All language subtitles for A.Brief.History.of.the.Future.S01E01.1080p.WEBRip.x264-BAE_track3_[eng]

[calm music]

♪

Man: We're in the Ancient
Bristlecone Pine Forest,

just over 11,000 feet,
home to some of the oldest

trees on planet Earth.

The trees in this forest that
are surrounding me right now

are older than
the pyramids in Egypt.

They were alive
when Jesus Christ was born.

Some of these trees were
already 4,000 years old

when the United States was born.

They go back further than
almost all recorded history.

♪

When you're
at a place like this,

it changes your perspective

because these trees
are truly the great

ancestors of life on Earth.

They have been here for so long

and will more than likely
be here long after I'm gone.

And it's very rare
to be in a place

where you have
that sense of time.

It changes your perspective
on not only where we are

and what we've done
as a species on this planet,

but where we might
be able to go.

Woman: Set one Ari, take one.

Man: Name and describe yourself.
What are you? Who are you?

Ha ha! My name is Ari Wallach.

I am a father, a husband,
and during the day,

when I'm not doing those
two probably most important

things, I am a futurist.

[Grimes' "Oblivion" playing]

♪

Grimes: ♪ Ah ♪

♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ I never walk about
after dark ♪

♪ It's my point of view ♪

♪ 'Cause someone could
break your neck ♪

♪ Coming up behind you ♪

♪ Always coming,

an
\h
d you'd never have a clue ♪

♪ I never look behind
all the time ♪

♪ I will wait forever ♪

♪ Always looking straight ♪

♪ Thinking, counting
all the hours you wait ♪

Wallach: Growing up,
I remember feeling

so excited about the future,

impatient, actually because I
couldn't

wait for it to arrive.

[dramatic music]

Beam me aboard.

["The Jetsons" theme song]

Wallach: I watched
movies and TV shows

that told stories
of what felt like

inevitable human progress,

filling me with a sense
of hope and possibility.

[engines roaring]

And it wasn't just on TV.

We were launching rockets.

Markets were booming.

And the Internet
was coming online.

Bill Clinton:
Hope is back in America.

We are on the right track
to the 21st century.

Dick Clark: 3, 2, 1.

Happy 2000!

William McRaven:
The next generation

and the generations that follow
will live in a world

far better
than the one we have today.

Wallach: I went to work
as a futurist,

helping governments
and major companies

around the world
better think about and plan

for the future,

not working
to predict the future,

but looking at long-term trends

and the impacts they were

go
\h
ing to have across society.

It was an exciting time.

And it really did feel like
we were on the brink

of something extraordinary.

New technology
was poised to bring about

unprecedented prosperity
and connection.

Less poverty, more peace,
and shorter work weeks

were all right
around the corner.

But then something happened,
or didn't happen.

And that future
never really showed up.

We are now working more,
not less.

We have become more
technologically connected

and yet more deeply divided.

The consequences
of long-overlooked

environmental destruction are
showing up in terrifying ways.

And the stories
we tell ourselves

about tomorrow
are now stories of dystopia

where everything falls apart.

Our feelings
about tomorrow have shifted

from excitement to dread.

And the future
has become something

to avoid rather than to build.

But over the years,
my work has convinced me

the future is not set in stone.

We have the power to shape it.

That's what's led me here
to making this show.

I'm looking for the people

wh
\h
o are building better futures

for themselves,
for their kids,

and for the world around them.

Because the truth is, we have
choices to make right now.

And these choices
are going to have

major, long-lasting effects.

So I'm headed out on a journey
to meet the brilliant minds

and brave pioneers
changing our world

and reinventing tomorrow,

people who believe that we have
everything we need

to create better futures--

not perfect, but better--

and something each
generation can build on,

those challenging
the status quo,

expanding our ideas
of what's at stake

and what's still possible,
from food to education,

from the cities we live in

to the ways in which
we organize our societies,

people using new tools
and ancient wisdom

to restore our relationship
with each other,

to ourselves, and to this

be
\h
autiful place we call home,

a journey to rediscover
how far we've come,

and where we could take this
whole thing moving forward.

What I'm really

mo
\h
st interested in doing here

is trying to find the people

and the ideas
that are going to kind of

show us what futures
could be and from there

figure out which ones we want.

Man: So this is great.

So let's talk a little bit
about the science

of motivation.

What do we think--

Wallach: As my journey begins,
I'm interested in why,

even with all these
tools and technologies

available, so many of us
find it difficult to think

about the future.

That's brought me
here to sit down

with a behavioral psychologist
named Hal Hershfield.

Hershfield: Our future selves
often feel like strangers to us.

