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Last time, in 29 informative
yet accessible minutes,
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we saw how a string of breakthroughs
led humankind to build the modern world
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00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:18,520
and create a weapon powerful enough
to turn it all to white-hot, boiling shit.
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00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:22,560
But that was only part of the story.
The part after that starts now.
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It's 1945.
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The atomic bomb's just gone off.
The world lies in ruins.
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Cloning of Hitler has already begun.
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The future looked uncertain,
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and it was getting closer every minute,
like it always does.
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But this was going to be a future
unlike any the world had seen before.
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A future of moon men and rock stars,
big business and free love,
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computers and the Internet.
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And a killer robot
sent through time to kill Sarah Connor.
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Although that bit was just in a film.
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Modern civilization had arrived,
but a clash of worldviews
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meant that the threat of all-out conflict
was never far away.
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Could new forms of mass communication
help us all to get along?
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Or totally not do that?
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Should there be two social medias,
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one for people who are right
and one for people who are wrong?
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I know a lot of people I'd put
on the wrong one, like wankers.
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So join me now in the last part
of human existence,
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as I find out how we got where I am now
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and where we'll be tomorrow,
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which at the time of filming is Wednesday.
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Whenever the future arrives,
it'll happen here,
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on a fragile bauble
I've come to know as Earth.
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- [director] Okay, cut.
- My hair looks fucking shit.
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[epic music playing]
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[contemplative music playing]
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Russia. A vast land to the east.
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It's the first time
we've mentioned it in this series,
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but it's been there all along.
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At the start of the 20th century,
Russia was a vast empire,
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just like
the Marvel Cinematic Universe is today.
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The average Russian was a pheasant,
but he dreamt of being a man.
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Preferably a wealthy one.
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Because while the Russian pheasants
lived in poverty,
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the rich lived in St. Petersburg.
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The top Russian was called Czar Nicholas,
which is Russian for King Nicholas.
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He was allowed to rule the country
like a dictator,
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which I've been advised to say
isn't how Russia works today.
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A world like this
where the masses toil for pennies
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while a tiny elite grow rich
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seems so obviously unfair
and unthinkable to us today,
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we can scarcely imagine
what it must have been like.
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One man who thought it was
ein load of Scheiße
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was German thinker Karl Marx.
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It's hard to tell, but if you look closely
at this photograph,
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you might notice he had a beard.
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Marx also had a vision,
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which he wrote down in a book
called The Commonest Man in Festo.
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Today, it's one of those books
that boffins talk about,
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but no one actually reads, like all books.
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But back then, it was a hit,
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particularly popular
amongst the 18-to-35 anti-capitalist,
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revolutionary demographic.
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One Russian who read the book was the man
currently starring in this photograph,
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Vladimir Ilyich John Lennon.
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Lenin imagined a world
with no possessions,
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I wonder if you can,
nothing to kill or die for,
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a brotherhood of man.
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And he chose to bring it about
with a violent uprising.
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In 1917, he got his chance.
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Thanks to food shortages, people started
rioting for bread, like ducks do.
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Lenin and his followers
hacked into the Winter Palace
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and uploaded a communist government.
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Russia changed its name to USSR,
or sometimes CCC... P!
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What was the Soviet onion?
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I think you're laboring
under a misapprehension
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and you probably mean the Soviet Union.
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No, it's onion,
I saw it on a bit of paper earlier.
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It's probably been misspelt,
or you can't read very well.
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But I think that you mean,
in historical terms, the Soviet Union
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or the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics.
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I don't want to be rude,
but I think you're mansplaining a bit.
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Can we stick to the topic
of the Soviet onion, please?
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- Okay.
- What exactly was it?
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If you don't know, it's okay to say,
I won't judge you.
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Well, if you want to talk about
sort of Russian Soviet vegetables, we can.
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I mean, it was a deeply agrarian country.
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And so there were lots of onions,
lots of potatoes, lots of other things.
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- Did they have turnips?
- Think so.
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Cheap, easy to grow, hardy,
great in a stew.
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So how come you know
so much about vegetables?
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Have you got an allotment?
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In 1924, Lenin left the band
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to concentrate on existing
only in an afterlife he didn't believe in.
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Lenin's place was taken by Joseph Stalin,
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who presided over a ruthless crackdown
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that killed, starved or exiled
millions of people.
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Although on the plus side,
he had a friendly moustache.
