All language subtitles for Through.the.Wormhole.S07E04.Can.We.All.Become.Geniuses.720p.HDTV.x264-DHD

It lies
Somewhere in the human mind.

It brings mathematical insight,

Sparks artistic inspiration.

It's the gift
To see what others can't.

But is genius
Only for a rare few...

Or do we all have
Untapped potential?

Now neuroscience
Is beginning to unleash

Our mind's hidden powers,

Engineering "Eureka" moments

And augmenting biology
With technology

To unlock the genius
Inside us all.

Space, time, life itself.

The secrets of the cosmos
Lie through the wormhole.

Genius.

Music has stevie wonder.

Physics -- einstein.

Literature -- emily dickinson.

Every generation is blessed

With men and women
Who have exceptional minds.

Genius has many facets,

From remarkable memory
To inspiration

To invention.

But what about you?

As neuroscientists uncover
The secrets of our brains,

They're beginning to unlock

The hidden talents
In every one of us.

We may not all start
With einstein's mind,

But why can't we all
Become geniuses?

Jason padgett
Is a mathematical phenomenon,

But he wasn't born this way.

But one night in his early 30s,

Jason's life and mind
Were completely changed.

I heard, almost more than felt,

This deep thud,

And saw what was just like
A bright puff of white light.

And the next thing I knew,
I was on my knees,

Just getting punched and kicked
From every direction.

Before the mugging,

Jason was a furniture salesman,
A college dropout.

He had no interest in math.

I absolutely hated math.

I really believed
It didn't apply to anything

And there was no use for it.

But the injuries
To jason's brain

Somehow unlocked

A new and exceptional way
Of looking at the world.

Everything
That was curved before

Looks like it has little edges.

So all the smoothness
Of everything is gone.

No matter what shape
I looked at,

I could cut it into a certain
Number of triangles

To make that shape.

But I never
Had noticed it before.

I just made me realize

That this connection
With triangles and shapes

Was everywhere,

Which then just seemed obvious
That it was mathematical.

Now whenever jason
Looks at mathematical equations,

His mind
Immediately transforms them

Into complex geometric shapes.

His mind imposes the same
Geometry on the natural world

Wherever he sees patterns.

Sometimes it almost
Feels like a little superpower.

I see the world
As pure geometry.

This one-time underachiever

Now studies
Advanced number theory

And makes award-winning drawings

Of complex
Mathematical concepts.

But what exactly changed
In his brain

To turn jason
Into a mathematical genius?

And could we engineer the same
Changes in our own brains?

That's what university of miami
Neuroscientist berit brogaard

Wanted to find out.

Berit scanned jason's brain

While he reviewed
A sequence of equations.

She found that his brain had
Rewired itself after his injury.

Most people use both hemispheres
To process mathematics,

But jason's brain relies on
Newly formed neural circuits

Exclusively
In his left hemisphere.

Those areas
Of his brain were so damaged

That they triggered
Extra connectivity

In other areas of his brain

And allowing those areas
To communicate

In ways that were not
Possible before.

Berit believes

These unusual patterns
Of brain activity

Triggered jason's
Geometrical vision.

It's a form of a condition
Called synesthesia.

There are different forms
Of synesthesia.

Someone with color synesthesia

Might sense numbers
As patches of different colors.

A person with smell synesthesia
Might hear music

And smell the scent
Of fresh-brewed coffee.

Jason's synesthesia

Combines mathematics
With his sense of sight.

So when he sees anything,

He instantly sees
Its underlying geometry.

It's as if he has x-ray vision,

Revealing the mathematics
That underpins the entire world.

Synesthesia often enhances
Your cognitive abilities.

Synesthesia is sort of a key

To unlock unconscious
Or dormant areas of the brain.

Berit thinks
We all have the potential

To unlock these abilities
Without a blow to the head.

She's finding promising results

In a psychedelic drug
Called psilocybin.

