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Enjoy!

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In the next 20 years,

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we're about to see what may turn out

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to be the biggest changes

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to the way we live in human history.

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I'm James Burke

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and I'm gonna take you on a journey through time,

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joining up the dots in about 10 connections,

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charting the people, objects, and ideas

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that change history in the most surprising ways.

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To tell you the incredible story of how we got here

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and where we're going next.

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This series is about the process of change

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and why the future is being shaped by everything we do

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and is not going to be what we expect.

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Because that's the way change happens.

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Cause and effect.

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You innovate to solve a problem

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and even if you succeed,

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there's always an unexpected outcome

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that triggers the need for another innovation and so on.

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That's why nobody in the past knew

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what was coming next.

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Nor will you.

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The sequence of connections leads like a falling set

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of dominoes to an innovation

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that's set to transform humankind.

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So where do we want to go from here?

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What's the next connection?

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Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE
www.osdb.link/lm

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So this is where we are heading,

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a future where humans finally merge with the internet.

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Because the way things are going,

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the present human-to-computer interface,

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things like keyboards, voice control,

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and even the computer itself as we know it

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is on the way out.

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Replacing it will likely be embedded microchips

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in your eyes, your ears, and your brain,

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connecting you to an online world of augmented reality.

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Instant access to all the knowledge in the world

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just by looking, hearing, and thinking.

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The journey to this augmented future

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begins over 300 years ago with this, a conch shell.

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Basically the shell of a large sea snail.

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It's made from mostly calcium carbonate,

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absorbed from the minerals in the sea

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where the snail lives,

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and the snails take about four or five years to grow.

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Amazing, right?

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Now, back in the 18th century,

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these conch shells are an exciting new discovery

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and they become a collectors item.

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One type of snail shell, the rare sea cone,

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sells for thousands of dollars.

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So people well heeled enough to have a collection

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that includes a shell like that would want somewhere

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to show off their rare and valuable stuff.

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Which leads me to this place: a cabinet of curiosities.

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This is, I suppose,

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the 18th-century equivalent of the internet.

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They first appeared in 16th-century Europe

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and they're really more of a room

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than what we would now think of as a cabinet.

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By the time of the colonial era,

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say around the mid 1700s,

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these cabinets are often filled

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with the stuff rich collectors or their servants

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have pinched from all over the world.

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So that back home at your next dinner party,

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you can knock the socks off your guests

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with your curiosities, like the conch shell.

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In a world without the internet and travel and TV

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and everything that lays the world open to us today,

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places like this one bring the world to you.

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And the plan with all this?

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There's no plan.

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Any one of these cabinets is a crazy mix of art, science,

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natural history, artifacts, animal and plant life,

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and bits of the past, like the Elgin Marble collection

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lifted from the Parthenon in Greece by a British aristocrat.

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And as I'm sure you've already noticed,

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some of these curiosity collections are

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like museums waiting to happen,

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which, well, they are.

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One giant collection in particular belonging to this guy,

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Hans Sloane, actually becomes the British Museum,

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so don't knock a cabinet of curiosities.

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What matters to all the collectors is the reaction

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of anybody seeing it.

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Wow!
What is that?

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Of course, what impresses people most

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is also that the collector can talk his head off

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about it all endlessly.

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What an extraordinary noise!

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The collecting bug catches hold

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of many a well-heeled gent

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and the race is on between collectors

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to get the biggest and most exotic things

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the world has to offer.

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And it's a great example

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of the many totally unexpected reasons things change,

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because in the 18th century

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this fascination with stuff triggers the beginnings

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of a new more revolutionary idea.

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To classify the chaos.

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So studying the conch shell became known as conchology,

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studying insects, entomology,

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and butterflies, lepidopterology.

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This is also when all the scientific societies start up.

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The entomological society,

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the antiquarian society,

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the astronomical society, and so on.

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Then comes the moment to gladden the heart

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of anybody with a collecting bug.

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The collector I'm thinking about

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is a guy called Dru Drury.

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What's bugging him is that he's seen a new bug

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that he really wants to get his hands on.

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Well, not just new,

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but super colossal, amazing one and only new!

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This, a beetle found floating in the mouth of a river

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in Gabon, West Africa,

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and scooped up by a passing merchant ship.

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Turns out it's only the world's biggest insect at the time.

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Some of these beauties are over four inches long

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and it hums and it can lift up to 850 times its own weight

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and no surprise, it becomes known as, what else?

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The Goliath beetle,

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which causes a lot of excitement among the rich collectors,

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desperate to grab one

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for their cabinets filled with curiosities.

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It's gigantic!
Amazing!

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So this special creepy crawley is a new must have.

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Like the sea cone,

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the first beetles to arrive in England

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will change hands for big bucks.

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Now, remember, we're back at a time

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when much of the natural world is still unexplored

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by European travelers.

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So people are going out and scooping up beetles

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and anything else scoopable.

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(birds chirping)

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A real free for all.

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So Dru Drury, our collector so desperate

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for a giant beetle of his own,

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decides to organize an expedition to West Africa

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to find more Goliath beetles.

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Okay, so where are we on our journey towards the future

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where we are part of the internet?

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Well-heeled collectors want conch shells,

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which they put in cabinets of curiosity,

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which are prototype museums

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inspiring the birth of all kinds of scientific societies

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wanting to categorize all this stuff.

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The new must-have insect is a Goliath beetle,

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which inspires collector, Dru Drury,

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to organize an expedition to West Africa

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to find one for him.

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Chief scooper on this trip is going

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to be a fellow called Henry Smeathman,

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an insect freak who travels on a ship called the Fly,

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believe it or not.

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His voyage takes him to the Banana Islands in West Africa

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where he finds a Goliath beetle for Drury

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and learns a lot about insect colonies.

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In 1775, Smeathman and his newfound insect expertise

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follows the trade winds to the Caribbean colonies

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where he comes across this.

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Sugar.

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Sweet-tooth Europeans go crazy for sugar,

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so it's a really profitable crop for the plantation owners.

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But it's also the favorite diet of ants,

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now stripping the sugar cane fields bare.

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So the sugar cane plantation owners invite Smeathman

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to work out a way to tackle these ant infestations.

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Smeathman soon comes to the conclusion

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that it's not the crops that need his protection,

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but the people working on them.

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See, the sugar industry is dependent

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on thousands of slaves abducted from their homes in Africa

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and forced to work for nothing.

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And as for the idea of human rights, forget it.

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Wanting to put a stop to this,

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Smeathman draws sketches

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to show the terrible things he's seen.

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So in 1779, Smeathman heads back to London

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and tries to find a publishing house ready

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to print his story,

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which will tell his tale of exploring wildlife in Africa

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and of the horrors of slavery in the Caribbean.

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But more important,

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Smeathman's book will also spread the word

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about a really new idea of his

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to take slaves, like the ones that shook him so much,

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back to Africa and start a new colony of free people.

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Smeathman wants to start by settling

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the area he already knows around the Banana River,

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an area already known locally as Serra Lyoa,

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named after the nearby Lion Mountains.

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We now know it as Sierra Leone.

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How about that?

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Well, his book never gets published,

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but he spreads the word.

