “I can’t concentrate,” says<br />

the film director. “I keep having all these<br />

crazy thoughts.” He ofers an example<br />

<strong>–</strong> an idea he was struck by in 2010,<br />

while travelling in Seoul, South Korea.<br />

“I was on a highway and suddenly I imagined this creature<br />

curled up underneath the cross-section; a big animal that<br />

roams the streets of Seoul. I was thinking about [his 2013<br />

film] Snowpiercer too, but now this new idea, Okja, was<br />

marinating in my mind.” He chuckles. “I’m all over the place.”<br />

Dark, satirical, surreal, Bong’s career has been defined<br />

by crazy thoughts. At 47, he is one of the stars of South<br />

Korean film; a director who rose to prominence with<br />

true-crime thriller Memories of Murder in 2003. But he<br />

is best known for his two international cult hits: 2006<br />

breakout horror The Host, about a mutated monster who<br />

terrorises a family; and his English-language debut<br />

Snowpiercer, a post-apocalyptic satire starring Chris<br />

Evans and Tilda Swinton. Quentin Tarantino once<br />

described him as “Steven Spielberg in his prime”.<br />

Okja, however, is about as mainstream as Bong gets.<br />

Released through Netflix (online June 28, in cinemas at a<br />

later date), it’s the coming-of-age story of Mija (Seo-Hyun<br />

Ahn), a young South Korean girl whose new best friend,<br />

Okja, is a scientific breakthrough for the food industry. At<br />

the heart of the film lies a question: is Okja, a huge, boar-like<br />

animal, a living, sentient being with its own rights, or is<br />

it the property of creator Nancy Mirando (Tilda Swinton),<br />

the corporate scientist of a powerful multinational?<br />

“The essence of the movie is the love between human<br />

and animal,” Bong explains. “But capitalism turns that<br />

love into something ugly and turns living things into<br />

commodities.” This is why he worked with Dutch animator<br />

Erik-Jan de Boer, who oversaw the tiger efects on Life of<br />

Pi. “I didn’t want Okja to look cartoonish. It is based on<br />

hippos, pigs, manatees <strong>–</strong> kind creatures with lots of meat.<br />

The efects were vital for making it feel like a real animal.”<br />

Compared to The Host, Okja is almost family-friendly,<br />

but it remains a truly black comedy: a satire of corporate<br />

culture and animal activism. It’s an edge that runs<br />

throughout Bong’s work <strong>–</strong> one he attributes to the<br />

“absurdity” of growing up in South Korea. “Just look at our<br />

country’s history,” he says. “In the North, the leader has<br />

been called insane. In the South, the leader [Park Geun-hye]<br />

has been impeached. It inspires me, but it’s exhausting.”<br />

For many, Okja represents a new age of transcontinental<br />

co-productions and streaming services that are opening<br />

up world cinema. Bong doesn’t agree. “I didn’t think of<br />

it in terms of a collaboration between countries,” he<br />

says. “Everything centres on story. Okja is about a girl<br />

travelling from Korea to New York. It’s an international<br />

stage. It’s natural. That’s the only reason for collaboration.<br />

What’s more important is that I have creative rights.”<br />

You can understand why. In 2013, the US release of<br />

Snowpiercer was dominated by reports of disagreements<br />

<strong>–</strong> distributor Harvey Weinstein reportedly wanted to cut<br />

20 minutes from the film, but Bong’s director’s cut<br />

eventually won. The cost? The film received minimal<br />

marketing and a limited theatrical run, never even making<br />

it to the <strong>UK</strong>. He refuses to be drawn on the experience,<br />

saying only that, “I wasn’t bothered about not getting<br />

a wider release, but I was satisfied to protect my cut.”<br />

On his experience of working with Netflix, Bong is more<br />

positive. It gave him “100 per cent creative control”, and<br />

“the biggest budget [$50 million (£40m)] that I could have<br />

worked with.” Okja will get a limited theatrical release in<br />

the US and South Korea, and in the <strong>UK</strong> it will be released<br />

on Netflix first, then in cinemas. “Its distribution model<br />

is interesting,” Bong says. “But Netflix has a high-quality<br />

service with regards the resolution and I appreciated I could<br />

talk about things such as 4K. They respect the medium.”<br />

Whether it’s through a laptop, a TV or a projector, you<br />

get the feeling it doesn’t matter how people see Bong’s<br />

work. All that matters is the viewer sees his vision on<br />

screen. And with Okja, it’s finally time to show that vision<br />

to the world. Stephen Kelly netflix.com<br />

‘The essence of Okja is the love between<br />

human and animal. But capitalism<br />

turns that love into something ugly’<br />

Bong Joon-ho


072 _ PLAY _ FILM REVIVAL<br />

The Super 8 is the first Kodak film camera since 2004 to be designed for consumers<br />

We’ve had the vinyl revival <strong>–</strong> now<br />

physical film is making a comeback.<br />

The new Kodak Super 8 camera is<br />

putting a digital spin on a<br />

52-year-old format: “It’s going to<br />

change the way Super 8 is used,”<br />

claims Josh Robertson, a film<br />

community manager at Kodak.<br />

First announced in January 2016,<br />

a small number of limited-edition<br />

cameras will go on sale later this<br />

year for £1,899, shortly before the<br />

£1,549 standard edition is released.<br />

Kodak collaborated with San<br />

Francisco-based designer Yves<br />

Behar to update the trad Super 8<br />

look with a digital viewfinder and<br />

angled handle on top.<br />

A film camera with a digital<br />

screen might seem like a strange<br />

beast, but Kodak reckons it can<br />

attract a new generation of budding<br />

producers who’ve only ever shot on<br />

digital. “Even though you are<br />

That Kodak<br />

moment returns<br />

Growing demand for Super 8 film has<br />

led to the iconic camera’s relaunch<br />

shooting on analogue film, the<br />

digital viewfinder allows you to see<br />

exactly what is going to be exposed<br />

on to it,” Robertson says. The cost<br />

of a film cartridge will also include<br />

processing and digitisation of<br />

footage, which can be uploaded to<br />

the cloud for easy editing.<br />

O<br />

Another big change: sound.<br />

Whereas Kodak’s 2016 prototype<br />

had a built-in microphone, the final<br />

model does not. Kodak has instead<br />

added an SD card slot, which can<br />

connect to an external mic.<br />

The company’s renewed faith in<br />

film isn’t without precedent. Oscarwinners<br />

La La Land and Fences, as<br />

well as the heavily nominated<br />

Hidden Figures, were all shot on the<br />

format, rather than digital.<br />

Robertson hopes its Super 8 will<br />

appeal to people yearning for a more<br />

tangible creative process: “There’s<br />

a certain point where we’re so<br />

bombarded with tech that we want<br />

to digital detox.” JT kodak.com<br />

DESIGN<br />

O<br />

O<br />

O The hand grip<br />

Hold it from the top, or screw a pistol<br />

grip into the tripod mount on the<br />

bottom for run-and-gun shooting.<br />

O The film<br />

The Super 8 can shoot on daylight<br />

stock, tungsten and black-and-white<br />

film at 18 to 36 frames per second.<br />

O The viewfinder<br />

There’s a screen, but no touch controls.<br />

Settings are accessed through a<br />

toggle wheel on the side of the camera.<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: SUN LEE


ACCENTURE _ WIRED PARTNERSHIP<br />

WHAT’S COMING NEXT<br />

WIRED and Accenture recently co-hosted a dinner to discuss<br />

the biggest trends forecasted for <strong>2017</strong>. So, what is the new new?<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: LEON CSERNOHLAVEK<br />

uring the first in a series<br />

of invitational dinners<br />

co-hosted by WIRED and<br />

D Accenture dubbed The<br />

New New, discussion<br />

centred on the next step<br />

in consumer and enterprise technology.<br />

The 25 invitees included Caroline Drucker,<br />

head of strategic partnerships EMEA<br />

at Instagram, Bilal Djelassi, investment<br />

associate at Orange Digital Ventures, and Nick<br />

Brackenbury, co-founder and CEO of NearSt,<br />

plus attendees from WIRED and Accenture.<br />

The debate flagged VR, AI and 5G as major<br />

trends, but conversation soon shifted to how<br />

reimagining current technologies and tools<br />

could release untapped potential.<br />

It was Brackenbury who suggested the<br />

need to do more with our current capabilities.<br />

Describing his startup NearSt as “boring AR”,<br />

he enthused about the strength of existing<br />

technology <strong>–</strong> which enables his company<br />

to encourage people to get out into the real<br />

world. “That’s what I’m really interested in.<br />

How can you interact with the world around<br />

you in an intuitive, non-novelty way?”<br />

That sense of doing more with what’s<br />

available and building in a sustainable<br />

manner found support from Ben Brabyn,<br />

chief executive of accelerator Level39.<br />

“The future’s here, it’s just not evenly<br />

distributed,” he said. “The culture is trying<br />

to catch up with technology.”<br />

Terence Eden, open standards lead at<br />

Government Digital Service, drew on the<br />

general stasis seen in mobile hardware to<br />

highlight a need for refinement.<br />

“We’ve reached an inflection point where<br />

things are good enough,” he said. “If we look<br />

Right: At Accenture, George<br />

Marcotte helps institutions<br />

build and deploy major digital<br />

programmes to improve<br />

their business results<br />

at the big sellers at the moment, it’s stuff<br />

that’s plateau-level. People have reached a<br />

level where they are happy <strong>–</strong> apart from with<br />

their battery life, of course.”<br />

For such big sellers to thrive, however,<br />

it’s key that they open up, said Accenture<br />

managing director and go-to-market lead<br />

George Marcotte: “Businesses have a<br />

choice between continuing with the internal,<br />

closed-shop practices of the past, or opening<br />

ACCENTURE<br />

their innovation capabilities to an entire<br />

ecosystem of innovative partners.”<br />

In technology, of course, innovation never<br />

dies. Yet smart thinking and agile solutions<br />

could maximise existing tools. Discovering<br />

new potential by using today’s capabilities<br />

may even help the benefits become more<br />

evenly distributed. Perhaps that’s what defines<br />

the “new new” <strong>–</strong> a revolution of refinement.<br />

For more, see accenture.com/digital<br />

THE TECH DEMOS:<br />

GRAPHENE FLAGSHIP<br />

Applications<br />

for graphene <strong>–</strong><br />

from sensors to<br />

car design and<br />

energy storage.<br />

ERICSSON<br />

A showcase of<br />

high-bandwidth,<br />

low-latency<br />

networks for<br />

driverless cars.<br />

NCUBE HOME<br />

The hub and<br />

app to connect<br />

smart-home<br />

devices <strong>–</strong> from<br />

Nest to Hive.


074 _ PLAY _ UNKNOWN PLEASURES<br />

Pictured:<br />

Territory<br />

co-founder<br />

David Sheldon-<br />

Hicks<br />

Like Pandemic?<br />

Now play these<br />

Risk Legacy<br />

The game that<br />

started it all: a<br />

twist on an<br />

old favourite<br />

How Pandemic<br />

gave board<br />

games a digital<br />

plot twist<br />

Board games are undergoing<br />

a revival <strong>–</strong> and for the first time,<br />

players’ cardboard crimes have<br />

real-world consequences. It all<br />

started with a game of Cluedo:<br />

“I always wondered why they kept<br />

getting invited to dinner when all<br />

they did was murder people,” says<br />

Rob Daviau, co-designer of Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, the highestranked<br />

game of all time on the BoardGameGeek website.<br />

Released in October 2015, Pandemic Legacy demonstrated that a<br />

cardboard game can have all the dynamism of TV and video games. The<br />

trick? Add a plot. When developing the title, Daviau teamed up with former<br />

Silicon Valley user-experience designer Matt Leacock. Riffing on Leacock’s<br />

2013 debut game Pandemic, in which players battle to stop four killer<br />

plagues overwhelming the world, Legacy added stickers, a drip-feed of<br />

new rules and sealed boxes players only open as the story moves on.<br />

One mass-extinction event later, the Legacy board game genre was born.<br />

Pandemic is unlikely to challenge the likes of Hasbro, but its initial run of<br />

80,000 sold out <strong>–</strong> not bad for an industry where 20,000 units is considered<br />

good business. “These games have two pillars: permanent change and<br />

adding new content as you play,” Daviau says. Other titles are now running<br />

with the idea, including heavyweights such as Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle,<br />

which creates seven years at wizarding school, and Gloomhaven, a sprawling<br />

simulator that plays like a table-top version of The Witcher video game.<br />

His next project, Pandemic 2, out later this year, tells the story of survivors<br />

exploring a devastated Earth 71 years on. The rest is a mystery. Leacock<br />

says that’s exactly why it caught on in the first place: people love surprises.<br />

“You get a lot of stagecraft and keep things hidden for reveals later,” he<br />

says. “There are twists and turns; developing an arc is fun. You have higher<br />

stakes. If you make a permanent change, you’re always questioning your<br />

decision. There’s no going back.” Tom Mendelsohn zmangames.com<br />

Gloomhaven<br />

Control your team<br />

in this detailed<br />

adventure game<br />

SeaFall<br />

A sprawling<br />

nautical epic that<br />

divided players<br />

and critics alike<br />

Fabled Fruit<br />

A lighter, childfriendly<br />

game<br />

without the<br />

scarier elements<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: JAY BROOKS. THANKS TO 20TH CENTURY FOX AND SUIT DESIGNER<br />

FBFX. ILLUSTRATION: DAVID DORAN. SPOT ILLUSTRATION: PIP PELL


Ground control:<br />

The Martian has<br />

landed in London<br />

DESIGN<br />

An exhibition at the Barbican<br />

Centre is encouraging you<br />

to walk in Matt Damon’s shoes<br />

in the heart of the uk’s capital,<br />

a mission to Mars is ready for take-of.<br />

Territory, the studio that designed the<br />

on-screen graphics for Nasa’s control<br />

centre in The Martian, has turned the<br />

set into an art installation, allowing<br />

anyone to take charge. “We hope to<br />

take people away from the belief that<br />

everything’s done in CGI later on,” says<br />

Territory co-founder David Sheldon-<br />

Hicks. “We sit somewhere between<br />

storyteller, real-life data and science.”<br />

In The Martian, the film of which<br />

was released in 2015, London-based<br />

Territory created the graphics for a<br />

space control centre of the future,<br />

based on predictions from staff at<br />

Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Lab. “We had<br />

the three big LED screens delivering<br />

to the bullpen,” says Sheldon-<br />

Hicks, 37. “There’s a central display<br />

that looks like an Excel document.<br />

We had to resist having a big, red<br />

display flashing, ‘Warning, warning,’<br />

because that wouldn’t really happen.”<br />

The set, housed in the Into the<br />

Unknown exhibition at the Barbican<br />

Centre, is a scaled-down version of<br />

the 85 screens used in the film. An<br />

audio headset feeds instructions<br />

from a fictional director telling<br />

the person to interact with the set<br />

while the graphics used in the film<br />

appear on-screen. “We wanted the<br />

audience to experience what the<br />

actors experience. It’s not just green<br />

screen and make-believe. There are<br />

graphics, a script to deliver and a<br />

director asking you to press things,”<br />

says Sheldon-Hicks.<br />

For one of its current projects,<br />

upcoming film Ready Player One,<br />

Territory wants to create the same<br />

sensation in VR. “It’s about transmitting<br />

your consciousness into<br />

another digital world,” says Sheldon-<br />

Hicks of the Steven-Spielbergdirected<br />

movie due for release in<br />

2018. “How do you make an audience<br />

understand that the VR experience<br />

is something new and diferent? It’s<br />

interesting to see how that integrates<br />

into storytelling in movies.” BC<br />

barbican.org.uk. Into the Unknown<br />

runs from June 3 to September 1


Stay ahead of the<br />

competition with<br />

WIRED Consulting<br />

Immersivesessionsforseniorleadershipteams<br />

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WEB OF IDENTITY _ PLAY _ 0 7 7<br />

Back in the 60s, when Spider-Man<br />

made his first appearance, the idea that<br />

you could adopt, keep and maintain a<br />

secret identity was fairly plausible.<br />

Today, not so much. But could a<br />

modern-day Peter Parker elude CCTV<br />

and DNA forensics? Or are films such<br />

as Spider-Man: Homecoming, out <strong>July</strong> 7,<br />

merely the stuff of nostalgic fantasy?<br />

WIRED spoke to former detective Peter<br />

Bleksley, author of crime thriller The<br />

Gangbuster, to find out. Stephen Kelly<br />

How today’s tech could<br />

unmask Spider-Man<br />

1 2 3<br />

Spidey sense?<br />

Try common sense...<br />

Costumes help <strong>–</strong><br />

just don’t touch anyone<br />

Don’t go anywhere.<br />

Unless it’s the countryside<br />

“Spider-Man is male, so<br />

we can discount half of<br />

the population instantly.<br />

Secondly, we look at his<br />

age range <strong>–</strong> between, say,<br />

20 and 35. We then look<br />

at his build, height and<br />

weight. Using traditional<br />

investigative techniques,<br />

we can narrow down the<br />

suspects fairly quickly.”<br />

“Disguises can be<br />

effective. A recent<br />

example is ‘Basil’ from the<br />

Hatton Garden raid, who<br />

wore a mask and remains<br />

at large. But, in the case<br />

of a superhero, a transfer<br />

of fibres from a costume<br />

on to the villain they’ve<br />

been grappling with could<br />

yield a DNA profile.”<br />

“Cities have extensive<br />

CCTV coverage: if CCTV<br />

captures a civilian<br />

walking down an alley and<br />

Superman emerges from<br />

the other end, you have<br />

your case solved. It’s only<br />

when you’re out of the city,<br />

in an area with diminished<br />

CCTV, that you could hope<br />

to remain untracked.”<br />

4 5<br />

Forensic science<br />

scuppers supervillains<br />

“Blood, saliva, sweat <strong>–</strong><br />

anything remaining from<br />

a fight can be profiled.<br />

Even breath can be used. If<br />

you know Batman <strong>–</strong> whose<br />

mouth is exposed <strong>–</strong> has<br />

spent time in a room, then<br />

you can seal that room<br />

and apply a sophisticated<br />

chemical treatment<br />

to extract his DNA.”<br />

Throw away<br />

your smartphone<br />

“Every button you press<br />

leaves an electronic<br />

footprint. And the only way<br />

to avoid such a footprint<br />

would be to use cybercrime<br />

techniques. If Batman is<br />

hacking into state-run<br />

CCTV and disabling them,<br />

that’s an offence. It<br />

would also leave a trail <strong>–</strong><br />

right back to the Batcave.”<br />

ILLUSTRATION: ANDREW THOMSON<br />

FILM


INSIDER<br />

WIRED<br />

INSIDER’S<br />

PICK OF<br />

UPCOMING<br />

EVENTS<br />

Events, new<br />

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Compiled by<br />

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WIRED<br />

ENERGY<br />

WIRED’s newest<br />

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SECURITY<br />

WIRED Security is<br />

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the security sector,<br />

as well as the fastgrowing<br />

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September 28<br />

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1<br />

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WIRED<br />

RETAIL<br />

WIRED Retail <strong>2017</strong><br />

will bring branding,<br />

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executives together<br />

to discuss the<br />

innovations and<br />

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then indulge in your<br />

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them straight to your<br />

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Nikon’s SnapBridge app<br />

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the camera to your<br />

smartphone or tablet.<br />

£470 store.nikon.co.uk<br />

2/ Moshi Helios<br />

Lite backpack<br />

in grey/orange<br />

Designed to accommodate<br />

a 13” laptop, books,<br />

stationery and more, the<br />

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and fashion with style.<br />

Pieced together with<br />

lightweight and waterresistant<br />

materials, this<br />

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3/ Lindberg Sun<br />

Titanium 8313<br />

sunglasses<br />

Known for its minimalist<br />

ethos, Danish eyewear<br />

brand Lindberg focuses<br />

on stylish, high-quality<br />

craftsmanship and luxury<br />

design. These titanium<br />

glasses are light and<br />

flexible to ensure the<br />

perfect fit. A transparent<br />

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A captivating combination<br />

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WIRED<br />

LIVE<br />

WIRED’s flagship<br />

two-day event<br />

reboots in <strong>2017</strong><br />

as WIRED Live,<br />

a celebration of<br />

everything in our<br />

world, spanning<br />

ideas, technology,<br />

design, business<br />

and more. Our<br />

previous speakers<br />

include musician<br />

will.i.am, architect<br />

Zaha Hadid and<br />

DeepMind’s<br />

Mustafa Suleyman.<br />

November 2-3<br />

wired.uk/events17<br />

Follow us on Twitter<br />

and Instagram:<br />

@WIREDINSIDER<strong>UK</strong><br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: SUN LEE


LISTEN AND LEARN _ PLAY _ 0 7 9<br />

EDUCATION<br />

Life support<br />

for languages<br />

Thousands of dialects are dying out <strong>–</strong><br />

but Inky Gibbens aims to keep them<br />

alive with her online-learning service<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: SEBASTIAN NEVOLS<br />

inky gibbens is on a mission to save the<br />

world’s dying languages <strong>–</strong> by taking them online.<br />

“My maternal grandparents come from Siberia<br />

and they spoke an endangered language called<br />

Buryat,” says Gibbens, 31. “The only way I could<br />

learn the language was by going to Siberia.”<br />

Inspired by her experience, in <strong>August</strong> 2016 she<br />

founded Tribalingual to let anyone use simple<br />

online tools to keep struggling languages alive.<br />

The need is acute: the United Nations lists<br />

2,465 languages as endangered and, since<br />

1950, at least 230 have become extinct. Based<br />

in Cambridge, Tribalingual offers ten-week<br />

courses to give people a grounding in five<br />

languages: Ainu (Japan); Mongolian; Quechua<br />

(South America); Gangte (northeast India);<br />

and Greko (southern Italy).<br />

Gibbens, who is supported by the University<br />

of Cambridge’s Centre for Social Innovation,<br />

hopes Tribalingual customers will have a handle<br />

on their chosen language after the course. “Ten<br />

weeks is a good amount of time for somebody to<br />

learn a basic conversation,” she says.<br />

For £299 (£199 for students), Tribalingual<br />

supplies course materials such as text, audio and<br />

video, with native speakers providing a weekly<br />

30-minute Skype call. An app is also in the works.<br />

Tribalingual isn’t the only attempt to track<br />

and revive endangered languages around the<br />

world. Unesco has collected data and provides<br />

an atlas of all those at risk from extinction.<br />

This information can then be used to help struggling<br />

languages: in November 2015, when the number of<br />

Cornish speakers in the <strong>UK</strong> dropped to 400, Cornwall<br />

Council spent £180,000 to promote its use.<br />

For Gibbens, a forgotten language means losing<br />

more than just a way of communicating. “We’re trying<br />

to preserve cultures through the medium of language,”<br />

she says. “It’s a kind of gateway to understanding diferent<br />

world views and thoughts. We want a world that is diverse<br />

and colourful.” Matt Burgess tribalingual.com<br />

Inky Gibbens says 15 more languages will soon be added to Tribalingual<br />

THREE TRIBALINGUAL<br />

LANGUAGES TO MASTER:<br />

-<br />

Ainu, Japan<br />

Once widespread, it’s now<br />

only spoken on one island.<br />

-<br />

Quechua, South America<br />

The main language of the<br />

Incas, it’s still widely used.<br />

-<br />

Greko, Italy<br />

A Greek variety now only<br />

spoken by about 300 people.


080 _ PLAY _ GLOBAL GATHERINGS<br />

1 2<br />

3<br />

Take a trip to<br />

the left field<br />

in 2016, 14 million britons attended the<br />

nearly 1,000 festivals around the <strong>UK</strong>. In 2015, the<br />

industry contributed £4.1 billion to the British<br />

economy. With so many to choose from, it’s easy to<br />

stick with your go-to events <strong>–</strong> so why not broaden<br />

your horizons with WIRED’s guide to <strong>2017</strong>’s summer<br />

festivals that you have probably never heard of?<br />

From abandoned mineshafts to science’s brightest<br />

minds, this selection will take you far beyond the usual<br />

scenes of muddy mosh pits and flower crowns. BC<br />

4<br />

1. Træna<br />

<strong>July</strong> 6 - 9<br />

Træna, Norway<br />

All 500 citizens of Træna<br />

take part in this annual<br />

beach festival. The island<br />

is located on the edge<br />

of the Arctic Circle,<br />

65 kilometres from the<br />

Norwegian mainland.<br />

This year’s acts include<br />

electro-pop singer Emilie<br />

Nicolas and feminist<br />

punks KU<strong>UK</strong>. trena.net<br />

2.G!<br />

<strong>July</strong> 13 - 15<br />

Göta, Faroe Islands<br />

This festival takes over<br />

the sleepy village of<br />

Syðrugöta <strong>–</strong> population<br />

400 <strong>–</strong> on the island of<br />

Eysturoy over the<br />

course of three days.<br />

The stages are built on<br />

the beach, against a<br />

stunning backdrop of<br />

grassy mountains, which<br />

creates a beautiful,<br />

natural amphitheatre.<br />

gfestival.fo<br />

3. Bluedot<br />

<strong>July</strong> 7 - 9<br />

Jodrell Bank Observatory,<br />

Cheshire, <strong>UK</strong><br />

Bluedot combines music<br />

and art with the world of<br />

science at the grounds<br />

of the Lovell Telescope<br />

at Jodrell Bank. Orbital<br />

and alt-J will play<br />

alongside talks from<br />

astrophysicists Sarah<br />

Bridle and Tim O’Brien.<br />

discoverthebluedot.com<br />

4. Into the Valley<br />

June 29 - <strong>July</strong> 1<br />

Rummu quarry, Estonia<br />

This annual event<br />

showcases the thriving<br />

electronic music scene.<br />

Previously held in<br />

Dalhalla, Sweden, in<br />

<strong>2017</strong> it will be hosted<br />

in an Estonian quarry,<br />

which was excavated<br />

by prisoners in the<br />

1930s for limestone and<br />

Vasalemma marble. The<br />

location has since been<br />

repurposed as a site<br />

for hiking, scuba diving,<br />

music and sporting<br />

events. intothevalley.se<br />

5. Festiwal Tauron<br />

Nowa Muzyka<br />

<strong>July</strong> 6 - 9<br />

Katowice, Poland<br />

This avant-garde music<br />

festival is set in the<br />

warehouses of a former<br />

coal mine in the heart<br />

of Katowice. The two<br />

mineshafts operated<br />

between 1823 and 1999.<br />

This year, they will host<br />

acts such as leftfield<br />

pop star Róisín Murphy<br />

and downtempo jazzers<br />

The Cinematic Orchestra<br />

festiwalnowamuzyka.pl<br />

ILLUSTRATION: PEACHBEACH


6<br />

7<br />

8 10<br />

5<br />

9<br />

6. Titus<br />

<strong>August</strong> 30 - September 21<br />

London, <strong>UK</strong><br />

An immersive theatre<br />

experience based<br />

on Shakespeare’s Titus<br />

Andronicus, this event<br />

combines a community<br />

chorus of singers with<br />

beatboxers and parkour<br />

peformances. Titus takes<br />

place at Frank’s Café,<br />

on the tenth floor of<br />

Peckham’s multi-storey<br />

car park. frankscafe.org.<br />

uk/events<br />

7. Archstoyanie<br />

<strong>July</strong> 21 - 23<br />

Kaluga region, Russia<br />

The annual Archstoyanie<br />

Land Art Festival attracts<br />

thousands of people to the<br />

banks of the Ugra River,<br />

about 200 kilometres<br />

south-west of Moscow, to<br />

admire art, architecture<br />

and sculptural<br />

installations. The festival<br />

attracts artists from<br />

as far away as Japan to<br />

create temporary and<br />

long-term installations for<br />

the Nikola-Lenivets Park.<br />

arch.stoyanie.ru<br />

8. Brainchild<br />

<strong>July</strong> 7 - 9<br />

East Sussex, <strong>UK</strong><br />

Music, art, film and<br />

theatre come together<br />

for a long weekend of<br />

workshops, installations<br />

and the exchange of<br />

brilliant ideas. With a<br />

DIY mindset and<br />

an absence of VIP<br />

areas, the festival is<br />

the perfect place to<br />

strike up boundarybreaking<br />

conversations.<br />

brainchildfestival.co.uk<br />

9. Tech Open Air<br />

<strong>July</strong> 11 - 14<br />

Berlin, Germany<br />

More than 200 speakers<br />

will descend on Berlin<br />

to share their knowledge<br />

of technology and<br />

business in a festival<br />

aimed at connecting<br />

industry experts with<br />

startups. Storytelling,<br />

art installations and<br />

music completes<br />

the three-day event.<br />

toa.berlin<br />

10. Starmus<br />

June 18 - 23<br />

Trondheim, Norway<br />

Now in its fourth year,<br />

this festival celebrates<br />

science and the arts.<br />

Academics, astronauts<br />

and an award-winning<br />

composer will gather<br />

in Trondheim to speak<br />

to audiences of more<br />

than 10,000 people. This<br />

year’s highlights include<br />

professor Stephen<br />

Hawking, astronomer<br />

Jill Tarter and Nobel<br />

Prize-winner Susumu<br />

Tonegawa. starmus.com


082 _ PLAY _ CREATURE FEATURE<br />

Who’s on<br />

the throne?<br />

In the game of thrones,<br />

you win or you die. But are<br />

there parallels between<br />

the kingdoms of Westeros<br />

and the powerhouses of<br />

tech? WIRED takes a<br />

tongue-in-cheek look. RM<br />

Game of Thrones returns<br />

to Sky Atlantic on <strong>July</strong> 17<br />

Lannister > Amazon<br />

Rich, relentless and<br />

implacable in pursuit of<br />

power, this is the house<br />

everyone fears <strong>–</strong> yet for<br />

many years its head never<br />

sat on the Iron Throne.<br />

Now, with forbidden<br />

science, it is making its<br />

move, and debts<br />

need to be paid.<br />

Coded<br />

by adults,<br />

created by<br />

children<br />

Tinybop's range of educational<br />

apps use the magic of picture<br />

books to unlock imaginations<br />

Raul Gutierrez’s room at Princeton University<br />

wasn’t like the other students’. “I had a little<br />

library of children’s books in my dorm,” he says.<br />

Now, at the Brooklyn office of Tinybop, the educational<br />

children’s app firm he founded in 2011, he<br />

has a similar library to inspire his colleagues.<br />

“When someone is interviewed for a job, the first<br />

question we ask is: ‘What’s your favourite<br />

[children’s book]?’ If somebody doesn’t have a<br />

quick answer, they’re not right for the company.”<br />

That passion has brought Gutierrez success.<br />

Tinybop’s last major release, anatomyexploration<br />

app The Human Body, reached<br />

number one on Apple’s App Store Education<br />

chart in 143 countries and was downloaded<br />

more than five million times. In its latest app,<br />

which has the working title Creature Garden<br />

(pictured), children are tasked with designing<br />

their own creatures using animal parts. The<br />

success of these creations can then be tested<br />

on virtual treadmills to help show children how animals move around.<br />

The apps encourage children to use their imaginations just as they<br />

would with building blocks. Those in development are deemed to be on the<br />

right track when children trialling them start making up their own stories,<br />

Gutierrez says: “If it’s something that came out of their imagination, that’s<br />

when we know we’ve given them enough of a digital playground.”<br />

After making their name in the digital world, Tinybop’s creations may<br />

soon evolve on to paper. “My ulterior motive has always been to create<br />

books.” Gutierrez says. “We’re in talks with several publishers to turn some<br />

of the apps into picture books. ” In the meantime, Tinybop’s digital toys find<br />

themselves battling a tide of apps that rely on built-in purchases and<br />

addictive design. “Everybody can remember their favourite picture books,<br />

but how many apps will you remember?” Nicole Kobie tinybop.com<br />

Baratheon > Apple<br />

Heavy is the head that<br />

wears the crown. When<br />

we started out, this house<br />

appeared impregnable:<br />

now it totters, falling out<br />

of contention. Where are<br />

the successors to the<br />

kings of old? Rumours<br />

swirl, but<br />

secrets lie deep.<br />

Stark > Google<br />

In their own eyes, they<br />

are the good guys, but<br />

fine words matter little<br />

in the game of thrones.<br />

Winning every battle<br />

won’t win the war. And<br />

even if you do triumph,<br />

how do you make sure<br />

you’re not just<br />

another tyrant?<br />

White Walkers > Facebook<br />

A cold heart directs this<br />

horde: quiet, unmoved,<br />

inexorable in its advance.<br />

They are the real threat<br />

<strong>–</strong> now they’re coming,<br />

bringing winter in their<br />

wake. Can the others band<br />

together, or will division<br />

rule in Westeros<br />

once again?<br />

ILLUSTRATION: PIP PELL


WIRED LIVE. NOVEMBER 2-3, <strong>2017</strong>. LONDON<br />

WIRED LIVE BRINGS THE BEST OF THE WIRED UNIVERSE TOGETHER IN ONE PLACE FOR A<br />

TWO-DAY FESTIVAL OF IDEAS, PERFORMANCE, TALKS AND NETWORKING. JOIN US TO CELEBRATE<br />

THE KEY THINKERS MOVING THE WORLD FORWARD. WIRED LIVE ALSO INCLUDES THE TEST<br />

LAB <strong>–</strong> A COLLECTION OF THE MOST EXCITING PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGIES AROUND.<br />

TOBACCO DOCK, LONDON. NOVEMBER 2-3, <strong>2017</strong> BOOK YOUR TICKET: WIRED.<strong>UK</strong>/WIRED-LIVE


084 _ PLAY _ FLOWER POWER<br />

Bloom & Wild<br />

The London<br />

startup, which<br />

sends flowers in<br />

a letterbox-sized<br />

package, plans to<br />

expand into<br />

Europe this year.<br />

Total raised:<br />

£6.25 million.<br />

bloomon<br />

The Amsterdambased<br />

flowersubscription<br />

service also<br />

delivers to the<br />

<strong>UK</strong>, Belgium,<br />

Denmark and<br />

Germany.<br />

Total raised:<br />

£21.5 million.<br />

Fast-growth startups<br />

Florists have been appified <strong>–</strong> and investors are smelling opportunity<br />

new kind of flower delivery is in full bloom. investors are buzzing<br />

around florists whose orders come via apps and bouquets are perfectly<br />

packaged and slotted through your letterbox. The global flower industry is<br />

A worth £43 billion a year and, even within Europe’s saturated market <strong>–</strong> which<br />

accounts for more than 50 per cent of all flowers and plants sold worldwide<br />

<strong>–</strong> startups are witnessing record sales. Three of the market leaders, Bloom &<br />

Wild, bloomon and FLOWERBX, have raised almost £29 million in funding between them.<br />

“We receive a lot of our emotional triggers on the go and we want to act on them by sending<br />

flowers and gifts,” says Aron Gelbard, co-founder and CEO of London-based Bloom & Wild. That<br />

action, he says, is perfectly suited to smartphones. Another trick for floral startups is shortening<br />

the supply chain. Amsterdam-based bloomon works with more than 400 growers, designing<br />

bouquets months in advance so flowers are in season and ready to deliver within 24 hours of ordering.<br />

Founder Patrick Hurenkamp says there’s plenty of room for expansion: “The people we deliver to<br />

buy more flowers than they used to, so we’re growing the market ourselves.”<br />

Bloom & Wild’s Gelbard broke into the industry by delivering flowers in letterbox-sized packages,<br />

arranging the flowers top to toe. “We thought this would be a disadvantage the customer would<br />

tolerate in return for the convenience of our delivery format, but actually they tell us they enjoy<br />

the act of unpacking the flowers,” he says. London-based FLOWERBX has also brought fresh thinking<br />

to flower delivery. Co-founder Whitney Hawkings says her company grew out of a frustration of<br />

being at the mercy of couriers. “You have no idea what you’re sending, so the strength of the brand<br />

provides comfort.” Now all we have to worry about is if the recipient has allergies. BC<br />

FLOWERBX<br />

A London-based<br />

company<br />

specialising in<br />

branded flowers.<br />

It’s expanding<br />

delivery to<br />

France and<br />

Germany in <strong>2017</strong>.<br />

Total raised:<br />

£1 million.<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: ILKA & FRANZ. SET DESIGN: MIRANDA LATIMER


BMW GROUP _ WIRED PARTNERSHIP<br />

BMW GROUP<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: FABIAN KIRCHBAUER ILLUSTRATION: MARCUS MARRITT<br />

PREDICTING<br />

THE FUTURE<br />

OF<br />

MOBILITY<br />

The BMW Group rad°hub gathers the brightest influencers from<br />

around the world to solve mobility challenges on the road ahead


BMW GROUP _ WIRED PARTNERSHIP<br />

T<br />

he BMW Group rad°hub<br />

brings together some<br />

of the world’s smartest<br />

and most creative minds<br />

to discuss the future of<br />

mobility. Conceived as<br />

part of BMW’s 2016 centennial celebrations,<br />

rad°hub has become a standalone event,<br />

this year taking place at the BMW and MINI<br />

Driving Experience, near Munich.<br />

Key to the success of the rad°hub are<br />

its 102 participants <strong>–</strong> known as rad°hub<br />

influencers <strong>–</strong> a group comprised of makers,<br />

doers and thinkers from within and outside<br />

the BMW Group. This year’s standalone event<br />

was held on April 5-6, with attendees including<br />

the co-founder of a London robotics startup,<br />

a games developer and the CCO of a logistics<br />

company, among many others (see sidebars).<br />

Harnessing this expert knowledge, it’s hoped,<br />

will provide new perspectives on the future of<br />

mobility on a deep, philosophical level <strong>–</strong> for<br />

both the BMW Group and the wider public.<br />

“rad°hub, for me, is not just another think<br />

tank,” says Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW<br />

Group board member. “It’s about creating a<br />

platform for creative people from around the<br />

world with different perspectives. We’ll see<br />

<strong>–</strong> maybe the outcome is a great idea, a new<br />

business model. Whatever it is, I’m open to it.”<br />

Playing a central role in driving the<br />

company’s ethos and digital transformation,<br />

Schwarzenbauer has been patron of the<br />

rad°hubs since the first event in London in<br />

June 2016. In Munich, he was keen to communicate<br />

the importance of the rad°hub’s contributions<br />

to the BMW Group’s vision of the future.<br />

“A lot of things have changed in this area,”<br />

he says. “I visited startup scenes in China<br />

and Silicon Valley 15 years ago, and even five<br />

or six years ago nobody there talked about<br />

mobility. It was still an old, boring, European<br />

industry. If you go now, every other startup<br />

is working on mobility.”<br />

Over the course of this year’s two-day event,<br />

the rad°hub influencers were split into eight<br />

groups, their varied expertise optimising the<br />

collective perspective of the attendees.<br />

On day one, the groups focused on the<br />

Foresight Task, where they sought to visualise<br />

and develop future scenarios they’d want to<br />

live in, creating ideas around key topics such<br />

as personal luxury, individual autonomy,<br />

creative responsibility and smart urbanity.<br />

Groups were encouraged to “be fantastic”<br />

in order to explore what people might want,<br />

beyond what is thought to be technically<br />

possible today; imagining beyond cities and<br />

investigating the challenges future worlds<br />

might face two decades from now.<br />

One group presented their vision of the<br />

future which sought to minimise ground-level<br />

congestion <strong>–</strong> a “podtopia” <strong>–</strong> depicting a scenario<br />

where citizens are shuttled above ground in a<br />

SURYANSH CHANDRA<br />

CO-FOUNDER AND<br />

ARCHITECT, AUTOMATA<br />

TECHNOLOGIES<br />

Suryansh Chandra<br />

co-founded robotics<br />

startup Automata<br />

Technologies with the<br />

aim to democratise<br />

robotics through low-cost<br />

hardware and easy-to-use<br />

software. He recognised<br />

his work in some of the<br />

ideas presented during<br />

the rad°hub, despite<br />

the diverse range of<br />

attendees. “There<br />

seemed to be a singular<br />

consensus that our lives<br />

have become way too<br />

instantaneous,” he says.<br />

GAIA DEMPSEY<br />

CO-FOUNDER & VP,<br />

BUSINESS OPERATIONS,<br />

DAQRI LABS<br />

A pioneer in the field of<br />

augmented reality (AR),<br />

Gaia Dempsey oversaw<br />

the launch of DAQRI’s<br />

Smart Helmet, the<br />

world’s first professionalgrade<br />

humanmachine<br />

interface.<br />

AR plays a significant<br />

role in her vision of the<br />

future. “From our glasses<br />

providing customised<br />

navigational cues<br />

as we walk around...<br />

to autonomous cars<br />

with floor-to-ceiling<br />

windows that can overlay<br />

information about the<br />

landscape, AR will become<br />

our interface to the world<br />

around us,” she says.


BMW GROUP _ WIRED PARTNERSHIP<br />

L<strong>UK</strong>AS GEHLEN<br />

CCO AND CO-FOUNDER,<br />

BLIK<br />

Lukas Gehlen co-founded<br />

blik, a logistics company<br />

that provides real-time<br />

data about the material<br />

flows for industrial<br />

warehouses <strong>–</strong> where<br />

automation has long<br />

been the norm. This fact<br />

may inform his thoughts<br />

on self-driving cars.<br />

“I think it’s only a matter<br />

of time until cars will<br />

drive autonomously,”<br />

he says. “Instead of<br />

rejecting autonomous<br />

driving, we should focus<br />

on how we can shape<br />

the future of mobility.”<br />

Pictured: Influencers<br />

collaborating at BMW<br />

Group’s rad°hub in<br />

Munich, Germany<br />

XANDRA VAN WIJK<br />

GAME DESIGNER,<br />

SPACE APE GAMES<br />

Xandra van Wijk is a game<br />

designer at Space Ape<br />

Games, a mobile-game<br />

developer whose titles<br />

include Samurai Siege<br />

and Rival Kingdoms.<br />

Based in London, van Wijk<br />

hopes for a sustainable,<br />

shareable transportation<br />

model for the future, “so<br />

you can have access to<br />

it anywhere, anytime<br />

you need it, but not<br />

be bothered with the<br />

maintenance,” she says.<br />

“If centrally managed,<br />

it could also be made<br />

more efficient. Everyone<br />

driving their own car <strong>–</strong> and<br />

parking it 90 per cent of<br />

the time <strong>–</strong> seems a waste<br />

of space and material.”