It's the ingredient
In magic mushrooms

That makes them magical.

But when we use it
In experiments,

We use it in a pure form
Where it's isolated,

So we can control the amount
That we give to subjects.

Psilocybin
Supercharges the brain

To handle
More sensory information.

The result is
A synesthesia-like experience

Where test subjects perceive

An explosion
Of patterns and colors

Triggered by senses
Other than sight.

Synesthesia
That is typically induced

Is sound to color synesthesia.

So people hear colors,
In some sense.

But the mechanism
Underlying that

May be similar to the mechanism
Underlying jason's synesthesia.

If researchers like berit

Can develop legal versions
Of drugs like psilocybin,

Many more of us
Might soon discover

We have exceptional
Mental abilities.

In principle,

We could all become geniuses
By rewiring our brains.

Of course,
The trick is how to do that.

You should definitely not go out
And hit yourself in the head.

A blow to the head, or a drug,

Can transform your mind.

But is there a way
To nurture synesthesia

And the inspiration
It can bring?

Albert einstein
Had a passion for music.

He described
His biggest stroke of genius,

The theory of relativity,
As a musical perception.

Neuroscientist and music teacher
Dr. Martin gardiner

Thinks music is the key

To getting kids
On the path towards genius.

Music provides
A fantastic opportunity

To strengthen your mind.

It's one of the most marvelous
Inventions of humanity.

Are you ready?
Here we go.

In decades of research,

Martin followed children's
Academic achievements

As they grew from age 7 to 35.

He found that the strongest
Predictor of academic success

Is whether a student
Receives musical training

At an early age.

All right, I have a new song
For you, boys and girls.

-yay!
-are you ready?

Listening ears --
It goes like this.

Martin believes one
Specific musical teaching system

Hits all the right
Neurological notes.

It's called the kodály method.

It teaches children
To think of music

As a three-dimensional space,

One they can physically explore.

You could call this an
Artificial form of synesthesia,

Transforming sound
Into geometry.

All right,
So when you get your bag,

You're to lay out your hearts
In your work space.

In another exercise,

Students spell out
The rhythm of a song,

Exercising parts of the brain
Normally used in language.

So, I'm gonna clap
The pattern for you.

You're gonna clap it back.

Kids taught
With the kodály method

Usually outperform their peers
In math and reading skills

Later in life.

There's a lot
Of integration going on,

And I think that's
The most central thing

That music helps us develop,

Is how to apply
This kind of integration.

When you play music,

Your brain is doing
Many things at once.

You read notes on the page,

Use your muscles to play them,

Listen to their sound
Reverberating,

And keep a perfect sense
Of timing.

To perform all these functions
At once,

Your brain needs
A good conductor.

The prefrontal cortex

Stops various parts of the brain
From stepping on one another,

Turning discord
Into a harmonious symphony.

The more these children
Learn to blend

Music, geometry, and language,

The stronger their
Prefrontal cortexes grow...

...And the closer
They get to genius.

Music helps build
Some kind of a bridge

That allows you to begin to use
These kinds of highest areas.

Very good.

Music helps
Many areas of our brain

Work together
In a symphony of creativity.

But you can't write a symphony

Unless you have the inspiration
For that first musical phrase.

Where do eureka moments
Come from?

Do we have to sit around
And wait for them,

Or can we make them happen
On cue?

Eureka!

It's an ancient greek word
Meaning "I've found it."

It's connection to genius
Started

With the inventor archimedes,

Who supposedly shouted it

After finding the solution
To a problem

While sitting in a bathtub.

Inspiration often strikes
At odd moments.

Philo t. Farnsworth
Dreamed up the idea of tv

While plowing a potato field.

Einstein dreamed up relativity
Riding on a train.

Do certain environments
Help trigger breakthrough ideas?

And if we knew the answer
To that,

Could we create places where
Genius could strike any of us?

Cognitive research scientist
John kounios

Wants each and every one of us
To have a eureka moment.

