Visions of the Future
In this new three-part documentary, leading theoretical physicist and futurist Dr Michio Kaku explores the cutting edge science of today, tomorrow, and beyond.
He argues that humankind is at a turning point in history. In this century, we are going to make the historic transition from the ‘Age of Discovery’ to the ‘Age of Mastery’, a period in which we will move from being passive observers of nature to its active choreographers. This will give us not only unparalleled possibilities but also great responsibilities.
1. The Intelligence Revolution. In the opening installment, Kaku explains how artificial intelligence will revolutionise homes, workplaces and lifestyles, and how virtual worlds will become so realistic that they will rival the physical world. Robots with human-level intelligence may finally become a reality, and in the ultimate stage of mastery, we’ll even be able to merge our minds with machine intelligence.
For the first time on television, see how a severely depressed patient can be turned into a happy person at the push of a button – all thanks to the cross-pollination of neuroscience and artificial intelligence.
2. The Biotech Revolution Genetics and biotechnology promise a future of unprecedented health and longevity: DNA screening could prevent many diseases, gene therapy could cure them and, thanks to lab-grown organs, the human body could be repaired as easily as a car, with spare parts readily available. Ultimately, the ageing process itself could be slowed down or even halted.
But what impact will this have on who we are and how we will live? And, with our mastery of the genome, will the human race end up in a world divided by genetic apartheid?
3. The Quantum Revolution The quantum revolution could turn many ideas of science fiction into science fact – from metamaterials with mind-boggling properties like invisibility through limitless quantum energy and room temperature superconductors to Arthur C Clarke’s space elevator. Some scientists even forecast that in the latter half of the century everybody will have a personal fabricator that re-arranges molecules to produce everything from almost anything.
Yet how will we ultimately use our mastery of matter? Like Samson, will we use our strength to bring down the temple? Or, like Solomon, will we have the wisdom to match our technology?
It is easy to follow for I think the need of the people out weigh the need of doing nothing, 60 years have seen some things my self hope to live at 60 more God bless.
As far as I can tell, Michio mostly floats stuff from movies as the future. I preferred scientists before the PR industry turned them all into witchdoctors and prophets, who've completely abandoned empiricism, falsifiability, and Socratic ignorance. Michio is the High Priest of this bunch.
Very interesting documentary which he also discusses in his book the Future of Physics. Some of the points are a little off the wall and im not entirely sure why there isn't more discussion on the ethical arguments of virtual reality and robotics. For example the girl studying history who spends up to 6 hrs a day in MMORPGs really should be put in touch with a councellor to deal with an obvious social anxiety disorder rather than 'escape' reality into a video game.
Although it's nice to have Scientists to back up these ideas. I think that observation of society and technology can bring you to these conclusions naturally. Taking culture and the speed of computerization, its and inevitable outcome.
finally a documentary about the future with actual scientists and facts to support these claims, not just wild predictions.
there seems to me two glaring omissions: the overwhelming disparity between the haves and have-nots of this world and the fact that our resource base is finite. when these revolutions sweep us into the glorious future, will there still be billions of starving humans? will we somehow find a way to fuel these revolutions without strip mining, deforesting, and polluting the entire face of the earth? in the first part, he likens cheap and powerful microchips to pieces of scrap paper: just as cheap and disposable. thats a bit much considering there is only so much we can rip from the ground and only so much fresh water to pollute to make the things. just like running out of trees for paper, i think we'll run out of coltan from the congo a lot sooner :)
Humanity is dieing. Scientists need to study Humanities as well. The fact that they think the robots need emotions is a positive note. But. the major think is that the Military needs to calm down or else we are toast. But, I hope we out grow this, when oil runs out and are forced towards the sun for energy.
Having all this power with our destructive nature gives me many worries. Civilization isn't mature enough to manage anything capable of destroying without using it towards itself. Just think in the computer virus. Who is so sick to make something that can harm just for fun? Lots of people are...every day.
