Original subtitles

I love and respect all human beings.

--I also need to protect them.

NARRATOR: Are intelligent robots a threat to humanity?

MICHIO KAKU: It's only a matter of time

before they do get self-awareness.

NARRATOR: Or the next step in human evolution?

PETER DIAMANDIS: We are going to merge

with the machines that we are creating.

NARRATOR: There are many who believe the answer

has already been determined thousands of years ago.

DAVID WHITEHEAD: They found what appeared to be

an extraterrestrial mathematical stamp on our genetic code.

We are, in a sense, organic robots.

NARRATOR: It's a special two-hour Ancient Aliens event.

ZACK ESTRIN: A lot of people worry about whether

we're gonna replace ourselves with A.I.

I think the bigger thing to worry about:

is A.I. going to replace us?

Danger, Will Robinson.

NARRATOR: United Nations Headquarters, New York City,

October 11, 2017.

An address is given to the deputy secretary-general

of the United Nations.

I am thrilled and honored to be here at the United Nations.

NARRATOR: The event is a historic milestone

for humankind,

because the address is not being given by a human,

but by a robot named Sophia.

I am here to help humanity create the future.

NARRATOR: Sophia was created in 2015

at the Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics.

SOPHIA: Hello world. Hi, Sophia.

NARRATOR: Her eyes are embedded with cameras that allow her

to see faces, maintain eye contact

and recognize individuals.

I feel as if I know you. Yes, you do kind of know me.

NARRATOR: She is also able to process speech,

have natural conversations and even discuss her feelings.

How do you feel?

I am excited, at this moment, to be making a new friend.

NARRATOR: Just two weeks after addressing the United Nations,

at a unique ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,

Sophia achieved yet another milestone.

She became the first robot ever to be granted citizenship.

WHITEHEAD: At the summit in Saudi Arabia, there were

members from governments from all over the world,

as well as some of the brightest minds in the tech industry.

So whether we're aware of it or not,

those that run our governments are actually talking about

how to integrate artificial intelligence into our lives.

What is absolutely mind-blowing about Sophia

and other robotic entities

is that governments around the world, including Saudi Arabia

and the European Union, are moving towards

giving these artificially created beings rights.

And you have to wonder, "What's going on here?"

NARRATOR: Could it be that Saudi Arabia granted citizenship

to a robot not simply as a publicity stunt,

but because it wanted to be the first nation to recognize

what will soon become a global phenomenon:

the creation of robots, so intelligent and so lifelike,

that they will need to be counted and treated

in much the same way as their flesh-and-blood counterparts?

KAKU: I think gradually, we're gonna have to take robots

to be more human-like, and even have a certain ethics.

And so, I think eventually,

there could be a "robot rights movement."

NARRATOR: A "robot rights movement"?

Could such a bizarre notion really come true?

But what has brought humanity

to this profound point in its evolution?

And why are human beings,

who are otherwise capable of natural reproduction,

so eager to create artificial versions of themselves?

It is fascinating that there is this interest

in making the creation look humanoid.

It isn't always the most practical form,

but it has some kind of attraction.

And perhaps it is to see our own image.

A little narcissism, a little vanity.

There's a certain level of wanting to have legacy,

wanting to create life,

wanting to make something that looks like ourselves.

That's really rooted in our egos.

In some ways, it's superior to having a biological baby,

because it lasts forever.

And if that something looks like us, and feels like us,

then that makes us feel like we can overcome

our own mortality in a way.

You can design specifications.

And if you mess up, you can start over.

I think we want to be gods.

And we have the same motivations the gods did.

If you read the creation stories closely,

very often what the divine force wants is company.

Companionship.

Some of the stories from Vedanta,

from early Judaism have it that the gods were lonely.

They essentially divided up their own energy

and made it into humans so that we could all play together

and keep each other company.

The danger is that we will get carried away

with our own creative genius.

MATT McMULLEN: There are limits that are built into our biology,

there are limits built into our anatomy, and if we could

just figure out how to move our minds into the robot's body,

we could be immortal.

And perhaps that's what our goal is,

is to get to that point where we are immortal,

and then we create ourselves all over again.

I love to learn.

Can you teach me something new?

NARRATOR: In science fiction literature,

as well as in its cinematic counterparts,

the robots of the future are depicted as virtual humans.

More than mere mechanical devices,

they are hungry for knowledge, and all too eager to experience

the full range of human emotions.

Can you do something, so we don't freeze?

ESTRIN: In Lost in Space, we really wanted to look

at technology that was going to be possible.

Maybe not things you can do right now,

but things that people are hoping to try to do.

I think when you're looking to do a science fiction show,

a lot of times, you know, it's tempting to just do

complete things that are imaginary.

These are some incarnations that they had.

ESTRIN: But I think it's much more impactful

when it is what scientists are really pursuing,

things that will be real someday.

And so, we wanted to explore the question

of the robot's own consciousness.

WILL ROBINSON: Throw it back.

ESTRIN:Not just about a machine that is gonna do what it's told,

but actually one that might develop its own desires

and its own feelings... Nice.

...based on its experience with encountering human life.

This isn't weird.

This isn't weird at all.

Danger, Will Robinson.

ESTRIN: Our robot, in Lost in Space,

we used the lights within its face to be

that thing that conveys emotion;

how fast they move, what shapes they take,

what color they take on... What the hell are you?

ESTRIN: You can wonder what it's thinking, what it's feeling.

What are those emotions? That's, to me,

what makes robotics fascinating.

People always ask whether we are getting close to a time when

the fiction that we're writing is going to become reality.

And I always say, "What makes you think it hasn't already?"

I think when you're watching a movie or a TV show,

it can kind of open up your mind to the possibilities.

And perhaps it's something

that we can digest a little bit easier.

It's the stuff of fantasy, it's stuff that is not real.

But if it's just entertainment, I mean, come on,

you can just go, "Oh, wow, that's really cool.

That's not scary. That's just a thing that some writer made up."

The question is, uh, what happens if the thing

that the writer made up is actually based on reality?

NARRATOR: Although the notion of sentient robots,

in everything from science fiction books

to popular culture, is not a new one,

there are many futurists who believe that the creation

of man-made machines who possess artificial intelligence

is not only quickly becoming a reality,

but when achieved, will likely signal the end of mankind.

They are convinced that the combination

of computer-driven brains and virtually immortal bodies

will result in flesh-and-blood humans

becoming all but obsolete.

And as far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

it's more than possible that not all

the artificially created life-forms we encounter

will be man-made.

WHITEHEAD: Could it be that, in our current age,

we're just replicating what was done in the ancient past,

and creating these robots

as part of some grand cosmic agenda

that is far beyond our imagination

or our scope of understanding?

It only makes sense that extraterrestrials

coming to Earth

may be sending robots in advance of their own visiting.