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The only thing missing in Smeathman's grand plan

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is, well, new Sierra Leone citizens.

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No problem, says Smeathman.

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Citizens for his new country will easily be found

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in other colonies.

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Former slaves who will go for a new country

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with attractions like, say, guaranteed freedom

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and individual rights.

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Smeathman believes these people deserve a new country

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to live in that will guarantee their newfound liberty.

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And he hopes that this can be Sierra Leone.

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The fact that it's going to be a British colony

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and they're all gonna be run

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by the Sierra Leone Company of London doesn't matter.

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In his mind, they're going to be free.

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He hears about a group of escaped slaves holed up in Canada

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and decides to help them.

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He manages to raise over a quarter of a million dollars

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in today's money and charters a fleet

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to go and pick them up.

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And in January, 1792, off they sail in 15 ships to Africa

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and a bright new future

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in a bright new town called what else? Freetown!

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Built on land bought from the local chieftains.

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Within a few years,

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Freetown has several hundred houses

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and, on the surface, things appear to be going to plan.

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Who's that?

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But arguments are already breaking out

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among the organizers about how to run a new free country.

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For this experiment to work,

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they need to get themselves together.

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And this is where the story gets really interesting because,

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of all the challenges facing the fledgling new country,

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the biggest challenge of all is cash.

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Smeathman's new colony needs money, a reliable currency,

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which fact is going to take us somewhere rather unexpected

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because the man hired to make Sierra Leone's currency

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is this chap, Matthew Boulton.

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First of all, he's in Birmingham,

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the metalworking center of England,

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and up to his eyes in metal everything.

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Candlesticks, jugs, tureens and cups,

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sterling silverware, shoe buckles, telescope tubes,

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and, above all, metal buttons.

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All easier to manufacture than actual money.

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You see, at this time,

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currency all over the world is a bit of a mess.

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Coins are made with minting machines worked by hand.

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Every coin they make is irregular.

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No two coins look the same,

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making them very easy to counterfeit.

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Boulton is stumped, but the answer is hiding in plain sight.

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See, his friend and colleague,

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a Scottish engineer called James Watt,

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has, by chance, been fiddling

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with a primitive steam engine used to drain mines.

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Trouble is it doesn't work very well.

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You put hot steam in a cylinder,

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then cool it down to condense the steam

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00:14:10,170 --> 00:14:13,200
and create a vacuum which pulls the piston down.

266
00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:15,540
You use loads of coal to create the steam

267
00:14:15,540 --> 00:14:19,817
and then you waste that by cooling it down.

268
00:14:19,817 --> 00:14:20,910
And on it goes,

269
00:14:20,910 --> 00:14:23,446
each time costing you a lot of coal.

270
00:14:29,370 --> 00:14:31,023
See how inefficient this is?

271
00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:35,820
James Watt realizes that the key is to create a vacuum

272
00:14:35,820 --> 00:14:38,940
in the cylinder without cooling it down.

273
00:14:38,940 --> 00:14:43,140
So he adds a separate chamber that he calls a condenser

274
00:14:43,140 --> 00:14:46,293
where the steam can be cooled down away from the cylinder.

275
00:14:48,390 --> 00:14:49,860
Now it's hot all the time,

276
00:14:49,860 --> 00:14:53,940
uses far less coal, and produces much more power.

277
00:14:53,940 --> 00:14:56,400
Watt's modified engine has harnessed

278
00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:57,975
the full power of steam.

279
00:15:02,310 --> 00:15:05,640
Boulton and Watt start a business to exploit the new machine

280
00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:08,511
and the two of them literally cash in.

281
00:15:13,290 --> 00:15:16,680
Together, they design a steam-powered minting machine

282
00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:18,990
that can rapidly make lots of coins

283
00:15:18,990 --> 00:15:20,760
not only uniform in shape,

284
00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:23,657
but with features that make them very hard to copy.

285
00:15:28,435 --> 00:15:31,680
The new coin-stamping machinery in Birmingham

286
00:15:31,680 --> 00:15:33,600
is soon working overtime making cash

287
00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:36,720
for places like the new Sierra Leone colony.

288
00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:39,900
And thanks to his work for colonies like Sierra Leone,

289
00:15:39,900 --> 00:15:41,970
Boulton goes on to get the contract

290
00:15:41,970 --> 00:15:43,680
to make money for Britain

291
00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:46,110
and end the counterfeit problem.

292
00:15:46,110 --> 00:15:49,140
And the world gets precision machinery capable

293
00:15:49,140 --> 00:15:51,360
of making reliable money.

294
00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:52,579
But it doesn't end here.

295
00:15:54,090 --> 00:15:56,400
The effect Watt's new machine has,

296
00:15:56,400 --> 00:15:58,050
which becomes known because it uses steam

297
00:15:58,050 --> 00:16:00,180
as the steam engine,

298
00:16:00,180 --> 00:16:03,783
could be modestly described as only cataclysmic.

299
00:16:05,790 --> 00:16:09,480
For the first time, society has a compact, reliable machine

300
00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:11,880
that can efficiently convert the energy

301
00:16:11,880 --> 00:16:15,108
in fossil fuels like coal into mechanical energy.

302
00:16:16,830 --> 00:16:19,350
It totally removes the shackles on business.

303
00:16:19,350 --> 00:16:20,730
No need to find a river you can use

304
00:16:20,730 --> 00:16:22,530
as a power source for manufacturing.

305
00:16:23,940 --> 00:16:24,930
With a steam engine,

306
00:16:24,930 --> 00:16:27,480
you can get your power anywhere you want to put the building

307
00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:30,780
like near the living quarters for the factory workers.

308
00:16:30,780 --> 00:16:31,999
Even in a city.

309
00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:36,933
Nothing will ever be the same.

310
00:16:39,780 --> 00:16:43,050
Okay, where are we on our journey towards living

311
00:16:43,050 --> 00:16:44,283
in the internet?

312
00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:48,180
Conch shells and cabinets of curiosity,

313
00:16:48,180 --> 00:16:51,420
Dru Drury and his desire for a Goliath beetle,

314
00:16:51,420 --> 00:16:53,610
Henry Smeathman finds him one

315
00:16:53,610 --> 00:16:56,310
and discovers the horrors of the slave trade.

316
00:16:56,310 --> 00:16:59,553
He sets up Sierra Leone as a refuge for free people,

317
00:17:00,540 --> 00:17:02,490
which needs a reliable currency,

318
00:17:02,490 --> 00:17:04,240
which takes him to Matthew Boulton.

319
00:17:05,250 --> 00:17:06,930
Boulton's business partner, James Watt,

320
00:17:06,930 --> 00:17:09,990
invents a new highly-efficient steam engine

321
00:17:09,990 --> 00:17:13,143
which they use to make a steam-powered minting machine,

322
00:17:14,580 --> 00:17:17,643
which provides high quality cash for Sierra Leone.

323
00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:20,393
As well as making himself

324
00:17:20,393 --> 00:17:22,170
and his pal, Boulton, extremely rich,

325
00:17:22,170 --> 00:17:23,880
Watt's neat trick with the steam engine

326
00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:27,173
triggers what we call the Industrial Revolution.

