Wired Guide Archives - WIREDGORILLA

The WIRED Guide to Quantum Computing

Web Monkey1 year ago027 mins

BIG THINGS HAPPEN when computers get smaller. Or faster. And quantum computing is about chasing perhaps the biggest performance boost in the history of technology. The basic idea is to smash some barriers that limit the speed of existing computers by harnessing the counterintuitive physics of subatomic scales.…

The WIRED Guide to Data Breaches

Web Monkey1 year ago034 mins

It Seems like every week there’s another massive corporate security breach that exposes your personal data. Names, email addresses, passwords, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, credit card numbers, banking data, passport numbers, phone numbers, home addresses, driver’s license numbers, and medical records—they all get swept up by shadowy, amorphous hackers for fraud, identity theft, nation-state surveillance, and more.…

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Artificial Intelligence

Web Monkey1 year ago026 mins

Artificial intelligence is here. It’s overhyped, poorly understood, and flawed but already core to our lives—and it’s only going to extend its reach. AI powers driverless car research, spots otherwise invisible signs of disease on medical images, finds an answer when you ask Alexa a question, and lets you unlock your phone with your face to talk to friends as an animated poop on the iPhone X using Apple’s Animoji.…

Blockchain: The Complete Guide

Web Monkey1 year ago024 mins

At this stage, when you say “blockchain,” you get two reactions: eye-rolling and dismissal or excited fervor at the potential for quick money. But it doesn’t have to be either/or.…

The WIRED Guide to 5G

Web Monkey1 year ago018 mins

The future depends on connectivity. From artificial intelligence and self-driving cars, to telemedicine and mixed reality, to as yet undreamed technologies, all the things we hope will make our lives easier, safer, and healthier require high-speed, always-on internet connections.…

What Is a Self-Driving Car? The Complete WIRED Guide

Web Monkey3 years ago031 mins

In the past decade, autonomous driving has gone from “maybe possible” to “definitely possible” to “inevitable” to “how did anyone ever think this wasn’t inevitable?” to “now commercially available.”…

The WIRED Guide to the Internet of Things

Web Monkey4 years ago031 mins

How many engineers does it take to change a lightbulb? Depends on whether or not that lightbulb is connected to Wi-Fi. Lightbulbs, along with refrigerators, coffee makers, microwave ovens, baby monitors, security cameras, speakers, televisions, and thermostats have, in the past few decades, transformed from ordinary objects into conduits for the future.…

Everything You Need To Know About Crispr Gene Editing

Web Monkey4 years ago032 mins

IN THE EARLY days of gene editing, biologists had a molecular tool kit that was somewhat akin to a printing press. Which is to say, altering DNA was a messy, labor-intensive process of loading genes onto viruses bound for target cells.…

Net Neutrality: Here’s Everything You Need To Know

Web Monkey4 years ago016 mins

Net neutrality is the idea that internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon should treat all content flowing through their cables and cell towers equally. That means they shouldn’t be able to slide some data into “fast lanes” while blocking or otherwise discriminating against other material.…

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Robots

Web Monkey4 years ago019 mins

Modern robots are not unlike toddlers: It’s hilarious to watch them fall over, but deep down we know that if we laugh too hard, they might develop a complex and grow up to start World War III.…

The WIRED Guide to Climate Change

Web Monkey4 years ago029 mins

The world is busted. For decades, scientists have carefully accumulated data that confirms what we hoped wasn’t true: The greenhouse gas emissions that have steadily spewed from cars and planes and factories, the technologies that powered a massive period of economic growth, came at an enormous cost to the planet’s health.…

The WIRED Guide to Virtual Reality

Web Monkey4 years ago023 mins

All hail the headset. Or, alternatively, all ignore the headset, because it’s gonna be a dismal failure anyway. That’s pretty much the conversation around virtual reality (VR), a technology by which computer-aided stimuli create the immersive illusion of being somewhere else—and a topic on which middle ground is about as scarce as affordable housing in Silicon Valley.…

The WIRED Guide to Influencers

Web Monkey4 years ago034 mins

Much like trolls or the blockchain, the term influencer is one of those words that ubiquity has rendered meaningless. It is simultaneously an insult and an aspiration, the scourge of small business owners and the future of marketing, and a moniker for kids with middling social followings and megacelebrities alike.…

Everything You Need to Know About Genetic Testing

Web Monkey4 years ago038 mins

Big secrets come in small packages. Take cells, like the ones shedding off the inside of your cheeks and into your saliva right now. These days it’s not that hard to crack them open, shake out the DNA coiled inside, and read the genetic code they contain.…

Cyberwar: The Complete Guide

Web Monkey5 years ago043 mins

Not so long ago, stories about cyberwar started with scary hypotheticals: What if state-sponsored hackers were to launch widespread attacks that blacked out entire cities? Crippled banks and froze ATMs across a country?…

The WIRED Guide to Aliens

Web Monkey5 years ago030 mins

It’s late on a clear night. You’re driving down a winding county highway—no headlights for miles—and you steer the car over to the shoulder. You get out, wait for the dome light to blink off, and actually look up at that sky for the first time in a while.…

The WIRED Guide to Cannabis

Web Monkey5 years ago023 mins

Humanity just can’t make up its mind about cannabis. For thousands of years, humans have used the stuff as medicine or to travel on spiritual quests.…

The WIRED Guide to Your Personal Data (and Who Is Using It)

Web Monkey5 years ago032 mins

On the internet, the personal data users give away for free is transformed into a precious commodity. The puppy photos people upload train machines to be smarter.…

The WIRED Guide to Commercial Human Space Flight

Web Monkey5 years ago032 mins

On the morning of December 13, 2018, the Virgin Galactic WhiteKnightTwo wheeled down a stark runway in Mojave, California, ready to take off. Whining like a regular passenger jet, the twin-hulled catamaran of an airplane passed by owner Richard Branson, who stood clapping in an aviator jacket on the pavement.…