BMW GROUP _ WIRED PARTNERSHIP<br />

series of geodesic spheres, allowing them to<br />

work, play and relax on the move, eradicating the<br />

need for roads and opening up public spaces.<br />

On day two, the groups began the Visionary<br />

Impulse and Idea Lab sessions, where they<br />

were challenged with bringing their ideas into<br />

the mobility world by creating realistic ideas<br />

or products that could fit into their futures,<br />

and solving any mobility problems that were<br />

raised the day before.<br />

Three ideas from each group were refined<br />

and then presented to Schwarzenbauer and<br />

all participants of the rad°hub as the collaborations<br />

with most potential.<br />

For one team it was the road itself that<br />

evolved, providing travellers with their<br />

own personalised digital vision of the city<br />

and delivering customisable information<br />

depending on the activity being undertaken.<br />

Another group created On My Time, a<br />

driving app that responded to user requests<br />

<strong>–</strong> in this case, a haircut <strong>–</strong> by harnessing local<br />

data to create a route at a time convenient for<br />

the driver and their everyday or spontaneous<br />

activities. While these ideas may not all make<br />

it to a vehicle (or road) near you, it’s possible<br />

that the future will bring something similar.<br />

And for the BMW Group, that’s what the<br />

rad°hub is all about: laying the foundations<br />

for innovation by bringing together resources<br />

and ideas to collaborate and contemplate<br />

new ways for mobility to develop.<br />

For Schwarzenbauer, rad°hub does this with<br />

the intention of being a catalyst for change. Not<br />

just for the future of mobility, but for the types<br />

of ideas discussed within the rad°hub. “A lot of<br />

the things we’ve discussed, I can clearly see<br />

them coming to a market,” he says. “Maybe in<br />

five years, maybe 15 or 20 years, but I’m sure<br />

that when you will see them on the streets, you<br />

will look back and remember when we talked<br />

about them here.” See bmwgroup.com/radhub<br />

ANNA PERNESTÅL<br />

BRENDEN<br />

SENIOR RESEARCHER,<br />

INTEGRATED<br />

TRANSPORT RESEARCH<br />

LAB<br />

Anna Pernestål Brenden<br />

has nearly 15 years’<br />

experience in road<br />

and rail transport, and<br />

has worked across<br />

research and innovation,<br />

management and<br />

business development.<br />

Remote working is set<br />

to further transform how<br />

we travel, yet Brenden was<br />

optimistic about the future<br />

of mobility. “Personal<br />

meetings and real-life<br />

experiences will still be<br />

very important,” she says.<br />

“To satisfy the<br />

travel demand, shared<br />

solutions are needed,<br />

not only car-sharing<br />

but also ride-sharing<br />

and different types<br />

of public transport,<br />

to save energy, but<br />

<strong>–</strong> and perhaps most<br />

importantly, especially if<br />

assuming electrification<br />

and renewable<br />

energy <strong>–</strong> also to<br />

handle congestion.”<br />

Above left: Peter<br />

Schwarzenbauer,<br />

BMW Group<br />

board member<br />

speaking at the<br />

rad°hub Munich


EDITED BY VICTORIA TURK _ WORK SMARTER _ 089<br />

PRODUCTIVITY HACKS<br />

ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE<br />

ACCELERATED LEARNING<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMES DAY<br />

The multitasker<br />

Andy Serkis is an actor, writer, director and all-round creative thinker. In an exclusive interview with WIRED,<br />

he shares the secrets of his work ethic, business routine <strong>–</strong> and how to pull an all-nighter


090 _ WORK SMARTER _ INSIDER KNOWLEDGE<br />

Improve your email strategy. Responding to emails takes up 28 per cent of<br />

our working day, according to McKinsey Global Institute. Try unsubscribing,<br />

turning off unnecessary notifications and making time to clear your inbox.<br />

PRODUCTIVITY<br />

Andy Serkis<br />

Actor, writer and co-founder,<br />

The Imaginarium Studios<br />

“My work ethic comes from my<br />

parents. They were both incredibly<br />

driven. My dad is Iraqi <strong>–</strong> he set up the<br />

Ibn Sina Hospital in Baghdad. My<br />

mum went to live with him but moved<br />

back to the <strong>UK</strong>, where she brought<br />

up five kids by herself and taught<br />

disabled children. My desire to<br />

change society comes from them.”<br />

“I make decisions by seeking<br />

opinions then going with my<br />

instinct. I used to rely on others but<br />

I listen to my gut more now.”<br />

FOR ANDY SERKIS, PRODUCTIVITY<br />

is about creativity. And leadership.<br />

And technology. And… in fact, it’s<br />

always changing. As an actor,<br />

writer, director and co-founder of<br />

pioneering motion-capture studio<br />

The Imaginarium, Serkis spends<br />

his time exploring new ideas, trying<br />

out bespoke equipment, taking<br />

instructions from directors and, of<br />

course, running a company. He<br />

redefines multitasking on a daily<br />

basis. In <strong>July</strong>, for instance, he’s on<br />

screen as Caesar in War for the<br />

Planet of the Apes, “a traditional <strong>–</strong><br />

if gruelling and exhausting <strong>–</strong> acting<br />

job.” He’s also in post-production<br />

on two movies he’s directing <strong>–</strong> a<br />

version of The Jungle Book, which<br />

he describes as “Dickens in<br />

the jungle” and Breathe, a love<br />

story starring Andrew Garfield and<br />

Claire Foy <strong>–</strong> and he’s doing his<br />

best to reverse Brexit with online<br />

petitions and campaigning.<br />

How does he fit all this in with just<br />

the industry-standard, 24-hour day?<br />

Until he set up The Imaginarium with<br />

film producer Jonathan Cavendish,<br />

he explains, he would just focus on<br />

one job and bury himself in it. But<br />

building a business changed all<br />

that. We asked Serkis to reveal how<br />

to maintain a prolific workload while<br />

remaining productive.<br />

“I wake up very early. I hate<br />

night-time, I hate the idea of going<br />

to bed and I hate the idea of sleep.<br />

I love it when the birds start singing<br />

in the morning. The dawn of a new<br />

day is the most exciting, creative<br />

and uplifting time, and everything<br />

is possible at that moment. I tend<br />

to go to bed between 1am and 2am<br />

<strong>–</strong> there’s lots of business in LA, so<br />

I’m on multiple time zones <strong>–</strong> and<br />

get up about 6am. I find I’m<br />

the most creative at that time.”<br />

“My most productive space is<br />

The Imaginarium <strong>–</strong> it’s a mix of a<br />

black-box theatre/virtual cinema<br />

space with computers and a viewing<br />

gallery. The stage is surrounded by<br />

motion-capture cameras. Upstairs,<br />

there’s a green room, relaxing space,<br />

post-production team and<br />

animators. It all focuses in this<br />

creative cauldron where actors are<br />

trying out different things <strong>–</strong> proofof-concept<br />

pieces, character development<br />

or shooting a film. The game<br />

changer was [using] head-mounted<br />

cameras that track facial expressions.<br />

That took things from motion<br />

capture to performance capture.”<br />

“I have nothing close to a routine.<br />

In any one day I can switch from a<br />

business meeting to working on<br />

a documentary to creating concepts<br />

using performance capture,<br />

or working with VR and AR. When<br />

I’m shooting, I get picked up and<br />

taken to a film set <strong>–</strong> that’s<br />

the closest I get to a routine.”<br />

“When I have to pull an all-nighter<br />

for work, I tend to steer clear of<br />

sugar and caffeine. Instead, I eat a<br />

combination of fruit, nuts and seeds.”<br />

“The thing people get wrong about<br />

managing a team is thinking that<br />

you have to be right. You don’t have<br />

to lead from the front all the time.<br />

Being a good listener is equally<br />

powerful, as is being able to make<br />

firm decisions <strong>–</strong> but equally being<br />

able to admit when you’re wrong. You<br />

have to find the balance between<br />

using your ego to drive a project and<br />

suppressing it for a better outcome.”<br />

“I didn’t set out to be an actor. I went<br />

to university to study painting and<br />

sculpture. I happened upon theatre<br />

studies in the first week and realised<br />

I loved acting. Everything went by the<br />

by until I met Peter Jackson and he<br />

cast me in Lord of the Rings. Almost<br />

everything I am now I owe to him.”<br />

As told to Stephen Armstrong<br />

Andy Serkis in motion-capture gear on<br />

the set of War for the Planet of the Apes


AT&T launches the first 5G wireless network this summer in<br />

Austin and Indianapolis, delivering speeds of up to 1Gbps.<br />

Japan and Korea will follow in 2018 <strong>–</strong> with the <strong>UK</strong> in 2020.<br />

Panama is Latin America’s first smart city,<br />

thanks to a partnership between its mayor,<br />

JCDecaux and internet company WIGO.<br />

‘You don’t have to lead from the front<br />

all the time. Being a good listener is<br />

powerful, as is making firm decisions <strong>–</strong><br />

and being able to admit you’re wrong’<br />

HOW TO<br />

SURVIVE A DINNER<br />

PARTY: <strong>UK</strong> VS US<br />

French entrepreneur Loïc Le Meur has been living<br />

in San Francisco since 2007 and had to relearn<br />

how to throw a dinner party. “‘Dinner’ means<br />

different things in Silicon Valley and in Europe,”<br />

he says. Here’s his guide. Gian Volpicelli<br />

Q&A<br />

ILLUSTRATION: HARRY SANKEY. PHOTOGRAPHY: ALAMY<br />

What’s your email hack?<br />

I’m very selective about<br />

what I answer <strong>–</strong><br />

embarrassingly, I have<br />

thousands of unread<br />

emails in my inbox. I just<br />

go through the ones that<br />

are the most important,<br />

are going to be the most<br />

effective or ones that I<br />

absolutely need to<br />

answer. I leave the rest.<br />

What’s your best and<br />

worst habit?<br />

My worst habit is being so<br />

busy that I forget to wash.<br />

There will be days that go<br />

by when I think, “I must<br />

have a shower.” My best<br />

habit is the ability<br />

to concentrate on work.<br />

Which I suppose is the<br />

cause of my worst habit.<br />

Are there certain things<br />

you just let slide?<br />

Yes. Paperwork.<br />

How do you handle<br />

stress?<br />

Weekends are when<br />

I do that <strong>–</strong> I spend a lot<br />

of time walking with my<br />

family. My wife and kids<br />

love getting out of town<br />

and walking in the hills.<br />

That’s one of the most<br />

important things in our<br />

lives <strong>–</strong> to get outside and<br />

really engage with nature.<br />

What music helps you<br />

focus on your work?<br />

Right now it’s Nitin<br />

Sawhney <strong>–</strong> he’s writing<br />

the music for the Jungle<br />

Book and Breathe films.<br />

John Coltrane, Miles<br />

Davis and Charles<br />

Mingus <strong>–</strong> I’m locked into<br />

a post-bebop bubble.<br />

Modal jazz has been the<br />

backbone of my life.<br />

How do you maintain<br />

your relationships<br />

outside of work?<br />

I barely see enough<br />

of my family. I did get<br />

to a point where I was<br />

working in New Zealand<br />

a lot and not seeing them.<br />

I realised that things<br />

would have to change,<br />

so the balance is a little<br />

better now. I would<br />

love to see more of my<br />

friends, but that’s one of<br />

the hardest things of all.<br />

Digital extra!<br />

Download the WIRED<br />

app for more<br />

about Andy Serkis<br />

Dining in<br />

Silicon Valley<br />

-<br />

1. Bring gifts at<br />

your own risk<br />

Silicon Valley<br />

dinners can be<br />

100-person<br />

affairs, so gifts<br />

could be tricky.<br />

2. Stand up<br />

Dinner here<br />

means standing<br />

round a buffet.<br />

You can also<br />

arrive and leave<br />

when you want.<br />

3. Prepare for<br />

networking<br />

Dinners are about<br />

meeting people.<br />

“Go to more than<br />

two a night,”<br />

Le Meur advises.<br />

4. Thank the<br />

(hired) chef<br />

“Food is good,<br />

but it’s usually<br />

cooked by<br />

private chefs,”<br />

Le Meur says.<br />

Dining<br />

in the <strong>UK</strong><br />

-<br />

1. Bring a bottle<br />

If friends invite<br />

you in Europe,<br />

bring something.<br />

“A sure-fire choice<br />

is wine or flowers,”<br />

Le Meur says.<br />

2. Sit down<br />

Dinner in Europe<br />

means sitting<br />

around a table<br />

and ploughing<br />

through<br />

several courses.<br />

3. Don’t talk<br />

shop<br />

Suggested topics<br />

of conversation:<br />

food, wine, life.<br />

Definitely<br />

not business.<br />

4. Thank the chef<br />

“In Europe, it’s the<br />

host who cooks,”<br />

Le Meur explains.<br />

Forget vegan,<br />

gluten-free or<br />

low-carb choices.


WHERE TO STAY<br />

LOUIS HOTEL (10) • CORTIINA HOTEL (11)<br />

EUROPEAN TECH HUB<br />

BUILD A WORLD-<br />

CLASS TEAM<br />

HOW TO<br />

RocketWerkz is a gaming company that<br />

launched in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 2014.<br />

Despite its isolated location, the firm attracts<br />

employees from the US, Korea, China and<br />

Sweden. Why? For starters, it offers unlimited<br />

paid annual leave and has no set working hours.<br />

Founder Dean Hall explains how this unorthodox<br />

approach attracts the most creative minds. BC<br />

Be flexible<br />

In addition to a compulsory<br />

four-week Christmas<br />

holiday, Hall’s staff can take<br />

paid leave throughout the<br />

year. Taking time off<br />

to nurture a relationship or<br />

even mourn a pet’s<br />

death is encouraged.<br />

Encourage play days<br />

Hall, who goes to the<br />

gym at 9am every day,<br />

encourages employees to<br />

exercise during work hours,<br />

as opposed to lunch breaks<br />

or after work. Every Friday<br />

afternoon, staff can take<br />

part in organised sport.<br />

Lead by example<br />

Hall’s salary is fixed at<br />

ten per cent more than<br />

the highest-paid<br />

employee. If he wants<br />

to make an extravagant<br />

purchase, such as<br />

business-class tickets,<br />

it must be justified.<br />

Munich<br />

Biotech, insurance and the internet of<br />

things are key sectors for local startups<br />

IT IS HARD TO BE BERLIN’S RIVAL: ONLY 11 PER<br />

cent of German startups are based in<br />

Munich, whereas the capital has 31 per cent.<br />

Yet Bavaria’s largest city remains a major<br />

economic hub for European business. Many<br />

German corporations, including BMW, Siemens<br />

and insurance firm Allianz, are headquartered<br />

in the city. These firms also foster startups<br />

through investment and programmes.<br />

“We usually think that these corporations<br />

are old-fashioned, but in Munich they seem<br />

really interested in inventive ideas,” says<br />

Franz Glatz, managing director of co-working<br />

space and incubator WERK1. Mobility and<br />

insurance tech are therefore startups’<br />

sectors of choice, along with biotechnology<br />

and the internet of things.<br />

Munich-based companies benefit from<br />

good infrastructure, proximity to an international<br />

airport and access to graduates<br />

from top universities such as the Technical<br />

University of Munich and Ludwig Maximilians<br />

University of Munich. On the flip side, living<br />

costs are expensive by German standards.<br />

It costs about €1,000 (£846) a month to rent<br />

a one-bedroom, city-centre flat. This means<br />

that labour is expensive, too. “It’s partly why<br />

Munich finds it hard to attract investment,”<br />

Glatz says. “Even Munich-born investors<br />

often go elsewhere.” Gian Volpicelli<br />

1 Tado°<br />

2<br />

Maker of Nest-style<br />

thermostats for smart homes.<br />

Founded 2011<br />

Investment raised €50m<br />

Founders Christian Deilmann,<br />

Leopold von Bismarck<br />

and Johannes Schwarz<br />

Riskmethods<br />

Supply-chain risk<br />

management.<br />

Founded 2013<br />

Investment raised £18m<br />

Founders Heiko<br />

Schwarz and Rolf<br />

Zimmer<br />

13<br />

ILLUSTRATION: HARRY SANKEY


STARTUP CITY _ PRODUCTIVITY _ WORK SMARTER _ 093<br />

WHERE TO EAT<br />

WHERE TO VISIT<br />

VITS DER KAFFEE (12) • DIE KÜCHE IM KRAFTWERK (13) PINAKOTHEK DER MODERNE (14) • MAXIMILIANEUM (15)<br />

7<br />

14<br />

11<br />

12<br />

5<br />

9<br />

6<br />

10<br />

15<br />

1<br />

8<br />

2<br />

3<br />

4<br />

3 ProGlove<br />

Smart-glove makers.<br />

Founded 2014<br />

Investment raised £1.8m<br />

Founders Jonas<br />

Girardet, Alexander<br />

Grots, Paul Günther and<br />

Thomas Kirchner<br />

4<br />

Travador<br />

Online travel platform.<br />

Founded 2013<br />

Investment raised £17m<br />

Founders Katrin<br />

Buckenmaier, Thorsten<br />

Schroeppe and<br />

Sebastian Schmidt<br />

5<br />

FlixBus<br />

Eco-friendly bus operator.<br />

Founded 2011<br />

Investment raised<br />

Undisclosed<br />

Founder André<br />

Schwämmlein, Jochen<br />

Engert and Daniel Krauss<br />

Startup scene<br />

Munich hosts the Allianz<br />

X incubator (6) and<br />

Telefónica’s accelerator<br />

Wayra (7). The city’s<br />

co-working spaces<br />

include Impact Hub<br />

Munich (8) and WERK1 (9)


3<br />

TIPS<br />

FROM THE TOP<br />

+ Let your company evolve<br />

+ Work out every day<br />

+ Hire (and keep) a great team<br />

COURAGE<br />

José Neves<br />

CEO and<br />

founder, Farfetch<br />

JOSÉ NEVES, CEO AND FOUNDER OF FARFETCH, LAUNCHED HIS<br />

omni-channel e-commerce designer-fashion platform just<br />

before the crash of 2007. Amid tough economic times, it has<br />

built partnerships with more than 750 designers and boutiques,<br />

selling 1,500 brands to more than one million customers in 190<br />

countries. In 2016, Farfetch generated $800 million (£640m) in<br />

gross sales <strong>–</strong> up 70 per cent on 2015. A funding round in May<br />

2016 raised $110 million, led by investors Temasek, IDG Capital<br />

Partners and Eurazeo <strong>–</strong> joining existing investor Vitruvian<br />

Partners in valuing Farfetch at $1.5 billion. Before launching<br />

Farfetch, Neves created Platforme, a software firm for small<br />

fashion brands in 1996. The same year, he launched the Swear<br />

shoe brand, and in 2001, opened retail venture b Store in London.<br />

Here, he shares his knowledge. As told to Charlie Burton<br />

PASSION<br />

DIVERSITY<br />

“Sometimes you have<br />

to go all-in. I launched<br />

Farfetch in 2008, and<br />

two weeks later Lehman<br />

Brothers went bankrupt.<br />

There was no funding out<br />

there. I had to underwrite<br />

development myself with<br />

money borrowed from my<br />

shoe business. If it hadn’t<br />

worked, I would have<br />

lost all my companies.<br />

But in the end it was a<br />

good thing <strong>–</strong> it created a<br />

discipline in the company,<br />

and the stores that would<br />

otherwise have snubbed<br />

us needed the help<br />

to boost sales, so people<br />

in fashion were very<br />

open to new solutions.<br />

The economy had<br />

collapsed, so why not?”<br />

ADAPTING<br />

NEVES’ S<br />

MILESTONES<br />

1974<br />

Born in Porto,<br />

Portugal<br />

1982<br />

Started coding<br />

aged eight when<br />

the ZX Spectrum he<br />

got for Christmas<br />

didn’t come<br />

with any games<br />

1987<br />

Studied martial<br />

arts, laying the<br />

foundation for his<br />

love of yoga<br />

and meditation<br />

1993-1997<br />

Studied economics<br />

at the University<br />

of Porto<br />

“If you don’t love what you<br />

do, you’ll probably fail.<br />

When I started<br />

programming, my first<br />

customers were fashion<br />

businesses. I thought,<br />

‘This is a very cool,<br />

creative, interesting,<br />

international industry.’<br />

I fell in love.”<br />

“Diversity isn’t a moral<br />

choice <strong>–</strong> it’s essential for<br />

survival. You need<br />

different points of view<br />

and different cultures,<br />

left brain and right brain,<br />

passion and technology. If<br />

everyone is looking in one<br />

direction, you’ll never see<br />

what’s coming up behind.”<br />

“It is very difficult to<br />

change the DNA of a<br />

company. But you need<br />

to try. A company is<br />

shaped by its founder,<br />

but changes as it grows.<br />

Learn how to let<br />

evolution happen.”<br />

1994<br />

Launched his first<br />

company, a tech<br />

logistics startup<br />

for the Portuguese<br />

fashion industry<br />

1996<br />

Moved into shoe<br />

design, establishing<br />

the Swear<br />

brand in London<br />

PROTECTION<br />

BALANCE<br />

BUILDING A TEAM<br />

“Disruption isn’t<br />

everything. The first wave<br />

of the internet <strong>–</strong> Amazon<br />

in retail and search<br />

engines with the media <strong>–</strong><br />

threatened to kill creativity<br />

in the name of price. The<br />

second wave, including<br />

Farfetch, is trying<br />

to save our industries.”<br />

“I’m not the best in the<br />

world at fashion, and<br />

I’m not the best in the<br />

world at technology <strong>–</strong> but,<br />

realistically, it’s<br />

very rare to find people<br />

who understand<br />

both of those worlds.”<br />

“Everything changes<br />

when you’ve hired around<br />

150 people. Then your<br />

job is no longer finding<br />

customers, creating<br />

a product or designing<br />

solutions <strong>–</strong> your job is to<br />

hire and keep great<br />

teams. Surround yourself<br />

with skilful people.”<br />

2001<br />

Launched retail<br />

venture b Store<br />

2007<br />

Launched Farfetch<br />

2015<br />

Acquired Browns<br />

fashion chain,<br />

known for nurturing<br />

designers such as<br />

Alexander McQueen


096 _ WORK SMARTER _ INVESTOR STORIES<br />

‘Brexit has implications. What are the potential<br />

impacts on recruiting the best talent from abroad?’<br />

Philippe Botteri Partner, Accel<br />

INTERVIEW<br />

1. Luciana Lixandru, partner;<br />

2. Harry Nelis, partner;<br />

3. Sonali De Rycker, general<br />

partner; 4. Nir Blumberger,<br />

venture partner;<br />

5. Philippe Botteri, partner<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: NICK WILSON<br />

PICTURED L-R 1 2 3 4 5


+ Accel’s London funds have invested in 162 companies<br />

ACCEL HAS 3 OFFICES AROUND THE WORLD<br />

+ £11.6bn has been raised globally<br />

+ There is a £29.5bn market cap for exits in Europe<br />

Investing?<br />

Speed is<br />

of the essence<br />

Global venture-capital firm Accel Partners<br />

explains its strategy for making quick<br />

decisions on seed and early investments<br />

“VENTURE CAPITAL IS A BOUTIQUE BUSINESS <strong>–</strong><br />

it’s about relationships, emotion and instinct.<br />

It’s hard to institutionalise,” Sonali De Rycker,<br />

general partner at Accel, says. “But we asked<br />

ourselves: how can you help your founders<br />

go global if you haven’t done it yourself?”<br />

There are few VCs with Accel’s global reach<br />

<strong>–</strong> the company has offices in Silicon Valley,<br />

London and Bangalore as well as a partnership<br />

in China <strong>–</strong> and fewer still with its reputation.<br />

Successful exits include Facebook, Etsy and<br />

Supercell, while current investments include<br />

BlaBlaCar, Deliveroo and Dropbox. In January<br />

<strong>2017</strong>, Accel topped analyst firm Nanalyze’s<br />

list of best-performing VCs. Accel, which has<br />

global assets of almost £10 billion, ranked in<br />

the top three alongside Sequoia Capital and<br />

Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers.<br />

Accel was founded in Silicon Valley in 1983<br />

by Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz. Its<br />

philosophy was based on the Louis<br />

Pasteur quote: “Chance only<br />

favours the prepared mind.” “The<br />

prepared mind means we must be<br />

proactive,” says Accel’s Londonbased<br />

partner Philippe Botteri. “We<br />

need to be talking to our network<br />

constantly and researching the key<br />

trends shaping the digital world for<br />

the next five to ten years and trying<br />

to find the category leader.”<br />

“It’s about speed of decisionmaking,”<br />

De Rycker adds. “But we<br />

like to know what we’re getting into<br />

and not just moving fast because<br />

we’re caught up in a frenzy. We have<br />

the blueprints of what we like and<br />

if that matches the blueprint of the<br />

company and there’s excitement,<br />

we move fast.” Stephen Armstrong<br />

What are you looking for?<br />

-<br />

“AI features in every VCs’<br />

prediction for <strong>2017</strong>,” De<br />

Rycker explains. “We<br />

believe a lot in humanassisted<br />

AI rather than<br />

black-box AI. Data<br />

and processing speed<br />

have mostly driven AI <strong>–</strong><br />

but now the algorithms<br />

are progressing.”<br />

Recent examples<br />

include Qubit, which sifts<br />

through customer data<br />

using machine-learning<br />

algorithms to identify<br />

opportunities. Accel<br />

leads Qubit’s series B<br />

and series C rounds, as<br />

well as Shift Technology’s<br />

2016 series A round.<br />

“We’re also looking<br />

at next-generation<br />

infrastructure,” says<br />

Botteri. “Whenever you<br />

see more automation<br />

with less weight <strong>–</strong> such<br />

as the trends in battery<br />

size that’s driving the<br />

drone market <strong>–</strong> that’s<br />

worth keeping an eye on.”<br />

Where are you looking?<br />

-<br />

“All of Europe has been<br />

growing, but Paris has<br />

grown the fastest,” Botteri<br />

says. “It’s driven by the<br />

talents around machine<br />

learning emerging from<br />

the École Polytechnique.<br />

It’s not by chance that<br />

Facebook has its AI<br />

research centre in Paris.”<br />

“I’m waiting for the first<br />

great company from<br />

Denmark,” adds De Rycker.<br />

“The companies we have in<br />

Sweden total £16 billion.<br />

Supercell was just six<br />

people in Helsinki, but<br />

look at them now. There’s<br />

government support and<br />

a culture of equality. If you<br />

have a great business it’s<br />

more likely to last because<br />

you’re transparent with<br />

your employees, and loyal<br />

people don’t switch jobs.<br />

I have invested in Russia<br />

<strong>–</strong> when Crimea was<br />

invaded I was biting my<br />

nails <strong>–</strong> but I want to back<br />

great entrepreneurs.”<br />

What are you avoiding?<br />

-<br />

“In regulated markets<br />

such as healthcare, you<br />

need to know what you’re<br />

doing,” warns De Rycker.<br />

“If you’re doing everything<br />

right and there’s new<br />

legislation, suddenly you<br />

don’t have a business and<br />

everything has to change.<br />

Never say never<br />

<strong>–</strong> but handle with care.”<br />

What’s looking good?<br />

-<br />

“Exits are the lifeblood<br />

of our business,” says<br />

De Rycker. “The<br />

Snapchat IPO was a<br />

bellwether <strong>–</strong> there are<br />

three filings in the<br />

coming weeks and<br />

we have companies with<br />

IPO plans. There is<br />

huge pent-up demand<br />

on the buying side<br />

for growth stories.”<br />

What worries you?<br />

-<br />

“In our business, we are<br />

looking at microeconomic<br />

trends that are changing<br />

over ten years, and we<br />

invest in markets that are<br />

growing exponentially.<br />

So unless it’s a 2007<br />

-style crash, any headwinds<br />

are only supplying a<br />

few per cent change<br />

to markets that<br />

are growing by hundreds<br />

of per cent,” explains<br />

Botteri. “Having said that,<br />

Brexit does have<br />

implications. What<br />

are the potential impacts<br />

on recruiting the best<br />

talent from abroad?<br />

Will the City still have<br />

its passporting to<br />

European finance capitals?<br />

And if the <strong>UK</strong> is out of<br />

the EU, what happens to<br />

data regulation and<br />

compliance? Will people<br />

need specific data<br />

centres for the <strong>UK</strong>?<br />

All that will add more<br />

cost and friction.”<br />

‘We’re looking at<br />

next-generation<br />

infrastructure.<br />

Whenever you<br />

see more<br />

automation with<br />

less weight, such<br />

as battery size in<br />

the drone market,<br />

that’s worth<br />

keeping an eye on’<br />

Philippe Botteri


PICTET _ WIRED PARTNERSHIP<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: CHARLIE SURBEY<br />

erlin is booming. To<br />

celebrate, WIRED and<br />

Pictet co-hosted an<br />

B evening at the city’s Soho<br />

House to bring together its<br />

community of founders.<br />

Encouraging discussion and an exchange of<br />

stories, it was a chance to understand Berlin’s<br />

powerful startup ecosystem and reveal the<br />

inspiration behind the successes.<br />

For Maximilian Tayenthal, co-founder of N26,<br />

an app-based bank with more than 300,000<br />

users, opportunity arrived with apps and<br />

volume of potential new customers. But he<br />

remains surprised by the lack of competition<br />

from incumbents, in Germany and beyond.<br />

“A lot of things keep us awake at night at<br />

N26, but it’s not the competition of European<br />

Banks,” Tayenthal said. “A change in user<br />

behaviour means there’s always a chance<br />

for new technology and disruption.”<br />

The growth of mobile and a developing<br />

market was also key for game developer<br />

Wooga, says Jens Begemann, its co-founder.<br />

“We started eight years ago, when video<br />

games were still a niche,” he says. “With<br />

Wooga, I wanted to change that and make<br />

them accessible to a much wider audience so<br />

that one day everybody would play every day.”<br />

While the app economy presented the<br />

first wave of Berlin startup opportunities,<br />

trends such as machine learning are the<br />

launchpads for the next. Sofie Quidenus<br />

founded SearchInk in Berlin in 2015. It uses<br />

AI to make hand-written text searchable and<br />

able to be processed by computer programs.<br />

“We’re taking the next big steps to handling<br />

the most valuable thing we have <strong>–</strong> time,”<br />

Quidenus says. “We’re dedicated to developing<br />

solutions that change how people are working<br />

and will let them focus on the meaningful.”<br />

While some spoke of aiding or relying on<br />

established German institutions, Berlin’s<br />

multinational talent pool was a key theme.<br />

Relayr <strong>–</strong> an internet of things platform for<br />

enterprise digital transformation <strong>–</strong> has a staff<br />

of 150 employees from 28 countries.<br />

Ida Tin, CEO of ovulation tracking app Clue,<br />

highlighted her company’s willingness to<br />

recruit international talent, particularly from<br />

Silicon Valley and those born in the EU but<br />

working in the <strong>UK</strong>. Of Clue’s 50 staff, just ten<br />

are German nationals. Also important is its<br />

position on attracting female talent: more than<br />

60 per cent of the company’s team are women,<br />

as are 30 per cent of its engineers <strong>–</strong> despite<br />

the firm originally having a male majority.<br />

Innovation and diversity were noted as drivers<br />

of Berlin’s ecosystem, as was on-hand finance.<br />

Later at the event, WIRED editor-at-large<br />

David Rowan asked Mark Schmitz, general<br />

partner at venture-capital firm Lakestar,<br />

what he looks for in startups. “We’re fond<br />

of people and teams that go after significant<br />

problems using technology,” he said.<br />

This resonated with the work of Refugees<br />

Welcome, the startup that matches refugees<br />

with homes in Germany, 11 other EU countries,<br />

Australia and Canada.<br />

WIRED editor Greg Williams summed up the<br />

ethos <strong>–</strong> and the evening <strong>–</strong> with a toast: “To the<br />

people who define themselves by big ideas,<br />

rather than borders.” We’ll raise a glass to that.<br />

For more information, visit group.pictet<br />

THE BERLIN EFFECT<br />

WIRED and Pictet held a networking meet-up to celebrate<br />

the founders keeping the city’s startup ecosystem vibrant<br />

Above: N26’s co-founder<br />

Maximilian Tayenthal<br />

(centre) in conversation<br />

with WIRED editorat-large<br />

David Rowan<br />

ON THE GUEST LIST:<br />

Maru Winnacker<br />

is the founder<br />

of Project<br />

OONA, a Berlinbased<br />

luxury<br />

handbag brand<br />

Eric Wahlforss<br />

co-founded<br />

SoundCloud, the<br />

music streaming<br />

site with more<br />

than 175m users.<br />

Mareike Geiling is<br />

behind Refugees<br />

Welcome, an<br />

“Airbnb for<br />

asylum seekers”<br />

in 14 countries.


SHELL _ WIRED CONSULTING<br />

#makethefuture<br />

THE ENERGY<br />

CHALLENGE<br />

The energy landscape is changing <strong>–</strong> and startups are key to its<br />

evolution. Shell’s Singapore #makethefuture Accelerator was the<br />

first of three events seeking to help develop smart new ideas<br />

n 1907, Earth’s population<br />

stood at 1.75 billion people.<br />

Now, 110 years after the<br />

I creation of Royal Dutch<br />

Shell, that number has<br />

more than quadrupled <strong>–</strong><br />

and they all need energy. Goh Swee Chen,<br />

Shell Singapore’s chairperson, knows the<br />

company can’t meet this challenge alone.<br />

“We recognise our responsibility to<br />

seek solutions and develop a wider range<br />

of cleaner energy supplies,” she told the<br />

#makethefuture Accelerator, part of Shell’s<br />

Make the Future Asia festival dedicated to<br />

exploring the technologies and ideas tackling<br />

energy challenges. “But it’s a complex<br />

problem. That’s why we believe we must<br />

reach out to different companies, teams<br />

and startups to develop bright ideas.”<br />

And where better to find collaborators than in<br />

Singapore and across Asia? It’s an area where<br />

large, growing populations provide a pressing<br />

test of humanity’s energy expansion capability,<br />

as well as a hub for idea generation.<br />

The accelerator gathered entrepreneurs<br />

and industry experts including Ted Chen,<br />

co-founder and CEO of Singapore energy<br />

management startup EverComm, managing<br />

partner of Golden Gate Ventures Vinnie<br />

Lauria, and Serguei Netessine, professor of<br />

global technology and innovation at INSEAD<br />

business school. Everyone offered key advice<br />

for the founders on scaling their firms, but two<br />

startups, Capture Mobility and MotionECO,<br />

made a big impression at the event.<br />

Sanwal Muneer is CEO of Edinburgh-based<br />

Capture Mobility, which produces miniature<br />

roadside turbines that can turn turbulence<br />

from passing vehicles into 300W of energy to<br />

power nearby appliances. Today, that could be<br />

traffic lights or speed cameras, but Muneer<br />

is eyeing one eco-energy gap in particular.<br />

“Many people support electric cars, but they<br />

don’t know where their energy comes from,”<br />

he said. “It could be from a nuclear power<br />

plant or a coal plant. We’re thinking about<br />

charging stations powered by turbines, so you<br />

know that the energy is 100 per cent green.”<br />

HOW TO EXPAND ACROSS ASIA<br />

Presenting a complex variety<br />

of regulatory challenges,<br />

cultural norms and business<br />

practices, Asian markets can<br />

pose a formidable challenge<br />

to young entrepreneurs<br />

trying to grow their business<br />

<strong>–</strong> particularly those without<br />

local experience.<br />

“When it comes to Asia,<br />

governments in particular<br />

are extremely diverse in<br />

their approach to working<br />

with startups,” explained<br />

Ted Chen, who aims to<br />

reduce energy wastage.<br />

David Toh, director and<br />

chief technology officer<br />

at Nanyang Technological<br />

University, pointed to<br />

Singapore as a shining<br />

example of how well a<br />

country can support startup<br />

founders. “Things are very<br />

transparent here; we share<br />

a common vision of a smart<br />

nation. That means it’s<br />

already a lot easier to get<br />

buy-in from all the different<br />

ecosystem players <strong>–</strong> from<br />

researchers to academia to<br />

corporates to government<br />

agencies. It would be great<br />

for all these startups if we<br />

could export that model<br />

to other countries.”<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: TERRAN TANG


SHELL _ WIRED CONSULTING<br />

SHELL LAUNCHED A MUSIC VIDEO<br />

FOR “BEST DAY OF MY LIFE”,<br />

IN 2016, WHICH LAUNCHED A<br />

WORLDWIDE ENERGY RELAY. THE<br />

VIDEO WAS A COLLABORATION<br />

BETWEEN SHELL, SIX ARTISTS AND<br />

SEVEN ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES<br />

SHELL


SHELL _ WIRED CONSULTING<br />

HOW TO OVERCOME THE BURDEN OF REGULATION<br />

Whether regulation<br />

enables or hinders<br />

innovation varies<br />

between countries and<br />

markets. “In China, you<br />

might need to work with<br />

different agencies in<br />

different provinces, which<br />

becomes very difficult for<br />

expansion,” said Vinnie<br />

Lauria, managing partner<br />

at Golden Gate Ventures.<br />

“Singapore is more<br />

progressive in helping<br />

startups with licensing<br />

and other processes.”<br />

Some startups are known<br />

to have a tricky time<br />

with governments, “but I<br />

believe that when it comes<br />

to critical issues such as<br />

energy, you need to work<br />

with the government,”<br />

said Ted Chen. “So, it’s<br />

about being creative.”<br />

Shutong Liu, CEO of Shanghai-based<br />

MotionECO, is also focusing on the environmental<br />

challenge of transportation energy,<br />

albeit on a shorter timescale.<br />

“Biofuel is currently the most economically<br />

viable clean-energy solution to expand to the<br />

existing fleet on the road,” he explained. The<br />

challenge, however, is finding the greenest<br />

way to source it, so as not to compete with<br />

the food oil market. MotionECO was founded<br />

on the realisation that one person’s problem<br />

is often another’s solution.<br />

“We have a major food-safety scandal in<br />

China <strong>–</strong> a lot of leftover food oils are illegally<br />

collected and reused for cooking in order<br />

to save money,” Liu said. “We’ve built a<br />

systematic solution to transfer this waste<br />

oil into simple biofuels for the transport<br />

and logistics sectors.” Clients include a<br />

Shanghai bus service and IKEA.<br />

Maximising impact<br />

MotionECO and Capture Mobility are looking<br />

to grow their businesses and expand further<br />

across Asian markets. This, alongside<br />

the challenges of acquiring capital and<br />

overcoming regulation, was the focus of three<br />

workshops on the day. Directed by global<br />

design firm frog Design, each workshop saw<br />

the industry experts lead a team assembled<br />

from the 60-strong attendees in brainstorming<br />

strategies for the firms.<br />

“In China in particular, a lot of venturecapital<br />

funding comes from the mobile<br />

internet and IT sector, which isn’t helpful<br />

for our business,” explained Liu. “So<br />

we’ve been reliant on the support from<br />

environmental NGOs and working with the<br />

existing industry.”<br />

The challenge of how to find and use<br />

capital extends beyond finance and into<br />

the recruitment of human capital. Liu and<br />

Muneer both seek to hire local people with<br />

good connections and in-depth knowledge<br />

of specific markets and local laws.<br />

The latter is a particular challenge for<br />

energy startups. Yet while it can be a source<br />

of potential roadblocks, local government<br />

can play a vital supportive role via environmental<br />

grants and public contracts.<br />

“It’s very important for us to partner with<br />

governments in order to help us follow the<br />

rules and the guidelines that they set,” said<br />

Liu. “Large corporates such as Shell can<br />

help us open the gate to these officials and<br />

provide the reassurance that we have the<br />

capabilities to really make things happen.”<br />

Looking to the future<br />

More than 20,000 visitors flooded Changi<br />

Exhibition Centre to explore what the festival<br />

had to offer <strong>–</strong> from virtual-reality experiences<br />

imagining the future of energy to the<br />

Shell Eco-marathon Asia, in which students<br />

compete to build energy-efficient vehicles.<br />

Both the accelerator itself <strong>–</strong> the fourth<br />

in a series <strong>–</strong> and the wider festival are<br />

evidence of Shell’s conviction that they can<br />

‘ I BELIEVE THAT WHEN<br />

IT COMES TO CRITICAL<br />

ISSUES SUCH AS ENERGY,<br />

YOU NEED TO WORK<br />

WITH THE GOVERNMENT.<br />

SO, IT’S ABOUT<br />

BEING CREATIVE.’<br />

Ted Chen,<br />

Co-founder and CEO of EverComm<br />

EXPERT CONTRIBUTORS<br />

All images: More than 60<br />

delegates gathered in<br />

Singapore for the Shell<br />

#makethefuture Accelerator<br />

Goh Swee Chen<br />

Chairperson,<br />

Shell Companies<br />

In Singapore<br />

Mark Gainsborough<br />

Executive vice<br />

president,<br />

New Energies, Shell


SHELL _ WIRED CONSULTING<br />

HOW TO EXPAND YOUR ORGANISATION THROUGH NEW CAPITAL<br />

The right funding model<br />

depends on the nature<br />

of a firm and its goals,<br />

according to Mohan<br />

Belani, co-founder and<br />

CEO of Singapore-based<br />

innovation platform e27.<br />

“It’s important to be<br />

clear on whether you’re<br />

focused on economic<br />

value or whether you’re<br />

a social enterprise,” he<br />

said. “Then you need<br />

to find the best capital<br />

partner, which could be<br />

an impact fund, VC,<br />

or a corporation.”<br />

Just as important is<br />

finding the right kind of<br />

workforce. For Toh, the<br />

thing to look for is a strong<br />

alignment of values. “You<br />

need to hire the people<br />

who are going to be your<br />

advocates,” he said.<br />

transform lives by bringing cleaner energy<br />

to communities most in need. Its previous<br />

collaborations include the world’s first<br />

solar- and kinetic-powered football pitch,<br />

created in Rio de Janeiro by <strong>UK</strong> firm<br />

Pavegen, and a partnership with Kenyabased<br />

GravityLight, which distributes<br />

sustainably powered lamps.<br />

Shell launched a music video for “Best<br />

Day of My Life”, in 2016, which initiated<br />

the start of a worldwide energy relay. The<br />

video was a collaboration between Shell,<br />

six artists and seven energy technologies,<br />

inviting people to contribute to the energy<br />

conversation. The relay continues today,<br />

bringing the featured technologies to life<br />

for communities in need across the world.<br />

What Shell excels at, said executive vice<br />

president for new energies Mark Gainsborough,<br />

is connecting these sustainable<br />

ideas with sustainable business practices.<br />

“The issues young entrepreneurs face<br />

come down to: how to get good advice,<br />

and how to get good financing,” he said.<br />

“Access to capital is typically what holds<br />

people back, but they also need help<br />

figuring out a monetisation model. What<br />

you don’t want is an organisation that<br />

snuffs out that entrepreneurial spirit.<br />

Young founders have to be careful about<br />

who they partner with.”<br />

That’s where Shell comes in. Via funding,<br />

mentorship and new connections, the<br />

#makethefuture campaign partners with<br />

innovative startups to bring their bright<br />

energy ideas into action. That goes for the<br />

accelerator, the festival <strong>–</strong> and the journeys<br />

of Liu, Muneer and thousands of other<br />

founders around the world. #makethefuture<br />

James Tan<br />

Managing<br />

partner,<br />

Quest Ventures<br />

Shutong Liu<br />

Founder<br />

and CEO,<br />

MotionECO<br />

Sanwal Muneer<br />

CEO,<br />

Capture<br />

Mobility


WILL ALL<br />

BOATS FLY?<br />

Who’d have thought boats could fly? When it<br />

comes to game changing innovation our heads<br />

aren’t in the clouds. We ask the right questions<br />

to understand the risks of the future.<br />

For more Forward Thinking,<br />

visit xlcatlin.com<br />

XL Catlin, the XL Catlin logo and Make Your World Go are trademarks of XL Group Ltd companies. XL Catlin is the global brand used by XL Group Ltd’s (re)insurance subsidiaries.


