The Autonomous Future of Warfare Looks a Lot Like Pokémon Go

Will Roper plays video games like the future of the country depends on it, because, well, it kind of does. As director of the Pentagon's Strategic Capabilities Office, Roper spends his days predicting how war will work in the not-so-distant future, and developing the technological capabilities that will enable the American military to lead the way. Because Silicon Valley's companies evolve so much faster than the bureaucracies of Washington can, Roper and the SCO draw inspiration from the private sector picking apart the genius of Pokémon Go. "I think they've solved one of the toughest challenges for warfare," Roper said of the app in a conversation with WIRED's Nick Thompson at South by Southwest Monday. "How do you take amazingly complex information and make it so integrated with the person interacting with it?" Roper envisions a day when soldiers will be able to drop a digital marker on the battlefield that future deployments and faraway units could also see, similar to how Pokémon Go enables millions of strangers to spot the same Jigglypuff in the middle of Times Square.