"NARRATOR :" "Your smart car will shift shapes." "You'll fax three-dimensional objects." "And intelligent machines will run your life if you let them." "Technology is pushing from every direction..." "getting faster with each passing second." "Prepare yourself." "The future is closer than you think." "The human brain does 100 trillion calculations per second." "By 2050, your desktop computer will have the equivalent processing power of 9 billion brains." "NARRATOR :" "We're in the midst of a powerful acceleration in computer technology." "And when computers gain artificial intelligence -- thinking, reasoning, and communicating ideas like a human can -- it will change everything." "The question is, will machines dominate humans, or will we still control the Earth?" "At the center of the debate is the legendary futurist Ray Kurzweil." "Within 30 years, we'll have the hardware and the software to create superhuman intelligence." "These machines will be vastly superior to unaided human intelligence." "They may keep us around, but we won't be able to keep up with them." "Actually, I think we'll use these machines to expand our own intelligence." "So we won't have trouble keeping up with the machines." "We're gonna become the machines." "NARRATOR :" "We're already becoming machines." "We wear digital earpieces." "We're useless without our wireless devices." "And in the future, we won't know where we end and the technology begins." "The exoskeleton is an analogue to the human body." "It has structures which replace bones." "It has actuators which act as muscles." "It has computers that act like brains." "NARRATOR :" "Its computer brain allows the exoskeleton to move in harmony with your body, giving you superstrength." "JACOBSEN :" "He can carry a 1 50-pound load with no more effort on him than he's putting now." "He was pulling the 200-pound pulldowns." "He quit after 500 out of boredom because the loads on him never got more than 5 pounds." "He can march for 1 0 hours." "I mean, I don't think he gets fatigued." "NARRATOR :" "The exoskeleton is not just about brute strength." "You can still move with great agility." "You simply put it on, and it works." "NARRATOR :" "It's easy to see why an army of exoskeleton-enhanced soldiers would appeal to the military." "But they can also become a part of everyday civilian life." "JACOBSEN :" "I think, in 50 years, that systems such as this can be hanging on a hook in the house." "NARRATOR :" "You'll be able to strap on an exoskeleton to do any heavy lifting around the house or pull your car out of the mud." "But will the exoskeleton ever be smart enough to operate on its own?" "JACOBSEN :" "It's possible in the future that the exoskeleton could not have the person in the cavities so it actually becomes an autonomous robot." "And, yes, those machines will reason." "NARRATOR :" "But how do you teach a machine to reason?" "I nstead of just building bigger and faster computers, some scientists believe we should follow nature's example." "If we let intelligence evolve, as it did in our brains, the computers will teach themselves." "We're making such great strides in understanding how our brains work." "Artificial intelligence is inevitable." "NARRATOR :" "Professor Larry Yaeger was a consultant on the movie "Terminator 2. "" "He's created a computer program filled with digital creatures to see if he can get them to evolve intelligence." "He calls his experiment "Polyworld. "" "Polyworld is an electronic primordial-soup experiment." "These colored trapezoids are the critters of this world." "NARRATOR :" "Right now, his electronic critters are about as smart as your average worm, with the equivalent of about 300 brain cells." "YAEGER :" "The bright-green blocks are the pieces of food." "They consume that food." "They use the energy they get from it to live their lives." "NARRATOR :" "His critters are wired with the basic biological imperatives of life -- to survive and procreate." "And their neural-network brains can make simple decisions about how they do that." "YAEGER :" "It was just like "Go forward." "Turn." "Eat now." "Mate now. "" "The wiring diagram of their brain that drives all those behaviors is the main thing that evolves in Polyworld." "NARRATOR :" "Each decision they make adds more information and experience to their tiny digital brains -- information they can actually pass along to their digital offspring." "And each generation is getting smarter about how they survive Polyworld." "YAEGER :" "We can have a computational worm evolve towards computational insects and mammals and computational lab rats and primates." "By the year 2035, you could reasonably expect to have human-level intelligences running around in such a system." "NARRATOR :" "And then what will happen?" "Will they be alive?" "YAEGER :" "Certainly, as you get to something that's approaching human-level intelligence, you can't just pull the plug." "Basically, I like to think that if a machine can ask you not to turn it off, then you shouldn't." "JOURET:" "The key question we