07-17 _ LONG-FORM STORIES _ 1 0 5<br />

IMAGE BY KEVIN UMANA. ACHIEVED BY PAINTING GOUACHE ON CANVAS, THEN ADDING 24 PIECES OF WOOD. THE PIECE WAS INSPIRED BY<br />

THE MUSIC OF ARTHUR RUSSELL AND FRANK STELLA’S 1968 ART-DANCE COLLABORATIONS WITH MERCE CUNNINGHAM & DANCE COMPANY<br />

“When we need to deliver, we don’t raise our game <strong>–</strong> we sink to our highest level of training.” David Carr, p106


With five Olympic medals,<br />

Ben Ainslie is one of the world’s<br />

most successful sailors. His<br />

next challenge? To lead a British<br />

team to victory at the most<br />

technological of all contests:<br />

the America’s Cup. WIRED<br />

joined him in Bermuda as he<br />

prepares for the race of his life<br />

By João Medeiros<br />

Photography: Chris Crisman<br />

s a i l i n g t a


k e s f l i g h t


O<br />

Opening pages: Ben<br />

Ainslie (second from<br />

left) leads the BAR<br />

team on R1 during a<br />

training session in the<br />

Great Sound, Bermuda<br />

108 _ WIRED _ 07-17<br />

N<br />

<strong>August</strong> 6, 2011, sailor Charles<br />

Benedict Ainslie took a break<br />

from training for the Olympics to<br />

watch TV. The first race of the new<br />

season of the America’s Cup World<br />

Series merited his attention.<br />

Ainslie had made his reputation<br />

as one of the world’s best sailors in<br />

dinghy sailing. He had been obsessed<br />

with the America’s Cup since the<br />

age of 12, when he first saw the<br />

12-metre British yacht that was<br />

competing in the America’s Cup<br />

harboured in the port of Falmouth,<br />

near his home in Cornwall.<br />

However, the trophy that Ainslie<br />

had become captivated by had<br />

changed almost beyond recognition.<br />

The rules allowed the previous<br />

winner to dictate the format for the<br />

next competition. Larry Ellison,<br />

CEO of the Oracle Corporation, the<br />

world’s fifth richest man and owner<br />

of the America’s Cup-winning team at<br />

the time, Oracle Team USA, ditched<br />

the traditional majestic-looking<br />

yachts for 22-metre catamarans with<br />

rigid wingsails, which could reach<br />

speeds of more than 90kph.<br />

That decision had been broadly<br />

criticised by sailors and designers:<br />

the former had little experience<br />

piloting these boats, and the latter<br />

had little experience designing<br />

them. The new class of catamaran,<br />

the AC72, was considered an<br />

unstable, fragile and complicated<br />

structure, which was difficult to<br />

sail. Ainslie was among the critics.<br />

“Believe it or not, I’m a bit of a traditionalist<br />

at heart,” he explains. “I<br />

had spent my life developing my<br />

skills in classic mono-hull boats.”<br />

Ainslie changed his mind five<br />

minutes into the televised broadcast.<br />

“I was just impressed by these<br />

boats and their speed,” he recalls.<br />

“It dawned on me that this was<br />

the future of sailing.” The following<br />

day, Ainslie phoned Russell Coutts,<br />

CEO of Team Oracle USA and a<br />

three-time America’s Cup winner.<br />

“I want to start a team,” Ainslie told<br />

him. “How do I do it?” “I was just<br />

about to call you,” Coutts replied.<br />

“I want you to come and join us.”<br />

Ainslie agreed to join Oracle to<br />

helm its second boat and train as a<br />

sparring partner to its main vessel,<br />

skippered by Australian Jimmy<br />

Spithill in the run-up to the America’s<br />

Cup finals, which would take<br />

place of San Francisco in 2013.<br />

Ainslie joined the team in <strong>August</strong><br />

2012, two weeks after competing<br />

for Team GB in the London Olympic<br />

Games and winning a gold medal. He<br />

was now the most successful Olympic<br />

sailor of all time. “I was on a high from<br />

the Olympic Games and then, straight<br />

away, I was racing in a completely<br />

diferent sport.” Ainslie recalls. “I had<br />

never raced in those boats before. I<br />

was really on the back foot against<br />

the other people I was racing.”<br />

But if the sport was already<br />

diferent by then, later that month it<br />

became unrecognisable. On <strong>August</strong><br />

29, 2012, photos were posted on an<br />

obscure sailing website of Team New<br />

Zealand’s AC72 on the Hauraki Gulf,<br />

on the North Island, showing the<br />

boat sailing with both hulls out of the<br />

water. When the images first came<br />

to light, Team New Zealand ofered<br />

no official comment. The images<br />

went viral and many considered<br />

it a Photoshopped hoax. Less than<br />

a week later, the Kiwis invited a<br />

group of journalists to see a flying<br />

catamaran with their own eyes.<br />

Team New Zealand had been<br />

experimenting with one of the<br />

boat’s components, the hydrofoil<strong>–</strong><br />

retractable blades designed to<br />

provide stability. The breakthrough<br />

happened when they discovered<br />

that at wind speeds of 22.2kph,<br />

an L-shaped hydrofoil could lift<br />

the boat out of the water, which<br />

reduced drag and allowed it to<br />

accelerate to speeds of up to 92.6kph.<br />

Flying a catamaran <strong>–</strong> or, in sailor’s<br />

parlance, foiling <strong>–</strong> added an extra<br />

dimension to sailing. Suddenly,<br />

sailors had to contend with a sport<br />

that seemed to obey different<br />

physical laws. Team New Zealand’s<br />

skipper Dean Barker equated it to<br />

“sailing a monster”. To a relative<br />

America’s Cup novice such as Ainslie,<br />

this was akin to relearning to sail.<br />

“Most of us associate sailing with<br />

getting wet and with waves coming<br />

over the boat,” Ainslie says. “When


‘ b e l i e v e i t<br />

or not, i'm a<br />

b i t o f a<br />

traditionalist'<br />

you lift up out of the water, you<br />

don’t feel that sensation. It’s about<br />

the wind blowing over your face, the<br />

noise in your ears from the airflow.”<br />

On September 7, 2013, Oracle<br />

Team USA and Team New Zealand<br />

lined up for the inaugural race of the<br />

34th America’s Cup. The Americans<br />

were favourites: they were defending<br />

champions sailing in front of a home<br />

crowd, and they had a technologically<br />

superior boat <strong>–</strong> a product of Ellison’s<br />

millions and Oracle’s top engineers.<br />

On the first day of competition,<br />

however, Team New Zealand won race<br />

one by a margin of 36 seconds and<br />

race two by 52 seconds. By race five,<br />

the Kiwis were 4-1 ahead. They were<br />

sailing faster; their foiling prowess<br />

was superior. The trophy would go<br />

to the first team to win nine races. At<br />

that point, Team New Zealand was<br />

Above: BAR tactician Giles Scott stands between the wings of R1


unning away with the competition.<br />

Before race six, Spithill informed his<br />

tactician, a San Franciscan called<br />

John Kostecki, whose responsibility<br />

was to guide him to the spots<br />

with favourable winds, that he was<br />

going to be replaced. Then he walked<br />

into the office of a sailor with no<br />

experience in the role of tactician<br />

and asked him whether he was ready<br />

to step up. Ainslie said yes.<br />

“Some people close to me<br />

suggested it was a bad idea,” Ainslie<br />

says. “They were saying that the<br />

team was going to lose and that I<br />

was just being set up to be the fall<br />

guy. To me, there was no question<br />

whether or not I should go on that<br />

boat. I was asked to do a job and the<br />

team needed positivity.” With Ainslie<br />

on board, and with the design team<br />

making incremental improvements<br />

to the AC72 and the crew improving<br />

their boat-handling and tactics,<br />

Oracle gradually began to match the<br />

Kiwis in speed and technique. On<br />

day ten, with the score at 8-3 <strong>–</strong> and<br />

with match point to New Zealand <strong>–</strong><br />

Ainslie decided to disregard their<br />

opponents’ strategy and focus on<br />

directing Spithill to areas where he<br />

believed the wind was strongest.<br />

“It was the first time these boats<br />

were being raced like that,” Ainslie<br />

explains. “The tactical playbook<br />

was pretty much thrown out of<br />

the window and I started playing<br />

around with diferent ideas.”<br />

With flawless decision-making<br />

and a canny ability to “see” wind,<br />

Ainslie’s tactical daring propelled<br />

Oracle to a comeback. On September<br />

24, with the score at 8-6, Ellison<br />

cancelled his keynote speech at<br />

Oracle’s largest annual convention <strong>–</strong><br />

his own event <strong>–</strong> so that he could watch<br />

his sailing team win two races and<br />

tie the final at 8-8. In the final race,<br />

Oracle moved into the lead during<br />

the upwind leg and, on the downwind<br />

leg, expanded it, foiling at more than<br />

72.4kph. “This is it! This is it,” Ainslie<br />

shouted. “Work your arses of!”<br />

As the boat crossed the finish<br />

line, spectators who had gathered<br />

on the pier erupted in cheers,<br />

having witnessed one of the most<br />

extraordinary comebacks in sporting<br />

history. Ainslie had triumphed in<br />

the sailing competition that had<br />

obsessed him since childhood.<br />

However, there was still something<br />

left to be done. He wanted to<br />

win it with a British team.<br />

THE COURSE<br />

BERMUDA<br />

Below: Ben Ainslie wears a Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Sport Land Rover<br />

Bar Team Edition watch, limited to 250 pieces and waterproof to 200 metres<br />

AMERICA'S CUP VILLAGE<br />

FINISH<br />

START<br />

RACE COURSE PERIMETER<br />

THE 35TH AMERICA’S CUP<br />

QUALIFYING PART ONE<br />

AMERICA’S CUP WORLD SERIES<br />

Fleet regatta heats for the America’s Cup <strong>2017</strong> were<br />

held between 2015 and 2016. Locations included<br />

Chicago, Portsmouth, Gothenburg, Bermuda,<br />

New York, Toulon, Portsmouth and Fukuoka. Land<br />

Rover BAR won the series, earning the <strong>UK</strong> team<br />

two points towards the <strong>2017</strong> Louis Vuitton Cup.


O N<br />

cloudy morning in January <strong>2017</strong>,<br />

Martin Whitmarsh sat in his oice<br />

in a six-storey building positioned<br />

prominently on Portsmouth<br />

harbour. He is the CEO of Land<br />

Rover Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR),<br />

launched in 2014 to compete in the<br />

next America’s Cup. This event will<br />

take place from May 26 in Bermuda<br />

between BAR and teams from Japan,<br />

France, Sweden, New Zealand and<br />

the cup defenders, Oracle Team<br />

USA. Whitmarsh’s office is one of<br />

the few rooms on the open-plan top<br />

floor, which is sparsely populated<br />

by engineers and designers tapping<br />

away on computers. Through a light<br />

well, one of the windows overlooks<br />

the 12-metre-high workshop on the<br />

ground floor, where the shore crew<br />

assembles and maintains boats.<br />

Today, one catamaran occupies<br />

a corner of the workshop. It’s a<br />

stunning carbon-fibre machine with<br />

twin 13.7-metre-long narrow hulls<br />

joined by two nine-metre-wide<br />

crossbeams. The space between the<br />

crossbeams is covered with a netting<br />

trampoline. In the middle of the<br />

forward beam is a tennis ball-sized<br />

titanium sphere where the 38-<br />

metre rigid wing is inserted.<br />

Whitmarsh, a slender man in his<br />

50s with close-cropped salt-andpepper<br />

hair and a suave demeanour,<br />

spoke excitedly about the America’s<br />

Cup trophy, an ornate silver ewer<br />

designed by the jewellers Garrard.<br />

“I got to touch it yesterday,” he<br />

says. “They had flown it from one<br />

of Larry Ellison’s lairs in California<br />

to London. It travelled in business<br />

QUALIFYING PART TWO<br />

LOUIS VUITTON AMERICA’S CUP QUALIFIERS<br />

This will determine who will face the defending<br />

champions in the America’s Cup. Between May<br />

26 and June 3, teams compete in two round-robin<br />

stages. The top four advance to the semi-finals.<br />

The Louis Vuitton Cup Final takes place between<br />

June 10 and 12 in the Great Sound, Bermuda.<br />

E<br />

THE FINAL<br />

class with a bodyguard. I asked the<br />

guard if he would take a bullet for it.<br />

He was taking himself very seriously.<br />

When he unwrapped it, I just wanted<br />

to touch it with my bare hands.<br />

You’re not allowed to do that. ”<br />

When Whitmarsh met Ainslie,<br />

the sailor had been searching for a<br />

CEO for his new team for months.<br />

Ainslie, a keen student of America’s<br />

Cup history, gave Whitmarsh some<br />

context: the America’s Cup is the<br />

oldest trophy in the world, first<br />

awarded in 1851 by the Royal Yacht<br />

Squadron in Cowes, when it was<br />

won by the US schooner America<br />

against a fleet of 15 British yachts.<br />

The trophy was subsequently won<br />

30 times by the Americans. It was<br />

also won twice by the Kiwis and<br />

the landlocked Swiss, and once by<br />

the Australians, but never by the<br />

country who had designed it in the<br />

first place. That’s what Ainslie wants<br />

to rectify, with a <strong>UK</strong> team capable<br />

of returning the cup home; a team<br />

that, according to Ainsley, are doing<br />

it “for Queen and country”.<br />

It didn’t take much for Ainslie to<br />

be persuaded that Whitmarsh was<br />

the kind of CEO he needed for his<br />

team. “I’d met several people, but<br />

it was hard to find someone with<br />

the right mix of experience and<br />

personality,” Ainslie says. “With<br />

‘ there’s a moment<br />

when you see ben<br />

start to change .<br />

it’s impressive'<br />

35TH AMERICA’S CUP<br />

The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup will then<br />

face the defending America’s Cup champions,<br />

Oracle Team USA. This event will also be held in<br />

the Great Sound, Bermuda. The races will take<br />

place between June 17 and 27 <strong>–</strong> the first team<br />

to earn seven points wins the competition.<br />

Martin, we just clicked.” Although<br />

a sailing neophyte, Whitmarsh is<br />

a Formula One luminary, who, in<br />

25 years at McLaren <strong>–</strong> including<br />

nine as CEO <strong>–</strong> capped eight world<br />

championships with legendary<br />

drivers such as Alain Prost, Ayrton<br />

Senna and Lewis Hamilton. He<br />

also oversaw the consolidation<br />

of F1 as the high-tech pinnacle of<br />

sport. “When I started, the cars<br />

had manual transmissions and<br />

throttle cables,” Whitmarsh says.<br />

Under Whitmarsh, for instance,<br />

McLaren was the first team to<br />

build a mission control, where car<br />

telemetry could be analysed and<br />

simulations run in real time. It was<br />

also the first to build a racing-car<br />

simulator, where drivers could train<br />

without leaving their headquarters<br />

in Woking, Surrey. The formula<br />

behind this innovation was simple.<br />

“Asking dumb questions is my<br />

specialty,” Whitmarsh explains.<br />

“There are hundreds of engineers<br />

who are much brighter than<br />

me, but about once every three years,<br />

you get a eureka moment.”<br />

Just across the corridor from<br />

Whitmarsh’s oice is BAR’s mission<br />

control, a room furnished with a<br />

bank of monitors displaying video<br />

streams and sensor data live from<br />

a black box attached to the windsail<br />

of one of BAR’s boats. This data-intensive<br />

treatment is part of the<br />

reason that Whitmarsh calls the sport<br />

“Formula One on water”. Each boat<br />

is accessorised with more than 400<br />

sensors. These include video data<br />

captured by GoPro cameras, six-axis<br />

motion-sensors and fibre-optic cables<br />

embedded in the hydrofoils that can<br />

monitor how much they are being<br />

stressed and bent. The intricacies<br />

of analysing data from a high-performance<br />

catamaran, however, is<br />

in danger of making Formula One’s<br />

data analysis look like basic algebra.<br />

“In motorsports, most variables are<br />

understood,” says Mauricio Muñoz,<br />

a Land Rover engineer embedded at<br />

BAR. “With these boats, dynamics<br />

change depending on the setup and<br />

the wind.” Muñoz recalls spending<br />

months grasping the dynamics of<br />

foiling catamarans. First, you have<br />

a rigid wing <strong>–</strong> similar to a vertical<br />

aeroplane wing <strong>–</strong> which acts as the<br />

boat’s sail. According to simple, but<br />

07-17 _ WIRED _ 111


counterintuitive, physics, the wing<br />

is capable of propelling the boat<br />

forward at three times the speed of<br />

the wind. Then there are the hydrofoils,<br />

the two L-shaped carbon-fibre<br />

appendages encased in the middle of<br />

each hull. With 11kph of breeze, these<br />

boards create an upward force that<br />

elevates the windward hull out of the<br />

water, cutting drag in half. At around<br />

22kph, they generate enough force<br />

to lift the weight of the catamaran<br />

and crew out of the water. While<br />

flying, the slim windward hydrofoil<br />

and two thin rudders are the only<br />

components that make contact with<br />

the water. “When you are sailing at<br />

speeds of 45 knots, as the pressure<br />

changes, the water begins to boil<br />

around the surface of the foil,”<br />

Muñoz says. “It is that crazy.”<br />

Muñoz, who has expertise in<br />

artificial intelligence, has been using<br />

machine learning to sift through<br />

sailing data and derive the intricate<br />

interactions between boat, water and<br />

weather. “Traditionally, the way we<br />

tested it was to change a parameter<br />

such as the trim profile of the wing or<br />

the setup of the hydrofoil. We would<br />

sail like that for a while, and then<br />

compare the results with previous<br />

data,” he says. “Now we can use the<br />

data to start running virtual simulations<br />

based on our machine-learning<br />

models. You build a model of the boat<br />

and you run your simulations. You no<br />

longer need your sailing team to be<br />

running tests for you all the time. We<br />

are able to do a big part of it virtually.”<br />

This type of algorithmic approach<br />

will be invaluable in testing the<br />

boat’s most crucial components<br />

such as hydrofoils. “Everything<br />

is a compromise when it comes to<br />

designing a boat,” Richard Hopkirk,<br />

BAR’s engineering manager,<br />

explains. “With the hydrofoils, it<br />

is a compromise between stability<br />

and speed. We could design the<br />

ideal hydrofoil that would be the<br />

fastest. However, it would also be so<br />

unstable that a human would find it<br />

impossible to control.”<br />

Previous page:<br />

Engineers in BAR's<br />

workshop, which<br />

houses the training boat<br />

T1 (rear) and R1 (front)<br />

114 _ WIRED _ 07-17<br />

Ainslie<br />

has a slim physique and an elegant<br />

comportment. His face is tanned and<br />

his dark hair neatly combed. Face to<br />

face, he’s personable and almost introverted.<br />

The 40-year-old is described<br />

by friends as unfailingly polite, a<br />

gentleman who’ll remember the name<br />

of someone he hasn’t seen in ten years.<br />

His demeanour on the boat, however,<br />

elicits very diferent descriptions.<br />

Of course, all sailors have their<br />

idiosyncrasies when it comes to boats.<br />

For instance, Paul Campbell-James,<br />

BAR’s trimmer (the sailor responsible<br />

for adjusting the wingsail), likes to<br />

be the first on-board and makes sure<br />

everything is exactly as he wants it:<br />

every lashing done up properly, every<br />

line tensioned correctly. “The lads take<br />

the piss out of me because they think<br />

I’m very nervous to get on-board. I just<br />

want things done right,” he explains.<br />

David “Freddie” Carr, BAR’s bowman,<br />

likes to carry a piece of wood on the<br />

boat that he touches before the race:<br />

“I am very superstitious. I believe all<br />

boats should have wood on them.”<br />

On the other hand, Nick Hutton,<br />

who is also a trimmer, does not have<br />

any particular routine: “I’m from<br />

Devon. We just get on with it”.<br />

What happens when Ainslie<br />

steps on the boat is not so much an<br />

idiosyncrasy, but a metamorphosis.<br />

His countenance becomes intense<br />

with concentration. His crew calls<br />

it “Terminator face”. According to<br />

Campbell-James, once the boat’s on<br />

the water, a switch is flicked: “There’s<br />

no downtime or humour when we are<br />

in the water, even in training.”<br />

“When he’s done with all the<br />

noise and the management, there’s<br />

a moment where you see Ben just<br />

changing,” Carr adds. “It’s pretty<br />

impressive to witness.” Hutton agrees:<br />

“We all see it. Fortunately for me, I’m<br />

facing forward on the boat.”<br />

These sailors were very much<br />

aware of this reputation when they<br />

accepted Ainslie’s job ofer to sail for<br />

BAR. They knew about his aggressive<br />

tactics and uncompromising competitiveness.<br />

They knew he was the sort of<br />

relentless competitor, who, during a<br />

regatta, is capable of jumping on to one<br />

of the TV boats to furiously accost<br />

a cameraman who had inadvertently<br />

interfered with his trajectory<br />

<strong>–</strong> which he did in 2011 in a move that<br />

got him disqualified. “In the first<br />

few months it was full on,” Hutton<br />

recalls. “Then I learned that is part of<br />

what makes him so good. He gets five<br />

per cent more out of everyone<br />

because of it.” In short, the sailors<br />

knew that Ainslie was the sort of<br />

skipper they wanted to sail with.<br />

Of course, persistent focus and an<br />

extra five per cent in performance<br />

might be what it takes to sail these<br />

boats, which all sailors compare to<br />

flying a plane <strong>–</strong> albeit one without<br />

computer-assisted navigation and<br />

with unstable dynamics. For instance,<br />

as the boat pops of the water, it<br />

begins to sequentially lift and drop<br />

as the lifting force oscillates around<br />

an equilibrium point. Ainslie needs<br />

to orchestrate this movement with<br />

deft precision, controlling the angle<br />

of the hydrofoil with a two-button<br />

switch. Add inclement weather<br />

and choppy seas to this precarious<br />

balance and things can easily spiral<br />

out of control. A sharp angle can<br />

shoot the bows skyward. A narrow<br />

angle will plunge the bows into the<br />

sea, exactly like it did during one of<br />

BAR’s training sessions in June 2015.<br />

The incident projected Ainslie, who<br />

was positioned at the stern of the<br />

boat, through the air like a crash-test<br />

dummy. He was flipped mid-air and<br />

ending up colliding with the front<br />

crossbeam of the boat. “We are<br />

learning that these boats are fast and<br />

crazy,” Ainslie says, “and it’s easy for<br />

everyone on board to get hyped up.”<br />

‘the tactical<br />

playbook was<br />

thrown out<br />

of the window'


AMERICA’S CUP-CLASS BOAT<br />

35,000<br />

Hours’ construction time<br />

16gb<br />

Data delivered<br />

per session<br />

190<br />

On-board sensors<br />

1,200m<br />

Electrical cabling<br />

Wing<br />

23.5m<br />

Wing height<br />

103m 2<br />

Wing area<br />

15m<br />

Length<br />

8.48m<br />

Width<br />

2,400kg<br />

Sailing weight<br />

Jib<br />

Cross beam<br />

Platform<br />

6 5 4 3 2 1<br />

Rudder<br />

Foil<br />

6Crew<br />

525kg<br />

Crew<br />

weight<br />

1,200w<br />

Sustained power<br />

from crew<br />

GRINDER<br />

GRINDER<br />

GRINDER<br />

GRINDER/TACTICIAN<br />

WING TRIMMER<br />

HELM<br />

6<br />

5<br />

4<br />

2<br />

1<br />

3


AMERICA’S CUP <strong>2017</strong><br />

How the teams stack up<br />

LAND ROVER BAR<br />

-<br />

Country <strong>UK</strong><br />

Helmsman Ben Ainslie. Most<br />

successful Olympic sailor, with<br />

four golds and one silver.<br />

Best result New entrant.<br />

Winner of the <strong>2017</strong> World Series.<br />

ORACLE TEAM USA<br />

-<br />

Country US<br />

Helmsman Jimmy Spithill.<br />

Became youngest winner in<br />

2010. Won it again in 2013.<br />

Best result Winner of the last<br />

two editions (2013 and 2010).<br />

ARTEMIS RACING<br />

-<br />

Country Sweden<br />

Helmsman Nathan Outteridge.<br />

Won a gold medal in the London<br />

Olympics, in the 49er class.<br />

Best result Semi-finalist in the<br />

2013 Louis Vuitton Cup.<br />

O<br />

N<br />

<strong>July</strong> 25, 2015, the new America’s<br />

Cup season began in Portsmouth. It<br />

was a sunny day, with winds blowing<br />

at 27.8kph in the Solent. These were<br />

favourable conditions for the first<br />

regatta of the World Series, the initial<br />

stage of the America’s Cup: a two-year<br />

racing circuit of fleet races in diferent<br />

countries. In the World Series, all<br />

teams sail with the same type of boat,<br />

with the overall winner earning two<br />

points towards the final competition<br />

in Bermuda in <strong>July</strong> <strong>2017</strong>. BAR, sailing in<br />

front of a home crowd, didn’t have the<br />

most auspicious start. It reached the<br />

end of the first leg in third place behind<br />

leaders Oracle Team USA. As it entered<br />

the first downwind leg, two tactical<br />

options were available, depending<br />

on where the tactician, Giles Scott,<br />

could detect stronger winds: towards<br />

the shore or further out to sea. “Wind<br />

tends to oscillate back and forward,”<br />

Scott explains. “You’re looking for<br />

darker, glossier patches of water.<br />

These are signs that tell you what the<br />

breeze is going to do in the next few<br />

minutes. It’s a bit of a dark art.”<br />

It’s also a fallible one, especially<br />

when it relies on split-second<br />

decisions. Scott directed the boat<br />

towards the shore and Ainslie’s boat<br />

found itself lagging behind the rest<br />

of the fleet. “This team is very good<br />

at digging deep when they’re experiencing<br />

adversity,” says Rob Wilson,<br />

BAR’s coach. “If they’re pushed, they’ll<br />

push back harder.” By leg six, going<br />

downwind, BAR was in first place, with<br />

Team New Zealand trailing 351 metres<br />

GROUPAMA TEAM FRANCE<br />

-<br />

Country France<br />

Helmsman Franck Cammas.<br />

He is an experienced multihull<br />

sailor, but this is his first<br />

America’s Cup.<br />

Best result N/A <strong>–</strong> new team.<br />

EMIRATES TEAM NEW<br />

ZEALAND<br />

-<br />

Country New Zealand<br />

Helmsman Peter Burling, 26, is<br />

the youngest sailor in the event<br />

Best result America’s Cup<br />

winner in 1995 and 2000.<br />

SOFTBANK TEAM JAPAN<br />

-<br />

Country Japan<br />

Helmsman Dean Barker.<br />

Participated in three America’s<br />

Cup finals as Team<br />

New Zealand’s skipper.<br />

Best result N/A - new team.<br />

Above: BAR's bowman David “Freddie” Carr training for the America's Cup. The crew<br />

is subject to a weight restriction and must pay close attention to their physical fitness


ehind. At that point, Ainslie’s boat<br />

popped out of the water and accelerated<br />

to 44kph. By then, his lead was<br />

unassailable. “We thought we sailed a<br />

bit scrappy,” Hutton said. “I guess our<br />

scrappiness was a little less scrappy<br />

than everyone else’s.” Throughout the<br />

World Series, BAR became one of the<br />

most accomplished outfits. “I feel that<br />

when we need to deliver, we don’t raise<br />

our game,” Carr says. “We just sink to<br />

our highest level of training.”<br />

When Ainslie’s team is performing<br />

well, the internal comms system is<br />

mostly silent, apart from occasional<br />

dialogue between the helmsman<br />

and the tactician, while the sailors<br />

move in synchrony. “They need to<br />

accomplish an extraordinary choreography<br />

to manoeuvre that boat,”<br />

Whitmarsh says. “You have the<br />

helmsman steering the boat, and the<br />

guy in front controlling the throttle.<br />

Imagine driving a car when you do the<br />

steering and someone else is doing<br />

the throttle. Then you have sailors<br />

in control of other systems that all<br />

need to be activated at the right time<br />

while flying at 80kph. You have a<br />

neural network of six brains looking<br />

for wind, checking the boat’s performance,<br />

deciding how to keep it flying.”<br />

Then there are moments of<br />

brilliance capable of turning a<br />

mediocre performance into a victorious<br />

one. One such moment took place<br />

in 2016, in the penultimate race of the<br />

World Series final regatta, in Fukuoka,<br />

Japan. BAR needed only to finish one<br />

place behind Team New Zealand to<br />

clinch the competition. Going into<br />

the final downwind leg of the course,<br />

however, BAR was behind the fleet,<br />

with the Kiwis in the lead. It was a<br />

light-wind day and the boats were<br />

plodding at the pace of a few knots,<br />

making every direction change a<br />

laborious manoeuvre. “Ben made an<br />

of-the-cuf tactical call and asked for<br />

a gybe, then another,” Jones says. “It<br />

was a big risk. But once we did the<br />

second gybe, we realised what was<br />

happening.” The boat gained speed<br />

and entered the final gate, overtaking<br />

other teams at twice the speed. “All the<br />

boats almost stopped,” Jones recalls.<br />

“We shot around the outside.”<br />

BAR won the title. “We celebrated,”<br />

Jones adds, “then Ben said, ‘What<br />

do we need to do to win the next<br />

race?’” Which, of course, they did.<br />

B A R<br />

launched its race boat R1 ,<br />

named Rita, on February 6, <strong>2017</strong>,<br />

in the Royal Naval Dockyard<br />

in the south-west of Bermuda.<br />

“I name this boat Rita. May God<br />

bless her and all who sail on her,”<br />

Georgie Ainslie, Ben’s wife and a<br />

television presenter, said as she<br />

activated a contraption designed<br />

to project a bottle of Nyetimber<br />

sparkling wine against a pole in front<br />

of the boat. The bottle remained<br />

intact at the first and second<br />

attempts, so the situation was swiftly<br />

resolved with a hammer. The boat<br />

was then slowly hoisted by a crane<br />

and placed on the surface of the<br />

Great Sound, the ocean inlet where<br />

the America’s Cup will take place this<br />

year. Rita is the fourth permutation<br />

in the evolutionary line that began<br />

with T1 (the boat donated to Ainslie<br />

by Oracle), T2 (“Over-ambitious and<br />

initially unreliable,” according to<br />

Hopkirk); and T3, which the team<br />

recurs to as a training boat. “With the<br />

World Series, every team was<br />

sailing with the same equipment <strong>–</strong><br />

and our team won. Which shows<br />

that we have the best sailing team,”<br />

Hopkirk says. “Now it’s our job to<br />

give Ben and his team a boat that’s<br />

as fast as the competition.”<br />

With a length of 15 metres, Rita is<br />

not only a bigger, faster boat than the<br />

ones sailed in the World Series, but<br />

is also operated diferently, making<br />

the America’s Cup not only a sailing<br />

competition and a technological race,<br />

but also a physical contest of brawn<br />

and endurance. Gone are the ropes<br />

and winches used to control the<br />

sails and the hydrofoils. These have<br />

‘ E v e r y t e a m<br />

had the same<br />

equipment <strong>–</strong> and<br />

our team won'<br />

been replaced by a hydraulic system<br />

comprised of 130 metres of pipes<br />

and powered by pedestal-mounted<br />

cranks affixed to the hollowedout<br />

hulls of the catamaran.<br />

“With these new boats we’re no<br />

longer moving rope, we’re moving<br />

hydraulic fluid,” Ben Williams,<br />

BAR’s strength and conditioning<br />

coach and a former member of<br />

the SAS, explains. In other words,<br />

every boat manoeuvre will require<br />

a supply of human-generated<br />

hydraulic power. To do so, apart from<br />

the helmsman and the wing trimmer,<br />

the remaining four sailors will adopt<br />

the role of grinders. These are the<br />

sailors who must remain constantly<br />

engaged in revolving the cranks.<br />

“I lost four kilos over Christmas,”<br />

Campbell-James explains. “Ben<br />

weighs less than 80kg, as much as<br />

he did when he was 18 years old.<br />

Because there is a weight restriction<br />

for the crew, for every four kilos I<br />

lose, that is a kilo of muscle that<br />

every grinder can put on.”<br />

The physicality of the competition<br />

means that every decision has an<br />

added cost. “We might want to make<br />

a manoeuvre, but I can’t because the<br />

guys don’t have the energy,” Ainslie<br />

says. The most aerodynamic position<br />

to grind is by working on one’s knees.<br />

A tell-tale sign of exhaustion is when<br />

the grinders need to stand up. That’s<br />

when Ainslie knows that his crew is<br />

working flat-out. “That will dictate<br />

whether we call a manoeuvre or<br />

not,” he explains. “If I steer the<br />

boat in the wrong direction, we have<br />

wasted energy and it’s demoralising.<br />

It is really physical.”<br />

João Medeiros is WIRED’s senior<br />

commissioning editor. He wrote<br />

about California startup Guardant<br />

Health, the creator of a cancer-<br />

detecting blood test, in issue 03.17<br />

07-17 _ WIRED _ 117


ISN’T IT TIME<br />

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For more Forward Thinking,<br />

visit xlcatlin.com/fish<br />

XL Catlin, the XL Catlin logo and Make Your World Go are trademarks of XL Group Ltd companies. XL Catlin is the global brand used by XL Group Ltd’s (re)insurance subsidiaries.


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IF WE’RE LIVING IN A<br />

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THIS STARTUP PROBABLY BUILT IT<br />

Billion-dollar <strong>UK</strong> firm Improbable wants to create ultra-realistic, persistent >>


On a bright, clear morning in<br />

February <strong>2017</strong>, a motley group of<br />

high-powered individuals from the<br />

entertainment, policy and security<br />

industries gathered on the Warner<br />

Brothers lot in Burbank, California.<br />

In the middle of the 25-hectare plot,<br />

surrounded by large warehouse sets,<br />

lies a ghost town: broad streets and<br />

pavements, a library, a bank, salon,<br />

shopfronts. The buildings are sets<br />

for Hollywood films (most recently,<br />

<strong>2017</strong>’s La La Land). It’s New York,<br />

at some point in the recent past, on<br />

the outskirts of Los Angeles.<br />

The group <strong>–</strong> which included the<br />

president of a major animation<br />

studio, the director of a worldfamous<br />

superhero franchise, British<br />

MPs and senior military staff from<br />

both the US and <strong>UK</strong> <strong>–</strong> had gathered<br />

for a two-day private event held by<br />

British startup Improbable. The set<br />

was a nod to the theme of “Virtual<br />

Worlds” <strong>–</strong> not virtual reality, with<br />

its cumbersome headsets, but rather<br />

alternate realities: simulations.<br />

Inside one artificial edifice, Herman<br />

Narula, Improbable’s co-founder and<br />

CEO, addressed the group. “We’re<br />

in a place today where it is actually<br />

possible to create artificial realities,”<br />

he said. “Not in some abstract sense,<br />

but genuine, living, breathing recreations<br />

of this one, powered by<br />

technology, that allow people to<br />

have totally new experiences.” Narula<br />

has the energy levels of a small<br />

nuclear reactor, and speaks faster<br />

than most people can think.<br />

“AI gets all the press,” he said, but,<br />

“this idea of recreating reality is going<br />

to become something in the public<br />

consciousness that’s as important, as<br />

significant, as artificial intelligence.”<br />

Improbable has yet to reach the<br />

profile of <strong>UK</strong> AI company DeepMind<br />

(now a division of Google), but its<br />

ambitions are just as lofty. It has raised<br />

more than $540 million (£421m) in<br />

funding from venture-capital firms<br />

including SoftBank and Andreessen<br />

Previous page:<br />

Improbable’s simulation<br />

of the entire internet.<br />

Left: The company’s<br />

co-founder and<br />

CEO Herman Narula<br />

Horowitz. It’s valued it at more than<br />

$1 billion, and counts the US and <strong>UK</strong><br />

defence departments as clients.<br />

Improbable’s platform, SpatialOS,<br />

is designed to let anyone build<br />

massive agent-based simulations,<br />

running in the cloud: imagine<br />

Minecraft with thousands of players,<br />

or simulated cities modelling the<br />

behaviour of millions. Its ultimate<br />

goal: to create totally immersive,<br />

persistent virtual worlds, and in doing<br />

so, change how we make decisions. Or,<br />

as Narula often jokes, “Basically, we<br />

want to build the Matrix.”<br />

It tells us what’s already happened.<br />

To make decisions about the future,<br />

industries from engineering to<br />

bioscience still turn to simulation.<br />

Broadly speaking, simulations are<br />

digital recreations <strong>–</strong> approximations,<br />

really <strong>–</strong> of reality. All video games are,<br />

to an extent, simulations, whether<br />

explicitly (Euro Truck Simulator 2) or<br />

implicitly (the parody Los Angeles<br />

of Grand Theft Auto V).<br />

Large, detailed simulations require<br />

vast amounts of computing power. So<br />

rather than, for example, simulating<br />

all the traic lights in a city, transport<br />

researchers might simulate a single<br />

junction or route. (While you can<br />

A/B test your app design, if you build<br />

a motorway in the wrong place, it’s<br />

tricky to move it later.) But that itself<br />

is still expensive and limited, particularly<br />

when studying, for example,<br />

the emergent, messy effects that<br />

occur with enough moving parts.<br />

Imagine a London street during<br />

rush hour. There’s a collision in the<br />

road; with the lanes blocked, traic<br />

backs up. As drivers divert, other<br />

routes start to become clogged.<br />

A few kilometres back, a queue<br />

starts to form on the motorway.<br />

Drivers, cursing under their breath,<br />

call in to work to cancel their<br />

morning meetings, overloading<br />

the nearby cellular towers. Deliveries<br />

are delayed; in the hospital,<br />

an ambulance is redirected, meaning<br />

another patient faces a longer<br />

wait for medical attention.<br />

Right now, simulating that kind of<br />

emergent complexity is impossible,<br />

but it’s exactly what Improbable<br />

wants to be able to recreate.<br />

As Narula explains: “The really<br />

interesting things happen at scale.”<br />

It’s a few weeks before the LA<br />

event, and Narula and Rob Whitehead,<br />

the company’s co-founder and chief<br />

technology officer, are sitting in<br />

Improbable’s London office. On<br />

the ground floor of a Farringdon<br />

mid-rise, cheap MDF desks compete<br />

to hold the most monitors. The<br />

company is growing quickly<br />

<strong>–</strong> in February, it opened a San<br />

Francisco office <strong>–</strong> and, each time<br />

I visit, the space has sprouted a<br />

new meeting pod. On a whiteboard<br />

in one conference room, Narula<br />

and Whitehead sketch out SpatialOS.<br />

In a video game, our imaginary<br />

London street might be made<br />

up of “Entities”. “An entity represents<br />

a thing, like a noun. In a city<br />

simulation, your entities would be<br />

every traic signal, every segment<br />

of road, every building, every pedestrian,<br />

every car,” Whitehead says.<br />

Entities have states, called “Components”<br />

(a car may have fuel; it may<br />

07-17 _ WIRED _ 123


BEFORE<br />

be “on fire”, or “not”). Components<br />

are governed by “Systems”, such as<br />

physics, which interact with them.<br />

(The car crashes, now it is “on fire”.)<br />

With one street and a few cars,<br />

that works fine. But add hundreds<br />

of cars, each containing a driver with<br />

their own priorities, and suddenly<br />

things get too much for an individual<br />

machine to handle. Typically, online<br />

IT<br />

games tackle this by limiting the<br />

number of players on each server<br />

(for example, Battlefield 1 has a limit<br />

of 64 players per game). In games<br />

with very large number of players<br />

<strong>–</strong> known as massively multiplayer<br />

online, or MMO <strong>–</strong> developers chop<br />

the play space up into diferent pieces<br />

and recreate each piece many times<br />

on diferent servers. (This is called<br />

WANTED<br />

“sharding”, an obscure reference<br />

to the early MMO Ultima Online,<br />

because: game nerds.) That’s why<br />

even though World of Warcraft<br />

might have millions of subscribers,<br />

you’ll rarely encounter more than<br />

a few dozen at any given time.<br />

SpatialOS introduces an additional<br />

computational abstraction, called<br />

“Workers”. Simplified, rather than<br />

TO BUILD<br />

chopping up the simulation by<br />

physical space, Workers distribute<br />

the simulation by the type of task<br />

happening. “You might have the<br />

Vehicle Worker, which would simulate<br />

the vehicles; then you would have<br />

maybe a Crowd Worker, which<br />

simulates how people move around.<br />

Then you would have, say, a Power<br />

Worker working out how power is<br />

THE<br />

distributed across the entire city,”<br />

explains Peter Lipka, Improbable’s<br />

chief operating officer.<br />

Crucially, if the computation is<br />

too much for one Worker to handle,<br />

or a server crashes unexpectedly,<br />

SpatialOS will dynamically bring<br />

up additional servers and distribute<br />

the load across them in real time.<br />

Narula describes this as “a giant<br />

game of musical chairs”.<br />

“As a whole, what you’ve got<br />

now is this set of diferent Workers<br />

all collaborating to simulate a<br />

MATRIX,<br />

single living, breathing city,” says<br />

Lipka. “SpatialOS is the core fabric<br />

that binds them together.”<br />

It’s an elegant hack, based on a<br />

simple underlying notion: that even<br />

in such simulations, each part doesn’t<br />

need to know about every other part,<br />

only the things in proximity to it. Improbable wanted to make<br />

Think of a murmuration of starlings, a game. Herman Narula was born<br />

in which each bird is only aware of in Delhi and grew up wealthy: his<br />

the small group around it, yet in father, Harpinder Singh Narula,<br />

large enough numbers can produce is a billionaire construction magnate<br />

behaviours of beautiful complexity. whose company builds large infrastructure<br />

projects across India.<br />

Herman received his first computer,<br />

an Intel 486, at the age of seven. “I<br />

was wandering around the house<br />

with a DOS book,” he recalls. The<br />

family split his time between India,<br />

the US and the <strong>UK</strong>. “It would be long<br />

months with diferent relatives and<br />

family, and little to do, just a computer<br />

and some books.” He took naturally<br />

to programming and passed his IT<br />

GCSE four years early, later landing a<br />

place at the University of Cambridge<br />

to study computer science.<br />

It was on a Thursday in 2012, two<br />

months before his finals, that Narula<br />

met Whitehead in a dissertation<br />

review. Growing up in Liverpool,<br />

Whitehead was an avid fan of the<br />

virtual world Second Life, where he<br />

made money as a virtual arms dealer.<br />

“That’s where I developed the entrepreneurial<br />

streak,” Whitehead says.<br />

In school, he’d build iOS games and<br />

put them up on the app store for fun.<br />

The pair started to discuss the<br />

limitations of online worlds. “He felt<br />

the same way I did about the flaw,<br />

the big flaw,” Narula says. “Why<br />

are online games so cack?”<br />

They started talking about what the<br />

perfect game would look like: a firstperson<br />

shooter, with an enormous,<br />

endlessly complex virtual world.<br />

“Games compromise,” Whitehead<br />

says. “We wanted to have so many<br />

simulated objects in the world, tens<br />

of thousands of people in the same<br />

environment.” In short: “We didn’t<br />

want to compromise.”<br />

The next day, the pair left<br />

Cambridge and went to Hyver Hall,<br />

the 19th-century Hertfordshire<br />

mansion owned by Narula’s family,<br />

and started coding. By the end of<br />

the year they’d formed a company<br />

and were hiring engineers. The<br />

team worked out of a barn on<br />

the property. One of the earliest<br />

hires was Lipka, who joined from<br />

Goldman Sachs, where he worked<br />

on the bank’s back-end system.<br />

A jovial former rugby player with a<br />

masters in computer science from<br />

Imperial College London, Lipka was<br />

intrigued by the daunting technical<br />

challenge. “I’ll be honest, they were a<br />

little batshit crazy,” he says. “I loved<br />

it.” Lipka’s finance background came<br />

in handy. “High-frequency trading<br />

is basically ‘speed is money,’” Lipka<br />

says. “So taking those techniques<br />

and applying them to what we were<br />

building was incredibly valuable.”<br />

Narula’s family had expected him<br />

to join the construction business like<br />

his brothers, and weren’t happy about


his decision to start a tech company.<br />

“In some ways, not going into the<br />

family business is very much an act<br />

of rebellion. It would be silly to argue<br />

that it wasn’t as a result of conflict,”<br />

says Narula. “I think a lot of it was<br />

about demonstrating that there’s a<br />

diference between your wealth and<br />

their wealth, and there’s a distinction<br />

between your achievements and<br />

their achievements. But I greatly<br />

admire my brothers and my father<br />

continues to do such amazing work.”<br />

“Very few people, given his<br />

background, would have made the life<br />

choices that he has made,” Lipka says.<br />

Narula’s family wealth had<br />

another advantage: not only could<br />

the company operate out of the<br />

family home, but when the company<br />

needed early funding, Narula raised<br />

£1.2 million from family and friends.<br />

“I will be honest with you: I couldn’t<br />

have done this if it wasn’t for being<br />

able to get some money from family<br />

and relatives,” Narula says. “We talk<br />

about how VCs fund innovation, but<br />

actually if you have the desire to<br />

solve an incredibly hard problem and<br />

you don’t know how you are going<br />

to solve it, you don’t have anything.”<br />

The deeper they got into the<br />

problem, the more Improbable realised<br />

that the underlying technology could<br />

be used for more than gaming. “We<br />

started talking to epidemiologists<br />

and civil engineers,” Whitehead says.<br />

“This kind of simulation infrastructure<br />

Right: Soulbound Studio’s<br />

MMO game Chronicles<br />

of Elyria is powered by<br />

Improbable’s SpatialOS<br />

Below: Improbable<br />

CTO Rob Whitehead<br />

didn’t exist.” The idea of creating a<br />

game was abandoned. Instead, they<br />

set out to create a platform so any<br />

developer could build the kind of largescale<br />

simulations they had envisioned.<br />

They hired Sam Kalnins, who had<br />

developed Hangouts at Google, and<br />

Eric Molitor, now Improbable’s VP<br />

of engineering, from Amazon. They<br />

moved into the London office and<br />

funding soon followed: first, from<br />

a group of influential British tech<br />

investors [Disclaimer: including<br />

WIRED editor-at-large David<br />

Rowan, who was not involved with<br />

this story]. Then, in March 2015, it<br />

secured a $20 million investment<br />

from Andreessen Horowitz, only its<br />

second European investment. “When I<br />

first met them, it was a clear that they<br />

had something special,” says Vijay<br />

Pande, a former Stanford professor<br />

who worked on computational<br />

biology and distributed simulations<br />

prior to joining Andreessen.<br />

“[Herman] is a force of nature,”<br />

says Chris Dixon, managing partner at<br />

Andreessen Horowitz. “The first time<br />

I met him I was like, ‘Woah <strong>–</strong> what just<br />

happened?’ And Rob is brilliant, too.”<br />

With investment secured,<br />

Improbable began rapidly expanding.<br />

In March 2016, it debuted a working<br />

simulation of the internet’s entire<br />

underlying infrastructure. The<br />

simulation, built with an unnamed<br />

department of the <strong>UK</strong> government,<br />

was designed to test what would<br />

happen if the web’s routing infrastructure<br />

was attacked.<br />

At Google’s Cloud Next conference<br />

in March <strong>2017</strong>, Narula unveiled an<br />

even bigger project: a working<br />

mock-up of the city of Cambridge,<br />

with 130,000 virtual inhabitants. It<br />

included simulations of the traffic<br />

and public-transport networks,<br />

utilities, power lines and mobilephone<br />

and internet systems. Narula<br />

claims the Cambridge simulation is<br />

“the largest of its kind ever created”.<br />

“They solved a really difficult<br />

technical problem,” says Nan Boden,<br />

head of global partnerships at<br />

Google Cloud. “The first time I saw<br />

it, I said, ‘Wow, that’s some really<br />

nice computer science work there.’”


