1 00:00:07,163 --> 00:00:10,203 Last time, we saw how the Renaissance turned Europe 2 00:00:10,283 --> 00:00:15,083 from a load of mud and parsnips into a posh resort full of paintings, 3 00:00:15,163 --> 00:00:19,603 and how this awakening led to a string of people-power uprisings 4 00:00:19,683 --> 00:00:22,083 that put the establishment on its arse. 5 00:00:22,803 --> 00:00:24,883 But the revolutions were just beginning. 6 00:00:24,963 --> 00:00:30,363 Humankind was about to leap forward again by taming metal and electricity. 7 00:00:30,443 --> 00:00:34,443 Progress would usher in a new era of convenience and entertainment, 8 00:00:34,523 --> 00:00:37,603 but also threaten the existence of all life on Earth. 9 00:00:37,683 --> 00:00:39,403 So, swings and roundabouts, really. 10 00:00:39,483 --> 00:00:43,843 This week it's the rise of the machines here, on Earth. 11 00:00:43,923 --> 00:00:47,083 And also here on Cunk on Earth. 12 00:01:01,963 --> 00:01:06,283 For centuries, everything in nature, from people to cows, 13 00:01:06,363 --> 00:01:07,683 ran on this… 14 00:01:08,683 --> 00:01:10,282 fresh air. 15 00:01:10,362 --> 00:01:12,123 If you haven't heard of air, 16 00:01:12,203 --> 00:01:15,403 it's an invisible blend of gases so addictive, 17 00:01:15,483 --> 00:01:17,603 we suffer fatal withdrawal symptoms 18 00:01:17,683 --> 00:01:20,083 within minutes of our supply being cut off. 19 00:01:21,603 --> 00:01:25,643 This dependency made air's rival, water, jealous. 20 00:01:26,203 --> 00:01:27,963 Water needed to up its game. 21 00:01:28,043 --> 00:01:32,443 It needed to become more indispensable to us, its natural masters. 22 00:01:32,523 --> 00:01:34,083 It was feeling the heat. 23 00:01:34,163 --> 00:01:36,883 Heat that turned it into something useful. 24 00:01:36,963 --> 00:01:37,923 Steam. 25 00:01:38,763 --> 00:01:42,283 Steam could be harnessed to power all kinds of machines. 26 00:01:42,363 --> 00:01:45,883 And nowhere went steam bonkers quite like America, 27 00:01:45,963 --> 00:01:49,483 where it would change the shape of the country's face forever. 28 00:01:49,563 --> 00:01:52,563 To understand why, I'm afraid we have to look at a map. 29 00:01:52,643 --> 00:01:55,683 At first, settlers had stuck to the edges of America, 30 00:01:55,763 --> 00:01:59,403 leaving the middle untouched, like a frozen pie in a microwave. 31 00:01:59,483 --> 00:02:02,523 But Americans back then weren't the humble, unassuming people 32 00:02:02,603 --> 00:02:04,043 they still aren't today. 33 00:02:04,123 --> 00:02:07,203 They believed in something called Manifest Destiny, 34 00:02:07,283 --> 00:02:10,043 the belief that all the land belonged to them 35 00:02:10,123 --> 00:02:12,443 and that God wanted them to go west 36 00:02:12,523 --> 00:02:14,363 and claim it back from the Native Americans 37 00:02:14,443 --> 00:02:16,363 he'd put there first by mistake. 38 00:02:16,963 --> 00:02:19,723 What is Manifest Destiny? 39 00:02:19,803 --> 00:02:23,163 Manifest Destiny is a ideology 40 00:02:23,243 --> 00:02:26,323 that was in the 1840s and '50s in the United States, 41 00:02:26,403 --> 00:02:29,763 that America had a God-given right to take over the rest of the continent 42 00:02:29,843 --> 00:02:33,723 and sort of spread its values and its virtues from sea to shining sea. 43 00:02:33,803 --> 00:02:36,363 -So it was God's plan? -That was the idea, yes. 44 00:02:36,443 --> 00:02:39,163 Doesn't this make you God's slaves? 45 00:02:39,243 --> 00:02:41,923 Well, I think what the people of the time would say 46 00:02:42,003 --> 00:02:44,363 is that they were God's missionaries on Earth. 47 00:02:44,443 --> 00:02:48,483 And so they felt that they were willingly enacting his policies 48 00:02:48,563 --> 00:02:50,083 rather than being forced to do so. 49 00:02:50,163 --> 00:02:53,083 But at the very least, you're God's bitches. 50 00:02:53,163 --> 00:02:56,043 But manifesting your destiny was dangerous. 51 00:02:56,123 --> 00:02:59,403 You had to trundle across a perilous landscape in a rickety wagon 52 00:02:59,483 --> 00:03:02,923 on the brink of starvation or shitting yourself to death with dysentery, 53 00:03:03,003 --> 00:03:05,603 getting bitten by snakes or butchered by Apaches. 54 00:03:05,683 --> 00:03:08,563 Almost as if God didn't want them to do this after all. 55 00:03:09,243 --> 00:03:12,443 But the invention of the steam train changed all that. 56 00:03:12,523 --> 00:03:15,243 The steam train laughed in the wagon's face. 57 00:03:15,323 --> 00:03:17,443 Not literally. This isn't a children's book. 58 00:03:18,123 --> 00:03:21,003 The Americans released steam engines into the wild, 59 00:03:21,803 --> 00:03:25,563 carving routes across the land and changing the balance of power. 60 00:03:26,403 --> 00:03:30,683 Now, fighting with Native Americans could be conducted at high speed 61 00:03:30,763 --> 00:03:33,203 and with an accompanying buffet car service. 