All language subtitles for Year.Million.S01E04.Mind.Meld.1080p.WEB-DL.DD5.1.H.264-NTb_track3_eng

NARRATOR:
Imagine deep in the future,

you and your loved ones
have carved out time

to take in a concert.

But this isn't just
your average jam session.

Let me take you
behind the scenes.

This is what's
actually happening.

You and all your fellow
concert-goers,

your brains are
hardwired together.

Still not getting it?

For the price of admission,

when all of your brains
are connected,

you can be the performer,
the audience, the orchestra,

the vibrations
in the air itself.

You hear a melody,
it sparks an emotion, a memory.

Down the rabbit hole you go.

Imagine literally teleporting
yourself to that moment in time

and actually living
the experience.

Welcome to your future,
in the hive mind.

It's the deep future.

Your body, gone.

You're all computer,
all the time.

Your brain is way more powerful

than even a billion
supercomputers.

Jobs, food, language, water,
even traditional thought,

all of humanity's
building blocks,

all that's done.

And you are immortal.

Squirming in your chair yet?

You should be.

This isn't science fiction.

Today's visionary thinkers say
it's a strong probability

that this is what your world
is going to look like.

Tonight, they'll guide you
toward that spectacular future,

and we'll see how
one family navigates it,

one invention at a time.

This is the story
of your future.

This is the road
to Year Million.

MICHAEL GRAZIANO: Human beings
are the cooperative species.

I mean, that's what made us
so successful.

There's no other
species on Earth

that can come together
in such groups,

instantly intuit what
everyone else is thinking,

and cooperate
on large-scale projects.

NARRATOR: That's right, folks,
communication is our superpower,

whether it's through
the spoken or the written word.

Ever since that
first Homo sapien

turned a primal grunt
into an actual word,

humans have used
word-based language

to make us the alpha species
on this planet.

CHUCK NICE: Communication
is going exactly

where it's been going since the
first primates started talking.

Men will say, 'I don't want
to talk about it,'

and women will say, 'Why not?'

Okay, okay, I had to do it.

I'm sorry. I just had to do it.

NARRATOR: We forgive you, Chuck,
but he does have a point.

While word-based language may be
humanity's superpower,

when communication breaks down,
it is also our kryptonite.

Let's go back to scripture.

CHARLES SOULE:
The Tower of Babel

is one of those proto myths
in human society

suggesting that there was a time

when humans all spoke
the same language.

They decided to get together

and do the most incredible thing
that they could,

which was to build
a tower so high

that it would reach
all the way to heaven.

And so they start building this
thing and it gets really tall.

But then God looks over
the edge of heaven

and says, uh, wait a minute,

this is not what I want
to have happen.

And so he does something clever,
because he is, he is God.

And he, he makes it so that
none of those people

who are building
the tower together

speak the same language anymore.

And so the minute
they stop being able

to speak the same language,

they can't work
together anymore.

And so the Tower of Babel falls

and, and never is able
to be built again.

I think it's such
a brilliant explanation

of the way that
human beings think.

If you could just,
could talk to somebody

and make sure that you were
understood in a clear way,

I think we'd be able
to work together

in a really beautiful way.

I think that'd be incredible.

NARRATOR: You know where
this is headed, right?

PETER DIAMANDIS: We're about
to see this explosion

in the way we communicate,

and that it's these
next 20 or 30 years

that we are really plugging
the brain into the Internet.

NARRATOR: We're headed to
a future of pure, seamless,

unadulterated communication

that will enable levels of
cooperation and intelligence

that will make
the Tower of Babel

look like a Lego set.

And the communication revolution
has already begun.

Billions are spent every year
on communication apps.

Twitter, emojis,
Google Translate

are all breaking down
language barriers.

But these are just
the first baby steps

in the evolution
of communication.

Flash forward
a few thousand years

and traditional
word-based language

will be ancient history.

We'll be communicating
effortlessly

and at the speed of light,

and that will
seismically transform

the very nature
of our existence.

This is how we'll do it.

First stage, telepathy.

Using tiny nanochips
implanted in our brains

connected to
an ultra-high-speed Internet,

we will finally
realize the dream

of actual brain-to-brain
communication.

Opening our brains
to one another

will be a transformational
moment in human communication,

as well as the end of privacy
as we know it.

But when we go there we will be
ready for the next step,

swarm intelligence.

Combining our
high-speed connectivity

with our brain-to-brain
communication,

we'll combine
our diverse outlooks

to exponentially boost
our intelligence

and work together in swarms
to solve problems in groups

that we never could alone.

We'll need it when we come face
to face with alien intelligence.

Figuring out how to communicate

will require
all of our ingenuity

and will only be possible

because of our
communication revolution.

And when we've mastered
swarm intelligence

and become
super-intelligent beings,

the final step in
human communication will be

when we merge our minds
into a single consciousness.

