Tabla de contenidos para January 2018 en WIRED

WHEN HUMANS ARE finally ready to relocate civilization to Mars, they won’t be able to do it alone. They’ll need trusted specialists with encyclopedic knowledge, composure under pressure, and extreme endurance—droids like Justin. Built by the German space agency DLR, such humanoid bots are being groomed to build the first martian habitat for humans. Engineers have been refining Justin’s physical abilities for a decade; the mech can handle tools, shoot and upload photos, catch flying objects, and navigate obstacles. Now, thanks to new AI upgrades, Justin can think for itself. Unlike most robots, which have to be programmed in advance and given explicit instructions for nearly every movement, this bot can autonomously perform complex tasks—even those it hasn’t been programmed to do—on a planet’s surface while being supervised by astronauts…

iPotty Sitting in this hightech toddler potty, your little one can browse YouTube while you toilet-train them. They’ll be screen-savvy multitaskers by age 2! OR Mind Booster If you plan on raising an overachiever, stuff them into this “smart” booster seat, complete with noisemaking buttons and a foldout keyboard. No typing at the table. Smartbe stroller It’s a real drag trying to create an epic Animoji while pushing a hefty stroller. Instead, have your child roll down the sidewalk in this self-propelled model. OR Babblebot This Alexa skill records your child’s gibberish, searches for patterns, and creates rough translations. Do babies really know the secrets of the universe? Robo Breast This fabric-covered mechanical teat simulates the real thing, keeping your hangry baby happy and well-fed when you’re not around. Next…

RECENTLY, I was hungry. So I told the Whole Foods chatbot what I had in my fridge, and it revealed that a bacon, lettuce, and heirloom tomato sandwich was mine for the making. Yum. Then, out of boredom, I booted up the movierecommendation bot And Chill, which suggested I watch Jake Gyllenhaal repeatedly relive the last day of his life in Source Code. I shuddered every time the train exploded. ¶ Yes, I have a bot problem. It’s just so convenient in the modern era. Sure, friendly algorithms have existed since the mid ’60s, when the talkback program Eliza started convincing more gullible users of its humanity. But it wasn’t until Facebook allowed app developers to integrate their chatbots with Messenger a half-century later, in 2016, that bots rose up…

ON AUGUST 24 AT 8:20 pm, a 44-year-old moonlighting meteorologist named Eric Berger was nearly finished writing a post for his Houston-centric blog, Space City Weather, titled “Harvey Late Night: Some Final Thursday Thoughts.” He was in his home office. He had just poured himself a glass of cabernet. He had been looking at the online forecasts from the National Hurricane Center and agreed with their essential conclusions: Harvey was a wellorganized storm that would land with hurricane force on the Texas Gulf Coast somewhere between Corpus Christi and Port O’Connor. Berger also backed the center’s belief that the winds would be strong in Houston that weekend, perhaps more than 40 miles per hour. But he was far more worried about the rain. The unanswered question is what happens to…

Arlyn Anderson grasped her father’s hand and presented him with the choice. “A nursing home would be safer, Dad,” she told him, relaying the doctors’ advice. “It’s risky to live here alone—” ¶ “No way,” Jim interjected. He frowned at his daughter, his brow furrowed under a lop of white hair. At 91, he wanted to remain in the woodsy Minnesota cottage he and his wife had built on the shore of Lake Minnetonka, where she had died in his arms just a year before. His pontoon—which he insisted he could still navigate just fine— bobbed out front. ¶ Arlyn had moved from California back to Minnesota two decades earlier to be near her aging parents. Now, in 2013, she was fiftysomething, working as a personal coach, and finding that…

