All language subtitles for A.Brief.History.of.the.Future.S01E02.1080p.WEBRip.x264-BAE_track3_[eng]

[Waves crashing]

Man, voice-over:
A few summers ago, I was
at the beach with my family.

And right when we got there,
we took off our shoes

and ran to the ocean's edge.

And we've all
experienced this before.

The waves kind of come in.

And as they wash out,
we feel ourselves sinking

because the sand beneath us
is getting wet.

But at the same time,

if we're looking out
to the horizon line,

it doesn't seem like
much changes.

It's very discombobulating.

Marine biologists
call this area

that is sometimes above water
and sometimes below water

the intertidal zone.

In many ways, that's where we
are right now as a society.

We're in an intertidal moment.

You feel like everything's
in some ways the same.

You still wake up.
You're still you.

But there's a shift,

and you can't quite
put your finger on it.

It's really a crossroads
moment for humanity.

Imagine, if you will, sitting
down to your morning coffee,

turning on your home computer
to read the day's newspaper.

Well, it's not as far-fetched
as it may seem.

Woman 2: Well, I think
what we're seeing

is a new digital wild west
where no one is in charge.

Thank you for the likes!
Let's get to 40,000.

[All clamoring]

Man: This is freaking crazy.

Woman: More than
3 billion people

in almost 70 countries
and territories

have been asked
to stay at home.

Joe Biden: The question is--
Donald Trump: The radical left--

Biden: Will you shut up, man?
Trump: Listen.

[All clamoring]

Woman: Abnormal behaviors
mean more panic,

aggression, confusion, or
anxiety during waking hours.

♪

Man: I don't believe we've even

se
\h
en the tip of the iceberg.

I think we're really
on the verge

of something wonderful
and terrifying.

[Thunder]

[Emergency alert system
beeping]

Man: I can hear you.
I think it's a filter.

Man 2: Yes. I'm here live.

I'm not a cat.

[Rumbling]

Man: How come you're
smoking weed in the Capitol?

Man 2: Because I can.

♪

Woman: Do you feel like too much
is changing too fast?

[Grimes' "Oblivion" playing]

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ I never walk
about after dark ♪

♪ It's my point of view ♪

♪ Someone could
break your neck ♪

♪ Coming up behind you ♪

♪ Always coming
and you 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 ♪

[Car horns honking]

Man: I use the term
the intertidal moment

to kind of describe
where we are

in the current kind of arc
of human history.

What sets this apart
from almost any other

intertidal
that has come before,

this is probably
the first time that we can

actually recognize that we're
actually in an intertidal.

So, instead of it
just kind of happening

and everyone
feeling discombobulated,

we all feel
something is not working.

And at the same time,

we're grappling and looking
for something else.

Hello there.

I'm curious about how
we can find and embrace

the creative potential
of this moment.

But first,
we have to get a bearing

on what moment
we're actually in.

That's led me here
to Columbia University,

where I sat down with a group
of graduate students

training to become the
future leaders of tomorrow.

So, it's 2040, and you're
being asked to kind of

describe this moment
in human history,

in the big scope.

Talk to each other.

Talk to me about
how you're going to describe

what it is that
we're going through right now.

Coming out of the pandemic,
and there's a lot of confusion

around, well,
if we're coming out of this,

what are we going into?

The world that we knew before
is just much different.

What is, you know,
that next step?

What's the life that
we're moving towards?

Nobody really knows.

Like, from individuals
to business leaders

to government leaders,
we're all here

just really trying
to figure it out.

And that
sense of leadership

as this is who
I want to follow to get there

is probably more unclear now
than it maybe has ever been.

I think this is
an interesting moment

of, like, excitement
and opportunity,

but it's all founded
in a level of uncertainty

that I have not been in before.

There were a lot of
things that I think

we took for granted,
a lot of certainties

that we had taken for granted

that I think have all
bubbled up to the top right now

in terms of, you know,
where is there security?

What does it look
like for something

to function correctly
for everyone?

What is it that
we are taking for granted?

Just revenue building
can't be the bottom line,

that individualistic mindset
can't be it anymore.

So, in 2040, if I looked back
and I explained to my kids

hopefully what this time
looked like,

I think it was a time
of opportunity

with responsibility.

I feel like also
climate-wise, this is--

I mean, these years are really

going to be, like, deciding
about our future, right?

So, by 2040, hopefully,
we'll be looking back

and say we made some very
wise decisions in that regard,

and we won't have
to tell our kids,

well, sorry,
we, like, did it wrong.

I really do hope that.

And I think
with regards to that,

there are a lot of
sort of turning points

that we are able
to shape right now,

which gives us a
responsibility you mentioned

and which means that
you have to think about

how you want
to shape the future.

♪

Wallach, voice-over:
When things are stable,
it feels safe.

But that's the opposite

of what the world feels like
right now.

From our lives to
our own jobs to our families

to our country to the climate
to the politics,

it feels unsteady,
it feels in flux.

When that happens,
your brain, your amygdala,

is going to say,
"This is not safe."

I don't feel like we're
in a stable place.

Man: You look at
any long form of humanity

over thousands and thousands or
hundreds of thousands of years,

if you go way back
to the beginning,

and it's flat.

It's flat in terms
of population.

It's flat in terms
of technology.