They feel like sort of
different people altogether.

One of the big findings
in the early days

of what's called
"social neuroscience"

is that
the brain can tell

what's me
and what's not me,

which makes sense
in a way.

If I'm sitting in a scanner,
and I think about myself,

I see more activity
in what's called

my medial
prefrontal cortex

and certain parts
of the brain there

than if I, say,
think about you.

Hershfield: I was more
interested because I thought

that that finding held the clue

for maybe why we start thinking

about our future selves
as different, other people.

In other words, if I can
distinguish between me

and you in my brain,
would I see

a same sort
of disconnect between me

and my future self
in my brain?

So here's what we did.

We had our research
participants

go into the scanner.

They see a little screen
in front of them.

It's a really boring,
basic screen.

And they see a word
at the top.

And the word
represents a person

they need to think about.

So they say, "OK.

Think about current self or
think about your future self."

And what we saw was that the
brain activity from thinking

about your future self
was more similar

to the brain activity
when people thought

about another person.

Wallach: What are the
implications of that?

It suggests that
on some deeper level,

we really do think
about our future selves

as if they are
other people.

When you take
that perspective,

if our future self
is some other person,

then the consequences
of my decisions right now

are going to befall
some other person.

All right.

So why don't you
look at me?

All right.
That's good.

All right.
Now keep that face.

All right. And let's
try this one more time.

We're going to do
something funny here.

All right. So let's
pull these up here.

And then here's the...
Oh!

older ver--
Wow. All right.

So what do you think
when you see that?

I mean, I'm sure
people have

a somewhat
similar reaction.

That looks shockingly
like my dad.

Yeah.

It seems like I don't
totally know who that is.

Right.
Right. Right.

But it also doesn't
seem that far from now.

Right.

Which is, in a way,
true to form, right?

Like, when we think
about our future selves,

you know, they may not
be that far from now.

We don't totally know
who they are, but--

When I first see that,
like, it's jarring.

And then now
you think, "OK."

Once you get over
the initial kind of shock

of where things could go,
you think, like, "OK.

"Well, like, if these are
still the same individual,

"like, how
does this one now,

"like, befriend and
best-friend this one.

And what would you
do for a best friend?"

I think that's, like,

the exact right
perspective there.

Because they're
not the same.

Yeah.

But it is that same
sort of relationship

of a best friend.

In some ways, the work
that you're doing,

it's like
a wormhole, right?

It's like the "Star Trek"
wormhole to the future

and lets us kind of
see ahead.

But, like you said, it's
not just about vision.

It's actually
about the emotions

that pull us through.

And I think this
is a key insight here.

This is really a
conversation about empathy.

This is a vision that's
really hard to conjure up.

I can't picture
my grandkids.

I can barely
picture my own kids

when they're older
because I'm so stuck

on what they
look like right now.

But I have
a really easy time

knowing how
I want them to feel

and knowing how I want
their kids to feel

and on and on and on.

And so,
like you said,

that's the empathy
through line.

That's the sort of
empathy freeway

that we want
to consider.

Wallach: It's powerful
to consider how we want

life to be for the generations
yet to be born.

And it forces us to think
beyond our own lifetime.

Man: Today, we live
in a world in which

we're ill-adapted to inhabit.

That wasn't
the world, the space

and time, the environment
that we evolved in.

So a natural
consequence of that

is some of our
cognitive abilities

aren't necessarily tuned
for the world that we've

miraculously managed
to construct,

a world in which we have
a vast amount of information

and an amazing ability
to address future problems,

to invest in the future.

And that ability is
something that perhaps

we don't use to the extent
that we would like.

Woman: I like to think
of the future as a story.

It's really a set of ideas
that we all engage in.

And so in some sense,

th
\h
e future is very malleable.

And in other ways,
it kind of doesn't exist.

And so it's open terrain
for lots of new ideas

and new ways
of being in the world.

Wallach: So when most people
ask me what's my story,

I actually start back in 1922.

Woman: This is the Holocaust
Oral History Project

interview
of Rachmiel Wolochwianski,

April 28, 1993.

Wolochwianski: I am born in the
city Baranowicze, East Poland.

Wallach: 1922 was the year
my father was born

in a small town called
Baranowicze in Poland.

Around the time
of his 18th birthday

was when the Nazis
invaded Poland.

Narrator: These were the only
pictures made in the city

during the siege.

Many of the middle-aged
were sullen and angry.

Youngsters were
half-resentful, half-resigned,

while their elders
turned to prayer.

Wallach: All the Jews were
pushed into a small ghetto.

Eventually, his mother and
sister were sent to Auschwitz,

and that's where
they perished.