Like that super-trippy concert
we just witnessed.

We'll evolve beyond
individuality

and shed our very sense of self.

And when we've united humanity

into an enormous
super intelligence,

eliminating the barriers
between us,

then we can finally build on
our limitless imagination,

and everything will be possible.

So, what will be our
Tower of Babel look like

in the future?

Stay with us and find out.

But first let's roll
back the clock

to witness the first stage,

when we humans are just
beginning to embrace telepathy.

[muffled chatter, laughter]

This is what your future dinner
party might look and sound like.

[muffled speech]

Oops, I forgot. Since
our brains really do think

faster than we speak, let me
slow it down so you can hear.

Our brains work faster
than our mouths.

EVA: Mm, it's good,
it's really good.

MAN: Jess, your mom's
a lightweight.

NARRATOR: How bizarre will it be

when our mouths are used solely
for eating and breathing?

In the future, a dinner party
will take place

in total silence.

Because words as we know them
will disappear.

Tiny chips in our brains
will enable us to communicate

telepathically via the Internet.

WOMAN: So, Johnny, did you hear
about the tsunami in Morocco?

WOMAN: The family that I saw
today were really interesting.

WOMAN: The project on Europa,
it's amazing.

NARRATOR: Some people,
like Oscar here,

will resist the tech implants,

because it also comes
with a risk for hacking,

but we'll get into that later.

OSCAR: So, how was your day?

MAN: You still haven't
upgraded to telepathy?

NARRATOR: So how do we get to
that telepathic dinner party

in the future
from where we are today?

The key will be to find
a common language

that can connect
all of humanity.

I wonder where we'd find
something like that.

NICE: I will say this,
and I say it without compunction

and with a great deal
of confidence--

the Internet is
our universal language.

It's already there.

And you would think
that we would now have

this incredible
exchange of ideas

and exciting means
of transferring information,

but instead what do we do?

We send emojis that talk to us
in little faces.

Why? 'Cause they're cute
and you can understand them.

NARRATOR: Call them cute
or really irritating,

truth is there's no denying the
emoji's part of a new grammar

connecting people
all around the world

in a way never before seen
in history.

And it's just the beginning.

RAY KURZWEIL: We're going to
connect our neocortex

to a synthetic neocortex
in the cloud.

And I'm thinking that
it will be a hybrid

of our biological brains,

with the non-biological
extension in the cloud.

NARRATOR: When our brains are
directly linked to the cloud,

then the dream
of telepathic communication

will finally be realized.

THOMAS WEBSTER: It's actually
not so far-fetched, I think,

if you think about it.

So if you're able to create
nano-implants or nano-sensors

to put in the brain
of one person,

and then put it in the brain
of another person.

That's a way to communicate
in a way

that we have never
really thought about

in society so far.

ANNALEE NEWITZ:
There are experiments now

where we have
brain-computer interfaces,

which really does suggest that

something like telepathy
could exist.

BARATUNDE THURSTON:
Oh, that's so dangerous.

Oh, man, we're going to have
so many broken relationships.

And look at what people tweet.

That takes effort.

You have to launch an app,
you know,

open up the compose window, tap
out a message, and press send.

And people still say things
they regret,

and lose their jobs over it
and get divorced over it.

Thinking to communication?

That's, that's real sloppy.

That's going to be a hot mess.

NICE: You know, it's funny,

because here's how telepathy
is awesome--

when you're the only person
who has it.

[laughs]

When that's like your superpower

and you're going around
reading everybody's mind,

but nobody can read yours.

That's when telepathy is great.

NARRATOR: That's probably not
going to be how it works.

Telepathy will be
accessible to everyone.

But telepathy will definitely
require some adjustments,

and there will be growing pains.

It won't be all sitting around
the campfire singing Kumbaya.

N.K. JEMISIN: Lord help us, what
if something like a Twitter mob

existed for the mind?

Um, no, I can't think
of anything more horrific.

But if we could control it,

if it was really just
another way of connecting,

like AOL, but you know,
instead of 'You've got mail,'

it's, you know,
'You've got thoughts.'

THURSTON: On the other hand,

it could lead to a more subtle
set of interactions,

because you would feel the
weight not just of your words,

but of your thoughts.

NARRATOR: That will be amazing.

Think of it,
instantaneous, immersive,

empathic communication.

Humanity will never be
the same again.

But it's not going to be easy.

Wireless devices are
manufactured to conform

to an agreed-upon standard,
like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

But telepathy
involves human beings,

and we can't agree on anything.

ANDERS SANDBERG:
The fundamental problem

of brain-to-brain communication
is that every brain is unique.

When I think about the concept
of a mountain,

I might envision something
like Matterhorn,

because I was seeing that
as a child.

