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Last time, we saw
how the Renaissance turned Europe
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00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:15,040
from a load of mud and parsnips
into a posh resort full of paintings,
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00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:19,560
and how this awakening
led to a string of people-power uprisings
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that put the establishment on its arse.
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But the revolutions were just beginning.
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Humankind was about to leap forward again
by taming metal and electricity.
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Progress would usher in a new era
of convenience and entertainment,
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but also threaten the existence
of all life on Earth.
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So, swings and roundabouts, really.
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00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:43,800
This week it's the rise
of the machines here, on Earth.
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And also here on Cunk on Earth.
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For centuries, everything in nature,
from people to cows,
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ran on this...
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fresh air.
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If you haven't heard of air,
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it's an invisible blend of gases
so addictive,
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we suffer fatal withdrawal symptoms
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within minutes
of our supply being cut off.
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This dependency made air's rival,
water, jealous.
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Water needed to up its game.
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It needed to become more indispensable
to us, its natural masters.
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It was feeling the heat.
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Heat that turned it into something useful.
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Steam.
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Steam could be harnessed
to power all kinds of machines.
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And nowhere went steam bonkers
quite like America,
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where it would change the shape
of the country's face forever.
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To understand why,
I'm afraid we have to look at a map.
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At first, settlers
had stuck to the edges of America,
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leaving the middle untouched,
like a frozen pie in a microwave.
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But Americans back then weren't
the humble, unassuming people
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they still aren't today.
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They believed in something
called Manifest Destiny,
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the belief that all the land
belonged to them
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and that God wanted them to go west
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and claim it back
from the Native Americans
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he'd put there first by mistake.
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What is Manifest Destiny?
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Manifest Destiny is a ideology
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that was in the 1840s and '50s
in the United States,
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that America had a God-given right
to take over the rest of the continent
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and sort of spread its values
and its virtues from sea to shining sea.
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- So it was God's plan?
- That was the idea, yes.
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Doesn't this make you God's slaves?
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Well, I think what the people
of the time would say
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is that they were
God's missionaries on Earth.
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And so they felt that they were
willingly enacting his policies
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rather than being forced to do so.
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But at the very least,
you're God's bitches.
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But manifesting
your destiny was dangerous.
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You had to trundle across
a perilous landscape in a rickety wagon
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on the brink of starvation or shitting
yourself to death with dysentery,
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00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:05,560
getting bitten by snakes
or butchered by Apaches.
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Almost as if God didn't
want them to do this after all.
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But the invention of the steam train
changed all that.
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The steam train
laughed in the wagon's face.
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Not literally.
This isn't a children's book.
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The Americans released
steam engines into the wild,
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carving routes across the land
and changing the balance of power.
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Now, fighting with Native Americans
could be conducted at high speed
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and with an accompanying
buffet car service.
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Thanks to the railroads,
small towns formed all across the west.
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They were tough, lawless places
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where summary justice was dispensed
down the barrel of a gun,
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as cowboys did whatever it took
to protect their cows, and their boys.
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00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:51,160
So can you talk us through
what this is here?
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This is the Colt single action
army revolver, the Colt 45.
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And you load it through here,
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and you'd have to cock the hammer back
for each shot.
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00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:05,400
Would this only kill people
during the olden days?
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Or could it kill modern people too?
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I'm afraid it
definitely could kill modern people.
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It's so old.
It sort of looks clockwork, doesn't it?
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Do the bullets come out slowly?
Could you sort of outrun the bullet?
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You definitely couldn't outrun the bullet.
You're right to say it looks clockwork.
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It's very like a clock mechanism,
with a ratchet inside.
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- Rat shit?
- A ratchet.
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Where do the bullets come out?
Do they come out of that pipe bit?
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They do. Yeah, that's the barrel.
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Can I hold that up
and look down the end of it?
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Or will that shoot me in the eye?
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It's generally frowned upon.
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So would getting shot in the eye
actually hurt?
84
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Because it's just a sort of water bag,
isn't it, your eye?
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I bet it'd just pop and sting a bit,
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but you'd basically be able
to go about your business.
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I don't know, I don't think
there's any good place to get shot.
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Why does humankind feel the need
to invent killing machines like this?