In 1943, richard james

Was an engineer
Aboard a u.S. Navy ship.

He was installing
Some instruments with springs.

One of those springs got loose
And started bouncing around,

As if it had a life of its own.

In that instant,
James had an aha moment.

He realized that that spring
Could be the basis of a toy.

People in all walks of life
Have aha moments.

They're sudden insights
That confer a new perspective,

A new way of looking at things.

For 15 years,
John and his colleagues

Have been studying
These sudden genius insights,

Trying to find
Exactly what triggers them.

But how do you study
Aha moments?

Especially because they can
Happen anytime, anywhere...

Getting coffee...

Taking a walk...

Even eating lunch.

We started
At the very moment of insight,

When an idea
Pops into awareness,

And we traced it backwards
In time...

...To reveal
All of the brain processes

That led up to that very moment.

You can have a seat here.

Before he can rewind a mind,

John captures moments of insight

By using a challenging
Word association game.

While tracking brain activity
With an eeg,

He shows subjects three words

And gives them 15 seconds

To say another word
They have in common.

Give it a try.

Can you find the common word?

Sun?

How about this one?

Fire.

After each answer,

The subject presses a button

To indicate whether
They got their answer

From methodical analysis

Or from a sudden moment
Of insight.

Sign?

The results show

That answers
Based on a eureka moment

Are about 15% more accurate than
Those from methodical analysis.

And the brain scans
Allow john to pinpoint

Where these aha moments
Originated.

While analysis lights up
The left side of the brain

In the visual cortex,

Eurekas come
From the right side,

In the right temporal lobe.

At the moment of insight,

There's a burst
Of what are called gamma waves.

These are fast brain waves,
About 40 per second,

And that reflects the new idea

Or the solution popping
Into awareness.

Now that john has mapped

What a mental breakthrough
Looks like,

He wants to find out if certain
Environments can foster them.

So, before he starts
The word game,

Some subjects
Watch a comedy show...

he makes the other crazy people
look not crazy.

aah!

...While others watch
A scary movie.

can't work out why
someone who's all superficial

gets more popular
when you mix...

The comedic subjects not only
Got more right answers,

But they also had
A moment of insight more often

Than the people who were scared.

Mood plays a very large role

In whether you're open
To aha moments,

Or you're thinking
In analytical fashion.

When you have a sense of threat,

The scope of your attention
Narrows to what that threat is.

aah!

When you're feeling happy,

That means you're feeling safe,
That there's no threat,

And that gives the person
A sense of freedom

To explore long-shot ideas,

Which is the stuff
Of creativity.

he's like the school kid

who claims he knows karate
but won't show you any moves.

Inspiration needs
The right state of mind.

You can't force aha moments.

They're like cats.

You can coax them,
But you can't command them.

But you can create conditions

That make aha moments possible
Or more likely.

In fact, john's research

Has discovered several
Other eureka dos and don'ts.

A room painted blue or green
Is inspirational.

But the brain sees a red room
As a threat

And narrows its thinking.

A russian river and puppies
Are good for eureka.

But loud sounds, being nagged,

And deadlines
Are inspiration killers.

Anyone can have an aha moment.

It's part of what distinguishes
Human beings

As creative thinkers.

The trick is to create
The right circumstances,

The right environment
To maximize them.

It's too bad we live

In a noisy,
Distraction-filled world.

But one scientist
Has found a way

To turn noise to our advantage.

Not to distract us...
-are you ready?

...But to move our brains
Closer to genius.

The great piano virtuoso
Glenn gould had

Many strange habits.

For one, he always hummed
When he played.

And when he studied music,

He did so to the accompaniment
Of several tvs and radios

All blaring at full volume.

It was an eccentric technique,

But gould may have been
On to something.

There is new evidence
That noise,

Instead of overwhelming
Or distracting us,

Might actually take us
A step closer to genius.

To most of us,
Noise is a nuisance,

Something we try to escape.