And my neurons firing
when I think mountain,

might be very different
from your neurons that fire.

So I need to find a mapping,

so when my mountain neurons fire
in a particular pattern,

we can activate the right ones.

That's a very tough
machine learning problem.

NARRATOR: And it's not just
going to be a tough problem

for machines to learn.

It's also going to be a big
adjustment for humans as well.

Not everyone is going to be
an early adopter.

There will be those who don't
want their innermost thoughts

accessible to others.

Or those worried about hacking,
like Oscar,

the patriarch
of our future family

who hasn't yet bought into
this newfangled technology.

JESS: Hey, did Sajani
tell you their news?

EVA: No, what's up?

NARRATOR: Oscar is old school,

but how long can he hold out

when everyone around him is
communicating telepathically?

JESS: Damon wants to marry
another woman.

EVA: What?

Does he want a divorce?

JESS: No, no, not at all.

OSCAR: What?

JESS: Apparently, they met
someone they both like and...

OSCAR: What is it?

EVA: Nothing.
JESS: Nothing.

OSCAR: Okay, that's it.

JESS: Dad.

NARRATOR: At some point
he might have to give in,

just to join the conversation.

OSCAR: Telepathy upgrade,
dosage Oscar.

So, what's for dessert?

NARRATOR:
Telepathy is on its way.

When we connect
our minds together

it will be a singular moment
in human history

sending human intelligence
into overdrive;

a first step on our path
back to that Tower of Babel.

But it won't come
without a sacrifice.

Opening our innermost thoughts
to each other

will begin to blur
the differences between us

and will be
the beginning of the end

to one of our most cherished
possessions: our privacy.

NARRATOR: In the future
we're headed to a world

where Internet-enabled telepathy

will connect us all
brain-to-brain.

This is going to catapult
humanity forward

on our journey to that
future Tower of Babel.

Just imagine the implications.

GEORGE DVORSKY: You know, just
with the flick of a thought,

start to engage in
a conversation with someone

miles away,
and not even have to talk.

That's going to change
a lot of things

in terms of the level
of engagement

that we have with others,

and just even
the sense of intimacy

that we will have with others.

DAVID BYRNE: Ooh, that's
a risky place to go, I think.

Sometimes it might be,
benefit both parties

if you withhold
a little bit of information

and give it some time.

BRIAN BENDIS: Even as we're
sitting here talking,

you're thinking other things
about me, right.

You're lost in
the little bald spot.

Would you want to share that?

NARRATOR: Bald spot?
What bald spot?

I totally didn't even notice.

Okay, yes, it's true, I was
thinking about the bald spot.

He has a point.

There are definitely thoughts

I would prefer not to share
with the world.

But in this newly
highly connected world

where we're communicating
mind-to-mind,

we may not have a choice.

DIAMANDIS: In 2010, we had
1.8 billion people connected.

By 2020, 2025, that number
is expected to grow

to all 8 billion humans
on the planet.

So imagine a time
in the near future

where every single person
on the planet

is connected with Internet.

And these 8 billion people
with a megabit connection

now have access
at a brand-new level.

MICHIO KAKU: The Internet
will evolve into brain-net.

That is, we'll send emotions,
memories, feelings.

And that's going
to change everything.

NARRATOR: So if the signal is
coming from within our brain,

how do we police what
we unconsciously send?

Our deepest thoughts and
feelings could be hacked

and littered
across the Internet.

Who will have access
to these extremely personal

and private parts of ourselves?

How does that change
how we communicate?

MORGAN MARQUIS-BOIRE:
Privacy is at the heart

of many treasured parts
of the human experience,

like love and like family.

It is sort of
a basic right of humans.

The worry, of course, about
the sort of erosion of privacy

is that it changes, you know,

sort of the nature
of who we are as humans,

and the nature of
our relationship with others

in ways that are not positive.

We become afraid to think
certain thoughts,

because we know that
we're constantly being watched.

NARRATOR: You're worried
about the government

monitoring your search history.

Well, in the future it won't
just be your search history,

it will be your entire history.

And that raises
a serious question.

ROSE EVELETH: Are we going to
have privacy in the future?

No.

It's just going to be
a different conversation.

THURSTON: We've been sold
convenience and efficiency

as a tradeoff for letting
essentially surveillance,

at scale, into our lives.

So we get
free information online,

by giving up
our information online.

And if every choice you make
is mediated by an algorithm,

from what you eat, to who you
love, to where you go to lunch,

then that's kind of
a destruction of self

and a destruction of
independence and free will

that gets very philosophical
at that point.

EVELETH: In the sort of most
dystopian version of this,

you're being surveyed
all the time.

TREVOR PAGLEN: When you put
that picture on Facebook,

it becomes a part
of a body of data

attached to that specific person
and to the people around them.

NARRATOR: And that's just
what's going on today.