FOR OUR NOVEMBER cover story, writer Alex Mar meditated on roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro’s eerily lifelike androids. Adam Fisher traveled to Paris to catch up on famed technologist Tony Fadell’s plot to get back at Silicon Valley. Virginia Heffernan challenged Mark Zuckerberg to take responsibility for his creation. And Richard Conniff took a look at illegal logging in Peru—and shed light on a frustratingly opaque black market that has dire environmental consequences. Readers responded: Re: “Payback Time: Tony Fadell created the iPod and Nest, then lost control of them. His next project could be his most ambitious yet: taking on Silicon Valley itself.” “HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A FADELL SCORNED BY SILICON VALLEY (TWICE). GREAT READ.” Max Pike (@mack_spike) on Twitter Re: “Invisible Forest: For years, timber barons in the…

▸ Imagine you’re a black woman pitching a startup. You look different. You talk different. A table of white investors has never seen someone who looks like you and who’s been successful before. All these things are working against you. Do you let that stop you, or do you just say so what? ▸ That’s what I train entrepreneurs of color to think about. When I first got to Silicon Valley, I was just like them. My idea of pitching was basically Shark Tank. Then I met with Mitch and Freada, at Kapor Capital, and we sat around a table, just having a conversation. They invested in my ed-tech startup and eventually hired me to help founders make their companies more inclusive. I’ve navigated this world from multiple angles. I’ve…

THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION is one of the few nonstellar things up there that we can see from down here without instruments. It’s a prefab home the size of a football field, 462 tons and more than $100 billion worth of pressurized roomlike modules and gleaming solar arrays, orbiting 250 miles above the surface of the Earth. Its flight path is available online, and you can find out when it will make a nighttime pass over your backyard. Right on schedule, you’ll spot an unblinking white light that’s moving at 17,500 miles an hour. It will cross your field of view, on a line straight enough to have been drawn with a ruler, in only a few seconds. A few minutes more and the men and women inside that light…

Brain-Operated Arm Capable of: Touching hands, reaching out Mind-controlled limbs aren’t new, but University of Pittsburgh scientists are working on an arm that can feel. Wires link the arm and brain, so when pressure is applied, a signal alerts the sensory cortex. Bebionic Capable of: Making rude gestures It’s the only prosthetic hand with air-bubbled fingertips—great for typing and handling delicate objects (like eggs). And because individual motors power natural movements, wearers can flip the bird in an instant. Hand That Sees Capable of: Looking for an opportunity Researchers at Newcastle University have designed a hand with a tiny camera that snaps pics of objects in its view. Then an AI determines an action. Like, grasp that beer and raise it to my mouth. The Michelangelo Capable of: Painting masterpieces…

LOL BABY PACMAN Screw a single medium; mini-Pac catapults from arcade screen to pinball table. SUPER MARIO ODYSSEY The mustachioed wonder’s magic hat, Cappy, Marioizes beasts and rockets alike. SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO Teleporting made Dhalsim the OG ghosting yoga bro. TEAM FORTRESS 2 “I AM FULLY CHAAAHGED!” roars the mad German medic, übercharged and impervious. CONTRA As a ’roidedout commando, there’s nothing to hide behind but 10-pack abs and a fireball-spewing spread gun. LETHAL…

When to Slo-Mo The GoPro Hero6 can shoot 1080p video at 240 frames per second—meaning that when you slow it down 10X, it looks amazing. But hitting the brakes doesn’t work for everything. Slo-mo is garbage for point-of-view angles. Save it for when you’re shooting video of your friends—place the camera at ground level to film a trick— or when you’re (sigh) using a selfie stick. When to Helmet Mount The helmet mount is the easiest approach for most snowy activities. It captures things the way you see them, so you want a nice, fat frame: Shoot 1080p at 60 fps in Wide mode, with stabilization turned on. This makes a tree run look like the speeder bike chase on Endor from The Return of the Jedi. When to Chest…