But not neuroscientist
Roi cohen kadosh.

In our everyday life, there is
Sometimes a lot of noise

Like here
At the construction site,

But the noise
That I'm using is

Quite different than the noise
That you hear here.

So why we won't we go
To somewhere quieter

Where I can explain to you?

At his lab
At the university of oxford,

Roi is injecting noise
Directly into human brains

To try to make people smarter.

Noise can be distracting,

But when we use

The certain level
Of white noise,

It can actually
Really improve cognitive

And learning capacities.

White noise --

Rivers naturally produce it.

It helps people sleep.

We even have apps for it.

Roi theorizes
That a very specific kind

Of white noise can
Actually supercharge

Our cognitive abilities.

It's based
On very complicated ideas

That is called
Stochastic resonance.

When you add just
The right amount of white noise

To a very weak signal,

Some of the frequencies
In the white noise match

Those in the signal

And resonate with them,
Boosting the signal.

This stochastic resonance
Can work

With any type of noise
In sound or vision.

So you have a picture here,

But you really cannot
Detect reliably,

"What is it in this picture?"

Can you make out what this is?

If you're going
To add white noise

At a certain level,
You're going to see

That it is the big ben.

Now if you're going to add
Too much noise to that,

It's not going to be
Any more beneficial.

So, the noise needs to be
At a certain level.

Too much noise
Or too little noise --

Not going to improve
Your ability.

Neuroscientists have
Shown that individual neurons

Use stochastic resonance
To boost weak signals.

So, roi decided to try it out
On a whole mind

By adding electrical noise
To his subjects' brains.

Hello, michael.
Please, take a seat.

Roi designed a test
That delivers

A targeted burst
Of electrical noise

To a specific area
Of a subject's brain,

The dorsolateral
Prefrontal cortex.

This region plays a key role
In problem solving

And is also heavily connected
To other parts of the brain.

The idea behind it is
That adding noise

Will increase firing
Of brain cells

And therefore will lead
To changes in their brain cells.

-are you ready?
-I'm ready, yeah.

Okay. Great.

For 30 minutes,
The subject plays

A specially designed video game
Where the player solves

A series of cognitive challenges
In a robot factory.

While this is happening,

Through two electrodes
On the scalp,

The device floods the brain --
Painlessly --

With electrical white noise.

A separate control group
Also plays the same game

Wearing the same cap
But with no stimulation.

Once it's finished,

We repeat this procedure
Multiple days,

And eventually we assess

How much did they change
In their abilities.

We found that they learn faster
And better compared

To those who receive
Placebo stimulation.

Roi believes
The white noise stimulates

All the electrical systems
Across the brain

And wakes them up.

The supercharged brains
Improved in both the short

And long term.

Half a year later,

When roi tested
The subjects again,

He discovered the mental
Improvements were still there.

This breakthrough technique
Could also push us

One step closer to genius.

Imagine one day being able

To supercharge
Any part of your brain...

And become a genius
At any task.

The idea in the past was
That we are born,

And we're going
To be genius or not.

But now we know
That our brain is more plastic.

We can change it.

Where can it go?
It's a $1 million question.

We're already beginning
To use technology

To supercharge
Our neural pathways.

But there's another way
We might unleash

The hidden genius in our minds,

If we dare.

We could tinker
With our brain's basic biology.

To solve any problem,
You have to get from "A" to "B."

The trouble is, in real life,

There are so many paths
To choose from,

And most of them
Lead to dead ends.

Only a genius can remember
Every single turn

That led to a blind alley

And which moved them
Toward their goal.

But what if we could engineer
Our brains to remember far more?

We'd have perspective
To see the bigger picture

And see the path to genius.

John georgiou, a neuroscience
Researcher in toronto,

Believes memory is vital
To everything we do.

Without memories,
We can't do

Many of the basic functions,

Such as finding our way to work,

Recognizing familiar people,

Learning to do tasks.