Now, my father
and his brother and dad

were still in the ghetto.

And at one point,
they actually escaped.

And in the kind of escape
of leaving the ghetto,

my grandfather

wa
\h
s actually shot and killed.

And soon thereafter, my father
joined the Jewish underground,

the resistance,
and for several years,

basically he lived
in the forests of Poland

fighting the Nazis
day in and day out.

When I thought about what
I want to do with my life

I decided to choose a path
that would allow me

to kind of apply
the way I think

we should
be morally operating

as a species,

no
\h
t so much to just push back

against the Nazis of today,

wh
\h
ich is unbelievably important,

but in many ways to think
about what was happening

in the late 1920s
and late 1930s

before the Nazis came to power,
thinking about how

the world was in so much flux,
and why weren't there people

around to help steer us
towards a better path?

In many ways, that greatly
influences the work that I do.

I'm thinking about
where can we take this

in a positive way, right?

I'm not a futurist
who's saying,

"Look out for these different
icebergs on the Titanic."

I'm saying there are
icebergs out there.

We should navigate
through them.

But what is the harbor
that we're trying to get to?

♪

There's a phrase called
"cathedral thinking."

And what that means is,
how do we go about

making decisions
in the same ways

that those who build
ancient cathedrals thought?

Because when they were
building cathedrals,

I mean, more often
than not, the architect

and the initial builders
of the cathedral

wouldn't even be around

to
\h
see it actually completed.

It wouldn't happen
in their lifetime.

So they had to make
these decisions in a way

where they were literally
laying the cornerstone

for something that they would
never actually see completed,

but they were doing it
for the next generation.

I came to Cordoba
to see firsthand

a project that has been
many, many generations

in the making.

[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

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[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

Wallach: It's awe-inspiring
to experience something

that those who started never
lived to see completed

built as a gift
to those yet to be born,

a reminder that
the future is being built

on our actions right now.

The future is a verb.
It's something we do.

We can become great ancestors.

And that is what
the future needs us to do

right now,
to think in a way

that places us in their shoes.

♪

[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

[Speaking Spanish]

♪

Wallach: This idea of stepping
back to see ourselves

and the work we do in this
moment as a piece of something

larger is so powerful,
and it has the potential

to unlock bigger, better ideas

worth working towards
in the years to come.

♪

It's my first time
in Morocco, and I've

read about this massive solar
power plant for a while now.

And to be able
to come and visit it

is kind of like
a dream come true.

It's a little bit,
you know, solar, alternative,

renewable energy geek in me.

But to see a plant
kind of come up

in the middle of
the desert using the latest

technology that can power
a huge part of the country

is amazing for me.

So tell me, where
are we right now?

Wallach: So in this area
right here just alone,

how many of these
mirrors are there?

Two million?
Two million.

2 million
of these panels?

Yeah, in NOOR I.

Wallach: The complex
here is the largest

concentrated solar power plant
in the world,

generating enough power

to supply a million
homes in Morocco

with renewable electricity.

And in a country that doesn't

ha
\h
ve a natural supply of oil,

natural gas, or coal,
they believe this is the start

of something even bigger.

Wallach: What is kind of
your hope and your dream

for Morocco in terms of the
raw resources that are coming

to your land from the sky?

Wallach: What could
an energy-independent future

look like,
not just here, but everywhere?

What impact will it have on
our politics, our health care,

and the well-being
of the natural world

when we create a future
independent from fossil fuels?

Solar technology
is just one piece of making

that future a reality.

But as large-scale facilities
are popping up in countries

all over the world, the goal
of powering major cities

and entire countries
is getting closer every day.

♪

In Northern California,
scientists

are taking a similar approach
by applying long-term thinking

to the challenges
facing us today,

pursuing a long-held dream
of limitless clean energy.

Kritcher: I'm Annie Kritcher.

I was a lead designer
for the Ignition experiment.

We are at the National
Ignition Facility

in Livermore, California.

What we do here is,
we take two atoms,

and we smash them together,
and we make a heavier atom.

And that process
releases energy.

And so you're literally for
90 trillionths of a second

creating a mini sun.

That's correct.

Kritcher: The reason that we

ne
\h
ed to generate stars on Earth

is to reach
the extreme conditions

that are required to get
two atoms to fuse together.

So you need tens of millions
of degrees to do that.

We have 192
laser beams which enter

the ends of a hollow cylinder.

And then they hit the hollow
cylinder on the inside.

And that creates an oven,
a very hot X-ray oven,

which is
3 million degrees.

And inside of
the cylinder sits

a little, tiny capsule
the size of a BB.

