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[ Man Narrating]
The world is at war...
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and the Nazis rule the seas...
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with one of humanity's
greatest powers-
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a secret code that can win wars.
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But can it also reveal
the mysteries of the universe?
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Ifs a cipher with a key
hidden in big history.
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We think of history as a time line-
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a series of events stretching
a few thousand years into the past.
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It's time to think bigger.
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Instead of a line...
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imagine a web of infinite connections
interacting over billions of years...
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linked together to create
everything we've ever known-
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our universe,
our planet... and us.
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History as we know it
is about to get big.
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Two years
into the Second World War...
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the Nazis prepare an order
to sink a British ship...
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but British intelligence can intercept
German radio transmissions...
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so the Nazis use
a sophisticated machine...
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to turn their messages
into an almost uncrackable code.
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It's called Enigma.
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By using a series of rotors
and a series of plugs...
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each letter was turned
into a completely random letter.
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[ Narrator]
Enigma uses a scrambling algorithm...
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to convert a word like tag-
German for “day”-
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into a seemingly meaningless
string of letters.
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[ Beeping ]
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With the Enigma machine,
it would be random-completely random-
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if you did not have
the accompanying code key...
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to enter in your Enigma machine
after you receive the message.
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[ Narrator]
Enigma has 159 quintillion variations.
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[Speaking German ]
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The Nazi code...
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seems invincible.
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[Ticking ]
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Traditional history tells us...
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that in war,
codes can be the keys to victory or defeat.
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But big history
connects to our biology...
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to reveal how an advanced ability
to make and break codes...
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sets humans apart.
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[Growling 1
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[Wailing ]
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All animals code
and decode messages.
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[ Chirping ]
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[Croaking ]
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[ Howling ]
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Simple things like a predator warning.
Danger. Run away.
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- [ Growling ]
- Angry. Stay Clear.
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[ Narrator]
But human communication is different.
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Our brains are more complex...
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so we build a world of symbols...
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where everything around us
is a code to crack.
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This green light means “go.”
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These numbers mean expensive.
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And these mean you're on schedule.
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We constantly create new codes
and new ways to decipher them.
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You're actually thinking in code.
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Your brain is figuring out...
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what am I going to associate with that word,
with that smell, with that thought...
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and that becomes hardwired.
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[ Narrator] But if our brains are
programmed to code and decode...
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a mystery remains-
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how did we become
nature's code breakers?
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Big history connects back
600 million years...
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to earth's first computer processor.
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This prehistoric worm's brain
has a new combination of cells...
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that lets it decode more information
than other animals...
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and even learn from experience.
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And over time,
this cluster of cells mutates...
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and evolves to become...
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our cerebral cortex.
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Here, 16 billion neurons
store memory...
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control language...
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and decode the world.
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The connections between nerve cells
and what we call "gray matter"...
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make the human brain
uniquely powerful...
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able to process one quadrillion pieces
of information in a lifetime-
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information that's even more powerful
when we share it.
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[Speaking Native Language]
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The cerebral cortex
is our language center.
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Here, we create a code...
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that communicates thoughts
with sound-
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the code of speech.
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But communicating
a single thought...
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takes at least
five different regions of the brain...
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connecting simultaneously
in a network so complex...
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it lets us not only describe things,
but plan for future possibilities.
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[ Markley]
We can talk about conditional events.
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If this thing happens,
then this other thing will not happen.
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If this thing happens,
you should do this.
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[ Man ] it becomes this remarkable tool
that really separates humans...
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and sends human history off
on a very different trajectory...
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to that of all the other species
on our planet.
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[ Narrator] But speech also reveals
the limits of human memory.
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[ Man ] All the world's major
civilizations, at some point...
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confronted the problem of there being too
much information to keep it in your head.
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Now, the information load
got so heavy...
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that they had to develop
permanent ways for recording information.
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[ Narrator]
Big history connects our biology...
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to a transformative leap
for mankind.
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It's 3200 B.C...
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and this scribe in Mesopotamia
is one of the first to use writing...
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to translate the code of speech
into images.
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Writing is the ultimate secret code
that was developed by humans.
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Early writing seems to have always
started with simple pictures.
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But very soon
they evolve and become symbolic.
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[ Narrator] Modern alphabets
conceal this ancient legacy.
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The ancient Egyptians
write in hieroglyphics.
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This is their symbol for water.
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The Egyptians trade
with the Phoenicians...
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who adapt the symbol and call it mem-
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a wavy line
that evolves over thousands of years...