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And could you keep your answer
to a sort of soundbite length?
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00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:06,280
Because we're human I suppose?
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00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:11,240
It seems to be built into us
to fight for resources,
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other humans.
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- Yeah.
- Can't seem to get away from it.
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I know. I just think we're mental.
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Guns played a huge role in shaping
America and also in killing people.
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Even now, the use of firearms
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is an integral part
of their national identity.
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00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:31,960
How come Americans have the right
to kill anyone they want with a gun?
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Well, they don't.
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Murder is illegal in the United States,
but they do have the right to own weapons.
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- They have the right to bear arms.
- Correct.
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- But bears don't have arms.
- They do, actually.
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Do they? I thought they were legs.
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Well, I'm not a biologist,
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but I suppose that when they stand up,
they're probably arms.
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With its cowboys and guns
and steam train rides,
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America became known
as the land of the free,
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which must have come as a surprise
to all the slaves.
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The barbaric practice of slavery
was still prevalent in America,
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particularly in the southern states.
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But by finally thinking hard
about the subject,
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the people of the northern states
made a horrifying discovery:
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that inside each slave
was an actual human person.
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The North asked the South
what kind of America it wanted to live in:
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one where white people
leeched off other races
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while treating them as inferior
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or one where they pretended they didn't?
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The argument escalated into a civil war,
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00:06:32,280 --> 00:06:35,440
a time when America
was almost as polarized as it is today.
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The Civil War
tore America apart, didn't it?
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Brother turned on brother.
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Did anyone get so conflicted
they turned on themselves?
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I don't think so.
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Uh... There may have been some
very strong debates within individuals
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of which side to join, and I think that
could be what you're perhaps referencing.
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How come people say
it was the first modern war
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when you can see from the photos
it was ages ago?
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It's interesting you reference the photos
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00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:06,040
because it's the first war
that photography really played a part.
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Um, it was something where photographs
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were part of the conflict
and documenting the violence.
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Must have been quite exciting,
going to Snappy Snaps afterwards
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and seeing which ones had turned out
and which ones hadn't.
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After four long years
of war-related violence,
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the North came out on top,
which north is anyway.
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It was a victory for the undisputed
king of the North, Abraham Lincoln.
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Who was Abraham Lincoln?
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And why did he have
all those weird tattoos on his tummy?
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I have no idea what
you're referring to with the tattoos,
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but he is a US president,
revered as probably the best US president.
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Apparently he had, like, a snowman
and a robin tattooed on his tummy
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and the robin had a moustache.
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I genuinely have no idea
what you're referring to.
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Now Lincoln was president,
at long last slavery was abolished
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and replaced with simple racial prejudice.
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But Abraham Lincoln's story
didn't have a happy ending.
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Five days after the North won,
a terrible fate befell him.
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He was forced to go to the theater
to watch a play.
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He was put out of his misery
by a kindly gunman.
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But cruelly, not until the third act.
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Abraham Lincoln was shot
in the theater box, wasn't he?
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Where is that on the body?
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I think you're referring to the physical
location he was in when he was shot,
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which was in the presidential box
at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.
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And why was he shot?
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Was it because
he wouldn't take his hat off?
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Because that's annoying in the theater,
when someone's in front of you with a hat.
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He was in the presidential box,
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so there wasn't anyone behind him,
as far as I know.
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But he was shot by a man
named John Wilkes Booth,
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who was a believer in the Confederacy.
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How did being shot in the head
affect Lincoln's ability to lead?
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Well, it ended it, because he died
about 12 hours after he was shot.
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- So he couldn't carry on.
- No, not as a corpse, unfortunately.
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Lincoln's light may have been snuffed out,
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but America's was about
to do the opposite.
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Americans had been toying with electricity
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ever since Benjamin Franklin
put a key on a kite string
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to unlock lightning from the sky.
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Then, in 1878, Thomas Edison
worked out how to use that power
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to make something extraordinary.
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It's hard to imagine a world
where Edison didn't invent the light bulb.
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And even if you did imagine it,
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it would be too dark
to see what was in it.
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How did people see during the day
before Edison invented light?
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Light comes from the sun so people could
see during the day because of the sun.
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What they needed the light bulb for was
during the night when there isn't any sun
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and when you can't see.
