All language subtitles for Supersapiens.The.Rise.of.the.Mind.S01E01.WEBRip.x264-ION10

[Narrator] Modern man
is a miracle of evolution.

[Dawkins] We now have

a larger functioning brain
than has ever existed before,

and that has enabled
us to develop things

like language,
culture, engineering,

technology, poetry,
mathematics, philosophy.

Things which have
never been known before.

[Narrator] All constantly
evolving, advancing.

My primary scientific
and technical passion

is the creation of
thinking machines

that can think at
the human level,

and ultimately beyond
the human level.

[Narrator] Welcome
to the brave new world.

We are moving toward a
technological singularity,

a point at which there is
an intelligence explosion

where an ordinary,
unenhanced human

can no longer understand the
technological developments.

[Indistinct radio chatter].

[Narrator] The technologies
of the digital age

have delivered unprecedented,

perhaps boundless possibilities.

We've reached a point

at which man and
technology begin to merge.

Tools become body parts and
the human being digitally optimized.

The result is a controversial
vision: Super sapiens.

[Narrator] In the beginning,
there was a hell on earth.

Water became the elixir of life.

From the simplest of organisms,

increasingly complex beings
evolved over billions of years.

Life w

as changing and so
was the environment.

The

only way to survive was to adapt.
Then came a pivotal point in evolution.

The rise of humans.

Cultural achievements
bear witness

to ever-increasing
human abilities.

Alongside the natural world,
an intellectual world arose.

Man created art,
language, and writing.

Societies emerged and changed,

and technology and its
increasingly swift progress

accelerated this process.

Today we can look
into our deep past

and gaze into
the distant future.

Technology has reached a
stage where it's all-pervading.

It informs us, entertains
us, runs our lives.

But what about the brain
that created all the technology.

Is it still developing?

[Dawkins] I think
it's hard to claim

that our brain is still evolving in terms
of hardware. In order for that to happen,

it would be necessary
that the brainiest individuals

were still surviving best
or having the most children.

And that's clearly not true.

What's happening
is cultural evolution.

We've externalized
our mental evolution.

[Narrator] Modern visionaries

are attempting to make
sense of the dichotomy:

Humans on the one hand,

technology on the other.

My name's Mikey Siegel.

I have a background
as an engineer

in computer
engineering and robotics.

The big transition in my life

has been where I
started to discover

that there was another world.

For as long as I can remember,

I've been excited about technology and engineering.
Eventually I hit, like, the engineer's jackpot

and got to do robotics at m.I.T.

I graduated m.I.T.,

I got an amazing
job, well-paying,

living with my friends
in San Francisco.

And on paper, it
was the perfect life.

But there was something wrong.

It's almost as if

I needed to get away
from the science and tech

in order to have the perspective

to actually see what it really
means and what it really is.

[Narrator] Mikey Siegel spent some time in
India. There, he had a spiritual experience

that inspired new ways
of thinking about the nexus

between humans and machines.

It's impossible to talk
about human beings

without also talking
about technology.

And so the question

is not whether or not we
want technology to be here.

The question is what
we want technology to be.

[Indistinct chattering].

[Narrator] Hooked on constant connectivity, we've
become inseparable from our digital devices.

[Narrator] They've
become part of our lives,

and now they're becoming
part of our bodies.

[Narrator] For some people,

artificial implants
are all the rage

when the body's
communicating with computers.

[Indistinct chattering].

[Narrator] At the epicenter
laboratory in Stockholm,

body hackers prepare
to make this happen.

I think that the senses that
evolution has given us humans

are quite lousy.

I see the human
body as a platform

which is a good beginning,

and it's really up
to us to redesign it

and to tweak it

and to improve it
in all various ways,

because it needs improvement.

Human beings are not the
fastest runners on the planet,

nor the longest-lived
organisms on the planet,

nor can we jump higher
than any other being.

We're just specific combinations
of atoms, molecules, and cells

that happened to have evolved.

Human nature is all about
self-transformation, I think.

We all try to become
better people,

although we have very different
views on what "better" means.

I have a chip implant
here in my hand.

I have my contact
details saved on my chip,

so whenever I meet someone,

they can scan my hand

and they get my contacts
straight into their address book.