It's flat in terms
of communication.

It's flat.

And then for the last
eye blink, it explodes.

♪

You've never had a period on a
planet like the last 50 years,

really half a century of

un
\h
precedented human progress.

Education levels increased.
Infant mortality reduced.

Life expectancy
grew extraordinarily

all over the world.

Now, there were costs
to that globalization.

We are now at the beginning

of a new globalization in ways
that even a year ago,

never mind 20,
seemed inconceivable,

and, of course, I'm talking
about the AI revolution.

We're living through a moment
of extraordinary change.

Even good change can be hard.

The information environment
that we're living in,

it is completely
surrounding us.

It's coming at us 24/7.

And unfortunately
a lot of times,

this information that
comes at us is negative.

It stokes fear and anxiety.

But for young people
in particular,

there is more and more data
that we have that is telling us

that many young people are
in fact harmed.

There are 3 numbers
that really stick out to me.

If you look at a high school
with 1,000 kids in it,

about 450 of those children

are feeling persistently sad
or hopeless.

200 of those children

have considered
taking their own life.

And 100 of those kids
have attempted suicide.

As much as we're struggling
right now,

as much as our kids are
in a mental health crisis,

it does not have
to be this way.

There's a choice we have

between a world where people
are increasingly in despair

and a world where people are
connected to one another,

where we look at the future
and see possibility.

♪

Wallach, voice-over: Life has
always been full of change.

But the growing sense that we

ar
\h
e entering uncharted waters

is being felt around the world

in unprecedented ways
right now.

We're living in a time
between times

when what was
is no longer working

and what will be
has yet to be born.

But what happens in a moment
when the usual shifts

we experience all the time
in one industry or culture

become heightened
and intertwined?

What does it take to
navigate through a period

when the degree of complexity
and confusion in our lives

feels like
it's turned up to 11?

And what kind of stress
is this all putting
on our brain's ability

to make sense

of
\h
what we're living through?

Man: So, Ari, we're going to do
a neurofunctional assessment.

This is called a TheraQ.

It's picking up
brainwave activity.

There we go.
Beautiful.

Voice: This will only
take a few minutes.

Your assessment
is starting now.

Close your eyes.

♪

Wallach, voice-over:
Dr. Brown has spent his life

following the effects the
modern world is having on us

through traditional psychology

as well as
neurofeedback systems

that are getting
increasingly powerful

at monitoring
our brains' response

to the pressures of this
moment we find ourselves in.

One of the things
that I'm curious about

is how you see
this current moment.

And by that,
I mean this current moment

for humanity writ large.

Broadly,
I think we're in a time

that has moved more
and more towards

kind of the atomization
of individuals.

There are stressors that are
putting demands on our bodies

and on our brains
that are in turn

affecting the way
we live our lives

and the way we live together.

♪

One way of thinking
about this is that

our bodies and our brains

have a blueprint
that was laid down

for what was useful to survive
100,000 years ago.

And back then,
what you're trying to do

was not be eaten by a bear
or a saber-toothed tiger,

depending on how
far back you go.

♪

So, everything in our evolution

was shaping us
towards developing

an effective
fight or flight system,

dealing with physical threat,
immediate threat.

And that's not very well
suited to our life now.

Instead, we have
stressors and demands

that are longer term,
that are chronic,

and our bodies aren't
really designed for that.

Our brains aren't really
designed for that.

So, what happens when
you take someone who's wired

for fight or flight, you know,

hundreds of thousands
of years of evolution,

but you stick them
in a cubicle,

or you stick them, you know,
on a factory floor,

doing the same thing
over and over again,

or you put them
in a classroom
for 8 hours a day,

sitting at a desk?

I think we perceive a lot of
threat right now in our world.

And it's not often
the kind of threat

that we're designed
to deal with.

We're designed to deal
with concrete,

time-limited threat.

What we have is diffuse,

something bad's
going to happen,

I don't know what,
kind of threat.

And it's not time-limited.
It's ongoing.

Wallach, voice-over: A lot of us
feel that right now,

this kind of low-grade sense
of fear and uncertainty

about where we're headed.

And it can leave us
feeling powerless

over what comes next.

[Wind howling]

But what do we do when
some of these threats

are not imagined,
but rather painfully real?

One of those is a threat to
the natural world around us.

The systems that sustain
all life on this planet

are warning us that
things are not OK.

And yet if you're like me,

it
\h
's so easy to feel helpless

in the face
of a challenge this big.

That led me here to
the northeast coast of Canada,

where Valérie Courtois leads
a growing group of people

who refuse to ignore
this threat right here,

in one of the most
ecologically important

places on Earth.

Tell me about this land.
Where are we right now?

We're in Nitassinan, which
is the Innu word for our land

or the place of the Innu,

specifically known as
Labrador today.

We're at the foot of
the Mealy Mountains.

Interestingly, the
Mealy Mountains is a joint park

between the Innu Nation
and Parks Canada.

It's the largest intact forest
left on this planet.

It is home to over
5 billion birds.

It's got a quarter of
the world's wetlands,

a fifth of the
world's freshwater.

It actually absorbs
twice as much carbon

as tropical forest
per hectare.

And so, in terms
of climate regulation,

this is the most important

terrestrial landscape
on the planet.