62 00:03:33,723 --> 00:03:37,763 Thanks to the railroads, small towns formed all across the west. 63 00:03:38,403 --> 00:03:40,563 They were tough, lawless places 64 00:03:40,643 --> 00:03:43,683 where summary justice was dispensed down the barrel of a gun, 65 00:03:43,763 --> 00:03:48,483 as cowboys did whatever it took to protect their cows, and their boys. 66 00:03:48,563 --> 00:03:51,203 So can you talk us through what this is here? 67 00:03:51,283 --> 00:03:56,003 This is the Colt single action army revolver, the Colt 45. 68 00:03:56,083 --> 00:03:58,963 And you load it through here, 69 00:03:59,043 --> 00:04:01,603 and you'd have to cock the hammer back for each shot. 70 00:04:02,363 --> 00:04:05,443 Would this only kill people during the olden days? 71 00:04:05,523 --> 00:04:07,723 Or could it kill modern people too? 72 00:04:07,803 --> 00:04:10,363 I'm afraid it definitely could kill modern people. 73 00:04:10,443 --> 00:04:13,443 It's so old. It sort of looks clockwork, doesn't it? 74 00:04:13,523 --> 00:04:17,603 Do the bullets come out slowly? Could you sort of outrun the bullet? 75 00:04:17,683 --> 00:04:21,643 You definitely couldn't outrun the bullet. You're right to say it looks clockwork. 76 00:04:21,723 --> 00:04:25,163 It's very like a clock mechanism, with a ratchet inside. 77 00:04:25,243 --> 00:04:27,163 -Rat shit? -A ratchet. 78 00:04:27,243 --> 00:04:30,443 Where do the bullets come out? Do they come out of that pipe bit? 79 00:04:30,523 --> 00:04:32,403 They do. Yeah, that's the barrel. 80 00:04:32,483 --> 00:04:36,963 Can I hold that up and look down the end of it? 81 00:04:37,043 --> 00:04:39,163 Or will that shoot me in the eye? 82 00:04:39,243 --> 00:04:40,563 It's generally frowned upon. 83 00:04:40,643 --> 00:04:43,883 So would getting shot in the eye actually hurt? 84 00:04:43,963 --> 00:04:47,243 Because it's just a sort of water bag, isn't it, your eye? 85 00:04:47,323 --> 00:04:49,323 I bet it'd just pop and sting a bit, 86 00:04:49,403 --> 00:04:51,803 but you'd basically be able to go about your business. 87 00:04:51,883 --> 00:04:54,403 I don't know, I don't think there's any good place to get shot. 88 00:04:54,483 --> 00:04:59,243 Why does humankind feel the need to invent killing machines like this? 89 00:04:59,763 --> 00:05:03,683 And could you keep your answer to a sort of soundbite length? 90 00:05:04,443 --> 00:05:06,323 Because we're human I suppose? 91 00:05:06,403 --> 00:05:11,283 It seems to be built into us to fight for resources, 92 00:05:12,443 --> 00:05:13,803 other humans. 93 00:05:13,883 --> 00:05:15,923 -Yeah. -Can't seem to get away from it. 94 00:05:16,003 --> 00:05:18,243 I know. I just think we're mental. 95 00:05:18,843 --> 00:05:23,203 Guns played a huge role in shaping America and also in killing people. 96 00:05:23,843 --> 00:05:25,443 Even now, the use of firearms 97 00:05:25,523 --> 00:05:28,003 is an integral part of their national identity. 98 00:05:28,723 --> 00:05:32,003 How come Americans have the right to kill anyone they want with a gun? 99 00:05:32,683 --> 00:05:33,763 Well, they don't. 100 00:05:33,843 --> 00:05:38,163 Murder is illegal in the United States, but they do have the right to own weapons. 101 00:05:38,243 --> 00:05:40,683 -They have the right to bear arms. -Correct. 102 00:05:40,763 --> 00:05:43,163 -But bears don't have arms. -They do, actually. 103 00:05:43,243 --> 00:05:45,283 Do they? I thought they were legs. 104 00:05:45,363 --> 00:05:46,923 Well, I'm not a biologist, 105 00:05:47,003 --> 00:05:50,003 but I suppose that when they stand up, they're probably arms. 106 00:05:52,403 --> 00:05:55,243 With its cowboys and guns and steam train rides, 107 00:05:55,323 --> 00:05:57,723 America became known as the land of the free, 108 00:05:58,243 --> 00:06:00,803 which must have come as a surprise to all the slaves. 109 00:06:00,883 --> 00:06:04,763 The barbaric practice of slavery was still prevalent in America, 110 00:06:04,843 --> 00:06:07,363 particularly in the southern states. 111 00:06:07,443 --> 00:06:10,203 But by finally thinking hard about the subject, 112 00:06:10,283 --> 00:06:13,603 the people of the northern states made a horrifying discovery: 113 00:06:14,163 --> 00:06:17,403 that inside each slave was an actual human person. 114 00:06:18,123 --> 00:06:21,643 The North asked the South what kind of America it wanted to live in: 115 00:06:21,723 --> 00:06:24,203 one where white people leeched off other races 116 00:06:24,283 --> 00:06:26,243 while treating them as inferior 117 00:06:26,323 --> 00:06:28,683 or one where they pretended they didn't? 118 00:06:29,203 --> 00:06:32,243 The argument escalated into a civil war, 119 00:06:32,323 --> 00:06:35,483 a time when America was almost as polarized as it is today. 120 00:06:36,203 --> 00:06:38,963 The Civil War tore America apart, didn't it? 121 00:06:39,043 --> 00:06:40,243 Brother turned on brother. 122 00:06:40,323 --> 00:06:44,163 Did anyone get so conflicted they turned on themselves? 123 00:06:44,243 --> 00:06:45,763 I don't think so. 124 00:06:45,843 --> 00:06:50,563 Uh… There may have been some very strong debates within individuals 125 00:06:50,643 --> 00:06:54,323 of which side to join, and I think that could be what you're perhaps referencing. 