ADAM HARVEY: You begin to feel
very watched

when you know how powerful
computer vision is,

in terms of extracting knowledge
and building a narrative.

NARRATOR: In the future, when
we communicate telepathically,

technology might stop
tracking key words or faces,

and start tracking your thoughts
and your feelings.

THURSTON:
That's pretty terrifying.

PAGLEN: It's a question
of freedom,

and it's a question of rights.

NARRATOR: We risk becoming
a kind of surveillance state

in the future.

Some say we already are.

And as we spend more and more
of our time online,

watching and learning
on the Internet,

the Internet is also
watching and learning us.

It's a two-way street.

And that could be
a frightening proposition.

♪ ♪

PAGLEN: For a number of years
in studio,

we've been developing tools
to work with machine vision.

NARRATOR: Trevor Paglen is
an artist in San Francisco.

And he created
this performance piece

with the famed Kronos Quartet.

It looks like a normal concert,
right?

Except it's anything but.

These musicians
are being watched,

and not just by the audience.

Cameras project the performers
on the screen,

and using algorithms,
interpret what they're seeing.

PAGLEN: You start to see
a very sharp contrast

between how you,
as a human audience,

are perceiving the performance,

and how these machinic
forms of seeing

are perceiving the performance.

NARRATOR: As you can tell, it's
not always completely accurate.

But using facial recognition
software,

Trevor is using this performance

to demonstrate how computers
watch and record us.

And just how easy would it be
for computers

to build a digital profile of us
based on algorithms

that may or may not have
our best interests in mind.

PAGLEN: My concern is that this
very intimate quantification

of everyday life

adds up to an extremely
conformist society.

It's very easy
to imagine a future

in which you put a picture of
you drinking a beer on Facebook,

that automatically translating

into an increase
in your car insurance.

NARRATOR: That's bad,
but it could get much worse.

KAKU: Let's say a crime
is committed,

and the CIA or the FBI wants
to have access to everyone

who has an inclination
to do something

like the crime
that was just committed.

It scans a database
of everybody,

and then just prints out
the names.

And you could be
totally innocent

and your name could be
picked out.

NARRATOR: You might be thinking
of Edward Snowden right now.

You can see how, unchecked,
this kind of access and power

is wide open for abuse.

NEWITZ: How do we make sure
that this kind of technology

isn't being used to categorize
people unfairly?

It leads right into issues
around racial profiling,

it leads into issues

around other kinds
of profiling as well.

NARRATOR: And what about
identity theft?

Sure, it's a problem today,

but when the Internet
is a part of your brain,

hackers might just not be able
to steal your data,

they might also be able
to hack your mind!

MARQUIS-BOIRE: As anyone
who's sat in a plane

and worried about the hundreds
of thousands of lines of code

that keep them
floating in the air,

you know, similarly,

the exploitability
of our digital lives

is something that, you know,

it's sort of like
an ever-pressing concern

in the back of my mind.

NARRATOR: These are serious
issues with major repercussions

that our newly connected society

is going to have
to grapple with,

because the Internet
isn't going anywhere.

BRYAN JOHNSON: In the history
of the human race,

we have never stopped
the development of a technology.

No matter how dangerous it is,

we have never been able
to stop it.

NARRATOR: The trend
of human history

is greater and greater
connection.

There's no turning back.

We have opened
the Pandora's box.

DIAMANDIS: I see us going,

over the next 30, 40 years
at the outmost,

from individuals, me and you,

to a meta-intelligence, where
8 billion people are plugged in,

through the cloud, knowing each
other's thoughts and feelings,

and becoming conscious
at a brand-new level.

NARRATOR: Our current notion of
privacy will be ancient history.

But that is a sacrifice
we'll have to make,

because we will gain so much
more in our new open society.

SANDBERG:
One could imagine a world

where thoughts are flowing
freely between different minds,

but different minds
are solving problems

or looking at things
from a different perspective.

NARRATOR: When we master
telepathy and redefine privacy,

we'll be on our way to that
shining tower of the future.

What comes next?

A revolutionary form
of communication

that will unlock
the collective power

of our supercharged brains.

Nothing can stop us when
we launch human cooperation

into overdrive
with swarm intelligence.

NARRATOR: They say two heads
are better than one.

Well, in the future we're not
going to settle for just two,

try 200, 2,000, 2 million!

Powered by high-speed Internet
connected directly to our brain,

we'll all be communicating
telepathically

and working together
at the speed of light.

And that's going to
blow the walls

off what humanity is capable of.

And whom does
the hyper-connected,

telepathic society
of Year Million

have to thank
for their superpower?

That's right, bees.

Welcome to swarm intelligence.

['Flight of the Bumblebee'
playing]

LOUIS ROSENBERG: Bees go out,

and every year
they have to find a new home.

And so what they do is
they form a swarm.