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So what did people use before light bulbs?
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Well, they used candles or they used oil.
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So we had daylight during the day
and we had candles at night.
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Yes.
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So we didn't need light bulbs.
His life's work was meaningless.
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Another of Edison's incredible inventions
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was the phonograph.
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♪ I want to spoon ♪
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♪ To my honey ♪
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♪ I'll croon love's tune ♪
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♪ Honeymoon ♪
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♪ Keep a-shining in June ♪
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♪ Your silvery beams... ♪
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- Can you make it stop?
- Yes, of course.
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It's incredible, isn't it,
that we're here now,
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but that voice came from years ago.
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If I speak into this trumpet bit,
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can I ask the person a question
about what it's like where they are?
197
00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:52,280
No, you can't, because the recording
was made over a hundred years ago.
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00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:55,280
But it's a phonograph.
Doesn't it work like a phone?
199
00:10:55,360 --> 00:11:02,200
Phonograph means "sound writing" in Greek.
200
00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:04,520
So it doesn't mean "telephone."
201
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So they can hear us but they can't reply.
202
00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:09,480
Uh... I wouldn't say...
203
00:11:09,560 --> 00:11:12,560
They can't hear us.
We hear them, we hear their recording.
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00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:15,280
They can't hear us
and they can't reply to us.
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- Uh, I would say they can't, no.
- So what's the point of it?
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00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:23,160
Well, it's so we can hear music
and voice and sounds.
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00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:27,240
So can it record sounds
that haven't happened yet?
208
00:11:27,320 --> 00:11:28,320
Um...
209
00:11:29,360 --> 00:11:30,760
No.
210
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What about sounds that happened earlier?
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If those sounds were recorded at the time.
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It can't capture something
that's been in the past.
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00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:43,520
It seems quite limited, to be honest.
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Thanks to Edison's pornograph,
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00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:50,360
classical music
could now bore an audience of millions.
216
00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:53,480
You have to play classical music
on an orchestra.
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00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:55,920
How do you play an orchestra?
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Do you blow into it
219
00:11:57,320 --> 00:12:01,040
or is it one of those ones
where you rub a stick on the strings?
220
00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:04,560
Yeah, so, the orchestra
is not one particular instrument.
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Yeah.
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00:12:06,120 --> 00:12:10,200
So an orchestra is the coming together
of lots of different types of instruments.
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00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:13,200
- Right. More than one instrument.
- More than one instrument.
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00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:17,360
So you need both hands
and your mouth to play an orchestra.
225
00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:22,920
Well, the conductor would need
all of those things,
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00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:26,080
but the orchestra itself is an entity
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00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:29,000
that is made up of
lots of different instruments.
228
00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:31,640
So you couldn't blow a whole orchestra?
229
00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:38,880
Thanks to Edison, the worlds of light
and sound had been beaten into submission,
230
00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:41,840
but another frontier remained
stubbornly unconquered:
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00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:43,960
the world of sky.
232
00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:47,440
People tried for years
to build flying machines,
233
00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:50,280
but most early pioneers
found it hard to progress
234
00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:53,120
beyond their first
experimental death plunge.
235
00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:56,760
But all that changed
when Orville and Wilbur Wright brothers
236
00:12:56,840 --> 00:12:59,600
mounted the first successful
legal challenge
237
00:12:59,680 --> 00:13:01,160
against the law of gravity.
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00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:04,600
So how far was the first flight?
239
00:13:04,680 --> 00:13:09,240
Well, on that day when the Wright brothers
carried out several flights,
240
00:13:09,320 --> 00:13:12,680
they were typically of the order
of just a few hundred feet.
241
00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:15,000
They could have walked that.
242
00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:18,720
Well, they could,
but that wasn't the point.
243
00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:22,320
When was the first flight
that was long enough to need a toilet?
244
00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:27,360
Once commercial flights developed,
those flights became longer distance
245
00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,960
and the passengers would have
then needed some comforts,
246
00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:32,720
like having a toilet on board.
247
00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:34,560
That must've been a real moment,
248
00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:37,720
the first time someone realized
a plane needed a toilet.
249
00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:40,600
That's more impressive
than the Wright brothers.