126 00:06:54,403 --> 00:06:57,643 How come people say it was the first modern war 127 00:06:57,723 --> 00:07:01,043 when you can see from the photos it was ages ago? 128 00:07:01,123 --> 00:07:02,843 It's interesting you reference the photos 129 00:07:02,923 --> 00:07:06,083 because it's the first war that photography really played a part. 130 00:07:06,163 --> 00:07:08,443 Um, it was something where photographs 131 00:07:08,523 --> 00:07:11,563 were part of the conflict and documenting the violence. 132 00:07:11,643 --> 00:07:14,843 Must have been quite exciting, going to Snappy Snaps afterwards 133 00:07:14,923 --> 00:07:17,883 and seeing which ones had turned out and which ones hadn't. 134 00:07:19,083 --> 00:07:21,803 After four long years of war-related violence, 135 00:07:21,883 --> 00:07:25,523 the North came out on top, which north is anyway. 136 00:07:25,603 --> 00:07:30,843 It was a victory for the undisputed king of the North, Abraham Lincoln. 137 00:07:31,563 --> 00:07:33,283 Who was Abraham Lincoln? 138 00:07:33,363 --> 00:07:37,243 And why did he have all those weird tattoos on his tummy? 139 00:07:37,323 --> 00:07:40,003 I have no idea what you're referring to with the tattoos, 140 00:07:40,083 --> 00:07:45,163 but he is a US president, revered as probably the best US president. 141 00:07:45,243 --> 00:07:49,723 Apparently he had, like, a snowman and a robin tattooed on his tummy 142 00:07:50,283 --> 00:07:52,723 and the robin had a moustache. 143 00:07:54,003 --> 00:07:56,723 I genuinely have no idea what you're referring to. 144 00:07:57,603 --> 00:08:01,523 Now Lincoln was president, at long last slavery was abolished 145 00:08:01,603 --> 00:08:04,243 and replaced with simple racial prejudice. 146 00:08:04,803 --> 00:08:08,163 But Abraham Lincoln's story didn't have a happy ending. 147 00:08:08,243 --> 00:08:12,123 Five days after the North won, a terrible fate befell him. 148 00:08:12,203 --> 00:08:15,203 He was forced to go to the theater to watch a play. 149 00:08:15,883 --> 00:08:18,683 He was put out of his misery by a kindly gunman. 150 00:08:18,763 --> 00:08:21,643 But cruelly, not until the third act. 151 00:08:21,723 --> 00:08:24,403 Abraham Lincoln was shot in the theater box, wasn't he? 152 00:08:24,483 --> 00:08:26,843 Where is that on the body? 153 00:08:26,923 --> 00:08:30,403 I think you're referring to the physical location he was in when he was shot, 154 00:08:30,483 --> 00:08:34,203 which was in the presidential box at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. 155 00:08:34,283 --> 00:08:35,603 And why was he shot? 156 00:08:35,683 --> 00:08:37,763 Was it because he wouldn't take his hat off? 157 00:08:37,842 --> 00:08:41,602 Because that's annoying in the theater, when someone's in front of you with a hat. 158 00:08:41,683 --> 00:08:43,202 He was in the presidential box, 159 00:08:43,283 --> 00:08:45,523 so there wasn't anyone behind him, as far as I know. 160 00:08:45,602 --> 00:08:48,003 But he was shot by a man named John Wilkes Booth, 161 00:08:48,082 --> 00:08:50,563 who was a believer in the Confederacy. 162 00:08:50,643 --> 00:08:55,123 How did being shot in the head affect Lincoln's ability to lead? 163 00:08:56,043 --> 00:08:59,683 Well, it ended it, because he died about 12 hours after he was shot. 164 00:08:59,763 --> 00:09:04,043 -So he couldn't carry on. -No, not as a corpse, unfortunately. 165 00:09:04,123 --> 00:09:06,723 Lincoln's light may have been snuffed out, 166 00:09:06,803 --> 00:09:09,163 but America's was about to do the opposite. 167 00:09:09,243 --> 00:09:11,723 Americans had been toying with electricity 168 00:09:11,803 --> 00:09:14,563 ever since Benjamin Franklin put a key on a kite string 169 00:09:14,643 --> 00:09:16,963 to unlock lightning from the sky. 170 00:09:17,043 --> 00:09:22,403 Then, in 1878, Thomas Edison worked out how to use that power 171 00:09:22,483 --> 00:09:24,523 to make something extraordinary. 172 00:09:25,323 --> 00:09:28,723 It's hard to imagine a world where Edison didn't invent the light bulb. 173 00:09:28,803 --> 00:09:30,283 And even if you did imagine it, 174 00:09:30,363 --> 00:09:32,403 it would be too dark to see what was in it. 175 00:09:32,483 --> 00:09:37,403 How did people see during the day before Edison invented light? 176 00:09:37,483 --> 00:09:42,723 Light comes from the sun so people could see during the day because of the sun. 177 00:09:42,803 --> 00:09:47,043 What they needed the light bulb for was during the night when there isn't any sun 178 00:09:47,123 --> 00:09:49,003 and when you can't see. 179 00:09:49,083 --> 00:09:52,443 So what did people use before light bulbs? 180 00:09:52,523 --> 00:09:55,243 Well, they used candles or they used oil. 181 00:09:55,323 --> 00:09:59,723 So we had daylight during the day and we had candles at night. 182 00:09:59,803 --> 00:10:01,243 Yes. 183 00:10:01,323 --> 00:10:04,963 So we didn't need light bulbs. His life's work was meaningless. 184 00:10:05,963 --> 00:10:08,243 Another of Edison's incredible inventions 185 00:10:08,323 --> 00:10:09,723 was the phonograph. 186 00:10:29,403 --> 00:10:32,123 -Can you make it stop? -Yes, of course. 