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Communism and capitalism
are natural enemies,
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like men and women and cats and dogs.
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But Russia and America
had put aside their differences,
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thanks to a mutual interest
in winning the Second World War.
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The end of WWII led to loads
of celebrations in black and white,
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as people put years of conflict
and misery behind them.
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But behind
these outdated-looking celebrations,
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trouble was brewing.
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Now they'd run out of baddies
to blow up or shoot,
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East and West
grew suspicious of each other.
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It was the beginning
of a whole new conflict:
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World War Cold.
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The Cold War is quite complicated,
isn't it?
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Should we definitely bother
mentioning it in this,
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or could we just give it a miss?
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It defines most of the second half
of the 20th century,
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so you should probably include it.
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Oh, right. Okay.
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As the Soviet Union expanded,
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the animosity between
East and West deepened.
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The division was symbolized
by the construction of the Berlin Wall,
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a sort of divorce made of bricks.
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There was a terrible atmosphere
of mistrust,
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like I had with my ex
when I saw he had 28 missed calls
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from a contact he'd labelled
"Claudia Tits" on his phone.
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He claims she was just a rep
from Fitness First
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and that that was her real name.
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Well, I'm sorry, Sean, I didn't buy it
then, and I don't buy it now.
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I hope your mum's well.
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Soon there was so much paranoia
between East and West,
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they started spying on each other,
stockpiled nuclear weapons,
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and fought a series of proxy wars.
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So, Russia and America had proxy wars
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where they'd use
other countries to fight with.
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Is that a bit like picking a character
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to do your fighting with
in Street Fighter II?
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Well, I think throughout human history,
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there's been a tendency
to try and use other forces,
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fighters from other lands
to help do the fighting.
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Right. So exactly like
Street Fighter then.
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If this was Street Fighter II
and the Americans chose the character Ken,
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would the Russians pick Zangief
because he's from the Soviet Union?
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Or would they go for someone like Dhalsim?
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Obviously he'd be a better choice because
he can dive kick over Ken's fireballs.
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Well, I don't know.
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You'd have to ask, I think,
President Putin
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for the definitive answer on that.
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I suppose they'd go for the ones
that had the most chance of beating Ken.
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Meanwhile, East and West
were also competing
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to be the first to explore the stars.
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The rivalry became known as
the space race because that rhymes,
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although probably not in Russian.
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We don't know what they called it,
and to be honest,
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we probably should have
found out before recording this bit.
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The first launches were considered
complete disasters at the time,
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but we now know
they make for soothing viewing
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when cut to light jazz.
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[light jazz playing]
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[dramatic fanfare]
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[Ed Herlihy]
Today, a new moon is in the sky,
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a 23-inch metal sphere
placed in orbit by a Russian rocket.
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[Philomena] Finally, in 1957,
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the Russians became
the first to pull off a successful launch.
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Why did the Russians
launch spunk into orbit?
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Well, first of all,
when you're looking at Russian words,
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the name of the world's first satellite
was Sputnik 1, and the Russians...
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Is that Russian for "spunk"?
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No, it's Russian for "traveler."
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I suppose spunk in orbit would
just sort of float around in globules
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like it does in a bath.
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Sorry, shall I change the subject?
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Hot on Sputnik's heels
was this Soviet space-dog,
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known on earth as Laika,
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who blasted into space in November 1957.
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What happened to Laika?
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I expect they gave her a bone
and a rub on the tummy when she got back.
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Well, Laika, unfortunately,
never made it back to Earth
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because shortly after launching
she overheated
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and she tragically passed away
just a few hours after being launched.
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You're fucking joking!
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I wish I was. No, this was...
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She was launched on a flight
that was pretty much one way.
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There's a dead dog in space!
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So there's a dead dog
somewhere in the back of a frame
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of every film shot in space
like Star Wars?
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- I wouldn't say...
- There are dead dogs in Star Wars!
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- Um...
- That is unacceptable.
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Well, Laika's satellite eventually
burned up in the Earth's atmosphere,
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but this was well after she'd passed away.
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As I say, it was just a few hours
after launch that she died.
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Sorry, can we just have
a minute's silence for Laika?
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Okay.
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[exhales sharply]
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There's a dead dog in space.
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Away from the space race,
everyday Russians often had hard lives,
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while Americans, in contrast,
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appeared to enjoy a life
of carefree luxury and hats.
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Was the 1950s real?