There's a movement afoot,
several movements afoot

around the planet,
but especially here

for First Nations
and obviously
in Indigenous groups,

to actually have
a much stronger part

in protecting
and preserving these lands.

Why is that so important?

Well, you know, 80% of the
world's remaining biodiversity

is on lands that are loved
by Indigenous peoples.

And that's not an accident.

It's because we know that

we're responsible
for those landscapes.

And unfortunately, Western
society has lost its way.

And, so we're finding
that more people

are looking
to Indigenous peoples

and looking to us
for new ways

of thinking about
that relationship.

How do you feel about
the biodiversity loss

that these lands are
going through right now?

I feel grief.

I feel a loss of
responsibility,

and I feel guilt that
we've gotten to this place.

But I also know
that not all is lost.

You know,
the world is resilient.

The land is resilient.
We are resilient.

♪

Wallach, voice-over:
Valérie has spent years

lobbying the Canadian
government to invest in

protecting these ecologically
rich environments.

And her work led
to the creation of a group

known as The Guardians,
a First Nations-led initiative

across the country
tasked with defending

the long-term health
of the land.

Together, they steward not

on
\h
ly these fragile ecosystems

but also an ancient way
of seeing themselves

in relationship
with the land itself.

- Yeah.
- Cheers.

Man: This is the first time
that we talked about

working as a superintendent
here in the National Park

and also with working
with Innu Nation.

We've been asked to
do up a guideline...

- Mm.
- About how to protect it.

And I say to the government

that we've been doing this
for thousands of years.

If we didn't manage
the way we managed,

there wouldn't be any animals.

There wouldn't be
any resources at all.

And now you're expecting us to
write it and put it on paper

and have it stamped
and say this is how it is?

It's a way of thinking.
Exactly.

It's a mindset.

Man: In the Western world,
you get people

that want to overcut,
want to overkill,

want to kill every fish
in the water,

every caribou that
walks on the Earth.

But the Innu,
they don't think like that.

There's not clear cut
in the whole area

just for profit
or to sell to somebody else.

They just think, OK,
I just need this for this long,

or I need this to feed my
family and my mother-in-law.

So, I'll take this many salmon
out of the river,

and then I'm done.

I think we need to--
we need to go kind of go back

to that relationship and make
a conscious effort to do it.

I think if more people were
connected to the land,

we'd be a much better world.

Mm.

♪

Courtois, voice-over: Our

la
\h
nguages come from the land.

Our practices, our laws,

everything
comes from the Earth.

We can
learn those things again.

I don't know about you,

but I want to be here
for a little while.

Yeah.

And I want my children to
be here for a little while.

And I want my grandson
to be here for a little while.

We have a role to play
and we should be

helping decide and taking care
of this place.

♪

Wallach, voice-over: It's
an unforgettable experience

to spend time with people

wh
\h
o simply refuse to give up,

building on ancient wisdom to

lo
\h
ok beyond our modern moment

to a future
worth fighting for.

These are the stories
we need right now.

It's so easy
to see what's wrong

and even easier
to lose hope altogether.

But the creativity comes
in finding new ways

to do something about it.

I'm in Rotterdam
to meet Boyan Slat,

who's doing this very thing,
inventing a technology

designed to give our oceans
a second chance.

Tell me how you got started.

I was 16 years old.
I went scuba diving in Greece.

And I was hoping to see
all these beautiful things.

Then I looked around me,
and I just saw a garbage dump.

I just saw more
plastic bags than fish.

And I was so dismayed
and shocked by that

that I asked myself
a simple question.

Why can't we just
clean this up?

♪

The Great Pacific
Garbage Patch is

the largest accumulation of

trash in the world's oceans.

It's an area halfway between
Hawaii and California.

It spans twice
the size of Texas,

and it contains about
250 million pounds of trash.

Plastic is one of
the largest threats
our oceans face today.

There's now 700 species

known to be directly impacted
by plastic pollution.

A few hundred of those

are actually threatened
with extinction.

The most uncertain
factor but perhaps

even the most
impactful factor

is the health impact
to us humans.

Plastic breaks down

in
\h
to smaller, smaller pieces.

They transport toxic chemicals
into the food chain,

and that's a food chain
that includes

more than 3 billion people
that rely on fish

as their key source
of protein.

♪

Wallach, voice-over:
Boyan and his team are
working towards a goal

to clean up 90% of
floating plastic pollution.

And here's
the most powerful part.

It took several attempts

be
\h
fore they created something

that even had a chance
to achieve that.

It was touch and go.

People said the system
he was inventing

would never work.

But then it did.

♪

Slat, voice-over:
So, the system itself

is a long, U-shaped
floating barrier

that we drag forth very slowly

just to make sure that
the fish can escape in time.

It acts like a funnel.

Pl
\h
astic goes towards the center

where we have what we call
the retention zone,

which is a collection bag.

Every few days when it's full,
we take the bag onto a ship.

We empty it, sort the waste,

and then ultimately, we bring
it back to land for recycling.

♪

Actually, the oldest
object we ever collected.

And you can see
how it's been degraded.

Yeah.
So, these flakes are
coming off.

The thing is
because of UV light,

because of the sun,

the plastic becomes
more brittle.

So, then, layer by layer,
like an onion,
it kind of peels.