“<br />

WE<br />

COME<br />

IN<br />

PEACE. ”<br />

number of testers, but more than<br />

600 players are sharing the same<br />

physical space, stretching over<br />

1,000 square kilometres.<br />

Worlds Adrift is unlike other<br />

MMOs. “We wanted to make a<br />

physical world, because in MMOs it<br />

has never been done,” says Olifiers.<br />

“MMOs are very much turn-based,<br />

smoothed out to look like something<br />

which is action, but is not. The server<br />

is ticking at a couple of times per<br />

second.” Chop down a tree in a game<br />

like Minecraft, and timber neatly<br />

appears in one’s inventory. In Worlds<br />

Adrift, the pieces crash realistically<br />

to the ground. Load a ship with too<br />

much weight, and it’ll start sinking.<br />

The world is also persistent, meaning<br />

if I drop my axe and come back in<br />

a year’s time, it’ll still be there.<br />

Likewise, the tree doesn’t just appear<br />

for the next player, you actually<br />

have to wait for it to grow back.<br />

Bossa and Improbable are betting<br />

that this permanence will add a layer<br />

of immersion unseen in other games.<br />

To illustrate the point, Narula tells the<br />

story of the Saint Beyoncé, a ship he<br />

built for Worlds Adrift. “I don’t see my<br />

brother very often. He came over and<br />

we spent four days together building<br />

this awesome ship,” he recalls.<br />

“And I blew it up. I was deeply sad<br />

that I destroyed that ship.”<br />

“We wanted to make games where<br />

everything matters, but apparently<br />

that also makes you cry.”<br />

Persistence also adds unforeseen<br />

levels of complexity. Worlds Adrift,<br />

for example, has its own ecology.<br />

Early on in its development, the<br />

game featured two kinds of wildlife,<br />

flying manta rays and beetles. Except<br />

the beetles wouldn’t have sex. “The<br />

levels of libido were too low,” Olifiers<br />

says “All the females were in heat, but<br />

the male beetles were not copulating,<br />

so they all died.” (Its developers<br />

have since fixed the problem.)<br />

MetaWorld, a SpatialOS app<br />

being developed by San Francisco-based<br />

HelloVR, lets two people<br />

play chess in virtual reality together.<br />

MetaWorld is also persistent <strong>–</strong> which<br />

seemed like a great idea, until players<br />

started throwing virtual chess pieces<br />

into the grass, and the Improbable<br />

team had to crawl around on their<br />

virtual hands and knees to find them.<br />

1 /<br />

“He’s trying to get away.”<br />

“Prepare to die!”<br />

It’s late January, a few weeks before<br />

the LA event, and Narula and a few<br />

Improbable employees are hanging<br />

out in the London offices of Bossa<br />

Studios, playing Worlds Adrift. An<br />

MMO set in a world of flying pirate<br />

ships and floating islands, it is the<br />

first game to be built on SpatialOS.<br />

As such, the game is also a test bed<br />

for the technology. Most weekends,<br />

Narula drops by to test the latest<br />

build and discuss new features.<br />

In the game, Narula, Bossa’s<br />

co-founder Henrique Olifiers and<br />

I are being hunted. Our play session<br />

is being live-streamed on Twitch;<br />

Bossa has declared a reward for<br />

whomever can find us. In the corner,<br />

there is a display with live analytics<br />

from SpatialOS. Worlds Adrift is still<br />

in Alpha, accessible to only a limited<br />

1. A simulation of the <strong>UK</strong><br />

city of Cambridge, built by<br />

Improbable on SpatialOS.<br />

Constructed on open<br />

and licensed data, it<br />

models more than 100,000<br />

entities, representing all<br />

the city’s citizens.<br />

2. The model simulates<br />

pedestrians, traffic, public<br />

transport, mobile-phone<br />

networks, power, gas,<br />

sewage and internet<br />

systems, each interlinked.<br />

3. If a gas line went<br />

down, the Improbable<br />

system could model<br />

potential knockon<br />

effects on road<br />

networks, public<br />

transport and internet<br />

and mobile phone<br />

coverage. From there,<br />

it could work out<br />

how to build more<br />

robust systems to<br />

prevent such network<br />

failings taking<br />

place in the future.<br />

126 _ WIRED _ 07-17<br />

3/


This type of behaviour <strong>–</strong> complex<br />

results emerging from simple systems<br />

<strong>–</strong> is what gets Narula excited. One<br />

inspiration for Improbable was the<br />

space-set MMO EVE Online , the<br />

players of which have developed their<br />

own political systems and stories;<br />

battles often take up thousands of<br />

combatants. (EVE Online doesn’t run<br />

on Improbable technology, but its<br />

own solution, built up over decades.)<br />

Because SpatialOS handles most of<br />

the back end itself, Improbable says<br />

the platform will allow even small<br />

indie developers to build games<br />

previously reserved for the kind<br />

of AAA publishers with huge<br />

budgets and server infrastructures.<br />

Currently, more than half a dozen<br />

developers are building games on<br />

2/<br />

SpatialOS <strong>–</strong> including Klang, a new<br />

studio founded by two veterans of<br />

EVE Online. If they succeed, Narula<br />

expects that number to expand<br />

quickly. As part of Improbable’s<br />

partnership with Google, developers<br />

will be given free use of Google Cloud<br />

to test their titles in development.<br />

But for Improbable to truly<br />

succeed, its biggest test will be<br />

outside of gaming. There, too, it’s<br />

made impressive strides. In fact,<br />

the company has already spawned<br />

its first startup. Immense Simulations<br />

was spun out of work that<br />

Improbable had been collaborating<br />

on with the <strong>UK</strong> government’s<br />

Transport Systems Catapult, to<br />

simulate fleets of self-driving cars.<br />

Using SpatialOS, Immense built a<br />

full-scale simulation of Manchester<br />

on a match day, using licensed and<br />

open-source data to accurately<br />

model traffic, population density<br />

and other granular details. “Being<br />

able to predict demand and where<br />

Above: Improbable<br />

COO Peter Lipka<br />

people are going to want to be at<br />

diferent times and how that afects<br />

the mobility system <strong>–</strong> from a business<br />

point of view that’s really valuable,”<br />

says Immense CEO Robin North.<br />

Of course, identifying the<br />

technology underpinning any<br />

simulation is only half the battle.<br />

Whether it’s actually of any use<br />

comes down to designing the model<br />

of the world. If your simulated<br />

tumour or motorway system doesn’t<br />

match real-world results, it’s useless.<br />

To help solve that problem,<br />

Improbable’s plan is for SpatialOS<br />

to feature an app-store-like platform<br />

for developers to share their models.<br />

“Now, if somebody wants to think<br />

about how Ebola might spread<br />

over a city, and there’s already a<br />

simulation of the transport networks<br />

that are being used by Transport<br />

for London for example, they can<br />

say, ‘Well, hey, let’s just plug in our<br />

Ebola model of how that might<br />

spread on top of that,’” Narula says.


It’s that vision <strong>–</strong> an app store of<br />

simulation models <strong>–</strong> Narula says,<br />

that will open the platform up not just<br />

to academics, but to any developer<br />

in their bedroom who might want<br />

to model a tumour spreading in<br />

the body. “You’ve not only made it<br />

possible to build things that couldn’t<br />

be made before, but also you’ve made<br />

it ridiculously easy and cheap for a<br />

whole bunch of people out there to<br />

attack new applications,” he says.<br />

Improbable has already discussed<br />

potential medical use cases:<br />

simulating biological systems. “This<br />

could be very interesting to build a<br />

model of a cell,” Pande says. “You can<br />

imagine jumping to a much larger<br />

scale, like an individual human body.”<br />

“We want to start building virtual<br />

worlds for social science research,”<br />

says Ed Castronova, a professor at<br />

Indiana University who has studied<br />

video game economies. He is planning<br />

to use SpatialOS to build behavioural<br />

Below: Narula (left)<br />

with Improbable office<br />

manager Kayla Herringer<br />

and software engineer<br />

Alastair Glennie at the<br />

canteen’s blackboard<br />

walls, overflowing<br />

with chalked algorithms<br />

simulations to study, for example,<br />

the emergence of violent extremism<br />

in populations, or economic models.<br />

Researchers at Oxford Martin School<br />

are exploring using Improbable<br />

to model the <strong>UK</strong> housing market.<br />

Simulations are not only useful<br />

for decision-making: as representations<br />

of reality, virtual worlds<br />

make useful training grounds for<br />

AI. DeepMind is using StarCraft;<br />

Microsoft is using Minecraft. The<br />

think tank OpenAI, part funded by<br />

Elon Musk, is building a library of<br />

AI environments. “Everyone talks<br />

about compute [power],” says<br />

Andrej Karpathy, a researcher<br />

at OpenAI. “These environments are<br />

the second puzzle piece.”<br />

Virtual worlds built on SpatialOS<br />

could be particularly useful for AI<br />

research. “Multi-agent environments<br />

are much more interesting, because<br />

there are other agents in the environments.<br />

You have to learn how to co-<br />

operate, how to react. Things become<br />

much more complex very quickly.”<br />

In Narula’s vision, each of those<br />

models could be integrated into the<br />

platform: simulations built on simulations,<br />

layer by layer. The end goal: a<br />

one-to-one virtual representation of<br />

the real world that researchers can<br />

use to run experiments <strong>–</strong> what Narula<br />

calls reality as a decision-making<br />

platform <strong>–</strong> “a ‘what if’ machine”.<br />

Of course, Improbable’s technology<br />

is still at an early stage. And while it’s<br />

simple to model a motorway network,<br />

nobody has come close to accurately<br />

modelling human behaviour, with<br />

our illogical quirks and tempers.<br />

But Castronova is bullish. “We’ve<br />

learned a lot about human cognition<br />

by looking at rats running around<br />

the mazes,” he says. “You create<br />

the experimental environment<br />

and then you make sure you<br />

only explore questions that are<br />

appropriate to that environment.”


WE MIGHT BE<br />

LIVING IN<br />

A COMPUTER<br />

SIMULATION.<br />

This argument was popularised<br />

by a 2003 paper by the Oxford<br />

academic and AI doomsayer Nick<br />

Bostrom. Simplified, Bostrom argues<br />

that, given the continued progression<br />

of computing power and technologies<br />

such as virtual reality, it’s possible<br />

that our reality is not the true reality,<br />

and instead we live in a simulation<br />

created by our own descendants<br />

sometime in the distant future.<br />

Proponents for this argument include<br />

Elon Musk; according to The New<br />

Yorker, two Valley billionaires are so<br />

convinced that they have employed<br />

researchers to explore how we<br />

could break out of such a simulation.<br />

In LA, at the end of a day of<br />

deep, off-the-record discussions<br />

about the ethics of creating such<br />

virtual worlds, I asked Narula<br />

whether he believes that we are<br />

indeed living in a simulation.<br />

“Almost definitely, right?” he said<br />

<strong>–</strong> laughing, but only half-joking.<br />

“Nick Bostrom’s argument I find<br />

quite plausible: the notion that<br />

we’re either in one, or it’s impossible<br />

to create one. I would argue it’s<br />

possible to create a virtual world <strong>–</strong> I<br />

don’t really see why it wouldn’t be.<br />

It seems like a very, very challenging<br />

engineering problem, but, at<br />

the same time, it doesn’t seem like<br />

a hard science problem.” Narula<br />

was pacing <strong>–</strong> he rarely sits still <strong>–</strong><br />

inside a faux New York shop front<br />

where we’d retired to talk.<br />

“The other thing to think about is if<br />

we’re not, maybe we’d like to be,” he<br />

said. “Simulations are great. We have<br />

mind-body duality with simulation,<br />

right? So you can die and it’s OK.<br />

There could be an afterlife. So I think<br />

one of the interesting things about<br />

the simulation argument is, separate<br />

from the scientific plausibility of it,<br />

it is arguably a return to discussion<br />

among atheistic circles about: is<br />

there an afterlife? What happens<br />

when I die? It’s sort of a cyberpunk<br />

version of ‘Is there a God?’”<br />

Above: Worlds Adrift ,<br />

the first MMO game<br />

built using SpatialOS,<br />

which Improbable<br />

hopes to use for its<br />

future simulated worlds<br />

Whether or not we would want<br />

to live inside such simulations is<br />

debatable, but Narula is aware that<br />

Matrix-style worlds are a far-off<br />

possibility. Gaming, in particular,<br />

has seen startups promise persistent<br />

virtual worlds before and failed,<br />

hard. “A lot of companies are founded<br />

around this problem,” says Hilmar<br />

Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games, the<br />

creator of EVE Online. “Usually, I have<br />

the response of crossing my fingers<br />

and saying, ‘I hope it works out.’”<br />

Others are more optimistic.<br />

“There’s a wide-open space here<br />

for doing simulations you couldn’t<br />

even conceive of before,” says Boden.<br />

Dixon agrees. “This will become<br />

a real field. I think we will see other<br />

companies in this space.”<br />

“I believe that the underlying<br />

technology and the methods they<br />

are using are sound,” says Mike<br />

Sellers, who teaches game design at<br />

Indiana University. Sellers has tasked<br />

his students with building worlds in<br />

SpatialOS, and is impressed with<br />

the results so far. “I’ve moved past<br />

cynical and sceptical into hopeful.”<br />

Narula recognises the sheer<br />

scale of what he’s suggesting. “The<br />

company’s called Improbable,” he<br />

grins. “It’s not called ‘extremely<br />

certain technology.’”<br />

Together, we talk about the implications<br />

of what living in a simulation<br />

might entail. In a simulated reality,<br />

he suggested, there could be a multiverse;<br />

by playing the simulation<br />

faster, we could time travel, perhaps<br />

see the future. “The other issue is<br />

you may not need to replicate the<br />

Universe in enormous detail to fool<br />

the human mind, so it could be that<br />

there’s no one outside there right<br />

now,” he says, and gestures to the<br />

door. Evening shadows crept along<br />

the sidewalk; the ghost town on<br />

the Warner Bros lot was indeed<br />

suspiciously quiet. “It’s kind of<br />

beautiful, in its own strange way.”<br />

Oliver Franklin-Wallis is WIRED’s<br />

commissioning editor<br />

07-17 _ WIRED _ 129


INNOVATION<br />

IN<br />

ELECTRIC<br />

CARS <strong>–</strong> IT’S<br />

ALSO<br />

CHANGING<br />

HOW<br />

TESLA<br />

ISN’T<br />

JUST<br />

DRIVING<br />

BY<br />

ALEX<br />

BHATTACHARJI<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY:<br />

SPENCER<br />

LOWELL<br />

THEY ARE<br />

MADE.<br />

AS THE $50BN<br />

COMPANY<br />

PREPARES<br />

TO<br />

INTRODUCE<br />

ITS<br />

CALIFORNIA<br />

PLANT<br />

TO SEE<br />

HOW THE<br />

CARS<br />

ARE MADE<br />

ITS<br />

MAKE-<br />

OR-BREAK<br />

MODEL 3,<br />

WIRED<br />

GOES<br />

INSIDE


1<br />

IN HERE CREDIT LIGHT<br />

XX-17 _ WIRED _ 000


2<br />

Previous page<br />

1<br />

This page<br />

2<br />

3<br />

AT ONE END, STACKS OF FIVE-TONNE ALUMINIUM COILS ARE UNLOADED FROM<br />

train carriages; at the other, owners drive away a brand-new Tesla Model S or<br />

Model X. In between, almost every part of Tesla’s plug-in electric vehicles is<br />

fabricated at this 500,000m 2 plant in Fremont, California.<br />

The facility, which is pioneering vertically integrated manufacturing, is almost<br />

entirely self-contained. “The only thing that would tip you off from the outside about<br />

all the innovation happening within is the Tesla sign,” says photographer Spencer<br />

Lowell, who was granted access to Tesla’s facility. “It’s like a secret Willy Wonka<br />

factory of wonders, except customers come in and out to pick up their new cars.”<br />

The huge complex is proof that, as much as electric cars or space travel,<br />

Elon Musk wants to innovate the process of innovation itself. The billionaire<br />

132 _ WIRED _ 07-17<br />

1. Welding<br />

Screens made of tinted<br />

Plexiglas protect human<br />

eyes from the light of the<br />

welding sparks near the<br />

end of the body line. Here<br />

the chassis is welded<br />

together by Cold Metal<br />

Transfer welding robots<br />

that have been designed<br />

to work on the Tesla’s<br />

aluminium frames.<br />

The metal was chosen<br />

over steel because<br />

it’s lighter and also<br />

safer, as it absorbs more<br />

energy in a collision.<br />

2. Sub-assembly<br />

A Kuka robot lifts the<br />

underbody of a Model<br />

S on the body line. As<br />

versatile as it is strong,<br />

the Kuka can lift, turn,<br />

weld, assemble parts<br />

and be programmed for<br />

complex sequences of<br />

tasks. The robot<br />

will move the underbody<br />

through a series of<br />

sub-assembly areas,<br />

then deposit it on the<br />

actual assembly line.<br />

To prepare for<br />

production of the<br />

Model 3, Tesla recently<br />

installed an additional<br />

467 Kukas in the<br />

Fremont factory.<br />

3. Stamping<br />

To maximise efficiency,<br />

the stamping centre<br />

produces a week’s worth<br />

of each part before<br />

retooling to make another<br />

piece. These side-bodies<br />

will remain in storage<br />

before being brought to<br />

the factory’s body centre,<br />

where they will be used<br />

in the assembly of the<br />

unibody chassis. As<br />

production at the Fremont<br />

Factory ramps up to meet<br />

Musk’s plans, the stampthen-stack<br />

process<br />

will be first to scale up,<br />

putting a premium<br />

on the space-efficient<br />

modular storage.


3


entrepreneur and Tesla CEO is still overseeing<br />

construction of its 1,400,000m 2 Gigafactory,<br />

which will produce lithium-ion batteries for<br />

its cars, in the desert near Reno, Nevada.<br />

It’s also planning to open a parallel<br />

European facility by 2020. In April, the<br />

company briefly became the most valued<br />

car manufacturer in the US when its market<br />

value rose to $50.9 billion (£40bn).<br />

The Fremont factory outputs 2,000 cars a<br />

week <strong>–</strong> Tesla aims to steadily ramp this number<br />

up to 5,000 a week in the fourth quarter of<br />

<strong>2017</strong>, rising to 10,000 a week in 2018. “We should<br />

build half a million vehicles next year,” Musk<br />

recently told investors. “And a million by 2020.”<br />

(Tesla declined to make any employees<br />

available on the record for this story.)<br />

This summer, the facility will undergo a<br />

major leap as it starts manufacturing the<br />

Model 3, its $35,000 entry-level emission-free<br />

vehicle, the sales of which could make or break<br />

Tesla’s fortunes. The waiting list for Model 3s<br />

stands at more than 400,000. Tesla has raised<br />

more than $1 billion to scale up production.<br />

Before being bought by Tesla in 2010, the<br />

Fremont plant built cars for General Motors<br />

and Toyota. But making it the centre of Tesla’s<br />

business meant breaking with the factory’s<br />

past and some basic car-production<br />

concepts. “The thing about the Tesla factory<br />

that I’ve not seen anywhere else is the<br />

attention to its form,” Lowell says. “It was a<br />

very conscious aesthetic decision.” Tesla<br />

added skylights and windows to flood the<br />

factory floor with natural light, painted the<br />

walls, ceilings and floor a shiny white, and<br />

coloured the machinery a glossy red.<br />

The Fremont plant employs more than 160<br />

multi-tasking robots, a mix of models made<br />

in Germany by Kuka and in Japan by Fanuc,<br />

many of which are named after X-Men<br />

characters. With unerring precision, they<br />

combine heavy pieces stamped out of<br />

aluminium by a seven-storey-tall Schuler<br />

SMG press <strong>–</strong> the largest hydraulic press in<br />

North America. Stacked chassis and other<br />

oversized parts are carried across the factory<br />

This page<br />

Next page<br />

4<br />

5<br />

5<br />

134 _ WIRED _ 07-17<br />

4. Priming<br />

Once the finished chassis<br />

leaves the all-robotic<br />

body line, the “body in<br />

white”, as Tesla workers<br />

call the car at this<br />

stage, is a blank canvas<br />

primed for painting,<br />

then general assembly.<br />

The shell is transported<br />

to Tesla’s paint shop<br />

by an automated<br />

guided vehicle, a small<br />

but powerful robot<br />

programmed to follow the<br />

route laid out by the black<br />

magnetic strip on the<br />

floor. The strip is movable,<br />

making it possible<br />

to adjust the route in<br />

a matter of seconds.


4<br />

5. Chassis-building<br />

Working in tandem, a<br />

troop of Kuka robots are<br />

programmed to attach<br />

the underbody and side<br />

frame piece to form the<br />

unibody chassis of the<br />

Model S. Although some<br />

processes work across<br />

the multiple models,<br />

Tesla maintains separate<br />

body lines for the Model<br />

S and Model X, as it<br />

will for the Model 3 when<br />

it goes into production<br />

in <strong>July</strong>. A sign nearby<br />

cautions workers:<br />

“Robots hate litter.<br />

Please don’t give them<br />

any more reasons<br />

to overthrow mankind.”


5


6<br />

138 _ WIRED _ 07-17


floor on self-guided smart-carts that glide<br />

along moveable magnetic pathways; the<br />

same technology brings finished Model 3<br />

prototypes to the certified test track outside.<br />

Since February, Tesla has been building<br />

Model 3 prototypes to test the vehicle design<br />

and production processes. As its manufacturing<br />

goals have grown, so has the number<br />

of human employees, which now exceeds<br />

6,000. If the Model 3 is, as Musk says, the last<br />

stage in Tesla’s masterplan to “accelerate the<br />

world’s transition to sustainable energy”, then<br />

Fremont represents a step towards that<br />

future. “I’m a believer in manufacturing,” Musk<br />

said in 2010. “Sometimes people think of it<br />

as making copies. But there’s an enormous<br />

amount of innovation and engineering<br />

that goes into making a large quantity of<br />

something perfectly every time.”<br />

Alex Bhattacharji is executive<br />

editor at Salon Media Group<br />

7<br />

This page<br />

6 7<br />

7. Transferring<br />

As they enter the<br />

general assembly area,<br />

the now-painted car<br />

bodies are transferred<br />

on to larger AGVs. Red<br />

protective pads (for the<br />

Model S, shown, or Black<br />

for Model X) are applied<br />

to prevent scratches<br />

as the motor, battery,<br />

interior and electronics<br />

are installed. This<br />

process was streamlined<br />

in 2016. “We were in<br />

production hell,”<br />

Musk said in 2016,<br />

admitting that he used<br />

to sleep at the factory.<br />

“Now the production<br />

line is humming.”<br />

6. Inspection<br />

A worker in the stamping<br />

centre prepares to<br />

inspect and label parts<br />

as they emerge from the<br />

factory’s giant Schuler<br />

SMG hydraulic press. At<br />

seven stories tall, it is<br />

the largest stamping<br />

press in North America; it<br />

took 50 trucks and 30 rail<br />

cars to transport it from<br />

Detroit to Fremont.<br />

Tesla bought the $50<br />

million machine for $6<br />

million in an example of<br />

what vice president<br />

of manufacturing Gilbert<br />

Passin calls “happily<br />

scavenging” from<br />

struggling companies.<br />

07-17 _ WIRED _ 139


CRIMINAL<br />

PSYCHOLOGIST<br />

JULIA SHAW USES<br />

SCIENCE TO PROVE<br />

EVENTS THAT<br />

INDIVIDUALS ARE<br />

CERTAIN HAPPENED<br />

ARE, IN FACT, FALSE.<br />

AND, BY RESHAPING<br />

CONCEPTIONS<br />

ABOUT MEMORY,<br />

SHE WANTS TO<br />

CORRECT SYSTEMIC<br />

FAILURES IN<br />

THE CRIMINAL<br />

JUSTICE SYSTEM<br />

BY EMMA BRYCE<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY:<br />

SEBASTIAN NEVOLS


IN<br />

FEBRUARY<br />

2016,<br />

JULIA SHAW<br />

RECEIVED<br />

A CALL<br />

FROM A<br />

LAWYER<br />

REGARDING<br />

A CRIMINAL<br />

CASE.<br />

It involved two sisters who, in<br />

2015, had given the police vivid<br />

descriptions of being sexually<br />

abused by a close female relative.<br />

They alleged that the abuse had<br />

taken place between 1975 and<br />

1976. The lawyer, who was representing<br />

the defendant, wanted<br />

Shaw’s input as an expert witness.<br />

142 _ WIRED _ 07-17<br />

Shaw, a criminal psychologist at<br />

the London South Bank University,<br />

was struck by how unusual the<br />

scenario was. “Usually, in cases<br />

of sexual abuse, the father is the<br />

accused,” she says. “In this case, it<br />

was a girl.” At the time of the alleged<br />

abuse, the sisters had been around<br />

four and seven years old, and the<br />

relative was between ten and 12.<br />

As she leafed through the<br />

interview transcripts, Shaw noted<br />

the older sister’s language. “She<br />

kept saying, ‘My childhood was rough<br />

and I buried so much. I think it was<br />

my coping mechanism, I must have<br />

just blocked it.’ These are things that<br />

point to an assumption of repression.<br />

This is the idea that if something<br />

bad happens, you can hide it in a<br />

corner of your brain,” she says.<br />

The older sister also told police<br />

that her recollection was unearthed<br />

suddenly by a photograph that her<br />

relative had posted on Facebook,<br />

triggering memories of a few<br />

instances when they were repeatedly<br />

made to perform sexual acts in an<br />

upstairs room of the family home.<br />

The younger sister told police that<br />

she couldn’t remember most of what<br />

had occurred, but agreed with her<br />

sibling’s version of events. To Shaw,<br />

this indicated social contagion:<br />

when testimonies are tainted, or<br />

even formed, by others’ accounts<br />

of what happened. “The transcript<br />

also gave the impression that the<br />

[first] complainant was at times also<br />

comfortable with guessing memory<br />

details, saying, for example, ‘I can’t<br />

remember, I just had this really weird<br />

feeling that she used to make us do<br />

stuff to each other,’” Shaw recounts.<br />

Taking into account the claims<br />

of repressed memory, the 40 years<br />

that elapsed between the alleged<br />

crime and the accusation, and the<br />

memory sharing between the two<br />

sisters, Shaw could reach only<br />

one conclusion: although the two<br />

sisters were probably convinced of<br />

the veracity of their allegations, their<br />

accounts weren’t reliable. “I don’t try<br />

to figure out if a person is guilty or<br />

innocent,” Shaw says. “It’s about<br />

whether the memory is reliable or not.”<br />

The case was eventually dropped<br />

due to new evidence that the<br />

defendant provided in court. Now,<br />

the defendant is trying to put the<br />

ordeal behind her. “I like being<br />

the person to say, ‘actually, this is<br />

bad evidence,’ if it is,” Shaw says.<br />

“That’s something you can’t do if<br />

you don’t know the science.”<br />

As a researcher, Shaw studies<br />

how false memories arise in the<br />

brain and applies it to the criminaljustice<br />

system. Contrary to what<br />

many believe, human memories<br />

are malleable, open to suggestion<br />

and often unintentionally false.<br />

“False memories are everywhere,“<br />

she says. In everyday situations<br />

we don’t really notice or care that<br />

they’re happening. We call them<br />

mistakes, or say we misremember<br />

things.” In the criminal-justice<br />

system, however, they can have<br />

grave consequences.<br />

When Shaw works on cases she<br />

systematically looks for red flags.<br />

Cues such as age are important.<br />

For instance, before we reach the<br />

ago of three, our brains cannot form<br />

memories that last into adulthood,<br />

meaning that claimed recollections<br />

from that period are suspect.<br />

She also investigates who the<br />

accuser was with when they recalled<br />

the memory, what questions they<br />

were asked and whether in other<br />

circumstances, such as therapy,<br />

somebody could feasibly have<br />

planted the seed of a memory that<br />

took root in their minds.<br />

Finally, Shaw looks for claims that<br />

the memory resurfaced suddenly,<br />

out of the blue, which can point<br />

to repressed memories. It’s a<br />

discredited Freudian concept that<br />

supports the premise that dredging<br />

up supposedly forgotten memories<br />

can explain a person’s psychological<br />

and emotional turmoil, but scientifically,<br />

it’s unsubstantiated.<br />

Understanding the ramifications<br />

of memory-gone-wrong drives Shaw.<br />

She believes that a limited awareness<br />

of memory research in therapy,<br />

policing and law is contributing to<br />

systemic failures, and is training<br />

the German police on improving<br />

interrogation methods. She wants<br />

to eradicate the misconceptions<br />

about memory. “We’ve done things<br />

that people in policing or law don’t<br />

understand,” she says. “An academic<br />

journal has ten people reading it.<br />

We’re doing this to have an impact.”


In 1989, Eileen Franklin-Lipsker,<br />

a woman living in Canoga Park, Los<br />

Angeles, was gazing at her young<br />

daughter, Jessica, when a series<br />

of disturbing memories rushed into<br />

her mind. In them, she witnessed her<br />

father, George Franklin, raping her<br />

eight-year-old friend Susan Nason<br />

in the back of his van, then crushing<br />

her skull with a rock. Nason had been<br />

missing since 1969: her body was<br />

discovered three months later in the<br />

woods outside Foster City, California,<br />

where she’d lived. But the murderer<br />

was never found. Disturbed by these<br />

memories, Franklin-Lipsker called<br />

the police. She told detectives on<br />

November 25, 1989, that 20 years<br />

earlier, her father ditched Nason’s<br />

body beneath a mattress in the<br />

woods and threatened to kill her<br />

if she told anyone. She claimed<br />

that she’d repressed the shocking<br />

memory for two decades. Her recollection<br />

became the basis of an<br />

indictment against George Franklin,<br />

resulting in his trial.<br />

In late 1990, when the trial was<br />

under way, Elizabeth Loftus, a<br />

cognitive psychologist at the<br />

University of California, Irvine,<br />

received a telephone call from<br />

Franklin’s attorney, Doug Horngrad.<br />

He wanted her as an expert witness<br />

for the defence. Loftus had been<br />

studying memory for more than 20<br />

years and had testified in several<br />

previous criminal cases. “What was<br />

puzzling to me was that [Franklin-<br />

Lipsker] kept changing her<br />

testimony,” Loftus recalls. “She had<br />

maybe five or six different versions<br />

of how her memory came back.” To<br />

Loftus, that signalled distorted or<br />

even fabricated memories.<br />

In court on November 20, 1990,<br />

Loftus spent two hours explaining<br />

to the jury that memories are<br />

suggestible, and that Franklin-<br />

Lipsker’s might not be as reliable as<br />

it seemed. Nevertheless, Franklin<br />

was convicted of Nason’s murder<br />

later that month. “I was shocked at<br />

the conviction,” Loftus says.<br />

Five years later the courts agreed<br />

with Loftus. Franklin-Lipsker’s<br />

sibling, Janice, testified that her<br />

sister had recovered the memories<br />

during hypnotherapy sessions that<br />

she had been attending to alleviate<br />

the depression she had suffered<br />

from since her teens. During those<br />

sessions, Franklin-Lipsker learned<br />

that her symptoms could indicate<br />

post-traumatic stress disorder,<br />

and was encouraged to recall the<br />

trigger. That, according to Loftus,<br />

originated the false memory.<br />

Hypnosis is considered an unreliable<br />

source by US and <strong>UK</strong> courts, so<br />

made her accounts inadmissible.<br />

Since Franklin’s imprisonment<br />

rested on his daughter’s eyewitness<br />

account, the judge overturned his<br />

conviction and he was freed.<br />

Loftus’s involvement in the case<br />

spurred her to pioneer research<br />

into false memory. In the 80s and<br />

90s, she’d become intrigued by an<br />

upsurge in allegations of sexual<br />

abuse. The idea of repressedmemory<br />

theory was gaining traction<br />

at the time in alternative practices<br />

such as hypnotherapy and psychotherapy.<br />

Patients were encouraged<br />

to embrace visualising techniques,<br />

hypnotism and their imaginations<br />

to access repressed memories,<br />

which were usually pinpointed as<br />

violent sexual and physical abuse<br />

during childhood. “You began to<br />

see hundreds of people coming<br />

forward, saying that they had<br />

recovered repressed memories of<br />

massive brutalisation that they’d<br />

been completely unaware of,”<br />

Loftus says. “I saw that something<br />

CASE STUDY ONE<br />

1984-1990<br />

McMartin Preschool trial<br />

Allegations of sex abuse<br />

and satanic rituals hit the<br />

McMartin Preschool in<br />

Manhattan Beach, California,<br />

involving Peggy McMartin<br />

Buckey (above). Accusations<br />

by a mother that her child<br />

had been sodomised<br />

snowballed into an<br />

investigation, with allegations<br />

from hundreds of pupils.<br />

In 1990, these convictions<br />

were overturned as it was<br />

judged that therapists had<br />

unintentionally implanted<br />

false memories in the<br />

preschoolers’ minds.<br />

really big was going on here. What<br />

seemed to be happening was that<br />

richly detailed whole memories<br />

were being planted into the minds<br />

of ordinary people [in therapy].”<br />

“For the time, the notion was<br />

hugely controversial”, Shaw says.<br />

“It was absolutely shocking. Loftus<br />

was accused of silencing victims<br />

and was verbally attacked. I also get<br />

attacked when I speak out against<br />

repressed-memory therapies. But<br />

people like Elizabeth [Loftus] and<br />

I are concerned that this has the<br />

potential to really damage lives.”<br />

In 1995 <strong>–</strong> the year Franklin’s<br />

case ended <strong>–</strong> Loftus tested out<br />

her theory experimentally. Working<br />

with graduate student Jacqueline<br />

Pickrell, she recruited 24 participants<br />

and gave each of them<br />

booklets containing details of four<br />

experiences they’d had between<br />

the ages of four and six. For each<br />

participant, the researchers<br />

contacted their parents to get the<br />

details of three true stories.<br />

The fourth story, however, was<br />

false: it involved an imaginary<br />

incident where the subject got lost<br />

in a shopping centre as a child,<br />

was rescued by a stranger and<br />

returned to their parents. To make<br />

it believable, Loftus asked the participants’<br />

parents for details that could<br />

have been true <strong>–</strong> such as the name<br />

of a local shopping centre that<br />

actually existed when the participants<br />

were young. They were asked<br />

to think about the four memories and<br />

write down as many details as they<br />

recalled. When interviewed about<br />

their recollections, some began<br />

to share how they’d felt, and even<br />

what their rescuer was wearing <strong>–</strong><br />

despite the fact that it was all untrue.<br />

“It was groundbreaking, because it<br />

showed that we can implant false<br />

memories of entire experiences.<br />

That’s something we hadn’t done<br />

before in the lab,” says Shaw.<br />

Ultimately, a quarter of the participants<br />

in Loftus’s study developed a<br />

detailed false memory. “The key is<br />

suggestibility. Often, false memories<br />

develop because there’s exposure<br />

to external suggestive infor-<br />

Above: A letter written to Julia Shaw from <strong>UK</strong> housing benefit consultant John Zebedee detailing the events which<br />

caused him to murder his father in 2011, after a sexual abuse flashback. He now believes the memory to be false


mation,” Loftus says. “Or, people<br />

can suggest things to themselves <strong>–</strong><br />

autosuggestion. People draw<br />

inferences about what might have<br />

happened. Those solidify and act<br />

like false memories.”<br />

“A lot of people were studying<br />

memory errors at the time, but<br />

they weren’t making it useful,” says<br />

Shaw. “Elizabeth structured and<br />

studied it in a way that people could<br />

take it directly into a courtroom.”<br />

One morning in February 2016,<br />

Shaw sat cross-legged in the swivel<br />

chair at her desk, in the department<br />

of Law and Social Sciences at London<br />

South Bank University, where she<br />

is a senior lecturer in criminology.<br />

A petite 30-year-old, Shaw talks<br />

eagerly about her work, in a flurry of<br />

words punctuated by the occasional<br />

impatient flick of her long blonde<br />

hair over a shoulder. Her interest<br />

in memory science took hold in her<br />

teens, when she began to research<br />

her family history. Half-German,<br />

half-Canadian, Shaw was born in<br />

Cologne, Germany, and spent most<br />

of her youth moving between her<br />

birthplace, the German city of Bonn,<br />

and Vancouver, Canada. “I grew<br />

up in a family where some people<br />

had difficulty monitoring reality<br />

and struggled with mental-health<br />

issues. I knew from an early age that<br />

reality could be dramatically different<br />

for people,” she says. Shaw is the<br />

first in her family to finish a degree:<br />

in 2004, she started studying<br />

psychology at the Vancouver<br />

campus of Simon Fraser University<br />

(SFU). “I didn’t know exactly what I<br />

was there for. I just knew that some<br />

of my family had alternate realities.<br />

I wanted to understand that.”<br />

Shaw has idolised Elizabeth<br />

Loftus since her university days.<br />

“There aren’t that many women at<br />

the top of our field. When I started<br />

studying psychology, she was one of<br />

the most important,” she says. Her<br />

interests were influenced by Loftus’s<br />

memory-implantation studies. In<br />

2009, while moving from SFU to<br />

144 _ WIRED _ 07-17<br />

CASE STUDY TWO<br />

1984<br />

Joseph Pacely<br />

In 1984, police arrested<br />

a man named Joseph<br />

Pacely in California because<br />

he matched the description<br />

of a suspect who’d broken<br />

into a woman’s home and<br />

tried to rape her, but fled<br />

when others in the house<br />

were woken by the noise.<br />

The woman, known as Mrs<br />

M, identified Pacely from a<br />

line-up. But testifying on his<br />

behalf during trial, cognitive<br />

psychologist and memory<br />

expert Elizabeth Loftus<br />

(above) explained that<br />

cross-race misidentification<br />

is common (the accuser<br />

was Mexican), and that<br />

stress distorts memory.<br />

Pacely was acquitted,<br />

thanks to Loftus’s evidence.<br />

the University of British Columbia<br />

to conduct her PhD, Shaw became<br />

increasingly fascinated by the<br />

impact that false memories could<br />

have in criminal scenarios.<br />

The idea that memory science can<br />

help with police questioning is based<br />

on evidence that’s been growing<br />

since the late 80s. “Studies show<br />

that the subtle ways a question is<br />

pitched can affect what a witness<br />

reports. The feedback you give to a<br />

witness can modify how confident<br />

they are in their memories, and can<br />

shape those recollections,” says<br />

Kimberly Wade, a psychologist at the<br />

University of Warwick who carries out<br />

false-memory research. Ultimately,<br />

poor interrogation methods can lead<br />

to mistaken eyewitness accounts,<br />

baseless accusations and even false<br />

confessions. “Why do people confess<br />

to things they never did? I think the<br />

most fascinating examples aren’t<br />

because of torture or because they<br />

felt like they had to, but because they<br />

actually think they did it,” Shaw says.<br />

In 2015, Shaw set out to discover<br />

if she could implant detailed<br />

memories of committing a crime<br />

in people’s minds, as a proxy for<br />

understanding how real-world false<br />

confessions arise. To do that, she<br />

used an updated version of Loftus’s<br />

shopping-centre experiment. With<br />

her former PhD adviser Stephen<br />

Porter, a forensic psychologist at<br />

the University of British Columbia,<br />

Shaw recruited 60 student participants,<br />

splitting them into two<br />

groups. The first was told they’d<br />

experienced an event as teenagers,<br />

such as an injury, a dog attack, or<br />

losing a large sum of money. The<br />

second was told they’d committed<br />

a crime, such as assault or theft, as<br />

teenagers. To make the memories<br />

more convincing, Shaw wove in<br />

autobiographical information from<br />

the participants’ parents <strong>–</strong> such<br />

as where they were living, and the<br />

name of a friend that the participant<br />

had at the age they’d supposedly<br />

committed the crime.<br />

After the initial meeting, none<br />

of the participants could recall the<br />

false memory. But every night for<br />

three weeks, they were encouraged<br />

to spend a few minutes visualising<br />

the event. Adding some social<br />

manipulation, Shaw told them most<br />

people can recall memories, but only<br />

if they try hard enough.<br />

Shaw recalls the moment she<br />

realised her experiment was<br />

working. An important cue that a<br />

false memory is taking hold is the<br />

richness of the reported detail:<br />

“I had a participant who was doing my<br />

guided imagery exercise; it seems<br />

so trivial but she said, ‘Blue sky,<br />

I see a blue sky.’ It showed that she<br />

was buying into the idea of actually<br />

experiencing this event and was<br />

accessing a memory, as opposed<br />

to her imagination. Those were the<br />

kinds of details that ended up being<br />

the foundation for the event itself.”<br />

The combination <strong>–</strong> a seemingly<br />

incontrovertible story backed up by<br />

real autobiographical details, visualisation<br />

and performance pressure<br />

<strong>–</strong> resulted in 70 per cent of participants<br />

generating a rich false memory<br />

of the event. Previous implantation<br />

studies had rates of 35 per cent.<br />

Unexpectedly, participants were<br />

as receptive to the false memories<br />

of committing crimes as they were<br />

to the emotional ones, Shaw says,<br />

despite the assumption that people<br />

would find it harder to believe they’d<br />

acted criminally in the past.<br />

Shaw regularly uses the study<br />

as proof of memory’s fallibility.<br />

“I always go through the study when<br />

I talk to police,” she says. “They can<br />

see themselves in that scenario.<br />

They think, this could easily be me,<br />

unintentionally implanting false<br />

memories in a witness or a suspect.”<br />

Shaw, who is fluent in German,<br />

works mostly with German police<br />

and military forces. With the police,<br />

SHAW SET OUT TO IMPLANT DETAILED<br />

MEMORIES IN PEOPLE’S MINDS TO<br />

UNDERSTAND FALSE CONFESSIONS


Above: Kevin Felstead from the British False Memory Society collaborated with Julia Shaw on research


Below: Julia Shaw in her London office working on a research paper about false memory issues in historical child abuse cases<br />

she typically trains senior police<br />

officers, who in turn pass on what<br />

they’ve learned to their subordinates<br />

at police stations across<br />

the country. In November 2016,<br />

she lectured an auditorium of<br />

220 police officers in the Police<br />

Academy of Lower Saxony in<br />

Nienburg, Germany. As always, she<br />

started with a grounding of memory<br />

science to explain how memories<br />

fail. “It’s really important to tell them<br />

not just what to do, but why. I think<br />

having that knowledge makes police<br />

much better at their jobs,” Shaw<br />

says. Then she shared practical<br />

tools to help them avoid the development<br />

of false memories during<br />

criminal cases: get your witness<br />

statements early, she told them,<br />

so memories don’t get muddied<br />

by time; keep people’s accounts<br />

of an event separate so they don’t<br />

influence each other; avoid leading<br />

questions during interrogations.<br />

Shaw also stressed the importance<br />

of filming witness and<br />

146 _ WIRED _ 07-17<br />

CASE STUDY THREE<br />

1990<br />

Holly Ramona<br />

During therapy sessions<br />

she undertook in 1990,<br />

a 19-year-old Californian<br />

girl named Holly Ramona<br />

(above) began to recall<br />

being abused by her father.<br />

Her memories were aided<br />

by doses of sodium amytal<br />

<strong>–</strong> so-called “truth serum”<br />

<strong>–</strong> known to make people<br />

believe they’re recalling<br />

real events. Her father<br />

successfully sued the<br />

therapists for negligence in<br />

1994, and was the first case<br />

to find therapists guilty of<br />

implanting false memories.<br />

suspect interviews, which isn’t<br />

widely practiced in Germany. “It<br />

improves the outcome because<br />

police officers are more cautious<br />

about how they ask questions,”<br />

she explains. It also creates an<br />

independent record so that if there<br />

are suspicions of a false memory,<br />

the police’s interrogation methods<br />

can be scrutinised, she says.<br />

After the lecture, Shaw received a<br />

rare confirmation that her lessons<br />

are beginning to take hold. A police<br />

officer approached her and said<br />

that, back at her station, she would<br />

now set up mandatory videotaping<br />

for witness statements.<br />

Of her work with the military,<br />

she says these ideas can be a<br />

tougher sell. “There are always<br />

one or two people, usually older<br />

men, who will just come at me with<br />

anecdotes such as ‘I remember<br />

being born,’ or ‘I have memories of<br />

my childhood, so this proves you<br />

wrong.’ I say to them, ‘your anecdote<br />

doesn’t really battle my science,’”<br />

Shaw teaches the German military’s<br />

intelligence officers biannually:<br />

her focus is helping officers understand<br />

the flaws in their own memory<br />

so they can gather more reliable<br />

intelligence. “I teach them that you<br />

can be highly confident in things<br />

that are wrong. So you need to be<br />

careful. You’re making security<br />

decisions based on information<br />

that you can’t write down while<br />

you’re gathering intelligence.”<br />

She’s also campaigning against<br />

the military’s tendency towards<br />

debriefings. In conflict situations,<br />

everyone will come back and<br />

they’ll immediately debrief,” Shaw<br />

says. “But a big briefing error is to<br />

all share your memories, because<br />

then they all become one. You<br />

lose all the nuances.”<br />

Recently, Shaw was informed<br />

by her trainees that the military is<br />

ditching the joint debriefing habit<br />

in favour of officers independently<br />

recording their memories right<br />

after they’ve been in the field. “I<br />

also found out that my book was a<br />

Christmas present for those I work<br />

with on the base,” she laughs.