Innovation has always been with humans, so
it's not really possible to stop technology.

[Speaking foreign language].

[Sandberg]. However, y

ou might aim at getting beneficial
technologies before dangerous technologies.

[Narrator] Bodyhackers
and their chip implants

attract growing interest

at technology fairs
around the world.

[Narrator] At

the pioneers festival in
Vienna, the big names in the field

try to convince the
audience of their visions.

[Sjoblad] Are you
welcoming the pain?

[Automated female
voice]. Signal acquired.

Connection established.

"Transition to cyborg done."

Oh, my god!

That's awesome!

[Sjoblad] We have a potential

to be much more than
we are as humans,

and still be humans.

For example, by expand

ing our sensory universe.

What if we could
really understand

how another person feels?

I think that would make us

not only more intelligent, but also
more importantly, more ethical beings.

So I think it's very useful to
have people experimenting

and doing implants.

One reason why it's so important
to have people experimenting,

even maybe sometimes
unwisely or radically,

is that we don't know what
could be a good outcome.

We can't know that
until somebody tries it.

Being a cyborg
is like the future...

[Narrator] Learning by doing.

But no experiment
is without risk.

Maybe more, that
would be amazing!

[Harris]. Well, when you look at how technology's being
designed, it is being designed with very little foresight.

At the moment,

I'm not so eager to have something implanted under my skin,
but I can imagine doing it if it became not only tempting,

but it may seem essential.

Why would anyone
want to send email

when we can talk on the phone?

It seems like a step backward,

and yet all of us got sort
of thrown over the precipice

and now are dealing with some
fundamental changes in our lives.

Many of us have outsourced
our memory to the Internet,

where it's just,

rather than worry about whether or not you can remember
something, you know you can always just search for it.

[Indistinct chattering].

[Sjoblad] Our environment
has changed quite radically.

Some figures are

that we have about seven billion connected devices
on earth. About the same number as we have humans.

But in just five years from now,

we can expect to have 50
billion connected devices,

so more than 10 for each of us.

And we need to have
some smart way to interact

with all these digital
things around us.

[Narrator] The crucial qu

estion is how this
interaction should look.

One of the controversies
raised by religious people

is whether life is
intelligently designed.

So far it has not been
intelligently designed.

It's arisen by unconscious,
undesigned evolution.

Now humans are in a position

to intelligently design
the future of evolution.

It could be very exciting

if humans enhance
themselves in ways

that make them
overall better people.

But in order to do
this, we have to ask:

What is the self?

Will it really be a situation

where I am still me
at the end of the day?

[Indistinct chattering].

[Narrator] The xtech
conference in San Francisco

is one of the most important
hubs for innovations

that connect technology
with the human brain.

Mikey Siegel is on the lookout

for the latest developments by inventors
who want to improve on human beings

and their natural abilities,

who are looking to
surpass their own limitations.

The spectrum ranges

from virtual reality game platforms to medical devices
that can alter the way the humanbrain functions.

Harnessing the mind to control
objects is a popular concept.

I will save you!

[Narrator] But will alone
is often not enough.

[Alarm blaring in game].

Oh, no!

[Narrator] Not yet.

The conference offers a
great deal of opportunities

for experiments and
new experiences.

[Man] And the next
one we're doing here is

the g.S.R. So this is the
conductivity of the skin.

And that's going to measure
how intense of an emotion

that you'll be having.

[Siegel] We're good?

Okay, I'm going to do my best
angry face, okay? Are you ready?

All right.

I don't want you to get
scared. [Man] It'll be okay.

All right, stay calm.

[Man] Go for it. If you don't
have a model of emotion,

the only way you can get that is asking people how they
feel. But that, in turn, is changing the way that they feel.

So having a sensor
system like this

allows you to look at
what is that unspoken,

unbiased response to
environments, to surveys,

or anything along those lines?

The edge that I'm
really interested in

is the edge of
transformative technology.

How do you design new
tools and technologies

that connect and interface
with the brain and the mind,

but can take us to a
new place, to new depths?

To the furthest reaches
of human flourishing.

So tell me about this headset.

How does this work?

So this is a dry e.E.G.

It's got little sensors
that look like this...

[Siegel] So the special
thing about this is that

it doesn't actually require
any special preparation...