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Yes, it was certainly real.
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Are we sure? Because it looks like
it was made up when you see it.
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It's all men in hats
and housewives smiling in kitchens.
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Were those people real,
and was all that really happening?
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Well, a lot of that
is what you see in advertising.
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[announcer] The '55 Chevrolet is lower,
wider and longer looking.
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The most popular drama on 1950s
television was a show called Adverts.
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Adverts told the story of a man
or woman who wanted a thing
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and then bought it and then was happy,
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the first ever example
of a three-act narrative structure.
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- Why, that's amazing!
- [announcer] Right!
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[Philomena] Adverts was so influential,
it made viewers at home
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want to be the sort of person
who bought things too.
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They'd work hard to get money to buy a car
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so they could drive to the shops
and buy more things,
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which they'd have to pay for by going back
to work, which made them miserable.
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So they'd cheer themselves up
by going out and buying more things,
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which they'd have to work to pay for.
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- Why, that's amazing!
- [announcer] Right!
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[Philomena] The only time
they weren't working or buying
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was when they were watching TV.
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And it was on these airwaves
that a new kind of culture was born:
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00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:39,400
popular culture, unlike normal culture,
which was paintings and Beethoven.
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This was stuff people actually enjoyed.
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For decades, pioneering Black artists
had steadily built on each other's work
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to develop an exciting new musical form
for white people to pass off as their own.
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00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:56,440
Why do people say Elvis Presley
appropriated white music?
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They don't say that. What they do say
is that he appropriated Black music.
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He was a white man
that sang music of Black origin.
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Did he have to apologize on social media?
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00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:12,480
No, because there was
no social media then.
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- Why doesn't Elvis apologize now?
- Because Elvis is dead.
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So he's appropriated dead people's
lifestyles now?
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What a fucking thief.
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Having overcome childhood poverty
and a hip impediment,
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Elvis benefited from mass media,
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which broadcast him to an audience
of millions, in sanitized form.
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Why was it so dangerous
to show Elvis from the waist down?
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Was he naked underneath
like a pervert on a Zoom call?
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He wasn't naked.
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He moved his hips around a lot
in a very sort of sexual manner.
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And there was a lot of anxiety
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00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:55,160
that young women might be
a little bit too turned on by Elvis.
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00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:57,480
People were prudish back then,
weren't they?
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If they saw his penis, they'd probably
have a stroke, wouldn't they?
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00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:04,920
Probably. I don't think that
would have made it onto the...
237
00:13:05,920 --> 00:13:06,840
Oh, God.
238
00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:10,120
That's not a joke.
What's funny about that?
239
00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:13,200
If they saw his penis,
they'd have a stroke.
240
00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:17,320
That's no laughing matter.
We're talking about people's lives here.
241
00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:20,560
Elvis was so dangerously explosive,
242
00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:23,760
he was requisitioned
by the US Army for military use.
243
00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:27,240
And little wonder,
considering what was going on.
244
00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:32,640
Both Russia and America were building up
huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons,
245
00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:36,320
enough to destroy the entire planet
several times over,
246
00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:38,480
in case they missed the first time.
247
00:13:38,560 --> 00:13:41,400
It seemed the planet
was headed for World War III,
248
00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:45,840
and in the early '60s, it teetered up
to the edge of the brink of the precipice
249
00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:48,520
and gazed straight
into an abyss of no return.
250
00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:50,160
[announcer] Crisis!
251
00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:52,720
The word suddenly springs alive
252
00:13:52,800 --> 00:13:55,640
ominously in the newspapers
across America...
253
00:13:55,720 --> 00:13:57,600
In the Cube and Missile Crisis,
254
00:13:57,680 --> 00:14:02,240
which was more dangerous,
the cubes or the missiles?
255
00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:05,400
You're thinking of the Cuban
Missile Crisis, which refers to Cuba,
256
00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:08,720
which is a country off the coast
of the United States near Florida.
257
00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:10,920
Isn't a cube a terrible shape
for a missile?
258
00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:12,480
It'd be more like a brick.
259
00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:18,120
In 1959, there had been
a communist revolution in Cuba.
260
00:14:18,680 --> 00:14:24,480
A man called Fidel Castro rose to power
and immediately made friends with Russia.