327
00:17:31,050 --> 00:17:32,625
Coal and iron and steel

328
00:17:32,625 --> 00:17:34,051
are the means of industry,

329
00:17:34,051 --> 00:17:35,711
for transport, for speed.

330
00:17:38,963 --> 00:17:40,530
And now another example

331
00:17:40,530 --> 00:17:43,923
of multiple connections going off in multiple directions.

332
00:17:48,780 --> 00:17:51,720
You see, Watt and Boulton were friends

333
00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:56,130
with a precocious young Frenchman called Joseph Montgolfier

334
00:17:56,130 --> 00:17:59,670
who shared their passion for inventing clever new machines.

335
00:17:59,670 --> 00:18:02,662
And who you could say has uplifting thoughts.

336
00:18:05,130 --> 00:18:06,803
With his hot air balloon.

337
00:18:12,660 --> 00:18:13,660
Beautiful, isn't it?

338
00:18:15,150 --> 00:18:16,860
The balloon envelope is silk,

339
00:18:16,860 --> 00:18:19,380
but it's covered with printed paper.

340
00:18:19,380 --> 00:18:20,340
Why?

341
00:18:20,340 --> 00:18:23,223
Because guess what the Montgolfier family firm makes?

342
00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:25,120
Paper!

343
00:18:30,330 --> 00:18:33,150
Guess who the guy plastered all around it is?

344
00:18:33,150 --> 00:18:35,433
Yep, King Louis XVI.

345
00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:39,450
And why does the balloon have the king's picture on it?

346
00:18:39,450 --> 00:18:41,460
Well, he's the king of course,

347
00:18:41,460 --> 00:18:43,780
and everybody either loves King Louis XVI

348
00:18:45,030 --> 00:18:45,863
or hates him,

349
00:18:47,130 --> 00:18:48,727
but they'll still look up at him.

350
00:18:50,820 --> 00:18:52,710
This is a fun intersection on our journey

351
00:18:52,710 --> 00:18:54,310
to a future inside the internet.

352
00:18:55,230 --> 00:18:57,060
We could follow the connections

353
00:18:57,060 --> 00:18:58,860
that lead to mass advertising,

354
00:18:58,860 --> 00:19:01,140
the billboards we see today

355
00:19:01,140 --> 00:19:03,750
selling us everything from soap to cars.

356
00:19:03,750 --> 00:19:06,240
But instead, let's stick with France

357
00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:08,070
and see what happens next

358
00:19:08,070 --> 00:19:09,780
because there's a problem looming

359
00:19:09,780 --> 00:19:12,213
and one with unintended consequences.

360
00:19:13,710 --> 00:19:17,160
See, paper making is a labor-intensive business.

361
00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:19,560
You remember how I said some people hate the king?

362
00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:22,560
Well, the French Revolution is about to happen.

363
00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:24,718
The French monarchy gets overthrown

364
00:19:25,890 --> 00:19:27,330
and heads roll.

365
00:19:27,330 --> 00:19:30,390
Mass social upheaval takes workers out of the factories

366
00:19:30,390 --> 00:19:31,920
and onto the streets.

367
00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:35,176
So who's going to make the paper now?

368
00:19:39,390 --> 00:19:40,620
One paper-making company

369
00:19:40,620 --> 00:19:42,720
with this kind of worker shortage problem

370
00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:46,260
has just hired a technical type, Nicolas Louis Robert,

371
00:19:46,260 --> 00:19:49,290
who offers them his solution to the lack of workers,

372
00:19:49,290 --> 00:19:51,180
make paper without them

373
00:19:51,180 --> 00:19:53,253
with his paper-making machine.

374
00:19:54,630 --> 00:19:55,900
First of its kind.

375
00:20:01,350 --> 00:20:03,510
Scoop up paper pulp made of a slurry

376
00:20:03,510 --> 00:20:06,559
of wood and vegetable fiber onto a mesh belt.

377
00:20:16,950 --> 00:20:19,410
Then run the damp pulp between hot rollers

378
00:20:19,410 --> 00:20:20,560
that flatten and dry it

379
00:20:26,790 --> 00:20:29,829
so it comes out the other end as finished product.

380
00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:35,853
This produces very long sheets of paper in a roll.

381
00:20:40,380 --> 00:20:41,490
For some crazy reason,

382
00:20:41,490 --> 00:20:43,020
the boss doesn't think Robert's idea

383
00:20:43,020 --> 00:20:44,280
will solve his problem.

384
00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:46,920
So in 1802, he mentioned the paper-making machine

385
00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:49,380
to his brother-in-law, an Englishman,

386
00:20:49,380 --> 00:20:52,050
who promptly takes the idea back to the UK

387
00:20:52,050 --> 00:20:54,960
where it's picked up by a guy called Donkin

388
00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:57,060
and two brothers named Hall

389
00:20:57,060 --> 00:20:59,138
who jump at the paper making idea.

390
00:21:04,290 --> 00:21:05,490
So with other investors,

391
00:21:05,490 --> 00:21:07,260
Donkin and the Halls put a ton of money

392
00:21:07,260 --> 00:21:09,120
into a big machine that will be able

393
00:21:09,120 --> 00:21:11,763
to make very long continuous rolls of paper.

394
00:21:13,738 --> 00:21:16,710
And this will change the daily life of millions

395
00:21:16,710 --> 00:21:19,380
of Industrial Revolution workers and the future with it.

396
00:21:19,380 --> 00:21:21,390
Because two of the things you can make

397
00:21:21,390 --> 00:21:24,960
with long rolls of paper are newspapers,

398
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:27,330
rolled off by the thousand in printing presses,

399
00:21:27,330 --> 00:21:30,449
and rolls of enough paper to stick on the walls.

400
00:21:36,360 --> 00:21:39,840
See, thousands live Industrial Revolution lives

401
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:42,600
of drab industrial dullness

402
00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:45,810
and wallpaper helps to jazz up their existence.

403
00:21:45,810 --> 00:21:48,488
Now, everybody but the destitute can afford it.

404
00:21:49,860 --> 00:21:54,681
So many of the walls back then go from this to this.

405
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,530
Now they can read their new daily newspaper surrounded

406
00:22:07,530 --> 00:22:08,703
by color and design.

407
00:22:09,630 --> 00:22:11,187
We take this for granted now,

408
00:22:11,187 --> 00:22:14,430
but back then it was a social game changer.

409
00:22:14,430 --> 00:22:18,780
Commoners living like royalty thanks to automated wallpaper

410
00:22:18,780 --> 00:22:21,754
whose cost has dropped to a penny for four yards.

411
00:22:34,159 --> 00:22:36,270
Okay, here we are at another one

412
00:22:36,270 --> 00:22:37,740
of those crossroads in history.

413
00:22:37,740 --> 00:22:40,770
I mean, Donkin would go on to work with a man

414
00:22:40,770 --> 00:22:42,900
who designed the first-ever computer.

415
00:22:42,900 --> 00:22:44,640
He would also partner the man

416
00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:46,323
who designed Congreve rockets.

417
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:50,010
But aside from Donkin, there were also,

418
00:22:50,010 --> 00:22:53,335
you remember, his colleagues, the two Hall brothers.