Without memories and learning,

We're essentially unable
To function in daily life.

But john also believes
We have the power

To make our memories better
Through genetic engineering.

We have systematically tried
To manipulate the genes

That we feel are important
In learning and memory.

In theory,
We can all become genius

If we were to make modifications

In the way our brain works.

To understand
And improve human memory,

John starts small with mice.

What we're trying to do here

Is to measure the learning

And memory
Performance of the mice.

So, what we do is
We take a mouse,

And we place it in a round,
Cylindrical pool of water.

And the mouse has
To find its way

To a submerged, hidden platform.

The mouse in john's test
Cannot see the platform

Because a non-toxic paint
Has been added to the water.

The mouse's only means
Of orienting itself

Are visual cues hung
On the walls.

Overhead, a camera tracks

The path the mouse takes,

Recording time, distance,
And the path traveled.

On the first trial,
The mouse will take

Anywhere from 60 to 90 seconds

To find the location
Of the escape platform

Because it's, essentially,
A random process.

But then, with each
Repeated trial,

They get better at it.

The more times
The mice swim the maze,

The better they remember
The location

Of the hidden platform.

But john wanted to speed up
Their learning process.

He wanted to enhance
The mice's memory

So they would remember
After only one try.

The key for john
Was targeting the hippocampus,

A part of the brain crucial
To memory formation.

As memories form,
Neurons send electrical

And chemical signals
Back and forth

Until an enzyme called pde4b
Shuts down

The signal between the neurons.

No more communication means
The window closes

For building bigger,
Richer memories

And the mouse can only focus

On the water
In front of its nose.

So, john created a mutation

In the gene for pde4b.

The pde4b mutant mice
That we created have a mutation

That impairs the function
Of the enzyme,

Which results
In neurons being able

To communicate with each other
For extended period of time

And presumably this is
What allows the mice

To be better
At encoding memories

And recalling memories.

The result was exactly
What he expected.

Where the non-mutant mice
Take up to 90 seconds

To solve the maze,

The mutant mice complete it
In less than 30.

The mutant mice were able

To perform this task
A lot better.

They were faster
And remembered the location

Of the escape platform
Much better.

The mutant pde4b enzyme
Allows more time

For the mice
To build stronger memories.

The mice get smarter.

But mice aren't the only ones

That can have their brains
Pushed past normal levels.

Human brains also use
The pde4b enzyme.

If we were to mutate
The pde4b gene in humans,

It's possible that the same
Effect could be recreated.

We believe that, yes,
We can potentially improve

Cognitive function in humans.

A stronger memory wouldn't

Just help us remember details
Like directions.

It could give us a larger
Window of experience,

Leading to the kind
Of visionary genius

That people like steve jobs
Or jackson pollock had,

The ability to step back
From the small details

And see the big picture.

The road to this type
Of visionary genius may come

From directly tinkering
With the biology of our brain.

We are, indeed,
Getting closer to unlocking

The key to genius inside of us.

Will it be possible to take
A pill and become genius?

Theoretically, it is possible.

Human brains have evolved
Over millions of years.

We may soon be able to leap

Far beyond
Our evolutionary limits.

But should we make that leap?

Or is there a reason
We're not all geniuses?

Bigger, faster, smarter --

Almost daily,
Science seems to promise

A new kind
Of supercharged mind.

Diets promise
A burst of intelligence.

Drugs promise
To boost attention or memory.

But if we do pop that pill,

What might the consequences be?

Instead of being a blessing,

Could genius be a curse?

In warwick, england, psychology
Professor thomas hills has come

To the conclusion
That genius is overrated.

His local pub is
The perfect place

To demonstrate this.

It's a complicated context --

An environment that requires you
To be able to choose beers,

To be able to talk
With different people.

It's a challenging situation,

And minds like ours are adapted
For this kind of thing.

We tend to think
Supercharged brains could

Only make us better.

They'll help us deal
With life's complex problems.

