Pokémon played a seminal role in my life. An elderly millennial, I was just the right age to be baffled by the spell it was casting over the younger members of my generation when it emerged in the ’90s. I soon became smugly out of touch, convincing myself that it was not I but the children who were wrong. I’ve always been uncool (as I admitted when I wrote about the hilarious social media prankster know as Da Share Z0ne this week), but Pokémon taught me that I was also desperately out touch.
Fox
As such, I was woefully unprepared for Pokémon Go, the massive hit mobile game that’s taken over much of my Twitter feed in the past week. Fortunately, my colleague Lily Hay Newman, a lifelong Pokémon devotee, is far more clued in. She put her fandom to good use this week, penning an explainer of the pokénomenon that is every bit as fun as the game itself—and much funnier. Here you’ll find answers to questions about the game’s augmented reality mechanics, the source of its peculiar map data.
Once you’re caught up, go deep with us into the pokéticulars. Dawnthea Price shows us why it’s hard to play in the suburbs, while Chelsea Hassler details how the game took over her New York City life. Think you’re ready to jump in? Don’t be too hasty: There are still lingering security questions about the game, thanks to the dodgy—if unintentional—account permissions it requests from Google. We also looked into the conversations about mental health happening around it, worrying that some of the more extreme claims may accidentally reinforce negative stereotypes about video gamers more generally.
Here are some of the other stories we read while wishing we could edit our tweets:
- Driverless cars: In the wake of the first fatal accident involving the Model S’ “autopilot” mode, Will Oremus explores why other companies think Tesla is approaching vehicular automation wrong.
- Cyberlaw: Josephine Wolff looks at the overwrought claims that a court said it’s illegal to share your Netflix password with someone else.
- Privacy: Sens. Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich inveigh against efforts to let law enforcement agencies access our browser histories, arguing that doing so is “almost like spying on … thoughts.”
- Obituary: Alvin Toffler, who died in late June, was one of the first modern futurists, and though he got a great deal right, he may have been looking at the central problem all wrong. David Guston delves into the vexing complexities of Toffler’s legacy.
Events:
- What concerted steps should Canada, Mexico, and the United States take to ensure that North America will become the world’s leading energy power for generations? Future Tense and the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute invite you to join them in Washington, D.C., at noon on Tuesday, July 26, for a conversation on what it will take for North America to fulfill its energy potential. For more information and to RSVP, visit the New America website, where the event will also be streamed live.
Clearing my cache,
Jacob Brogan
for Future Tense