419
00:22:55,230 --> 00:22:56,370
Now they lead us to something

420
00:22:56,370 --> 00:22:58,590
that will inadvertently change the course

421
00:22:58,590 --> 00:23:00,652
of our journey through history.

422
00:23:03,660 --> 00:23:05,790
Sometime in 1846,

423
00:23:05,790 --> 00:23:09,480
John Hall's son wants to branch out from the paper business

424
00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:11,760
to manufacture a new kind of gun powder.

425
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:13,578
Always in demand, right?

426
00:23:13,578 --> 00:23:15,240
And to explain what happens next,

427
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:19,195
first, sorry, we need a brief chemistry lesson.

428
00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:22,290
Take fine cotton,

429
00:23:22,290 --> 00:23:25,083
put it in a bath of half sulfuric and half nitric acid.

430
00:23:26,310 --> 00:23:27,143
After two minutes,

431
00:23:27,143 --> 00:23:29,313
take cotton out and wash it in cold water.

432
00:23:30,570 --> 00:23:34,143
Then dry it very slowly at below 40 degrees Celsius.

433
00:23:36,990 --> 00:23:40,470
What you have now is a product that looks like cotton wool

434
00:23:40,470 --> 00:23:41,880
with the unusual characteristic

435
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:45,450
that the slightest spark will cause it to explode

436
00:23:45,450 --> 00:23:47,443
with a serious amount of bang,

437
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:50,400
which is why the military love the stuff

438
00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:54,150
and why it's going to make the Hall family oodles of boodle.

439
00:23:54,150 --> 00:23:55,967
Well, that's the plan.

440
00:23:58,650 --> 00:24:00,630
Key sentence in the plan,

441
00:24:00,630 --> 00:24:02,220
unless you are extremely careful

442
00:24:02,220 --> 00:24:03,990
with manufacturer and storage,

443
00:24:03,990 --> 00:24:07,470
gun cotton is so volatile you can get what happens

444
00:24:07,470 --> 00:24:09,810
to Hall's factory the following year.

445
00:24:09,810 --> 00:24:10,950
A spark.

446
00:24:10,950 --> 00:24:13,999
And lots of gun cotton goes up with a humongous explosion

447
00:24:18,420 --> 00:24:20,920
destroying the entire factory and everybody in it.

448
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:30,720
Now this is where connections, even failed ones,

449
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:34,020
change the course of history because, thanks to that mishap,

450
00:24:34,020 --> 00:24:36,177
the Hall family go back to safer work.

451
00:24:38,730 --> 00:24:41,940
In 1884, they buy the right to a new gizmo,

452
00:24:41,940 --> 00:24:44,643
which they install in a London office block.

453
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:49,350
This innovation will help people in tall buildings,

454
00:24:49,350 --> 00:24:51,000
of which there is an increasing number

455
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:53,583
as building land in cities becomes more expensive.

456
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:56,100
The new answer to climbing stairs

457
00:24:56,100 --> 00:24:59,100
in tall buildings, is guess what? An elevator.

458
00:24:59,100 --> 00:25:01,113
But no ordinary elevator.

459
00:25:02,910 --> 00:25:05,523
First, this elevator is powered by steam.

460
00:25:06,690 --> 00:25:09,270
And second of all, it has no doors

461
00:25:09,270 --> 00:25:10,770
and no stopping on your floor.

462
00:25:17,250 --> 00:25:19,140
And as it reaches your floor,

463
00:25:19,140 --> 00:25:22,080
you use it on the hop-on-hop-off principle.

464
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:23,428
Here's one of them at work.

465
00:25:24,660 --> 00:25:25,650
As you can see,

466
00:25:25,650 --> 00:25:27,600
it keeps moving and you just get on

467
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:29,370
and get off as it suits you.

468
00:25:29,370 --> 00:25:32,673
And if you miss, just wait a sec for the next chance.

469
00:25:37,770 --> 00:25:39,890
Not sure if this very slight feeling of taking your life

470
00:25:39,890 --> 00:25:43,050
in your hands when you use it gives your rise to its name.

471
00:25:43,050 --> 00:25:44,400
Paternoster.

472
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:47,190
Because paternoster are the first two words

473
00:25:47,190 --> 00:25:49,290
in the Latin version of the Lord's Prayer.

474
00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:54,750
The Halls' new lift catches on quickly

475
00:25:54,750 --> 00:25:58,550
in this new era of high-rise buildings, like in Vienna.

476
00:26:01,770 --> 00:26:03,840
And in Vienna where there's a building boom going on

477
00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:04,673
at the time,

478
00:26:05,550 --> 00:26:07,710
paternosters are being commercialized

479
00:26:07,710 --> 00:26:10,053
by an engineer called Anton Freissler.

480
00:26:14,850 --> 00:26:17,430
See, Freissler's real talent lies

481
00:26:17,430 --> 00:26:19,650
in exploiting other people's ideas,

482
00:26:19,650 --> 00:26:22,053
like that of using electric power.

483
00:26:24,300 --> 00:26:26,490
Faster, more reliable and powerful paternosters

484
00:26:26,490 --> 00:26:29,896
sell like hotcakes throughout Austria and Europe.

485
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:32,370
As a result of all this,

486
00:26:32,370 --> 00:26:33,300
the Austrian emperor

487
00:26:33,300 --> 00:26:36,483
makes Freissler imperial machine supplier.

488
00:26:37,980 --> 00:26:40,650
A paternoster he installed in 1910 Vienna

489
00:26:40,650 --> 00:26:42,840
is still running to this day.

490
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:46,834
And his company was making elevators well into the 1970s.

491
00:26:47,700 --> 00:26:50,913
His success is really all down to electricity.

492
00:26:54,150 --> 00:26:56,400
And the people responsible for bringing electricity

493
00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:59,040
into general use are a family full

494
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,602
of inventive talent called Siemens.

495
00:27:03,930 --> 00:27:05,290
A family with big ideas

496
00:27:07,710 --> 00:27:09,550
that will eventually lead to a world

497
00:27:10,500 --> 00:27:12,810
in which human society is part

498
00:27:12,810 --> 00:27:15,060
of an unimaginably large network

499
00:27:15,060 --> 00:27:18,627
of interconnected machines making our lives easier.

500
00:27:19,620 --> 00:27:22,620
Because while Freissler is focused on elevators,

501
00:27:22,620 --> 00:27:24,420
the Siemens are thinking really big.

502
00:27:26,310 --> 00:27:30,540
In 1848, they lay a 416-mile telegraph cable

503
00:27:30,540 --> 00:27:32,370
between Berlin and Frankfurt.

504
00:27:32,370 --> 00:27:36,430
The first long-distance communications line in Europe.

505
00:27:40,740 --> 00:27:42,960
But that's just a warmup.

506
00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:44,640
In 1874, they set off

507
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:48,420
and lay the cable from New Hampshire to Nova Scotia.

508
00:27:48,420 --> 00:27:51,960
Then in August, the serious transatlantic bit starts

509
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:54,516
going from Nova Scotia to Ireland.

510
00:27:57,090 --> 00:27:58,920
By September, 1875,

511
00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:02,850
they've laid a cable that's over 3,000 miles in length

512
00:28:02,850 --> 00:28:04,199
and it's a great success.