261
00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:29,400
Then in 1962, America discovered
the Soviets were going to use Cuba
262
00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:31,320
as a base for nuclear missiles,
263
00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:35,080
and those missiles could make it
to Florida in just 20 minutes,
264
00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:38,520
if the wind was fair
and they could find somewhere to park.
265
00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:42,400
American president
and pin-up John F'ing Kennedy
266
00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:46,760
demanded the Russians remove the missiles,
otherwise, war was inevitable.
267
00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:48,920
Or worse still, possible.
268
00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:52,120
For six days, the world held its breath,
269
00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:56,240
meaning it might die from asphyxiation
before the bombs even went off.
270
00:14:56,320 --> 00:14:59,600
In the end,
Soviet Emperor Nikita Khrushchev
271
00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:02,160
backed down
like a shameful fucking chicken,
272
00:15:02,240 --> 00:15:05,240
and his missiles went home
with their tails between their legs.
273
00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:07,840
Kennedy was victorious.
274
00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:12,040
John F. Kennedy
won the Cuban Missile Crisis.
275
00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:14,760
Why did he shoot himself afterwards?
276
00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:16,760
Well, he didn't.
277
00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:20,000
He negotiated a settlement
to the Cuban Missile Crisis
278
00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:22,920
with the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev.
279
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:27,760
And then after that, he ended up
being assassinated in Dallas, Texas,
280
00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:30,600
in 1963, unfortunately,
but he didn't fire the bullet.
281
00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:34,960
Right. It's ironic that he was
so concerned about Cuban missiles
282
00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:38,920
when it was a gun in Texas
he should have been worried about.
283
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:41,760
I bet he was kicking himself
after he was shot.
284
00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:45,480
Having dodged Armageddon,
the world was hungry for change
285
00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:48,960
and a young generation
who wanted to give peace a chance rose up.
286
00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:50,920
Their heroes weren't politicians
287
00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:55,560
but countercultural musicians
whose works defined the era.
288
00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:59,000
The Rolling Stones were huge in the 1960s.
289
00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:02,680
Would it be fair to say
they were the Beatles of their day?
290
00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:05,640
Well, I thought they were contemporary.
291
00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:09,520
So there was always a jostle
between the Stones and the Beatles.
292
00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:13,000
Right, but the Beatles were already
the Elvis of their day.
293
00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:15,920
So there's a spare Beatles.
294
00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:17,680
Can we give that to the Rolling Stones,
295
00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:20,560
even though they're happening
at the same time?
296
00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:24,000
Well, I think people
have their preferences
297
00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:27,160
between the style of the Beatles
and the style of the Stones.
298
00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:31,160
Okay, so which of the
"the Beatles of their day" was best:
299
00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:33,000
Beatles one or Beatles two?
300
00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:37,720
I think Beatles one is the preferred...
Or Beatles... the first... the Beatles.
301
00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:39,480
Next question:
302
00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:44,200
of all the bands of the 1960s,
which ones was the Kinks?
303
00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:49,360
Meanwhile,
the space race was still being run.
304
00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:51,640
NASA had spent billions of dollars
305
00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:54,160
developing a rocket powerful enough
to reach the moon,
306
00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:57,360
but not so powerful
that it would blow up when it got there.
307
00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:01,720
On board were Neil Armstrong, Alan Alda
308
00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:05,240
and another man
who asked to remain anonymous.
309
00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:09,520
On July 20th, 1969,
the whole world was watching on television
310
00:17:09,599 --> 00:17:11,240
to see if the moon would blow up.
311
00:17:11,319 --> 00:17:14,040
And also because
there was nothing else on.
312
00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:17,400
The global audience
must have been genuinely astounded
313
00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:21,640
by the appalling picture quality,
which was terrible even for the time.
314
00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:22,880
I mean, just look at it.
315
00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:26,520
Looks like they've flown to
the Blur dimension to intercept a smudge.
316
00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,240
[Neil Armstrong]
That's one small step for man,
317
00:17:32,839 --> 00:17:35,920
one giant leap for mankind.
318
00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:40,400
The sound quality was terrible too,
but what he said was,
319
00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:44,560
"That's one small step for man,
one bionic leap for mankind,"
320
00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:46,720
thereby declaring the moon for men.
321
00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:50,160
Which is why, to this day,
women have been denied entry to the moon.
322
00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:54,200
With the moon landings,
man had achieved greatness,
323
00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:57,800
transcending earthly limits
and exploring the heavens themselves.
324
00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:00,400
Assuming any of this actually happened.