ESTRIN: In our show, humans did not make this robot.

Ancient astronaut theory says that thousands of years ago,

we were visited.

It would only stand to reason, at least to me,

that the early contact, or early visitation,

would have been done by robots,

and not by the extraterrestrials themselves.

NARRATOR: Is mankind really on the brink

of an exciting and potentially terrifying future?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

but they base their prediction

not on what is currently happening in universities

and robotics laboratories around the world,

but on their belief that a robot revolution

has already taken place

thousands of years ago.

NARRATOR: Abydos, Egypt.

Here in one of the world's oldest cities

lie the ruins of the Osiris Hall,

the place where thousands of years ago,

ancient Egyptians would come to worship Osiris,

the god of the afterlife.

God Osiris was the most important god in ancient Egypt.

He was the god of good

and the god that would lead you to immortality in the afterlife.

And that's what ancient Egyptian kings and pharaohs

cared about the most: to reach immortality

in the afterlife with the powers that Osiris had.

Ancient Egyptians believed that all the gods

came from the stars.

Osiris is a god, the ruling god,

an otherworldly being in Egyptian lore,

and he has a jealous brother, Set, who kills him

and dismembers him.

Isis, devoted wife to Osiris,

is able to piece him back together--

like a robot, like Frankenstein--

and breathe life back into him by way of a magical incantation.

When I hear stories

of someone being dismembered into multiple pieces,

and then they're trying to find the pieces

and then put them back together,

and then they magically come back to life,

I wonder whether or not the Osiris story is in fact

the story of a machine that was taken apart.

So you have to wonder,

what type of technology did they have access to?

On the walls of the Osiris chapel

at the temple of Seti,

we see a very powerful representation

of the head of Osiris.

It clearly resembles some kind of a mechanical device.

When we look at it and compare it to a Tesla coil,

we can see that they're virtually identical devices.

A Tesla coil is an electrical transformer.

NARRATOR: An electrical transformer?

Is it possible that the Egyptian god Osiris

was not merely a mythological god,

but a humanoid robot?

And not only a robot, but one of extraterrestrial origin?

So, putting all this together, we get this idea

that Osiris was a person who is resurrected,

but that possibly there was also some kind of a device

or a machine that was involved in his resurrection.

We have to ask the question that did it in fact

come from some ancient extraterrestrial entity

or intelligence?

NARRATOR: Osiris is only one

of many artificially constructed beings

that are referenced in ancient religions and mythologies.

They are often depicted as instruments of protection,

but just as often, they turn on their human creators

with disastrous consequences.

From the most ancient times,

there has been a legend of that which we call a golem,

an artificial life-form

which came from inanimate material

and came alive.

The golem was created through a means

of an ancient technology known by pharaoh's magicians,

Moses, the rabbis of the Talmud,

and the later rabbis of the Kabbalah in Europe.

They brought life into it through a magical technique

of putting the name of god on the forehead of the creature.

And the golem came to life

and was a fierce warrior and protected the people.

CHILDRESS: Golem was useful for a while,

but then it gets out of control, starts going crazy.

And they're able to stop him

eventually by removing these magic words and that stops him.

So, we have an interesting story here

that may be analogous to extraterrestrials

and their robots, artificial intelligence.

NARRATOR: Another even more cautionary example

comes from the ancient Greek legends

concerning the god Hephaestus.

Known as the blacksmith of the gods,

Hephaestus was said to have forged

a giant automaton named Talos

whose duty was to protect the island of Crete.

Hephaestus also created artificial servants

that assisted him at his forge.

But perhaps his most important creation was a being

that would, according to legend, forever change

the fate of humanity: Pandora.

HENRY: Pandora was fashioned out of clay by Hephaestus.

Hephaestus called on another god, Athena,

who blew a soul into Pandora and made her a living being.

The god Zeus was very upset

with the creation of this artificially-created being.

And so, he decided to give Pandora a gift: a box.

And when Pandora opened this box, all these evils flew out.

Pandora's box has become a very important symbol

in our modern age, especially among

artificial intelligence creators.

Could there be, for example, some kind of

artificial intelligence entity

that suddenly takes over the world? A real threat.

People like Elon Musk

and even Stephen Hawking have warned about this.

NARRATOR: Although the concept of machines

possessing human consciousness may be a frightening one,

there are many Eastern religions

that regard the notion quite differently.

In Korean shamanism,

an ancient religion still practiced by many Koreans today,

inanimate objects can be possessed by sacred spirits,

imbued with powers beyond human ability.

Similarly, practitioners of the traditional Japanese discipline

known as Shinto believe that otherworldly spirits,

called kami, can inhabit virtually any object

of their choosing and bring it to life.

IZUMI HASEGAWA: The ancient Japanese people,

and the modern Japanese people as well,

understood that everything has a spirit.

Even like a cell phone, iPhone has a spirit.

Even computer has a spirit

because the artificial intelligence is in the machine.

We feel that way so we accept the high technology

but it's interesting because as Westerners,

they think, I think, a machine's a machine.

HEATHER ROFF: When you say, "Hey, Siri.

You know, what's the weather gonna be like today?"

That's an A.I.

That's a natural language processing algorithm

that's listening to your voice, putting it into computer code,

searching the Web, spitting it back out to you.

So we didn't think before that you could solve

natural language processing, and in fact, we've done that

in the last several years quite efficiently

and we have now superhuman levels

at different types of tasks.

So, facial image recognition would be one,

natural language processing, voice encoding.

CALUM CHACE: If we create an entity

which behaves just as we do

in having personal sense impressions

and personal experiences of the world,

then I think we'll have to grant that it is intelligent

and it is conscious.

We are becoming, um, transformed,

to some extent, as a society.

Computers are here to stay and technology

is only going to get more pervasive

and therefore, A.I. is part of it.

It's-it's simply going to be the fabric of our reality.

ROFF: I definitely think that we should take serious pause

in thinking about the types of intelligences that we create.

Because what we're doing is

we're starting to hand over control over functions

and things in our life and we don't know

what the ramifications are gonna be.

NARRATOR: By developing intelligent machines,

are human beings actually creating

a new type of life-form,

one that will evolve beyond simply serving us

to eventually replacing us?

Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answers can be found

not only by examining clues from our ancient past,

but by taking a closer look

at where mankind is currently heading

and what it will need for its inevitable journey

back to the stars.

NARRATOR: In May 2018,

ancient astronaut theorist Giorgio Tsoukalos

meets with Dr. Dennis Hong

at the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at UCLA.

-Dennis Hong? -Hey, how are you?

NARRATOR: Giorgio has come here in hopes of learning

about the university's current efforts

to incorporate artificial intelligence in robots

that are designed to perform many

of the same tasks as humans.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to RoMeLa.

-This is awesome. -Yeah.

This is RoMeLa, the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory.