YOU’RE MAKING SECURITY DECISIONS<br />

BASED ON THINGS YOU CAN’T WRITE<br />

DOWN WHILE GATHERING INTELLIGENCE<br />

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY; AP; CAMERAPRESS<br />

What makes our memories so<br />

susceptible comes down to the way<br />

the brain stores information. That’s<br />

encapsulated by a concept called<br />

Fuzzy-trace theory, first described in<br />

the 90s by American psychologists<br />

Charles Brainerd and Valerie Reyna.<br />

The theory suggests that our brains<br />

lay down memories in two forms: gist<br />

and verbatim-memory traces. Gist<br />

traces record broad features of an<br />

event; verbatim traces store precise<br />

details. “The verbatim is exact, and<br />

the gist is general,” Shaw says. So,<br />

verbatim traces record a person’s<br />

eye colour and name, while the gist<br />

traces register how well you got on<br />

and whether you liked them.<br />

Memory distortions arise because<br />

the brain stores and recalls these<br />

types of information independently,<br />

according to the theory. Since gist<br />

memories are also longer-lasting<br />

and more reliable over time than<br />

verbatim, that leads to memory<br />

cross-speak. Shaw explains in her<br />

book, The Memory of Illusion: “When<br />

the gist traces are strong, they can<br />

encourage what are called phantom<br />

recollective experiences, which take<br />

the familiarity of the gist as a good<br />

cue for verbatim interpretations.”<br />

We don’t generally remember the<br />

verbatim pieces of a lot of things,<br />

according to Shaw, “so when we<br />

need to recall verbatim, it can lead<br />

to confabulation <strong>–</strong> assuming pieces<br />

that weren’t originally there. We<br />

embellish our gist memories.” These<br />

embellishments may come from<br />

other people’s accounts, our own<br />

imaginations or what we’re currently<br />

experiencing <strong>–</strong> all conniving to alter<br />

our sense of objective reality. “As<br />

a general rule, memory is a reconstructive<br />

thing,” says Deryn Strange,<br />

associate professor of cognitive<br />

psychology at the John Jay College<br />

of Criminal Justice at The City<br />

University of New York. “So we are<br />

not able to play back any moment<br />

in our past and expect it to be an<br />

accurate record of what happened.”<br />

CASE STUDY FOUR<br />

2015<br />

Lucy X and Edward Heath<br />

In <strong>August</strong> 2015, the <strong>UK</strong><br />

police launched an<br />

investigation into the<br />

alleged paedophilia of<br />

deceased former <strong>UK</strong> prime<br />

minister Edward Heath<br />

(below). At the heart of this<br />

allegation was a woman,<br />

“Lucy X” who, investigating<br />

criminologist Rachel Hoskins<br />

has since discovered,<br />

underwent psychotherapy<br />

and hypnosis, which may<br />

have fuelled her allegations.<br />

In March <strong>2017</strong>, police shut<br />

down the inquiry <strong>–</strong> which<br />

had cost more than £1<br />

million in taxpayer’s<br />

money <strong>–</strong> reportedly due to<br />

insufficient evidence.<br />

In June 2016, Shaw crammed<br />

herself, two PhD students and<br />

four boxes into her Mini. They<br />

were returning to London from the<br />

headquarters of the British False<br />

Memory Society (BFMS) outside<br />

Birmingham. The organisation helps<br />

people who have been accused<br />

of crimes they claim they didn’t<br />

commit. The boxes Shaw was transporting<br />

contained the photocopies<br />

of thousands of carefully redacted<br />

files <strong>–</strong> call transcripts, court reports<br />

and psychiatric records <strong>–</strong> which<br />

describe the approximately 2,500<br />

false memory cases the BFMS<br />

has amassed since 1993.<br />

Shaw and Kevin Felstead, director<br />

of communications at BFMS, are<br />

using the dataset to identify how<br />

false memories form and evolve over<br />

time. Their survey has also revealed<br />

several features that allegations<br />

have in common: usually the accuser<br />

is known to the accused; the claims<br />

principally involve alleged sexual<br />

abuse; and most accusers are undergoing<br />

questionable therapy. “People<br />

seeking therapy are vulnerable, and<br />

they’re looking for answers,” Shaw<br />

says. “So if the therapist says ‘You<br />

must have repressed something,’<br />

they say, ‘Let’s go find it.’”<br />

Across the survey, the spectre<br />

of bad therapy looms large,<br />

usually represented by hypnotherapists<br />

and psychotherapists<br />

who embrace repressed-memory<br />

techniques. “There are still psychoanalytic<br />

schools saying repression<br />

is something we need to look for. So<br />

we’ve got universities teaching this<br />

nonsense to people,” Shaw says.<br />

The BFMS is slowly building up a<br />

therapy blacklist, so that professionals<br />

who turn up repeatedly can<br />

be identified. “I think, right now, we<br />

have a Wild West of therapeutic<br />

methods that are applied. Just like<br />

not everybody can call themselves a<br />

medical doctor, I don’t think anyone<br />

should be able to say they can help<br />

with mental health,” Shaw says.<br />

Another facet to the problem is<br />

what Felstead calls the “post-Savile<br />

effect”. In 2012, revelations of sexual<br />

abuse experienced by hundreds of<br />

people by at the hands of Jimmy<br />

Savile raised the profile of sexualabuse<br />

victims. “The criminal justice<br />

system has historically let down<br />

victims,” Felstead says. “Real victims<br />

had terrible ordeals in those courtrooms.<br />

Nobody believed them, and<br />

they were ridiculed. Now, since Savile,<br />

it’s gone in the opposite direction.”<br />

People who allege sexual abuse<br />

are frequently referred to as victims<br />

from the start. “Inquiries into historic<br />

sexual abuse also refer to people<br />

as survivors,” Shaw says. In 2016,<br />

London’s Metropolitan police<br />

force was criticised for adopting<br />

a policy stating that anyone who<br />

made a sexual-abuse allegation<br />

would be believed. “Referring to<br />

people as victims when you’re not<br />

sure victimisation has taken place<br />

has huge potential to influence the<br />

legal process,” Shaw says.<br />

In Shaw’s opinion, there’s a third<br />

alternative for the criminal justice<br />

system. Besides truth and lies, there<br />

are also falsehoods masquerading as<br />

reality in people’s minds. She agrees<br />

with Elizabeth Loftus’s suggestions<br />

in 2008, that courts should adopt<br />

a new oath: “Do you swear to tell the<br />

truth, the whole truth, or whatever<br />

it is you think you remember?”<br />

Emma Bryce is a science journalist.<br />

This is her first feature for WIRED


MILLIONS OF<br />

ASTEROIDS<br />

ORBIT<br />

THE EARTH,<br />

ALL OF<br />

WHICH<br />

CONSIST<br />

OF RARE<br />

METALS<br />

THAT ARE<br />

EXPENSIVE<br />

TO MINE<br />

ON THIS<br />

PLANET.<br />

BUT A BOLD<br />

STARTUP<br />

WANTS TO<br />

HARNESS<br />

ANOTHER<br />

ELEMENT<br />

ON THESE<br />

ROCKS,<br />

WHICH<br />

COULD<br />

TRANSFORM<br />

OUR QUEST TO<br />

EXPLORE THE<br />

UNIVERSE…<br />

THIS IS A CUT<br />

PIECE OF THE<br />

CAMPO DE CIELO<br />

METEORITE, A<br />

RICHER SOURCE<br />

OF PLATINUM<br />

148 _ WIRED _ 07-17<br />

THAN ANY<br />

MINE ON EARTH


BY KATHRYN NAVE<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN KEATLEY<br />

THIS PALM-<br />

SIZED MODEL<br />

OF A MOON<br />

LANDER WAS<br />

3D-PRINTED<br />

FROM THE<br />

ROCK THAT IT<br />

SITS ON<br />

ESTIMATED<br />

AMOUNT OF<br />

PLATINUM<br />

IN EARTH’S<br />

LARGEST<br />

RESERVE:<br />

23,000<br />

TONNES.<br />

ESTIMATED<br />

AMOUNT IN<br />

A PLATINUM-<br />

RICH, 500-<br />

METRE-LONG<br />

ASTEROID:<br />

28,000<br />

TONNES


On<br />

May 25, 2008, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite transmitted<br />

a grainy image back to Earth. It showed two white dots <strong>–</strong> the Phoenix Mars lander<br />

and its parachute <strong>–</strong> descending against the backdrop of the planet’s vast<br />

Heimdal impact crater. Chris Lewicki, the Phoenix mission’s manager,<br />

hadn’t seen the lander since its launch on <strong>August</strong> 3, 2007, on board the<br />

Delta II rocket that carried it into space. The Phoenix landed 20km from the<br />

huge crater, kick-starting its search for microbial-friendly habitats on Mars.<br />

For Nasa, this was the beginning of another successful mission, but to<br />

Lewicki, things began to feel repetitive. He had first become obsessed with<br />

space at the age of 11, when he saw images of Nasa’s Voyager mission, the<br />

space probe that captured images of the Solar System’s outer planets. He<br />

went on to study Aerospace Engineering at the University of Arizona and, in<br />

1999, joined Nasa, where he ascended through the ranks. In 2003, at the age of<br />

just 29, he oversaw the landing of the Spirit and the Opportunity Mars Rovers.<br />

Those missions were the fulfilment of his childhood dream. Now, with the<br />

Phoenix <strong>–</strong> his third mission to Mars <strong>–</strong> he began to feel restless. “A lot of my<br />

friends were working on the next big robot project, Curiosity,” he says. “But<br />

that felt like the easy thing to do.” So he started casting around for a new job.<br />

That’s when he received a call from an old friend, Peter Diamandis, a<br />

man best known for creating the XPRIZE Foundation, a $10 million (£7.7m)<br />

award for the development of the first reusable space rocket. Lewicki had<br />

met him at an international astronomy organisation called Students for the<br />

Exploration and Development of Space, set up by Diamandis in 1980 to<br />

promote research and interest in space exploration. Lewicki had built its<br />

website, helped set up its offices and even written letters to Congress. “We’d<br />

always been in and out of each other’s spheres since then,” he explains.<br />

During that phone call, Diamandis told Lewicki about his new<br />

startup. It had an ambitious goal: to mine asteroids for their natural<br />

resources. Diamandis was looking for a CEO. Was he<br />

interested? “I just told him he was f**king crazy,” says Lewicki.<br />

In the days after that conversation, however, the more he thought<br />

about it, the less crazy Diamandis’s project seemed to be.<br />

For one, the concept of asteroid mining made sense <strong>–</strong> in<br />

theory. There are more than a million asteroids orbiting our Sun,<br />

ranging from a few centimetres to hundreds of kilometres in<br />

diameter. Most are lumps of inert rock and dirt. Some, however,<br />

are ancient proto-planetary cores stripped of their outer layers<br />

during the violent tumult of our Solar System’s youth. These are<br />

made of pure metal, usually nickel, iron and platinum. “Having an<br />

abundant source of platinum group metals from space can<br />

transform the way our world works,” Lewicki says. “Much as<br />

we transformed our relationship with metals when we figured<br />

out how to extract aluminium from the Earth’s crust.”<br />

Furthermore, Lewicki had worked on Nasa’s Near Shoemaker,<br />

the first space mission to touch down on an asteroid, the Eros, so<br />

he had first-hand knowledge of the procedure. “We’ve sent people<br />

and robots to the Moon so it’s a place that we understand and feel<br />

close to,” he says, “But there are also 15,000 near-Earth asteroids<br />

which have orbits that come close to us. In the past 20 years, we’ve<br />

found about 5,000 of those that, from<br />

an engineering standpoint, are easier<br />

to get to than landing on the Moon.”<br />

And, of course, Peter Diamandis’s<br />

ideas had paid off before, as one of the<br />

pioneers behind such companies as<br />

Blue Origin, Scaled Composites and<br />

Elon Musk’s SpaceX. “I had been at<br />

Nasa for ten years at this point,” Lewicki<br />

says, “and began to realise there was<br />

more I could do to move space exploration<br />

forward in the private sector.”<br />

So when Lewicki became CEO of<br />

Planetary Resources <strong>–</strong> the world’s first<br />

asteroid-mining startup <strong>–</strong> in 2009, he<br />

was no longer of the opinion that this<br />

was a pipe dream. He was just surprised<br />

no one had thought about it before.<br />

STAT SOURCES: PLATINUM METALS REVIEW;<br />

PLANETARY RESOURCES<br />

150 _ WIRED _ 07-17


Left: A sliced<br />

section of the-<br />

Campo de Cielo<br />

iron meteorite.<br />

The triangular<br />

pattern of its<br />

interior indicates<br />

this was not<br />

formed on Earth.<br />

Right: Planetary<br />

Resources’ senior<br />

mechanical<br />

engineer Sean<br />

Haggert handles<br />

the Arkyd-6’s<br />

deployment<br />

mechanism<br />

for its hyperspectral<br />

imaging<br />

sensors<br />

Below: Phoenix<br />

Mars approaches<br />

the Red Planet’s<br />

surface on<br />

Nasa’s 118th<br />

space-shuttle<br />

mission<br />

AROUND ONE<br />

PER CENT OF<br />

NEAR- EARTH<br />

ASTEROIDS ARE<br />

ESTIMATED<br />

TO BE RICH IN<br />

PLATINUM-<br />

GROUP METALS<br />

07-17 _ WIRED _ 151


At 22:22.00 on October 28, 2014, Chris Lewicki stood in the observation<br />

bay at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, to<br />

watch the launch of the first test spacecraft built by Planetary Resources.<br />

Weighing just 4kg, the Arkyd-3 only had prototype communications<br />

and control systems, but no sensors. It was but a tiny piece among a<br />

2,300kg payload of supplies for the International Space Station (ISS)<br />

and would place Planetary Resources among that rarefied subset<br />

of startups that have actually sent a satellite into space.<br />

At exactly 22:22.38, the gently billowing steam of condensing<br />

fuel surrounding the Antares 130 launch vehicle erupted in a burst<br />

of fierce yellow light and dark smoke. Half a second later the launch<br />

tower fell away and, perched atop a column of crackling white fire,<br />

the 300-tonne rocket rose up into the night.<br />

Fifteen seconds after the launch and<br />

scarcely 60 metres above the Atlantic Ocean,<br />

however, the main engine exploded. As quickly<br />

as it rose, and with twice the pyrotechnics,<br />

the rocket plummeted back to Earth, taking<br />

Planetary Resource’s first ever satellite with it.<br />

“As far as fireworks go it was beautiful,”<br />

Lewicki recalls. “As far as getting a spacecraft<br />

into space, not that good.” The loss of<br />

Arkyd-3, Lewicki claims, while disappointing,<br />

really wasn’t that big of a setback. “Part of<br />

152 _ WIRED _ 07-17


our philosophy is that the satellite should be somewhat disposable.”<br />

Within a few weeks after Arkyd-3’s fiery demise, Planetary Resources<br />

were able to assemble its replacement and, a few months later, attach<br />

it to a follow-up ride to the space station.<br />

This decision to favour multiple “good enough” systems over<br />

expensive ones is a result of Lewicki’s frustrations with his time at Nasa.<br />

An attachment to already proven technology lead to the Phoenix<br />

lander launching with an obsolete 20 year-old computer chip.<br />

“The standard practice has been that a spacecraft has one computer,<br />

which does everything, and if something goes wrong, you fall out of<br />

the sky,” Lewicki says. “This breeds a philosophy that failure’s not an<br />

option, so success gets really expensive and extremely time consuming.”<br />

Planetary Resources’ next batch of satellites, the Arkyd-6, will<br />

distribute tasks among 17 smaller computers per satellite, so if one<br />

fails, it doesn’t take the others down. This approach will also be<br />

applied to its first prospector spacecraft,<br />

The<br />

the Arkyd-200, which it expects to launch in<br />

2025. “We often over-predict what will happen<br />

in a year’s time, but we almost always underpredict<br />

what will happen in ten years,” he says.<br />

The biggest challenge Planetary Resources<br />

faces to launch a space mining industry,<br />

Lewicki argues, is not technical, but political. In<br />

November 2015, the US Congress signed a raft of<br />

legislation called the Space Act that guarantees home of Planetary Resources is a nondescript building located<br />

the property rights of private companies over in an industrial unit just outside Redmond, Washington State. One<br />

the resources they mine in space. When the hundred metres away is the headquarters of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.<br />

Space Act was passed, Lewicki was ecstatic. Chris Lewicki wears his thick, brown hair swept to the side<br />

Internationally, however, the reaction was and has a quick, boyish smile. He’s dressed in a blue-checked<br />

much less positive. (The only exception was shirt and jeans and has a way of condensing highly technical<br />

Luxembourg, which passed similar legislation topics into seemingly straightforward explanations that make<br />

last year). During the 55th session of the United you feel like maybe you too could understand rocket science.<br />

Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of As we sit in the company’s boardroom, Chris Voorhees,<br />

Outer Space in April 2016, various member Planetary Resources COO and a former Nasa graduate, enters<br />

states voiced opposition to the US law. the room, hefting a large laptop-sized chunk of shiny, jagged rock.<br />

“We’re hardwired to think in terms of scarcity “This is around 90 per cent refinery-grade iron, mixed with cobalt<br />

and competition,” Lewicki says. “But in space and nickel,” Voorhees says. “You melt it, and you get steel.”<br />

these limits don’t apply. Exploiting them gives us What he’s holding is a meteorite, one of the tens of thousands<br />

the opportunity to start thinking about how much of shattered asteroid fragments that come hurtling down to Earth<br />

more there is to develop and share. There are every year bringing clues about the riches beyond our atmosphere.<br />

resources out there beyond our comprehension.” “There’s more platinum in this meteorite, by percentage, than<br />

Lewicki feels that there’s reason for optimism. the most productive mines in the world,” Voorhees continues.<br />

This February, Etienne Schneider, the deputy “Miners on Earth have to expend enormous energy and create<br />

prime minister of The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg,<br />

announced plans to invest £171 million into But this came from something several kilometres across and<br />

huge amounts of waste to extract and refine this much metal.<br />

space resource startups, £21 million of which went that was the same purity of metal all the way through.”<br />

to Planetary Resources. This comes in addition Through observational data collected by Nasa and other space<br />

to more than £18 million in publicly announced agencies, Planetary Resources has been building a shortlist of the<br />

prior investments from, among others, Google asteroids that are large enough to explore, small enough to easily<br />

founder Larry Page and chairman<br />

land on and take off from and near enough in orbit from<br />

Eric Schmidt, alongside Virgin CEO<br />

Earth to allow for transit times of less than a year or two.<br />

and founder Richard Branson. “The<br />

There is, however, only so much you can tell about<br />

change has been profound,” he says.<br />

When we started, if you brought up<br />

asteroid mining, you’d get sniggers.<br />

But now people are beginning to realise<br />

that this is available in our lifetime.”<br />

THERE<br />

ARE AN<br />

ESTIMATED<br />

60 MILLION<br />

ASTEROIDS<br />

IN OUR<br />

SOLAR<br />

SYSTEM<br />

Left: Pete Illsely,<br />

principal<br />

mechanical<br />

engineer and<br />

Brett Hale,<br />

spacecraft<br />

mechanical<br />

engineer, prepare<br />

two Arkyd-6s<br />

for pre-launch<br />

qualification<br />

testing in one<br />

of Planetary<br />

Resource’s<br />

“clean rooms”<br />

an asteroid from so far away in Earth orbit. In 2010,<br />

the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s unmanned<br />

spacecraft, Hayabusa, returned a few milligrams of<br />

grains from the surface of the Itokawa asteroid. A<br />

follow-up mission is currently on route to the asteroid<br />

Ryugu, with arrival scheduled for <strong>July</strong> 2018.<br />

Of most interest to Lewicki and Voorhees however,<br />

is OSIRIS-REx, a current Nasa mission, on target to<br />

meet Bennu, a 492-metre-diameter, near-Earth asteroid<br />

made of porous carbon, by 2018, and return with approximately<br />

60g of sample material.<br />

“All of our telescopic data currently indicates that<br />

Bennu is rich in carbon and water,” explains the project’s<br />

principal investigator, University of Arizona professor<br />

Dante Lauretta, who also sits on Planetary Resources’


scientific advisory team. “OSIRIS-REx is<br />

a pathfinder for exploring asteroids.”<br />

To decide where to create the first spaceresource<br />

extraction site, however, Planetary<br />

Resources will need to send its own spacecraft<br />

out into the Solar System for a closer look.<br />

Visible through the window of the<br />

boardroom are two solar-panel-plated<br />

cereal-box-sized units sitting on a clean room<br />

table. These are the Arkyd-6 satellites, the<br />

company’s first space prospectors that will be<br />

instrumented with a mid-wavelength infrared<br />

sensor, and placed into low-Earth orbit later<br />

this year on one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets.<br />

In addition to infrared sensors, these<br />

miniature space telescopes will also carry<br />

hyper-spectral imaging sensors capable of<br />

analysing light from 40 points across the light<br />

spectrum. “By analysing the particular spectral<br />

fingerprint the reflected light that an object<br />

leaves on these two sensors, we can get a good<br />

idea of what it is made of,” explains Lewicki.<br />

Once they do know, Planetary Resources<br />

will then send small spacecrafts to inspect<br />

potential asteroid targets up close. A<br />

mock-up of one, the Arkyd-200, sits in the<br />

corner of the boardroom. It possesses a<br />

doughnut-shaped propellant tank no more<br />

than a metre wide. Small enough for several<br />

of the spacecrafts to hitch a ride into space<br />

orbit alongside a larger main payload, they<br />

are designed to move through low gravity<br />

under their own propulsion to reach the<br />

intended target asteroid.<br />

154 _ WIRED _ 07-17<br />

AN<br />

ESTIMATED 18<br />

NEAR-EARTH<br />

ASTEROIDS<br />

COULD<br />

SUPPLY<br />

WATER FOR<br />

SPACE FUEL<br />

Below: The<br />

Campo de Cielo<br />

iron meteorite<br />

prior to cutting<br />

Right: Planetary<br />

Resources’ CEO<br />

Chris Lewicki<br />

In<br />

<strong>July</strong> 2015, around 90 million tonnes of solid platinum hurtled within<br />

2.4 million kilometres of Earth <strong>–</strong> a distance 30 times closer than Venus.<br />

That 452 metre-long asteroid UW-158 is just one of many that contain<br />

vast resources of platinum-group metals. These are the sorts of precious<br />

metals that Lewicki expects to find and mine. His focus, however, remains<br />

on discovering the most precious substance of all: water.<br />

Water, while abundant on Earth, is extremely rare in space. And that<br />

makes it very valuable. “We currently pay $50 million a tonne just to get<br />

it out of Earth’s gravity and up to the ISS,” Lewicki says. “But there are<br />

plenty of asteroids that have it stored under very low gravity already.” This<br />

water won’t be used solely for life support, but also as rocket fuel. “We can<br />

convert it into liquid oxygen and hydrogen,” Lewicki says. “These are the<br />

same ingredients that fuelled all 135 Nasa space-shuttle missions.”<br />

To understand the difference the ability to refuel in space could make,<br />

consider that spacecraft currently need around ten tonnes of fuel for<br />

every tonne of mass that you want to transport.<br />

Current launch systems partially mitigate this through multi-stage<br />

design, jettisoning the weight of spent fuel tanks to fall back down into the<br />

ocean part way through. Still, once you take into account other factors,<br />

such as air resistance, just to escape the Earth’s gravity you’re looking at<br />

a rocket that’s 90 per cent pure propellant. For every tonne of additional<br />

propellant required for an onward Martian transfer, you would have<br />

needed a further ten just to carry that up from the Earth’s surface.<br />

Now imagine you didn’t have to carry that fuel up with you. Imagine,<br />

orbiting around the edges of Earth’s gravity well, the Solar System’s first space<br />

service-station, supplied by asteroids. Somewhere to refuel your engines<br />

and refill your water tanks, before setting off on the next mission stage.<br />

“It blows the mind how much this changes things,” Lewicki says. “If you<br />

could take the amount of energy you had in that rocket to get out to space<br />

and refill it again, you could get to Pluto.”<br />

Exactly how this water will be extracted is still a work in progress. An<br />

early concept design involves a robotic spacecraft that will fully enclose<br />

the asteroid, heat the water, then allow it to condense against the outer<br />

walls of this container, before releasing the asteroid again and transporting<br />

the water to a refuelling station in Earth orbit.<br />

The key resources needed for this are already provided by the environment<br />

of space, Voorhees points out. “You have energy from the Sun to heat the<br />

water, which will volatilise easily in a vacuum,” he says. “Then deep space,<br />

which is cold in a way we can’t even relate to, will help condense it back again.”<br />

And this, for Lewicki, is how humanity will move from throwing tiny robotic<br />

probes out over the top of Earth’s gravity well for a peek at the Solar System<br />

beyond, to climbing up and exploring it ourselves.<br />

“We’re already seeing this, as SpaceX and Blue Origin have been getting<br />

better at the practice of returning a used rocket,” he says. “Asteroids are<br />

the most accessible form of resources that will allow us to extend this<br />

further into space, to stretch our legs, to set up infrastructure on the way<br />

to Mars, and then on Mars itself. Infrastructure that doesn’t require 100 per<br />

cent of its resupply from Earth. This is how colonisation takes off.”<br />

That means not only having the capacity to refuel in space, but actually<br />

build up there, too. It’s in this environment, rather than on Earth, where<br />

CREDIT IN HERE LIGHT


ILLUSTRATION: PIP PELL<br />

those orbiting lumps of pure metal<br />

will have the greatest role to play.<br />

“At the moment, most of the<br />

engineering and design that goes<br />

into a spacecraft is for the first nine<br />

minutes of its life,” Lewicki says.<br />

“It’s got to fit into the tiny capsule<br />

in the top of its launch vehicle;<br />

it has to survive the vibration and<br />

acceleration of the rocket ride; and,<br />

even when it’s just sitting here in<br />

our offices, it’s got to be able to hold<br />

its own weight in Earth’s gravity.<br />

But if I build it in space, I don’t have<br />

to care about any of that stuff.”<br />

Planetary Resources have already<br />

been practising. In the hallway<br />

outside their offices Lewicki opens a large padded box and pulls out a<br />

palm-sized object. “Don’t drop this,” he says, handing me a surprisingly<br />

heavy moonlander-like complex of delicate struts.<br />

It may be small and merely decorative in function, but this is the first object<br />

to be 3D-printed directly from the powder of a pulverised asteroid chunk.<br />

“Now imagine what this could look like printed in space,” Lewicki says.<br />

“You can make things infinitely large <strong>–</strong> or light, dainty structures that never<br />

have to survive the very violent passage out of the Earth’s gravity. This is<br />

going to create things that look like something from science fiction, because<br />

they have an entirely different set of constraints than engineers have today.”<br />

Lewicki continues. “On Earth, to add the 100th storey to a skyscraper you<br />

have to take into account how the 99 stories below are going to support it.<br />

Space is different. You can just add another level, and another, and another,<br />

and keep doing that forever. There’s no limit.”<br />

Kathryn Nave is a WIRED contributing editor.<br />

She wrote about live streaming in issue 01.17<br />

How to mine<br />

an asteroid<br />

To extract water<br />

in space you will<br />

need two things:<br />

heat and cold.<br />

The Sun provides<br />

the first, the<br />

sub-zero<br />

temperatures of<br />

deep space the<br />

latter. Here’s<br />

how they might<br />

be used to collect<br />

asteroid H 2<br />

O.<br />

Step one<br />

Enclose the<br />

asteroid, or place<br />

a condenser<br />

plate in<br />

its vicinity.<br />

Step two<br />

Solar energy<br />

evaporates the<br />

water into a gas,<br />

which freezes<br />

on the plate.<br />

Step three<br />

Release the<br />

asteroid and<br />

deliver the water<br />

to refuel in<br />

low-Earth orbit.


1 5 6 _ WIRED _ 07-17


long and made up of about 500 0.2mm-thick layers. Each layer took a<br />

few seconds. He watched the printer work until he fell asleep. “When<br />

I woke, there was this organic shape of the palm of the hand.” He<br />

then printed the fingers and hinges. The whole hand took 13 hours.<br />

In January 2015, Hasna travelled to the woman’s home in Zaatari,<br />

where, a doctor fitted her with a new hand. “Many young Arab women<br />

feel ashamed of having artificial limbs,” he says. “She was an exception,<br />

because she just wanted to be able to cook and to look after her<br />

children.” The first thing she did was brush her daughter’s hair.<br />

In 2009, when Hasna was 15, he lived in<br />

Qatana, a Syrian garrison town of 30,000<br />

people, 24 kilometres south-west of<br />

Damascus. The Hasnas were a respectable,<br />

middle-class family: his father worked as a<br />

translator for the Ministry of Defence, his<br />

mother as a pharmacist for the state chemist.<br />

They were comfortably off, although, like<br />

most people, they worried about Syria’s<br />

economy. The state, with its infamous<br />

mukhabarat, or secret intelligence agency,<br />

was oppressive and the old, centralised stateheavy<br />

economy sluggish. Most young people<br />

Hasna knew dreamed of leaving the country.<br />

He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do<br />

until 2009, when a new teacher arrived at<br />

his school and introduced him to computers.<br />

“He used computers to show visually the<br />

relationships between abstract concepts and<br />

their applications for mathematics,” Hasna<br />

says. He became hooked, and set his sights<br />

on a mathematics degree. He decorated his<br />

walls with pages of handwritten equations.<br />

Two years later came the first protests<br />

against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. “Young<br />

people really wanted to say something,”<br />

he says. “They wanted to do something.<br />

or most people, the first time they use a 3D printer is to Maybe, as young people, we were crazy, so<br />

create a simple object <strong>–</strong> a fridge magnet or a bookmark. Asem we thought we could start this protest.” But<br />

Hasna, then a 20-year-old Syrian refugee in Jordan, began with the protests soon turned into violent clashes<br />

a prosthetic hand for a woman who lost hers in Syria’s civil war. with security forces. Four demonstrators<br />

Hasna had met the woman in 2014 in Zaatari, the refugee camp 65 were killed on March 18 in the city of Daraa,<br />

kilometres north-east of Amman, the capital of Jordan. The young a month before Hasna’s 17th birthday. Hasna<br />

woman, who has requested anonymity, lost her right hand during went on marches, but was careful not to<br />

an attack and was struggling to care for her two daughters. Hasna, discuss it to avoid detection by government<br />

now 23, had just joined Refugee Open Ware (ROW), an Amman-based intelligence services. Some of his friends<br />

organisation that taught refugees how to 3D-print afordable artificial signed up as rebel soldiers. As the unrest<br />

limbs for amputees. ROW had employed someone to train staf, but intensified, he helped injured protesters as<br />

he left a few days after Hasna joined and had not been replaced. a paramedic at a clandestine clinic. “Being<br />

Hasna knew nothing about 3D printers. “I was excited about helping a soldier was not the best way I personally<br />

all amputees, but this lady was one of the first people I met,” he says. could help my people, my country,” Hasna says. “I didn’t want to kill<br />

“Her husband was in Syria and she was struggling with daily tasks.” anyone. I know that some people must be killed, but I wouldn’t do it.”<br />

In November, Hasna began attending a 3D-printing course, but it With the conflict growing more violent, he continued to work as<br />

was cancelled after only a few days. He asked if he could take a printer a paramedic and enrolled as a maths undergraduate at Damascus<br />

back to his apartment. There, using manuals and YouTube videos, University. In January 2013, Hasna was engaged to his high-school<br />

he mastered the 3D printer, an Ultimaker, in three days. Hasna then sweetheart, Marah. In Islam, couples take betrothal vows on their<br />

downloaded a printable file for a hand, adjusted the measurements engagement and confirm the marriage with a ceremony later. In this<br />

for the woman’s arm and set the printer going. 3D printers work by case, events overtook the couple before a ceremony could be arranged.<br />

melting plastic filament and laying down the material in thin layers On Friday, February 8, Hasna and his father were in the local mosque<br />

through a nozzle, gradually building up the programmed 3D form. when a neighbour rushed in. He told them that some mukhabarat<br />

Hasna began by printing the palm of the hand. It would be 100mm oicers and about 20 regular soldiers had just come to their house,<br />