513
00:28:06,450 --> 00:28:08,670
The new Siemens cable gets messages

514
00:28:08,670 --> 00:28:11,370
to the New York Stock Exchange and back

515
00:28:11,370 --> 00:28:13,080
at what is, back then,

516
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:18,080
the supersonic speed of 16 words both ways every minute.

517
00:28:18,180 --> 00:28:20,310
Then they go even further and lay a line

518
00:28:20,310 --> 00:28:21,450
from London to Calcutta.

519
00:28:21,450 --> 00:28:23,798
That's over 6,800 miles.

520
00:28:29,190 --> 00:28:30,660
But innovation wise,

521
00:28:30,660 --> 00:28:33,210
the Siemens' family business is still not finished.

522
00:28:34,170 --> 00:28:37,650
In 1882, to the amazement of Berliners,

523
00:28:37,650 --> 00:28:39,840
horse drawn everything is replaced

524
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:43,776
by a Siemens trolley car running on an overhead power line.

525
00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:51,480
So where are we on our journey to a future

526
00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:53,433
where we live partially inside the web?

527
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:59,340
Conch shells, cabinets of curiosity,

528
00:28:59,340 --> 00:29:02,010
Dru Drury and his Goliath beetle.

529
00:29:02,010 --> 00:29:04,530
Henry Smeathman, Sierra Leone,

530
00:29:04,530 --> 00:29:06,690
and the need for reliable currency.

531
00:29:06,690 --> 00:29:08,700
Matthew Boulton, James Watt,

532
00:29:08,700 --> 00:29:10,170
and his steam engine

533
00:29:10,170 --> 00:29:13,500
together give us steam-powered coin minting.

534
00:29:13,500 --> 00:29:15,660
Their friend, Joseph Montgolfier,

535
00:29:15,660 --> 00:29:17,880
makes hot air balloons with paper.

536
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:20,760
Another Frenchman invents a paper-making machine,

537
00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:24,210
which only finds success in England in the hands of Donkin

538
00:29:24,210 --> 00:29:25,530
and the Hall Brothers,

539
00:29:25,530 --> 00:29:29,460
giving rise to mass-produced newspapers and wallpaper.

540
00:29:29,460 --> 00:29:32,460
The Hall family business then makes gun cotton

541
00:29:32,460 --> 00:29:34,770
and steam-powered paternosters.

542
00:29:34,770 --> 00:29:38,670
Anton Freissler makes paternosters powered by electricity,

543
00:29:38,670 --> 00:29:39,870
which is only possible

544
00:29:39,870 --> 00:29:42,453
because of the ambition of the Siemens family.

545
00:29:46,980 --> 00:29:48,150
Here's another bright spark

546
00:29:48,150 --> 00:29:50,100
back then in the new world of electrical everything

547
00:29:50,100 --> 00:29:52,703
is a colleague of Siemens, Emil Rathenau,

548
00:29:54,870 --> 00:29:57,520
who sees Edison's electric light at an exhibition

549
00:29:58,590 --> 00:30:01,739
and is turned on to an all-electric future.

550
00:30:02,580 --> 00:30:04,740
His big idea is to suggest

551
00:30:04,740 --> 00:30:06,990
the first nationwide telephone network

552
00:30:06,990 --> 00:30:09,600
to the German post office who go for it,

553
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:12,273
and then pull out after he's set up the infrastructure.

554
00:30:14,250 --> 00:30:16,770
But now he has wires strung up everywhere

555
00:30:16,770 --> 00:30:19,740
and has bought all the rights to Edison's patents.

556
00:30:19,740 --> 00:30:23,460
So guess what? How about electric lighting everywhere?

557
00:30:23,460 --> 00:30:25,170
Well, there's only one way to achieve that.

558
00:30:25,170 --> 00:30:26,190
A deal with his friends

559
00:30:26,190 --> 00:30:28,320
and business competitors, the Siemens.

560
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:31,350
So between them, Siemens and Rathenau corner

561
00:30:31,350 --> 00:30:33,240
the German power market.

562
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:35,430
The Siemens Company generates the power

563
00:30:35,430 --> 00:30:37,950
and it's sent to light bulbs all over Berlin

564
00:30:37,950 --> 00:30:39,764
through Rathenau's wires.

565
00:30:44,220 --> 00:30:46,746
A marriage made in heaven, right?

566
00:30:47,790 --> 00:30:49,920
And this is one of those shape-the-future moments

567
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:52,873
with knobs on because 100 years later, by 2000,

568
00:30:52,873 --> 00:30:55,830
Rathenau's company ends up as AEG

569
00:30:55,830 --> 00:30:58,065
and Siemens is a giant conglomerate.

570
00:30:59,940 --> 00:31:02,880
And probably some bit of technology you've got today

571
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:04,503
has the name Siemens on it.

572
00:31:05,730 --> 00:31:07,540
See what I meant about a marriage made in heaven?

573
00:31:09,060 --> 00:31:11,040
And, as I'm sure you're expecting,

574
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:13,203
heaven is where the story goes next.

575
00:31:14,670 --> 00:31:15,780
Because Rathenau's ability

576
00:31:15,780 --> 00:31:17,520
to send electricity a long distance,

577
00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:18,540
which he does,

578
00:31:18,540 --> 00:31:22,050
encourages one of his company directors, Oskar von Miller,

579
00:31:22,050 --> 00:31:24,270
who has a flair for the spectacular,

580
00:31:24,270 --> 00:31:27,900
to power a seven-foot-high waterfall in Munich

581
00:31:27,900 --> 00:31:31,353
from an electricity generator 35 miles away.

582
00:31:32,370 --> 00:31:35,651
The public impact is nothing short of thought provoking.

583
00:31:38,070 --> 00:31:40,710
Even Friedrich Engels writes to Karl Marx

584
00:31:40,710 --> 00:31:44,760
about it creating a new world united by electric power.

585
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:46,560
A world being gradually illuminated

586
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:49,516
using connected cables linked to machines.

587
00:31:51,900 --> 00:31:54,273
Oskar then moves on to a slightly bigger idea,

588
00:31:57,300 --> 00:32:01,113
a museum dedicated to his favorite thing, technology.

589
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:05,160
It's the German equivalent of the Smithsonian.

590
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:06,420
Another museum descendant

591
00:32:06,420 --> 00:32:08,170
of the curiosity cabinet, remember?

592
00:32:09,210 --> 00:32:11,850
And one of his advisors on the project is Rathenau,

593
00:32:11,850 --> 00:32:15,071
who's also obsessed with how machines can help society.

594
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:19,020
Oskar's German museum,

595
00:32:19,020 --> 00:32:21,240
the Deutsches Museum in Munich,

596
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:23,640
end up the largest technological museum

597
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:25,260
of its kind in the world.

598
00:32:25,260 --> 00:32:29,040
The aim is to show the marvels of the innovative past

599
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:29,873
and to teach people

600
00:32:29,873 --> 00:32:32,550
about the future-making social effects of science,

601
00:32:32,550 --> 00:32:35,026
how it changes people's lives.