Kritcher: And inside
of that little, tiny BB

sits the deuterium and tritium
that we want to fuse together.

And so this intense X-ray oven
heats the outside

of the capsule,

ex
\h
plodes that material outward,

and just like a rocket,
where the rocket fuel goes out

and that pushes
a rocket up,

we're squeezing
the material down

to half the size
of a human hair

from the size of a BB.

Because of that
outward expansion,

we get an implosion.

What is the goal of this
work in the big picture?

Nuclear fusion could
provide clean, limitless,

abundant energy
for mankind.

Fusion is really the
Holy Grail of energy.

Wallach: That dream reached

a
\h
major milestone here recently

as Annie's team
led an experiment

that successfully created
ignition for the first time.

This is the target bay.

Here we have the target
chamber, which is in blue.

It's a spherical
chamber.

It's about 10 meters
in diameter.

And here, the laser beams
come into the chamber.

The laser beams are what
drives our experiments.

Wallach: If it's
a 10-chapter book,

what chapter are we in
right now in this room?

I'd say we're not
in Chapter 1,

because we've been working on
this for quite a long while.

And we just had
the breakthrough.

I guess,
maybe Chapter 3.

The person that came up
with the concept to do this

did so before
I was born.

So it is really
a passing-the-torch,

multi-generation problem,
big-science problem.

Wallach: How should
we be thinking

about challenges like this?

Kritcher: I think it's
really important to consider

the long-term benefits
and also

the generations
coming after us

to create a clean world
for them and to give them

the necessary means
to be able to generate

energy in the future.

So it's a really
important grand challenge.

And it's just
so important

for our future
generations.

Wallach: One of the most
exciting things

about this moment
is that we have the tools

and potential to shape
the future in ways

that have never been
possible before.

The choices we make around

ho
\h
w we develop our technologies

here and now will set

a
\h
path for future generations

to build on.

In the great arc
of human history,

we are living in the midst
of an extraordinary time.

Neil Degrasse Tyson: Deep time,
like, what is that?

How could the universe
have been here without us?

What does it mean
that we've only been around

for the tiniest sliver of time
relative to the universe?

This is a humbling revelation.

Buonomano: All animals
have clocks in our brains,

going back to
a circadian clock,

because it's very
important to tell time

and to predict what's
going to happen.

But humans have been
obsessed with time,

in many ways, throughout--

since the beginning
of civilization.

And if you go back
through human history,

it's been one long
quest to measure time

with more and more
and more precision.

E.G. Marshall: Time--
our story is about men

who are attempting to defeat it.

Time is their enemy
in the search

for the ultimate origins of man.

Tyson: If you take
a football field,

100 yards,

and that's the timeline
of the universe,

cave dwellers to the present

on a timeline
that begins in one end zone

and ends in the other,

the thickness
of a blade of grass

at the end of that timeline

is from present day
back to cave paintings.

Buonomano: In many ways,
one of the cognitive abilities

that makes Homo sapiens
sapien--or wise, if you will--

is our ability
to conceptualize time.

And this ability to engage
in mental time travel

seems to be pretty
unique to humans.

Wallach: Over the years,
I've worked to help

various organizations think
about and plan for the future.

But recently, something
strange has started to happen.

Long-term plans
that were 20 or 30 years out

are now only focused
on the next 6 months.

As the pace
of the world gets faster,

our perspective
is getting smaller.

What does it take
to step back and develop

a long-term perspective?

How does our past
impact the future?

And what can we learn
from those who have faced

moments like these before?

[Men chanting in Kanienkeha]

Wallach: I'm here
to speak with someone

who spent her life working
to ensure her community

holds on to the best
parts of their past

as they look
towards the future.

Woman: Hi, Ari.
Do not get up.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you for
your invitation.

And thank you for
joining us here.

Thank you so much
for having us.

Thank you.
This is my husband Tom.

Oh, hey.

I'm just going to go
around really fast.

Yes.
Grandson.

Hey. Ari.
Pleasure.

Woman: My English name

is Antonia Loretta Afraid
of Bear Cook.

When I go in the nation's
house and I address the nation,

I am Anpetu Luta Win.

I'm called Red Day Woman.

Wallach: Loretta's work
began here with her own tribe,

where she works to pass on
the ancient ways of her people

to the next generation.

But that work quickly grew
as leaders around the world

recognized the wisdom
that these ideas held

for looking
at today's challenges

through a much wider lens.

Wallach: When we
think about the future,

why is it so important
that we remember the past?

I think that the most
important thing

about that
question is,

we have to have
interconnectedness.

I have to know
where I came from

in order for me
to teach my grandchildren

so that we
can move forward.