should ask ourselves is," "" ls it intelligent?"" "" ls it capable of learning?"" "And if the answer is yes, then we should extend the same privileges and rights to those non-carbon-based forms of intelligence that we currently extend to other fellow human beings." "NARRATOR :" "Especially when robots start to look more and more human." "And Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro is pretty sure they will." "Because he's already been able to create such a humanoid -- his own robot twin, called "Geminoid. "" "Geminoid is his exact double, not just in appearance, but in behavior." "Professor Ishiguro uses motion-capture sensors to duplicate his every move in his android self, even giving it his voice." "[ Speaking japanese ]" "And sophisticated actuators mirror lshiguro's every twitch." "It's so realistic that it even creeps out lshiguro himself." "Ishiguro envisions a day when his robot alter ego is given an artificially intelligent brain..." "... allowingit to takeon more of his teaching load." "[ Speaking japanese ]" "I magine a future full of realistic-looking humanoids whose intelligence rivals our own." "NARRATOR :" "Today it may seem like computers are everywhere." "But desktop monitors with clunky CPUs will soon be a thing of the past." "I n our smart future, chips and sensors will be embedded in everything." "The planet will be filled with smaller, more powerful computers that will communicate with each other and with us." "Machines will be intelligent, arguably self-aware machines that you'll be able to walk up to, have a conversation with." "MALE voice:" "Please deposit 50 cents for the first hour, 25 cents for each additional hour." "I don't have any change." "I'll just be five minutes." "I'll get some." "I'll be right back." "MALE voice:" "Five minutes registered." "Watch my bag for me." "Thanks." "MALE voice:" "Sure." "No problem." "NARRATOR :" "Even your furniture might be entirely constructed out of molecule-sized computers, intelligent specs that can reshape themselves according to how they're programmed." "Professor Seth Goldstein calls it "Claytronics. "" "GOLDSTEl N :" "Claytronics is a form of programmable matter, a collection of computers." "I magine that each one of these little pieces of lead was a computer that could not just compute and communicate, but actually move around and then cooperate with all the other units to form dynamic 3-D shapes." "NARRATOR :" "These tiny spheres are called "catoms, "" "computational atoms that will be able to combine in clusters to become any shape you want them to be." "GOLDSTElN :" "It can move around." "It can change its color." "I imagine that Claytronics will be used for just about everything." "NARRATOR :" "The first application will probably be the three-dimensional fax machine." "The idea is, we could send not just sound and picture, but actually the 3-D shape itself." "NARRATOR :" "Place any object in a container full of Claytronics, and they can determine its size and color." "Then those dimensions can be transmitted to another bed of Claytronics that will reassemble the exact object." "GOLDSTElN :" "Claytronics is a technology that is going to ride the sort of exponential-growth curve that we see in many computer technologies." "We could have 3-D fax within five years." "NARRATOR :" "Three-dimensional faxing is just one of many new ways we'll be able to receive information." "We will have computers woven into our clothing, embedded into our bodies." "We will carry multiple devices, and they will talk to each other." "NARRATOR :" "TVs, computer monitors," "MP3 players, Internet devices -- displays surround us." "How about one display -- one you can wear right on your eye?" "The goal we have is to incorporate electronic devices onto a contact lens to make it a lot more sophisticated." "NARRATOR :" "Dr. Babak Parviz is a man with a vision -- that soon, you'll be able to surf the I nternet on a transparent screen mounted directly on the surface of your eye." "He's creating the smart contact lens." "PARVlZ:" "You can imagine a variety of applications for a display that's directly constructed onto a lens that you can pop into your eye." "NARRATOR :" "A wirelessly connected computer on your contact lens will change your life." "JOURET:" "I think we'll take several steps towards a more immersive experience of technology." "And we'll start by what is called "augmented reality, "" "which is an ability to overlay the virtual world onto the real world." "NARRATOR :" "But is it really possible to build a screen right on your eye?" "PARVlZ:" "We have been able to incorporate all the metallic interconnects that you need to make a circuit." "NARRATOR :" "So you could have a digital contact lens that connects wirelessly to outside devices..." "... withinthenext30years." "EVANS:" "Everything will be connected." "And when I say "everything, " l mean everything." "You will always be connected at very high broadband speeds, no matter where you are..." "... evenon abus ." "NARRATOR :" "With all that our smart future