187 00:10:33,883 --> 00:10:36,963 It's incredible, isn't it, that we're here now, 188 00:10:37,043 --> 00:10:40,163 but that voice came from years ago. 189 00:10:40,243 --> 00:10:43,243 If I speak into this trumpet bit, 190 00:10:43,323 --> 00:10:48,123 can I ask the person a question about what it's like where they are? 191 00:10:48,203 --> 00:10:52,323 No, you can't, because the recording was made over a hundred years ago. 192 00:10:52,403 --> 00:10:55,323 But it's a phonograph. Doesn't it work like a phone? 193 00:10:55,403 --> 00:11:02,243 Phonograph means "sound writing" in Greek. 194 00:11:02,323 --> 00:11:04,563 So it doesn't mean "telephone." 195 00:11:04,643 --> 00:11:07,123 So they can hear us but they can't reply. 196 00:11:07,203 --> 00:11:09,523 Uh… I wouldn't say… 197 00:11:09,603 --> 00:11:12,603 They can't hear us. We hear them, we hear their recording. 198 00:11:12,683 --> 00:11:15,323 They can't hear us and they can't reply to us. 199 00:11:15,403 --> 00:11:18,683 -Uh, I would say they can't, no. -So what's the point of it? 200 00:11:18,763 --> 00:11:23,203 Well, it's so we can hear music and voice and sounds. 201 00:11:23,283 --> 00:11:27,283 So can it record sounds that haven't happened yet? 202 00:11:27,363 --> 00:11:28,283 Um… 203 00:11:29,403 --> 00:11:30,803 No. 204 00:11:30,883 --> 00:11:33,203 What about sounds that happened earlier? 205 00:11:34,043 --> 00:11:37,883 If those sounds were recorded at the time. 206 00:11:37,963 --> 00:11:40,683 It can't capture something that's been in the past. 207 00:11:40,763 --> 00:11:43,563 It seems quite limited, to be honest. 208 00:11:43,643 --> 00:11:46,323 Thanks to Edison's pornograph, 209 00:11:46,403 --> 00:11:50,403 classical music could now bore an audience of millions. 210 00:11:51,123 --> 00:11:53,523 You have to play classical music on an orchestra. 211 00:11:54,123 --> 00:11:55,963 How do you play an orchestra? 212 00:11:56,043 --> 00:11:57,283 Do you blow into it 213 00:11:57,363 --> 00:12:01,083 or is it one of those ones where you rub a stick on the strings? 214 00:12:01,163 --> 00:12:04,603 Yeah, so, the orchestra is not one particular instrument. 215 00:12:04,683 --> 00:12:06,083 Yeah. 216 00:12:06,163 --> 00:12:10,243 So an orchestra is the coming together of lots of different types of instruments. 217 00:12:10,323 --> 00:12:13,243 -Right. More than one instrument. -More than one instrument. 218 00:12:13,323 --> 00:12:17,403 So you need both hands and your mouth to play an orchestra. 219 00:12:18,483 --> 00:12:22,963 Well, the conductor would need all of those things, 220 00:12:23,043 --> 00:12:26,123 but the orchestra itself is an entity 221 00:12:26,203 --> 00:12:29,043 that is made up of lots of different instruments. 222 00:12:29,123 --> 00:12:31,683 So you couldn't blow a whole orchestra? 223 00:12:34,043 --> 00:12:38,923 Thanks to Edison, the worlds of light and sound had been beaten into submission, 224 00:12:39,003 --> 00:12:41,883 but another frontier remained stubbornly unconquered: 225 00:12:41,963 --> 00:12:44,003 the world of sky. 226 00:12:44,083 --> 00:12:47,483 People tried for years to build flying machines, 227 00:12:47,563 --> 00:12:50,323 but most early pioneers found it hard to progress 228 00:12:50,403 --> 00:12:53,163 beyond their first experimental death plunge. 229 00:12:53,923 --> 00:12:56,803 But all that changed when Orville and Wilbur Wright brothers 230 00:12:56,883 --> 00:12:59,643 mounted the first successful legal challenge 231 00:12:59,723 --> 00:13:01,203 against the law of gravity. 232 00:13:01,963 --> 00:13:04,643 So how far was the first flight? 233 00:13:04,723 --> 00:13:09,283 Well, on that day when the Wright brothers carried out several flights, 234 00:13:09,363 --> 00:13:12,723 they were typically of the order of just a few hundred feet. 235 00:13:12,803 --> 00:13:15,043 They could have walked that. 236 00:13:15,843 --> 00:13:18,763 Well, they could, but that wasn't the point. 237 00:13:18,843 --> 00:13:22,363 When was the first flight that was long enough to need a toilet? 238 00:13:22,443 --> 00:13:27,403 Once commercial flights developed, those flights became longer distance 239 00:13:27,483 --> 00:13:31,003 and the passengers would have then needed some comforts, 240 00:13:31,083 --> 00:13:32,763 like having a toilet on board. 241 00:13:32,843 --> 00:13:34,603 That must've been a real moment, 242 00:13:34,683 --> 00:13:37,763 the first time someone realized a plane needed a toilet. 243 00:13:38,403 --> 00:13:40,643 That's more impressive than the Wright brothers. 244 00:13:42,443 --> 00:13:44,323 I've never thought of that 245 00:13:44,403 --> 00:13:49,363 as a particularly dramatic or exciting development, I'm afraid. 246 00:13:49,443 --> 00:13:51,763 Why don't bicycles have toilets? 247 00:13:53,203 --> 00:13:55,483 It would save you having to get off. 248 00:13:56,323 --> 00:13:58,483 I might write that down and copyright it. 249 00:13:58,563 --> 00:14:02,083 Even without a toilet, the Wright Brothers' historic flight 250 00:14:02,163 --> 00:14:04,323 changed transportation forever, 251 00:14:04,403 --> 00:14:06,803 in ways that still aren't fully understood. 