So, this eventually can end up
in the fish that we eat.

Yeah, and this can
turn into

millions of pieces
of microplastics.

Yeah.
So, in here,
what you see is the,

essentially, the recycling
process in steps.

So, actually, half
of what we get out of

the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch is fishing nets.

- Mm-hmm.
- So, it looks just like this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I would say probably
the most harmful type

because this, of course,
ensnares a lot of wildlife.

So, what we then do
is we wash it,

and we shred it to get
to this kind of pulp.

Yep.

And then ultimately,
we injection-mold it,

we compound it,
so, we add some additives

to make sure that
the materials is safe
and high quality.

And then it becomes this.

So, these are what
you call pellets.

And these are the building
blocks for any new object.

So, you can just mold this
into something new,

and the idea is that
we are producing durable,

sustainable products
out of this,

and with that,
help fund the cleanup.

Actually,
as a proof of concept,

we made these sort of

high-end designer sunglasses.

Wow.
So, this is 100% made from

the plastic we took
out of the Great Pacific
Garbage Patch.

They look good on you.
These are great.

So, if the Garbage Patch is
cleaned up in 10 to 15 years,

what's to prevent another one
20 years from now forming?

Realistically, the amount of
plastic that's being produced

is not going down.

In fact, the projections
are that by 2060,

the amount of plastic produced
will increase threefold.

So, really what we need
to do is

we need to decouple
the plastic usage

from the plastic flows
into the ocean.

♪

We have interceptors now
in 11 rivers,

some of the most polluting
rivers in the world.

And we believe we can really
stop most of

the world's plastic emissions
from leaking into the ocean.

Wallach: What do you think
when people say

what you're doing
is impossible?

I think when somebody says
something is impossible,

I think the sheer absoluteness
of that statement

should make you suspicious
of it.

If you look at history,

everything that we now
take for granted

used to be impossible
at some point in time.

So, if you're an entrepreneur,

if you're trying to
make something,

if you're trying to create
something, yes,

I think it's very important
to listen

and to listen
to people's advice.

But if there's
one bit of advice

that you should
really ignore,

it's people who say that
something can't be done.

♪

Wallach, voice-over:
The challenges facing Boyan
and us all are daunting.

Intertidal times
are full of danger,

but it's also where
all the creative juice is.

And for those of us who want
to push the envelope

on who we are
and what's possible

on this planet
looking forward,

this is our moment.

[Explosions]

Man, voice-over: Man,
one of the most fragile of
Earth's creatures,

the builder of civilization,

entrusted by nature with the
unique but dangerous ability

to alter the very conditions
that gave him rise.

Wallach, voice-over:
We've been in moments
like this before.

The big one is moving from

hunter-gatherer
to agricultural.

That was maybe 10,000,
12,000 years ago.

We went from being
in small clans and tribes

to now actually
starting to urbanize.

We also have things like
the Gutenberg press.

So, we went from an era

where knowledge could
only be held by a few people

to now being able
to mass-create knowledge

in a way that would actually
bring it out to people.

Now, from that,
you got the Reformation

and all sorts of
upheaval around Europe

and around the world.

Another one is kind of
moving from this idea

that the Earth is the center
of everything,

to moving towards heliocentric
models of how the world works.

Moving from us being
the center of the universe

to just being one kind of node
in a multi-noded galaxy

and universe was
highly disruptive.

The Industrial Revolution,
moving from this idea

that the power that
we had in the world

was just what we could do
with our own hands and backs

and change where we lived,
what we ate, how we travel.

It changed how we fought wars.

And it also fundamentally
changed the way we told stories

about who we are
and where we're going.

When we go through
these moments

of flux and creativity,

all sorts of new things
start to arise.

♪

That's the potential
before us right now.

These threats and challenges
hold opportunities

to remake the world.

As the old ways break down
and fall apart around us,

what does it look like

to
\h
reimagine what comes next?

In Albany, Eben Bayer
and his team at Ecovative

are working to answer
that question...

using mushrooms.

♪

So, we're going to
head right over here.

All right.
So, as I understand,

this is kind of just
a beautiful piece

of mycelium, basically,
in a sense.

- Yeah, yeah.
- Like foam-like substance.

What is this?

This is a
leather-like material.

We call it a forager hide.

And it's made from
this foam.

We just squish it
and tan it and color it

and you get something
that behaves, looks,

and feels a lot like leather.

So, how long will this last?

So, this particular
leather-like hide

will last for
a year or two

in this application
as tanned.

You could make it
last longer by putting

other tannery
chemistries in,

like we use
for conventional leather.

So, this is where
we actually

started with something
called mushroom packaging.

These are just little
corner blocks

that would go on a box
you might get in the mail,

and, you know, they've got
little breakaways on them.

And then when it gets to you,
unlike Styrofoam,

big difference is you can
just start to break this up.

If you have a compost at home,
you can put it in your compost,

or you could put it
in your yard waste bin.

And within 30 days,

this will turn into
a nutrient,
not a pollutant,

in whatever
your local ecosystem is.

What are the biggest problems

that you're trying
to tackle here?

The problems that
we focus on at Ecovative

are around plastic pollution,
so, this idea that we just

created this incredible
miracle material

that can't degrade,
and it's, like,

clogging up the lungs

and everything
of our Earth's ecosystem.