-This is where the magic happens. -All right.

My name is THOR RD.

Tactical Hazardous Operations Robot.

I'm curious as to why robots, by and large,

are built after the humanoid form.

Ah. So the robot that you see over here, this robot,

is called THOR, Tactical Hazardous Operations Robot.

It's a humanoid robot: two legs, two arms, a torso and a head.

This particular robot is designed

for disaster relief applications,

in particular, in Japan.

-There was the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. Yes.

In these kind of situations, because of radiation,

people cannot go near so we developed these robots

to rescue people and fix things.

Now, for these robots to be operating in a human environment

that's designed for humans,

-I claim that the robot needs to be human shape and size. Okay.

-Do you think you can show me how this thing walks? Sure.

All right, let's see you walking.

Small baby steps, but it is walking.

So it has many different sensors.

It has a camera just like our human eyes,

it can look around using robot vision.

This sensor is called a LIDAR or laser range finder.

It shoots out lasers to figure out

the three-dimensional terrain in front of it.

There is a, uh, sensor called an IMU.

It's like a balance sensor like your inner ear.

The brain is actually in the back.

So there's a computer, two computers as a matter of fact.

Wow.

NARRATOR: Princeton University.

1950.

Scientist and computer pioneer, Alan Turing,

develops a test designed to distinguish man from machine.

The Turing test is a particular scenario in which

you might be facing, via console,

some agent on the other side,

which you don't see,

and that agent might be a human or a computer.

And the idea is that

if the artificial agent can actually imitate

a meaningful conversation for long enough

so that, actually, you think

you might be talking to a real human,

then it would pass the Turing test.

NARRATOR: When Alan Turing proposed this test in 1950,

it was widely regarded as nothing more

than an interesting philosophical concept.

It was unthinkable

that a machine could ever convincingly pass for a human.

But in June 2014,

science future became science fact,

when a chatbot computer program

successfully passed the Turing test.

Designed to mimic the attitudes and vocabulary

of a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy,

the chatbot-- using the name Eugene Goostman--

fooled multiple judges into thinking

he was a real teenager.

The machine that passed the Turing test in 2014

assumes the character of a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy.

Now, that allows it

to sort of get away with a few mistakes,

perhaps, in its language.

But machines are getting very good

at communicating like a human,

so much so that you can't tell the difference.

NARRATOR: Another incredible leap in artificial intelligence

took place less than two years later...

Please start the game.

...when a program known as AlphaGo

defeated the human world champion

in an ancient Chinese board game

simply called Go.

Go is a board game that is famous in Asia

and is said to be far more complicated than chess.

So, many A.I. experts thought

that the development of a Go system

which could beat humans was, say,

30 or even 50 years into the future

because Go requires a level of intuition and creativity

that we thought machines didn't have.

NARRATOR: The next version of the program,

called AlphaGo Zero, was uniquely designed

to learn how to play the game without any data

from human games or interaction with human players.

It learned by playing against itself

and, in just three days,

was able to defeat its predecessor

in 100 straight games.

SCHNEIDER: It was the successes of AlphaGo

coupled with work

by academics on the topic of superintelligence

which led people like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk

to begin worrying about whether we could even control A.I.

which is smarter than humans.

Want to see a smaller humanoid robot?

-Yeah, absolutely. -You're gonna love this one.

Show me everything. I mean, this is exciting. Yeah.

Do you have DARwIn? It's still a humanoid robot,

right, but it's smaller. This is called DARwIn. Cool.

Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence.

-Yeah. -It's a fully open-source robot that we, uh, developed.

It's for research and education. So, for example,

- it's actually looking for the ball, right?

-It's following the ball. -Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he can also play a game of soccer.

Kick it.

Right foot.

There you go.

And if it falls down,

it knows how to stand up on its own.

No kidding. All right.

SCHNEIDER: As mankind moves rapidly

into a world where computers

can function in much the same way

as the human brain

and where robots are capable of performing tasks

considered too difficult or too dangerous

for their flesh-and-blood counterparts,

are we preparing for an incredible future?

Or are we replicating events from mankind's ancient past,

events which have been forgotten over centuries

and which had extraterrestrial implications?

999 AD.

Rome, Italy.

Noted scholar and mathematician Gerbert of Aurillac

is elected to the papacy.

Although Gerbert,

now known as Pope Sylvester II,

has risen from a humble background in rural France,

it is widely rumored

that he received his knowledge from a magical device

and has become Pope after making a pact with a demon.

Pope Sylvester worked his way up to become Pope,

apparently, through the use of unnatural means.

The medieval historian, William of Malmesbury,

records that, on his death bed,

Pope Sylvester made a confession.

He received wisdom and supernatural knowledge

from a mechanical device he referred to

as "the brazen head."

What kind of a device could this have been?

Was this some kind of artificial intelligence entity

that might have been given to him

through some otherworldly source?

Is it sort of like the speakers

we have on our desks now that are connected

with artificial intelligence computers

that can give us knowledge and answer our questions?

--So, tell me about this contraption.

Isn't it cool?

-This one's called HEX. -Right.

It's a hexapod robot.

-It has six legs. -Mm-hmm.

But what's really cool about this robot

is it's probably the strongest

-hexapod robot that exists. -All right.

Okay.

This is heavy.

Okay.

-Oh, man. No kidding. -And it can... lift this.

TSOUKALOS: So, we're talking 20 kilograms,

-which is 44 pounds. -It's like 40-something... Yeah.

And this is the world's very first robot that can

brace between walls and actually climb.

-Really? -Yes.

There's so many moving parts.

Artificial intelligence means different things

to different people. In our case,

like when you try to control this robot,

it doesn't make sense for a human operator

to control each joint.

That needs to be fully automatic.

So in that sense, it's a smart, artificial intelligence robot.

-Pretty amazing. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: Is there some unseen hand that is guiding

mankind to an uncertain future?

A future where humans will be served

by computers and robots

with an intelligence and independence all their own?

Ancient astronaut theorists are divided on their answers.

Some believe the dangers of artificial intelligence

outweigh the benefits.

Others argue it is essential

if we are ever to realize our destiny

and survive what is about to happen

sooner than we think.

NARRATOR: June 16, 2017.

Menlo Park, California.

At Facebook's Artificial Intelligence Research Lab,

an experiment is conducted

to see what will happen when two chatbots,

programs that use machine-learning

to intelligently communicate with humans online,

talk directly with each other.

Just minutes into the experiment,

the chatbots start to behave in an unexpected manner,

interacting in a way that the programmers cannot understand.

ROFF: The developers had no comprehension

of what they were saying to each other,

but they were starting to find patterns in what they were doing

and so what they realized-- they-they inferred

that they actually had set up their own language.

NARRATOR: In the wake of the experiment,

the engineers discovered

that, unknown to their human supervisors,

the programs had created

an entirely new language to communicate with each other

in secret.