252 00:14:06,883 --> 00:14:11,123 The Wright Brothers did the first proper flight over a hundred years ago. 253 00:14:11,203 --> 00:14:15,683 How come we're still not any closer to working out how aeroplanes actually work? 254 00:14:16,723 --> 00:14:19,563 But we are. We know how they work today. 255 00:14:19,643 --> 00:14:22,003 But in reality, how do they work? 256 00:14:22,083 --> 00:14:25,963 Well, it's… we have mathematical equations 257 00:14:26,043 --> 00:14:29,843 that describe the way the air flows over the wings of the aircraft. 258 00:14:29,923 --> 00:14:33,923 Can you explain how they work without resorting to science? 259 00:14:36,603 --> 00:14:39,643 It's difficult not to explain the science behind it, 260 00:14:39,723 --> 00:14:43,883 but because of the shape of its wings, 261 00:14:43,963 --> 00:14:46,523 the force upwards is bigger than the force downwards. 262 00:14:46,603 --> 00:14:49,043 So that pushes the plane up into the air. 263 00:14:49,123 --> 00:14:52,243 That's your theory. Do you want to hear my theory? 264 00:14:52,923 --> 00:14:54,763 -Okay. -I think they run on belief. 265 00:14:55,883 --> 00:14:58,803 It's just because we believe planes can fly that they do. 266 00:14:58,883 --> 00:15:01,403 So the media has to keep up the pretense 267 00:15:01,483 --> 00:15:03,963 or they're gonna start dropping out of the sky. 268 00:15:04,043 --> 00:15:06,883 Same with Wi-Fi. There's no way that's real. 269 00:15:06,963 --> 00:15:09,163 We just have to go along with this pantomime 270 00:15:09,243 --> 00:15:11,203 or everything grinds to a halt. 271 00:15:12,003 --> 00:15:16,323 The sky had been tamed. Next it was the road's turn. 272 00:15:17,643 --> 00:15:20,563 It's hard to say who invented the first automobile. 273 00:15:20,643 --> 00:15:22,243 Because so many people had a go, 274 00:15:22,323 --> 00:15:25,363 the Wikipedia page is too long to bother reading. 275 00:15:25,443 --> 00:15:27,083 But luckily it doesn't matter 276 00:15:27,163 --> 00:15:30,803 because in the end, only one man became synonymous with cars, 277 00:15:31,683 --> 00:15:34,843 the man who made the first blockbuster automobile. 278 00:15:34,923 --> 00:15:37,803 He was named Henry Model-T Ford. 279 00:15:37,883 --> 00:15:40,563 And in a stunning coincidence, so was his car. 280 00:15:42,003 --> 00:15:46,723 With its four-cylinder, 2.9-liter engine pumping out 20 horsepower 281 00:15:46,803 --> 00:15:49,323 and a top speed of 45 miles per hour, 282 00:15:49,403 --> 00:15:52,483 the Model-T Ford was a truly terrible car, 283 00:15:52,563 --> 00:15:55,483 even worse than whatever it is your mum drives. 284 00:15:57,003 --> 00:16:01,203 There's nowhere to plug in your phone, no satnav or music system. 285 00:16:01,883 --> 00:16:04,163 It doesn't even have a cup holder. 286 00:16:05,523 --> 00:16:08,483 Nonetheless, it was marginally better than a horse 287 00:16:08,563 --> 00:16:11,323 because it didn't kick you in the head if you went behind it. 288 00:16:11,403 --> 00:16:12,763 And unlike on a train, 289 00:16:12,843 --> 00:16:16,163 you weren't likely to find yourself seated next to a psychopath. 290 00:16:16,243 --> 00:16:19,963 Unless you stopped to pick up a hitchhiker with a screwdriver in their pocket. 291 00:16:23,843 --> 00:16:28,003 But Henry Model-T Ford's biggest masterstroke wasn't his car itself, 292 00:16:28,083 --> 00:16:29,763 but the way it was made. 293 00:16:30,683 --> 00:16:34,883 Instead of employing one person to slowly make a whole car on their own, 294 00:16:34,963 --> 00:16:39,243 Ford employed lots of people to do just one tiny bit of the car each 295 00:16:39,323 --> 00:16:40,683 over and over again. 296 00:16:40,763 --> 00:16:44,563 It was a revolution in workplace tedium and human meaninglessness. 297 00:16:45,123 --> 00:16:48,563 Mass production needed a mass human workforce. 298 00:16:48,643 --> 00:16:52,323 Millions flocked to the USA for a go on the American dream. 299 00:16:52,403 --> 00:16:56,523 The need for bigger vessels led to the invention of the Titan 1C, 300 00:16:56,603 --> 00:16:58,963 the world's first single-use submarine. 301 00:17:00,243 --> 00:17:04,483 For years, man had stared at the ocean, longing to sink like a stone, 302 00:17:04,563 --> 00:17:07,643 and the Titan 1C would make that dream come true. 303 00:17:08,923 --> 00:17:11,043 It was a huge success. 304 00:17:11,122 --> 00:17:13,843 On her maiden voyage, the Titan 1C 305 00:17:13,923 --> 00:17:17,083 sailed straight from Southampton to the bottom of the sea, 306 00:17:17,162 --> 00:17:19,963 where the brave explorers could live in the lap of luxury 307 00:17:20,043 --> 00:17:22,122 for the few moments it took for them to discover 308 00:17:22,203 --> 00:17:25,483 that the atmosphere on the ocean floor was non-breathable. 309 00:17:27,203 --> 00:17:31,843 Having conquered light, sound, the sky, the road and the bottom of the ocean, 310 00:17:31,923 --> 00:17:36,163 humankind was about to discover something it hadn't even heard of before, 311 00:17:36,243 --> 00:17:39,883 courtesy of female scientist and woman "Mary Curry," 312 00:17:39,963 --> 00:17:42,123 lady father of radiation. 