602
00:32:37,260 --> 00:32:39,570
The museum houses the first automobile,

603
00:32:39,570 --> 00:32:41,250
the first electric dynamo,

604
00:32:41,250 --> 00:32:42,750
the first diesel engine,

605
00:32:42,750 --> 00:32:45,213
and the lab bench where the atom was first split.

606
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:49,860
And the largest hall in the museum is air and space.

607
00:32:49,860 --> 00:32:53,100
Oh, and a great restaurant and museum shop.

608
00:32:53,100 --> 00:32:55,342
You name it, it's in Oskar's museum.

609
00:32:57,870 --> 00:33:00,150
Including the reference I just made to heaven

610
00:33:00,150 --> 00:33:01,560
because one of the marvels Oskar wants

611
00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:02,910
to present to the public

612
00:33:02,910 --> 00:33:05,373
is something nobody's ever seen before.

613
00:33:08,550 --> 00:33:10,233
A panoramic view of heaven.

614
00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:13,803
Well, the night sky.

615
00:33:16,260 --> 00:33:18,613
You can even get it speeded up if you wish.

616
00:33:25,620 --> 00:33:27,450
How do you recreate the heavens?

617
00:33:27,450 --> 00:33:29,970
It can't be 2D projected onto a screen.

618
00:33:29,970 --> 00:33:33,630
They wanted to mirror the 3D space of the night sky.

619
00:33:33,630 --> 00:33:37,350
And here comes an engineer called William Bauersfeld

620
00:33:37,350 --> 00:33:39,630
of the ZEISS Optical Company

621
00:33:39,630 --> 00:33:41,610
who thinks of a way to build a large dome

622
00:33:41,610 --> 00:33:44,130
without the need for any kind of central support

623
00:33:44,130 --> 00:33:47,040
that would block an interior view of the dome.

624
00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:49,140
So over a period of 10 years,

625
00:33:49,140 --> 00:33:51,930
William and his team at ZEISS build a projector

626
00:33:51,930 --> 00:33:54,720
that will shine an image onto the interior

627
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:56,816
of an unobstructed white-painted dome.

628
00:34:02,940 --> 00:34:05,160
The image will be that of the night sky,

629
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:07,320
which, at the opening in 1925,

630
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:10,593
totals the planets and 4,500 stars.

631
00:34:13,230 --> 00:34:14,700
You sit back in your reclining seat

632
00:34:14,700 --> 00:34:16,080
to avoid a crick in the neck

633
00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:19,569
and stare up in the world's first planetarium.

634
00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:25,350
As I said,

635
00:34:25,350 --> 00:34:28,920
the big gee whiz thing about the planetarium is the dome.

636
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:30,600
William Bauersfeld comes up with a dome

637
00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:33,210
that can stand by itself without support

638
00:34:33,210 --> 00:34:35,700
because it's made up of thousands of triangles.

639
00:34:35,700 --> 00:34:36,960
In techno speak,

640
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:39,450
the shape of the dome is called an icosahedron.

641
00:34:39,450 --> 00:34:42,420
And because of all the little triangles sharing the load,

642
00:34:42,420 --> 00:34:45,240
so to speak, the dome, however big,

643
00:34:45,240 --> 00:34:46,773
can also take any stress.

644
00:34:48,240 --> 00:34:49,740
Between World War I and II,

645
00:34:49,740 --> 00:34:52,620
this new planetarium dome is successfully set up

646
00:34:52,620 --> 00:34:54,150
and attracting big audiences

647
00:34:54,150 --> 00:34:56,910
in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Rome, Paris,

648
00:34:56,910 --> 00:34:59,340
Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.

649
00:35:00,810 --> 00:35:04,500
But this dome is more than an astronomical curiosity.

650
00:35:04,500 --> 00:35:08,220
It's key to our journey towards the future connected world

651
00:35:08,220 --> 00:35:10,320
where machines will integrate with humans.

652
00:35:13,170 --> 00:35:14,591
By the early 1950s,

653
00:35:14,591 --> 00:35:18,060
a dome like Bauersfeld's that can take a lot of stress

654
00:35:18,060 --> 00:35:20,160
also captures the attention of a bunch of people

655
00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:22,050
who happen to think, like everybody else,

656
00:35:22,050 --> 00:35:23,880
that it's an American invention

657
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:26,490
by a man named Buckminster Fuller,

658
00:35:26,490 --> 00:35:28,320
who has, in fact, reinvented the idea

659
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:30,298
and called it a geodesic dome.

660
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,740
This bunch of interested people want the geodesic dome

661
00:35:34,740 --> 00:35:37,869
because what they have in mind is Arctic weather.

662
00:35:42,156 --> 00:35:44,460
The people are the U.S. Defense Department

663
00:35:44,460 --> 00:35:47,370
and the Arctic weather is hindering a key element

664
00:35:47,370 --> 00:35:50,400
in the successful defense of the United States.

665
00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:52,410
Think about what happens to Northern Canadian weather

666
00:35:52,410 --> 00:35:53,610
for much of the year.

667
00:35:53,610 --> 00:35:57,450
It tends to be blizzards, raging gales and ice storms

668
00:35:57,450 --> 00:35:59,730
that will knock down anything you put up,

669
00:35:59,730 --> 00:36:03,930
especially relatively fragile and rotating radar antenna,

670
00:36:03,930 --> 00:36:05,340
which you need to put up

671
00:36:05,340 --> 00:36:07,740
in order to spot any nuclear bombers heading

672
00:36:07,740 --> 00:36:10,677
from Russia across the pole to attack America.

673
00:36:12,595 --> 00:36:15,150
But a dome could protect the antenna.

674
00:36:15,150 --> 00:36:16,950
A theory they test when they leave one

675
00:36:16,950 --> 00:36:18,960
on top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire

676
00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:22,440
where you get some of the highest wind speeds on earth,

677
00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:24,030
and it survives.

678
00:36:24,030 --> 00:36:26,790
And remember, by this time, 1951,

679
00:36:26,790 --> 00:36:29,070
we are in the grip of the Cold War

680
00:36:29,070 --> 00:36:31,415
and potential atomic Armageddon.

681
00:36:35,010 --> 00:36:38,070
So they built a series of these radar-protecting domes,

682
00:36:38,070 --> 00:36:41,460
spaced out to give total radar coverage all

683
00:36:41,460 --> 00:36:43,980
in a line across the north of Canada,

684
00:36:43,980 --> 00:36:45,900
giving you up to four hours warning time

685
00:36:45,900 --> 00:36:47,261
of impending doom.

686
00:36:49,110 --> 00:36:51,540
Which is why this chain of stations becomes known

687
00:36:51,540 --> 00:36:56,373
as the Distant Early Warning line or DEW Line for short.

688
00:36:57,540 --> 00:36:59,880
We virtually surrounded the continent

689
00:36:59,880 --> 00:37:02,130
with an electronic barrier to defend us

690
00:37:02,130 --> 00:37:05,703
against an attempted surprise attack by manned bombers.

691
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:09,660
This string of stations finally stretches

692
00:37:09,660 --> 00:37:11,670
from one side of Canada to the other,

693
00:37:11,670 --> 00:37:13,980
using radar domes capable

694
00:37:13,980 --> 00:37:17,523
of surviving 120-mile-an-hour winter gales.