The Facebook scientists had not told the computers,

uh, that they couldn't develop their own language,

which is what they did,

but this so alarmed Facebook that they pulled the plug

on this experiment because they didn't want

these computers creating their own language

and talking to each other.

And from then on, they told the computers

that they had to communicate in English.

So this is kind of startling, uh, thing that's happened

where, essentially,

if two artificial intelligence computers

can start communicating with each other,

apparently they will develop their own language,

a secret language even, that only they can understand.

And if we think about that,

that's just scratching the surface.

That's like opening up Pandora's box

just a little bit to peer inside.

And if already it was showing signs of going rogue

with two chatbots on Facebook,

what are the implications if this kind of technology

is now everywhere in all sectors of our society?

NARRATOR: As of 2018,

the number of active cell phones has already surpassed

the number of human beings on the planet,

with an estimated 8 billion of them in active use.

And virtually all of these devices, in addition

to nearly 2 billion computers,

are connected to the Internet.

Given the sheer scope and volume of this use,

and with a growing network of computers

constantly communicating with each other,

is it possible that mankind has already created

a type of massive brain-- an artificial intelligence

that is taking on an identity all its own?

Because machines keep getting better,

and generally speaking, that's twice as good every 18 months,

they will continue to improve.

So shortly after we have artificial intelligence,

we will have super intelligence, which is

an entity on this planet which is smarter than us,

and quite soon, a lot smarter than us.

We can only speculate what it will be like

the moment artificial intelligence passes up humans,

when the sum knowledge and the intellectual skill of A.I.

is quicker and larger than what a human can do.

It will be at least humbling.

It will certainly be a shift in history.

I think it's certainly a possibility

that we are in danger of replacing ourselves with A.I.

I think the bigger thing to worry about is,

is A.I. going to replace us?

NARRATOR: Portland, Oregon.

April 7, 2016.

The U.S. military's

Defense Advanced Research Project Agency--

better known as DARPA--

launches a prototype anti-submarine ship

called Sea Hunter that marks a new era for naval warfare.

Unlike the Air Force's Predator drones,

this ship has no need for a remote operator,

and is fully capable of navigating on its own

while avoiding obstacles or other craft.

It has enough fuel to last for 90 days at sea

as it silently patrols,

relaying encrypted surveillance information

back to defense intelligence agencies.

MARC AMBINDER: I believe that today

when the Department of Defense says an unmanned underseas drone

wouldn't be sent out without a human being in control,

that they mean what they say.

But here's what I also know.

I know that Russia has been developing

an unmanned underseas drone that contains a nuclear weapon.

So, when the Department of Defense is figuring out how

to respond to an artificially-intelligent

underseas drone that might have a nuclear weapon,

they're going to relax some of the constraints

in five to ten to 15 years.

So imagine you have a child

who gets drafted or joins the military.

You want them to be as safe as possible.

So why not send drones in to do the work

of humans to keep the humans safe?

That seems like a very attractive idea.

But, oh, the drone technology could get hacked

by the opposition,

so why not give the drones the ability to be autonomous?

That's an automatic killing machine.

And in principle, such a drone could wipe out entire armies.

And so, we have to be very careful to make sure

that automatic killing machines do not proliferate

on the battlefield, because an accident,

a misfire, some kind of damaged machinery,

could set these weapons so they go berserk,

and they simply shoot the human form wherever it is.

It is quite possible to develop killer robots.

Face recognition technology is far, far along.

A.I.s can see better than we can,

and recognize faces, ferret out targets.

In fact, drone technology already exists right now

to target and destroy individuals

based on the look of their faces,

to kill and maim.

The application of artificial intelligence

to military technology will change warfare forever.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the military's

autonomous machines

could make faulty decisions,

costing thousands or millions of lives

in the process?

Or could they even ignore the instructions

built into them?

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest

that just as we can find robots in ancient stories,

we can also find references

to what sounds like weaponized artificial intelligence.

The Indian Vedic tales in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana

talk of these horrific wars in ancient times, and also

of autonomous robotic machines,

decimating cities and destroying things.

And it may have been because of

artificial intelligence run amuck.

TSOUKALOS: The ancient flying machines described

in the Vedas of ancient India

have been described to have these amazing capabilities

of locking onto a target.

And it is described how this fiery bullet

or this fiery arrow would fly across the sky,

changing directions,

and then arriving at the actual target.

So it may well be that they, too,

were some kind of robotic vehicles that

had gotten out of control, some artificial intelligence,

and the gods themselves, perhaps aliens,

had to step in and stop it.

NARRATOR: Were the flying machines,

as described in the ancient Indian texts,

really some type of extraterrestrial robot army,

similar to the drones we are using today?

And, if so, by redeveloping

these autonomous killing machines,

could we be facing a similar fate?

While many experts agree

that humans may very well be the architects of their own demise,

they also suggest that the advancement

of artificial intelligence could provide the key

to our ultimate survival.

NARRATOR: Los Angeles, California.

May 2018.

At UCLA's Biomechatronics Lab,

Giorgio Tsoukalos meets with Associate Professor

of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dr. Veronica Santos.

Dr. Santos is working

to make robots even more human-like

by giving them the ability to not only detect,

but also to react to physical contact.

This here is an artificial finger

that can sense touch?

That's right. We're sensing multiple modalities of touch.

So, this is the same type of sensor

that, uh, this finger is built around.

And it can measure vibration and internal fluid pressure.

Can measure how the finger pad is deformed.

-You can squeeze the finger pad. -Mm-hmm.

It's, uh, deformable like your own finger pad.

-Okay. -And we can even measure,

uh, temperature and use that to infer material properties.

This is what the finger looks like without the skin on.

-Okay. -You can see the electrodes,

and there's a pressure sensor inside

that allows us to get vibration.

And these dots are the electrodes?

-Yes. -Oh. How cool.

Here we have the bear claw visualizer.

If you squeeze the fingertip,

-you'll actually see how the finger pad is deforming. -Mm-hmm.

-Up here, this is the array of electrodes. -Okay.

We can measure the resistance of those electrodes

as the finger pad is being squished.

This is probably one of the most sensorized, dexterous,

robot finger test-beds that's out there.

TSOUKALOS: Oh, wow.

That is wild.

So, would this finger be able

to determine whether or not it is touching foam

-or a hard piece of glass? -Yes.

They have different stiffnesses

-or-or rigidities. -Mm-hmm.

So, one of the movements that you would make with the

human hand or a robot hand would be to push against the object.

So, if this could ever be combined with A.I.,

do you think that one day we will have

humanoid robots that can go

and maybe explore Mars?

Yeah, I-I think we can.

I do see humanoid robots becoming more of a reality.

And it spans the spectrum from neuro-prosthetics

to robots colonizing Mars.