And that swarm will negotiate

and find the best possible site
among all the options.

And what's amazing is that
an individual bee can't conceive

of the problem of finding
the best possible site.

But when they work together
as a swarm,

they converge
on that best answer.

EVELETH: You might know a ton
about Chinese geography,

which I don't know
anything about.

And I might know a ton
about krill,

and you might not know
anything about that.

I actually do know
a lot about krill.

And then together,
we're really good at Jeopardy,

or whatever it is, you know.

And that's kind of the idea,
right?

THURSTON: Connectivity
breeds connection.

I think that there's
something real powerful,

if thought becomes
communication.

ROSENBERG: 'Cause ultimately,

it's about collecting input
from diverse groups.

NARRATOR: For animals,
the key to swarm intelligence

is rapid communication
within the group.

One of the things
that's held back humans

from tapping the full potential
of swarm intelligence

is our traditional
word-based language.

Powerful as it is,
it's just too slow.

JOHNSON: Right now,
we communicate

at something like 40 to 60
bits per second via voice.

But our brains can process
information much faster.

ROSENBERG: If we're trying
to solve problems,

and we work together
as a system,

we should find solutions
to problems

that over time, as technology
becomes more seamless,

they'll just think, and they'll
think together as a system,

they'll think together
as a swarm,

and they'll converge on answers

that optimizes the satisfaction
of the whole population.

SANDBERG: Once we figure out
the science

of deliberately swarming people,

we're going to unleash

a tremendous form
of collective intelligence.

NARRATOR: Swarm intelligence
could well be the only way

in the far future

that we can compete with
artificial intelligence.

When we combine our collective
brain power together,

it will be like millions
of incredibly powerful computers

uniting to solve the world's
most pressing problems.

Like how to house refugees whose
homes have been destroyed by war

or the effects of
an increasingly warming planet.

[muffled voices]

This is what swarm intelligence
may look like in the future.

Jess is telepathically swarming
with other people

around the world

trying to come up with
a solution to a refugee crisis.

But where are my manners?

Let me slow this down again
so your minds can process it.

Really, this conversation
happened in the blink of an eye.

MAN: Another tsunami
in less than a month.

WOMAN: Not to mention
the hurricanes in North America.

WOMAN: And the drought
in Central Asia.

MAN: Climate change is
wreaking havoc in our cities.

WOMAN: Millions of people
have been displaced.

JESS: We have to do something
to help them.

MAN: Can we stabilize
the climate?

WOMAN: Eventually, yes,
but in the meantime?

JESS: These people need homes.
What can we do?

WOMAN: We redesign major cities.

MAN: Relocate to other planets.

WOMAN: Too much time.

JESS: There has to be an
inexpensive and quick solution.

NARRATOR: Working together
as a swarm,

they're able to come up with
a creative and fast solution

to save the planet.

MAN: We need mobility.

JESS: Mobile.

MAN: Inexpensive.

WOMAN: Clean energy.

JESS: That's it!

NARRATOR: This is the future of
communication and cooperation.

JEMISIN: We've got the potential
to harness

a tremendously
democratizing force.

A planet-wide e-democracy.

Which would be awesome,

if we can manage to do it
in a way that's safe.

NARRATOR: Swarms of doctors
could find cures for diseases

faster than they could alone.

Swarms of engineers could invent
machines and build structures

no individual can imagine.

The bigger and more connected
the swarm,

the more powerful it could be.

But like anything powerful,

there is a dark side
to the swarm.

NEWITZ: As we all know,
big groups of people

sometimes get together and,
you know, do really dumb things.

NARRATOR: The Internet
is already full

of hackers and trolls.

Now imagine a global swarm
of snooping hackers,

connected directly
to your brain.

AMY WEBB: As with everything,

there is the technology and then
the way that we use technology.

MARQUIS-BOIRE: Technology acts
as a power amplifier, right?

And so it is neither sort of
inherently good nor bad.

It's simply a tool that
amplifies the desires

of the individual
or the institution.

WEBB: Part of our obligations
as humans

is to inject ourselves
in the process.

THURSTON: We have to learn
from the mistakes we've made

with past technologies
and with past human interaction.

NARRATOR: Swarm intelligence
is powerful,

and we'll have to make sure that

we use our massive
new intelligence

to unite humanity,
not to oppress others.

But the true test of our
elevated ability to cooperate

will come when we encounter
something other than ourselves.

That's right. Aliens.

KAKU: Let's say one day
we're scanning the heavens,

and we pick up
a regular message.

Not random noise,
but a regular message.

[humming tune from Close
Encounters of the Third Kind]

SOULE: Something like that,
right?

KAKU: That, of course,
is going to be earthshaking.

NARRATOR: It certainly will be.

How will we communicate
with them?