And the other is around
animal agriculture,

so, the mass production of
animals for food or materials.

I grew up farming
in Central Vermont.

It's fine to raise animals.

Doing it industrially is
not ecologically responsible

or ethically responsible.

...here.
Those units over there...

Wallach, voice-over:
Eben sees times of

di
\h
sorder and chaos like these

as full of opportunity
for transformation.

Rather than simply
seeing problems,

he sees openings
full of potential

to invent entirely new ways
of doing things

that most of us take
for granted.

Welcome to
the magic store.

♪

So, what you're seeing here
are the aspects

of a conventional
vertical mushroom farm.

You've got your
shelving system here.

You've got your
environmental controls.

And now we've modified it
to use the soil we use

to grow our special forms
of mycelium.

And rather than getting
a bunch of mushrooms

growing out of that bed,
you're actually getting

a slab of mycelium tissue.
That's really the power.

- There's no wasted space.
- There's no wasted space.

- Because it's sheer mycelium
all the way across.

- Yep.
- Like in a slab.

Well, one of these
rooms could produce

20,000 pounds of mycelium.

So, a harvest machine
will pull up.

And it comes out
like a conveyor.

It comes across and
squishes into basically

like a pork belly,
or a mush belly, we call it.

And then those come off

and those go
to the bacon facility.

- Wow.

♪

Wallach: So, now,
this came out in a block.

Bayer: Yeah.

Wallach: And then
you started slicing it?

It rides along just like

a piece of pork belly
would be.

So, run it through
the slicer,

you get your
slices of bacon,

you add salt and sugar
and some natural flavorings.

And then at the very end,

we put the coconut oil on,
which is the fat,

because mushrooms don't have
any fat in it.

And this is
minimally processed.

Sliced and smoked, basically.

Compare and contrast
the inputs

that would go into, you know,
5 pounds of this

versus 5 pounds
of bacon from a pig.

So, to produce a million
pounds of our product

takes about an acre of land

in
\h
one of our vertical farms,

and it occurs over
about 10 days.

To produce the same amount
of bacon using a pig,

you'd need about
a million acres of land.

- Hmm.

- And you would also need

to feed that pig
high-quality food,

so, like, grains
versus woodchips.

And then you have
to grow them

for a period
of 6 to 9 months.

And so, in each of those
dimensions, land use,

the input material,
and the time frame,

we're massively,
like by an order of magnitude,

improving the equation.
- Mm-hmm.

♪

Tastes like bacon.

Now, tell me,
where does this go,

because so far, we've heard
about packaging, right?

Obviously, there's food,
and you've mentioned leather.

- Yeah.
- Where do you take this?

My dream is
we grow everything.

You know, I think we can grow
almost everything around us

from the buildings
to the medicines we need

to the food we eat.

And we'll do that through
structural materials,

nutritional materials,

and even things that might
be alive when you use them.

Such as?

Well, you could
imagine a building that

senses the environmental
conditions within it

and maybe even releases
beneficial compounds to,

like, clean the air.

You can imagine buildings in
an earthquake develop cracks

and in those cracks,
there are, like,

embedded little water balls
that break open.

And the fungus is not dead
but is dehydrated,

which it can do,
and it'll start growing

and seal up all those cracks.

Mushrooms are uniquely
situated to save the world.

Wallach, voice-over:
What Eben and his team
are doing here is inspiring

and it gives me a renewed
sense of possibility

for the kind of futures
we can choose

to create in this moment.

♪

Here in New York, an architect
named Bjarke Ingels

is working with
a similar perspective

to reimagine the cities
in which we live.

Ingels, voice-over: I think

ma
\h
ybe the best way to explain
what's so special

about architecture
and the power of design

is that the Danish word
for design isformgivning,

which literally means
form-giving.

When you design something,
you're giving form

to that which has not yet
been given form.

In other words, you are
giving form to the future.

So, when you're designing
a place or a building,

you are giving form

to
\h
a little part of the world

that you would like
to find yourself

living in in the future.

♪

How do you think
about the moment of time

that we're in right now?

It's kind of chaos and flux.

And a lot of people will
want to look backwards,

where others will want to
stick their head in the sand

to keep what they have.

How do you think
about this moment?

Ingels, voice-over:
We're living in a time where
a lot of technologies

are bringing possibilities
to the table

that we have never been
even close to before.

And I sense that this
innovation that has been

maybe locked in virtual
in the last few decades

has finally arrived
in physical space.

And maybe give
you one example.

The building we designed
in Copenhagen called CopenHill

is the cleanest
waste-to-energy power plant

in the world.

The steam that
comes out of the chimney

is actually cleaner than
the air of Copenhagen.

Suddenly, the power plant
no longer had to be

some ugly, dirty,
polluting eyesore.

It could actually
be a welcoming,

inclusive environment.

We could make the facade into

the tallest man-made
climbing wall in the world

and we could turn the roof

into an alpine ski slope.

So, it's an idea we call
hedonistic sustainability,

that the sustainable building
or the sustainable city

is not only better
for the environment,

it's also much more enjoyable

for the people that get
to inhabit it.

Wallach: A lot of times,
when people hear the term
sustainability

or even regenerative,
they think,

"Something's going to
be taken away from me.

"It's not going to be
as fun.