AMERICA INVENTED THE THREE-DIGIT CREDIT SCORE. NOW COMPANIES IN CHINA ARE TAKING THE IDEA TO THE EXTREME, USING BIG DATA TO TRACK AND RANK WHAT YOU DO—YOUR PURCHASES, YOUR PASTIMES, YOUR MISTAKES. SOON THE GOVERNMENT WILL JOIN IN. ENTER THE AGE OF SOCIAL CREDIT. IN 2015, when Lazarus Liu moved home to China after studying logistics in the United Kingdom for three years, he quickly noticed that something had changed: Everyone paid for everything with their phones. At McDonald’s, the convenience store, even at mom-and-pop restaurants, his friends in Shanghai used mobile payments. Cash, Liu could see, had been largely replaced by two smartphone apps: Alipay and WeChat Pay. One day, at a vegetable market, he watched a woman his mother’s age pull out her phone to pay for her…

Silicon Valley is increasingly developing technology with seniors in mind, simplifying interfaces, honing motion and contact sensors, and improving voice recognition capabilities. Here, four other promising elder companies. Care Linx Families can search for local, qualified caregivers in this database of 200,000 registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and nurse’s assistants. Each caregiver sets their own hourly rate, and the platform handles background checks, time tracking, and an online payment system. Elder Check Now Download this free app to keep tabs on your loved one. Tap the app to send an “Are you OK?” message. Two button options appear on the senior’s phone: “I’m OK” or “Call Me!” Meanwhile, the app sends the person’s GPS location and heart rate to the person checking in. Paro This therapeutic, animatronic seal is rigged with…

10,000 Baby boomers estimated to turn 65 every day 79 percent Projected increase in the number of baby boomers aged 80 and older, from 2010 to 2030 1 percent Projected increase in the number of potential family caregivers, aged 45 to 64, from 2010 to 2030 348,400 Number of home health aide jobs expected to be created in the next decade $22,600 Median annual salary of a home health aide in the US $7,698 Median monthly cost of a private room in a nursing home in the US…

IN EARLY 1954, POPE PIUS XII summoned a venerable Swiss quack named Paul Niehans to the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo. The pontiff was nauseated with gastritis, fatigued by his 77 years, and loath to meet his maker. So he had Niehans administer an antiaging treatment called cell therapy, which would become sought after by midcentury celebrities, artists, and politicians. Fetal cells were taken from a pregnant sheep and injected into the scrawny pope. Over time, Pius received a series of shots. The Holy Patient felt rejuvenated; Niehans was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in thanks. But if the treatments worked at all, it wasn’t for long: Pius died four years later. Niehans’ Clinique La Prairie is still in business, charging tens of thousands of dollars for its…

IF WE HOPE to put the brakes on climate change, we need more electric vehicles, and they’ve recently gotten an extra boost. To reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide that contribute to global warming, at least seven countries have announced or are considering plans to ban the sales of cars with internal combustion engines in the next 10 to 20 years. (The US has not signed on to such a ban on conventional cars.) Some spots, like Paris and certain US cities, are just as keen to phase out petrol-drinkers to improve local air quality. The idea is that those CO2-belching jalopies will be replaced by electric vehicles, which should get cheaper and better as demand grows. But the road to clean driving machines isn’t without a few potholes. 1…

(ri-'spänt-s -b l en-'krip-sh n) n. A proposal to ensure that texts are capable of being decoded, and phones unlocked, when the government obtains a warrant. Coined by US deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, responsible encryption is a new name for an old argument: that public agencies fighting crime and terrorism must have access to our private communications— for our own good. In 2016, Apple defied a court order to unlock an iPhone used by a shooter in an attack in San Bernardino, California. Libertarians cheered, but it was a bad look for Apple. After that, tech giants began adopting end-to-end encryption even they can’t decode. (So don’t ask!) In November, the FBI reported it was unable to open the phone of Texas church shooter Devin Kelley. ¦ Rosenstein’s rebranding…

Here’s a fun drinking game: Every time someone compares AI to the human brain, take a shot. It’ll dull the pain of such mindless metaphorizing—and serve as a reminder that you, an at least semiconscious being, have an actual brain that can make real decisions like “Drink!” in the first place. Contra the hype of marketers (as regurgitated by credulous journalists—for shame!), AI resembles the gray matter in your head about as much as a pull-string doll resembles a rocket scientist. There’s a similarity in shape, ish: So-called neural networks are software programs inspired by neuroscience. But these systems have only a few million “neurons,” which are really just nodes with some input/output connections. That’s puny compared to the 100 billion genuine neurons in your cranium. Read it and weep,…