158 _ WIRED _ 07-17


which was 200 metres from the mosque. His father went to speak<br />

to them. Hasna watched through the mirrored-glass windows of the<br />

mosque as the soldiers and the mukhabarat filed into his family’s<br />

home. About an hour later, they brought out his father, who had been<br />

beaten, and drove him to prison. Hasna has not seen him since. After<br />

taking his father, themukhabarat began visiting the family home and<br />

relatives’ houses looking for Hasna. Two weeks later, he escaped to<br />

Khan al-Shih, a rebel-controlled town about five kilometres from<br />

Qatana. There, Hasna began working full-time at a makeshift field<br />

hospital, which consisted of an operating theatre and four beds in an<br />

underground vegetable warehouse. There were bodies everywhere,<br />

he says, a permanent stench of sterilising fluid, and so much blood<br />

on the floor that orderlies worked constantly to keep it clean. Soon<br />

after he started, he says, a mother was brought in with her baby boy.<br />

They had been on a bus that was shot at by government soldiers;<br />

a bullet hit the woman in her side, passed through her body and<br />

hit the baby whom she had been holding. Both survived.<br />

A few weeks later, a battle erupted in the neighbouring village. On<br />

the first day more than 100 casualties were brought in. Medics worked<br />

for three days without sleep. The hospital was politically neutral<br />

and treated civilians, opposition fighters and<br />

regime soldiers equally. Hasna performed first<br />

aid on three government soldiers. “Most of the<br />

severely injured died,” he says. “Someone was<br />

shot in the head. What can you do? Nothing.<br />

You watch him dying. You have to save the life<br />

of someone with a better chance of living.”<br />

On April 27, 2013, Hasna and another<br />

paramedic took an ambulance to retrieve battlefield<br />

casualties. He was helping two men when<br />

he spotted a government helicopter. It was coordinating<br />

with an artillery team to shell the<br />

ambulance, so he got the men in the car as fast<br />

as he could. As he slid into his seat, everything<br />

went black. “For the first 30 seconds, I couldn’t<br />

hear or see anything,” he says. As the dust settled,<br />

Hasna saw blood everywhere. Then he realised<br />

most of his left leg below the knee was missing.<br />

He was saved by Manar, a nurse who had<br />

befriended him. When Manar heard the news,<br />

he sped out in a car to where Hasna, his colleague<br />

and the two casualties had managed to get clear<br />

of the burning ambulance. Manar raced them to<br />

hospital. Surgeons stopped the bleeding from<br />

Hasna’s wound and arranged for him to travel 100<br />

kilometres to the south to have his leg amputated.<br />

For three days, Hasna travelled in a vegetable<br />

truck with 13 injured men, slipping in and out of<br />

consciousness. They travelled mostly at night<br />

through rebel-held territory. When they passed<br />

government bases, they were fired on. No one was<br />

hit, but two men later died from their injuries.<br />

When he reached Amman, Hasna was hallucinating.<br />

In lucid moments he worried about Marah<br />

and his mother, who were unaware of his fate.<br />

Hasna had 12 operations in six weeks to<br />

amputate his lower leg. He obtained a SIM card,<br />

called his family and then passed the time by<br />

watching prosthetics videos on his phone. Soon,<br />

he realised what he wanted to do when he was<br />

discharged from hospital: help other amputees.<br />

Above: Asem Hasna outside his home at a refugee centre in north Berlin. After the restrictions on his<br />

employment were lifted, he began helping fellow refugees by teaching them about technology


hen he was discharged from<br />

hospital, Hasna moved into an<br />

apartment in Amman with a cousin.<br />

He spent the rest of 2013 in physiotherapy.<br />

At the start of 2014, Manar<br />

helped him secure a place for<br />

eight months as both patient and<br />

student on a US State Department<br />

project to supply prostheses, and to<br />

train 12 prosthetic technicians at a<br />

medical centre in Amman.<br />

In the autumn, after he finished<br />

the course, he met Kilian Kleinschmidt,<br />

an outspoken German<br />

social entrepreneur who was then<br />

the UN’s senior field co-ordinator in<br />

charge of the Zaatari camp. Noting<br />

Hasna’s experience with the US<br />

State Department initiative, Kleinschmidt<br />

told him about a project<br />

he was working on with ROW. The<br />

Jordanian refugee project was a<br />

pilot scheme. With 3D printing,<br />

Kleinschmidt explained, refugees<br />

could produce whatever they<br />

needed. “Intelligence services and<br />

others from the government think<br />

‘My God, these are just refugees, so<br />

why should they be able to do 3D<br />

printing?” Kleinschmidt explained<br />

in a 2015 interview. “Why should<br />

they be working on robotics?’ The<br />

idea is that if you’re poor, it’s all<br />

only about survival… That whole<br />

concept that you can connect a poor<br />

person with something that belongs<br />

to the 21st century is very alien to<br />

even most aid agencies.”<br />

However, the Jordanian authorities<br />

only allowed ROW to have<br />

printers on site for a few weeks<br />

before bureaucratic issues and the<br />

concerns of various authorities<br />

forced them to withdraw. “One<br />

fear,” says Hasna, “was that Syrians<br />

might start using the 3D printers<br />

to make weapons.”<br />

Below (from top): A 3Dprinted<br />

prosthetic<br />

wedge designed<br />

by Hasna; a six-year-old<br />

Yemeni child<br />

pictured alongside<br />

Hasna. The boy is<br />

wearing a prosthetic<br />

hand inspired by<br />

animated TV<br />

series Ben 10; children<br />

play with devices<br />

in a roboticseducation<br />

class that<br />

Hasna teaches<br />

to Syrian refugees<br />

living in Turkey<br />

There were general security concerns in the area at the time,<br />

not helped by the fact that it is known as a centre for smuggling.<br />

For a time between 2016 and <strong>2017</strong>, the importing of 3D printers<br />

was efectively banned throughout Jordan. ROW staf worked<br />

with the Jordanian authorities to help devise a safe, freer policy.<br />

ROW eventually set up in Amman instead. It was there that,<br />

in January 2015, Hasna 3D-printed his first of many creations:<br />

the prosthetic hand. Soon, he was hacking the printer so it<br />

could print using new materials, and teaching others how to<br />

use it. “Walking into his home,” recalls Dave Levin, ROW’s<br />

co-founder and executive director, “you’d see a group of<br />

severely injured Syrian refugees hanging out around a shisha,<br />

with several Ultimaker 3D printers humming along.” They helped<br />

refugees from all over northern Jordan to print prostheses that,<br />

while cruder than high-quality, factory-made versions, cost as<br />

little as ten per cent of the price, and were afordable in the camps.<br />

Hasna learned how to use 3D scanners that allowed him<br />

to scan and then print prostheses and replacement parts.<br />

He was able to print a replacement part for his prosthesis <strong>–</strong><br />

a flexible component called the heel pump <strong>–</strong> for 80p. “It is diicult<br />

to print materials strong enough to fully support an adult’s body’s<br />

weight,” Hasna says. “However, small replacement parts such<br />

as this are very important. If you walk with a<br />

comfortable prosthesis, you will fall in love with<br />

it, and you will not be shy about showing it.”<br />

After noticing that many of the refugees, particularly<br />

young women, experienced crippling<br />

shame about wearing replacement limbs,<br />

Hasna began experimenting with diferent designs.<br />

“In our culture, unlike in Europe, people don’t<br />

really accept these things,” he explains. “Very<br />

few doctors or clinics focus on this psychological<br />

element.” For a six-year-old Yemeni<br />

boy who had lost part of his hand, he made, for<br />

about £60, a black prostheses inspired by the<br />

animated hero from the TV series Ben 10. It came<br />

complete with a decal, an embedded computer<br />

showing a video of characters from the show,<br />

and a detail based on the Omnitrix, a watchlike<br />

device that allows Ben 10 to transform into<br />

ten aliens. The child, who was being treated<br />

by Medécins Sans Frontières, was delighted.<br />

In the spring, a new team member introduced<br />

Hasna to the Arduino open-source electronic<br />

prototype platform. Hasna used it with cheap<br />

sensors to make a £25 echolocation device for<br />

a friend blinded by sniper bullets. When worn<br />

on the wrist, the device vibrates to indicate the<br />

proximity of objects such as walls and steps. “It<br />

was exciting to be a producer of technology instead<br />

of just being a consumer,” Hasna says. “To know<br />

the magic ways through which you can write code<br />

to help people. When we started doing this, I began<br />

to realise that we can use technology to solve<br />

humanitarian sufering.”<br />

160 _ WIRED _ 07-17


As 2015 progressed, ROW began working with the Royal<br />

Rehabilitation Centre in Amman, which is part of the Jordan Royal<br />

Medical Services. It is also the biggest prosthetics centre in the<br />

country. ROW moved the printers there, and Hasna began training<br />

their prosthetists and technicians in 3D printing. Its success with<br />

training and innovation with cheap prosthetics attracted the<br />

approving attention of government officials and the Jordanian<br />

Royal Family. According to Hasna, King Abdullah II is believed to<br />

have taken a personal interest in 3D printers, and he donated two of<br />

them to a fabrication laboratory that ROW was helping to build in<br />

Amman. Hasna also personally met and talked to Queen Rania when<br />

she paid a visit to ROW’s oices, and took an interest in his work.<br />

Hasna, however, could work only voluntarily for ROW. As a<br />

Syrian, in order to be employed legally he required an official<br />

Jordanian work permit. The exceptionally high demand for<br />

them meant that they were virtually impossible<br />

to obtain. He felt that he had little choice but to<br />

leave Jordan, and in the autumn of 2015, Hasna<br />

and 11 others <strong>–</strong> four friends and eight relatives <strong>–</strong><br />

decided to seek asylum in Germany.<br />

Hasna’s group went to the location and paid £900 each to another<br />

man. “They make more than £40,000 per boat,” Hasna says. “He gives<br />

you a QR code. When you reach Greece, you send a photo of the code<br />

to confirm your arrival. Then the third-party guy releases the money<br />

to the guys with the boat, so if you don’t arrive, they don’t get paid.”<br />

Two days after arriving in Izmir, the group went to the harbour at<br />

midnight, as arranged. Their rigid inflatable boat was being repaired,<br />

guarded by six armed men. “They seemed very relaxed,” Hasna recalls.<br />

“Turkish police could easily have arrested everyone but I don’t think<br />

they felt threatened.” When asked if he believes the Turkish mafia is<br />

in cahoots with the government, Hasna agrees.<br />

Hasna, who cannot swim, had never been at sea before. There<br />

were no lifejackets, and they travelled in darkness. “We didn’t see<br />

another boat,” he says. The crossing to Lesbos took three-anda-half<br />

hours. They stayed for two days in a house arranged by a<br />

Greek ROW member, who also obtained permits allowing them<br />

to leave. Then they sailed to Athens and travelled by bus with 40<br />

illegal immigrants to Macedonia and from there to Serbia, Croatia,<br />

Hungary and Austria. The nine-day journey was surprisingly easy.<br />

“I was afraid,” Hasna says. “I’d seen footage of Hungarian police<br />

dealing [harshly] with refugees. But when we arrived they helped<br />

us cross. It was obvious that Eastern European countries wanted to<br />

fuck rich European countries [by letting refugees cross into them].”<br />

They were held in an Austrian reception camp and then taken to<br />

the town of Braunau am Inn. After being held at the border for a few<br />

hours before crossing the River Inn to Germany, they were taken to<br />

another camp. There they headed for Berlin, where a friend of ROW<br />

was working with refugees. His relatives went to Norway. In October<br />

2015, Hasna and four friends arrived in Berlin and applied for asylum.<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: NI SYNDICATION; MANAR BILAL<br />

Hasna’s plan was to head for Berlin. His father,<br />

who had been released from prison in <strong>August</strong> 2013,<br />

had arranged a passport for him. Due to postage<br />

regulations, the passport had to be couriered<br />

from Syria to Lebanon, from there to the United<br />

Arab Emirates and, finally, to Amman, taking two<br />

months to reach Hasna. Even when he eventually<br />

had a passport, he says, he could leave Jordan<br />

only after signing a document that an oicial had <strong>–</strong><br />

unoicially <strong>–</strong> amended so that it waived his right to<br />

return. Manar, who was by now in Turkey, knew a gobetween<br />

who could fix a passage with smugglers<br />

to Europe from the port of Izmir. They flew from<br />

Amman to Istanbul, then took another flight to Izmir,<br />

where hundreds of Syrians packed cafés, seeking<br />

contacts, names and possibilities. “We met our guy in<br />

a café,” Hasna says. “He was 18 years old. The Turkish<br />

mafia runs everything and he was the interface. He<br />

met us because he spoke Arabic. He told us the price,<br />

date and where to meet. We didn’t see him again.”<br />

Right: Surgeons treat injured patients at a field hospital in Damascus, the Syrian capital.<br />

Hasna worked in similar makeshift hospitals, a common sight in the war-torn country


ne morning in February <strong>2017</strong>, in<br />

a workshop at Cisco’s openBerlin<br />

Innovation Center in Berlin, Hasna<br />

sits watching as two 16-year-old<br />

Syrian refugees, Zaid and Hassan,<br />

learn to 3D-print a battery case for<br />

robots. Bespectacled and bearded,<br />

Hasna is charismatic and smiles<br />

a lot. Clad in jeans, a black sweatshirt<br />

and sneakers, he walks with a<br />

slight roll on his left hip. He cheerfully<br />

rolls up his jeans to show his<br />

steel and carbon-fibre prosthesis<br />

when he talks about it. “In summer<br />

I like to wear shorts, and show this<br />

metal part of my body,” he explains.<br />

The boys frown in concentration,<br />

snip wires and sigh as they accidentally<br />

drop tiny screws. When Hasna<br />

goes to get some equipment, I ask if it<br />

helps being taught by someone from<br />

their country. “It’s not that. There are<br />

just good and bad teachers. Asem is a<br />

good teacher,” Hassan says. “I spend<br />

90 per cent of my time here,” Hasna<br />

says of the converted warehouse with<br />

its industrial-chic demonstration<br />

areas, workshops, co-working desks<br />

and leisure spaces. “I work every<br />

day for eight hours, and I come<br />

most weekends. I can work better<br />

here, because at the centre I share a<br />

dormitory with four other guys.”<br />

By the centre, Hasna means the<br />

refugee centre in north Berlin,<br />

where he lives. He was granted<br />

asylum in November 2016. Until then, his employment opportunities<br />

were restricted by German law, which gives German and EU<br />

citizens priority over job applications. In spite of these obstacles,<br />

Hasna is now becoming known for his work with refugees. He<br />

teaches robotics at Berlin’s ReDI School of Digital Integration, a<br />

non-profit for refugees, and interns with Cisco, where he comes<br />

in on some weekends for hackathons and his personal tutoring.<br />

He remains a part of ROW, still advising it, and helping to develop<br />

a syllabus for teaching 3D printing in Jordan. He has given<br />

a talk at TEDx Berlin and met Facebook’s chief operating oicer<br />

Sheryl Sandberg when she visited Berlin in January.<br />

“It was easy to identify Asem as one of the stars of our sessions<br />

with ReDI School,” says André Diener, technical leader of Cisco’s<br />

openBerlin Innovation Center and Hasna’s mentor. Levin agrees. “He<br />

is brilliant, genuine and very humble, and we hope he’ll always be<br />

a part of the organisation,” he says. “Our idea is to find 100 Asems,<br />

and to empower them to lead change in their communities. The<br />

brightest and the best are ours to lose; the consequences of not<br />

supporting them are frightening.” Levin regularly receives texts<br />

from Hasna with pictures of code he’s been writing. Hasna told him<br />

that one day he’ll go back to Syria and use similar code to help build<br />

infrastructure for the internet of things. To this end, in January <strong>2017</strong><br />

Above: Hasna with the 3D printers stored on the top floor of Cisco’s openBerlin Innovation Center,<br />

where refugees can attend 3D-printing workshops, tutorials and hackathons


ROW opened a fabrication laboratory and training centre in the<br />

city of Irbid, 30 kilometres from the Zaatari refugee camp.<br />

Hasna’s family remain in Qatana. He hasn’t seen them for four<br />

years. His father was fired from his job and his records “lost”,<br />

meaning he can’t officially work or travel. Of his 20 closest<br />

childhood friends, two are still alive. Manar now lives in France.<br />

When he talks about his home and family, Hasna flits between<br />

sadness and concern. “Now I’m in Germany, my life is perfect<br />

compared to other people,” he says. “But I am not happy, because I<br />

can’t imagine how I will ever go back to my country. The long-term<br />

efect of the Syrian war is much bigger and more severe than we<br />

think. The kids who were born during this war,<br />

how will their lives be? There is something<br />

broken in the heart of every Syrian.”<br />

He tells me a story about a friend who was<br />

recently killed in Khan al-Shih, two weeks after the<br />

birth of his first son. The friend had three brothers<br />

and two sisters. One brother was killed a year<br />

ago; a second has been held by the government<br />

for three years; the third brother and his two<br />

sisters are in Germany. His mother was arrested<br />

and held for almost a year. When she was freed,<br />

she discovered that two of her sons had been<br />

killed. “How can I describe this kind of sufering?”<br />

Hasna asks. “When I compare my sufering with<br />

my friend’s mother, I feel guilty. Why does she<br />

have to sufer this much? She really wants to die,<br />

to just leave this life, because every single day,<br />

she…” he trails of and sits quietly for a moment.<br />

In the Innovation Center, winter dusk gathers<br />

outside the windows. Zaid and Hassan focus on<br />

the printer as it whirrs in the background. Zaid<br />

is studious. Hassan is more of a hipster, with a<br />

blond-streaked quif and sweatshirt bearing the<br />

words “Light It Up”. There’s a sense of avuncular<br />

authority about Hasna as he sits instructing<br />

them, their Arabic punctuated with universal<br />

tech-speranto <strong>–</strong> silicon, Arduino, MakerBot. It’s<br />

odd to consider that some people are hostile<br />

towards refugees such as Hasna and his pupils.<br />

“This is the easiest reaction,” he says. “It’s easy<br />

for some local people to say foreigners are shit,<br />

and it’s very easy for foreigners to respond to<br />

that by attacking this country. The hardest way,<br />

the longer way, is to be good and to prove to<br />

everyone that I can help people and add value to<br />

this country. In ten years’ time, I can maybe pay<br />

back this country. It helped me when all the Arab countries didn’t.<br />

Not everyone can think like this, but it’s how I see it.”<br />

The printer stops and the boys finish their jobs. We watch as the<br />

robots <strong>–</strong> hand-sized plastic chassis with motors, proximity sensors<br />

and 3D-printed components <strong>–</strong> scoot around avoiding obstacles.<br />

“Every time I print something, I feel really good,” Hasna says.<br />

He still remembers his first 3D-printed creation. The emotional<br />

rush he felt when he made that hand will always be with him.<br />

Richard Benson is a London-based author, journalist and critic.<br />

He wrote about TheLADbible in issue 09.16<br />

07-17 _ WIRED _ 163


Bangalore,<br />

the world’s<br />

tech support<br />

centre, is<br />

running out<br />

of water<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: MAHESH SHANTARAM


ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF BANGALORE ONE MORNING IN THE<br />

summer of 2016, a sullen young man named Manjunath stood high<br />

atop a cocoa-coloured 7,000-litre tanker truck, waiting for its belly<br />

to fill with water. The source of the liquid was a bore well, a cylindrical<br />

metal shaft puncturing scores of metres down into the earth.<br />

An electric pump pulled the water up from the depths and into a<br />

concrete cistern; from there, a hose snaked across the mud and<br />

weeds and plugged into Manjunath’s truck. As the water gushed<br />

into the tanker, a muled sound emerged, like rain on a tin roof.<br />

Once the tank was full, Manjunath disconnected the hose, climbed<br />

down and settled into the truck’s cab. Then he drove out through<br />

a web of newly tarred backstreets in the suburb of Whitefield. He<br />

passed rows of half-finished buildings, still grey from raw cement,<br />

and he honked often so that motorcycles and pedestrians could<br />

scurry out of his way. Whitefield’s roadways are almost always<br />

coagulated with traic. Over the past two decades, the area has<br />

become home to major outposts of Oracle, Dell, IBM and GE, as<br />

well as countless IT parks <strong>–</strong> proud, gleaming edifices that Uber<br />

drivers here recognise as major landmarks. When people describe<br />

Bangalore as India’s Silicon Valley, they’re really talking about<br />

Whitefield. From the altitude of the truck’s cab, though, Whitefield<br />

looked somewhat less impressive <strong>–</strong> smaller and flimsier, even<br />

more starved for space than it already was.<br />

After a quarter of an hour, Manjunath turned through a back gate<br />

of the campus belonging to Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications<br />

firm known for its sleek, inexpensive smartphones. He made<br />

his way to a corner of the car park. By the wall, under some plants,<br />

he found a metal water pipe that poked up out of the soil. A length<br />

Above: Water<br />

tankers await their<br />

turn at a filling<br />

station near the<br />

Bangalore suburb<br />

of Whitefield. Right:<br />

Kundalahalli Lake,<br />

adjacent to the<br />

Huawei campus,<br />

is being drained<br />

and dredged to<br />

remove years<br />

of accumulated<br />

sewage. Bottom: A<br />

water tanker makes<br />

a delivery to an IT<br />

campus in Whitefield


of rubber tubing had been aixed shoddily to the pipe’s inlet valve.<br />

Manjunath spent a few minutes using a handy rock to hammer the<br />

tubing tight over the valve’s mouth. Then he fastened the other<br />

end of the tube over his tanker’s outlet, turned on the spigot and<br />

sat down near his truck to pick his teeth as his cargo unloaded.<br />

B<br />

CREDIT IN HERE LIGHT<br />

ANGALORE HAS A PROBLEM: IT IS RUNNING OUT OF WATER,<br />

fast. Cities all over the world, from those in Europe and the American<br />

west to nearly every major Indian metropolis, have been struggling<br />

with drought and water deficits in recent years. But Bangalore is an<br />

extreme case. Last summer, a professor from the Indian Institute<br />

of Science declared that the city will be unlivable by 2020. He later<br />

backed of his prediction of the exact time of death <strong>–</strong> but even so,<br />

says PN Ravindra, an oicial at the Bangalore Water Supply and<br />

Sewerage Board, “The projections are relatively correct. Our<br />

groundwater levels are approaching zero.”<br />

Every year since 2012, Bangalore has been hit by drought; last<br />

year Karnataka, of which Bangalore is the capital, received its lowest<br />

rainfall level in four decades. But the changing climate is not exclusively<br />

to blame for Bangalore’s water problems. The city’s growth,<br />

hustled along by its tech sector, made it ripe for crisis. Echoing urban<br />

patterns around the world, Bangalore’s population nearly doubled<br />

from 5.7 million in 2001 to 10.5 million today. By 2020, more than<br />

two million IT professionals are expected to live here.<br />

Through the 2000s, Bangalore’s urban landscape expanded so<br />

quickly that the city had no time to extend its subcutaneous network<br />

of water pipes into fast-growing areas such as Whitefield. Layers of<br />

concrete and Tarmac crept out across the city, stopping water from<br />

seeping into the ground. Bangalore, once famous for its hundreds<br />

of lakes, now has only 81. The rest have been filled and paved over.<br />

Of the 81 remaining, more than half are contaminated with sewage.<br />

Not only has the municipal water system been slow to branch<br />

out, it also leaks like a sieve. In the established neighbourhoods<br />

that enjoy the relative reliability of a municipal hookup, 44 per cent<br />

of the city’s water supply either seeps out through ageing pipes or<br />

gets siphoned away by thieves. Summers bring shortages, even for<br />

those served by the city’s plumbing. Everywhere, the steep ascent<br />

of demand has caused a run on groundwater. Well owners drill<br />

deeper and deeper, chasing the water table downwards as they<br />

all keep draining it further. The groundwater level has sunk from<br />

a depth of 50 or 60 metres to 300 metres or more in many places.<br />

The job of distributing water from an ever-shifting array of dying<br />

wells has been taken up, in large part, by informal armadas of private<br />

tanker trucks like the one Manjunath drives. There are between 1,000<br />

and 3,000 of these trucks, according to varying estimates, hauling tens<br />

of millions of litres per day through Bangalore. By many accounts,<br />

the tanker barons of Bangalore <strong>–</strong> the men who own and direct these<br />

trucks <strong>–</strong> now control the supply of water so thoroughly that they can<br />

form cartels, bend prices and otherwise abuse their power. Public<br />

oicials are fond of calling the tanker owners a “water mafia”.<br />

That term, “water mafia”, conjures an image straight out of Mad<br />

Max <strong>–</strong> gangs of small-time Immortan Joes running squadrons of<br />

belching tankers, turning a city’s water on and of at will. When<br />

07-17 _ WIRED _ 1 6 7


I first started to hear about Bangalore’s crisis, that lurid image was<br />

hard to square with the cosmopolitan city I knew from a lifetime<br />

of frequent visits. The prospect of Bangalore’s imminent collapse<br />

from dehydration, and its apparently anarchic response to the<br />

threat, seemed to ofer a discomfiting preview of a more general<br />

urban future. As Earth warms, as cities swell, as resources become<br />

more scarce and vexing to distribute, the world’s urban centres<br />

will start to hit up against hard limits.<br />

In the moment, though <strong>–</strong> well before the apocalypse struck<br />

<strong>–</strong> there was Manjunath. When his tanker had emptied itself, he<br />

chucked away his toothpick, climbed back into the cab and set of<br />

once more for the bore well. Huawei’s reservoir would swallow<br />

many more loads before it was full.<br />

I<br />

WAS FIRST TOLD ABOUT THAYAPPA, THE WATER BARON OF<br />

Iblur, by one of his clients. Iblur is an area on Bangalore’s southeastern<br />

periphery, about 14 kilometres from Whitefield. Fifteen<br />

years ago, it was a village; now Iblur is a suburban enclave, full<br />

of condominiums with names like Suncity Apartments and Sobha<br />

Hibiscus, which sprang up to supply homes to some of the hundreds<br />

of thousands of people who flooded into Bangalore to staff its<br />

tech firms. Thayappa’s client was a woman who lived in one of<br />

The Suncity Gloria<br />

apartments on<br />

the outskirts of<br />

Bangalore. New<br />

developments like<br />

this largely serve IT<br />

workers for nearby<br />

multinationals<br />

such as Cisco, Intel<br />

and Walmart<br />

these vast complexes, a thicket of residential<br />

towers with tennis courts, genteel ornamental<br />

ponds and 1,500 apartments.<br />

As a member of the apartments residents’<br />

association, the woman’s duty was to deal<br />

with tanker-truck owners, and she’d invited<br />

me over to hear her tales of battle. But while<br />

I sat in a little room of the lobby waiting for<br />

her, I could see her, just outside the glass door,<br />

arguing with another association member.<br />

Heads shook furiously. Hands cut through the<br />

air. When they joined me, the man <strong>–</strong> a former<br />

local Yahoo! employee <strong>–</strong> insisted that the tanker<br />

owners behaved perfectly. Every time the<br />

woman started a story, he cut her of. They had<br />

no complaints, he said obstinately, none at all.<br />

“I’m so sorry,” the woman said when I<br />

called her later that day. “He was afraid that<br />

if our names appear in a magazine, the tanker<br />

owners will cut of our water. We have no choice.<br />

We’re dependent on them.”<br />

Thayappa is one of six Iblur tanker operators<br />

who keep the taps running at this apartment<br />

complex. The residents rely entirely on them. For<br />

convenience, the six operators divvy up the apartments<br />

into six rough clusters <strong>–</strong> a cluster each <strong>–</strong> but<br />

there’s no doubt that Thayappa is the ringmaster<br />

of this cartel, the woman said. Every time she<br />

has tried to haggle with the supplier of her own<br />

cluster, he has said: “Thayappa won’t agree.”<br />

The woman’s cluster alone buys more than<br />

159,000 litres of water daily <strong>–</strong> 25 tankers’<br />

worth, all drawn from bore wells within driving<br />

distance of Iblur. In January 2015, she and her<br />

tanker operator had informally settled on a<br />

price of £5.80 a tanker, but six months later the<br />

cartel had <strong>–</strong> at Thayappa’s urging <strong>–</strong> unilaterally<br />

jacked up the rate to £6.40. Over a year, that<br />

works out to an addition of more than £5,300<br />

to the cluster’s water bill. One of the smaller<br />

apartment clusters was being forced to pay for<br />

a minimum number of daily tanker-loads, even<br />

though it didn’t require that much water. If the<br />

apartments had been hooked up to the heavily<br />

subsidised civic system, a tanker’s worth of<br />

water would cost them as little as 54p.<br />

In an attempt to source its own water, the<br />

complex had dug 22 bore wells of its own, but<br />

they rarely work. Even though they reach 275<br />

metres or more into the ground, they return<br />

only air. In 2015, out of desperation, the woman<br />

worked the phones to find suppliers further<br />

afield. One operator agreed to a rate of £5.25<br />

per tanker but then backed out, wary of another<br />

cartel’s turf. “He called and said he couldn’t<br />

take the job. He said, ‘You didn’t tell me your<br />

apartment lies in Iblur.’ ”<br />

Sometimes the stories are bloodier and<br />

grimier. In 2011, in a diferent neighbourhood, a<br />

man identified only as Kabeer had his ribs broken<br />

for calling out an alleged boss of the local water


mafia. Some municipal council members and local<br />

politicians own tanker fleets themselves or allow<br />

these illegal businesses to operate in return for<br />

kickbacks. In a block of apartments in Bommanahalli,<br />

not far from Iblur, water-board oicials kept<br />

shutting of the piped supply altogether, insisting<br />

that their connection had been illegally installed.<br />

In 2011, weary of paying nearly £1,000 in monthly<br />

tanker dues, the residents decided to dig a new<br />

bore well. Just as work commenced, their<br />

tanker operator arrived with two colleagues <strong>–</strong><br />

“Just regular- looking guys,” says Padma Ravi,<br />

a film-maker who lived in the building at the time,<br />

“except that they had really big machete-type<br />

things. They said, ‘You can’t dig.’” The excavation<br />

had to be finished under police supervision.<br />

Shortly after I learned his name, I rang<br />

Thayappa and asked to meet him. The first time<br />

he stood me up, I waited for four hours. “Stay<br />

at the main intersection and I’ll come and get<br />

you,” he had told me on the phone, sounding<br />

bored and drowsy. I occupied a bench between<br />

a fish stall and a tea shop at a junction. To pass<br />

the time, I counted the tanker trucks that rolled<br />

by. On one occasion, a tanker nozzle’s cap was<br />

loose, and water lapped out and slid down the<br />

truck’s torso. If the trucks were empty, they gave<br />

out hollow rumbles as they headed through<br />

Iblur for a refill. By the time I gave up, having<br />

grown tired of calling Tha yappa’s number and<br />

receiving no response, I had counted 57 tankers.<br />

W<br />

HEN TITANS OF THE TECH INDUSTRY<br />

such as IBM and Sun Microsystems began<br />

drifting into Bangalore in the mid-90s, the city’s<br />

geography had been part of the allure. Sitting<br />

atop a series of ridges, Bangalore lies more than<br />

900 metres above sea level <strong>–</strong> an elevation that<br />

afords the city month after month of moderate<br />

temperatures, nippy evenings and clement<br />

afternoons. But this topography also permits<br />

Bangalore’s 84 centimetres of annual rain to<br />

flow instantly downhill. Hauling water from the<br />

nearest major river <strong>–</strong> the Cauvery, 85 kilometres<br />

to the south <strong>–</strong> is a formidable afair.<br />

For generations, Bangalore stood out for its<br />

foresight in devising ways to manage its water.<br />

The founder of the city, a 16th-century chieftain<br />

named Kempe Gowda, dug the first of the city’s<br />

lakes to trap and hold rainwater. Subsequent<br />

kings and then the British dug more; a census<br />

in 1986 counted 389 lakes, spread like pock<br />

marks across the face of the city. As early as<br />

The tanker operator arrived with two men bearing machetes.<br />

‘You can’t dig,’ they said.<br />

1895, Bangalore deployed steam engines to pull water from its reservoirs;<br />

a decade later, it became the first Indian city to use electric<br />

pumps. In the 1930s, India’s first water meters were installed here.<br />

When the IT industry exploded, though, the planning seemed to<br />

seize up. Or perhaps it simply couldn’t keep pace. In 2004, it was a<br />

trip to Bangalore that inspired New York Times columnist Thomas<br />

Friedman’s wide-eyed epiphany that “The world is flat.” The city <strong>–</strong><br />

having raced from obscurity to compete handily with American tech<br />

hubs <strong>–</strong> became Friedman’s mascot for globalisation in overdrive.<br />

The question of stressed resources, however, rarely factored into<br />

his columns, and it seemed to figure only casually in the city’s own<br />

calculus. Roads and tech parks were permitted to encroach on to lake<br />

land; industries dumped chemicals and debris into water bodies. The<br />

most vivid image associated with Bangalore today is not of software<br />

engineers in their cubicles but of its largest lake, Bellandur. The runof<br />

of toxic chemicals into Bellandur is so dire that, periodically, the lake<br />

catches fire. Clouds of taupe smoke lift of the water and sail towards<br />

the condominiums of Iblur or towards the IT oices of Sarjapur Road.<br />

Neglect, not surprisingly, gave rise to scarcity <strong>–</strong> and then collided<br />

with the volatility of climate change. The water tankers embody the<br />

market’s brawny, uncouth response to Bangalore’s public failure. But<br />

they have also reinforced the dysfunction of the old machine, says<br />

RK Misra, who sits on a government task force to improve the city’s<br />

infrastructure. “No illegal business can run without the patronage<br />

of the politicians and the police,” he says. Misra deploys the word<br />

mafia easily when talking about the tanker barons. The business<br />

bears several of the hallmarks of organised crime, he says: unlicensed<br />

operations, violence and collusion with political networks. Politicians<br />

up and down the ladder receive payofs. “The tanker mafia funds<br />

their campaigns during elections,” Misra says. As a result, “There<br />

has not been a concerted efort to contain the water-tanker mafia.”<br />

T<br />

HE DAY AFTER THAYAPPA STOOD ME UP, I RETURNED TO<br />

Iblur and called him again. “Why don’t you come tomorrow at<br />

noon?” he said. Obediently, I went back once more, reclaimed my<br />

stone bench between the fish stall and the tea shop and waited.<br />

After about 90 minutes, Thayappa drove up on his motorcycle, a<br />

silver-grey Royal Enfield Bullet that shone in the Sun.<br />

I introduced myself and pointed in the direction of the old village,<br />

where he lived. “Maybe we could go to your house to talk?”<br />

He was reluctant. “Let’s just stay here,” he said. We walked into the<br />

shadow of a tarp roof over a coconut stall. The vendor, recognising<br />

Thayappa, got up from his own chair, dusted it of and ofered it to him.<br />

Thayappa, a middle-aged man with a hairline in retreat, wore<br />

a lemon shirt, grey polyester trousers and glasses with brown<br />

photochromic lenses; in the shade, these were caught midway in a<br />

muddiness between opacity and clarity. His right eyelid, I could just<br />

make out, was swollen, as if from an insect bite. He had a moustache, a<br />

sheen of white stubble on his chin and an aura of cool authority, even<br />

when he was being flexible with the truth. At one point, Thayappa said<br />

he was getting out of the water business altogether and that he now<br />

ran just one tanker; then he said his fleet had shrunk from four tankers<br />

to two; then he said he owned two small tankers and a larger one.<br />

07-17 _ WIRED _ 169


Back in the day, all this was agricultural land, Thayappa said, his<br />

arm describing an expansive arc around him. There was nostalgia<br />

in his voice. Iblur had been a village of farmers, and Thayappa’s<br />

family a locally prominent one. Then Bangalore swallowed the<br />

village whole. Thayappa was one of the first Iblur entrepreneurs to<br />

enter the water-tanker business in 2003 or 2004, when the condos<br />

around the village, filled with new residents, began to exhaust their<br />

wells. “There were once 20 bore wells in the village,” Thayappa<br />

said. Now there are only five that still work. So Thayappa sends<br />

his fleet out further afield to find water.<br />

When the conversation turned to the details of his business,<br />

Tha yappa grew guarded and evasive. I recounted the story that the<br />

woman in the apartment complex had told me and asked if he forced<br />

clients to buy a minimum number of tanker loads every day. He did<br />

nothing of the sort, he said. I wondered if there were battles over turf,<br />

fights over customers. “Fights?” he said. “With whom would we fight?”<br />

I asked if he had an understanding with the other tanker owners<br />

in Iblur <strong>–</strong> if they set prices in unison. He denied this too.<br />

“A person can only eat however much he’s able to eat,” he said<br />

cryptically. “If I want to eat everything <strong>–</strong> well, how’s that possible?”<br />

“They call this tanker business a mafia,” I said.<br />

“But if there’s no running water, what will all these people<br />

do?” he said. “You can say what you want about the mafia, but<br />

people need water to drink.”<br />

“This summer, the temperature got up to 40°C, which has never<br />

happened here. They’re closing all the lakes up and building over<br />

them.” He swept his arm across the horizon again, but this time<br />

the gesture suggested not nostalgia but imminent defeat. “Where<br />

will the city possibly find water for all these people? In two or three<br />

years we’ll run out, and then all these apartments will be empty.<br />

They’ll have to vacate and leave.”<br />

A<br />

CCORDING TO ONE THEORY, THIS PARCHED APOCALYPSE<br />

is avoidable, but only if Bangalore makes some dramatic changes to<br />

the way it manages its water. S Vishwanath, an urban planner who<br />

has become the city’s chief evangelist for sustainable water use,<br />

believes this implicitly. A lanky man with long hair and a beard that<br />

he refuses to tame, Vishwanath discusses Bangalore’s water crisis<br />

in the style of a minor prophet proclaiming the road to redemption.<br />

On Instagram, as @ zenrainman, he posts photos of water: wells and<br />

lakes, puddles and rivers, all in surroundings so bucolic and pristine<br />

that they feel like they must date from a bygone India.<br />

If buildings across Bangalore installed rainwater-harvesting<br />

systems; if the city recycled its wastewater; if it pared back<br />

its giant husks of concrete and revived its lakes so that they could,<br />

in turn, recharge the water table, then Bangalore would have<br />

enough to drink, Vishwanath argues.<br />

The challenge lies in getting any of these reforms to stick. In 2009,<br />

for instance, Bangalore passed a law demanding that buildings<br />

capture and reuse rainwater. But compliance has been spotty. Only<br />

half of the buildings governed by this rule now follow it. Inspectors<br />

can be bribed; rules can be bent. As with the tankers, this law too<br />

has melded into the chaotic, jury-rigged, malformed mechanisms<br />

‘What do people mean, “mafia”?’ Gowda said<br />

‘This is a job full of tension’<br />

by which Bangalore deals with its water. Fending<br />

of climate change is, famously, a problem of<br />

collective action; so too is mitigating its damage.<br />

As for the armadas of private water tankers,<br />

Vishwanath actually sees a place for them<br />

in his vision of the future. “Why is there a<br />

notion in our head that water has to come in<br />

pipes?” he wonders. The trucks, he believes,<br />

ought to be regulated <strong>–</strong> no small challenge in<br />

itself, given the bureaucracy’s taste for graft<br />

<strong>–</strong> but not outlawed. There should be more of<br />

a market for water, he says, one in which the<br />

state oversees distribution but does not serve<br />

as the only supplier. In India there still is “a<br />

left-liberal, namby-pamby” dependence on<br />

the government to provide subsidised water,<br />

Vishwanath says, and as a result, “No one asks<br />

what the true cost of water is.”<br />

For tanker barons and their customers alike,<br />

the true cost of water is climbing. In Whitefield,<br />

I met Bhaskar Gowda, who with his brother<br />

owns Himalaya Water Supply, the company that<br />

employs Manjunath and helps keep Huawei’s<br />

reservoirs full. Gowda is not among the industry’s<br />

major, or even medium-sized, water<br />

barons; he is one of the hundreds of operators<br />

who fly solo, running two or three trucks<br />

apiece. He lives in a village called Hoskote,<br />

16 kilometres further out of Bangalore, where<br />

his family’s 2.4-hectare farm once suffered<br />

as its water table declined from 90 metres<br />

to 370 metres. A decade ago, Gowda used his<br />

savings to buy the first of his three tanker<br />

trucks. For an oice, he rented a matchbox of<br />

a room on a roof in a neighbourhood buried<br />

deep within Whitefield. A small television was<br />

parked in a corner, amidst hillocks of clothes;<br />

more clothes hung from pegs on the wall.<br />

On a June morning blessed with rain, Gowda<br />

sat me down on the floor of this room and gave<br />

me thimble- sized cups of tea and lessons in the<br />

difficulties of his business. “The money you<br />

make from water,” he said, “is like water itself”<br />

<strong>–</strong> thin and insubstantial, he meant, and swift<br />

to leave your hands. A burly man with a<br />

moustache and a soul patch, he wore a chain and<br />

earrings of dull gold. When he lit a cigarette, he<br />

held it in the manner of a dart, pinched between<br />

his thumb and first finger.<br />

Gowda owns three tanker trucks, two of them<br />

holding 7,000 litres each and the third nearly<br />

4,000. Purchasing these required bank loans of<br />

£7,800 to £21,000 apiece. He pays his own water<br />

supplier £2.30 a load <strong>–</strong> £2.93 in the summer,<br />

when the electricity fails several times a day<br />

<strong>–</strong> and sells them for £5.85. His staf consists of<br />

five salaried drivers. Maintaining the trucks is<br />

expensive; these large volumes of water, forever<br />

shifting within their containers, wear down<br />

vehicles quickly, Gowda says. The trucks are<br />

not easy to manoeuvre on Bangalore’s narrow,


crowded roads, and when they scrape up against<br />

BMWs or Toyotas piloted by rash young drivers,<br />

he has to handle the police and pay for the<br />

damage. The margins aren’t extraordinary; an<br />

urban researcher at the Massachusetts Institute<br />

of Technology found that a tanker will earn a<br />

median profit of just £275 to £350 a month.<br />

Clients call Gowda around the clock. He<br />

showed me, on his Samsung smartphone, the<br />

calls he’d received well past midnight, from<br />

companies looking to replenish their tanks before<br />

their employees filed in the next morning. If a<br />

driver wasn’t available, Gowda drove the truck<br />

himself. “What do people mean, ‘mafia’? This is<br />

a job full of tension,” he said. “The employees in<br />

these IT companies, they shower every morning.<br />

I shower only when I can find the time.”<br />

Thayappa too had grumbled to me about<br />

the arduous character of his work and the high<br />

expenses associated with it. Inevitably, these<br />

expenses will rise further still, as wells sink<br />

deeper and deeper into the earth, biting past<br />

loam and clay and into rock. To drill the first 75<br />

metres, one bore-well digger told me, costs only<br />

65p, but beyond 335 metres, each additional<br />

metre costs £17.60. The tanker barons pass these<br />

expenses on to their customers, performing, in<br />

Bhaskar Gowda,<br />

the proprietor of<br />

Himalaya Water<br />

Supply, at his filling<br />

station in Whitefield<br />

a backhanded way, the valuable service of sending signals about the<br />

real price of water. It’s possible that when the price finally starts to<br />

hurt too much, customers will accelerate their rainwater harvesting,<br />

campaign to revive their lakes and follow the rest of Vishwanath’s<br />

advice. If so, Bangalore could become a model for water-stressed<br />

cities. If not, the world could watch it wither.<br />

Gowda invited me to ride alongside his tanker-truck drivers<br />

through a morning of water deliveries, so I returned to Whitefield<br />

a few days later and walked up to Himalaya Water Supply’s oice<br />

on the roof. Gowda had managed a shower that morning, I could<br />

see. His hair was still wet, and he sat on the floor, with only a pink<br />

towel around his waist, poring over his accounts in an exercise book.<br />

When I arrived, he got dressed, we hopped on his motorcycle and<br />

he drove me down the road to set me up with Manjunath.<br />

For the next couple of hours, Manjunath and I shuttled back<br />

and forth between Himalaya’s bore well and Huawei. Each time<br />

we returned to Huawei’s back gate, the road leading up to it was a<br />

little more crowded <strong>–</strong> with dawdling Ubers and the cars and motorcycles<br />

of employees, but also with tanker trucks from other watersupply<br />

firms. The tankers came in a range of sizes; the smallest,<br />

pulled by a tractor and holding perhaps a few hundred litres, looked<br />

like a jerrycan on wheels next to the 15,000-litre monsters. Some of<br />

them looked new; most were older and had sprung tiny leaks<br />

out of rust holes. They formed a long, patient queue, their<br />

exhausts smoking, their water running out in drips on to the road.<br />

Samanth Subramanian is Dublin correspondent for The National<br />

07-17 _ WIRED _ 1 7 1


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174 _ DETAILS _ 07-17<br />

The colophon<br />

Martians this month<br />

For our photo session with<br />

Territory co-founder David<br />

Sheldon-Hicks (p75), we got<br />

hold of Matt Damon’s space<br />

suit from The Martian. But<br />

apparently Mars doesn’t cut<br />

spectacle wearers any slack,<br />

as Sheldon-Hicks discovered<br />

when donning Damon’s<br />

helmet. He found his glasses<br />

impossible to straighten once<br />

the visor was down, forcing<br />

him to pose with bins askew.<br />

And as for the prospect of<br />

enjoying a cuppa mid-shoot<br />

<strong>–</strong> well, don’t even go there…<br />

Overheard in the office<br />

this month<br />

“I’d be a great dog. Especially<br />

with the bottom-sniffing.<br />

I’d be a dirty dog”<br />

“Big type, little type,<br />

cardboard box”<br />

“All that flying car bullshit <strong>–</strong><br />

it drives me mad”<br />

“It’s people like you that<br />

are making people leave<br />

journalism!”<br />

“I thought I asked the repro<br />

house to remove the<br />

zipper from his trousers?”<br />

“I left it in for more realism”<br />

Rejected headline<br />

of the month<br />

To all the bold entrepreneurs <strong>–</strong><br />

we salute you<br />

Persistent simulations<br />

this month<br />

Thanks to Improbable (p120), a<br />

Matrix-style simulation is<br />

creeping ever closer. So, what<br />

alternative scenarios would<br />

WIRED staff like to explore if they<br />

had access to a simulated world?<br />

“What if you were only as tall<br />

as your feet, but your feet<br />

are as long as you are tall?”<br />

“What if we didn’t CC everyone<br />

in group email replies?”<br />

“What if we all lived in the<br />

‘Club Tropicana’ video?”<br />

“What if there was 100 per<br />

cent renewable energy, no<br />

discrimination, and dinosaurs<br />

were brought back to life?”<br />

“How would my life had turned<br />

out had I joined the California<br />

Highway Patrol in the 70s?”<br />

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176 _ INFORMATION _ WE SOURCE EVERYTHING. SEE RIGHT<br />

The WIRED Index<br />

The maximum combined weight of a person<br />

and a small suitcase that the Chinesemanufactured<br />

single-passenger drone Ehang<br />

can carry, according to Associated Press<br />

The proportion of social-network users worldwide located in the Asia-Pacific<br />

region, according to a report by market researchers Radicati Group<br />

Amount of years earlier than previously believed that life forms <strong>–</strong><br />

which eventually gave rise to animals and plants <strong>–</strong> appeared on<br />

Earth. A team of Swedish researchers came to this conclusion<br />

in <strong>2017</strong> after finding that sedimentary rocks collected in central<br />

India in 2006 contained 1.6 billion-year-old fossilised cells<br />

Percentage of participants willing to deliver the highest<br />

available electric shock to another individual at the request<br />

of an authoritative figure. These findings were discovered<br />

in a test replicating the Milgram experiments in the 60s<br />

The length of time the longest-running personality study has been active.<br />

Recent results have found the personalities of the 14-year-olds who<br />

participated at the start, and the re-interviewed 77-year-old participants,<br />

had changed almost completely, contrary to findings from other studies<br />

conducted over shorter periods of time<br />

The size of a computer-modelled nuclear weapon being<br />

used to simulate the effects of an atomic bomb on New York<br />

City and how residents would react in the following 30 days<br />

The speed, in kph,<br />

of the optimal<br />

flow of ketchup<br />

from a glass<br />

bottle, according<br />

to scientists<br />

at Heinz. They<br />

researched the<br />

The percentage of investment growth over 12 best way to pour<br />

months into the VR/AR industry in 2016, according ketchup without<br />

to a Digi-Capital report. £1.86 billion was invested any splatter when<br />

in 2016, compared with £566 million in 2015<br />

it leaves the bottle<br />

The amount of money Apple customers spent on subscriptions in the<br />

App Store in 2016, an increase of 74 per cent in 2015. It had its busiest ever<br />

24 hours on New Years’ Day <strong>2017</strong>, with purchases topping £185 million<br />

WORDS: BONNIE CHRISTIAN. ILLUSTRATION: GIACOMO GAMBINERI. SOURCES: THEWRAP.COM; HEINZ; FORTUNE.COM; NCBI.NLM.NIH.GOV;<br />

IEEEXPLORE.IEEE.ORG; NATURE.COM; GMU; RADICATI.COM; APPLE; SPSP.ORG; RAND.ORG; JOURNALS.PLOS.ORG


Please turn the page to view Supplement


Big Pilot’s Watch. Ref. 5009: The world is like<br />

a book you understand better with the knowledge of the well-travelled<br />

cosmopolitan. Because the greater your experience, the<br />

more likely it is to reveal its complexity within the context of time.<br />

Seen from this perspective, it is soon obvious where the watchmaking<br />

roots of IWC’s new Big Pilot’s Watch lie: in the glorious<br />

early days of the Pilot’s Watch era at IWC. After all, it is the legitimate<br />

successor of a genuine original, of the first observer’s watch<br />

made by the Schaffhausen-based company: the Big Pilot’s Watch<br />

52 T. S. C. For this was the timepiece that heralded the illustrious<br />

decade of the Big Pilot’s Watches at IWC and still stands as a<br />

milestone in pilot’s watch history. Following this tradition, the latest<br />

model has the same absolute precision and a starkly reduced<br />

dial design recalling the clarity of the cockpit instruments in legendary<br />

aircraft like the Junkers Ju 52 from the infancy of aviation.<br />

All in all, the current Big Pilot’s Watch is the latest original in the<br />

history of IWC’s Pilot’s Watches and at the same time a mirror<br />

reflecting its illustrious past. IWC. ENGINEERED FOR MEN.<br />

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: #B_ORIGINAL<br />

London Boutique | 138 New Bond Street | W1S 2TJ | +44 (0) 203 618 3900 | www.iwc.com


ENGINEERED FOR MEN<br />

WHO SEE THE WORLD AS<br />

A REFLECTION OF TIME.