"I'm not going to
be as happy.

I'm going to lose
all these things."

That's not the way
you think about it.

23 years ago, we opened

the Copenhagen Harbour Baths,

a simple floating
structure that

extends the life of the city
into the water around it.

On opening day,
it became so clear

that the clean port is not
only nice for the fish,

it's actually amazing for the
people that live in that city,

and this idea that
the sustainable city

is not only better
for the environment,

it's much more enjoyable
for the people that live in it.

Like half of the Copenhageners
commute by bicycle,

not because it's
environmentally friendly

but because it's the most
enjoyable and effortless way

to move around
the city quickly.

So, in that sense, we just

keep reminding ourselves that

there is a better and more

enjoyable way of doing it.

And I think the benefits

of a sort of environmentally
friendly city is that it is

greener and cleaner
and more enjoyable.

Wallach: Tell me

ab
\h
out the cities of the future.

Where are we going?

Where do we need to go?
What does it look like?

Ingels: If you would return
to Manhattan in 10 or 20

or maybe 50 years,
you might see streets

that entirely become
almost like linear parks

woven together in both
directions of Manhattan.

People can walk and play

where you used to have traffic
and parked cars.

You might have different
kinds of personal mobility

also taking over whole areas.

Our cities will really become
greener and more enjoyable,

which will make them more
walkable and more bikeable.

So, I think a lot of the
dichotomy between the city

and the countryside,

you're going to get

mu
\h
ch more interesting blends.

The city isn't the way it
is because it has to be.

The city is the way it is

because that's how far
we've gotten.

And if we would like
to ask more of our city

or if we would like
our city to accommodate

another kind of life
than what it used to,

we actually not only
have the possibility,

we actually have

a
\h
responsibility to make sure

that our city fits

wi
\h
th the way we want to live.

♪

Wallach, voice-over:
In 1945, my mother was born
in Oakland, California.

And very early on,
she realized that where

she could kind of bring
her gifts to bear in the world

was through creativity.

And so, she ended up becoming
a professional artist.

Growing up, my mom would often
bring paintings

that she was working on kind
of back into circulation.

So, most people think
of an artist

as someone who
paints something.

They're done.
They put it up on the wall.

My mom had paintings
hanging in her garage

or around the house
that she had painted

in the 1960s and '70s.

And every once in a while, I'd
see one of those on the easel,

and she would
kind of add to it.

And I'd say, well, "I thought
that painting was complete."

She said, "A work of art is
never necessarily complete.

It's up to the artist."

And so, what I learned is

even when
you're crafting something,

that you can always
come back to it.

You can always make changes

because you've
learned new information.

You can take from the past.
You can augment it.

It really means that things
are fungible and changeable

as long as you're trying
to make them better.

♪

Sometimes, the way
to make things better

is to look at who needs help.

Where is there a need?

And how can we improve

on the way things are
currently being done?

We have powerful new tools
and technology

available to us right now.

And rather than just
using them to entertain

or sell us more stuff,

we can meet
actual human needs,

altering and improving
the experience of being alive.

Woman: My name is
Veena Somareddy,

and I'm the co-founder and CEO
of Neuro Rehab VR.

We create virtual reality
therapy applications

for physical therapy,
occupational therapy,

for patients who might
have gone through a stroke

or a spinal cord injury
or Parkinson's or MS,

and we help them get
back their limb function

as best as we can.

Physical therapy
hasn't really

changed since the sixties.

It's very manual.

It's very tedious
for the patient

as well as
the physical therapist.

And sometimes, you need
one or two therapists

working on one patient.

So, it's just not possible
in a modern world

when there is shortage
of clinicians

and also access to care.

What's the big opportunity
for humanity

in terms of these new kind
of digital reality realms

that are being built,
and that we're kind of,

in many ways,
kind of living into?

For me, I think
on the health care side

would be access to care,
access to care for anybody,

not--you know,
in any socioeconomic status

that they're in, which has been
a huge problem in health care,

being able to send our systems

to somebody who doesn't
have access to therapy

so they can do it on their own
in their own time

and get back that function
that they might have lost,

and come back into society.

♪

Wallach, voice-over: Veena

di
\h
dn't just see what was broken

in the field of
physical therapy.

She saw what was needed,
what could be,

and created something new.

While we were at the clinic,

she let me experience
the work for myself.

Somareddy: So, you'll have
a green ball coming at you,

and you have to dodge it.

You can move to your left
or you can move to your right.

- Now I see a picnic table.
- There you go.

You'll see the ball
coming at you.

There you go.

Do you feel like Neo
from "Matrix"?

- Yes.
- There you go.

I mean, obviously,
this is helping with balance.

But what other things
is this helping with?

Weight shifting is a huge
thing with stroke patients.

- OK.
- Because usually
when they're affected,

when they have a stroke,
they're paralyzed on one side.

And they're very
afraid about

putting their weight
on that affected side.

Is it that you can't do it

or it's like the fear of

doing it
and what might happen?

It is mostly the fear,

especially
with chronic patients.

They're used to what
they cannot do, they know,

"This is what I cannot do,
and these are my limitations."

And they're stuck with it.
- Yeah.

But once you put them
in an immersive environment

where they don't see the bias
of their diagnosis,

that you don't see
your body right now.