Exactly.

To put this on.

I mean, this could be the ticket to
actually making this kind of technology

accessible to a large
number of people.

That's the idea, and
what we do is we take this

and we make sense of this.

We take this sensor activity and we can go into your
brainand look at how activity inside your brain is changing,

and that starts to become
much more powerful.

[Narrator] The researchers
have devised a way

to visualize a person's
emotional state,

a technique that
may change lives.

[Man] ...We're doing
that all in real time.

We're going to see a
massive increase in the ability

for locked-in individuals
to be able to communicate.

At first, on a
very basic level...

We can see it
here, on the phone.

Oh, wow!

So you're very serene and
contented right now. Well, i'm just...

And relaxed.

I just love e.E.G. So much.

Well, this is just
the beginning.

Everyone who works in
brain-computer interface,

we all think about the
idea of being able to upload

a consciousness onto a machine.

Would that copy
actually be conscious?

That depends
upon the larger issue

of whether a machine is
capable of being conscious.

And if all of a
sudden this phone,

my phone, knows
actually what I'm feeling,

on one hand,

I could imagine this being the
greatest marketing tool of all time.

But on the other time, I could imagine this
being, like, the most sensitive, heartfelt,

intuitive therapist...

that I've ever come
in contact with,

that is sensitive to my emotions
and perhaps helping to guide me

towards a more balanced
and harmonious state.

[Indistinct news
reports overlapping].

[Narrator] For some, the new mind-machine nexus promises
endless possibilities. Critics warn of unchecked development.

Marie curie, the
discoverer of radioactivity,

could never have imagined
the consequences of her work.

[Indisti

[nct news reports overlapping]. Although this
example seems polemic, what would actually happen

if machines develop
their own minds?

Even influential figures like
Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk

warn against this scenario.

Mikey Siegel
imagines another future,

where advanced
technology is used

to elevate human
consciousness to a new level

by plugging the
brain into a machine.

[Siegel] And it felt like
the more I found my path,

the less people had any
idea what I was talking about.

What I'm suggesting is that
we are entering into a new age.

What I would call
the experience age.

There was a time where
your physical capacity

was a measure of how
productive you could be.

And then we moved
into the information age,

where your intellect, your
mind, was the measure.

And now, in the experience age,

with technologies that can
become completely immersive

and deeply impact our
experience of the world,

all of a sudden, we're
playing in a new terrain.

[Narrator]
Technological progress

has always inspired
and empowered people

to look for new possibilities

to strike out in new directions.

It brings dreams to
fruition and changes lives.

Morning, guys.

[Narrator] Steven Sanchez has relied on a wheelchair
ever since he broke a lumbar vertebra in a bike crash.

A team from the university of California in
Berkeley has developed special leg prosthesis

to help people like Steven.

The construction
is an exoskeleton,

an outer support structure

that's designed
to provide stability.

The whole thing works
electro-mechanically

and is computer-controlled.

Steven has spent nearly ha

lf of his life in a wheelchair. What
happens next will define his future.

[Narrator] He was told
he would never walk again.

The design still has its limits.

The batteries only
last a few hours

and Steven cannot go upstairs.

But for Steven,

the freedom and the feeling
of being back on his feet

is priceless.

Th

E next step is prosthesis that
aren't controlled by computers,

but by thoughts.

Mikey Siegel

searches for technology that may be useful
for his researchat the xtech conference.

It is the ultracortex,
it is a 3D-printed...

[Narrator] The ultracortex is
a highly developed headset

comprised of biosensors.

They measure
electrical body functions

like brain activity
and heartbeat.

We're the lego of "I
want to be a cyborg."

E.e.g. Is a main focus,

but with our technology
you can also measure e.M.G.,

which is muscle movements.

[Narrator] To

develop their technology, the researchers
perform experiments on themselves,

all in the name of science.

[Russomanno]. One of my recent
projects has been sending e.M.G.,

or muscle signals,

in from the openbci
board into a robotic hand.

The project really just started out of interest
but over the course of the last six months

there's been a huge
rise, a surge of energy

in open-source prosthetics,

and I just immediately
saw the value of openbci

as a high-channel-count system
to help augment the space.

[Schneider] Well, the first step is to
help people who have medical problems.

