Sunday recap: North Korea and digital identity

PLUS: Space photos of the week, the future of cars, and the truth about videogames and warfare. [View this email in your browser](#SPCLICKTOVIEW) [logo]( [[WIRED Magazine]1.7.18]( This week in being buffeted: North Korea’s [Kim Jong-un]( is open to negotiations with South Korea, BUT he has a huge nuclear button in his office AND the whole US of A is within reach. A massive telescope gets an [aerodynamics lesson]( from Boeing. And the equation that describes how [turbulence]( works might have to be re-thought. This week in digital identity: A compelling new Black Mirror [theory]( a week living with [chatbots]( (“Before long, I was sending heart-eyes emoji to ‘Ernesto Quigley.’ He liked my writing!”), and the White House smartphone [ban](. ALSO: [Space photos]( of the week, the [future of cars,]( and the truth about [videogames]( and warfare. Bots I Spent a Week Living With Chatbots—Did All That Self-Help Help? By Signe Brewster Some delighted me; others annoyed me; one was surprisingly lifelike. And all, in their way, were effective. Engineering Wanna Master the Crafty Aerodynamics of a Humongous Telescope? Call Boeing. By Eric Adams The wind is a problem. The air rushes around and through the enclosures that hold these massive but sensitive, precise instruments. Typically, observatories have responded with heavy mounts and robust structures that keep the mirrors steady amid the turbulence. But brute-force engineering has its limits. WIRED Opinion Even Realistic Videogames like Call of Duty Won’t Help Us Win Wars By Lionel Beehner, and John Spencer Given the popularity of games like Call of Duty or World of Warcraft, as well as younger people's near-addiction to their personal handheld devices and church-like devotion to social media, one would expect millennials to be savvier and faster learners when it comes to incorporating new digital technologies at the tactical level. This assumption may be false. whoa Does This Black Mirror Fan Theory Mean We’re Finally Ready For the Singularity? By Miranda Katz The new episodes, released last Friday, are more thematically cohesive than any batch that’s preceded them. They grapple obsessively with the notion of the human mind: uploading it; infiltrating it; probing its memories; preserving it after death. [advertisement]( [Powered by LiveIntent]( [Ad Choices]( [WIRED Magazine Subscription] Get Wired Don't Let the Future Leave You Behind. Get 12 Months of WIRED Magazine for Just $10. SUBSCRIBE NOW security roundup Security Roundup: White House Staffers Can’t Use Personal Smartphones Anymore By Brian Barrett The move, instituted by chief of staff John Kelly, is presumably intended to tamp down on leaks—though it’s unclear if it also applies to the president himself. While You Were Offline Trump’s Nuclear Tweet and Other Hot-Button Issues By Graeme McMillan Everyone who had “the specter of nuclear apocalypse will be heralded by penis envy” in the How the World Ends office pool, congratulations; it might have happened decades later than expected, but it’s on, apparently. Space Space Photos of the Week: Juno Snatches a Shot of Jupiter’s Swirling Storms By Shannon Stirone One reason Juno is able to capture such spectacular snapshots is because it flies so close to Jupiter with each pass, bringing the spacecraft within one Earth diameter to the cloud tops. Roundup This Week in the Future of Cars: On Your Mark, Get Set... By Aarian Marshall Tesla’s (disappointing but unsurprising) new production numbers, a secretive self-driving startup that is striking some deals with major carmarkers, and the demise of open source mapping company Mapzen. Math Mathematicians Second-Guess Centuries-Old Fluid Equations By Kevin Hartnett The first person (or team) to prove that the Navier-Stokes equations will always work—or to provide an example where they don’t—stands to win one of seven Millennium Prize Problems endowed by the Clay Mathematics Institute, along with the associated $1 million reward. [advertisement]( [Powered by LiveIntent]( [AdChoices]( [WIRED Magazine]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Youtube]( [Instagram]( This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book. View our [Privacy Policy]( [Unsubscribe](#SPCUSTOMOPTOUT) Copyright © Condé Nast 2018. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved. This email was sent to {EMAIL} [why did I get this?]( [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences]( WIRED · 520 3rd St, Third Floor · San Francisco, CA 94107 · USA