promises, taking the bus to work doesn't sound all that appealing." "But what if you took the bus instead of going to work?" "Really?" "Oh, I can check that for you here." "NARRATOR :" "Dave Evans and cisco are in the process of creating the world's smartest bus in San Francisco." "It stands out." "It's this big, green bus." "It's hard to miss it coming down the street." "NARRATOR :" "He sees a future where public buses let you stay connected to the outside world, even providing information on anything they pass." "The windows themselves become transparent displays, where information about attractions and sites are overlaid based on where you are in the city and the context of what you're doing." "NARRATOR :" "And it'll be stuffed with navigational intelligence." "Every bus has a GPS transponder on it so that passengers can know exactly where they are." "NARRATOR :" "And the bus will, too, which is good, because in the future, it'll drive itself." "It'll be connected to the rest of the transportation infrastructure." "I magine road signs, traffic signals, even bus stops transmitting information to one another." "You can imagine dynamic road signs that direct you based on traffic conditions." "The beauty of being always connected is the world becomes a lot more seamless and allows you to spend your time living your life instead of spending your time getting from point "A" to point "B. "" "NARRATOR :" "Your future will be filled with intelligent objects, but the smartest thing you own may live in your garage." "With smarter engineering technologies, cars will be able to fulfill specific functions for their humans." "When you want to get somewhere fast, you'll use a rocket car." "If you live on an island, you'll want an aquatic car." "But when it comes to jetting down the road in a high-performance machine, you may just need a Koenigsegg." "A car with a lot of power and responsiveness makes you feel like Superman." "NARRATOR :" "The Koenigsegg is the fastest street-legal car on the planet, hitting speeds up to 250 miles per hour." "The body is made of lightweight, superstrong carbon fiber, giving it more horsepower for its weight than any other car on the road." "And that's nothing compared to what they put under the hood next." "KOEN lGSEGG :" "Proprietary engine technology which basically reduces emission by 30% and increased power by 30% at the same time." "And this is something that engine designers have been dreaming about for 50, 60 years, but now it's possible." "NARRATOR :" "The high-performance engine runs on both gas and ethanol." "The oil prices are just going up and up, so that, kind of together with the environmental consciousness, is changing the way cars are being built and how they're gonna look in the future." "NARRATOR :" "But Koenigsegg doesn't believe that using alternative power sources means you have to compromise on performance." "Let's say 2 80 miles per hour is a possibility in the next five to six years." "If you haven't seen the future, you haven't driven fast enough." "[ Engine revs ]" "NARRATOR :" "But you may not have to go fast or far to find the car of the future because the smarter cars of the future just may come and find you." "PARENT:" "CyberCar is a car totally automated in order to improve the transportation for everyone." "NARRATOR :" "The CyberCar is coming -- a fully automatic car that drives itself using video obstacle recognition, GPS, and advanced road-sensing technologies." "These are the taxis of the future." "They don't need a driver, and this is a big advantage because they can be called on demand." "NARRATOR :" "Like a faithful pet, your future car will come when you call it." "I magine ordering up an automatic car to get you wherever you need to go, on demand, 2 4 hours a day." "And once it drops you off where you're going, the car leaves by itself, on to the next customer without any erratic swerving or road rage." "30, 40 years from now, today's environment will not exist anymore." "We will not have cars doing any kind of stupid maneuvers at any time." "We will have cars which will be behaving properly because they will be computerized." "jOACH I M :" "Cars in the future will be moving in flocks." "They'll be talking, they'll be connected." "Every car will have a brain of its own." "NARRATOR :" "And smarter, computer-driven cars will be safer cars." "jOACH I M :" "Cars in the future are gonna talk to one another, just like people talk to one another." "They need to share the space of the city with the pedestrian." "I n fact, no one in the future should ever die in a car accident again." "NARRATOR :" "And they don't get much smarter than the latest car from France's Assystem." "The City Car is designed to navigate the urban jungle, but inside lurks the intelligence of a fighter jet." "Your windshield is about to be replaced by state-of-the-art augmented-reality systems." "A better representation of reality means having five cameras mounted around the vehicle to provide real-time video of the road." "It means no more blind spots and