695
00:37:18,690 --> 00:37:21,961
Connected machines built to last and protect people.

696
00:37:21,961 --> 00:37:25,544
(dramatic music continues)

697
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:30,150
Which leaves only one last problem.

698
00:37:30,150 --> 00:37:33,300
What is each of the 63 reporting radar stations supposed

699
00:37:33,300 --> 00:37:36,390
to do with the incoming bomber data it picks up?

700
00:37:36,390 --> 00:37:37,863
Hopefully none, of course.

701
00:37:39,030 --> 00:37:40,680
It need to command center,

702
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:43,495
a brain to control this very nervous system.

703
00:37:50,250 --> 00:37:52,080
So in 1967, a base is built

704
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:55,440
into the side of Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs

705
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:59,580
to house the North American Aerospace Defense Command,

706
00:37:59,580 --> 00:38:00,870
NORAD for short,

707
00:38:00,870 --> 00:38:03,000
where all the radar data on aircraft tracks

708
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:05,100
will be collected, analyzed,

709
00:38:05,100 --> 00:38:07,800
and presented on a giant screen,

710
00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:11,617
showing the whole DEW Line setup live 24/7.

711
00:38:19,260 --> 00:38:21,900
But they soon realize that a centralized command system

712
00:38:21,900 --> 00:38:23,880
is seriously flawed.

713
00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:26,880
What if NORAD itself got destroyed?

714
00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:28,590
How would the machines protect us?

715
00:38:28,590 --> 00:38:30,720
What was needed was a defense network

716
00:38:30,720 --> 00:38:32,950
with no central command point.

717
00:38:35,460 --> 00:38:36,870
If one site were destroyed,

718
00:38:36,870 --> 00:38:37,860
it wouldn't matter

719
00:38:37,860 --> 00:38:39,690
because all the surviving sites

720
00:38:39,690 --> 00:38:41,948
would still be able to communicate with each other.

721
00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:47,094
This was called a distributed network.

722
00:38:47,094 --> 00:38:47,927
And to build it

723
00:38:47,927 --> 00:38:50,550
would need a totally new future-changing generation

724
00:38:50,550 --> 00:38:52,570
of computing and communications technology.

725
00:38:55,770 --> 00:38:57,930
The first network of interconnected computers

726
00:38:57,930 --> 00:39:02,130
to be built for the U.S. airborne defense is called SAGE,

727
00:39:02,130 --> 00:39:05,659
which stands for Semi-Automatic Ground Environment.

728
00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:10,920
At more than 20 air force bases across the US and Canada,

729
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:15,060
large hardened buildings contained gigantic computers

730
00:39:15,060 --> 00:39:17,830
that would share information on any nuclear attack

731
00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:22,145
and help people to decide how to respond.

732
00:39:26,801 --> 00:39:28,051
Jet deployed.

733
00:39:31,407 --> 00:39:33,660
Now a nuclear response needs to be instant

734
00:39:33,660 --> 00:39:34,493
if you think about it.

735
00:39:34,493 --> 00:39:38,550
So from 1960, the instant idea for what to do

736
00:39:38,550 --> 00:39:39,960
in the event of

737
00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:43,870
is called a Single Integrated Operational Plan.

738
00:39:48,030 --> 00:39:51,180
In essence, the rule is, use them or lose them.

739
00:39:51,180 --> 00:39:53,400
Them being nuclear weapons.

740
00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:54,690
To be used, it says here,

741
00:39:54,690 --> 00:39:56,460
immediately when you get a warning

742
00:39:56,460 --> 00:39:57,810
of what might be an attack.

743
00:39:57,810 --> 00:39:59,520
So at that moment,

744
00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:02,223
you strike because you won't get a second chance.

745
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:06,930
The terrifying prospect is,

746
00:40:06,930 --> 00:40:09,750
at least until new systems come along 30 years later,

747
00:40:09,750 --> 00:40:13,620
that the end of the world might happen by accident.

748
00:40:13,620 --> 00:40:15,420
Like one memorable occasion

749
00:40:15,420 --> 00:40:17,490
when a fleet of incoming bombers is spotted

750
00:40:17,490 --> 00:40:21,120
and then turns out to be the moon coming up over Norway.

751
00:40:21,120 --> 00:40:23,160
Flocks of birds and the odd solar flare

752
00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:25,410
caused confusion as well.

753
00:40:25,410 --> 00:40:29,310
And worst of all, on one super memorable occasion,

754
00:40:29,310 --> 00:40:31,980
an operator loads a practice attack scenario tape

755
00:40:31,980 --> 00:40:35,250
onto the system and everybody thinks it's real.

756
00:40:36,930 --> 00:40:39,300
Meanwhile, in an effort to avoid disaster

757
00:40:39,300 --> 00:40:40,800
by technological glitch,

758
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:43,077
more and more tech stuff is being added to the system.

759
00:40:43,077 --> 00:40:44,665
(upbeat music)

760
00:40:44,665 --> 00:40:46,920
And more and more U.S. defense contractors,

761
00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:48,270
particularly universities,

762
00:40:48,270 --> 00:40:50,040
are being added to the network

763
00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:51,546
and it's starting to look familiar.

764
00:40:53,250 --> 00:40:58,250
By the 1970s, there's keyboards, mice, modems, routers,

765
00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:01,315
packet switching, ethernet cables, and the rest.

766
00:41:09,450 --> 00:41:11,910
So what do we have and how does all this lead us

767
00:41:11,910 --> 00:41:15,093
to a future where we all end up inside the internet?

768
00:41:16,290 --> 00:41:20,010
Conch shells, cabinets of curiosity, Dru Drury,

769
00:41:20,010 --> 00:41:22,800
Goliath beetles, Henry Smeathman,

770
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:25,350
the slave trade and Sierra Leone,

771
00:41:25,350 --> 00:41:28,380
Matthew Boulton, James Watt, the steam engine,

772
00:41:28,380 --> 00:41:30,690
and their new minting machine.

773
00:41:30,690 --> 00:41:33,093
Joseph Montgolfier and his hot air balloons,

774
00:41:34,140 --> 00:41:35,730
paper-making machines built in England

775
00:41:35,730 --> 00:41:37,680
by Donkin and the Halls,

776
00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:41,040
who also make gun cotton and build paternosters.

777
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:45,390
As does Freissler with electric power provided by Siemens

778
00:41:45,390 --> 00:41:47,040
who lay telegraph lines

779
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:48,660
and help open the German museum

780
00:41:48,660 --> 00:41:51,510
with its planetarium geodesic dome,

781
00:41:51,510 --> 00:41:53,310
which makes possible DEW Line

782
00:41:53,310 --> 00:41:56,160
and the answer to its network communications problem,

783
00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,730
a distributed network connecting machines

784
00:41:59,730 --> 00:42:01,323
that then connect to us.

785
00:42:03,318 --> 00:42:05,901
(gentle music)

786
00:42:07,020 --> 00:42:08,280
Well, by now you'll have guessed

787
00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:10,140
which future we're heading for in this program

788
00:42:10,140 --> 00:42:13,350
since all this stuff adds up to the other thing

789
00:42:13,350 --> 00:42:14,700
that comes out of DEW Line.