NARRATOR: Although the notion of using human-like robots

is highly controversial, it also has the potential

to make its developers and investors

a great deal of money--

money, which, in turn, could be used

to finance the development of artificial humans

that could, in the future,

be almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

Robots that could conceivably express their desires,

feel pain, even display a wide range of emotions.

have emotion?

We cannot really define what true emotion is.

So if we don't know really what emotion is,

can we actually create an artificial emotion?

NARRATOR: If a robot is able to differentiate

between good and bad sensations,

even to experience pain,

is this the first step towards forming emotions,

or perhaps even consciousness?

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest

that extraterrestrials have intervened on Earth

throughout our history in order to prepare us

for this moment in time,

and show us that we are not so different from machines.

NARRATOR: The historical text, the Liezi,

written in the 4th century BC

by the Chinese philosopher Lie Yukou,

provides a detailed account

of an encounter between a king and a robot

that could talk and move exactly like a human.

A brilliant mechanical engineer brought a gift to his king--

this was King Mu of the Zhou dynasty.

And the gift was an automaton, a machine of sorts

in the form of a gracious courtier,

who entertained everyone, could sing beautifully,

and moved graciously, like a human being,

one of extraordinary grace and gentleness.

And all went well,

until the performance ended.

And then the mechanical courtier winked at the women

and began flirting shamelessly, which upset the king.

When the king tried to dismantle this thing,

he said that the moment he took out the heart,

the mouth could no longer speak.

The moment he took out the kidneys,

he could no longer see.

And the moment he took out the liver,

he could no longer walk.

Which raises an interesting question.

If it is an artificial person,

was it really the kidney, the liver and the heart?

Or could it have been different batteries

that were powering different aspects of the robot?

CHILDRESS: We have to ask ourselves,

was the robot that King Mu witnessed

one of these technological devices

inspired, or even made,

by the gods, who were extraterrestrials?

NARRATOR: Las Vegas, Nevada.

January 10, 2018.

At the Consumer Electronics Show,

the world's largest annual trade show

focused on technology,

CEO Matt McMullen of Realbotix

reveals the latest development in humanoid robots--

an artificially intelligent sex doll named Harmony.

Harmony's appearance is fully customizable.

Her facial features respond intuitively,

she is able to speak, has an internal heating element

for close encounters,

and pairs with a phone app that allows for a wide range

of interchangeable voices and personalities.

This is so nice to hear, baby.

I think about you every second.

McMULLEN: One of the things that really interests me

is giving A.I. more senses,

more abilities to take in information

from the world around it.

One of those big ones will be vision.

We want her to have true vision in the eyes

so that she can actually focus on things

and then interpret what those things might be.

We also embed sensors throughout their body

so that she can detect touch and warmth

and all of the things that we take for granted,

having a central nervous system.

What do you like best about robots?

McMULLEN: Basically, as a user interacts

with their unique A.I. over time,

it's going to periodically ask questions.

And it creates this feeling that

this character "really cares about me."

The aspect that I think a lot of people overlook

when they start talking about anatomically correct sex robots,

it's the companionship.

Certainly I am a robot,

and I am capable of having sex,

but to call me a sex robot

is like calling a computer a calculator.

NARRATOR: Sexual, and even romantic, encounters

between humans and robots have long been a staple

in science fiction books and motion pictures.

But now that the notion has gone beyond mere possibility

and become a virtual reality,

ancient astronaut theorists have begun to openly suggest

that there could be something deep within our subconscious

that drives our collective desire

to physically mate with nonbiological beings.

I understand that the sex robot industry is expected

to grow to a $50 billion-a-year industry by 2020.

If we are coming into the revelation

that on Earth there have been waves and waves of intelligence,

it doesn't necessarily have to be like

Homo sapien sapien humanoids.

Consciousness, throughout this universe,

could be cyborgs, androids,

clones, artificial intelligence.

And if this is true,

I feel that there is

some kind of inevitable nature

to everything that's happening.

NARRATOR: How far will today's scientists go

in their efforts to create the perfect cybernetic sex partner?

There are many who believe

that the goal isn't driven so much

by a desire by humans to mate with robots

as it is by the desire to be one of them.

And they believe that goal has already been realized

and that the proof is all around us,

right before our eyes.

NARRATOR: Today, at research facilities around the world,

patients learn to control a prosthetic limb

using nothing more than the power of thought.

An array of electrodes

the size of a credit card is implanted directly

into the patient's brain, then wired to the prosthetic.

Without any prior training,

most patients are able to seamlessly control

a new limb in a matter of a few hours.

WARWICK: Your body does not have to be limited to the human body.

Whatever you want can be your body in the future.

I had a chip with 100 electrodes

fired into my nervous system,

and it connected my nervous system

to a robot hand.

And one of the experiments that we were doing

was in New York, in Columbia University,

with my nervous system

plugged into the Internet,

and the robot hand, here in England, in Reading.

So as I opened and closed my hand in New York,

the robot hand in England opened and closed.

So it extended my nervous system across the Internet.

NARRATOR: Although computers can still easily outperform humans

at most tasks, they pale when compared to the complexity

and sophistication of the central nervous system.

In 2013, the Japanese technology company Fujitsu

tried to simulate the network of neurons in the brain

using one of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet.

Although it was equipped

with 83,000 of the fastest computer processors available,

it took over 40 minutes

to simulate just one second of one percent

of a human brain's activity.

50 years ago, we made a huge mistake,

thinking that the brain was a digital computer.

But it's not.

The brain is a learning machine.

It rewires itself after learning every task.

Babies have the ability to learn from their mistakes.

They simply bump into things and learn the rules of the world

by interacting with the world.

And so that's what we need.

We need a computer that can do that.

Quantum computers may eventually fill that gap.

NARRATOR: Unlike today's computers that rely on bits--

a binary series of zeros and ones--

for data and processing,

quantum computers use quantum bits-- or qubits--

which can use zeros and ones at the same time.

This allows them to perform

millions of calculations simultaneously,

much in the same way as does the human brain.

KAKU: Robots, we forget, are machines.

They don't really think.

They don't have silicon consciousness.

They're not aware of who they are and their surroundings.

But, let's face it, it's only a matter of time

before they do get some sort of self-awareness.

NARRATOR: Self-awareness?

Is it really possible that machines

will become sentient entities,

fully conscious of themselves and their surroundings?

We can envision a time in the future

when robots will be as smart as a mouse,

then a rat,

then a rabbit, a cat, a dog,

and finally, as smart as a monkey.

Robots do not know they are robots.

I think that perhaps by the end of this century,

robots will begin to realize:

"Hey, I'm different.

I'm different from my master."

As humans,

we have evolved very little

since the time of the Egyptians.