fewer accidents." "And your road cameras can go infrared, allowing you to drive in complete darkness." "Because the dashboard is a computer monitor, you can control where your controls live -- shift the rearview mirror closer to your line of sight, move your speedometer higher." "Everything is customizable, even the way its electric engine sounds." "So you can gun it like a muscle car or have it hum like a roadster." "It'll be up to you." "Urban cars have to be theftproof." "The City Car uses a retinal detector to confirm its true owner is behind the wheel and to make sure the driver is alert." "CAR :" "Wake up." "NARRATOR :" "The City Car gets great mileage, thanks to its lightweight plastic body." "I n fact, most car designers of the future won't be bound by the rigid realities of steel." "What would happen if instead of welding up a frame, we knitted it?" "Let me introduce you to G I NA." "The idea behind G I NA was an idea to free us up from the standard way of doing things and let us try and approach some things differently." "The entire skin on this car is a flexible material." "It stretches, and it does all that the outside skin has to do." "NARRATOR :" "gina's skin may look soft, but it's actually an incredibly tough, expansion-resistant, industrial fabric that is both water-repellent and impervious to high or low temperatures." "It's stretched across an aluminum-frame chassis that gives her that classic two-seat-roadster shape and reinforced with ultra-strong struts." "This structure right here is the substructure which protects you in a crash, makes sure that nothing happens to you, keeps all things safe, keeps the car stiff." "NARRATOR :" "But the structure also has movable parts, causing the skin to ripple and fold in new ways, blending function with design." "Unlike other cars, which just turn on their lights," "gina actually opens up." "Hello?" "There we go." "Can we get a little bit of light out of you?" "There we go." "NARRATOR :" "If you need to get under the hood to service the engine or refill the oil, gina obliges." "And after we're done with it, we let it close." "gina, can you close your hood, please?" "Thank you very much." "NARRATOR :" "The idea is that gina will be able to use movable substructures to morph into various shapes." "BANGLE:" "Your car would change to match your mood, your style, your needs." ""Today, I need to take a lot of stuff to the dump, and so I need a lot of space in the back of the car. "" "The car has to change to adapt to that." "But tomorrow I happen to be going with my wife to a party, and I would like the car to look as elegant as we are dressed." "NARRATOR :" "Future cars will be smarter, but that doesn't mean they'll be any less fun to drive." "It took 200 years to fill the Library of Congress with all of its information." "Today we create that amount of information every 15 minutes." "NARRATOR :" "The future is going to be fun." "If it's not, why bother going?" "The intelligent future will have many new ways to play." "NARRATOR :" "Smarter technology will blur the line between what is real and what is not." "New immersive games require new ways to play them." "Future gamers won't need a joystick or a paddle." "They'll interact with their games directly from their brains, using devices like the EPOC headset from Emotiv." "Our whole interaction with the virtual world is going to be far more natural." "We'll be able to use our brain and our facial expressions and our emotional experiences to really experience content in entirely new ways." "And what we've created is a brain-computer interface that really transforms the way that humans interact with machines." "NARRATOR :" "The Emotiv EPOC wireless headset has 1 6 independent sensors that pick up electrical brain signals on the surface of the scalp." "We identify a signature for a particular thought or a particular emotion, and then, in real time, we classify those brain patterns." "NARRATOR :" "So when you think it, it happens on the screen." "You think "push, " the object propels forward." "MAN :" "So, now my master's showing me how to pull using that tree." "And then he'll ask me to focus all my thoughts on pulling that tree towards me." "There are 13 individual detections -- push, pull, lift, drop, left, right, and then rotation in six different axes in a 3-D environment." "NARRATOR :" "You can even visualize an object disappearing, and it will." "But the headset is more than just a brain-powered joystick." "It allows the game to detect whether or not you're actually having fun." "LE:" "It observes your experiences -- excitement versus calmness, immersion, tension, frustration, engagement." "There are these mischievous spirit wisps that, instead of pressing a button, I can scare away just by looking fierce, so..." "[ Growls ]" "And you can notice by the sky color that I enjoy that part." "NARRATOR :" "So, when it comes to future game-playing, keep an open mind." "We're really only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's possible." "NARRATOR :" "So, will all this