325
00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:04,760
A lot of people on the Internet
say the moon landings were faked.
326
00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:07,000
How right are they?
327
00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:09,040
They are completely wrong.
328
00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:14,520
No historian has ever questioned
the reality of Project Apollo
329
00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:17,640
because not one piece
of so-called evidence
330
00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:22,880
that the conspiracy theorists put forward
has ever stood up to peer review scrutiny.
331
00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:26,520
But obviously it is fake because
how could they have landed on the moon
332
00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:28,280
if the moon isn't real?
333
00:18:28,360 --> 00:18:30,760
What makes you think the moon
isn't real, Philomena?
334
00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:33,360
It isn't. I don't know
if you've done your own research,
335
00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:37,560
but my mate Paul sent me
a video that exposes the whole thing.
336
00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:42,080
Can you prove the moon exists?
You can't, can you?
337
00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:46,280
We see it in the sky.
We have sent spacecraft to the moon.
338
00:18:46,360 --> 00:18:48,360
We've brought samples back to Earth.
339
00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:51,680
No. Watch the video. It'll open your eyes.
340
00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:54,440
You probably believe
in nighttime too, don't you?
341
00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:58,520
I experience it, as do billions
of people around the world.
342
00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:01,200
So, yes, I-I believe in nighttime.
343
00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:03,720
I believe that when the earth rotates,
344
00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:06,080
then we have a period of dark
that we call nighttime.
345
00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:08,280
Wake up. It's all in the video.
346
00:19:08,360 --> 00:19:12,440
They just make us think the moon is real
and that night is real,
347
00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:14,480
just to keep us obedient.
348
00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:15,760
Think about it.
349
00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:17,760
Babies haven't been indoctrinated yet,
350
00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:20,040
so they know
there's no such thing as night.
351
00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:23,000
And that's why they wake up screaming.
352
00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:24,680
Let's move on.
353
00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:29,680
The space race was over.
America had won.
354
00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:33,600
And the prize had turned out to be
the worst holiday destination in history,
355
00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:37,640
which they couldn't even warn people about
because TripAdvisor didn't exist.
356
00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:40,720
But there was a consolation prize:
357
00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:46,480
the best holiday snap in history
taken on Apollo 8 and known as Earthrise.
358
00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:48,760
Today, it's too boring
to hold your attention
359
00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:51,520
in a landmark documentary
for more than eight seconds.
360
00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:54,720
But back then,
this photograph made people think.
361
00:19:55,360 --> 00:20:00,040
And not just a small thought like,
"That looks nice," but a big thought.
362
00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:04,120
It made us realize our planet is fragile.
363
00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:10,200
The ecological movement
had always been popular with hippies,
364
00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:13,400
but people ignored them
because of the way they were dressed
365
00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:17,400
and because they were too stoned
to make their point coherently.
366
00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:20,680
But now scientists began
to worry about the state of the planet.
367
00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:23,440
And so no one would
mistake them for hippies,
368
00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:27,160
they wore clean white coats
and glasses to deliver their warnings.
369
00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:30,040
But we ignored them too,
because they looked like nerds.
370
00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:32,360
The problem was progress.
371
00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:37,120
All the modern gadgets
we'd got so hooked on ran on electricity,
372
00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:40,960
which came from power stations,
which burn fossil fuels,
373
00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:45,520
which creates a gas called CO2,
which flies out of chimneys
374
00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:47,680
and stops the sky working properly.
375
00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:50,560
One solution
to all this environmental damage
376
00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:53,120
was to build nuclear power stations,
377
00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:56,440
which don't emit anywhere near
as much harmful material.
378
00:20:56,520 --> 00:20:59,000
Unless they blow up, which never happens.
379
00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:02,040
Until it did in 1986 at Chernobyl.
380
00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:07,800
The radiation from Chernobyl turned
a huge area into a deadly no-go zone.
381
00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:10,160
Even worse than Reigate Town Centre.
382
00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:13,160
The fallout wafted across
thousands of miles
383
00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:16,000
and had one unforeseen side effect:
384
00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:19,040
it made the bricks of the Berlin wall
extremely brittle,
385
00:21:19,120 --> 00:21:21,840
so brittle it began to collapse.
386
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,720
Desperate locals
rushed to the wall's assistance
387
00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:28,280
and tried to make it better
with hammers and fists.