Moving into the future,

we might imagine b.M.I.S as a form of
enhancement rather than just a form of therapy.

What if you could get
artificial limbs and then,

should they break, you
could just have them replaced?

This is awesome.

How long would it take you

to sign up for those
kinds of enhancements,

rather than just using
your biological limbs?

[Russomanno]. In regards to the
robotic arm that I've been working with,

there's an element
of machine learning.

What we're doing is very
simple machine learning,

but the field of
machine learning

is growing at an
exponential rate,

and our ability to handle
and process the data

that is getting generated
by systems like openbci

is only going to
get more powerful.

So, David, I'd like to think
that when the robots take over,

they're going to spare
the two of us, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

We'll still be useful.

I like that theory.

[Russomanno]. Until
recently, you know,

e.e.g. Has been a very expensive
device that one laboratory,

one highly funded laboratory
at the top-tier schools,

have access to.

But now all of a sudden,
in the last five to ten years,

it's just blown wide
open, the entire space.

Because we've got
100-dollar devices

that are as good as the best
technology 10, 20 years ago.

[Narrator] Technology
now feeds itself.

High-tech progress enables
components to be manufactured

smaller and cheaper,

which in turn ensures
technological advance.

A lot of people that
have an incredible vision

all of a sudden have a
tool that they can afford.

They have a tool
that's accessible

and they have a community

of people that are
also using this tool

that they can get support
from and work with.

[Narrator] The startup openbci

is an example of how
affordable technology

is fanning the flames of
technological development.

I think that the merger
of man and machine

has kind of been going
on now for quite some time.

It's no surprise that we're
talking about this here,

that I have an opportunity to be
a part of something like openbci,

where we see more and
more of these kinds of projects

and examples of technology,

digital, mechanical, and
biology, humans, animals,

sort of coming together
at even closer connections.

[Narrator] Joel Murphy is
preparing a spectacular experiment:

The Guinea pig is
neuroscientist David putrino.

[Murphy]. Are you
on the scalp now, too?

Yeah, I can feel that
up against my scalp.

All right, okay, this
is looking better.

[Computer beeping slowly].

All right, so blink your eyes a couple of times.
Okay, great, some nice eye blink artifacts.

And fly this helicopter.

Oh, just fly the helicopter?

Is that all? [Murphy].
With your brain waves,

with your brain waves,
okay? Sounds awesome.

[Murphy]. This is gonna get awesome.
Okay, I can't wait. Let's do this.

We're going to look simply at the
Alpha wave coming off your occipital lobe.

We've got an electrode
back here for measuring that.

And when you close your eyes...

We're always creating electrical potentials
from our brains, from our muscles.

Our heart is a big electrical signal generator. And so
it depends on what you want to do with those signals.

And one of the things
that you could do

is interface them
with a machine,

either to tell the
machine about your state,

or to get feedback
from a machine

that's measuring your state

and distilling some
useful information out of it.

So this is looking
pretty good...

[Narrator] The
preparations are complete.

Joel is satisfied.

The test flight can begin.

[Murphy]. Yeah, we're
seeing some good Alpha.

We're sending energy
to the helicopter.

Indeed.

[Narrator] The test
pilot tries to relax.

[Computer continues
beeping slowly].

[Helicopter whirring].

[Murphy]. It's
really close, though.

[Narrator] It seems
like things are working.

But the helicopter
isn't taking off.

[Murphy]. All right, you
can open your eyes now.

[Computer beeping rapidly].

Hang on, whoa.

David, stop it!

[Laughing].

All right, I'm just gonna
make an adjustment.

So I've just got to figure out what the best
sort of... [Putrino]. You're thresholding me now.

[Murphy]. Yeah, well,
it's also this is super-fresh,

super-fresh code.

So it's like...

It's my handicap.

We have this capability
now of actually, you know,

taking the analog
world inside of our head

and turning it digital,
turning it binary,

and then harnessing
technology, harnessing computers

to better understand
consciousness,

better understand, you know,
what it means to be human,

and then maybe even
improve the human condition.

[N

[Arrator] And Joe Murphy is not about
to give up. [Putrino]. Looking good?

And that looks really nice.

There's the little
eye blinks artifacts,

that's nice.