This idea of time
as an entity,

how would you say
it's separate

than the way time
is practiced today,

kind of--

It's very different.

Afraid: You practice time
according to a schedule

and according to,
"Oh, I got to get over here.

"I got to catch a plane.
I got to do this.

I got to do that."

And it's very stressful.

But if you were to set it up
in that spirit time,

OK, what are you
setting it up for?

There's definitive ways in

wh
\h
ich you approach that time.

If you're living
in a spiritual way,

then you have time
to pay attention

to the plants,
the trees, the animals,

the fish in the ocean.

And when you're doing
all of these things,

you begin to steward
what's around you.

But that's not
how we live today.

Today we live by that time
that's running on a clock,

and how much money can we make,
you know, doing this?

So you put profit over people.

Wallach: Spending time with
Loretta and her family,

it's obvious that these
concepts are not just ideas,

but rather principles that
inform how she lives and works

to pass on the ancient
ways of their people

to the next generation.

For her, these ways
are not just about the past,

but about a way of being
in the present that

recognizes the impact
that our lives will have

on future generations.

What is seventh-generation
thinking,

and why is it
so important today?

Do you have children?
Yes.

OK. So can you recount
back to your beginning?

I can probably go back
two or three generations.

OK. It's a concept.

And it's a loving
concept that we

talk about
to our loved ones.

So you make it
your business

to know what it is
about yourself

that you're going
to engage in so you

can get to that
seventh-generation thinking.

So 7-generation
thinking

is making decisions
as if you think

about the impact
they will have

on 7
generations from now?

Exactly.

Every decision that
I make in this moment,

I should think
about the impact

that it will have 7
generations from now.

But people are--
they love convenience.

They don't want
to think about,

oh, 7 generations,
you know?

But we have so many social
ills all over the nation,

all over the country.

And those are the things
that we're trying our best,

I think, in this generation,
to make a difference.

♪

What's your hope
for the future?

That we can all

si
\h
t together

at a spiritual table

and all of us be

to
\h
gether truly.

That's my prayer.
That's my prayer.

♪

Tyson: When we saw Earth
over our shoulders,

having visited the moon,

it was a firmware upgrade
in our sense of awareness.

Our first images
from the moon were 1968,

taken by astronauts.

That was the first mission
to the moon--Apollo 8.

They went to the moon,
orbited a dozen or so times,

and then came back.

One of those orbits,
they lifted the Hasselblad,

and there was Earth rising
over the lunar landscape,

just the way the moon rises
over the Earth's landscape.

Why do I call it
a firmware upgrade?

Because if you ask
any one of those people,

they're not
consciously thinking,

"I saw Earth from space,"
but they're feeling it.

Psychoemotionally,
they are reacting

to a cosmic perspective.

♪

Wallach: Humans are at their

be
\h
st when we're thinking bigger

than just ourselves,
when we look up and see

beyond this moment to remember
that we are part of everything

that came before us

and we're also laying
the foundation for generations

yet to come.

♪

But why do so many
of the systems

that govern our world
today seem so locked

into short-term thinking?

I've come to Japan to meet
an economist named Dr. Saijo

who's challenging
this way of thinking

with remarkable results.

So we know we have
this problem

of shortsightedness,

and we want
to kind of solve

for intergenerational
justice

and how we think
about time differently.

Tell me
about your work.

Wallach: Rather than just
writing about the problems

with short-term thinking,

Dr
\h
. Saijo started something here

called the Future Design Center
to test the impacts

of long-term thinking
in real-life situations,

bringing together
everyday people

from the town
to take part in creating

the future of their community.

[Speaking Japanese]

[Speaking English]

[Speaking Japanese]

Wallach: Community members
put on these robes

to signify themselves
as representatives

of future generations.

With this in mind, they work
to address the needs of today,

but bearing in mind
the impact these actions

will have on those
yet to be born.

The results
have been incredible,

like when they
achieved together

what traditional policymaking
had failed to address

for years,
reaching an agreement

to raise the community's
water tax by 6%

in order to address the town's
decaying infrastructure.

Today, more than 80%
of the town's policies

are created by citizens who

ha
\h
ve become what they proudly

refer to as future designers.

I'm not even from Yahaba,
but already I feel--

Quick.
That's right.

It's a quick shift.

That's right.
See in there.

Wallach: The work that you've
designed takes people

from being kind of
an individual by themselves

but instead starts
to make it like a chain.

You see yourself as part
of something that came.

Saijo: Yeah.

Wallach: Then you you're here.

But then you're connected
to something that will be.

Saito: That's right.