innovation in virtual-reality gaming spell the end of a good old-fashioned night out at the movies?" "I don't think games will ever replace other forms of narrative entertainment, simply because they do different things." "NARRATOR :" "Even as virtual games explore new frontiers, traditional forms of entertainment will also undergo some big changes, starting with the actors." "I believe that, in the future, we'll be creating digital movie stars." "Synthespian is a synthetic thespian -- any character that's generated by computer that fulfills some sort of dramatic role." "NARRATOR :" "Synthespians don't require an astronomical salary." "They work around the clock without complaint and live quietly on a hard drive between death-defying stunts." "Over the last 20 years, we've been working very hard to get to what would be called the holy grail, which is simulating a human face." "You would not be able to differentiate that performance from a filmed performance of a human being." "The rate of acceleration of this technology is truly mind-boggling." "It's another thing entirely." "KLElSER :" "We will see digital movie stars." "[ Screams ]" "KLElSER :" "The personality comes from the animator rather than from the on-screen talent." "And I will become the actor." "We're already seeing some of the movie theaters start to move towards 3-D projection." "I think the key would be a 3-D, immersive experience without any extra peripherals." "NARRATOR :" "One day, you'll go to a live play only to find out it's being performed by synthetic actors." "No glasses." "Nothing required." "You just look at the displays, and it projects 3-D." "To be, or not to be " "NARRATOR :" "You'll watch live performances that feature all the realism of a movie..." "entire settings instead of sets." "It will be like being on the stage in the middle of a play." "Maybe we can pause and walk around and look at it from different angles." "We could make large-scale holograms that could be seen from any angle." "The limits just disappear." "NARRATOR :" "Movies will now literally transport you into a fantasy world." "Virtual technologies are ushering in entirely new forms of entertainment, but that doesn't mean old ones will disappear." "When we started having television, everybody thought that film would end." "And then when video games came out, they said that nobody would go to films anymore." "I think we're just adding more and more diversity to the spectrum of entertainment." "NARRATOR :" "And every form of entertainment -- games, films, or even travel -- will live on the future I nternet, our intelligent network, making them available whenever and however you like." "What's going to happen is, all forms of human entertainment, whether it's music, whether it's television, whether it's film, will all be delivered on the network, on demand anywhere, anytime you want on any device," "whether that's a mobile, PC, TV -- any device you wish." "You're gonna be able to play back whatever you want." "NARRATOR :" "The houses of the future may bear little resemblance to the traditional little white house with a picket fence." "They'll be built in a matter of hours out of materials that are clearly intelligent." "kieran :" "I believe cellophane is the future." "If this house does not provoke you, then we've failed." "NARRATOR :" "Everything in this cellophane house is transparent or translucent because its walls are made of clear material known as P. E. T." "But will a cellophane house made out of P. E. T." "be strong enough to last?" "You can hang a car in a sheet of P. E. T. , and it will not fail." "Basically, you'd be living in a house that's made out of former water bottles." "NARRATOR :" "And unlike your walls, the cellophane walls will be smart." "Electronics embedded in the material not only light the house but generate its energy." "kieran :" "We printed on it materials that could harness the energy of the sun -- organic solar cells." "NARRATOR :" "And because it's lit by the next generation of L. E. D. technology, you'll never have to screw in a light bulb again." "Regardless of its outward appearance, your home will be filled with smarter technologies designed to save you time and improve your quality of life." "[ Beep ]" "HATTAR :" "It'll know as you move from room to room what you like." "Things like temperature of your home will adjust to your preferences." "NARRATOR :" "And your home appliances won't just be efficient." "They'll be smart, connected to each other and to the I nternet." "JOURET:" "Although there are about 1 .3 billion people on the I nternet, we're moving from an I nternet of people to an Internet of things." "Within the next five years, we'll have about 14 billion things communicating on the Internet." "Your bathroom will provide you with the news and weather, even while you're brushing your teeth." "HATTAR :" "We could see how our connected home can deliver additional services to make our lives a little bit easier." "NARRATOR :" "Your kitchen might be run by a central console that keeps a running