All you're concentrated on
is on dodging that cannonball.

- I am.
- Right?

So, that takes them
out of that fear

of not being able
to do something.

Now, what should I do
with the chicken?

Should I eat it?
You can eat it.

Yep. Exactly.
[Chuckles]

I was working with
a stroke patient.

And her goal for therapy
was being able to

go grocery shopping
with her grandkids again.

And so, we were like,
let's create that.

So, you can practice
everything that you'll

have to do in real life
right here in VR,

so, it feels like
you've done this before,

and you're not afraid.

So, you've got eggs.

So, what you're doing right here
is pattern-matching,

being able to pattern match

from the item that's
on the shopping list

to the item that's
on the shelf,

which is something a lot of
people can forget

or lose that
after a stroke incident.

So, right here, we're able
to simulate everything

from the touch, the feel,
the visual aspects,

and the ambience, too,

so that they can
get used to all of that

before they actually
go into a grocery store.

Wallach, voice-over:
Obviously, the VR that

you're mostly working on
right now are people

who have suffered either
from a stroke

or neurodegenerative diseases.
Somareddy, voice-over: Right.

Wallach: But I would imagine
it also can start

working for other traumas.

Somareddy: So, this is
something that works

on also PTSD for veterans.

Exposure therapy has
been shown to desensitize them

for the fear that
they might have experienced,

the trauma that
they might have experienced.

Just the sounds of
being in a battlefield

can help them
decrease that anxiety.

A fear of spiders,
a fear of heights,

you can work on all of this
in the virtual world.

And you know that you're not
going to get hurt.

And then maybe go back
to the real world

and be able to experience that

without the amount of fear
that you might have had.

Wallach: The overlap between
digital and lived realities

is growing every day.

And as new AI tools continue
to expand what's possible,

Veena believes this work
is only the beginning.

♪

[Upbeat pipe organ music]

AI has been around since
the early 20th century

as a concept.

Voice: 1, 2, 3.

Woman: Hello, Kismet.

- Peek-a-boo!
- I love you, doll.

In the nineties,
we got computers

that could process
vector graphics

for video games
and that type of thing.

And that enabled
a revolution to happen

in neural computation.

So, we could start to
stack up layers of neurons,

and that's what's called
deep learning.

And that's what's really
advanced the field so much.

We could create a world
where AI is just driving us

towards more consumption

and more recommendations
of products.

Or we can create a world where
AI is allowing us

to express different things,

to understand ourselves
in different ways.

Whichever of those outcomes
is more likely to happen

has a lot to do with
who's making the AI

and why they're making it.

Wallach, voice-over:
The conversation around
artificial intelligence

is thrilling and complex.

And at the current speed
of innovation,

it's hard to keep up
with how fast

these tools are developing and
to what end they will be used.

Greg Cross and his team
at Soul Machines

have been working on these
technologies for years.

What is surprising you
most about the field

and/or the state of
AI today?

We are living in
a moment of time

where sort of AI has crossed
the threshold from something

that the techies and the geeks
talked about all the time

to it's now on the lips of,
you know,

just about every human being
on this planet.

Artificial intelligence--will
it be the savior of humanity

or lead
to our ultimate demise?

Woman, voice-over: Many people
are going to ask,

"Why on Earth did you
create this technology?"

Cross, voice-over:
The speed at which
things are moving now

is just, you know,
astonishing.

You know, stuff that I used
to think about, well,

that's 3 to 5 years away,

that's, like, now
12 months away now.

Wallach, voice-over: So,
what are you and your team

working on right now?

So, Soul Machines sits
at this intersection

of technology
and entertainment.

We create avatars, you know,
so, CGI characters.

And we bring them to life
using some very,

very specific different fields
of artificial intelligence.

So, our digital characters
are alive.

- Mm.
- They are digitally alive.

A lot of people feel
we are very much

at a crossroads moment
for humanity,

for our species
on this planet.

But you're generally
very kind of optimistic.

But what's driving most
of that hope right now?

One of the really, really
cool things about

artificial intelligence is

you're creating
a learning system,

so, the way in which
we simulate human behavior,

the subtlety which we can
simulate human behavior.

I mean,
this is about making, yeah,

it sounds like a corny phrase,
but making AI your friend.

Woman on screen:
It's great to meet you.

Patrice, what do you think
the future will be like?

Patrice: I'm very optimistic
about the future of AI

and how it will
shape our lives.

The possibilities are endless.

Can you tell me
about yourself, Patrice?

Patrice: Absolutely.
I consider myself

a vibrant
and professional personality,

and I bring energy and
enthusiasm to everything I do.

Patrice, how will AI change
what it means to be human?

Patrice: On one hand,
AI can help us

achieve things
that were once impossible.

At the same time,
we need to remember

that AI is still a tool
and cannot replace humans

when it comes
to making decisions.

Tell me more about
the work that goes into

creating something
like this.

Yeah. So, you know,
Patrice is what we call

a synthetic digital person.

So, she doesn't exist
in real life.

She's not a clone
of a real person.

So, she's entirely made up.

So, to create Patrice,
we've built a creation suite

we call Digital DNA Studio.

Wallach: So, right now, there's
a lot of fear and concern

about what AI could do
to us, do to humans.

How do you see this?