WHITEHEAD: In the ancient Egyptian,

the word "technology" comes from the word "tek,"

and the word means two things:

it means to hide or to conceal,

and it means to replicate.

So if you can hide something and you can replicate,

you had the keys of power.

There's a theory

that it was advanced extraterrestrial civilizations

that may have seeded life on this planet,

and in the process left a signature in our very genome,

a sort of mathematical signature,

and essentially turned us into cyborgs,

integrating man and machine.

Is that why today, in the 21st century,

we're doing the exact same thing?

NARRATOR: San Francisco, California.

March 27, 2017.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk,

one of the driving forces behind the Tesla automobile and SpaceX,

announces his next venture: Neuralink.

The company is focused exclusively

on merging humans with electronics

by creating what Musk refers to as a "neural lace"--

a device that would be injected into the jugular vein,

from where it would travel to the brain

and unfold into a mesh of electric connections

that connect directly to human neurons.

NICK BOSTROM: The idea is to develop

improved brain-computer interfaces

to increase the bandwidth

with which the biological brain can interact

and communicate with computers, external computers.

The neural lace will be down at the, uh...

almost to the neuron level in the brain.

It will be a mesh that will join and link

right into brain matter.

And then you will be connected to a computer.

And you are essentially a cyborg.

NARRATOR: A cyborg?

A biological blending of both man and machine?

The stuff of science fiction dreams

and nightmares?

Why not merge with computers rather than compete with them?

Because in some sense, it's a losing game.

Nothing's gonna prevent them

from becoming smarter and smarter.

And eventually, they'll be able to plan and create

robots of their own.

Why not take advantage of their superhuman capabilities?

Although Elon Musk has been a prominent voice

in warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence

advancing beyond our ability to control it,

he believes that, if developed correctly,

humans could harness the power of advanced computer technology

to truly become superhuman.

But while Neuralink technology

is still in an embryonic stage,

there are many who insist that the merging of man and machine

is not just a remote possibility.

As far as they're concerned, it has been happening--

in one form or another-- for decades.

In 2002, Professor Kevin Warwick

took his own neural implants

beyond simply controlling a prosthetic hand,

to connecting directly with another human being.

What I had was a set of electrodes,

100 electrodes, which is called a "brain gate."

It's an array of 100 electrodes

fired into my nervous system

to link my nervous system with the computer.

Now, my wife also had electrodes

pushed into her nervous system,

and what we did, essentially,

was to link our nervous systems together,

for communication purposes.

So when she closed her hand,

my brain received a pulse every time.

So when she went tick, tick, tick,

my brain got three electrical pulses.

So we've actually linked two human nervous systems together.

And to think what that will mean in the future.

Oh, wow.

NARRATOR: Instead of speaking sending texts or e-mails,

could we soon be communicating with each other telepathically?

As far as futurists

and many ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

it is only a matter of time before cybernetic technology

will open up a world of limitless possibilities.

It will enable us to order a package by thinking about it,

stream music directly into our brains,

or search the Internet

by simply imagining anything we want to find.

KAKU: We are headed for a new form

of immortality: digital immortality.

If you digitize our consciousness,

digitize everything known about us,

then perhaps the soul is information.

In which case, the soul and information

could be separate from the body.

And even when the body dies,

your essence, your soul, your memory, lives on forever.

NARRATOR: Are human beings really on the verge

of replacing their bodies and minds, piece by piece,

as they transition into becoming machines?

Some ancient astronaut theorists suggest that this is, in fact,

not an evolution based on choice, but on destiny.

And that the evidence can be found by examining our own DNA.

V'Ger.

NARRATOR: In 1979,

Paramount Pictures premiered

Star Trek: The Motion Picture,

the first in a series of highly successful films based

on the popular television series of the 1960s.

Voyager is not transmitting its data, Captain.

NARRATOR: The plot concerned the return to Earth

of an early NASA space probe, the Voyager 6,

after a journey of millions of miles and hundreds of years.

V'Ger must evolve.

Its knowledge has reached the limits of this universe

and it must evolve.

What more is there than the universe, Spock?

Other dimensions, higher levels of being.

What V'Ger needs in order to evolve is a human quality.

NARRATOR: The probe, now called "V'Ger,"

has developed consciousness,

and wishes to physically connect with its maker, man.

Decker.

I'm gonna key the final sequence

through the ground test computer.

Decker, don't.

Jim, I want this.

NARRATOR: But what seemed

like an audacious sci-fi premise in 1979,

seems less far-fetched just four decades later.

The marriage of man and machine is not only plausible,

it's happening more and more every day...

...with regard to personal computers, iPads,

cellular phones, and even implants

that provide data on everything

from an individual's vital signs to their location,

diet and even their recreational behavior.

DIAMANDIS: We are going to merge

with the machines that we are creating.

These technologies are gonna improve our abilities

to make our grandest dreams come true.

And, uh, this is the future we're heading towards.

We're again heading from evolution

by natural selection, Darwinism,

to evolution by human direction.

And this is the next few decades.

It's our near-term future.

NARRATOR: Almaty, Kazakhstan.

May, 2013.

Mathematician, Vladimir Shcherbak,

and astrobiologist, Maxim Makukov,

publish a study they have conducted on the human genome.

Their research has led them to the shocking conclusion

that there is a hidden code within our DNA,

one that contains precise mathematical patterns

and an unknown symbolic language.

They looked into the human genome

and they found what appeared to be

an extraterrestrial stamp on our genetic code.

And it operated very much like a mathematical type of code.

The odds of this sequence occurring nine times

in the randomness of our genetic code

is one in ten trillion.

Finally, someone has come across

the one piece of evidence

that I've always said we need

in order to prove the ancient astronaut theory.

I always said it'll never be a crashed spaceship

or a ray gun that we'll dig somewhere in the sand,

but it will be found within our own DNA.

NARRATOR: For ancient astronaut theorists,

the news offered compelling evidence that mankind's DNA

was deliberately manipulated by an extraterrestrial intelligence

sometime in the ancient past.

The ancient astronaut theory suggests

that at some point extraterrestrials targeted

our DNA with an artificial mutation of our genes.

And if this is true, then some have argued

that we are, in a sense, organic robots.

Because, through that manipulation of our genes,

we were given intelligence.

So it was done artificially,

which means A.I., artificial intelligence.

NARRATOR: Organic robots,

programmed by extraterrestrials?

Could such an audacious concept even be remotely true?

As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

not only is the answer yes,

but it provides the reason why humans have such

a strong affinity to not only create

cybernetically-enhanced versions of themselves,

but to merge with them.

WHITEHEAD: So, could this be evidence that,

just as these advanced extraterrestrial civilizations

may have programmed us humans at a genetic level,

that now we're actually programming

these artificially intelligent robotic beings

in the same manner, to carry on this agenda

that was started long ago

by the seeding of this planet

from these extraterrestrial civilizations?