Understanding what
extraterrestrials are doing

in the skies above us
will be a major test

of our newfound
communication skills.

It may be the difference between
survival and extinction.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: As we trip
the light fantastic

down the path to Year Million,

toward a time when we can build

our very own tower
to the heavens,

communication will be
completely redefined.

But let's be clear when
we talk about the Year Million.

We're not really talking
about a specific year.

It's our way of saying a future
so different, so transformative,

that it's just a glimmer on
the horizon of our imagination.

And only the boldest thinkers
are able to see

where we're headed.

We just might make
some astounding discoveries

along the way.

KAKU: I'm going
to stick my neck out

and say that we will
probably make contact

with an extraterrestrial
civilization.

That's going to be one
of the greatest turning points

in human history.

Every single historical account
of the evolution of our species

will have to take into account

the fact that we have
finally made contact

with another
intelligent life-form.

NARRATOR: And when that day
finally arrives,

the question is, what then?

EVELETH:
You want to make sure that,

like, they don't want
to kill you.

Very quickly,
as quickly as you can,

you want to make sure

that they are not trying
to kill and eat you, right.

NARRATOR: Yes, that would be
tops on the list,

I would imagine.

Assuming we get past that,
what next?

It could be the greatest moment
in human history, or not.

After all, first contact

could be 'Arrival'
or 'Independence Day.'

THURSTON: I loved 'Arrival.'

It's about feelings
and communication.

EVELETH: 'Arrival'
is a great example

of that being patient and
trying to actually communicate,

and trying to think
about things scientifically

and not rush into anything.

When we are looking at
these species or whatever,

aliens that come,

is a better method than just
trying to blow them up.

NEGIN FARSAD: I like the idea
of aliens being like prettier

than what we've thought of them.

You know, we've kind of
made them ugly

over the last several decades.

There's no need for that.

They can actually be quite
gorgeous, you know what I mean?

NARRATOR: That's a good point,
Negin,

but whatever they look like,

let's just assume
for the sake of argument

that first contact
with extraterrestrials

goes more in the direction
of 'Arrival.'

Then our greatest challenge,

what all of our
super-charged intelligence

will need to figure out,
is how to communicate with them.

But it's not going to be easy.

Without an Alien Dictionary,
where do we even begin?

KAKU: There are three features

that we think intelligent
alien life will have.

First of all is vision,
some kind of stereovision,

the vision of a hunter.

Second is a thumb,
a grappling instrument,

a tentacle of some sort.

And third, a language by which
you can hand down information

from generation to generation.

But they're not going
to communicate

using American English,

and they're not going to have
subject, verb, predicate,

the way we construct sentences.

NICE: I hope, I can only hope

that they all look something
like Selma Hayek.

That would be really good.

NARRATOR: We're talking about
communication here, Chuck,

let's stick to the subject.

EVELETH: What are
the linguistics of this?

What does this
actually look like?

How do we figure out,

when they're painting
these weird circles,

and we're using these
weird lines and sticks,

how do we figure out
how to communicate with them?

NARRATOR: How we figure out
the aliens' language

will make or break us,

and scientists are
already working on it.

How, you might ask?

Well, by taking a page
from Dr. Doolittle's book

and starting right here
with the animals on Earth.

Dolphins to be specific.

At the National Aquarium
in Maryland,

Dr. Diana Reiss and her team
are studying dolphins

and how one day we might be able
to not just understand them,

but communicate with them.

DIANA REISS:
I got really interested

in working with dolphins
particularly,

because they were
so different from us.

These animals are truly
non-terrestrials

in every sense of the word.

ANA HOCEVAR: We're trying
to understand

how we could communicate to
a completely different species

that is as close to an alien
as you can get, for a human.

NARRATOR: 95 million years ago

dolphins and primates parted
ways on the evolutionary chain.

But like us,
dolphins have big brains

and a sophisticated
social intelligence.

So, as far as working with any
other animals on the planet,

there is none better suited
to being a test case

for learning to speak to aliens
than dolphins.

REISS: What we did was we
created an underwater keyboard.

It's like a big iPhone.

And if you touch it,
something happens.

I want to give us
this interface,

a window where
we can exchange things.

HOCEVAR: It really
opens the door

to understanding
their vocalizations.

NARRATOR: Of course!
An interspecies iPhone.

Dr. Reiss and her team
are hopeful

that this technology
will be a platform

in which humans and dolphins

can one day learn
to understand one another.

REISS: Wouldn't it be amazing
when they hit a key,

it translates to English?

You can hear that
and you can respond.

NARRATOR: Amazingly,
their efforts

are already being rewarded.

The dolphin have
already figured out

that if they touch the screen
with their beaks,

they get a reaction.

MATT MIRA: What are dolphins
going to be talking about?

Yeah, water's kind of
warm today, huh? Yep.