Well, I mean,
at the end of the day,

I think the debate is really,
really the most positive thing

that can happen at the moment
in terms of people

talking about what it means

for the businesses
that they work in,

the industries
that they compete in,

the communities they
live in, the type of

regulatory environment
they would like to see.

But the debate
is absolutely critical.

Allado-McDowell, voice-over:
You have to look at
the holistic picture

of everything
that's happening right now.

AI is not happening
in a vacuum.

It's a really profound
technological shift.

But it's also
happening alongside

mass extinction,
climate change,

the greatest economic
inequality that we've had.

We're becoming aware that our
actions have global effects.

♪

Bremmer, voice-over:
When we start talking about
artificial intelligence,

that's the first thing
in our history

that has the potential
to either

change us as human beings
into a future form

or extinguish us.

There's never
been such a thing.

♪

Allado-McDowell, voice-over:

Th
\h
is is part of a profound shift

in how we see
the role of the human.

And that's a little scary but
also potentially very hopeful.

Because I think
a lot of the reason

we're having these perceptions
is because of problems.

It's because of things that

human-centricity created,
shortsightedness.

If we think about AI
in the long term,

it really does matter
what we do now

because it will affect
future generations

just like it does with
everything else that we do.

We cannot be narcissistic
as a species.

♪

Wallach: So what should
we be optimizing for?

As leaders,
if you want to galvanize

and bring people together,
you have to have a vision.

You want to co-create
that vision.

But you need to--
you know, there's a telos.

There's an ultimate aim.

There's a goal
if we want to move forward.

And I will put on the table
that we've lost that.

So, take me there.

I think we are
at an inflection point.

Like across society,
we have this access
to amazing technology.

We have people that are
thinking differently

about what is their purpose?

What is the world
going to be in 2040?

So, that gives us a chance
to make change

and make decisions
that can be beneficial to all.

However, we can very much
have all these conversations

and not make any decisions.

So, nothing actually
does change.

So, my fear is that while
we have this opportunity

that we don't
take advantage of it,

and then we're continuing
to live through the same things

years from now.

Are we providing basic human
rights, basic human needs?

And then beyond that, like,
how do we incentivize

that innovation which pushes
GDP, that solves cancer,

that brings AI into the new age

and allows us to just sit
and make music all day

instead of having to worry
about, you know,

building another slide deck.

Woman: I would like
to challenge you on GDP.

Man: OK.
Woman: Because I feel like GDP

is what we're all chasing now.

The question is, like,
up until what point?

Some people
or some corporations

are super successful,

they drive innovation,
they drive the GDP.

But actually, the rights
you're chasing after

or the equality or equity
isn't achieved because of that.

And I feel like GDP
doesn't account for

all of those things
we care about,

and I feel like that's
not always money-related.

It sounds like to
answer your question,

we need a social contract.

That's the thing
I'm tying together

from everyone's answers
is there's a need

for accountability from people

that we're going
to call leaders.

It sounds like we need to
hold each other accountable

in some contractual way that
emphasizes the need for rights

and no harm to others.

♪

Wallach, voice-over: When I
look around and I see people

working on projects and ideas,

they're not all just thinking,
how do I get as much as I can?

Like, what's my
little pot of gold?

I see the folks who
are building and making

better tomorrows
for themselves,

for their kids, my kids,
future generations.

I mean, I see things that are
being worked on right now

that are going to have
downrange impact

for the better
for hundreds of years.

Courtois, voice-over:
We're in a world of turmoil.

The human nature in turmoil
is to kind of cocoon

and to become
more conservative.

If you're insular,
then you don't learn.

We could do better.

We can imagine a better future

and work on it together.

Ingels, voice-over: My son
was born right around the time

we finished
the CopenHill Power Plant.

So, he doesn't know...
Wallach: Mm.

that there was
a time when

you didn't ski
on the power plant.

For him, that's just like
a natural part

of the landscape
of Copenhagen.

So, if that's
the normal for him

and his generation
of Danish kids,

imagine when they have
to start coming up

with what-if scenarios
for their future.

They're going to come up
with some pretty wild stuff.

Bayer, voice-over:
Innovation occurs at
the intersection of things.

The greatest opportunities
are in chaos.

In times of, like, change,

there's a maximum opportunity
to change everything.

The future is
all about integrating

different interdisciplinary
areas into one.

So, anybody who is younger,

go beyond just
the computer science.

Look at the arts.

Look at what's happening
in marine biology

and then neuroscience.

And you'll be able to bring
all of those ideas into one

and create something that

nobody might have
thought about.

Slat, voice-over:
Progress is not inevitable,

and it really requires
conscious effort.

Sometimes, people ask me,
why you?

Why did you decide
to work on this?

And I think it's
a strange question.

A much more interesting
question to me

is why isn't
everyone doing this?

If there is something
that's bothering you,

I think it would be strange
to just wait

for somebody else to solve it.

♪

Wallach, voice-over:
Hundreds of years from now,

they are going to look back

on our moment
that we're in right now

as potentially the most pivotal
in human history.

The decisions that we make
around our technologies

and how we're going
to live on this planet

will actually dictate who
and what we are to become.

We have to ask ourselves,

in
\h
this moment of complexity,

what is it that
we want to see happen?

Where do we want to go?

♪

♪