[Narrator] Again, test
pilot David tries to relax.

[Narrator] The
success is astounding.

[Helicopter whirring].

[Murphy]. Yeah,

get it up there! [Putrino].
But what I find really exciting,

the consumer market is actually
driving a lot of the innovation.

We have these young
startups which are saying,

"you know what? Science
is moving too slowly.

Let's, let's crowd-source the
problem out to the community."

[Murphy]. Okay, maybe
the problem is in hardware.

"And let's get the
community thinking

about how to solve
these problems.

Let's get the community making
the next big technological steps

and making huge innovations."

And that's what I
think is really exciting.

[Helicopter whirring].

[Laughing].

[Murphy]. It's okay, it's okay! At first, most people are
really psyched or turned on by the idea of interactivity

and controlling robots
and mind-controlled drones.

But what I'm more excited about

is the capability to
give individuals access

or further understanding of
the tools that already exist

inside of their own heads.

[Russomanno]. You
know, you have switches

and the ability to alter these states
inside of your own head, if you know how.

[Narrator] The enigmatic
relationship between mind and body

is the focus of experiments
at the university of California

in San Francisco.

Researchers here
are investigating how

physical activity influences
mental performance,

and how this knowledge can
be used to enhance our lives.

A.j., we're going to take a look
at your glass brain right now.

Can you just do some activity

so we can see some stuff
going on in there? So what you se

e here is real-time brainúactivity
data being visualized,

@literally with just a two
tenths of a second delay

in it being
generated in his brain

to being visualized
in the glass brain.

So the promise of this

is that will identify those patterns and
images that reflect optimal performance.

And as you understand then
that machine can feed that back in

and train them to that state.

Exactly.

All right, I'm gonna
get us started.

[Narrator] The experiment is a
video game. However, in this case,

the test player doesn't sit
comfortably at home on his sofa.

Ready in 10 seconds.

Five seconds.

[Automated female voice].
Initiating cognitive workout sequence.

Here we go.

[Narrator] The experiment is
literally a mind/body workout.

While the participant
exerts his body physically,

he challenges his mind to
solve cognitive problems.

And our hypothesis
here is that his outcomes,

how his attention
abilities improve,

will exceed someone that
played a version of this game

just sitting down
at the computer.

[Schneider] There's a lot more to the human
mind than we encounter in our everyday lives.

So if we try to unleash
hidden potential in our brains,

we could learn new
things about ourselves

and perhaps improve
our level of consciousness.

[Automated female
voice]. Entering next level.

The other big technological advance
that we're trying to push to the next level

is real-time brain
recordings during an activity,

and also looking at how
areas are communicating

with each other.

So the holy grail being
a direct feedback loop,

brain to machine the brain.

That's exactly right.

And we could do that during
many, many different activities.

[Automated female voice].
Cognitive workout completed,

prepare for next...

We have a version of this where you meditate, and
we're recording brain activity and feeding that in

so the meditative experience

is responding to what's
going on in your brain.

[Man] All right, our
signals look good.

[Narrator] Mankind has been
seeking and using connections

between mind and body
since time immemorial.

Meditation, for instance, has
a positive influence on people.

This has been scientifically
proven many times over.

[Gazzaley] The ability to take
sometimes ancient practices

and bring in technology so
that we could create algorithms,

so that they're adaptive
and personalized,

that's the really massive
win that we're seeing now.

So there's some really
solid evidence coming out

that these ancient practices

can have very tangible
benefits on our biology.

But if we can bring in
all of this technology,

and get it into
people's hands in a way

that they find much more
enjoyable and engaging,

especially young people,

these can be tools
to elevate our minds.

And if we think about
that from this perspective,

really the sky's the limit
on what we can accomplish.

The point is,

most of the effort has always been about capability,
the ability of the machine to do clever things,

and very little has been
thinking about: Is it safe?

Does it actually
produce good outcomes?

[Narrator] But many researchers

are well aware of the
risks of scientific progress.

[Russomanno]. With respect to the idea
of the merger between man and machine,

I think it's both very exciting,

but also very frightening
at the same time,

I think we have to be
very smart and cautious

about how we
proceed into the future,

and really approach the future

while looking far
off into the horizon.