SOULE: I hope that that's
basically what they're saying.

These fish are great.
I love to swim. Let's jump.

NARRATOR: Or maybe they're
discussing dolphin politics

and dolphin philosophy.

We just don't know,
but one day we might.

REISS: In a way, the touchscreen
is a true window in itself,

into the minds of these animals.

I think technology can make
what's invisible to us

perhaps more visible;

what's inaudible to us
more audible.

MARCELO MAGNASCO:
If we were to succeed,

we would succeed in actually

not being alone
in the universe anymore,

which is a pretty sweet thought.

NARRATOR: And that's why

the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence, or SETI Institute,

has been tracking
her work with dolphins.

The challenges she faces are
the same ones they anticipate

they'll face
when aliens show up.

We'll need a plan.

And this technology
just may be the answer.

REISS: The technology that we're
developing in these projects

will enable us to see better,
to hear better,

to understand better, and
to empathize more and care more,

once we have that knowledge.

You know, with knowledge
comes great responsibility.

NARRATOR: It certainly does.

I couldn't have said it
better myself.

THURSTON: There is a potential
for a shared connection

and a shared mindset.

FARSAD:
With an interspecies Internet,

we're sort of headed

in this kind of universal
one-language scenario.

So if you've ever wanted
to talk to a walrus,

in the future,
you could do that.

THURSTON: That could be
pretty magical.

NARRATOR: Pretty magical indeed.

In the future, we may not agree
with dolphins or aliens,

or even walruses on anything.

But as long as
we're communicating,

there is always an opportunity
for greater understanding,

greater empathy,
and greater connection.

And as we travel deeper
and deeper into the future,

we'll need to master
communication

with all sentient beings

if we ever hope to build our own
Tower of Babel in the future.

But we're not there yet.

We're going to connect
on a whole other level.

If you thought losing
your privacy was a big deal,

the final step is going to be
a big pill to swallow.

DVORSKY: You're starting
to lose the individual,

and you're starting to now gain

in this kind of
massive collectivity,

this, this entity that
kind of maybe even thinks

and has impulses and tendencies
toward certain direction.

The sum of its intelligence
would hopefully be greater

than the sum of its parts.

THURSTON: That's going
to change politics, right?

That's going to change
relationships.

Could you merge minds?

NARRATOR: Oh, yes, we can,
and we will.

In the Year Million era
we'll take the final plunge

and shed our ego, our sense
of self, our individuality,

and join together
in a single consciousness.

It's a high-bandwidth
blending of our mind

that creates its own
super intelligence,

a consciousness of which each
person is just one small part.

Say hello to your future
in the hive mind.

NARRATOR: We're almost
at the end of our journey

to Year Million

and that future version of
a Tower of Babel to the heavens.

And the final step in
our communication evolution

is a doozy.

Yep, you got it.

In the Year Million we're not
just communicating

telepathically mind-to-mind,

using our hyper-connectivity
to swarm together

and increase our intelligence
a thousand-fold.

The final step will be when we
finally shed our sense of self

and individuality

and merge our minds together
into a single consciousness.

DVORSKY: As we become
progressively interconnected

with each other,

lines that separate one brain
from another brain

will become
increasingly blurred.

And if you can imagine,
you know,

hundreds or if not even
thousands of individuals,

interlinked in this way,

you're going to have what's
referred to as the hive mind.

NARRATOR: Whoa, the hive mind.

It sounds scary,

and it just might be, and
we'll get to that in a minute.

But it could also be
incredibly empowering.

NEWITZ: Basically
like what we do

when we create
a computer cluster,

putting all the computers
together

and having them work together

allows them to do bigger
and tougher problems.

NARRATOR: You might say
to yourself

that sounds a lot like
the swarm intelligence

we talked about,
but they are very different.

Swarm intelligence
is decentralized.

We will still have our own
identity, a sense of self.

Hive mind is a paradigm shift.

We will let go of our egos
and come together

to create a centralized
consciousness.

When you connect
to the hive mind,

you will share everything.

NEWITZ: It could be a really
great experience at a concert,

where like all of us
are feeling the same thing

as we listen to
an awesome guitar solo.

NARRATOR: Exactly,
like a concert.

Speaking of which, remember
that concert we saw earlier?

Our future family has become
part of the hive mind,

and is experiencing a concert
through a single consciousness.

BRIAN GREENE: If all those minds

are in some computer
digital environment

that allows them to interface
in a more profound way

than the biological means that
we have at our disposal now,

I can't help but think that
that would be a greater level

of collective communication.

NARRATOR: It would be.

And that's why
they can be any part

of this little concert
they desire.

Plugged in like they are,

their minds will create
a larger intelligence,

a larger consciousness.

Our whole idea of what
it means to be human

will change drastically,

because when we let go of
the ego, the self-preservation,

the competition involved
with having a sense of self

and come together as one, well,
then everything is possible.