313 00:17:42,723 --> 00:17:45,483 How did Marie Curie realize 314 00:17:45,563 --> 00:17:50,203 that she'd discovered radioactivity if it's invisible? 315 00:17:50,283 --> 00:17:53,963 Marie Curie invented the word "radioactivity." 316 00:17:54,043 --> 00:17:59,643 And radioactivity is when a substance, like radium, polonium, plutonium, 317 00:17:59,723 --> 00:18:02,563 gives off lots of energy and disintegrate naturally. 318 00:18:02,643 --> 00:18:05,443 So it's a real thing, even though it's invisible. 319 00:18:06,243 --> 00:18:09,403 Lots of real things are invisible, yes. 320 00:18:09,483 --> 00:18:13,723 So it's like chakras and energy fields, 321 00:18:13,803 --> 00:18:16,003 you know, like the ones you get on the inside of your face 322 00:18:16,083 --> 00:18:18,243 that connect to your star signs 323 00:18:18,323 --> 00:18:20,923 and affect the way you digest gluten. 324 00:18:21,003 --> 00:18:22,043 They're real, aren't they? 325 00:18:22,123 --> 00:18:25,163 -Well, I don't think that they are real. -I think they are real. 326 00:18:25,243 --> 00:18:26,323 Well, lots of people-- 327 00:18:26,403 --> 00:18:31,083 My Aunt Carol realigns people's chakras. She charges 80 quid an hour. 328 00:18:31,163 --> 00:18:33,403 I think if she was earning that kind of money, 329 00:18:34,483 --> 00:18:36,363 it's not nonsense, is it? 330 00:18:36,443 --> 00:18:40,003 Tragically, Curie's curiosity was fatal. 331 00:18:40,083 --> 00:18:45,003 Long-term exposure to radiation is thought to have contributed to her death. 332 00:18:45,603 --> 00:18:46,923 It's not fair, is it? 333 00:18:47,003 --> 00:18:52,123 When a male scientist like Bruce Banner gets exposed to gamma radiation, 334 00:18:52,203 --> 00:18:55,243 he gets to be, like, a superhero, doesn't he? 335 00:18:55,323 --> 00:18:59,163 He gets his own comic book and movie franchise. 336 00:18:59,243 --> 00:19:01,163 Marie Curie just gets killed. 337 00:19:01,243 --> 00:19:03,203 You know, he got to be the Hulk. 338 00:19:03,843 --> 00:19:07,603 That's not fair, is it? Is it the fault of the patriarchy? 339 00:19:07,683 --> 00:19:11,243 Also, what is a patriarchy? 340 00:19:11,323 --> 00:19:16,963 Meanwhile, other less female scientists were working on theories of their own. 341 00:19:17,043 --> 00:19:20,083 Physicist and professional tongue model Albert Einstein 342 00:19:20,163 --> 00:19:23,443 came up with his theory of relativity, E equals McTwo, 343 00:19:23,523 --> 00:19:25,483 which to this day nobody understands. 344 00:19:25,563 --> 00:19:28,763 I'm only mentioning it because it turns out to be important later. 345 00:19:29,363 --> 00:19:33,523 Einstein reckoned nothing is faster than the speed of light, 346 00:19:33,603 --> 00:19:35,563 but shadows go faster than light. 347 00:19:35,643 --> 00:19:39,163 Like, if I shine a light from a torch against that wall 348 00:19:39,243 --> 00:19:41,643 but I hold the torch behind my head, 349 00:19:41,723 --> 00:19:44,363 my shadow gets there before the light does. 350 00:19:44,443 --> 00:19:46,683 How would Einstein explain that? 351 00:19:46,763 --> 00:19:52,363 I think he'd say that it's all happening so quickly that you can't see it properly. 352 00:19:52,443 --> 00:19:54,683 He's always got an answer, hasn't he? 353 00:19:54,763 --> 00:19:57,923 The 20th century got off to a cracking start, 354 00:19:58,003 --> 00:20:00,923 with science shitting out innovation after innovation, 355 00:20:01,003 --> 00:20:03,763 so quickly we can barely edit them together. 356 00:20:03,843 --> 00:20:06,443 But some of these new inventions had a dark side. 357 00:20:06,523 --> 00:20:09,963 They could be used to kill people, and not in a good way. 358 00:20:10,523 --> 00:20:14,163 The First World War was known as "the war to end all wars," 359 00:20:14,243 --> 00:20:16,883 although some historians now argue it didn't. 360 00:20:17,883 --> 00:20:19,843 But it was the first high-tech war, 361 00:20:19,923 --> 00:20:23,683 with aeroplanes, machine guns and tanks 362 00:20:23,763 --> 00:20:27,083 all rising up to fight the human beings that made them. 363 00:20:27,163 --> 00:20:30,883 Despite having no beliefs or ideology or hearts or souls, 364 00:20:30,963 --> 00:20:33,203 the killing machines were victorious. 365 00:20:33,283 --> 00:20:37,963 The final score was weaponry 20 million, mankind nil. 366 00:20:38,043 --> 00:20:41,883 When humans go to war, it always looks quite chaotic. 367 00:20:41,963 --> 00:20:44,123 Is there a lot of shouting involved? 368 00:20:44,763 --> 00:20:46,603 There tends to be an awful lot of shouting. 369 00:20:46,683 --> 00:20:48,723 It can either be commands being shouted. 370 00:20:48,803 --> 00:20:52,123 It could also be, you know, the screams of people dying. 371 00:20:52,203 --> 00:20:55,923 So probably a risk of tinnitus for anyone standing nearby. 372 00:20:56,003 --> 00:20:58,763 It's a real pity we keep doing it. 373 00:20:58,843 --> 00:21:01,763 I'm not trying to be controversial, 374 00:21:01,843 --> 00:21:06,283 but generally speaking, war does seem a bit of a shame. 