inventory on all your groceries, prompting you when you need to order more of anything." "But since it's connected, it can also surf the Web for you." "If you have any questions about your friend's gift bottle, scan it over to your TV, and you'll be able to watch an entire program about it." "The console will even track your home's energy consumption, telling you if there's a leaky faucet, to make sure you're operating at maximum efficiency." "In fact, most future homes will actually be able to create their own energy using solar blinds that harness the sun's power." "But who has the time to oversee this growing staff of smart appliances?" "And who will make sense out of the torrent of information now available at the touch of a panel?" "Meet Cleopatra -- your future virtual home runner." "Nice to meet you." "So it's kind of somewhere between a butler, a secretary, a personal assistant, and a babysitter." "NARRATOR :" "Cleopatra is an avatar -- a virtual personality who lives in Brian Conte's basement." "She mostly lives on a box that we have down in our server room." "NARRATOR :" "Cleopatra runs all the home's automated systems, from the lights to the lawn-mowing." "She adjusts the temperature and the window blinds." "She can even change the music in each room according to your mood." "[ Classical music plays ]" "CONTE:" "One of the nice things that the system does is remind my boy to go to bed." "He is an avid reader." "He can stay up till 1 :00 or 2 :00 without even realizing it." "Lights out, Zeb." "CONTE:" "There's so many helpful things that the house can do once it knows who you are and where you are." "NARRATOR :" "She keeps track of the family by using radio-frequency I ." "D. technology." "[ Beep ]" "rfid allows you to tag an object or a person with a code that the computer can read through sensors, allowing it to know where everyone is at all times." "Katherine has left the house." "CONTE:" "As soon as I step up to the front door, it recognizes me, opens the door, welcomes me home." "CLEOPATRA:" "Welcome home, Brian." "Remember, your wife's birthday is next week." "NARRATOR :" "rfid technology also helps Cleopatra run the family food shopping." "CONTE:" "You simply scan things as you throw them away." "It will automatically reorder anything that you scanned." "It will appear the next morning on your doorstep." "NARRATOR :" "I magine never again running out of milk." "Today, Cleopatra does mostly what she's been programmed to do." "Cleopatra runs the house, but I'm still the boss." "NARRATOR :" "But in the future, automated house runners will be far more intelligent, and they'll be far more connected, able to act as your family's representative on the Web." "The Hong Kong market is now open." "Shall I log in?" "There will be virtual people, separate entities on the I nternet, performing tasks on your behalf." "That is a natural extension for something like Cleopatra." "I can't wait." "Goodbye, Brian." "NARRATOR :" "But sometimes, the things that need doing around the house just can't be done by a virtual house runner, no matter how smart she may be." "It's great that we've evolved so that laundry's washed, but wouldn't it be wonderful if it could actually be folded and put away?" "Wouldn't it be great if my robots did that for me?" "NARRATOR :" "Your first robot butler will probably look a lot like the world's most advanced humanoid, Asimo." "KUFFNER :" "Asimo is currently the state of the art in terms of humanoid technology." "NARRATOR :" "Asimo is around 4 feet tall and weighs a little more than 1 00 pounds." "So, he's a small-stature humanoid, and in that way, he's very nonthreatening." "NARRATOR :" "To be the ultimate home assistant, future all-purpose robots will have to master the terrain of our world -- stairs, doorknobs, and faucets, which is why our robots will need to be humanoids, like Asimo." "KUFFNER :" "We can have our humanoid actually use a real vacuum and push it around or use a mop or use a broom or use tools that were designed for humans." "NARRATOR :" "Eventually, our robots will be fully programmable so we can teach them new tasks by downloading a file." "KUFFNER :" "I could call my robot from my cellphone on the way home from work and say," ""Tonight I'm interested in having a quiche. "" "NARRATOR :" "And your home robot won't just download behaviors." "It'll be a computer with two legs." "They'll be connected to the Internet and, if so, sort of the world's knowledge base." "And in the future, we may take them for granted." "[ Computerized voice ] Please don't." "92% of all scientists who ever lived are alive today." "85 % of all engineers who ever lived are alive today." "Think about it." "NARRATOR :" "The future will see machines with a built-in artificial intelligence that will rival our own." "We will find ourselves working with and competing with intelligent machines." "Ultimately, these machines will be much more powerful than unaided human intelligence." "NARRATOR :" "The machines are ready." "Are we?" "YAEGER :" "As artificial intelligences