GREENE: There is something
very powerful

of all minds working together.

Maybe we'll find,
in this domain,

that the notion of decision

is not where we find
our individual footprint.

Maybe our individual footprint
comes with an outlook

or a perspective
that we hold dear,

and only we as individuals
are aware of it, or know it.

Maybe that will be enough,
perhaps.

NEWITZ: I definitely think
it will radically impact

what we think of as a self.

NARRATOR: Take a moment,
breathe.

I know, it's a big idea
to wrap your head around.

Everything we think
makes us human

is tied to our sense of self.

Hive mind won't come
without sacrifice.

It will take
a complete redefinition

of what it means to be human.

The question is,
will it be worth it?

FARSAD: What feels dangerous
about the hive mind

is that we'll all, like,
just know the same things

and then we won't have
anything to talk about.

It'll be so sad, because like
the whole point of life

is to just like hang out
with your friends.

It's like, talk some smack,
you know what I mean,

and if you all already know
the thing, you know,

there's no smack to talk,

and that would be
very frustrating.

NARRATOR: Frustrating indeed.

What's life without some
good old-fashioned trash talk?

Well, we just might find out.

But what about our autonomy?

When we mingle our minds,
what happens?

Are we still you and me?

Or do we become the same thing?

NEWITZ: Any technology that
we use to mingle our minds

could have good or bad effects.

So you want to be able
to step back

and be a little bit skeptical
of any kind of groupthink.

MARQUIS-BOIRE:
There is the worry

that this connected hive mind
can be used in sinister ways,

depending on who's
in charge of it.

NARRATOR: That's right, when
you're part of the hive mind,

your mind, at least
in the traditional sense,

might not be yours alone.

KAKU: You're like a worker bee
in a gigantic hive.

You have no individuality
whatsoever.

MIRA: You know, if you think
about the Borg from Star Trek,

the Borg is the hive mind.

The Borg are a collective,

so they think as a whole
and not as an individual.

And in many ways individuality
is what makes us feel human.

To have that stripped away and
become part of a hive collective

is one of the more terrifying
things you could do.

It's like joining a cult.

NEWITZ: The perfect way to get
a zombie army would be

string all their brains
together,

hook them up to somebody who
really knows what they're doing,

and just blasts their brains

with like whatever information
they want to give them.

You know, now you must
do this labor

in order to exalt the great one.

NARRATOR: That doesn't
sound good at all.

What if I want out?

Is there some sort of
hive mind eject button?

DVORSKY: One would hope,
for example,

that you could perhaps
pull out of the hive mind,

that you could remove
yourself from the grid.

We struggle with this today,

we turn off our phones
or go into airplane mode,

and we feel like
we're naked somehow,

or that somehow we're
disconnected from the world.

Imagine how terrifying
or disconcerting it would be

in the future, if we suddenly,
after engaging in a hive mind,

we pulled our self out of it.

NARRATOR: The hive mind
sounds like

it could be
a deeply oppressive place,

like North Korea
but on steroids.

That's the worst-case scenario.

KAKU: But another possibility
is that it is freedom,

a world of enlightenment,

a world of knowledge
and prosperity.

NARRATOR: When we're all joined
together as one,

could we finally eliminate
conflict, wars and suffering?

THURSTON: And if you and I
are the same,

then when I hurt you,
I literally hurt myself.

That changes war, that changes
anger, that changes love.

'Cause when I love you,
I love myself.

ROSENBERG: We could evolve
into something

that we can't even conceive,

into a different
type of creature.

This super-organism.

NARRATOR: Might the hive mind
even be necessary

for our survival?

I mean, we've come
this far alone.

But you know the old saying,

divided we fall
and united we stand.

GREENE: To my mind, the only way
that we survive

into the far future,

is to bring us all together
in some manner

that leverages the whole
collective consciousness

in a way that's more powerful
than the individual minds alone.

THURSTON:
I think that's exciting.

I think it's weird, though.

SANDBERG: I imagine it
as a vast coral reef.

Explosion of new forms,
new kinds of minds,

new kind of consciousness.

I can't imagine
any of the details.

Because I think most of them
would be beyond

my puny human brain.

Just like an ant cannot
understand a city,

we cannot understand
Year Million.

But we can see something there,
beyond the clouds.

NARRATOR: That is the future
we're barreling toward

in Year Million.

When we are one with animals,
extraterrestrials,

and most importantly,
each other,

then beyond the clouds may be
exactly where we find ourselves.

That's right, we'll be building
a new future, our own tower,

perhaps in a far-off
distant galaxy,

a gleaming testament

to our brilliant ingenuity
and creativity.

We're headed for the stars.

And that will be possible

because of the coming
communication revolution

that will take
human intelligence

into the stratosphere.