We've made a lot of mistakes

regarding data and
privacy and security

with the emergence
of the Internet.

And I think that we
should learn from those mis

takes as we begin to connect
our brain to the Internet.

[Sandberg]. In many ways,
if we could continue forever,

by being very
cautious, very boring,

uncreative, and never
doing anything fun,

I think most people would say,

"that's not the
right way of living.

Some some risk is necessary."

[Goertzel]. Imagine you
can modify your mind

any way that you can imagine it

and specify in
detail and program.

Then you become
something massively smarter

than what you can imagine now.

You know,

"I wish I could remember 1,000 things
in my mind at one time instead of just 10."

"Okay, let's increase the
short-term memory buffer size," right?

"I'd like to have a calculator
mathematica and Google

accessible inside my
mind, that power of thought,

instead of having to interact
with these things by my fingers,

which is very slow and awkward."

"Okay."

[Narrator] One goal of research

is to enhance certain
abilities of the human brain.

I take that, plug
it into this box...

I meet my friend Michael,

who's a neuroscientist

that's been studying
how electrical activity

can change the
way the brain works.

Your body is going to conduct
electricity from the right side...

[Narrator] Once again,

Mikey Siegel plays the part of
the human Guinea pig.[Siegel] so

there's all these sensors
around this conference

that are reading the
electrical activity of the brain.

But what this is actually doing

is essentially changing

the electrical
activity of the brain,

and you're targeting a
specific part of my brain...

Yeah.

That is going to have a certain effect, in
this case for visual processing. That's right.

Exactly.

[Siegel] Mmm, it's really cool.

We can start the stimulation
when you're ready.

I'm ready.

All right.

[Siegel] He wires me up with his latest gadget. And
immediately, I can feel the tingling on my head.

I'm in your capable
hands here, Mike.

And I can taste this
metallic taste in my mouth.

And I also started to notice

that my speech seemed a little weird.
I certainly wouldn't want to, you know,

feel like that all
day every day.

Yeah.

Okay, so I have a
question for you, Mikey.

Yeah.

Do you remember the project that you
and I talked aboutputting in at the moma?

Yeah.

Tell us about it.

Okay, well, I remember we
talked about putting a project...

It was a year ago.

Yeah, at this conference. One
year ago, we were downstairs. Yeah.

I remember I had just had a fight with
my girlfriend. Oh, I didn't know that part.

Anyway...

And I'm trying to remember
what the details were.

Some kind of installation.

Yeah.

I don't really
remember all the details.

And I'm totally stumped.

I can't remember the answer.

And he explained to me

that one of the effects of this electrical stimulation
is that it's in certain ways impairing my memory

and my language processing.

We are now trying to pump up...

[Narrator] The aim of the experiment is
to significantly improve visual perception

and the processing of
optical information in the brain.

Do

You still have your phone? Yeah.

Let's have you do something hardcore visual.
So I pull up this game that I've been playing

and a little frustrated with
for the past few months.

[Narrator] Mikey starts
playing as he normally would.

It actually makes
it more visual.

[Narrator] Then quickly realizes

his perception of
the game is different.

It's sharper,
focused, more lucid.

[Siegel] Within
about 10 minutes,

I get a high score.

Wow, I've never done...

I've never beat
that level before.

[Narrator] Mikey is
astounded by his new abilities.

[Siegel] Wow.

So I had...

Before this day, I had never... I
don't think I've even gotten half as far.

And then when I looked up

and started just
looking around the room,

I started to notice that
I could spot fine details,

I could look out the window
and see the leaves on the trees.

It was really a very
interesting experience.

What I notice

is this possibility to actually totally zone into what i'm
doing. It was a little hard with all the cameras around me.

But when I hit it, it
was quite incredible.

Mike, what did you
just do to my brain?

Because I seem to have
extra-special abilities here.

[Schneider] We may have an
opportunity to sculpt our brains

and there may be a plurality
of different kinds of minds.

One person may
have echolocation,

another could have a
mobile Internet connection.

Another could be
incredibly smart,

could be a superintelligence.

They may choose to
enhance themselves

in ways that they feel
their employer wants.

And we have to
have legal protection

for those people who
decide not to enhance.

So it was amazing to have this
experience with this technology.