TO BREAK THE RULES,<br />

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LE BRASSUS. THE EARLY WATCHMAKERS WERE<br />

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CONSTANTLY CHALLENGE THE CONVENTIONS OF<br />

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IN TITANIUM<br />

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AUDEMARSPIGUET.COM


FIRST TAG HEUER MODULAR SWISS MADE WATCH<br />

50M WATER RESISTANT | GPS<br />

www.tagheuer.com


Contents<br />

ROLEX COSMOGRAPH DAYTONA WITH OYSTERFLEX BRACELET<br />

WIRED has already written about Rolex’s innovative Oysterflex<br />

bracelet with its metal blade overmoulded with black elastomer, so<br />

we approve of its union with the three new versions of the Cosmograph<br />

Daytona in 18-carat yellow gold, Everose gold and white gold (pictured).<br />

All pieces are finished with a monobloc Cerachrom bezel in black<br />

ceramic, which is corrosion- and UV-resistant, as well as scratchproof<br />

and waterproof to 100 metres. Inside is Rolex’s calibre 4130 movement<br />

with a patented Parachrom hairspring that is insensitive to magnetic<br />

fields and temperature variations. From £20,200 rolex.com<br />

08 Carbon<br />

12 Expert panel<br />

20 Yvan Arpa<br />

23 Inner workings<br />

24 Test: dive watches<br />

28 Luxury e-commerce<br />

32 Vacheron Constantin<br />

34 Grey matters<br />

40 Close-up<br />

45 Show report <strong>2017</strong><br />

Editor Greg Williams<br />

Supplement editor Jeremy White<br />

Creative director Andrew Diprose<br />

Managing editor Mike Dent<br />

Deputy creative director Phill Fields<br />

Director of photography Steve Peck<br />

Chief sub-editor Simon Ward<br />

Deputy chief sub-editor Tola Onanuga<br />

App producer Pip Pell<br />

App designer Ciaran Christopher<br />

Contributors Tim Barber, Andy Barter,<br />

James Day, Alex Doak, Chris Hall,<br />

Jason Heaton, Wilson Hennessy,<br />

Ilka & Franz, Laura McCreddie-Doak,<br />

Gishani Ratnayake, Josh Sims,<br />

Keith W Strandberg, Charlie Surbey,<br />

Christopher Winters<br />

Group commercial director Nick Sargent<br />

Group head of revenue Rachel Reidy<br />

Advertising manager Silvia Weindling<br />

Promotions executive Jessica Holden<br />

Account manager Pavan Jhooti<br />

Head of corporate and event<br />

partnerships Claire Dobson<br />

Partnerships director Max Mirams<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY (COVER AND THIS PAGE): ANDY BARTER<br />

Production director Sarah Jenson<br />

Commercial production<br />

manager Xenia Dilnot<br />

Production controller Emma Storey<br />

Production and digital<br />

co-ordinator Annie Franey<br />

Commercial and paper production<br />

controller Martin MacMillan<br />

Advertising enquiries 020 7499 9080<br />

Supplement free with WIRED 07.17<br />

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008 _ TIME <strong>2017</strong><br />

J<br />

ournalists used to play<br />

a game to pass the time<br />

during presentations at<br />

Geneva’s annual SIHH<br />

watch fair. Called “SIHH<br />

Bingo”, it only lasted a couple of<br />

years, as it quickly transpired that<br />

the game itself <strong>–</strong> calling out the<br />

various and many clichés of watch<br />

marketing <strong>–</strong> was rather like shooting<br />

fish in a barrel. However, beyond<br />

all the “savoir-faire” and “brand<br />

DNAs” there are two words in SIHH<br />

Bingo that cannot be underesti-<br />

MCT Sequential One S110 EVO. Price $100,000 Size 45mm Movement MCT-S1.0 mechanical<br />

manual hand-winding movement mctwatches.com<br />

Material gains<br />

Watchmaking is witnessing a carbon makeover,<br />

with its strength, lightness and versatility<br />

contributing to a wealth of horological innovation<br />

By ALEX DOAK<br />

mated in their import to this craft:<br />

heritage and innovation.<br />

Even the most futuristic-looking<br />

watches are driven by a concoction<br />

of cogs and springs with direct<br />

lineage to the breakthroughs made<br />

by 18th-century watchmakers. So<br />

how to innovate in an industry with<br />

such a deep heritage? Design, of<br />

course; but increasingly, the fastestmoving<br />

aspect of engineering:<br />

materials science. Conveniently,<br />

most watchmakers are located on<br />

the doorstep of pioneering facilities<br />

such as EPFL in Lausanne,<br />

Switzerland. Hence the ongoing<br />

boom in ceramic, titanium, silicon,<br />

anti-magnetic alloys and superresistance<br />

precious metals <strong>–</strong> both<br />

as packaging (the watch case) or in<br />

the engine itself (high-stress components<br />

such as the ticking balance).<br />

In watchmaking, as with many<br />

other sectors involving highperformance<br />

manufacturing, carbon<br />

fibre has become the poster child for<br />

innovation. Not only does its shiny<br />

black weave look beautiful, but it<br />

directly reflects the technology<br />

underpinning two of watchmaking’s<br />

favourite sporting partners:<br />

motor racing and yachting. However,<br />

the sub-hair-breadth tolerances<br />

demanded by watch cases claiming<br />

to be water resistant have meant<br />

that woven-sheet carbon has been<br />

restricted to adornments such as<br />

dials and pushers. For a whole case to<br />

benefit from the properties of carbon<br />

fibre, something called forged carbon<br />

has become the number-one choice.<br />

It was created by an engineering<br />

company near Lyon, France, which<br />

helped top-end watchmaker<br />

Audemars Piguet develop the process<br />

on wristwatch scale for its Ofshore<br />

sailing watches. The visual efect is<br />

dazzling: every watch has a unique,<br />

almost iridescent marbling. Now,<br />

ten years later, fellow watchmakers<br />

have caught up, including TAG Heuer,<br />

Bell & Ross and Maurice Lacroix.<br />

If anyone was going to get around<br />

the issue of crafting a case to the<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMES DAY<br />

Victorinox I.N.O.X. Carbon<br />

Price £795<br />

Size 43mm<br />

Movement Quartz<br />

victorinox.com


TIME <strong>2017</strong> _ 011<br />

tolerances demanded of a watertight<br />

watch, then it would be a watchmaker<br />

with close ties to a Formula<br />

One (F1) team. Step forward Oris,<br />

which has developed a manufacturing<br />

technique with its long-term<br />

F1 partner Williams to yield a fullycarbon<br />

monocoque case middle that<br />

weighs just 7.2g. The titanium case<br />

back and sapphire crystal can be<br />

mounted straight on, without the<br />

need for special gaskets. To create<br />

this composite, up to 35 sheets of<br />

pre-cut weave are layered manually<br />

in moulds and twice hardened under<br />

pressure at 130°C. No single layer<br />

is randomly oriented, giving a<br />

perfectly aligned carbon weave.<br />

In <strong>2017</strong>, it seems the smart money is<br />

now being placed on carbon technology’s<br />

new wave of composites <strong>–</strong> even<br />

in the sub-£1,000 sector. This is partly<br />

thanks to Victorinox’s surprise smash<br />

hit, the I.N.O.X. Since its launch in<br />

2014, the Swiss Army Knife’s supertough<br />

companion now constitutes<br />

50 per cent of Victorinox’s<br />

timepiece sales. So the challenge<br />

facing the brand now is in diversifying<br />

a product that’s inherently<br />

future-proof. True to form, this year’s<br />

Baselworld saw the introduction of<br />

the I.N.O.X. Carbon <strong>–</strong> something that<br />

wouldn’t look out of place hanging of<br />

Batman’s utility belt. But it was in fact<br />

a diferent sort of fashion accessory<br />

that helped bring its resin-composite<br />

technology to fruition.<br />

Among the 130 (yes, 130) tests<br />

devised to torture every I.N.O.X.<br />

watch to destruction (or not, as the<br />

case may be), including a high-spin<br />

washing-machine cycle and being<br />

run over by a tank, there’s a so-called<br />

handbag test. Brushing off loose<br />

change and a penknife with its<br />

blades deployed, the real bugbear<br />

for the prototype carbon I.N.O.X.<br />

was spilt cosmetics and mosquito<br />

repellent. They became absorbed<br />

by unadulterated porous carbon<br />

and split the matrix. The impregnation<br />

of resin helped seal those<br />

pores and guarantee the watch’s<br />

imperviousness to life’s more<br />

glamorous hazards.<br />

At the highest end of the luxury<br />

market, you would have a much<br />

harder job convincing dyed-inthe-wool<br />

collectors that anything<br />

not encased in gold or platinum is a<br />

genuinely luxurious product. Richard<br />

Mille has proved most convincing in<br />

this argument. Mille has been experimenting<br />

with the concept of weight<br />

reduction in “haute horlogerie” from<br />

the launch of his brand in 2000. He<br />

treated his cases like racing-car<br />

chassis, the “engine” suspended from<br />

it, with nothing as superfluous as a<br />

dial to impede performance.<br />

This no-compromise “technicity”<br />

(ten points in SIHH Bingo) came to a<br />

head in January <strong>2017</strong>, with Richard<br />

Mille and McLaren’s new shared-technology<br />

collaboration. The RM 50-03<br />

Tourbillon Split Sec Chronograph<br />

Ultralight McLaren F1, to give it its<br />

full name, is a featherweight 40g,<br />

thanks to the use of a new material<br />

in watchmaking: Graph TPT, more<br />

commonly known as graphene. The<br />

atom-thick hexagonal lattice form<br />

of carbon was first isolated in 2004<br />

at the University of Manchester,<br />

earning professors Andre Geimand<br />

and Konstantin Novoselov the 2010<br />

Nobel Prize for physics.<br />

Graphene is six times lighter than<br />

steel, but 200 times stronger, with<br />

a wealth of conductive and structural<br />

possibilities. A Graphene<br />

Institute has even been established in<br />

Manchester to exploit the material’s<br />

potential, and McLaren is working on<br />

integrating graphene into its cars.<br />

Which, of course, is how Mille had the<br />

opportunity to use it for his watches,<br />

created by impregnating carbon with<br />

a supercharged graphene resin.<br />

The highest-profile iteration of<br />

graphene is the carbon nanotube,<br />

a cylindrical structure made<br />

possible by the innate flexibility<br />

of atom-thick graphene sheets.<br />

Owing to the material’s exceptional<br />

strength and stiffness, nanotubes<br />

have been constructed, using vapour<br />

deposition, to length: diameter ratios<br />

all the way up to 132,000,000:1.<br />

Zenith Defy El<br />

Primero 21<br />

Price £8,300<br />

Size 32.8mm<br />

Movement El<br />

Primero 9004<br />

Automatic<br />

zenith-watches.com<br />

They are also completely antimagnetic,<br />

which makes them the perfect<br />

substrate for a wristwatch’s tightly<br />

wound balance spring, whose<br />

expansion and contraction every<br />

quarter of a second regulates the<br />

“tick” of the geartrain.<br />

Zenith has achieved this with its<br />

new Defy El Primero 21. What steals<br />

the limelight is the high-frequency,<br />

100th-of-a-second chronograph<br />

function, running off a completely<br />

separate geartrain and regulating<br />

assembly. Press the watch’s start<br />

button and the central hand flies<br />

around the dial once a second. This<br />

is achieved thanks to a balance that<br />

ticks at a breakneck 360,000 vibrations<br />

per hour, rather than 36,000, so<br />

you can’t blame LVMH’s top watchmaker<br />

for using something as tough<br />

as their patented “carbon matrix<br />

carbon nanotube” technology.<br />

In most of the Defy El Primero 21<br />

watches, however, you can’t even<br />

admire the nanotube balance springs<br />

<strong>–</strong> they’re either ticking too fast or<br />

hidden behind a dial. So hats of to<br />

MCT watches for making a spectacle<br />

of this century’s most promising<br />

scientific breakthrough. Only, you<br />

can’t actually see it at all.<br />

The new Sequential One S110<br />

Evo Vantablack from boutique<br />

horological think tank Manufacture<br />

Contemporaine Du Temps has collaborated<br />

with London-based sculptor<br />

and artist Anish Kapoor on a watch<br />

whose Transformers-style time<br />

display is adorned with an exclusive<br />

carbon construct. Vantablack was<br />

pioneered by <strong>UK</strong> manufacturer<br />

NanoSystem in the East Sussex<br />

coastal town of Newhaven. Its<br />

surface coating is best described<br />

as a “forest” of carbon nanotubes,<br />

which absorbs 97 per cent of optical<br />

light. The result is a watch dial of<br />

the deepest black <strong>–</strong> the next-best<br />

thing to an actual black hole.<br />

When it comes to lightness,<br />

durability or looks alone, carbon<br />

really does seem to be every watchmaker’s<br />

ideal savoir-faire. (Bingo!)<br />

The 100th-of-a-second chronograph<br />

function is achieved thanks to a balance<br />

that ticks at 360,000 vibrations an hour


012 _ TIME <strong>2017</strong><br />

Expert panel<br />

From record-breaking complications to F1-inspired dials, here’s our selection of innovations for any occasion<br />

Boardroom<br />

By KEITH W STRANDBERG<br />

After the 2008 credit crunch,<br />

statement watches <strong>–</strong> perhaps understandably,<br />

given the economic climate<br />

<strong>–</strong> fell out of favour, and the pendulum<br />

swung towards more understated and<br />

traditional timepieces. They were<br />

still innovative and complicated, but<br />

preferred to hide their complexity<br />

with a veneer of the “everywatch”.<br />

Now, after almost a decade of<br />

financial uncertainty, the global<br />

recovery has finally become “broadbased<br />

and stable”, according to<br />

the Brookings Institution and the<br />

Financial Times. This may explain the<br />

recent resurgence in wearing watches<br />

that say something powerful.<br />

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak is<br />

the original power watch. This year<br />

is the 40th anniversary of its yellow<br />

gold version. Designed by Gérald<br />

Genta (who also crafted the Patek<br />

Philippe Nautilus and IWC Ingenieur),<br />

the Royal Oak has not changed<br />

much over the years, but then<br />

again, it didn’t have to. It’s a staple<br />

of pure watchmaking chutzpah.<br />

Ralph Lauren has been amassing<br />

a personal collection of pieces for<br />

A. Lange & Söþe Lange 31. Price £116,900 Size 46mm Movement L034.1<br />

manual-wind movement alange-soehne.com<br />

Ralph Lauren<br />

Automotive<br />

Tourbillon<br />

Price £48,800<br />

Size 45mm<br />

Movement<br />

RL267<br />

ralphlauren.co.uk<br />

Audemars Piguet<br />

Royal Oak<br />

Frosted Gold<br />

Price £35,000<br />

Size 33mm<br />

Movement 2713<br />

hand-wound<br />

audemars<br />

piguet.com<br />

more than 30 years and is determined to make them stand out. One of<br />

the most striking timepieces in his own range is the Ralph Lauren<br />

Automotive Tourbillon, which, in addition to the tourbillon complication<br />

<strong>–</strong> widely considered the peak of high watchmaking <strong>–</strong> features an<br />

amboyna burl wood bezel, cut and fitted by hand. This bezel, guaranteed<br />

for 15 years, is unlike any other on the market.<br />

A. Lange & Söhne is one of the leaders of German watchmaking, and it<br />

embodies the German design ethos <strong>–</strong> sober, serious, practical and beautiful<br />

minimalism. This year, the company introduced a limited edition of<br />

its famous Lange 31, the watch with an astonishing 31 days of power<br />

reserve. The wearer of the piece is clearly so successful <strong>–</strong> or busy <strong>–</strong> that<br />

taking time to wind a watch can only happen once a month.


PHOTOGRAPHY: WILSON HENNESSY<br />

Motoring<br />

By TIM BARBER<br />

If high auction prices for classic<br />

TAG Heuers are any indicator <strong>–</strong> not to<br />

mention the litany of vintage-inspired<br />

chronographs the watch industry is<br />

producing <strong>–</strong> retro is very much in<br />

fashion for motoring watches.<br />

Montblanc, however, is looking to<br />

the future, rather than the past. It<br />

has revamped its TimeWalker sports<br />

watch collection around a classic<br />

motoring theme, with both a superretro<br />

model and the groundbreaking<br />

Chronograph 1,000 Limited Edition<br />

18, which will measure elapsed time<br />

to 1/1,000th of a second. The chronograph<br />

here is driven by a separate<br />

gear train with a balance running at<br />

a sky-high frequency of 50Hz <strong>–</strong> that’s<br />

100 moves to-and-fro per second<br />

<strong>–</strong> with a double hairspring and a<br />

two-level column wheel to govern its<br />

action. The chronograph also has its<br />

own mainspring, with a remarkable<br />

45 minutes of run-time. The power<br />

reserve read-out for this <strong>–</strong> which is<br />

on the right of the dial <strong>–</strong> is designed<br />

to resemble the style of old-school<br />

vintage dashboards.<br />

Hublot, meanwhile, is the warden<br />

of probably the most enviable watch/<br />

car brand tie-up in the luxury world,<br />

having for the past five years been<br />

watch partner of Ferrari. Hublot<br />

is known for its porthole-shaped<br />

watches (“hublot” is French for<br />

porthole, after all), but Ferrari’s<br />

70th birthday is clearly an event of<br />

suicient importance to step outside<br />

the usual format. In fact, the car<br />

maker’s celebrated design director<br />

Flavio Manzoni and his team took<br />

the controls in coming up with the<br />

look of the Techframe Ferrari 70 Years<br />

Chronograph Tourbillon, conceiving<br />

an unusual skeletonised case inspired<br />

by a supercar’s lightweight frame.<br />

This chassis is machined from forged<br />

carbon, a material as strong as it is<br />

light, and Hublot’s in-house tourbillon<br />

chronograph movement is on full<br />

view inside the dial. There are also<br />

versions in titanium and Hublot’s<br />

scratch-resistant Magic Gold alloy,<br />

limited to 70 editions of each style.<br />

Finally, a technicolour gem from Bell & Ross, marking the second year of its sponsorship<br />

of the Renualt Sport Formula One Team. The French marque established itself with<br />

large, square watches inspired by aeroplane cockpit instruments, but has branched<br />

out recently with the dynamically high-tech BR-X line of sports chronographs. Each<br />

is characterised by large cases with skeletonised elements and open-worked<br />

dials. The bright splash around the dial of BR-X1 RS17 is inspired by the colourful<br />

switches and displays that populate an F1 steering wheel. Indeed, each of the watch’s<br />

functions, from the date to the chronograph to the running seconds, is colour coded. In<br />

the often dour, monochrome world of luxury watches, it’s a stand-out.<br />

Bell & Ross<br />

BR-X1 RS17<br />

Price £18,700<br />

Size 45mm<br />

Movement<br />

BR-CAL.313<br />

bellross.com<br />

Montblanc<br />

TimeWalker<br />

Chronograph<br />

1000 Limited<br />

Edition 18<br />

Price €175,000<br />

Size 46mm<br />

Movement<br />

MB M66.26<br />

montblanc.com<br />

Hublot Techframe Ferrari 70 years Tourbillon Chronograph. Price £99,200<br />

Size 45mm Movement HUB6311 calibre with manual winding hublot.com


eal watches for real people<br />

Oris Hammerhead Limited Edition<br />

Automatic mechanical movement<br />

Uni-directional rotating bezel<br />

with black polished ceramic inlay<br />

Water resistant to 50 bar/500 m<br />

Limited to 2000 pieces<br />

www.oris.ch


TIME <strong>2017</strong> _ 0 1 5<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: WILSON HENNESSY<br />

Horology is possibly the only field<br />

of engineering where complicating<br />

something, rather than simplifying<br />

it, is permissible <strong>–</strong> encouraged,<br />

even. Indeed, the collective term<br />

for tricksy mechanical gizmos such<br />

as tourbillons, chronographs and<br />

perpetual calendars is “complication”.<br />

But there is an almost<br />

paradoxical exception to this rule:<br />

the ultra-thin mechanical watch.<br />

Despite appearing to be a simpler<br />

affair than ever, it is considered a<br />

complication, up there with a rattrapante<br />

or minute repeater. Why?<br />

Because the technical challenge a thin<br />

movement poses is vast, from superfiddly<br />

hand assembly to engineering a<br />

wafer-thin gear train that whirs away<br />

steadily, despite a lack of mass.<br />

Ultra-thin watchmaking as we<br />

know it arrived in 1957, when Valentin<br />

Piaget presented his ultra-thin Calibre<br />

9P manual-winding movement to<br />

the Basel watch fair. Being just 2mm<br />

thick, the same as a two-franc coin, it<br />

lent itself to a broader 20.5 mm dial<br />

opening, heralding an expansive<br />

aesthetic and a name: “Altiplano”,<br />

after the dead-flat Bolivian Plateau.<br />

Today, Piaget remains the master<br />

of “extra-plat”, and this year is the<br />

Altiplano’s 60th anniversary, which<br />

means Piaget’s new brand ambassador,<br />

Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds,<br />

is sporting some particularly<br />

heart-rending retro reissues in<br />

midnight blue. Under the hood of<br />

Reynolds’ manually wound 38mm<br />

watch is a worthy descendant of<br />

the original 9P <strong>–</strong> the calibre 430P.<br />

As the canny recruitment of<br />

Reynolds attests, more and more<br />

Slim<br />

By ALEX DOAK<br />

Swatch Skinpure. Price £70 Size 37mm Movement Quartz swatch.com<br />

Bulgari Octo<br />

Finissimo<br />

Tourbillon<br />

Skeleton<br />

Price €140,000<br />

Size 40mm<br />

Movement BVL<br />

268 bulgari.com<br />

Altiplano 60th<br />

Anniversary<br />

Collection<br />

Price £16,100<br />

Size 38mm<br />

Movement 430P<br />

piaget.com<br />

millennials are shunning their G-Shocks and seeking something more sartorial. Hence,<br />

at the opposite end of the spectrum, this year’s reboot of Swatch’s “Skin”, so-named for<br />

its almost imperceptible presence on the wrist. Like the original 1983 Swatch, the quartz<br />

movement is mounted on the caseback rather than an inner plate (a trick that Piaget<br />

borrowed for its 900P), but the diiculty in losing even more girth isn’t the innards <strong>–</strong><br />

it’s injection-moulding its slither of a case to such tight tolerances.<br />

At this year’s Basel fair, Bulgari unveiled the world’s thinnest automatic watch movement,<br />

at 2mm. But milling out that multifaceted Octo case in brittle titanium still demands<br />

a certain thickness. So gaze, instead, at the sparsity of the Octo Finissimo Tourbillon<br />

Skeleton, at a record-breaking thickness of 1.95mm. This time, it really is a complication,<br />

with the carriage tumbling at six o’clock. But does this constitute a multi-complication<br />

being ultra-thin to boot? It’s complicated in more senses of the word, it seems.


Chanel Première<br />

Camellia<br />

Skeleton<br />

Price £111,000<br />

Size 28.5mm<br />

Movement<br />

Calibre 2<br />

chanel.com<br />

Jaeger-<br />

LeCoultre<br />

Rendez-Vous<br />

Sonatina<br />

Price £23,300<br />

Size 38mm<br />

Movement<br />

JLC Calibre 735<br />

jaegerlecoultre.com<br />

Women’s<br />

By LAURA MCCREDDIE-DOAK<br />

Over the past couple of years,<br />

watch brands have had a double<br />

epiphany of sorts: not only have<br />

they finally realised that women as<br />

well as men want complications,<br />

but also that women would also like<br />

those mechanics presented in a more<br />

aesthetically pleasing manner.<br />

There were inklings of it in 2016<br />

when Bulgari launched its Serpenti<br />

Incantati Tourbillon Lumiere<br />

Skeleton, an incredible showcase<br />

of the brand’s haute horlogerie and<br />

high-jewellery skills presented in a<br />

stylish, feminine way.<br />

The SIHH watch fair in January<br />

proved that this wasn’t just a one-of:<br />

several brands are re-evaluating their<br />

output and many references to strong<br />

female inspirations.<br />

One of the watches unveiled there was the quirkily romantic Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous<br />

Sonatina. The Rendez-Vous has been Jaeger’s outlet for its female-oriented complicated watches<br />

since it launched in 2012, and this Sonatina continues that theme of “women having a date with<br />

their own time” by introducing an alarm function. The idea of setting the star to the time of an<br />

important meeting remains, but this time a chime sounds when that hour arrives.<br />

Patek Philippe, always a leader in the world of women’s watch complications, also delivered<br />

the goods, not once but twice. First up was the gorgeous, blue-hued World Time Ref. 7130. And<br />

on a more feminine note, there was the 4968/400R-001. Once your eyes have adjusted to the<br />

sparkle from 587 graduated-size diamonds, you’ll notice the elegant Moonphase at six o’clock.<br />

One thing that resolutely isn’t for men is Chanel’s latest foray into in-house movements. Called<br />

the Calibre 2, it features a time-only movement that has been reduced to its most skeletonised<br />

form, and its bridges were then manipulated so that the movement, when viewed as a whole,<br />

looks like a camellia, one of Chanel’s most iconic symbols. This incredible creation is housed in the<br />

unmistakable Premiere case and also comes diamond-set, should you want even more to marvel<br />

at. It is a design that renders form as important as function and is, hopefully, a new benchmark<br />

for what can be achieved when you start thinking outside the male-centric box.<br />

Patek Philippe 4968/400R-001. Price £49,390 Size 33mm Movement Caliber 215 PS LU patek.com<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: WILSON HENNESSY


CHRONOMASTER I El Primero Sport<br />

Land Rover Bar Team Edition<br />

LEGENDS ARE FOREVER<br />

www.zenith-watches.com


018 _ TIME <strong>2017</strong><br />

Bremont AC35. Price £16,995 Size 43mm Movement BWC/01 bremont.com<br />

Ulysse Nardin<br />

Marine Regatta<br />

Price £5,332<br />

Size 44mm<br />

Movement<br />

UN-155 ulyssenardin.com<br />

Panerai Luminor<br />

1950 Regatta<br />

Price £13,850<br />

Size 47mm<br />

Movement<br />

P.9100/R<br />

panerai.com<br />

Sailing<br />

By CHRIS HALL<br />

The charisma of regatta timers derives from the fact that, in sailing, the minutes<br />

before a race can be as fascinating as anything that happens during it. Boats can’t<br />

line up neatly on a grid like F1 cars. Skippers will jostle for the best line, deploy mind<br />

games, conserve vital energy and plan their tactics for the race, all while keeping an<br />

eye on the time remaining before the start. It’s a rare example of a mechanical watch<br />

<strong>–</strong> typically a modified chronograph with a countdown gauge in bright red and blue <strong>–</strong><br />

actually performing a unique function in the modern age.<br />

As the finale of the 35th America’s Cup approaches, a swell of new yacht-timers has<br />

broken upon the watch market. Cresting the wave is the Ulysse Nardin Marine Regatta,<br />

which manages that increasingly rare trick of adding an innovative function that<br />

genuinely improves the watch. Unlike<br />

many other countdown timers, you<br />

can specify the countdown duration<br />

from one to ten minutes, and the<br />

central chronograph seconds hand<br />

sets off backwards round the dial.<br />

What’s immensely clever, and hitherto<br />

unseen, is that once the countdown<br />

reaches zero it immediately reverses<br />

direction and begins timing “up” to<br />

measure the duration of the race.<br />

That’s not necessarily crucial to a<br />

skipper but could be great for a keen<br />

spectator. Moreover, the seamless<br />

reversal of direction is mechanically<br />

ingenious and a delight to behold.<br />

Not far behind is Panerai, which<br />

re-entered the America’s Cup fray<br />

just as the competition builds to its<br />

climax, sponsoring not one but two<br />

(commercially linked) teams <strong>–</strong> Oracle<br />

TeamUSA and SoftBank Team Japan.<br />

The 47mm Luminor 1950 Regatta is<br />

a flyback chronograph, meaning it<br />

restarts timing at one press of the four<br />

o’clock pusher - handy if you happen to<br />

jump the gun by a couple of seconds.<br />

If you’re looking for something<br />

more suited to the confines of the<br />

clubhouse, there’s the Bremont AC35.<br />

Cased in rose gold with a black dial<br />

bearing an embossed pattern of the<br />

Auld Mug, it’s a sophisticated watch<br />

built for taking compliments at the bar<br />

rather than knocks on the water. Inside<br />

is Bremont’s proprietary movement,<br />

dressed up with a yellow gold winding<br />

rotor. Just 35 examples will be made.<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: WILSON HENNESSY


astron.<br />

the world’s first<br />

gps solar watch.<br />

As Novak Djokovic travels the world, his Astron GPS Solar<br />

keeps him on time, adjusting automatically to his time zone<br />

at the touch of a button and using just the power of light.<br />

With dual-time display, Astron is simply the world’s finest<br />

GPS Solar watch.<br />

*If there are changes in the region / time zone, manual time zone selection may be required.<br />

For stockists call: 01628 770988 | www.seiko-astron.com


020 _ TIME <strong>2017</strong><br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: CHARLIE SURBEY<br />

Above: Yvan Arpa has also created pens, knives and a personalised motorbike, the ArtyA Silver UFO Prototype


J<br />

ust as I prepare to ask watch designer<br />

and professional provocateur Yvan<br />

Arpa my next question about his<br />

craft, he produces a mawashi-geri<br />

(roundhouse kick) aimed squarely at<br />

my head. With that, the question is gone.<br />

The interview is not going particularly badly:<br />

Arpa and WIRED are sparring in a training hall,<br />

wearing protective gear. Arpa is a black belt<br />

in Japanese Kyokushin karate and his weekly<br />

sparring sessions help him clear his busy mind.<br />

A man of many talents, Arpa has worked for<br />

a number of high-end Swiss brands, including<br />

Romain Jerome (he came up with the idea for<br />

the Titanic DNA line of watches), Jacob &<br />

Co, Hublot and several from the Richemont<br />

Group. Korean electronics giant Samsung<br />

scoured Switzerland for a designer before<br />

finding Arpa, and he has been working with<br />

them ever since. He runs his own brand,<br />

ArtyA, and is the designer behind Samsung’s<br />

Gear S3 line of smartwatches.<br />

“I am always interested in new projects,” Arpa<br />

says. “What I like about the Samsung approach<br />

is that they are open minded. They wanted to<br />

review my work, and they were more interested<br />

in the stories behind the watches, like that of<br />

the Black Belt Watch [only sold to black belts<br />

in the martial-arts], the Son of a Gun [with real<br />

bullets inside] (pictured left) and the Son of<br />

Sound [inspired by guitars]. So, when I started<br />

designing smartwatches, every choice I made<br />

I had to explain. They deferred to my expertise.”<br />

One of the important parts of the brief<br />

from Samsung is that the company wanted<br />

to combine Swiss craftsmanship with its own<br />

smartwatch technology. In short, they wanted<br />

the piece to be less a gadget and more a watch.<br />

“I wanted to use high-end 316L steel,<br />

like Rolex and the rest of the Swiss watch<br />

industry does,” he explains. “I did a ‘touch<br />

atelier’ for them, so they could handle all<br />

the materials. I showed them low-quality<br />

steel and had them touch and feel it, then<br />

I showed them the steel options with 316L, with<br />

knurling, satin finishes and more.”<br />

The smartwatch is widely considered to<br />

be the enemy of the high-end Swiss-watchmaking<br />

industry, but Arpa disagrees. “Smartwatches<br />

get people <strong>–</strong> especially young people<br />

<strong>–</strong> wearing watches; it gets them used to wearing<br />

something on their wrists,” he points out.<br />

“I was not so keen on wearing a smartwatch,<br />

but now it has become a part of my life. I now<br />

know my steps and my heart rate, it keeps me<br />

on schedule and I can make calls on it, so it is<br />

useful. I haven’t stopped wearing mechanical<br />

watches, however, and I never will.”<br />

Yvan Arpa made his name creating eccentric analogue timepieces.<br />

Now he’s focusing on the next generation of smartwatches<br />

One of the challenges facing Arpa was changing his own mindset when<br />

approaching the project. “When I design for my brand, ArtyA, as well as others,<br />

I start with a mechanical movement,” he says. “And I have to protect this<br />

delicate movement from outside forces. With Samsung, the watch has to be<br />

in contact with the smartphone, with your own body, with the web and more,<br />

so this is a diferent approach. I cannot protect the watch in the same way.<br />

It’s an open-heart concept, which appealed to me.”<br />

Arpa is already working on the next generation of the Samsung smartwatch,<br />

and the demands on his time while developing his own brand are extreme. “Eating<br />

my brain” is the typically colourful way he describes it. As a result, he needs the<br />

“moving meditation” of martial-arts training more than ever.<br />

The fight/interview continues. Under his glove, Arpa is wearing his Samsung<br />

Gear S3 Frontier (above) to record activity data, monitor his heart rate <strong>–</strong> and<br />

probably register the force with which he is hitting WIRED in the head. artya.com<br />

By KEITH W STRANDBERG


If it can<br />

survive<br />

being<br />

ejected<br />

from a<br />

plane,<br />

it can<br />

survive<br />

near<br />

enough<br />

anything.<br />

Should you treat your Bremont MB<br />

watch with respect?<br />

Not really. We don’t.<br />

We freeze it, we bake it, and we shake it.<br />

For hours on end.<br />

Then we shoot it out of a plane. Just to<br />

make sure it’s as tough as we claim it is.<br />

So don’t worry about looking after a<br />

Bremont MB.<br />

It can look after itself.<br />

British Engineering.<br />

Tested Beyond Endurance.


TIME <strong>2017</strong> _ 023<br />

I<br />

t really is a complication<br />

in its own right,”<br />

says Felix Baumgartner,<br />

co-founder, with Martin<br />

Frei, of Geneva-based<br />

watch brand URWERK, which<br />

celebrates its 20th birthday this year.<br />

“It’s fun, too. It’s a basic pleasure,<br />

using it, but then many of the greatest<br />

pleasures in life are the most simple.”<br />

He’s speaking of the ability to<br />

flip the UR-T8’s dial over the wrist,<br />

leaving an armoured carapace on<br />

top to protect the watch. Inspired<br />

by Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso<br />

watches, URWERK calls its take the<br />

Transformer <strong>–</strong> and, with its black<br />

PVD-coated surface, there’s certainly<br />

a touch of the sci-fi about it. That’s<br />

not all that’s new about the watch<br />

<strong>–</strong> an ingenious pneumatic system<br />

protects the rotor’s long-term<br />

eiciency. Nor, indeed, all that is old<br />

about it <strong>–</strong> the carousel display may<br />

be distinctively URWERK, but the<br />

idea originates from a night clock<br />

made for Pope Innocent X by the<br />

Italian Campani brothers in 1652.<br />

£81,180 urwerk.com<br />

1<br />

4<br />

3<br />

5<br />

2<br />

1_ FACETED SURFACE<br />

As well as being decorative, the<br />

carapace’s diamond-cut surface is also<br />

functional, providing extra strength<br />

to the outer casing’s structure. The<br />

idea was borrowed from Buckminster<br />

Fuller’s experiments in geometric<br />

architecture during the 40s and 50s.<br />

2_ TITANIUM CASE<br />

This is URWERK’s largest watch to date,<br />

so a steel or gold case would have been<br />

too heavy. Titanium was selected for<br />

its strength and wear properties.<br />

There are lighter materials used in<br />

watchmaking <strong>–</strong> selenium, for one <strong>–</strong> but<br />

URWERK says titanium lasts longer.<br />

Inner workings<br />

WIRED takes a look under the lid of the URWERK UR-T8, in which a<br />

flippable titanium case is added to its wandering-hour indication<br />

3 _ WANDERING HOUR INDICATION<br />

URWERK’s signature blend of analogue<br />

and digital display is achieved by<br />

bundling the 12 hours in groups of four<br />

on a three-armed carousel. Planetary<br />

gearing means movement is smooth<br />

and clear <strong>–</strong> time readout requires<br />

the recognition of just one number.<br />

4 _ PNEUMATIC CONTROL<br />

One common problem with self-winding<br />

watches is wear to the rotor caused by<br />

fast hand actions such as clapping.<br />

The UR-T8 fixes the rotor to a spinning<br />

vane that, owing to its gearing,<br />

creates air friction that acts as a brake<br />

in the event of sudden movements.<br />

5_ REVERSIBLE MECHANISM<br />

A two-axel movement <strong>–</strong> one to lift the<br />

watch 90°, a second to turn it 180° <strong>–</strong> is<br />

made from titanium and coated with<br />

Teflon to allow for a smooth action.<br />

An additional mechanism means the<br />

second movement cannot happen<br />

until the first has been completed.<br />

By JOSH SIMS


High water marks<br />

WIRED put dive watches to the test around the world. Which rose to the top, and which plumbed the depths?<br />

Tester Jason Heaton found the Rolex Sea-Dweller reassuringly simple to use in the Straits of Mackinac<br />

HOW WE TESTED<br />

WIRED tested five<br />

mechanical dive watches<br />

in various underwater<br />

environments around the<br />

world, from the Galapagos<br />

Islands to the Caribbean<br />

Sea and the Great Lakes<br />

of North America. The<br />

watches were worn on the<br />

outside of a diving-suit<br />

sleeve in temperatures<br />

ranging from 3°C to 28°C<br />

and depths of up to 45<br />

metres. They were used<br />

as backup bottom timers<br />

and, in two cases, depth<br />

instruments alongside a<br />

digital dive computer.<br />

ROLEX SEA-DWELLER<br />

4000<br />

This year marks the 50th<br />

anniversary of the Sea-<br />

Dweller, a watch originally<br />

built for commercial<br />

divers welding pipeline at<br />

the bottom of the North<br />

Sea. The gas escape<br />

valve on its left-hand<br />

side is designed to relieve<br />

internal pressure built<br />

up from the helium<br />

present underwater.<br />

While most of us will<br />

never need to test that<br />

feature, or the Sea-<br />

Dweller’s impressive<br />

1,220 metres of water<br />

resistance, overkill is<br />

never a bad thing in a<br />

dive watch. Its corrosionresistant<br />

proprietary<br />

steel case, scratchproof<br />

ceramic bezel<br />

and chronometrecertified<br />

movement are a<br />

testament to why Rolex<br />

dive watches are the<br />

standard bearer for the<br />

category. On repeated<br />

wreck dives in the Straits<br />

of Mackinac, Michigan,<br />

the Sea-Dweller’s<br />

chunky bezel was easy<br />

to grip while wearing a<br />

pair of thick gloves. Its<br />

blue-hued Chromalight<br />

markers, meanwhile,<br />

glowed legibly even in<br />

murky conditions, and<br />

its Glidelock clasp on<br />

the steel bracelet can be<br />

extended 20mm for wear<br />

over a thick diving suit.<br />

9/10 £8,350 rolex.com<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: GISHANI RATNAYAKE; CHRISTOPHER WINTERS<br />

By JASON HEATON


TIME <strong>2017</strong> _ 025<br />

AUDEMARS PIGUET<br />

ROYAL OAK OFFSHORE<br />

DIVER CHRONOGRAPH<br />

The Royal Oak Offshore<br />

oozes quality <strong>–</strong> from<br />

its beautifully brushed<br />

octagonal bezel that was<br />

designed to resemble a<br />

vintage diving helmet, to<br />

the solid-gold, engraved<br />

winding rotor visible<br />

through the sapphire<br />

caseback. These<br />

features almost<br />

distracted WIRED<br />

from the fact that the<br />

internal timing ring<br />

is difficult to set and<br />

cannot be manipulated<br />

once submerged, or<br />

that the chronograph<br />

only counts up to 30<br />

minutes, typically about<br />

half the length of a<br />

good Caribbean reef<br />

dive. But the odds are<br />

you’ll be wearing this<br />

one to impress while<br />

decompressing at the<br />

bar later anyway. And the<br />

variety of tropical colours<br />

in which it’s available are<br />

sure to get noticed, both<br />

underwater and topside.<br />

With its bright-orange<br />

strap matching the<br />

mood of the island, the<br />

Royal Oak Offshore Diver<br />

Chrono was a perfect<br />

choice for shallow-reef<br />

diving in Curaçao.<br />

The inner bezel, however<br />

is pretty ineffective<br />

as a timing device.<br />

7/10 £21,790<br />

audemarspiguet.com<br />

OMEGA SEAMASTER 300<br />

MASTER CO-AXIAL<br />

It’s the 60th anniversary<br />

of the Seamaster 300,<br />

and over the years the<br />

watch has been worn<br />

by everyone from Royal<br />

Navy divers to James<br />

Bond. This latest iteration,<br />

which harkens back to<br />

its earliest ancestor,<br />

gets the very best of<br />

Omega’s technical<br />

know-how. The Master<br />

Co-axial movement that<br />

ticks inside is not only<br />

chronometre-accurate,<br />

but it’s also immune to<br />

the damaging effects of<br />

magnetism, thanks to<br />

a proprietary synthetic<br />

hairspring. So confident is<br />

Omega of the movement’s<br />

prowess that it presents<br />

it under a sapphire display<br />

window instead of hiding<br />

it away under a protective<br />

iron cover. On the front,<br />

the rotating timing bezel<br />

is hewn from Omega<br />

Liquidmetal, which looks<br />

like an ordinary alloy ring<br />

but is actually poured<br />

in place and virtually<br />

scratch-proof. Available<br />

in titanium, steel or<br />

gold, the Seamaster<br />

300 Master Co-axial is<br />

proof that sea watches<br />

can evolve to suit their<br />

environment. Over the<br />

course of a week diving<br />

shipwrecks in Lake<br />

Superior, the Seamaster<br />

300 was spot-on,<br />

despite the frigid water<br />

temperatures and<br />

magnetic environment<br />

of wrecked iron ore<br />

freighters. The pushbutton<br />

extension built<br />

into the clasp easily<br />

accommodated WIRED’s<br />

5mm neoprene gloves,<br />

and the bezel’s coin edge<br />

was easy to grip with<br />

numb fingers. 8/10 £4,400<br />

omegawatches.com<br />

The Omega Seamaster 300 Master Co-axial proved reliable in Lake Superior’s depths