Michio Kaku is 3 times smarter than Stephen Hawking
i reckon all this has the purpose of turning the earth into a massive spaceship so when the sun runs out we can migrate to another star system. No i m not joking...
i want those electrodes in my brain too, i m so tired of drugs...
More and more the technology comes, the more humans are going to lose their skills. It may look fascinating to see a car drives on its own or the computer which can do lot of calculations but in reality humans are losing their knowledge to calculate with their own mind or to drive. 99% of the humankind does not know about the technology but they know only how to use it. But as a whole they will lose their skills. Its not we are entering into a "Age of mastery", but entering into a "Age of mystery", thats more appropriate.
More and more the technology comes, the more humans are going to lose their skills. It may look fascinating to see a car drives on its own or the computer which can do lot of calculations but in reality humans are losing their knowledge to calculate with their own mind or to drive. 99% of the humankind does not know about the technology but they know only how to use it. But as a whole they will lose their skills. Its not we are entering into a "Age of mastery", but entering into a "Age of mystery", thats more appropriate.
I get more worried about loss of humanity just after watching the first part. Examples like Second Life and Robotics remind me of the movie Surrogates. I personally feel we need to make smart decisions about the way we deal with technology and understand the repercussions well. Humans tend to have the habit of going off on tangent due to some cool factor.
I heard a whisper about the star trek like replicators I thought it would come down to manipulation of the higgs boson projecting a hologram and giving it mass. The nano bots sound cool in 2036 we can teleport them onto apophis and the earth will hit by grey goo instead
Boing Boing! @The Intelligence Revolution ?16:40 – MR. SATURN ALERT!!! Ding!
the intelligence revolution = freaking scary !!!!
get real people!
Wow, This documentary makes me so glad I'm going to live into the 2080s!
It starts off real neatly:
"We have uncovered:"
Secrets of matter? Why is matter, then? Because why is still the secret.
"Unravelled:"
Molecule of life? Life is not clearly defined. Look under matter.
"Created:"
Artificial intelligence? Intelligence is not clearly defined. Look under life.
The secret is: why?
Nobody knows.
What we know is merely how. Barely. The ocean is still a mystery, both the metaphor and the big, wet thing that covers three quarters of the earth.
part 1 10:20
... epitaph for humanity ?
One thing to consider about cloning farm animals is that if it becomes a widely adopted technology (and it will have to be for farmers to remain competitive), then it will drastically reduce the genetic diversity of each breed, since farmers only want the "best" individuals. Less genetic diversity means greater vulnerability to bacterial, viral, or fungal infections that could wipe out millions of individual animals faster than we could react to stop it. It's a threat to our food security.
I fail to see why it is unethical to have robots. Do you think it more ethical to have humans serve each other's needs? That is downright cruel from the moment we can have machines do it instead.
People watch too many hollywood movies. Cloning is a simple thing nature does also when creating identical twins. Never saw anyone complain about those. If one cow produces 50 pounds more meat then cloning this cow means we will have to kill LESS cows to feed the same amount of people. Forget X-men mutants and silly WW2 eugenics films, that is fiction.
As for robotics forget "I robot" and think about a clerk that does NOT feel tired (feels nothing actually), a miner that does not die from lung disease due to hard working conditions, an excavator that saves you when buildings fall on you, you won't say no when it saves your time and life.
People will always complain that "the old ways" were best without fully considering how blessed they are to be living now and not back then. If you do not like the larger life expectancy and the easier gaining of information it is a sign of depression, not a problem of the present.
Humans are being dehumanised at a rapid speed... I am all for Science but not for dehumanisation, virtual reality, pet robots and all those, damn what world are we going to live??? Humanity needs ethics and LOVE!!!
blade runner (the movie) is a documentary and i would rather be dead than live in the world these scientist's (who bows to robots) salivates over
this technology is going to help a lot of mega rich/powerful people extend their life, maybe even double their years on this earth.