Wired Middle East Magazine - Autumn 2021

In this issue

Would you turn down $200 million for a 24-by-24-pixel online image? That is the decision taken by one CryptoPunk investor interviewed for WIRED Middle East’s Autumn cover story, which unpicks the NFT craze in an effort to establish whether the digital tokens are the key to connecting in a brave new virtual world—or the dictionary definition of a bubble. Elsewhere in the issue (which was published as the world gathers in the UAE for Expo 2020 Dubai), WIRED focuses on how networks—be they purely human, or the web of billions of internet devices—have made the world more connected than ever before, and are driving future change. It looks at the real-world potential of technologies showcased at the Expo, how they promise to revolutionize life in the Middle East, and how AI “consciousness” will one day answer existential questions humans never could.