2018-11-03 New Scientist Australian Edition

3 November 2018 | NewScientist | 45

threatened, and they are victims

of social change rather than

agents of it, they are more likely to

support authoritarian solutions

and leaderships that will sweep

away the slow process of

evidence-based policy-making.

Lurking beneath the surface is

a resort to violence, which is why

Davies finds this “war-in-peace”

concept so worrying. A feature of

mass mobilisation in war, first

used by Napoleon, is to stir up a

sense of injury and a desire for

revenge: politicians, Davies

reminds us, have long understood

the “political energy in suffering

and defeat”. We are not facing new

types of manipulation, but rather

a broader and more intrusive

method of delivery.

Other features of war-in-peace

include using emergency powers,

merging corporate and state

power, telling lies designed to

affect morale, increased secrecy

and restricting knowledge to

small groups. Davies sees signs

of these in elite tech companies,

in which a handful of billionaires

have a tight personal grip on

ownership and control, and wield

influence without oversight.

So how do we resist? Davies

thinks experts have a vital role,

but only if they recognise and

reach out to the emotional

component in popular thinking

(and their own). More concretely,

he suggests we act wherever

emotion can usefully help unite

populations on rationally sound

issues – such as global warming,

the #MeToo movement and the

Black Lives Matter campaign.

These are small seeds of hope

perhaps, but they are grounded

in an encouraging and novel

picture of how we got here, and

how we might find a way out. ■

Ben Collyer is a science writer based

in Essex, UK

Call of Duty, Black Ops 4, out now

STANDING in front of a surface

coated in Vantablack is terrifying.

The nanotech material is the

blackest black there is, reflecting

so little light back that a room

painted floor to ceiling with the

stuff makes the world disappear.

I feel I’m in a sensory deprivation

tank as my eyes and ears strain to

get a grip on something, anything.

Suddenly, a screen explodes

with colour, and the roar of

Activision’s latest Call of Duty

game, Black Ops 4, shatters the

void. “This is VR 2.0,” says Ben

Jensen, chief technology officer

at UK-based Surrey NanoSystems,

the company behind Vantablack.

To date, Vantablack’s main

industrial use is in precision

cameras for satellites or

autonomous vehicles, where it

prevents interference from stray

light. Anish Kapoor, who is the

only artist licensed to work with

Vantablack, and marketing

agencies are also busy dreaming

up other uses.

This is the first time the large-

scale version of the paint,VBx2,

has been used to paint the inside

of a structure. I am with other

gamers in a warehouse set up by

Activision to try out Black Ops 4,

the biggest, most bombastic of the

series. To play well takes skill and

reflexes that are easier to develop

in an environment that shuts out

everything but the game. Could

Vantablack offer a no-helmet

immersion for virtual worlds?

Jensen has played VR games for

years, but cuts them short because

he finds helmets exhausting.

“But in the Vantablack room I feel

like I could play all day.”

Don’t plan on redecorating

your living room though –

applying the material isn’t

easy, says Jensen. The blackest

version of Vantablack reflects

just 0.0365 per cent of light.

Photons hitting the material get

trapped in a carbon nanotube

structure, bouncing around until

they are absorbed. Jensen’s team

has developed sprayable versions

of Vantablack, but they still need

to be applied in a way that lets the

nanostructure build up. “It takes

significant training,” he says.

“We use robots.”

Still, everyone leaving that

blacker-than-black room had

big grins on their faces. ■

Douglas Heaven is a consultant

for New Scientist

For more books and arts coverage, visit newscientist.com/culture

VR without helmets

Will superblack paint create virtual reality 2.0?

Douglas Heaven tries it out with Call of Duty

“ For those at the sharp end,
talk of national economic
growth and social
progress means little”

ACTIVISION

THE TOM DALE COMPANY

Visit

I Infinite (pictured below) is the

most powerful 3D immersive

entertainment we have seen: a

dance performed in a virtual space

marked out by image projection.

The Tom Dale Company is touring it

around the UK until 20 November.

Watch

Monty Wates was given exclusive

access to the first medical trial to

give psilocybin to volunteers with

clinical depression. His film, Magic

Medicine, is out on 9 November.

Play

Billed as an antithesis to first-

person shooters, 11-11: Memories

retold by Aardman and Digixart is a

playable painting created for the

centenary of the first world war.

It is released on 9 November.

Read

Biologist Rob Dunn reminds us

we are cultivating a playground for

evolution in our ever-cleaner homes

in his book Never Home Alone:

From microbes to millipedes, camel

crickets, and honeybees, the

natural history of where we live

(Basic Books).

Listen

Planetary Radio, the podcast by

the Planetary Society, is packed

with discussions about the latest

astronomical findings. In a recent

episode, Cassini project scientist

Linda Spilker discusses brand-new

data from Saturn.

DON’T MISS