375 00:21:07,083 --> 00:21:11,203 Well, it does seem to be a particularly popular human activity. 376 00:21:11,283 --> 00:21:13,083 Maybe it's just in our nature. 377 00:21:13,163 --> 00:21:16,123 What makes us as creatures turn on each other like that? 378 00:21:16,203 --> 00:21:19,843 And could you keep the answer to one short sentence? 379 00:21:19,923 --> 00:21:22,923 Because otherwise they get really pissed off in the edit. 380 00:21:23,003 --> 00:21:25,843 Fear, honor and interest. 381 00:21:25,923 --> 00:21:28,003 Really? Those are the three? 382 00:21:28,083 --> 00:21:29,883 That's it in a nutshell. 383 00:21:33,683 --> 00:21:36,723 I don't know who edits this, but that's going to have to do. 384 00:21:38,043 --> 00:21:40,243 The barbarism of World War I 385 00:21:40,323 --> 00:21:45,003 inspired a wide range of harrowing war poems and pacifist literature, 386 00:21:45,083 --> 00:21:49,003 published decades before the release of unrelated Belgian techno anthem 387 00:21:49,083 --> 00:21:50,403 "Pump Up the Jam." 388 00:22:36,803 --> 00:22:39,003 Millions of young men died during the war, 389 00:22:39,083 --> 00:22:42,563 but fortunately, humankind had discovered a new kind of man: 390 00:22:42,643 --> 00:22:43,843 the woman. 391 00:22:43,923 --> 00:22:47,003 Women had always existed in the background of history, 392 00:22:47,083 --> 00:22:49,883 largely being used as human pets for men, 393 00:22:49,963 --> 00:22:53,403 tolerated for their magical ability to excrete fresh humans 394 00:22:53,483 --> 00:22:54,923 through their front holes. 395 00:22:55,563 --> 00:22:57,523 But in the early 20th century, 396 00:22:57,603 --> 00:23:00,483 social scientists discovered something incredible: 397 00:23:00,563 --> 00:23:03,123 that a woman could do anything a man could do, 398 00:23:03,203 --> 00:23:05,083 without the need to talk about it. 399 00:23:06,123 --> 00:23:07,763 They also got the vote. 400 00:23:07,843 --> 00:23:11,803 Finally, women could choose which man would tell them what to do. 401 00:23:11,883 --> 00:23:14,963 Women began to escape their traditional uniforms, 402 00:23:15,043 --> 00:23:19,283 dressing less like haunted furniture and more like camp young boys. 403 00:23:19,923 --> 00:23:22,723 They drank, smoked and danced at high speed, 404 00:23:22,803 --> 00:23:24,443 at an appalling frame rate. 405 00:23:25,203 --> 00:23:26,563 Meanwhile, in Hollywood, 406 00:23:26,643 --> 00:23:30,923 a whole new kind of entertainment was being invented: movies. 407 00:23:31,563 --> 00:23:32,883 Unlike with a book, 408 00:23:32,963 --> 00:23:37,163 you didn't have to concentrate or use your imagination to enjoy a movie. 409 00:23:37,243 --> 00:23:41,403 Anyone, even very lazy or stupid people, could enjoy themselves 410 00:23:41,483 --> 00:23:46,123 by simply sitting down and staring at a screen, like you're doing now. 411 00:23:46,203 --> 00:23:49,843 Nonetheless, early movies were completely shit, as you can see. 412 00:23:50,363 --> 00:23:52,483 But it's thanks to early films like this 413 00:23:52,563 --> 00:23:55,363 that we can see what life was really like in the olden days. 414 00:23:55,443 --> 00:23:58,283 Everyone moved very quickly and fell over a lot. 415 00:23:59,003 --> 00:24:01,603 Why do people in old films move so fast? 416 00:24:01,683 --> 00:24:04,883 Is it because it was their first time on camera so they were nervous, 417 00:24:04,963 --> 00:24:06,883 or because it was a silent film 418 00:24:06,963 --> 00:24:10,003 so they couldn't hear the director yelling at them to slow down? 419 00:24:10,523 --> 00:24:13,123 It's to do with the frame rate of the cameras 420 00:24:13,203 --> 00:24:15,243 was different then to what it is now. 421 00:24:15,323 --> 00:24:16,603 So it's our fault. 422 00:24:16,683 --> 00:24:19,643 We're playing it back too fast and the actors are having to speed up 423 00:24:19,723 --> 00:24:23,123 to make sure they can get all the story in before the end credits. 424 00:24:23,203 --> 00:24:26,563 They must be panicking. What happens if they can't keep up? 425 00:24:26,643 --> 00:24:29,563 Would the film cut to a room the actors aren't in yet? 426 00:24:29,643 --> 00:24:31,683 Just footage of an empty room? 427 00:24:31,763 --> 00:24:34,483 The actors are going at a regular speed. 428 00:24:34,563 --> 00:24:37,243 It's just the speed of the playback 429 00:24:37,323 --> 00:24:39,763 that makes them look like they're moving very quickly. 430 00:24:39,843 --> 00:24:42,123 Could we communicate with the actors in the film 431 00:24:42,203 --> 00:24:45,523 and tell them that it's all right, that they can calm down? 432 00:24:45,603 --> 00:24:47,963 No. They'd all be dead by now. 433 00:24:48,043 --> 00:24:49,243 Oh. 434 00:24:49,323 --> 00:24:51,203 Early films had subtitles 435 00:24:51,283 --> 00:24:54,483 so people could still watch them on their phones with the sound off. 436 00:24:54,563 --> 00:24:58,083 But before too long, they figured out how to do sounds too. 437 00:24:58,163 --> 00:25:01,563 What was more satisfactory to you? 438 00:25:02,363 --> 00:25:04,283 Reading was redundant at last. 439 00:25:04,363 --> 00:25:08,443 The written word's centuries-long era of tyranny was finally at an end. 440 00:25:09,603 --> 00:25:13,443 But any sense humankind was embarking on a hopeful new era 441 00:25:13,523 --> 00:25:15,843 was about to be shat through a bin bag. 442 00:25:15,923 --> 00:25:18,483 Dark clouds were gathering over Europe 443 00:25:18,563 --> 00:25:22,483 with a reboot of the World War franchise about to be unleashed. 