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into the letter “M.”
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Writing transforms civilization.
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It increases the knowledge
we can share across the generations.
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And it's also a tool for concealing
information in secret codes...
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that men use in times of war.
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80 how can the human brain
crack a code...
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that the human brain makes?
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With a code breaker that isn't human.
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Big history is a new way
to see the world.
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It reveals that our brain
is nature's top code breaker-
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a complex living computer...
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that can build
sophisticated machines...
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to share or conceal vital information.
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[Speaking German ]
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Big history links back
to a world at war...
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and the code that sparks the future.
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[ Explosion ]
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At Britain's decryption headquarters...
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9,000 code breakers use two
captured German Enigma machines...
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in their top secret mission-
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to crack the Nazis'
uncrackable military code.
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They look for repeating patterns that
might correspond to common phrases...
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like “Heil Hitler”...
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or names of high-ranking Nazi officers.
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It's a classic code-breaking strategy.
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Big history connects
a breakthrough in code breaking...
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to a breakthrough in archeology.
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The Rosetta stone
unlocks an ancient secret.
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This 2,200-year-old tablet
features the same message...
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in Greek, Egyptian script
and the lost language of hieroglyphics.
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When 19th century French archaeologists
find repeating patterns...
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like the name
of the Egyptian King Ptolemy...
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the stone becomes the key
to cracking the hieroglyphic code.
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More than a hundred years later...
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the British find patterns
that help to unravel the Enigma code-
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a critical advantage for the Allies.
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It gave us an ability
to combat, or to confront, the enemy...
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wherever the enemy
was going to appear.
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[ Narrator]
But a code war is a cat-and-mouse game.
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The Nazis up the ante...
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with a new encryption machine
called the Lorenz.
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It conceals words
by turning them into numbers.
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It's the cutting edge of cryptography...
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but it runs on an ancient idea.
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Big history links
the Nazis' mega code...
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with the symbol that means nothing.
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In the ancient world,
the idea of zero doesn't exist...
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until the seventh century-
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when Indian mathematicians
develop the concept...
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that “nothing” is actually “something.”
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When you add the zero,
that's a placeholder.
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That understands that,
“Hey, '10' is a 'one' and a 'zero.”'
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Having that placeholder allows
much more complex thought.
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[ Narrator]
Zero ignites a mathematical revolution...
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and it' becomes the basis
of a new symbolic language-
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binary code.
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Binary code, to put it simply,
is ones and zeros...
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off and on, yes and no.
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Is it one or is it zero?
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[ Narrator] Binary code is both
strikingly simple and infinitely complex.
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Just two symbols
in different combinations...
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can form a word...
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a book...
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or an encrypted message.
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Big history connects forward...
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to a new generation
of top secret machines...
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that use the ancient idea
of binary code-..
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To build the modern world.
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Binary seems even more invincible
than Enigma...
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with more possible solutions...
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than a single code breaker
could crack in a lifetime.
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The British need
more processing power...
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so they build an artificial brain.
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It's called Colossus.
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Like the code it's designed to break,
Colossus runs on binary.
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Ones and zeros control
a series of on/off switches...
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that tell it what to do.
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The human brain looks
for repeating patterns to crack codes.
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This machine amplifies that ability
on a massive scale.
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[ Man ]
Colossus would sort through...
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an enormous, astronomical number
of alternatives...
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and search for the clue
that would lead to the key.
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[ Narrator]
Colossus lets the British know...
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as much about German
military movements as Hitler himself.
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[ Morgan ]
The Colossus was, in many respects...
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the world's first computer.
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And in that very, very
thought-provoking way...
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that Second World War produced
the world in which we live today.
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[ Narrator] Binary is the blueprint
for our digital civilization.
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The modern age runs on codes.
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They're hidden in everything around us...
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the secret engines of life on earth.
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So could there also be
a master code...
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that runs the universe?
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00:16:21,065 --> 00:16:23,025
Big history reveals...
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how an ancient code...
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programs the modern world.
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Bu! what happens
when a code begins to think for itself?
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Big history zooms in...
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to the microscopic world of the virus.
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[ Coughs 1
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This virus is designed
to replicate itself...
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and perpetually infect its host.
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This virus operates
on the same kind of orders.
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Whether biological...
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00:17:20,624 --> 00:17:22,584
or digital...
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a virus runs on a code...
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with a mission of destruction.
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Big history connects microbiology...
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to a new age of warfare.
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Iran, 2007.