790
00:42:16,770 --> 00:42:19,110
The solution originally designed

791
00:42:19,110 --> 00:42:21,120
to connect all those radar stations

792
00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:23,309
and which becomes the internet.

793
00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:28,200
The internet is the single greatest advance

794
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:30,630
in making information and communication available

795
00:42:30,630 --> 00:42:33,510
on the widest scale to the most people

796
00:42:33,510 --> 00:42:36,660
since perhaps the invention of print.

797
00:42:36,660 --> 00:42:39,780
Containing vast amounts of information about our world,

798
00:42:39,780 --> 00:42:42,080
like the mother of all cabinets of curiosity.

799
00:42:47,340 --> 00:42:49,623
And we have taken to it like a fish to water.

800
00:42:50,970 --> 00:42:53,010
Already we take for granted billions

801
00:42:53,010 --> 00:42:55,710
of people-to-people contact online.

802
00:42:55,710 --> 00:42:57,660
The internet is totally accessible,

803
00:42:57,660 --> 00:42:59,970
it facilitates constant innovation,

804
00:42:59,970 --> 00:43:02,013
and it adapts instantly to change.

805
00:43:03,420 --> 00:43:05,670
And as a distributed network,

806
00:43:05,670 --> 00:43:08,130
it weakens the old centralizing command structure

807
00:43:08,130 --> 00:43:09,540
of the institutions

808
00:43:09,540 --> 00:43:11,793
with us since the Industrial Revolution.

809
00:43:12,750 --> 00:43:15,330
It questions all our old value systems,

810
00:43:15,330 --> 00:43:17,583
the one-size-fits all nature of education,

811
00:43:18,450 --> 00:43:21,663
the relevance of so-called represented political processes,

812
00:43:22,680 --> 00:43:24,090
the nine-to-five office routine

813
00:43:24,090 --> 00:43:25,833
followed by the obedient majority,

814
00:43:27,270 --> 00:43:30,371
the old organized community we used to conform to.

815
00:43:30,371 --> 00:43:33,954
(dramatic music continues)

816
00:43:35,250 --> 00:43:37,050
But the reason above all we need urgently

817
00:43:37,050 --> 00:43:39,510
to think about our internet future

818
00:43:39,510 --> 00:43:43,770
is because already the internet enables every machine

819
00:43:43,770 --> 00:43:46,320
to talk directly to every other machine

820
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:48,105
to make everybody's life easier.

821
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:54,450
Come home at the end of the day to a house

822
00:43:54,450 --> 00:43:57,273
operating machine to machine intelligently.

823
00:43:58,500 --> 00:44:00,330
It knows when you left the office,

824
00:44:00,330 --> 00:44:03,750
so it's warm, the lights are on where you want them,

825
00:44:03,750 --> 00:44:05,610
your food order has been delivered,

826
00:44:05,610 --> 00:44:09,030
phone calls have been answered, appointments scheduled.

827
00:44:09,030 --> 00:44:12,123
Your TV is ready to show you your favorite programs.

828
00:44:12,990 --> 00:44:15,240
And everything this intelligent house can do,

829
00:44:15,240 --> 00:44:17,190
it does in response to your voice.

830
00:44:17,190 --> 00:44:18,360
Just talk to it.

831
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:19,835
Lights on.

832
00:44:21,060 --> 00:44:23,370
And you may not even need to do that.

833
00:44:23,370 --> 00:44:25,920
Researchers at Brown University in Rhode Island

834
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:27,720
have conducted a wide range of tests

835
00:44:27,720 --> 00:44:30,240
involving people with paralysis.

836
00:44:30,240 --> 00:44:34,470
Using devices attached to the motor cortex of their brains,

837
00:44:34,470 --> 00:44:37,710
participants in the BrainGate clinical trials

838
00:44:37,710 --> 00:44:42,030
are able to control computers with their thoughts.

839
00:44:42,030 --> 00:44:46,170
In 2018, volunteers were able to chat to one another

840
00:44:46,170 --> 00:44:49,385
and even to play notes on an electronic piano.

841
00:44:51,090 --> 00:44:52,390
That's where we are today.

842
00:44:53,700 --> 00:44:55,533
But where is all this taking us?

843
00:44:57,060 --> 00:44:59,800
How about a future where there is no more disease

844
00:45:01,110 --> 00:45:03,210
because implants are administering drugs

845
00:45:03,210 --> 00:45:04,770
to keep you healthy?

846
00:45:04,770 --> 00:45:05,940
And mental health?

847
00:45:05,940 --> 00:45:08,487
Above all, you want to feel good, go for it.

848
00:45:08,487 --> 00:45:12,180
Get your sensors to monitor and control your mindset.

849
00:45:12,180 --> 00:45:14,670
So implants release antidepressants.

850
00:45:14,670 --> 00:45:17,163
So you are a permanently happy bunny.

851
00:45:18,480 --> 00:45:19,421
But why not?

852
00:45:24,060 --> 00:45:28,080
As we slip deeper into an augmented world with the internet,

853
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:30,990
cochlear implants might control what we hear,

854
00:45:30,990 --> 00:45:32,670
sensing the sounds around us,

855
00:45:32,670 --> 00:45:35,610
and adjusting what we hear and how we hear it.

856
00:45:35,610 --> 00:45:37,830
Contact lenses or even eye implants

857
00:45:37,830 --> 00:45:40,020
will give us real-time directions

858
00:45:40,020 --> 00:45:43,860
or identify anything we look at by accessing the internet.

859
00:45:43,860 --> 00:45:46,380
What about that suit or dress?

860
00:45:46,380 --> 00:45:48,540
Or how about those shoes?

861
00:45:48,540 --> 00:45:50,163
Here's the shop and the price.

862
00:45:51,300 --> 00:45:52,920
Who's that walking past?

863
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:55,260
Here's their name and contact details.

864
00:45:55,260 --> 00:45:56,640
Getting forgetful?

865
00:45:56,640 --> 00:45:59,280
How about an implant to download your memories

866
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:02,070
and a way to upload new memories directly

867
00:46:02,070 --> 00:46:04,860
from the internet to your hippocampus,

868
00:46:04,860 --> 00:46:06,431
the brain's memory center?

869
00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:13,923
All these things are already in development.

870
00:46:21,450 --> 00:46:23,970
But in a future when all the machines talk

871
00:46:23,970 --> 00:46:25,890
to all the other machines

872
00:46:25,890 --> 00:46:28,203
and the ones inside our own bodies,

873
00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:30,930
what will life be like

874
00:46:30,930 --> 00:46:33,406
when there's literally nothing we have to do?

875
00:46:36,510 --> 00:46:38,310
One small matter left to consider,

876
00:46:38,310 --> 00:46:40,470
who programs all the sensors?

877
00:46:40,470 --> 00:46:41,303
A machine?

878
00:46:43,453 --> 00:46:47,010
And will all of us end up just part of the machine?

879
00:46:47,010 --> 00:46:49,070
Are we in the net?

880
00:47:22,209 --> 00:47:26,447
Good gracious!

880
00:47:27,305 --> 00:48:27,184
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