improve, so are our natural intelligences." "NARRATOR :" "The design of the human brain hasn't been upgraded in 30,000 years, but that's about to change." "Human beings are not standing still in terms of their intelligence." "NARRATOR :" "There is considerable room for improving the brain." "The fact that a third-year graduate student has more mental agility than I do is a simple fact of science, and it's one that pisses me off." "NARRATOR :" "Dr. Gary Lynch is working on a way to improve on nature's design by getting our brains to operate more efficiently, even as we age." "And so he is studying our synapses, the tiny gaps between our brain cells that carry electrical signals from one cell to the next." "As you begin to age, these things begin to decay." "You feel the loss of cognitive capacity." "You feel the loss of memory." "NARRATOR :" "Dr. Lynch has found a way to make those synapses work better using a new class of neurostimulants called ampakines." "DR. LYNCH :" "What the ampakines do is they restore the synapses to the strength, to the facility, to the plasticity they had when you were young." "NARRATOR :" "Ampakines literally amplify the jolt of electricity between brain cells..." "which means your thoughts are transmitted across more neurons." "You'll be able to think faster and in ways you can't now imagine." "Because the imagination that you have is limited by the number of neurons that you can assemble at any given instance." "NARRATOR :" "It's heady stuff." "The potential is there to do things the brain cannot now do." "NARRATOR :" "But will it be enough?" "warwick:" "There are some people that say," ""Okay, we have intelligent machines around, but they will always do what we want." "They will act as our slaves. "" "This is ridiculous!" "If we have machines that are more intelligent than we are, they will decide what they want to do." "If the machines have it in for us, we won't have any defense." "There's no protection from something that's more intelligent than you are if it's bent on your destruction." "Actually, the defense from malevolent A. I ." "is just another A. I ." "that's even smarter." "Yeah, and the side with the more intelligent A. I . will prevail." "warwick:" "The train has already left the station." "Machines will dominate." "NARRATOR :" "Kevin Warwick thinks our only hope for controlling our future intelligent machines is to become them." "If you can't beat it, join it." "NARRATOR :" "To figure out how we might join our brains with machines," "Kevin's lab is conducting an unusual experiment -- taking live brain cells from a rat and embedding electrodes in them." "warwick:" "And when we've got about 1 00, 000 of these neurons linking, communicating together, we're connecting it up to a robot body." "NARRATOR :" "That's right -- Kevin Warwick is using the living brain tissue of a rat to drive a robot." "warwick:" "That brain is the sole controller for the robot body." "We don't have a computer in there that's doing some little things and changing the signals." "NARRATOR :" "Sensors on the robot can detect the walls." "And through a wireless connection, it sends that information to the sliver of rat brain." "The brain then actually tells it to turn left or right to avoid the wall." "warwick:" "And the output from the brain, which we can pick up as electrical signals on different electrodes, drives the wheels of the robot." "NARRATOR :" "To let the rat brain know when it's successful," "Kevin stimulates it with a little extra voltage as a reward." "Brain cells like being stimulated." "warwick:" "It's a bit like giving a child an ice cream, but you can't be sure the child's going to do exactly what you want it to do." "And the same is true with the biological brain." "NARRATOR :" "Kevin Warwick isn't just creating a brain-controlled robot for fun." "He sees it as a necessary first step toward the eventual merger between man and machine." "warwick:" "I would be able to give myself all sorts of abilities that I don't have now -- extra memory, new means of communicating, getting different sensory input, instead of being limited to the five human senses." "Your television set can sense the world in infrared." "You can't." "Surely you must feel a bit jealous of that." "I certainly do." "I want an infrared sense." "Why not?" "NARRATOR :" "His goal is nothing less than to be the one who ushers in a new age of fully cyborg humans." "warwick:" "That new cyborg with a part-biological and part-machine brain is what will go ahead and dominate the world in the future." "So the future, I see very rosy if you're a cyborg or if you're an artificial-intelligent machine." "If you're a human, well, your time's up." "NARRATOR :" "We won't need to fear our intelligent-machine future because as cyborgs, we will merge with the machines." "And when we do, it will usher in a new era -- an era of discovery, problem-solving, and creativity and one that redefines what it means to be human." "There's a technology avalanche on the horizon, and the landscape will never be the same."