444 00:25:23,603 --> 00:25:26,563 Soon, the world was plunged into another global war, 445 00:25:27,603 --> 00:25:31,243 and since this war run on even more terrible machinery than the previous one, 446 00:25:31,323 --> 00:25:33,723 it seemed there would be no end to the carnage. 447 00:25:34,843 --> 00:25:37,603 Then the Americans had an idea. 448 00:25:37,683 --> 00:25:40,403 Instead of dropping thousands of little bombs on Japan 449 00:25:40,483 --> 00:25:42,003 like they did to Germany, 450 00:25:42,083 --> 00:25:44,283 what if they dropped just one big one? 451 00:25:44,923 --> 00:25:48,563 Using Einstein's theories, which I cleverly mentioned earlier, 452 00:25:48,643 --> 00:25:52,003 they began the Manhattan Project, run by men with hats on, 453 00:25:52,083 --> 00:25:54,043 who came up with something fearsome: 454 00:25:54,123 --> 00:25:56,763 an atomic bomb called Little Boy, 455 00:25:56,843 --> 00:26:01,003 the most powerful and inaccurately named weapon ever used. 456 00:26:01,083 --> 00:26:03,203 How powerful was Little Boy? 457 00:26:03,283 --> 00:26:04,683 Put it this way: 458 00:26:04,763 --> 00:26:06,003 if that bomb had been dropped 459 00:26:06,083 --> 00:26:08,803 on my ex-boyfriend Sean's house in Westhoughton, 460 00:26:08,883 --> 00:26:12,243 everything, from the Chequerbent roundabout on the A58 461 00:26:12,323 --> 00:26:14,963 to the florist next to the Hart Common Golf Club, 462 00:26:15,043 --> 00:26:16,643 would have been totally destroyed. 463 00:26:17,163 --> 00:26:19,843 The initial blast would have vaporized Sean, 464 00:26:19,923 --> 00:26:22,003 while the vintage Pac-Man arcade cabinet 465 00:26:22,083 --> 00:26:25,043 he once spent my entire birthday weekend restoring 466 00:26:25,123 --> 00:26:27,563 would have almost certainly been rendered unplayable 467 00:26:27,643 --> 00:26:29,763 by the raging firestorm that followed. 468 00:26:30,483 --> 00:26:33,483 Everything from Wigan to Bolton would be burnt to a crisp. 469 00:26:33,563 --> 00:26:36,923 I'm talking Middlebrook, gone. Bickershaw, gone. 470 00:26:37,003 --> 00:26:39,483 Hindley Green, forget it. 471 00:26:39,563 --> 00:26:41,243 The unspeakable horror 472 00:26:41,323 --> 00:26:43,683 of the atomic bomb ended World War II. 473 00:26:43,763 --> 00:26:45,163 Everyone had had enough 474 00:26:45,243 --> 00:26:49,123 and the world agreed for the second time in this episode to never have a war again, 475 00:26:49,723 --> 00:26:55,163 a promise it wouldn't break for a full 52 seconds into episode five. 476 00:26:55,243 --> 00:27:00,443 It's comforting, isn't it, to realize we don't have nuclear weapons these days? 477 00:27:00,523 --> 00:27:03,243 Well, it depends who you mean by "we." 478 00:27:03,323 --> 00:27:05,163 The British have got nuclear weapons 479 00:27:05,243 --> 00:27:08,803 and have recently indeed decided to increase 480 00:27:08,883 --> 00:27:11,523 the number of warheads that they possess. 481 00:27:11,603 --> 00:27:15,123 Yeah, but they're blanks, aren't they? They're full of blanks. 482 00:27:15,203 --> 00:27:16,443 No, not at all. 483 00:27:16,523 --> 00:27:20,683 No, no, these are fully capable missile systems with nuclear warheads. 484 00:27:20,763 --> 00:27:22,563 Many other states have them. 485 00:27:23,323 --> 00:27:26,203 I'm afraid that nuclear war and the threat of nuclear destruction 486 00:27:26,283 --> 00:27:28,083 remains very much with us. 487 00:27:37,523 --> 00:27:40,283 Right, can we talk about something a bit more cheerful? 488 00:27:40,363 --> 00:27:41,923 Anything you like. 489 00:27:45,483 --> 00:27:47,963 -Do you like ABBA? -I love ABBA. 490 00:27:48,043 --> 00:27:49,763 -Yeah? -Yeah. 491 00:27:49,843 --> 00:27:52,803 -What's your favorite ABBA song? -"Dancing Queen." 492 00:27:52,883 --> 00:27:55,163 "Dancing Queen," yeah. 493 00:27:55,243 --> 00:27:57,003 Yeah, it's great, isn't it? 494 00:27:58,043 --> 00:28:01,723 Next time we see how a cold war between East and West 495 00:28:01,803 --> 00:28:03,923 paved the way for rock and roll, 496 00:28:04,003 --> 00:28:05,843 which paved the way for countercultural hippies, 497 00:28:05,923 --> 00:28:09,803 who paved the way for Steve Jobs to pave the way for computers and smartphones, 498 00:28:09,883 --> 00:28:11,923 which paved the way for social media, 499 00:28:12,003 --> 00:28:13,643 which would pave the way for undoing 500 00:28:13,723 --> 00:28:17,323 all the progress humankind had made so far. 501 00:28:18,043 --> 00:28:20,923 Social media has been polarizing people, hasn't it? 502 00:28:21,003 --> 00:28:23,083 Like what's already happened to the bears. 503 00:28:23,163 --> 00:28:25,843 -What bears? -Polar bears.