Does This Startup Actually Exist? |
Did we just run an extended ad for Evan Ratliff’s new AI startup? In a way, yes. It’s called Sloth Surf, and it helps you procrastinate. Or something. I tend to zone out when people pitch their next great idea. Point is, we asked Evan to write about it for WIRED. He’s a friend of the show. He deserved the opportunity.
But the joke’s on Evan, and he knows it. Sloth Surf is a disaster, for reasons that will be immediately apparent when you click the link. Let’s just say the employees aren’t very good at their jobs. They lie, cheat, talk too much, and—ironically—procrastinate. They also, arguably, don’t exist.
Or is the joke … on us? Because for all that, there’s still investor interest! Incredible. Just read it. Evan is one of the great stuntmen of our time, and the age of AI wouldn’t be as fun without him.
P.S. Want more freaky-deaky AI stories? Pick a card, any card. |
|
|
The Criminal to End All Criminals |
Story originally published in July 2019 |
Over the course of Evan’s career, one of his greatest preoccupations has been the story of international criminal kingpin Paul Calder Le Roux. In 2019, he wrote an entire book about the notorious drug trafficker, which WIRED excerpted. That same year, one of the greatest mysteries of the digital age collided with Evan’s obsession with Le Roux. A missed redaction in a footnote in a Florida lawsuit sparked a theory—could Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin, be another of Le Roux’s abundant aliases? Evan chronicles his breathless efforts to verify this claim, and in doing so crafts a study on the allure of the narrative. He recounts poring over documents and source code, seeking to make proof out of inconsequential detritus, and reflects on how easy it is to fall for a fantasy. This week I’d love to hear tales of other alluring conspiracies and speculation, including the ones that turned out to be true. Email samantha_spengler@wired.com or comment below the article.
|
|
|
Palantir’s CEO is good with ICE and says he defends human rights. But will Israel and Trump ever go too far for him? |
Two mathematicians have proved that a straightforward question—how hard is it to untie a knot?—has a complicated answer. |
For years, plastic surgeons thought the proportions of a beautiful buttocks should follow the Fibonacci sequence. Now, people are looking for a more Kardashian shape. |
|
|
WIRED’s Steven Levy recently sat down with one of the most controversial figures in tech to ask him about his role in US government operations. Although that describes an increasing number of oligarchs, this time it was Palantir founder Alex Karp’s turn in the hot seat. Readers had plenty of things to say about the meandering conversation in which Steven grilled Karp on his company’s relationship with ICE. Many readers wanted to know whether Steven had asked about how Karp squares his philosophies with Peter Theil’s various endeavors, including network states, or Christian nationalism. Others wished to challenge Karp’s take on immigration in Germany. Steven himself even stepped in to answer some questions. One reader noted that Karp’s equivocations make sense, when you consider Palantir is “making products that are explicitly designed for centralized population control, and simultaneously claiming to be the good guys while offering those products to people who are the very type of people with incentive to use those tools in exactly the way that scares people.”
Tell us about your favorite WIRED stories and magazine-related memories. Write to samantha_spengler@wired.com, and include “CLASSICS” in the subject line. |
|
|
|