026 _ TIME <strong>2017</strong><br />

IWC AQUATIMER<br />

DEEP THREE<br />

For years, time and<br />

depth have been the two<br />

most critical pieces of<br />

data for divers. IWC has<br />

displayed them both<br />

on one watch, starting<br />

with its iconic Deep One.<br />

The latest in this series<br />

is the Aquatimer Deep<br />

Three, which incorporates<br />

a mechanical depth<br />

gauge in the case. Water<br />

pressure compresses a<br />

spring membrane, which<br />

is linked to the depth<br />

indicator needles on the<br />

dial. One hand shows<br />

the maximum depth<br />

achieved on a dive while<br />

the other shows current<br />

depth, both vital to safe<br />

diving. The depth gauge<br />

isn’t the only tech on the<br />

Deep Three: the rotating<br />

timing ring combines<br />

an inner flange under<br />

the sapphire glass that<br />

is manipulated by an<br />

outer bezel and linked<br />

by a one-way ratcheting<br />

clutch on the left side of<br />

the case. IWC is known<br />

for its Teutonic take on<br />

watch engineering and<br />

the Aquatimer Deep<br />

Three is no exception.<br />

Despite its imposing size,<br />

the 46mm case is forged<br />

from titanium, which<br />

keeps the weight down.<br />

Diving with the Deep<br />

Three in the Galapagos<br />

Islands, the depth gauge<br />

matched WIRED’s digital<br />

dive computer metre<br />

for metre. However, the<br />

proprietary quick-release<br />

strap mechanism gave<br />

cause for anxiety when<br />

hovering over hundreds<br />

of fathoms of open ocean.<br />

9/10 £14,500 iwc.com<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: GISHANI RATNAYAKE; CHRISTOPHER WINTERS<br />

The Oris Aquis Depth Gauge was basic but foolproof in the Caribbean<br />

ORIS AQUIS<br />

DEPTH GAUGE<br />

For those of you who<br />

can’t fork out for the<br />

IWC Aquatimer but still<br />

want a depth gauge<br />

diving watch, Oris comes<br />

to the rescue with its<br />

Aquis Depth Gauge.<br />

Rather than using a<br />

complicated mechanism<br />

for measuring dive<br />

depth, Oris cleverly takes<br />

advantage of Boyle’s<br />

law of physics. A tiny<br />

channel bored out around<br />

the edge of the sapphire<br />

crystal takes in water,<br />

which compresses the<br />

air inside. The line<br />

where water and air<br />

meet visibly displays the<br />

correct depth on a scale<br />

printed on the dial below.<br />

With no moving parts<br />

on its dial, the watch is<br />

virtually foolproof and<br />

ingeniously simple. The<br />

mechanical movement<br />

and rotating bezel take<br />

care of tracking bottom<br />

time and an adjustable<br />

clasp on the beefy rubber<br />

strap can be dialled<br />

in for a snug fit over a<br />

diving suit. The Aquis<br />

Depth Gauge’s simplicity<br />

also means there is no<br />

maximum depth indicator<br />

on the scale, which<br />

prevents the watch from<br />

being a true backup<br />

depth gauge for serious<br />

diving. During a week<br />

of diving around the<br />

Caribbean island of<br />

Bonaire, however,<br />

the Aquis Depth Gauge<br />

was a fun diversion,<br />

though the channel in<br />

the sapphire did require<br />

frequent flushing to<br />

remove marine grit.<br />

WIRED did like the<br />

fact that the watch<br />

comes packaged with<br />

both a stainless-steel<br />

bracelet and rubber<br />

strap with changing<br />

tool. 7/10 £2,100 oris.ch


MUD RESISTANCE +<br />

TRIPLE SENSOR<br />

Altimeter | Barometer | Compass<br />

GWG-1000


028 _ TIME <strong>2017</strong><br />

You can get married and transfer millions there <strong>–</strong> but you<br />

can’t purchase a quality timepiece online. Until now<br />

I<br />

n today’s connected<br />

world, with primitive<br />

AI assistants vying<br />

for our attention and<br />

self-driving cars inching<br />

ever closer to reality, it’s unusual to<br />

encounter something you cannot do<br />

online. You can get married there, pay<br />

your taxes, take a tour of the White<br />

House or <strong>–</strong> if you’re really patient <strong>–</strong><br />

change the address details on your<br />

driving licence. But if you want<br />

to buy, say, a Rolex Submariner,<br />

quite possibly the most popular<br />

luxury watch in the world, you cannot<br />

do it on the web. Not anywhere; not<br />

from a legitimate source.<br />

The same goes for many watch<br />

brands. Eager for an Omega? Got<br />

your eye on a Panerai or a Breitling?<br />

You’ll have to leave the house, even<br />

By CHRIS HALL<br />

if you know exactly what you’re<br />

shopping for. The clue is in that<br />

little word “luxury”, of course. It’s<br />

not luxurious to engage in swift,<br />

simple transactions: the purveyors<br />

of luxury goods insist that they treat<br />

the customer in a refined manner,<br />

carefully introducing them to the<br />

product and placing it in its proper<br />

context <strong>–</strong> weaving a narrative, as they<br />

say. The thousands of man-hours, the<br />

care and attention to detail invested<br />

in the watch demands it.<br />

Or so the thinking has always<br />

gone. Coupled with uncertainty<br />

over people happily spending fouror<br />

five-figure sums online, an unwillingness<br />

to shake up the entrenched<br />

wholesaler/distributor/retailer<br />

business model and the inevitable<br />

jurisdictional price transparency<br />

that is an inherent consequence of<br />

online shopping, it explains why<br />

luxury watch brands have been so<br />

late to the e-commerce party.<br />

But the world has changed.<br />

Management consultant Bain &<br />

Company reports that e-commerce’s<br />

share of the luxury market has risen<br />

twentyfold in the last 14 years; as<br />

a sector it grew 13 per cent in 2016<br />

Right: For its<br />

Speedy Tuesday<br />

Limited Edition,<br />

Omega partnered<br />

with online<br />

blogger Fratello<br />

Watches and<br />

marketed through<br />

Instagram<br />

(against just four per cent growth for<br />

the luxury-goods market as a whole).<br />

McKinsey forecasted in 2015 that<br />

sales of luxury goods online would<br />

triple by 2025, reaching €70 billion<br />

(£58m). Its report notes that “Once<br />

they begin to have sizeable revenue<br />

coming from e-commerce <strong>–</strong> around<br />

six to seven per cent of total sales<br />

<strong>–</strong> luxury players reach a tipping<br />

point where they quickly scale their<br />

e-commerce operations and launch<br />

full e-shops.” According to Bain,<br />

2016 saw e-commerce account for<br />

eight per cent of the luxury market.<br />

Closer to home, analyst GfK reports<br />

that online sales of watches over<br />

£1,000 rose by 88 per cent in the <strong>UK</strong><br />

between 2014 and 2016.<br />

Of the major Swiss brands, so<br />

far only Jaeger-LeCoultre, Cartier<br />

and TAG Heuer sell online through<br />

their own e-boutiques (and the first<br />

two restrict quite closely which<br />

watches are actually available to<br />

buy online). Other significant brands<br />

include Chopard <strong>–</strong> one of the first<br />

to take the plunge <strong>–</strong> Montblanc, Bell<br />

& Ross and Piaget.<br />

The good news is that other big<br />

brands are starting to fall for the allure<br />

of online sales. Breitling and Panerai<br />

have already rolled out e-stores in the<br />

US, and Panerai CEO Angelo Bonati<br />

confirmed at the end of 2016 that<br />

the operation would soon spread<br />

to the <strong>UK</strong>, saying: “The <strong>UK</strong> is one of<br />

the avant-garde countries for online<br />

luxury shopping. It offers a great<br />

opportunity for our brand.” Hamilton<br />

is eyeing up a <strong>UK</strong> e-store, having had<br />

success in France and Italy, and Bulova<br />

is planning to begin online sales in<br />

the US in October. Smaller brands are<br />

seeing the benefit, too: Bremont and<br />

H. Moser & Cie have indicated that it’s<br />

something they are both looking at.<br />

You may wonder why it’s necessary<br />

for each brand to operate its own<br />

online boutique when there are many<br />

well-established retailers already<br />

selling online. Aurum Group, which<br />

owns Watches of Switzerland, Mappin<br />

& Webb, Goldsmiths, WatchShop and<br />

The Watch Hut, reported online sales<br />

of £100 million in 2016 <strong>–</strong> that’s 20 per<br />

cent of its overall business. Operating<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: ILKA & FRANZ


the retail business will require<br />

investment in customer service,<br />

logistics, e-commerce platforms and<br />

security from brands <strong>–</strong> not to mention<br />

a new attitude to website design. (It’s<br />

no coincidence that the younger<br />

brands in the watch market <strong>–</strong> Nomos<br />

Glashütte, Bell & Ross, Montblanc<br />

<strong>–</strong> operate the cleanest, smoothest<br />

and slickest e-stores.)<br />

The answer may lie in candid<br />

remarks made by Audemars Piguet<br />

CEO François-Henry Bennahmias<br />

earlier this year. At the brand’s SIHH<br />

press presentation, he explained<br />

that his intention was to increase<br />

profit without increasing production<br />

volumes or prices. Making a bigger<br />

margin is the only way, and that’s<br />

bad news for the middle man. He<br />

later expanded, in an interview<br />

with SalonQP.com, saying that “we<br />

Below: The IWC<br />

Schaffausen<br />

Pilot’s Timezoner<br />

Chronograph is<br />

being sold by<br />

luxury-clothing<br />

website Mr Porter<br />

cannot keep doing what we’ve been<br />

doing for the last 30 years and expect<br />

things to stay the way they are… The<br />

new generation of consumer is not<br />

buying the way we buy today, so we<br />

have to adapt… Whether people like<br />

it or not, it’s the end of the people<br />

in-between. Not just for watches.<br />

There are a lot of industries that will<br />

be challenged, when the only thing<br />

they provide is being between the<br />

client and the product.” He confirmed<br />

that the brand would soon be selling<br />

directly to consumers, adding: “I’m<br />

not saying it will be the end of the<br />

retailer. I’m saying the retailer<br />

will have to adapt to this new way<br />

of playing. And it might need to be<br />

closer to the brand than it is today.”<br />

Faced with this increased<br />

pressure, brands and retailers are<br />

working hard to attract the elusive<br />

aluent millennial customer. In an<br />

attempt to assuage doubts about<br />

buying sight unseen, a number of<br />

brands offer a crude “print out<br />

and try on” cardboard cutout of<br />

the watches, and others are experimenting<br />

with augmented-reality<br />

apps that can project the watch<br />

on to your wrist. Mr Porter, whose<br />

ofering of luxury watches is growing<br />

rapidly, having recently taken on<br />

IWC, and Schaffhausen is eager to<br />

push its same-day delivery service<br />

(currently only in London). And<br />

others are taking a more route-one<br />

approach: BALL Watch Company<br />

has offered early-bird discounts<br />

for online buyers on several of its<br />

recent releases (including the brand’s<br />

first bronze watch, the handsome<br />

Engineer III), with knock-downs of<br />

up to 45 per cent for pre-orders.<br />

The most inventive new approach<br />

comes from the traditionally slow<br />

adopter Omega, which recently<br />

collaborated with influential<br />

blog Fratello Watches to produce<br />

a limited edition Speedmaster<br />

devoted to the site’s social following<br />

and emblazoned with the hashtag<br />

#SpeedyTuesday. Deposits for the<br />

watch and its various accessories<br />

(pictured left) could be placed online<br />

and <strong>–</strong> fittingly <strong>–</strong> were marketed solely<br />

through Instagram. The experience<br />

may have opened Omega’s eyes<br />

to the potential of online sales: all<br />

2,012 pieces of the £4,100 watch<br />

sold out within four hours.<br />

Efforts to court emerging<br />

customers have also seen watch<br />

brands turn back to the Far East.<br />

Despite the whole industry being<br />

stung by a decline in watch sales<br />

in China over recent years, luxury<br />

players including Cartier, Montblanc,<br />

TAG Heuer, Piaget and Van Cleef &<br />

Arpels have all opened e-boutiques<br />

there since 2015. Lower risk than<br />

bricks and mortar, with the chance<br />

of reaching a larger market (KPMG<br />

predicts 50 per cent of Chinese luxury<br />

spending will be online by 2020), it<br />

could yet prove a smart decision.<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: ILKA & FRANZ


NAVY SEAL 3502<br />

Carbon Compound case and Stainless Steel screw on caseback, unidirectional<br />

rotating bezel, hardened mineral crystal, water resistant to 20<br />

ATM, black Carbon Compound bracelet with IP black signature buckle,<br />

45mm and Luminox self-powered illumination system. Swiss Made.<br />

The next evolution of the best-selling Navy SEAL<br />

collection of timepieces<br />

www.facebook.com/luminox<br />

www.luminox.com


032 _ TIME <strong>2017</strong><br />

A grand complication<br />

The new Celestia from Vacheron Constantin combines the spirit<br />

of watchmaking’s grand masters with modern technology to<br />

create one of the most complicated wristwatches ever made<br />

I<br />

n 2016, watchmaker<br />

Vacheron Constantin<br />

introduced the most<br />

complicated timepiece<br />

ever made, the 57260<br />

pocket watch, featuring 57<br />

complications. It caused quite a stir<br />

in the horological industry.<br />

This year, the company has<br />

doubled down, introducing its most<br />

complicated wristwatch, the Les<br />

Cabinotiers Celestia Astronomical<br />

Grand Complication 3600, which<br />

holds 23 complications.<br />

One would assume these two developments<br />

had to have been connected<br />

<strong>–</strong> symbiotic, even. But the truth is,<br />

they were both developed in secret,<br />

with neither development team even<br />

aware of the other’s existence.<br />

The Celestia was made to<br />

honour the way the grand watchmaking<br />

masters worked, according<br />

to Christian Selmoni, Vacheron<br />

Constantin’s artistic director. “They<br />

were developing something that<br />

reflected their new ideas, without<br />

regard for the time required,” he<br />

says. “In almost all other watchmaking<br />

brands, this kind of spirit<br />

doesn’t exist <strong>–</strong> we always tend to<br />

reuse something to save time. Developing<br />

movements just for one piece<br />

is unique. This timepiece was created<br />

in the spirit of the historical astronomical<br />

clocks with extraordinary<br />

levels of precision, and that makes<br />

the Celestia very important.”<br />

The Celestia, the brainchild of a<br />

project head, master watchmaker<br />

and conceptor (of whom Vacheron<br />

Constantin would not release his<br />

name for fear of being poached<br />

<strong>–</strong> he will from here on be referred<br />

to as “MW”), is part of a relatively<br />

recent programme inside the<br />

Les Cabinotiers (“the Artisans”)<br />

department. Its aim is to develop<br />

unique “blue sky” timepieces while<br />

undertaking its raison d’etre, bespoke<br />

work. MW has had a lifelong interest<br />

in astronomy, and astronomical<br />

indications are at the Celestia’s core.<br />

“Astronomy is a very serious<br />

science as is watchmaking. Without<br />

astronomy, we wouldn’t be able to<br />

measure time <strong>–</strong> it’s all dependent,”<br />

MW explains. “Our ancestors were<br />

reading the time with the stars, the<br />

Sun and the Moon, and the origins of<br />

watchmaking come from astronomy.”<br />

According to MW, mathematics<br />

was at the very heart of the Celestia’s<br />

development. “The initial idea is to<br />

think about the concept of the watch,<br />

then to work out the equations to<br />

make it a reality,” he explains. “I<br />

spent a year conceiving the watch<br />

and working on the mathematical<br />

equations, then I had to transform<br />

the mathematics into gear trains to<br />

provide the indications.<br />

“For example, if I want to make a<br />

wheel turn, I have to calculate the<br />

number of teeth on the wheel. All the<br />

other wheels depend on this equation,<br />

so I need to be able to understand the<br />

principles, even though I have the<br />

software,” he says. “No software can<br />

give me the answers. I rely on these<br />

equations and the powerful software<br />

By KEITH W STRANDBERG


Vacheron<br />

Constantin<br />

Celestia<br />

Astronomical<br />

Grand<br />

Complication<br />

3600<br />

Price $1 million<br />

Size 45mm<br />

Movement<br />

Mechanical<br />

manual-winding<br />

sihh.vacheronconstantin.com<br />

to find a solution with our input. It’s<br />

a question of using these tools to<br />

find new solutions.”<br />

The Celestia’s development took<br />

five years <strong>–</strong> three of which were<br />

dedicated to conceptualisation,<br />

including mathematical work, then it<br />

took two years to fabricate the watch<br />

itself. Not every company would<br />

allow this kind of development, but<br />

Vacheron Constantin, as the oldest<br />

continuous-watchmaking maison<br />

in the world, feels a responsibility<br />

to push horology forward.<br />

“We have an obligation to advance<br />

watchmaking with our developments,”<br />

MW says. “For example, we<br />

do an astronomical Moon phase that<br />

also incorporates a coaxial day/night<br />

indicator, based on the solar gear<br />

train. For the Moon phase display, a<br />

3D Moon is engraved on a superimposed<br />

sapphire crystal disc, which<br />

is also linked to the solar gear train.<br />

We have a figurative perception of<br />

the Moon in the sky, and it is much<br />

more precise than most normal<br />

Moon phases. We could do something<br />

very simple, but that’s not what our<br />

department’s mission is.”<br />

The most challenging piece<br />

of the Celestia’s puzzle was the<br />

running equation of time, a display<br />

that shows the diference between<br />

apparent solar time (true solar time,<br />

the actual solar day) and mean solar<br />

time (for all intents and purposes,<br />

civil time). Usually, the equation<br />

of time is displayed using plus or<br />

minus relative to normal civil time<br />

(this can be ahead by more than 15<br />

minutes or behind by as much as 14<br />

minutes throughout the year).<br />

“The running equation of time<br />

in the Celestia is not linked to the<br />

perpetual calendar because that<br />

would not be precise enough,” MW<br />

explains. “We developed one gear<br />

train that’s linked to the solar indications,<br />

and the equation of time is<br />

driven by this dedicated tropical<br />

gear train, with a precision of<br />

approximately 150 years. This<br />

is much more precise than the<br />

perpetual calendar gear train.”<br />

Vacheron incorporated<br />

an almost five-metre-<br />

long mainspring, in<br />

six barrels, to obtain a<br />

21-day power reserve<br />

Equipping this watch with an<br />

extra-long power reserve was also<br />

important to MW and Vacheron<br />

Constantin. The standard power<br />

reserve for watches is 48 hours or<br />

so, but the company realised this<br />

would not be enough for such a<br />

complicated timepiece that is very<br />

intricate to set correctly should it<br />

wind down. As a result, MW incorporated<br />

an almost five-metre long<br />

mainspring, in six barrels, to obtain<br />

a 21-day power reserve in keeping<br />

with the spirit of those early astronomical<br />

clocks, which needed to be<br />

wound every two weeks or so.<br />

The Celestia is the most complicated<br />

wristwatch Vacheron Constantin<br />

has ever made, but from a distance,<br />

one would never know <strong>–</strong> which was<br />

the point from the very beginning. MW<br />

wanted to create a wearable watch,<br />

so he built the integrated movement<br />

from scratch, aiming for a timepiece<br />

thin enough to wear every single day.<br />

In fact, making it as thin as<br />

possible was so important that<br />

when MW thought of a way to save<br />

0.2mm, it required a rethinking of<br />

the entire gear train. “This is usually<br />

never done <strong>–</strong> once you have the gear<br />

train, the technical department<br />

would prefer not to touch it again,<br />

but we decided to completely<br />

rethink it,” he says. “The flexibility<br />

to recreate the entire movement<br />

ourselves gives us the freedom to<br />

do it any way we decide is best.”<br />

Though the initial Celestia is a<br />

unique piece, and has already been<br />

sold for an estimated $1 million<br />

(£806,000), the brand plans to use<br />

this as a base for future customer<br />

orders <strong>–</strong> as long as each iteration<br />

remains unique. And some of the<br />

developments within the Celestia<br />

could quite possibly find their way<br />

into other timepieces in the future.<br />

After all, the secrecy is over, so Les<br />

Cabinotiers are happy to share it all<br />

with the rest of the company.<br />

The Celestia’s rear display features a transparent celestial chart indicating sidereal time


Grey matters<br />

Ditch the bling with these understated monochrome timepieces<br />

that let their muted but confident design do the talking<br />

By JEREMY WHITE<br />

ORIS CHRONORIS DATE<br />

In 1970, Oris released the<br />

original Chronoris, its first<br />

chronograph. This year,<br />

however, Oris has made<br />

a three-hand version<br />

that is simpler and even<br />

more stylish. Thanks to<br />

an internal rotating bezel<br />

(rotated via the crown at<br />

four o’clock) the piece still<br />

functions as a timer. The<br />

cushion case, grey dial<br />

and orange hour markers<br />

and seconds hand give<br />

the watch a distinctly<br />

retro feel. Available on a<br />

NATO, rubber or leather<br />

strap, as well a steel<br />

bracelet, the 39mm<br />

Chronoris Date has a<br />

power reserve of 38 hours<br />

and is waterproof to 100<br />

metres. £1,800 oris.ch


TIME <strong>2017</strong> _ 035<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDY BARTER<br />

NOMOS GLASHÜTTE<br />

AHOI NEOMATIK<br />

As well as reducing<br />

the case size, this new<br />

version of the Ahoi from<br />

NOMOS houses the<br />

brand’s in-house DUW<br />

3001 movement that was<br />

introduced in 2015 (the<br />

result of years of research<br />

and more than €15 million<br />

(£12.5m) in development<br />

costs). The earlier models<br />

were 40mm wide and<br />

10.6mm thick, but the new<br />

54g Ahoi Neomatik pieces<br />

are just 36.3mm wide and<br />

9.5mm thick. Crucially,<br />

water resistance for this<br />

sports watch has been<br />

maintained at 200 metres<br />

and there is a 42-hour<br />

power reserve. £2,990<br />

nomos-glashuette.com<br />

RADO CERAMICA IN<br />

MATT GREY<br />

When Rado teamed up<br />

with industrial designer<br />

Konstantin Grcic in 2016<br />

to redesign the Ceramica,<br />

it was clear this stylish,<br />

minimalist piece would<br />

be popular. No surprise,<br />

then, that Rado should<br />

return with three new<br />

pieces, including this<br />

example in matt grey.<br />

The dial has a vertically<br />

brushed finish and<br />

concave dots as indices.<br />

The collection also<br />

marks the first time that<br />

automatic movements<br />

have been used in the<br />

Ceramica range. From<br />

£2,010 rado.com


036 _ TIME <strong>2017</strong><br />

BULGARI OCTO<br />

FINISSIMO<br />

AUTOMATIQUE<br />

This piece marks the<br />

third world record for<br />

ultra-thin watchmaking<br />

to be taken by Bulgari,<br />

after 2014’s Octo<br />

Finissimo Tourbillon and<br />

last year’s Octo Finissimo<br />

Minute Repeater. At<br />

the Baselworld <strong>2017</strong><br />

watch fair the Italian<br />

brand unveiled this<br />

5.15mm-thick watch<br />

(the Bulgari cal BVL<br />

138 movement is a mere<br />

2.23mm). To enhance<br />

matters further,<br />

the heavily faceted<br />

sandblasted titanium<br />

case is almost as<br />

light as it is slender.<br />

£11,300 bulgari.com<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDY BARTER


evo2<br />

Easy to read and true to the original.<br />

Ergonomically designed watch case and lugs.<br />

Functionally designed crown.<br />

Sapphire crystal. Swiss Made.<br />

Extensive Mondaine SBB range available from John Lewis, Goldsmiths and other leading retailers.<br />

For an illustrated catalogue and details of your nearest stockist telephone 0116 234 4656 or email info@bml-watches.com


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05.17 Who’s next? Europe’s £35<br />

billion war on Silicon Valley<br />

04.17 The Smart List <strong>–</strong> tech’s biggest<br />

names pick the stars of tomorrow<br />

03.17 The end of the world edition<br />

<strong>–</strong> but hey, WIRED will save you!<br />

01/02.17 The Tastemakers <strong>–</strong> the powerbrokers<br />

who decide what you watch and listen to<br />

12.16 Go beyond! Bertrand Piccard on his<br />

round-the-world solar-powered adventure<br />

11.16 Where Nasa goes next <strong>–</strong> the spacecraft<br />

and robots that will take us to Mars<br />

10.16 Think bigger <strong>–</strong> designing<br />

the future with Bjarke Ingels<br />

09.16 The first global WIRED 100 <strong>–</strong><br />

who’s shaping the digital world?<br />

07/08.16 The science of winning <strong>–</strong><br />

learn from the world’s best performers<br />

06.16 Build something meaningful <strong>–</strong><br />

the rise of mission-driven business<br />

05.16 Buy this or be hacked <strong>–</strong><br />

the truth about online security<br />

04.16 It’s time to copy China <strong>–</strong> What you can<br />

learn from its startups


Close-up on innovation<br />

WIRED takes an eyepiece to four idiosyncratic timepieces coming to the market in <strong>2017</strong><br />

BEST CHIMING WATCH<br />

Greubel<br />

Forsey<br />

Grande<br />

Sonnerie<br />

Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey,<br />

the duo behind Greubel Forsey, don’t<br />

make life easy for themselves. “Making<br />

a Grande Sonnerie is a grail process,”<br />

Forsey says. “I don’t know how many<br />

companies have ever made one, but<br />

it’s really not many.” In doing so <strong>–</strong> after<br />

11 years of work <strong>–</strong> Greubel Forsey has,<br />

arguably, entered the pantheon of<br />

watchmaking greats. All the more so<br />

because its take on a Grande Sonnerie<br />

<strong>–</strong> a watch that chimes on the hour and<br />

quarter-hour, as opposed to a Petite<br />

Sonnerie, which chimes on the hour<br />

<strong>–</strong> brings the form to a new level of<br />

functionality. “We wanted it to be a<br />

watch the collector would actually use,<br />

as opposed to the fate of most complex<br />

watches like this, which is to never be<br />

actually enjoyed on the wrist.”<br />

By “complex”, Forsey is hinting<br />

at the fact that the watch comprises<br />

935 parts in a remarkably compact<br />

43.5mm-wide space. Squeezed<br />

inside is a hand-wound tourbillion,<br />

a self-winding striking mechanism,<br />

a minute repeater and two powerreserve<br />

indicators. Press a button<br />

and the time is chimed out down to<br />

the minute, without the awkward<br />

pause between hours and minutes<br />

that alicts similar watches. On top<br />

of all this, Greubel Forsey’s Grand<br />

Sonnerie is, in another first for a<br />

watch of this kind, water resistant.<br />

OK, so you wouldn’t go for a swim<br />

wearing one <strong>–</strong> but it does mean the<br />

piece is wearable even in the kind of<br />

humid climate that would typically,<br />

eventually, kill a lesser chiming watch.<br />

Previously, water resistance was<br />

not pursued in chiming watches<br />

because it made the operation of<br />

the mode-selection slider tricky<br />

and, more importantly perhaps,<br />

because it reduced the volume of the<br />

gong by 20 decibels or more. Forsey<br />

is keen not to give the company’s<br />

secrets away, but a combination<br />

of new manufacturing methods <strong>–</strong><br />

making one-piece cathedral gongs,<br />

positioning those gongs to maximise<br />

the force of the striking hammers on<br />

them and constructing an “acoustic<br />

resonance cage” from titanium <strong>–</strong><br />

have allowed the Grande Sonnerie’s<br />

sonic potential to go undimmed. And<br />

for Greubel Forsey to file a couple of<br />

patents along the way.<br />

“If the watch doesn’t chime with<br />

a good sound, the whole project is in<br />

question,” says Forsey. “Then there’s<br />

the fact that some people find a watch<br />

that chimes every quarter of an hour<br />

annoying <strong>–</strong> for them, they can set it<br />

to only chime on the hour. Or switch<br />

it of entirely.” But, he doesn’t quite<br />

add, what would be the point of that?<br />

Only five to eight pieces of this<br />

timepiece will be made each year.<br />

CHF 1,150,000 greubelforsey.com<br />

By JOSH SIMS<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: CHARLIE SURBEY


TIME <strong>2017</strong> _ 041<br />

If the watch industry has a test case<br />

for its most advanced designs, it’s<br />

the diving watch <strong>–</strong> the precision tool<br />

that has to withstand the kind of<br />

environment mechanical watches<br />

are really not intended for. Some<br />

materials have, over recent years,<br />

improved its endurance <strong>–</strong> titanium<br />

has brought greater corrosion<br />

resistance, ceramics greater shock<br />

resistance. But, Panerai figured,<br />

there’s always room for improvement.<br />

And nature is full of good ideas.<br />

Enter its Luminor Submersible<br />

1950 BMG-Tech. On the outside,<br />

it’s your standard masculine piece<br />

of kit: unidirectional bezel; Super-<br />

LumiNova markers; a three-day<br />

power reserve; and the ability to jump<br />

the hours forward or back without<br />

moving the minute hand (useful when<br />

wearing diving gloves). The case,<br />

bezel and crown, however, are made<br />

from metallic glass, an alloy used in<br />

industries where corrosion of small<br />

parts is a bad idea <strong>–</strong> in the biomedical<br />

and aerospace industries, primarily.<br />

There’s probably some in your smartphone.<br />

But it hasn’t been used in<br />

watchmaking before.<br />

Yet take it in its liquid state,<br />

injection mould it under high<br />

pressure and then very quickly cool<br />

it into its solid state, and the naturally<br />

geometric arrangement that atoms<br />

in a crystalline structure take does<br />

not form. Rather, it stays chaotic.<br />

The result? Exceptional corrosion<br />

resistance, shock resistance and<br />

resistance to magnetic fields.<br />

Getting metallic glass to work for a<br />

watch has taken Panerai three years of<br />

collaboration with academic partners<br />

to finesse the injection-moulding<br />

process for a finish befitting a<br />

top-end timepiece. Another model,<br />

the LAB-ID, uses carbon nanotubes to<br />

create lubrication without oil.<br />

Panerai hints that both technologies<br />

will, in time, be available in one watch.<br />

Indeed, it expects them to become<br />

standardised across an industry that<br />

is increasingly willing to look beyond<br />

its confines for ways of improving<br />

its wares. £poa panerai.com<br />

Panerai<br />

Luminor<br />

Submersible<br />

1950 BMG-<br />

Tech<br />

By JOSH SIMS<br />

NEW MATERIALS


Van Cleef<br />

& Arpels<br />

Lady<br />

Arpels<br />

Papillon<br />

Automate<br />

The concept of a connected watch<br />

is actually based on disconnects:<br />

something physical, such as a<br />

heartbeat, is transformed into a digital<br />

format; the efects of our dreams registered<br />

as lines tracking up and down on<br />

a sleep graph; motion becomes a series<br />

of ever-decreasing circles.<br />

With its Lady Arpels Papillon<br />

Automate, Van Cleef & Arpels<br />

has created a watch that really is<br />

connected to the way the wearer<br />

moves. This notion is taken a step<br />

further with the wearer’s frequency of<br />

movement translated into the flapping<br />

of a butterfly’s wings.<br />

The butterfly in question is a<br />

tiny automaton connected to the<br />

movement by a series of rods and<br />

cranks. It is powered by two barrels<br />

charged by the oscillating weight <strong>–</strong> the<br />

other barrel powers the movement<br />

and the distribution of power is done<br />

in such a way that both barrels are<br />

charged at the same time, but with<br />

priority going to the movement barrel.<br />

The butterfly doesn’t just flap<br />

indiscriminately: it is, to quote Van<br />

Cleef & Arpels’ Raphael Mingam, “To<br />

give value to the passage of time.” It<br />

moves in accordance with the wearer.<br />

There are three modes of<br />

animation. The first is “on demand”,<br />

where the button on the left-hand<br />

side of the case is pushed and the<br />

automaton moves for ten seconds<br />

to up to a minute, depending on how<br />

much power is in the movement.<br />

The second is when the watch<br />

is “resting” or off the wrist <strong>–</strong> the<br />

butterfly will come to life 19 times<br />

By LAURA<br />

MCCREDDIE-DOAK<br />

an hour in a random sequence of<br />

what Mingam describes as “natural<br />

flapping events”. Thanks to the<br />

innovation of irregularly spaced<br />

teeth on one of the wheels that power<br />

the automaton, the butterfly appears<br />

able to come to life at unpredictable<br />

intervals and flap either once, if<br />

power is low, or three times, if there<br />

is enough power in reserve.<br />

The final animation takes place<br />

when the watch is on the wearer’s<br />

wrist. “If you’re moving, that will<br />

have direct impact on the oscillating<br />

weight,” Mingam explains.<br />

“Here you will see a second transferral<br />

of energy into a diferential of<br />

movement. So, the more the oscillating<br />

weight moves, the faster<br />

the trigger wheel moves, and the<br />

butterfly appears more animated.”<br />

£poa vancleefarpels.com<br />

CONNECTED MOTION


TIME <strong>2017</strong> _ 0 4 3<br />

Montblanc<br />

Timewalker<br />

Rally Timer 100<br />

TURBOCHARGED<br />

PHOTOGRAPHY: CHARLIE SURBEY<br />

Montblanc is not one of those brands<br />

that evokes a connection with the<br />

glorious, oil-stained days of motorsport’s<br />

heyday. Indeed, rewind to<br />

the 60s and 70s and it wasn’t even<br />

a watch brand at all. So, in January<br />

<strong>2017</strong>, eyebrows were raised with the<br />

appearance of an entire collection of<br />

watches devoted to classic motoring.<br />

Acquired in 2006 by parent<br />

company Richemont, and bestowed<br />

upon Montblanc as part of a process<br />

to turbo-charge the growth of a<br />

horologically credible watchmaking<br />

outfit, Minerva is one of the most<br />

historically respected chronograph<br />

producers in the watch world. As a<br />

storied manufacturer of mechanical<br />

stopwatches, dashboard timers<br />

and wristwatch chronographs, it<br />

certainly does have that connection.<br />

The last ten years have been all about<br />

bringing Montblanc and Minerva<br />

under one roof, figuratively and<br />

literally. For those with a close eye<br />

on watches, it came as no surprise<br />

to see automotive pieces from the<br />

sophisticated lifestyle brand.<br />

The most eye-catching of the<br />

new arrivals is the Rally Timer<br />

100, a 50mm watch-cum-clock (it<br />

detaches from its strap and stands<br />

upon a desk with the help of two<br />

fold-out props) that blends modern<br />

design sensibilities with Minerva’s<br />

smart touch in movement making.<br />

There’s a brushed titanium case with a<br />

variety of cross-hatched textures and<br />

a knurled crown/pusher which references<br />

vintage instrumentation with<br />

micron-fine, rock-solid construction.<br />

Then there is a dial that follows the<br />

trusted path of black, white and red<br />

<strong>–</strong> faithful to the source material but<br />

not stepping so heavily on the retro<br />

revival button as to be in pastiche<br />

territory. Seconds are timed on the<br />

You can pop<br />

the Montblanc<br />

Timewalker Rally<br />

Timer 100<br />

out of its strap to<br />

mount on a desk or<br />

a car dashboard<br />

central red hand; minutes on the<br />

30-minute subdial at 12 o’clock, with<br />

running seconds at six o’clock.<br />

The party piece, as it always is<br />

with Montblanc and Minerva, is on<br />

the reverse. Flip the watch and the<br />

movement shines out from within a<br />

lozenge-shaped sapphire window,<br />

the flowing organic curves of the<br />

springs and signature “devil’s tail”<br />

bridge contrasting with the brushed<br />

titanium of the caseback. It’s a<br />

movement shared with Montblanc’s<br />

1858 series of chronographs, and<br />

like those, is a monopusher requiring<br />

only one control to stop, start<br />

and reset the timer (the drawback<br />

being that you cannot start, stop<br />

and resume timing).<br />

The size of this 100-piece limited<br />

edition watch is an inevitable consequence<br />

of its multi-purpose concept<br />

<strong>–</strong> you can also mount the Rally Timer<br />

to your dashboard for the full vintage<br />

driving experience <strong>–</strong> but legibility<br />

on the wrist while driving is the<br />

priority here, and to that end the<br />

watch can also swivel freely to allow<br />

you to find the perfect viewing angle.<br />

€38,000 montblanc.com<br />

By CHRIS HALL


THE FINER<br />

THINGS<br />

IN WIRED’S<br />

WORLD<br />

FREE<br />

WITH ISSUE<br />

12.17<br />

OUT NOV 2


TIME <strong>2017</strong> _ 045<br />

Show report <strong>2017</strong><br />

From arcade-game tie-ups to denim straps and<br />

LCD smartwatches, here are WIRED’s standout<br />

picks from this year’s international watch fairs<br />

IWC Da Vinci Automatic Moon Phase 36<br />

This women’s piece is not overtly feminine,<br />

but if you wish its 36mm case can be adorned<br />

with 54 white diamonds. It has a 42-hour power<br />

reserve, and the caseback on the rear shows an<br />

engraving of the Flower of Life, the geometric<br />

pattern of overlapping circles studied<br />

by Leonardo da Vinci. From £6,950 iwc.com<br />

Grand Seiko Black Ceramic SBGC223<br />

This 46.4mm GMT sports watch has a hybrid titanium bracelet with ceramic<br />

centre links, and inside carries Grand Seiko’s Spring Drive system. The<br />

100-metre water resistance is backed up by 72 hours of power reserve as<br />

well as a magnetic resistance of 60 gauss. There is a white dial version and<br />

a limited-edition blue and gold piece. £14,000 grand-seiko.com<br />

By JEREMY WHITE<br />

Omega Seamaster<br />

Tissot T-Touch<br />

Girard-Perregaux Tri-Axial<br />

Citizen Promaster Eco-Drive<br />

Aqua Terra 150M £4,000<br />

Expert Solar II<br />

Planetarium £211,000<br />

Professional Diver 1000m<br />

omegawatches.com<br />

£795 tissotwatches.com<br />

girard-perregaux.com<br />

£1,695 citizenwatch.com


Life’s a beach, every day: with the new Aqua series, made in Glashütte, Germany. These<br />

watches are ready for life and all its surprises; dressed for the theater, and licensed to<br />

dive. Ahoi neomatik and the other Aqua models featuring the ultra-thin automatic caliber<br />

DUW 3001 are available at selected retailers. nomos-glashuette.com, nomos-store.com


TIME <strong>2017</strong> _ 047<br />

Hamilton Intra-<br />

Matic 68<br />

£1,930 hamiltonwatch.com<br />

Hermès Slim d’Hermès<br />

L’Heure Impatiente<br />

£28,100 uk.hermes.com<br />

A Lange & Söhne Tourbograph<br />

Perpetual Pour Le Mérite<br />

€480,00 alange-soehne.com<br />

Patek Philippe Aquanaut Travel Time Ref. 5650G<br />

Advanced Research The 5650G’s all-steel mechanism<br />

for adjusting GMT indication has just 12 parts and<br />

no gears or pivots. This means there’s no need for<br />

conventional lubricants and no friction. £42,800 patek.com<br />

Bulova Moon<br />

Watch Blackout<br />

£499 intl.bulova.com<br />

Jaquet Droz Grande<br />

Seconde Moon Phase From<br />

£12,000 jaquet-droz.com<br />

Longines Conquest VHP<br />

Chronograph<br />

£1,170 longines.com<br />

Ressence Type 1<br />

Squared €17,500<br />

ressencewatches.com<br />

TAG Heuer <strong>2017</strong> Autavia<br />

When TAG Heuer announced it would bring back one of 16 first-generation<br />

Autavias it asked fans to vote online for their favourite. This is the result of<br />

that vote. The Autavia Ref. 2446 with Mark 3 dial was designed in 1966 with<br />

a 39mm case, but here is the 42mm example. WIRED particularly likes the<br />

retro Heuer and Autavia logos on the dial. £3,900 tagheuer.com


048 _ TIME <strong>2017</strong><br />

Panerai Lab-ID Luminor<br />

1950 Carbotech 3 Days<br />

£41,600 panerai.com<br />

TAG Heuer Connected<br />

Modular 45<br />

£1,200 tagheuer.com<br />

Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20<br />

This Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch includes features such as offline<br />

mapping (so you can preload maps), a barometer, compass and GPS as well<br />

as 50-metre waterproofing. The clever display is dual-layer LCD, allowing<br />

full colour as well as low-power monochrome when needed. Casio claims a<br />

two-day battery life as a result. £450 wsd.casio.com<br />

Raymond Weil Freelancer<br />

Calibre RW1212<br />

£1,695 raymond-weil.com<br />

Romain Jerome RJ X<br />

Donkey Kong<br />

£13,500 romainjerome.ch<br />

Omega Seamaster Aqua<br />

Terra Railmaster £3,600<br />

omegawatches.com<br />

Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic<br />

Universal Time from £11,600<br />

jaeger-lecoultre.com<br />

Tudor Heritage Black Bay Chrono<br />

The first Black Bay to have a chrono is the result of a<br />

collaboration with Breitling, which supplied a movement that<br />

Tudor reworked. It comes on either a steel bracelet or leather<br />

strap, and both have a denim option. £3,430 tudorwatch.com<br />

Cartier Rotonde De Cartier<br />

Minute Repeater Mysterious<br />

Double Tourbillon<br />

€525,000 cartier.co.uk<br />

Victorinox I.N.O.X.<br />

V 37mm<br />

£479 victorinox.com


, Bulova, Bulova Curv are registered trademarks. <strong>2017</strong> Bulova Corporation. 98A162. Photo: Michael Furman<br />

BULOVA.COM<br />

The World’s First<br />

Introducing the world’s first curved chronograph movement.<br />

Once again, Bulova adds to its long history of firsts with the CURV watch.<br />

A History of Firsts<br />

AVAILABLE FROM

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