What if you actually took
multiple devices simultaneously,

and you actually connected
them to a group of people?

[Harris]. Well, if
we could merge two

human brains, I think that would
produce a very different kind of mind.

We know that to be the case,

because people have had their brains divided
surgically to mitigate grand mal epileptic seizures.

And you have two
minds at that point

that are no longer
communicating with one another.

In certain circumstances,

they can get into a kind of tug of war with each other
so that literally the left hand is buttoning the shirt

and the right hand
is unbuttoning it.

But it's not in
principle different

than uniting two
separate human beings,

if we had the
technology to do that.

[Indistinct news
reports overlapping].

[Narrator] This is
not science fiction.

There is a very real concern

that unchecked
technological development

will trigger an
unpredictable chain reaction.

[Indistinct news
reports overlapping].

Today, virtually anyone with
adequate programming knowledge

can design body-brain
interfaces and tailor-made software

without regulation.

[Indistinct news
reports overlapping].

What we have created
today, in our technologica

l landscape,

is an expression of who and
what we are as a human culture.

[Narrator] Culture entails,
among other things,

interpersonal contact,

and exchange of
information, thoughts, feelings.

We share these
things with others,

sometimes in a playful way.

Technology is an
instrument for this,

but because of
technological progress,

much is at stake in the future.

[San

[dberg]. Losing a game is not necessarily a bad
thing, because the point of the game is the activity.

What about losing the world?

That's kind of different

because in many ways,

we actually care about
being in the world.

But we do care about also

kind of playing the
game of existence.

There has been a number of
human species on this planet.

All of these homo species have
lived and they have passed away.

Who says that homo
sapiens are any different?

It's not obvious to me that a
replacement of our species

by our own
technological creation

would necessarily
be a bad thing.

[Narrato

[r] The future of mankind seems inextricably
connected to technological progress.

For some, this makes it all
the more imperative to explore

and use every possibility.

[Cell phone ringing].

[Siegel] Hello?

[Craig over speaker phone]. Hey,
how you doing? What you up to?

Oh, hey, Craig.

Yeah, I'm on my way to the hackathon right
now. I should be there in like five minutes.

There should be probably
about 15 or 20 folks

from the consciousness
hacking community

that are going to be there.

We've got some people

that are bringing in some pretty big projects, actually.
They're someone that's coming that's been building a nightclub

that interacts with your mind.

When I started this
journey, I felt totally alone.

But things began to
change very quickly.

I started a small community
called consciousness hacking,

which started is 10
people sitting around a table

discussing these ideas.

[Narrator] Mikey's group
was on the right track.

Within a year they
had 100 members

who regularly met in the
San Francisco bay area.

A year later, there are about
20 other such groups worldwide,

totalling over 10,000 members.

Their goal is to explore
ways to use technology

to expand human consciousness.

Mikey Siegel seems to have
arrived at this destination.

He a

nd his group have found a home for
their dreams, thanks to a generous investor

who believes in
their utopian vision.

The co-hack home, the
consciousness hacking home,

is the centre of activity for
this special group of people.

Hey, good to see you.

[Narrator] They see themselves
as a kind of modern commune.

The members live
together and work together.

At first glance,

this is reminiscent of the communes of the late
1960s, and their quest to expand human consciousness.

[Indistinct chattering].

And did he tell you
that he's starting...

[Narrator] Mikey Siegel now works at
the Stanford university school of medicine.

He's created his own curriculum

for a new subject called
consciousness hacking.

We've got some
fun projects going on.

I have like a class on
technology and meditation.

And then all the
way on the other side

is a collaboration
with the d school,

the design school,

where students actually form into
teams. And so it's like individualized...

[Siegel] The design school are
getting closer with the business school

and actually beginning
to develop a lab,

or some kind of work
or collaboration space.

[Narrator] The co-hack
home has several workspaces.

Here, researchers
from different disciplines

develop, plan, and construct
new types of electronics,

new program codes,
and software systems.

Their mission is to
create completely

new technologies, and to use
those technologies to design devices

that will enhance
human consciousness,

elevate it to previously
unimaginable levels.

[Siegel] Can you get
data off of this thing...?

[Man] It doesn't give
us the data inherently.

We'd have to hack into it.