388
00:21:28,360 --> 00:21:30,080
But it was no use.
389
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:33,040
As the wall died, so did communism.
390
00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:34,480
Capitalism had won,
391
00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,440
with financial markets
embracing globalization
392
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:41,640
to the toe-tapping sound of
Belgian techno anthem "Pump Up the Jam."
393
00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:43,720
[techno music playing]
394
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:59,320
♪ Pump up the jam, pump it up ♪
395
00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:01,280
♪ While your feet are stomping ♪
396
00:22:01,360 --> 00:22:02,800
♪ And the jam is pumping ♪
397
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:05,080
♪ Look ahead, the crowd is jumping ♪
398
00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:06,720
♪ Pump it up a little more ♪
399
00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:08,560
♪ Get the party going
On the dance floor ♪
400
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:10,480
♪ See, 'cause that's
Where the party's at ♪
401
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:13,240
♪ And you'll find out if you do that ♪
402
00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:16,520
♪ I want a place to stay ♪
403
00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:19,160
♪ Get your booty
On the floor tonight ♪
404
00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:21,680
♪ Make my day, I want... ♪
405
00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:25,720
Suddenly everybody, apart from
poor people, was making so much money
406
00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:28,040
that there wasn't room
to store it all in coins.
407
00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:31,200
Instead, it had to be stored
in numbers on a screen,
408
00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:34,320
surrounded by men
shouting at it to keep it inside.
409
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:39,280
To keep track of all this money, the world
needed a special kind of mega abacus,
410
00:22:39,360 --> 00:22:42,520
and luckily it had one: the computer.
411
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:47,400
Today, computers are everywhere,
but they used to be a cumbersome rarity.
412
00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:51,360
In the '50s and '60s,
one computer would take up a whole room.
413
00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:55,880
But in the 1970s,
engineers made a startling discovery.
414
00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:59,560
If they got rid of all those pointless
flashing lights and spinning tape reels,
415
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,080
they could make computers much smaller.
416
00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:05,520
Small enough, in fact,
to fit on the tip of your finger.
417
00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:08,960
This was the microchip,
and it was amazing.
418
00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:11,760
Thank you.
Give you the little fella back now.
419
00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:15,920
The microchip
couldn't actually do anything
420
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:18,760
until you shoved it
into a big machine like this.
421
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:23,040
But in terms of floor space alone,
it was still a big improvement.
422
00:23:23,120 --> 00:23:25,720
Now computers were small enough
to share a house with,
423
00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:27,960
loads more people wanted one.
424
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:29,760
Silicon Valley was born,
425
00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:33,920
a computer heartland that would be defined
by the rivalry between two men:
426
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:36,600
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
427
00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:40,320
Their names might have been boring,
but the things they said were more boring.
428
00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:42,480
Gates founded Microsoft
429
00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:46,240
and hit the big time with the baffling,
unofficial sequel to Ms. Pac-Man
430
00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:48,240
called MS-DOS.
431
00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:51,000
Meanwhile, Jobs
created the Apple Macintosh,
432
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:53,680
the world's first
inherently smug computer.
433
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:57,880
While their rival systems
kept computer users apart,
434
00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:00,760
something else was trying
to bring them all together.
435
00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,040
WWW, the web wide world.
436
00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:07,240
The Internet was so modern
and interesting,
437
00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:11,480
it seemed humankind
might never get up from its desk again.
438
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:15,160
Then, in a dramatic and momentous
keynote presentation,
439
00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:16,920
Steve Jobs revealed he'd discovered
440
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:19,840
how to put the Internet
inside a portable rectangle,
441
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:21,480
changing history forever.
442
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:25,480
And we are calling it iPhone.
443
00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:27,120
[cheering and applause]
444
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:32,120
Its success inspired tons of imitators,
like that one your mum uses.
445
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:36,040
And soon, smartphones were so ubiquitous,
you're probably looking at one now
446
00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:38,120
instead of me while I'm saying this.
447
00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:41,920
Smartphones revolutionized
the way humans interact
448
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:46,280
by providing a socially acceptable way
to ignore everyone around us.
449
00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:47,560
But we're not lonely.
450
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,280
Thanks to social media,
it's quicker and easier than ever
451
00:24:50,360 --> 00:24:52,080
to bond with millions of others
452
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:57,320
over something as simple as a cat photo
or the ritual shaming of a stranger.