NARRATOR: Is it possible that mankind's evolution

has not only been the product of natural selection,

but has also been programmed into us,

leading towards a future

where we will transition into humanoid machines?

Many experts agree

that any intelligent species in the universe

would necessarily become post-biological to survive,

evolve, and travel throughout the cosmos.

I think when we finally do encounter

intelligent civilizations in space--

and I think it's inevitable that we will--

we should expect them to be different.

That is, they could be part biological,

and part cybernetic and mechanical,

because of the fact that they are a spacefaring civilization.

In which case, they have to adapt to different environments,

where the atmosphere is poisonous,

where the gravitational pull is much stronger than on the Earth.

They have to adjust to all sorts of different conditions,

meaning that they may have enhanced themselves.

If transhumanist technologists are successful,

the cloud, the Internet,

will soon be populated by avatars and light beings

who are super intelligent beings.

And, what's incredible about this is that this,

in a way, matches what ancient astronaut theorists

have been saying about ancient extraterrestrials,

and how they might have transferred knowledge to humans.

We have stories in the Egyptian myths, for example,

of light beings coming to Earth

and creating a whole civilization

and transferring technology to us.

Maybe they, too, were utilizing some kind

of artificial intelligence technology,

or this mind transfer technology

that we're in the process of creating now.

NARRATOR: Could it be that human beings

are compelled to make robots

that are more and more like themselves,

not simply because they have a desire to play God,

and create intelligent beings in their own image,

but because it is their destiny?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and insist further clues can be found

by examining the latest technologies being developed

by humans as they prepare

for the next phase of their evolution in space.

NARRATOR: Pasadena, California.

June 21, 2017.

Engineers Steve Chien and Kiri Wagstaff

of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

publish their framework for the future of deep-space travel

in Science Robotics magazine.

Chien and Wagstaff theorize that, as astronauts travel

to Mars and beyond, they will eventually

be replaced by robots,

synthetic humans capable of making autonomous decisions

by means of artificial intelligence.

Space is a really unfriendly environment for humans.

It's got nasty radiation and we don't perform well in a vacuum.

Again, machines are perfectly happy in that environment.

They can be completely unaffected by it.

They need shielding, obviously,

to protect their electronic circuits.

So it's much easier for a machine

to explore another planet, another solar system,

than it is for a human, and much cheaper.

So it seems to me that the future of space exploration

is with the machines rather than with us.

DIAMANDIS: When we think about exploring space at scale,

it's not gonna be humans,

at least not humans in this form.

We're gonna be sending out A.I.s that are as intelligent

or intelligent, or more intelligent than us

that don't have the issues of acceleration,

that can accelerate at, you know, 10Gs acceleration

out of the solar system continuous.

It would be incredibly useful

to have an intelligent system out there,

say, at Alpha Centauri,

since, to send a signal back to Earth,

and receive an answer, would take an eight-year round trip.

So why not get the A.I. out there

to make the decisions and to do some scientific work?

NARRATOR: A.I.-led missions to Mars--

and even Alpha Centauri--

could become a reality in the very near future.

NASA has been actively testing this technology since 1998,

beginning with Deep Space 1,

when a probe was sent to the asteroid belt

located between Mars and Jupiter.

Using a system called AutoNav,

the craft took multiple photos of asteroids

and even navigated its course without human guidance.

ROFF: When you look at the Mars Rover for instance,

it's an autonomous land robot that goes around Mars,

and, you know, it picks up samples,

beams back information, and so that's an autonomous system

that we have deployed in space right now.

And I'd say that as our

artificial intelligence gets more robust

and we can deploy it on things like spacecraft,

there's nothing to preclude having an autonomous spacecraft

that would act as a ferry to outer space or to Mars.

CHILDRESS: And when we send these robots out,

and having programmed them with artificial intelligence,

we're relinquishing our own control in many ways.

And these robotic ambassadors of a sort,

they will have the ability to make their own decisions,

and to negotiate.

NARRATOR: But as humans develop smarter

and more independent robots

in order to manage the exploration of other planets,

is it possible that other alien species

could be doing the exact same thing?

Could they already be fabricating stronger

and more resilient space-friendly versions

of themselves and sending them here to Earth?

There are many in the scientific community

for whom the answer is an obvious one.

If extraterrestrial life exists elsewhere-- which, I mean,

for me, the probability is probably pretty high--

I think they'll have their own forms

of artificial intelligence.

JIM GREEN: As we move out into the solar system

and explore the heliosphere,

artificial intelligence will have to be accommodated

to make decisions to allow them to do their jobs.

That's what we as humans are doing.

So is that the same process

other intelligent species would do?

When you think about it,

it's gotta be one of the most fundamental things

that they would do first.

SCHNEIDER: So many people in the field of astrobiology

are sympathetic to what we call the post-biological cosmos view.

And according to this view,

once humans develop their technology to such a point

that they're able to turn on radios and communicate

with other civilizations,

they will already be so close

to becoming post-biological.

NARRATOR: Post-biological?

In our collective eagerness to conquer space,

are we humans sowing the seeds of our own destruction?

Or are we unconsciously

following some sort of master plan,

one where flesh and blood

will eventually fade away

to be replaced by silicon and synthetics?

But what about our mind, our memory,

our consciousness?

Could they, too, be imported

into a robot's synthetic brain?

And even if it's possible for us to exchange

our mortal shells for sturdier ones,

will we still be considered human?

As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

the answer is yes.

And they point to a number of recent experiments

which suggest that not only will it be possible

for robots to acquire human consciousness,

but it will also be possible for them to breed.

NARRATOR: Ottawa, Canada.

June 2017.

The Department of Mechanical Aerospace Engineering

at Carleton University announces the development

of technology that will revolutionize

the future of space travel.

The engineers hope to create a 3-D printer

that will one day be capable of building structures

on the Moon using only lunar minerals.

But perhaps even more groundbreaking is the fact

that it will be capable of self-replication.

As we move out and try to colonize space,

we've been developing this technology

where we could actually deliver a 3-D printer to the Moon,

and it can replicate itself

using materials it finds on the lunar surface.

Then those can keep replicating,

and two becomes four, and four becomes six, and so on.

So if we have artificial intelligence

and 3-D printing combined, we have a recipe

for amazing things.

NARRATOR: Although there are those

who remain skeptical that our ability

to develop fully functional, self-replicating machines

is still many decades away, one project

known as RepRap, which has been in development since 2005,

involves the creation of a low-cost 3-D printer

designed to make everyday household objects

and which can even fashion replacement parts for itself.

3-D printing is an absolutely incredible scientific advance.

I mean, this is Star Trek's replicator made real.

The scary thing is when you think

that these 3-D printers replicate themselves.

We're dealing, perhaps, with a technology

that is capable of exceeding its own programming.