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00:17:48,402 --> 00:17:50,070
[ Bell Ringing ]
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A self-replicating computer virus
called a worm...
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infiltrates a nuclear facility.
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[ Morgan ] We created this
computer warfare against an enemy-
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warfare in which
no one travels overseas...
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00:18:07,212 --> 00:18:09,965
no one fires a single bullet
or drops a single bomb.
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[ Narrator]
The digital worm is a code...
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programmed to disable machines...
231
00:18:20,684 --> 00:18:26,273
by jumping from computer to computer
until it finds its target.
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[Alarm Blaring ]
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Humans create codes
that seem to have lives of their own...
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echoing the secret code
within all of life.
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00:18:41,872 --> 00:18:44,500
Big history zooms in...
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00:18:51,173 --> 00:18:54,051
to the code that programs us.
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[ Man ] The first creatures that emerged
were very small microbes.
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00:18:59,723 --> 00:19:04,895
And those creatures used D.N.A.
to store information.
239
00:19:06,772 --> 00:19:09,358
[ Narrator] Like binary code...
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00:19:09,441 --> 00:19:11,568
D.N.A. starts simple.
241
00:19:12,194 --> 00:19:14,196
Just four chemicals...
242
00:19:14,279 --> 00:19:18,450
but they combine in millions
of complex sequences...
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00:19:18,534 --> 00:19:23,247
that govern every cell
in every living thing on earth.
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00:19:26,792 --> 00:19:31,171
[Valle] D.N.A., helices-all
of that is a type of code.
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00:19:31,255 --> 00:19:35,551
It's little bits of information
to create a larger bit of information...
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00:19:35,634 --> 00:19:37,594
to create a larger bit of information.
247
00:19:37,678 --> 00:19:41,348
It's like-You take two hydrogen atoms.
You take an oxygen atom.
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00:19:41,431 --> 00:19:43,183
You have water.
249
00:19:43,267 --> 00:19:45,644
You take a bunch of water
and you have a sea.
250
00:19:45,727 --> 00:19:47,855
You take a bunch of seas,
you have oceans.
251
00:19:47,938 --> 00:19:50,440
Everything has a code.
252
00:19:50,524 --> 00:19:54,570
You can't just think that a code is something
in your computer that makes it run.
253
00:19:54,653 --> 00:19:56,530
Code is life.
254
00:20:01,410 --> 00:20:06,415
[ Narrator] So if code is
the hidden engine of life on this planet...
255
00:20:06,498 --> 00:20:10,002
could a code also govern the universe?
256
00:20:10,085 --> 00:20:14,214
Some scientists believe that our reality
could be nothing more...
257
00:20:14,298 --> 00:20:18,552
than a computer program
simulating the world around us.
258
00:20:20,888 --> 00:20:24,224
[ Dyson ] Things that you would think
were pretty crazy questions-
259
00:20:24,308 --> 00:20:27,728
such as the question of could
our universe actually be running...
260
00:20:27,811 --> 00:20:30,981
as a simulation in a computer-
261
00:20:31,064 --> 00:20:34,276
they don't sound as crazy today
as they did 10 or 20 years ago...
262
00:20:34,359 --> 00:20:37,821
because of our ability
to do that kind of thing ourselves.
263
00:20:40,657 --> 00:20:43,827
[ Narrator]
The code of D.N.A. runs our brains.
264
00:20:44,494 --> 00:20:49,333
A code-cracking marvel that' lets us
decipher a world of symbols...
265
00:20:50,167 --> 00:20:52,502
and build machines in our image...
266
00:20:53,670 --> 00:20:56,006
to uncover the ultimate mystery-
267
00:20:57,299 --> 00:21:00,135
a code that rules everything.
268
00:21:03,513 --> 00:21:06,767
But the story of codes
is just the beginning.
269
00:21:06,850 --> 00:21:09,937
There's a much bigger puzzle
hidden in big history.
270
00:21:10,020 --> 00:21:12,981
Each episode unlocks a clue.
271
00:21:13,065 --> 00:21:14,983
Everyday things like silver...
272
00:21:16,193 --> 00:21:17,361
the sun...
273
00:21:18,528 --> 00:21:19,988
and water...
274
00:21:20,072 --> 00:21:21,615
hold the key.
275
00:21:21,698 --> 00:21:26,370
Watch them all, and you'll see
this grand mystery revealed.
276
00:21:26,453 --> 00:21:29,873
The big history of time, of space.
277
00:21:29,957 --> 00:21:32,709
The big history... of us.
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