Our consoles are now packed with enormous, richly detailed 3D worlds to explore-and they just keep getting more expansive. By one calculation, GTA 5 is over six times larger than GTA 3; another estimate puts Elden Ring's map at a massive 79 playable square kilometers. That got us wondering, which game is the biggest?
Turns out, there's no clear answer. Publishers generally won't talk specifics, perhaps out of fear their in-game worlds will seem small in comparison to others. Of course, it isn't the size that matters, it's what you do with it that counts-diminutive maps often offer a more realistic and compelling experience. But that hasn't stopped fans from speculating, so we trawled the gamers here for the most credible calculations and authoritative claims to create this visualization of virtual real estate.
I USED TO WORRY about using too much electricity.
If a family member forgot to turn off the AC, I'd snap at them: "What, you want the planet to cook extra fast?" If I found lights left on overnight, I'd fume.
I was insufferable. In my defense, I'd been worrying about climate change ever since Jim Hansen's 1988 landmark congressional testimony. With every blast of AC, I knew more carbon was being pumped into the atmosphere. So I turned into an energy miser. I'd go around the house turning off lights; if no one else was home, I'd leave the AC off, even on blazing days.
Then something fundamentally shifted my psychology around electricity: I installed solar panels on my house.
I quickly found myself awash in energy. The installers had predicted the panels would produce 100 percent of what my Brooklyn, New York, a household needed. They underestimated: I generate a lot of net surpluses. In a 24-hour period, my panels produce as much as 50 percent more juice than I need. I'm saving about $2,000 a year, so I'll amortize the cost of the array in seven years; then the electricity is damn near free.
Denne historien er fra October 2022-utgaven av WIRED.
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Denne historien er fra October 2022-utgaven av WIRED.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
A Full-Term Gig - Hiring someone to carry your baby to term is a booming business.
Hiring someone to carry your baby to term is a booming business. The market for surrogacy is expected to expand to $129 billion by 2032, fueled by older parents, rising infertility, and more same-sex families. Silicon Valley contributes to the growth too: Tech companies like Google, Meta, and Snap pitch in up to $80,000 toward the six-figure cost of the process.
Inside the Uncanny World of TikTok Home Remodeling - Turn a tree into a luxury apartment. Retrofit a bedroom for a million children. The videos are bizarre-and going very viral. Who's behind them?
If you've been on TikTok at any point in the past six months, chances are you've stumbled across them, as I first did during a fairly routine doomscroll one night this summer. For me it started with two videos somewhat incongruously tagged #homeremodeling and #housedesign. One of them featured a CGI man summoning a baby phoenix outside of a tree that he planned to turn into an apartment. Then a robotic AI voice started to narrate how the CGI man, identified as Little John, was going to build it. Over the next 90 seconds, Little John transformed the tree into a maniacally space-efficient luxury unit in an AI-generated ballet of flying galvanized square steel, ecofriendly wood veneer, and expansion screws.
The Hole in the Map of the World - On the surface, there's nothing unusual about it. just a spot of ocean. but beneath the waves lurks something incredible: a massive waterfall. and in its mysterious depths, the fate of the world churns.
Tip of Iceland, you'll find what's often called a marginal body of water. This part of the Atlantic, the Irminger Sea, is one of the stormiest places in the northern hemisphere. On Google Maps it gets three stars: very windy, says one review. It's also where something rather strange is happening. As the rest of the planet has warmed since the 20th century-less in the tropics, more near the poles-temperatures in this patch of ocean have hardly budged. In some years they've even cooled. If you get a thrill from spooky maps, check out one that compares the average temperatures in the late 19th century with those of the 2010s. All of the planet is quilted in pink and red, the familiar colors of climate change. But in the North Atlantic, there's one freak splotch of blue. If global warming were a blanket, the Irminger Sea and its neighboring waters are where the moths ate through. Scientists call it the warming hole.
The Eternal Truth of Markdown -An exegesis of the most ubiquitous piece of code on the web.
Markdown is not just a piece of software. It's also a markup language it's used to format plaintext, which then appears the way you want it to on, say, the internet. Markdown the markup language was designed to be as easy-to-read and easy-to-write as is feasible, according to creator John Gruber's syntax guide. A Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it's been marked up with tags or formatting instructions.
Terminal Velocity - Murphy, a competitive runner since high school, was an avid user of the exercise app Strava, and he frequently checked the app while traveling to see where locals liked to run.
It was 2 am at Denver International Airport, and Jared Murphy was only a few hours into a planned 17-hour layover. His options at this quiet hour, in the expansive halls of the concourse, were pretty much nil. There would be no nibbling on ahi tartare at the Crú Food & Wine Bar for at least another seven hours, and the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory's signature caramel apples had long since been cached for the night.
What's the future for Western 'super apps'?
Super apps create a single interface to unify a broad ecosystem of services such as messaging, e-commerce, and transport. With consumers making all of their purchases within one walled garden, the user engagement and data benefits for the app owner are obvious and substantial. These apps have become a major part of the Chinese technology landscape, so we asked two leading experts: Could the concept successfully break through in Western markets?
THE TELEVISUAL HIJACKING OF ALFONSO CUARON
Gravity, Children of Men, the best Harry Potter film-and now a seven-part miniseries?
THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXES TRAE STEPHENS
The venture capitalist and cofounder of the defense-tech startup Anduril has worked with Donald Trump, Peter Thiel, Palmer Luckey, and Elon Musk.
THE ULTRACOOL CASH GRABS OF BOOBI ALTHOFF
Now the Tik Tokker turned podcaster is out to prove her worth-by being herself.
THE MIDLIFE NOT -A-CRISIS OF MARK CUBAN
Though he's soon to be out at Shark Tank, the billionaire has a massive new \"disruption\" in the works. He's certain it'll save lives.