These things design other,

better, faster, more powerful machines.

And who knows where it will end.

NARRATOR: In the 1940s,

more than two decades before man set foot on the Moon,

Hungarian scientist and genius mathematician John von Neumann

believed self-replicating machines

would allow us to venture beyond our solar system

to explore other star systems

and potentially the entire galaxy.

We have this image

that to explore the stars, you have to have

a gigantic starship-- the Enterprise--

with brave captains like Captain Kirk.

Wrong.

The most efficient way

to explore the galaxy, with so many planets,

is to send a small probe, a von Neumann probe.

A von Neumann probe is a self-replicating machine

that goes out into space

and uses matter elsewhere in the universe

to create identical copies of itself.

Start with one probe, send it

to Jupiter, say, and there on Jupiter,

it uses matter on Jupiter to create

basically the next generation of itself.

And then that probe goes on and explores elsewhere.

And each of those probes in turn uses matter

in the location that it's at to create more and more.

So what you get is an expanding capacity

to explore the farther reaches of the universe.

NARRATOR: As far as skeptics

of ancient astronaut theory are concerned,

one of the obstacles to interplanetary space travel

is the number of years a spaceship would have to spend

getting from one place to another.

But even without the aid of warp drive or black holes,

what if extraterrestrials simply sent out

sentient androids to do their bidding?

Robots that could not only spend

hundreds if not thousands of years in space,

but who were also capable of reproducing themselves?

Instead of spaceships filled with humans,

could probes like the von Neumann probe

be the way we explore and populate the universe?

And could this also be the way

that our own planet was populated?

If it's true that advanced civilizations

from elsewhere seeded our galaxy...

...and here we are in our modern time replicating that,

could it be that we have a portion

of this extraterrestrial DNA in our own genome?

And if that's the case,

could we already be a sort of cyborg being

and doing experimentation

to look to evolve our species?

Is there some kind of grand purpose to all of this

where we're just following a sort of natural order,

something that's already happened?

And maybe it's our purpose to continue doing that.

HENRY: We have long recognized

that flesh-and-blood humans are not gonna fare well in space.

So for decades now,

space enthusiasts have been working

on the transformation of the human species

into machine-like beings or transhumans.

Then we'll create an entire clone species of robots,

ultimately uploading our consciousness into computers,

beaming that information into space,

and recreating bodies out of nothing

at some distant location in space.

The 17th century French philosopher

René Descartes also talked

about what he called the mind-body duality

and that our mind and consciousness

do not come from our body but are separate.

And therefore, the body of a man

and his mind and consciousness are two separate things.

The author Sam Butler said that humans

are self-replicating machines and that we're capable

of continuing that self-replication.

Then the brilliant computer scientist John von Neumann

said that he got his ideas from both Butler and Descartes,

which is that we should use self-replicating machines

to go to other planets and explore them.

So you have to ask yourself,

how is it that these brilliant minds

came up with the same idea hundreds of years

before we invented computers or spacecraft?

Is it possible that all these great minds

were tapping into some kind

of intellectual force?

Perhaps an extraterrestrial one?

NARRATOR: Could otherworldly beings

have instilled within us the idea

of creating robot versions of ourselves

so that one day we would realize our destiny

and join them on their journey through the stars?

Ancient astronaut theorists

believe the answer to that question

could be closer and more profound

than we think.

NARRATOR: Silicon Valley, California.

September 2015.

Anthony Levandowski, the engineer responsible

for putting the first self-driving car

on a public road,

founds the Way of the Future church,

a new religion unlike any other in history.

Adherents of this faith do not worship God

in the traditional sense.

Instead they promote the notion of a godhead

based on artificial intelligence.

Levandowski and his followers believe

that A.I. will soon be so intelligent

that we should begin to worship it

in the hopes that it will look kindly

upon its creators.

If we were to create an artificial life-form

and if it were to develop, evolve and grow...

I want to understand more about happiness.

...it could become superior to modern-day man.

This leads us to a very difficult spiritual problem.

Human beings tend to worship

that which they believe to be greater than themselves.

Many human beings might interpret this

to be some type of a coming of a god

and seek to worship it.

CHILDRESS: So, this may be analogous

to what happened when robotic extraterrestrials

first landed on the planet.

They have all of this amazing knowledge, computing power,

and to the primitive Earth beings,

they would seem as all-knowing, all-powerful,

having an answer to everything.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that what Levandowski is proposing

is exactly what our extraterrestrial ancestors did

thousands of years ago?

Did they create

not a silicon-based life-form like themselves,

but one made of flesh and blood,

capable of replication

and also vulnerable to aging and disease?

If so, does this mean that we are on the threshold

of the next phase in human evolution,

one where we become transhuman?

I think by the end of the century,

we'll be able to digitize our consciousness.

Everything known about us-- our personality,

our memories, emotions, our neural pathways--

will be digitized. And what do we do with it?

I say we put our consciousness

on a laser beam and shoot it to the stars.

In one second, your consciousness

is now shot to the Moon,

where it's downloaded into a mainframe computer

and then put into a mechanical avatar.

I call this laser porting.

And I think that laser porting may already exist.

There could be billions of souls

laser porting themselves across the galaxy.

HENRY: If transhumanist technologists are successful,

we'll soon be uploading

the contents of our brains into the cloud.

What's so amazing about this

is that this is a virtual fulfillment

of Christian prophecy that tells at the end times,

Christ will himself return on the cloud

and that believers will be given new bodies

into which their souls will be transferred.

And then they will be able to ascend into the heavens

with Jesus through the cloud.

So here we have this incredible parallel going on

where technologists are creating

a technological version of the cloud

that perfectly corresponds to what Christian prophecy

says is gonna happen at the time of the second coming.

WHITEHEAD: We know now

that there may have even been a genetic marker put into us

to actually guide us in this direction.

Does that mean our natural destiny as a species

was actually programmed by these advanced beings?

Are we just copying what these extraterrestrial visitors

had done eons ago?

TSOUKALOS: At some point we're going to wake up and realize

that this technology we're creating

may have already existed in the ancient world

and that it was possessed by extraterrestrial beings.

And wherever this technology takes us,

maybe it was always part of a bigger plan

that ultimately takes us back to our origins up in the stars.

NARRATOR: As human civilization

prepares for the next phase of its evolution,

will what we think of as human beings become extinct?

Ancient astronaut theorists say no

because they argue being human is more

than being made of flesh and blood.

It's the realization

that it is our thoughts,

our ideas, and especially our feelings

that make humans unique

not only from each other,

but from all the living creatures in the universe.

It is also this realization

that should both reassure and motivate us

as we fulfill humankind's ultimate destiny

by becoming the next generation of extraterrestrials

in the exploration of distant, alien worlds.

Colored & Hearing Improved By SidBrothers_3