But thomas disagrees.

His reason -- evolution.

So, there's this idea
That more is better, right?

More memory, more focus,
More self-control,

More willpower --

But you have to realize

That evolution's been
Sort of selecting

For our minds
For millions of years.

And if those things
Were just good,

Why wouldn't we have minds
Like that already?

Looking at the human mind

Through the lens
Of evolution explains

Why most of us aren't geniuses.

In a complex
And ever-changing environment,

Our minds don't need
To be exceptional.

They need to find
The right balance

Between accuracy and speed.

So, evolution has
To pay attention

To both how quickly we want
To be able to do things

As well as how accurately

We want to be able
To do things.

And a dart game is
A good analogy

For this kind of problem.

You can see, first, I'm trying
To be fairly accurate.

But as I increase my speed,

I start to lose that accuracy.

So, this represents that balance

Between being focused
And taking your time

And being too fast
And throwing too many things,

Maybe in the wrong directions.

Our brains have been
Guided by evolution

To be pretty good
At many things,

Not geniuses at one thing.

Our mental limits
In any one area

Are all too apparent.

Take our memories.

Hey, everybody.

-hi.
-hi.

Want to play a pub game?

-yeah. Yeah.
-yeah.

All right,
So, in this game,

I'm gonna give you a category,
And you say all the items

From that category
You can think of.

Thomas is giving
What's called

A semantic fluency test
To some of his students.

It measures verbal memory.

Jay, your category
Is occupations.

Go.
-doctor, lawyer, barman,

Cleaner, plumber,
Electrician...

Clinicians use this test

To measure brain health.

...Extra, actor...

Everyone has 60 seconds.

...Window cleaner...

But most start
To stumble a lot earlier.

...Jar filler.

Um...

We may know
Hundreds of professions,

But most people can only recall
About 10 to 20 in a minute.

Not all of our memory is
Instantly available.

I saw the jars on the --

But what if it was?

Polar bear,
Mouse, lion...

What if every animal
You ever learned was

Right there
At the tip of your tongue?

...Tiger, horse, snake,
Alligator, dog, squirrel...

Let's suppose you had
A perfect memory.

Do you want to remember

Every blade of grass
You've ever seen?

Do you want to remember
Every slight

You've ever experienced
In your life,

Every breakup,

Every time
You've ever stubbed your toe?

How well do you want
To remember those things?

What may seem at first

Like a superpower...

...Might quickly
Become a curse.

You could remember everything
You've ever experienced,

And that might
Make it more difficult

To learn new things, right?

In some sense, forgetting
Helps you learn new contexts

And learn new ways
To deal with new problems.

Dog, cat,
Horse, spider...

In other words,
Forgetting is

Just as important a mental skill
As remembering.

...Um...

Thomas says
It's critical to understand

That our evolved brain is
A system seeking balance,

Operating within limits in order
To survive a complex world.

Improving on what nature gave us
May seem tempting,

But the brain has taken
Millions of years to evolve.

Supercharge one area,
And you could upset the balance.

Genius like van gogh, tesla,

Or mathematician john nash
Had incredible minds

But also struggled to connect
To other people,

Understand society,

Or even experience
Deep emotions.

So, there's sort of a mythology
Around genius, right,

That it's kind of a --
Potentially a curse.

We see this in different types
Of individuals

Who've gained fame
Because they knew

A lot of different kinds
Of things.

But at the same time,
They seemed somehow trapped

In their own world,
Which presents problems

For social activities,
Like hanging out in the pub.

Thomas believes

We should celebrate
Our limitations.

What we call genius might be

A mind that's overdeveloped
In one area

And deficient in another.

So, having a super mind is
An interesting kind of question.

As soon as you start to unpack
What "Super mind" means,

You start to realize maybe it's
Not such a good idea after all.

But their might be
A way to break through

Our mental limitations

Without paying the social
And emotional price.