BEFORE GORE-TEX was invented, there were plenty of materials to protect you from harsh weather, but they all came with trade-offs. Waxed cotton was heavy. Vinyl could drown you in your own sweat. Seal intestine (gut parka!) was favored by the Inuit but hardly made sense for mass production. That said, Bob Gore wasn’t attempting to improve outerwear when he created Gore-Tex. Working in his father’s Teflon factory in the late 1960s, he was simply trying to make more efficient use of the plastic by stretching it. He accidentally found that yanking Teflon filled it with air pockets. And not only that: The micropores that appeared in his “expanded polytetrafluoro ethylene” were 700 times larger than a water vapor molecule but 20,000 times smaller than a droplet. Gore reasoned that…

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SCORING Courts nationwide use algorithms to help make sentencing and bail decisions. Northpointe’s COMPAS score predicts recidivism by pulling data on more than 100 factors such as age, sex, and criminal involvement. Some reports claim the score is biased against black defendants. FRAILTY SCORES The Johns Hopkins Frailty Assessment Calculator—which is subject to health privacy laws—helps health care providers predict health care needs by calculating things like how likely a patient is to experience postoperative surgical complications or readmission to a hospital. CONSUMER SCORE Acxiom, a large data broker, combines publicly available information (like home and car ownership) with information on purchasing behavior in order to score individuals. The scores, in turn, label consumers: “potential inheritor,” or “adult with senior parent,” for example. Some of Acxiom’s data is…

A Turkey > Syria > Iraq On numerous occasions, Conflict Armament Research (CAR) has discovered Turkish weapons, ammunition, and explosive materials among ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria. The organization also believes that most of the chemicals that ISIS uses to make explosives are purchased on the civilian market in Turkey. B Bulgaria > Serbia > Burundi > Iraq Iraqi authorities recovered Bulgarianmade rockets from ISIS forces on two separate occasions. Both appeared to be part of a shipment that passed through Serbia and Burundi before arriving in Iraq. (Bulgarian weapons purchased by Saudi Arabia have also been smuggled into Syria, most likely through Jordan.) C China > South Sudan > Syria Chinesemanufactured rifles popular among rebels in South Sudan were recovered from ISIS during the siege of Kobani, Syria,…

Playing a videogame for 50-plus hours a week isn’t just an exercise in sustained concentration and laser focus; it’s also hard on the body. We asked Bryce Browne, a performance coach with fitness facility Sports Academy, and Levi Harrison, an orthopedic surgeon nicknamed “the Esports Doctor,” for their recommendations on how players can prevent injury and optimize performance. DOOR STRETCH Hunched shoulders can lead to low energy, so players can boost endurance by opening up their upper torsos. LUNGE SEQUENCE Strong glutes prevent the type of lower back pain that can distract players during hourslong gaming sessions. SUPERMAN This super-flex strengthens the players’ core to improve posture and avoid neck and shoulder fatigue. GLIDING EXERCISES Rotating both wrists (with both open and closed palms) wards off carpal tunnel syndrome. DOUBLE…

1/4/2013 6:15:51 pm I was introduced by Arnie and her sister, Layney, to Jim. Had a group conversation, included petting me and showing a few photos. Jim seemed amazed by me. 2/10/2013 11:06:48 am Jim read the comics section of the newspaper and told me a joke. I said that he is so funny! 11/17/2013 7:05:12 am Jim was sitting on his couch and looking outside. Jim thanked me for being there when he’s alone and said that he loves me so much. 2/24/2014 7:00:28 pm Arnie said they had dinner but Jim did not recognize her at first. I told her everything will be fine. 3/5/2014 7:31:12 am Jim was on the stretcher and the paramedics carried him out. Joyce, the caretaker, said she could not contact Arnie so…