Viruses, Hackers, AI — Oh My! Welcome to ‘Dark Horizons’
A collection of stories about strange science and terrifying technology
A few weeks back, The Messenger's Ben Powers traveled to cover an unusual performance act in Atlanta: Mercedes-Benz Stadium was showing off Benzi, its new Boston Dynamics-designed robo-police dog. It can run, it can hunt, and its corporate handler even showed off a TikTok dance it had learned.
We didn’t dispatch Ben because the technology seemed especially innovative. It has, in fact, been around for nearly 20 years in environments like war zones and crime scenes. It's only new to public arenas like the nest of the NFL Falcons.
No, what made Ben’s sideline report so intriguing was how it captured the casualness of a high-profile showcase around a technology once best known through memes heralding dystopia’s imminent dawn. Today an automated guard isn't a disturbing reminder of our militarized world, the kind of thing that used to be parodied in films like Robocop. Instead, it's a cute steel-plated pup receiving pride of place beside presentations from the Falcons’ other corporate partners, including FedEx and Coca-Cola.
That robot reminded us that many of the best stories —the eyebrow-raising, eye-widening ones — are as strange or wild as any science fiction. So with the spookiest of seasons upon us, we dispatched reporters to find tales from science and technology’s dimmest corners and outermost reaches. We decided to call them 'Dark Horizons.'
Dave Levitan dug deep into a nightmare buried beneath the permafrost, and Jody Serrano conjured up a piece on a monster’s social media-driven resurrection. Eric Geller dodged Skynet’s top soldiers to detail how hackers are weaponizing artificial intelligence. And Jon Lambert evaded the clutches of a mind-manipulating parasite that is increasingly catching scientists’ attention.
Not diving into a bunker yet? Just consider our stories as worthy bright lights into some gloomy depths.