Technology may soon
Artificially expand the brain,

Link all of our minds together,

And show us the path
To true genius.

One of my favorite memories is

The taste of my grandmother's
Iced tea.

But how many memories
Are now beyond retrieval?

My classmates' names,
Books I read,

Movies I saw decades ago.

The human brain can't --

Shouldn't fit
All of life's experiences.

But perhaps there's a way
To beat our evolutionary limits.

Imagine off-loading
Most of our memories,

Accessing them only when needed.

And why stop there?

You could have all
Of mankind's knowledge on tap.

Our collective minds
Could make us all geniuses.

Dr. Ted berger is
A biomedical engineer

Who's trying to push
The brain past its limits.

We very often in science
Pay attention

To how brains break down,

But we don't often pay attention

To how we can accelerate
Brain function,

How we can make brain function
Above normal.

His lab at the university
Of southern california

Is developing a way
To load digital memories

Into our biological brains.

His first hope is
To help repair brains

That have trouble
Retaining memories.

But his research
May give us all a way

To become
Digitally-enhanced geniuses.

Ted's first step was

To understand
How the brain stores memories.

This storage
Facility could represent

The process
By which short-term memories

Become long-term memories.

When the brain receives
New information,

It comes first
To short-term memory,

Like when a building receives

A package on its loading dock.

A part of the brain
Called the hippocampus

Then scans
And categorizes the item,

Like this memory of ted
And his daughter,

So it can be sent
To long-term storage.

What the hippocampus does is

To pick up
These short-term memories

And move them
From the loading dock

To the right floor

And the right location.

But if the hippocampus
Doesn't do its job right,

This memory-storage system
Can go haywire.

Memories can be misfiled
Or not created at all.

If the hippocampus
Were malfunctioning,

Then the new information
That's on the loading dock

May not get delivered
To the right location.

It might even go
In the right door

But not all of the memory
Made it to the door.

Ted is trying to work out

How the hippocampus
Actually stores memories

So he can hack into
The system electronically.

When there's a memory
That's generated by the brain,

It involves literally hundreds
If not thousands of cells.

And each cell generates
A series of pulses.

So, we're actually
Seeing the memory codes

That are generated
By this part of the brain.

With a set
Of electrodes implanted

In the hippocampus
Of volunteer patients,

Ted is beginning to decipher
How our brains turn

Short-term memories
Into coded form

So that they can be stored
As long-term memories.

We ask the patients
To look at a picture,

And we can read the code
For the picture.

And that means
That we could generate,

Ourselves, the code

And put it back into the brain.

Having cracked
The long-term memory code,

Ted can now use
A microchip to send memories

Directly into our brain's
Permanent storage.

Human trials have already begun
In patients suffering

From memory loss due to epilepsy

And for soldiers dealing
With brain trauma.

But the implications
Of ted's breakthrough

Could be
Far greater for humanity

And our quest for genius.

If we can hack into our brains'
Memory-coding system,

There's no limit
To which memories

Or whose memories
We could access.

It may be possible
To take memories

From one organism

And put them into the brain
Of another organism.

And to a certain extent,
That's been shown already.

We can imagine
Sharing those memories

In such a way
That genius evolves

Not from an individual

But from a collective
Set of memories.

Our individual,
Biologically limited brains

Could have instant access
To the collective wisdom

Of all of humanity.

Thanks to this technology,

The whole world
Can work together

And think together to solve
Our biggest problems.

Genius means more
Than just memory.

Together, as a group,

We might have
A greater genius,

A greater capability

Than we would have
As individuals.

We could really grow
The capability for genius

By collectively using
Our memories

And our creativities.

One day, we might
No longer be prisoners

To the inherited genetics

And acts of happenstance
That created our brains.

Instead, technology and medicine
Will make us masters

Of all that we want to know.

But even
The smartest minds among us

Can't know everything
That is to come.

We always need to be able
To change, to adapt.

True genius is
To never stop learning.