♪

Wallach: This idea of taking
a longer-term perspective

to the challenges facing us
today is beginning

to take shape around
the world, like in Wales,

where they recently
turned this thinking

into actual legislation,
appointing a new role

known as the future
generations commissioner.

Howe: I'm Sophie Howe, and I was
the first future generations

commissioner for Wales
and the first future generations

commissioner in the world.

Back in 2015,
our national parliament

passed a law called
the Well-Being

of Future Generations Act.

What we need to do is take
a systems approach to thinking

about the impact
of all of our actions,

what impacts they have today,
but crucially

in the context of this bill,
what impact

they have in the future.

Howe: They held a national
conversation with the citizens

of Wales where they posed
the question,

what's the Wales you want to
leave behind to your children,

your grandchildren,

an
\h
d future generations to come?

That dialogue
led to the government

identifying 7
long-term well-being goals,

and all of our
public institutions

must set objectives which
maximize their contribution

to all 7 goals.

Are you seeing sufficient
scale and pace of progress?

The guidance
made no reference

to the Future
Generations Act at all.

And this is part of
the challenge that we're seeing.

Howe: Built into

ou
\h
r legislation, the government

and our other
public institutions

have to take the advice
of the commissioner

or justify why not.

And they have to
justify that publicly.

So in Wales, because
we have this framework,

we've completely
transformed the way

that we're thinking
about transport planning,

for example, building
a new stretch of motorway

to deal with
the problem of congestion.

It's what we've always done.

But the commissioner's
intervention really

challenged the government
because you've never shifted

your investment to actually
giving people other means

of transportation--more walking,
cycling, safe routes

to those areas

an
\h
d public transport investment

to those areas.

We'll start to see
air pollution reducing.

We'll start to see
more people cycling,

which is good
for their health.

The long-term impact,
of course,

is that we want to see
an increase in life expectancy.

So I think people
are increasingly starting

to see those connections.

If we can embrace models
like we have in Wales,

that has the potential to have
a real trickle-down effect.

And imagine if we multiply
that by every decision

or every approach that a public
institution or a government

take to deciding how they're
going to roll out policy

and encourages them to--

well, not just
encourages them,

actually requires them
to join the dots

and think in a long-term way.

♪

Zaidi: We struggle a lot
with long-term thinking,

and we tend to default
to short term-thinking

quite often.

And so we've kind of set up
multiple aspects of society

to work in
a short-term capacity.

One of the first
questions I like to ask is,

who's benefiting from
the system being this way?

Our systems
are not really broken.

That's a bit of a misconception
to say that.

I think our systems
are designed to work

exactly the way
they are.

They're just not
necessarily designed

to work for you and I.

Narrator: Pollution is

co
\h
ntamination of the environment

that interferes
with the processes of life.

In seeking a better life
on Earth,

man in the 20th century
has created a great technology

at the expense of the
environment essential to life.

Tyson: We like
identifying ourselves

as an intelligent species.

But who made that measurement?
We did.

We are polluting
our environment.

We are altering

the very ecosystem
that we need to survive.

We're creating a next wave
of extinction

across the tree of life
without knowing

what the long-term consequences
of that might be.

I could define
intelligence in such a way

so that there is no sign
of it here on Earth.

My biggest fear is that, though
we call ourselves intelligent,

that we might not be wise
enough to be the shepherds

we need to be
to assure the survival

of generations yet to be born.

Zaidi: Having anxiety
about the future

is not an unreasonable thing.

It's actually
very logical in some ways

when you look
at the data around

what we're seeing in the world.

But the important
thing is that we have

the opportunity to shape it.

And the hopeful part
of that is that

we actually have
all the solutions we need

to address the problems.

What we don't have is the
context for those solutions

to take hold.

♪

Wallach: I'm interested
in exploring

more of these new solutions

and meeting the people
who are creating them.

That led me here to New Haven,
where a former

fisherman-turned-ocean-farmer
named Bren Smith

has become a catalyst

fo
\h
r change in this community.

So, Bren, I have no idea

wh
\h
at a regenerative

ocean farmer is.

So both, I want you
to tell me what it is

and how you got into it.
Sure.

Smith: I was born and raised
in Newfoundland, Canada,

the edge
of North America.

All I wanted to be
was a fisherman.

That was my dream.

I didn't want
to be a politician,

didn't want to
be an astronaut.

So I dropped out
of high school when I was 14

and headed out to sea
and fished the globe.

Cod, crab, tuna--
you name it, I fished it.

As I moved through,
the problem was,

I was fishing at the height
of the industrial fishery

tearing up whole
ecosystems, you know,

the things that we know now.

But when I was in--
out in the Bering Sea,

the cod stocks crashed
in Newfoundland, Canada.