[Narrator] Mikey Siegel is not
only the founder of a new movement,

he is also a pioneering
thinker and a visionary.

[Siegel] One of
my main interests

is not just how the individual can transform, but
how we can create interpersonal transformation,

how we can shift the
relationship between people.

And if we think about
it, this is nothing new.

This has been at the
core of human culture

for thousands of years.

It's a defining quality
of human beings.

If I were to ask you

what the most meaningful and important
experienceyou've ever had with another person was,

it probably wouldn't be
about an idea or a thought.

It would be about a feeling.

[Indistinct chattering].

And my question is:

How can we use technology to help
support this already innate capacity

for deep, profound
human connection?

[Narrator] Mikey's group
is constantly working

on the development
and creation of new tools.

This laid-back,
free-form workspace

is a hub focused on
helping people to develop,

using the most advanced
technologies available.

Devices that
measure brainwaves...

[Man 1]. It's a
collaboration between...

[Man 2]. Having
the neuro and bio...

[Narrator] Computers that
capture individual states of being.

So let me activate
the e.E.G. Again.

[Narrator] But the researchers
are thinking far beyond

purely scientific and
technical contexts.

The tilt axis...

[Narrator] They want to create
the technology of the future

to awaken people to
higher consciousness.

[Indistinct chattering].

We just got funding

for a brand-new and very exciting
project, really an experiment,

to see what happens when
we use new types of technology

to support a deep
sense of connection

between a group of people.

What we do is

we actually take special sensors that
monitor the brain and that monitor the heart.

And we wire up
not just one person,

but we wire up the
whole group together.

And then a computer
system analyzes all the data

coming from this group.

And what it's doing is
it's actually comparing

against a scientific
understanding

of what it looks like in
the brain, and in the heart,

when we fall into a very
natural sense of deep connection

that is always available,
but not always accessible.

We talk about feeling
synced up with a person,

and sure, there's
slang around that.

But this actually has
real scientific meaning.

And our experiment
is to explore:

Can we actually use this
special type of technology,

not just to measure
the connection,

but to actually
guide this group?

And this is a new frontier.

This possibility of what
happens when technology is used

not just to connect
us through information

is an incredible, profound
space of possibility.

[Narrator] The expansion of human
consciousness through modern technology

is still in its infancy.

But scientists are
already hard at work

studying the possible
consequences.

You know, I think that in
terms of what we can expect

from the next five to ten years,

I get really excited about it

because I think that we're
going to really start to develop

what we can do with
brain computer interfaces.

Would we have a
bifurcated society?

Would people of such different
types even want to live together

in the same civilization?

This is only the beginning of
the kind of questions and issues

which we'll need to address.

[Goertzel]. We are at the
transition between animals

that cannot understand
what they are

and reflect on their own
thinking and behaviour

and the next stage
of intelligence,

which is intelligent beings
that can be fully self-reflective,

understand their
own minds and bodies,

and repurpose and refactor
and improve themselves

according to their goals.

And a relatively small
number of evolutionary changes

led to all the things that the
human brain has produced,

modern technological
societies, complex organizations,

scientific understanding
of the world.

It just seems very plausible

that some similar additional
tweaks on top of that,

you know, whether by biologically
enhancing the human condition

or creating a.I.S
that surpass us,

could have equal or a much
greater impact on the world.

The change that we
are exerting on the world

is far more dramatic

than the change that homo
sapiens was exerting on the world

when neanderthal man
was watching it happen.

Our biological bodies
were never selected

to live in this breakneck,
changing world of technology,

and who knows what
the future may bring?

[Narrator] Technological progress
seems to be just a click away.

[Distorted overlapping voices].

[Narrator] But are we really
facing a glorious future?

Mikey Siegel wants to connect,

indeed, to reconcile,
mankind and technology.

But even for him, many
questions remain unanswered.

[Siegel] So where do
we want to go from here?

We're about to see a
generation born into a world

where every waking moment
will be mediated by technology.

But can we really separate
who we are from what we build?

Isn't technology just a mirror

of who and what we
are as a humanity?

Perhaps the smartest
are not always the fittest.

The greatest innovation of
humanity will not be a gadget.

It will be the software
that runs our min

ds and our hearts.

The greatest innovation

of humanity will be our
inner operating system.