453
00:24:57,400 --> 00:24:59,400
It's easy to see why
the smartphone has become
454
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:01,920
the most popular invention this century.
455
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:03,840
It's incredibly advanced,
456
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,360
yet at the same time,
so simple a child can make one.
457
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:10,880
In fact, not just one
but about 50 of these an hour,
458
00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:14,040
if it wants to avoid another night
in the punishment block.
459
00:25:14,120 --> 00:25:18,040
Sadly, Steve Jobs died
before he could witness Apple's success,
460
00:25:18,120 --> 00:25:21,000
apart from
the first few hundred billion dollars.
461
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:23,640
On his deathbed,
he made Apple engineers promise
462
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:27,000
to change the iPhone's headphone jack
every three years,
463
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:29,440
then uploaded himself to the cloud.
464
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:36,320
Meanwhile, Gates wasted his fortune
eradicating malaria in the Third World.
465
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:41,720
But despite Apple
and Microsoft's total failure,
466
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,480
computers continue to go
from strength to strength.
467
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,240
Some believe we're heading
for an event known as the singularity,
468
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:51,640
where artificial intelligence
becomes too clever for our own good.
469
00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:55,120
While others believe this already happened
470
00:25:55,200 --> 00:26:00,640
and that all of human civilization
exists only inside a computer simulation.
471
00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:04,120
How do we know we're not in a simulation?
472
00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:05,240
We don't know.
473
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:06,760
There are lots of smart people
474
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,560
who think it is possible
that we live in a simulation.
475
00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:12,960
If this is a simulation,
476
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,920
why is the computer
making me ask you this?
477
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:21,480
Well... from my perspective,
478
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:23,800
you are asking a question,
479
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,480
so I could imagine that you are
being controlled by a computer,
480
00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:30,720
but you may well feel
that you have free will
481
00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:32,800
and you're asking
those questions yourself.
482
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:35,560
Why do I have to actually
come and film this?
483
00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:38,960
Couldn't a computer just show it
on the telly in the simulation,
484
00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:40,760
or is that where I am?
485
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:43,960
Do I exist at all? Why is this happening?
486
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:48,320
Why isn't it just me
eating a chocolate eclair in a loop?
487
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:50,720
Like in a GIF. I'd swap for that.
488
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:57,280
Actually, are people
in looping GIFs caught in a simulation?
489
00:26:57,360 --> 00:27:02,120
Is that what's happened to them?
Where do wasps fit into the simulation?
490
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:04,520
I'm not quite sure how...
491
00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:06,880
Sorry, there's a lot
to unpick, isn't there?
492
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:10,560
[contemplative music playing]
493
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:16,080
In this series, we've taken you
from our primitive beginnings
494
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,800
through spiritual awakenings,
cultural explosions
495
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:22,560
and major scientific breakthroughs.
496
00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:26,960
Now, in the present moment,
humankind sits impaled on a crossroads,
497
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:29,520
facing an uncertain future.
498
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:32,320
Will we rise to the challenge
of climate change?
499
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:33,920
Or the opposite of that?
500
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:37,080
Will computers learn to delete us?
501
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:41,120
And if they do, how will we get ourselves
out of the recycle bin?
502
00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:45,120
Can humankind learn to exist
at peace with itself?
503
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:47,800
Or are all of us right now
504
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:53,280
living through the final hours,
minutes and seconds of civilization?
505
00:27:53,360 --> 00:27:55,480
Or not, I don't know.
506
00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:57,080
And nor do you.
507
00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:02,280
But whatever happens,
it'll happen right here on Earth.
508
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:05,360
[director]
Okay, that was great, we've got that.
509
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:07,080
- Yeah?
- Yeah, all done. Thank you.
510
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:09,000
- Is that it?
- Yeah. That's it. Nice one.
511
00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:10,640
- So we're done?
- Yeah, great work.
512
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:14,840
Oh, great. Are you sure you can make it
look like I've been to these places?
513
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:16,880
- Yeah. Don't worry about that.
- Really?
514
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:20,000
We do it on the computers afterwards.
It's amazing these days.
515
00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:21,920
Brilliant, see you then. Bye!
516
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,480
[director]
Cut there, guys. Thank you, well done!
517
00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:27,080
That was pretty good I think.
518
00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:30,160
Great. Thank you.
519
00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:32,520
[crew pacing, chatting indistinctly]
520
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:47,880
[microphone cover crinkling]