And that was such
a wake-up call

because I thought
environmentalism

was about birds
and bees and bears.

And to see 30,000 people
thrown out of work,

fishermen walking the streets
like hungry ghosts,

an economy built up

and a culture built up
over hundreds of years

around a fishery,
you realize, like,

"Oh, this isn't
about the environment.

"This is about the economies,
the kitchen-table issue.

This is that there will be
no jobs on a dead ocean."

♪

Wallach: Bren's path
led him to ocean farming,

where he now grows kelp
and trains hundreds

of other fishermen just like him
to look at the ocean

in a whole new way.

In a time of growing concern
around land-based agriculture,

he sees untapped
potential here at sea.

♪

Smith: I might
come in again here.

Let's see, Ron.

So I've been farming
this patch of water

for almost 20 years.

And what you're
looking here at

is 10 acres
of kelp farm.

So we have anchors
on the side of the farm

and then just
rows of crop.

And the kelp is sitting
about, you know,

6, 7 feet below the surface.

And our job
as farmers is just to get

the right amount
of sunlight and nutrients

in order to grow.

So we care about the depth
and what time of year

we're planting,
what temperature.

So it's just simple as can be.

You know, I wish it
was more complicated.

I'd seem smarter.

But the idea is,

when you're working
with the ocean,

you need to be
a willow, not an oak.

And you need
to be something

that you can remove and
rebuild real easily.

Ron, now--

Hey, Ron, we got a lot
of pressure right here.

Here we go.
Now let me clean it.

All right.
There we go.

So what we're
going to do is,

you're just going
to grab a clump

with your hand here
and cut along.

But try to--
don't cut the rope.

So I'd rather
you go below.

And just lift it
on high.

OK. OK.
Do some more here.

I'm just
going to cut.

Smith: The power of kelp
is that it has so many uses.

Like, yes, we can eat it,
and we should eat it,

and it's going to be
the center of the plate,

because it's going
to be affordable.

We can make it delicious.

There's so much creativity
in the food sector.

You can use it
for biostimulants

and fertilizer and
land-based ag for feed,

cosmetics, pharmaceuticals.

Bioplastics
is a huge industry now.

The idea is really
to break down this sea wall

between land
and sea farming.

Nutrients are in the
waters--too much of it--

like phosphorus,
nitrogen, carbon,

all this sort of stuff.

It's collected,
use plants to do it,

bring it back,
and use it

for fertilizers,
biostimulants,

things like that

because there are all
these micronutrients

that apple
orchards need,

flower farms,
all this sort of stuff,

that it just is
very accessible

to the land-based
plants.

♪

Wallach: The old story, in terms
of humans and the sea is,

we go out there,
we take what we want.

We take as much as we want
as quickly as we want.

And then go back to land,
and we consume it.

What's the new story?

I think it's
a great question.

Like, we do need a story
for the future, right?

The biggest thing--
and I think this

gets missed in the
climate discussion a lot--

is that there needs
to be a cultural transition.

And you need to think about,
like, what motivates people.

What fills their soul and
gets them up in the morning?

This isn't necessarily
about money.

And that moment,
when I was a kid, and, like,

wanted to be a fisherman
because they had

self-directed lives
and the pride

of feeding
their communities,

that's what we need
to tap into.

That's what motivates folks.

And as a kelp farmer, yeah,
I've had to say good-bye

to rogue waves
and chasing fish.

But what I can embrace--

I own my own boat.

I succeed and fail
on my own terms.

I got to be, like,
an engineer, a scientist,

a farmer, all this
sort of stuff at once.

And I get to feed
the folks around me.

These are soul-filling jobs.

And that's the discussion
we have with fishermen.

Like, yes, we all have to
say good-bye to some things.

But do we get
the core of what makes us

wake up every morning?

And that's how you build
an army of innovation

at the end of the day,
a blue-collar innovation.

And quite honestly, you
get the politics right.

Like, if you can
tap into that,

where people
see themselves

as part
of the solution,

then the level
of innovation

and knowledge networks
and sharing and stuff,

I think that's where we
transition to a better future.

Because you just want
millions of minds

trying to figure this out.

But you got to tap
into the soul to do that.

[Gulls squawking]

Zaidi: Sometimes it can feel
like what we do doesn't really

amount to anything or doesn't
add to the bigger picture that

is unfolding or that we don't
have the ability to enact

change in the real world.

But the fact is that every
little action does add up.

The desire to talk about these
wonderful things in the future

that like, oh,
we'll have sustainability,

we'll have equity,
we'll have justice,

we'll have all
of these things,

what we need to do is borrow
those ideas from the future

and think about,
like, how we're

going to implement them today.

If you want a tree
to grow 20 years from now,

you have to plant a physical
seed to get that tree.

What sort of
future do you want?

And what's
the action you can take

right now to enable that
future to become a reality?

♪

Wallach: This idea
of planting seeds right now

for better futures
is an invitation

to all of us,
no matter where we are.

Here in the jungles
of northeast India,

I came to meet someone
who is doing just that,

leading a conservation
effort to challenge

how his community thinks about
the futures they are building.

Wallach: For years, I read
bout these extraordinary,

natural-grown bridges,
where ficus tree roots

are trained to grow
into living crossings,

lasting for hundreds of years,
connecting the villages

throughout the jungle.

Morningstar leads the effort
to preserve these bridges,

and with them, an ancient
way of thinking about

modern progress and the past.

Khongthaw: Building
a root bridge is, like,

a 1,000-year-old
traditional knowledge.

Wallach: Mm-hmm.

Wallach: So give me some facts
about the root bridges.

How many of them
are there?

What are
the longest one?

What are
the highest ones?

There are others
who are coming in

and saying, "That's nice,

but we can make
a bridge with concrete."

What's the threat
to you,

your way of life,

and really your
way of thinking

when these bridges

kind of go up
in your community?

[All speaking Pynursia]

How are you?
Sit down, please.

Please, sit down.
Yes, please sit down.

Wallach: In addition
to his work on the bridges,

Morningstar travels to speak
with students in schools

around the region, encouraging
them to find and protect

nature-based solutions
to the problems

facing the communities
here today

and in the years to come.

There's so much we can
learn from these traditions,

as around the world,
people are beginning

to rediscover
that natural solutions

can have profound results.

There are projects under way
around New York City

to restore oyster reefs
that offset

erosion along the shorelines.

And in cities
across China,

there's work being done
to enable mangroves

to serve as natural
seawalls, preventing

flooding around major cities.

This is not a quick fix.

And the people who start these
projects, these root bridges,

know they are doing something
that is not just for them,

but it's going to be
for their kids and even--

hundreds of years out.

So we're,
in many ways, saying

to both of
our communities,

"We're going to be in this
together for a while."

♪

Wallach: When we started this,
I was thinking

that so many
of the conversations

would somehow revolve
around technology.

And yet as I talk about
what people are working on,

what do they want
to see happen in futures,

they talk about
being human again.

And what's most
surprising to me

is the desire
to kind of start making

some decisions about what
do we want to leave behind

and what do we want
to start creating

more of that we've lost.

♪

What, right now,
gives you hope?

Hershfield: This is a wonderful
question because it's so easy.

It's so easy to only see
doom and gloom out there.

Even if we consider
the doom and gloom,

time still marches on.

There's no stopping
the progress of time.

So it gives me hope to
consider how we've done things

in the past to make
the present better

and what we might be
able to do now to make

the future better, as well.

Tyson: We are small
in time and in space,

participating in
a great unfolding

of cosmic events,

a reminder that civilization
is precious,

life is precious.

We should do everything
we can to preserve it

in this one moment
we have

to experience the glory
of this universe.

♪

Nature give me hope

because when you
look at the things

happening in the world,
the legislative, the war,

and the fighting,
the clash,

the rivalry,
the protests,

it's about, you know--
about human beings.

So, for me, the most
important thing about nature

give me hope because
the way you see nature,

you know, it's a good
thing to learn from nature.

So just go to nature
and sit there.

See the animals. See the ants.
See the birds. See the bees.

Just learn from them,
and then come back.

It will change your life.

Smith: You know, we can build
something from the bottom up

that we're proud of that's
beautiful that we can, like,

point to this moment
being, like,

"Yeah, we built
something to hand to you.

We started this for you.
Now you continue it."

Saijo: 10 centuries later,
when we open up

a kind of history book,

imagine, then,
are we the people

who destroyed our entire Earth?

That's the reason

wh
\h
y, see, we are short of food,

we are short of energy.

We don't want to be that
kind of ancestor, right?

Wallach: Uh-huh.

Saijo: Please think about
embracing our future.

That's my message.

Wallach: For the first time
in human history,

we are now grappling
with a set of issues,

a set of decisions that we
have to make that will have

long-term consequences for
Homo sapiens, for our species,

and for this planet.

If we want to think about
where we might be able to go

tomorrow, what could happen,
and what do we want to see

happen, it's important for

us
\h
to be able to kind of look

back and see ourselves as
part of something much larger.

If we really want
to move forward,

we have to be
curious about what

those different forwards and
those futures could look like.

♪