250
00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:44,280
I've never thought of that
251
00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:49,320
as a particularly dramatic
or exciting development, I'm afraid.
252
00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:51,720
Why don't bicycles have toilets?
253
00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:55,440
It would save you having to get off.
254
00:13:56,280 --> 00:13:58,440
I might write that down and copyright it.
255
00:13:58,520 --> 00:14:02,040
Even without a toilet,
the Wright Brothers' historic flight
256
00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:04,280
changed transportation forever,
257
00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:06,760
in ways that still
aren't fully understood.
258
00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:11,080
The Wright Brothers did the first
proper flight over a hundred years ago.
259
00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:15,640
How come we're still not any closer to
working out how aeroplanes actually work?
260
00:14:16,680 --> 00:14:19,520
But we are. We know how they work today.
261
00:14:19,600 --> 00:14:21,960
But in reality, how do they work?
262
00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:25,920
Well, it's...
we have mathematical equations
263
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:29,800
that describe the way the air flows
over the wings of the aircraft.
264
00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:33,880
Can you explain how they work
without resorting to science?
265
00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:39,600
It's difficult
not to explain the science behind it,
266
00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:43,840
but because of the shape of its wings,
267
00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:46,480
the force upwards
is bigger than the force downwards.
268
00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:49,000
So that pushes the plane up into the air.
269
00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:52,200
That's your theory.
Do you want to hear my theory?
270
00:14:52,880 --> 00:14:54,720
- Okay.
- I think they run on belief.
271
00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:58,760
It's just because
we believe planes can fly that they do.
272
00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:01,360
So the media has to keep up the pretense
273
00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:03,920
or they're gonna start
dropping out of the sky.
274
00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:06,840
Same with Wi-Fi.
There's no way that's real.
275
00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:09,120
We just have to go along
with this pantomime
276
00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:11,160
or everything grinds to a halt.
277
00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:16,280
The sky had been tamed.
Next it was the road's turn.
278
00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:20,520
It's hard to say
who invented the first automobile.
279
00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:22,200
Because so many people had a go,
280
00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:25,320
the Wikipedia page
is too long to bother reading.
281
00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:27,040
But luckily it doesn't matter
282
00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:30,760
because in the end,
only one man became synonymous with cars,
283
00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:34,800
the man who made the first
blockbuster automobile.
284
00:15:34,880 --> 00:15:37,760
He was named Henry Model-T Ford.
285
00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:40,520
And in a stunning coincidence,
so was his car.
286
00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:46,680
With its four-cylinder, 2.9-liter engine
pumping out 20 horsepower
287
00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:49,280
and a top speed of 45 miles per hour,
288
00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:52,440
the Model-T Ford was a truly terrible car,
289
00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:55,440
even worse than
whatever it is your mum drives.
290
00:15:56,960 --> 00:16:01,160
There's nowhere to plug in your phone,
no satnav or music system.
291
00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:04,120
It doesn't even have a cup holder.
292
00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:08,440
Nonetheless,
it was marginally better than a horse
293
00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:11,280
because it didn't kick you in the head
if you went behind it.
294
00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:12,720
And unlike on a train,
295
00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:16,120
you weren't likely to find yourself
seated next to a psychopath.
296
00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:19,920
Unless you stopped to pick up a hitchhiker
with a screwdriver in their pocket.
297
00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:27,960
But Henry Model-T Ford's biggest
masterstroke wasn't his car itself,
298
00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:29,720
but the way it was made.
299
00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:34,840
Instead of employing one person
to slowly make a whole car on their own,
300
00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:39,200
Ford employed lots of people
to do just one tiny bit of the car each
301
00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:40,640
over and over again.
302
00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:44,520
It was a revolution in workplace tedium
and human meaninglessness.
303
00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:48,520
Mass production
needed a mass human workforce.
304
00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:52,280
Millions flocked to the USA
for a go on the American dream.
305
00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:56,480
The need for bigger vessels
led to the invention of the Titan 1C,
306
00:16:56,560 --> 00:16:58,920
the world's first single-use submarine.
307
00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:04,440
For years, man had stared at the ocean,
longing to sink like a stone,
308
00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:07,600
and the Titan 1C
would make that dream come true.
309
00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:11,000
It was a huge success.
310
00:17:11,079 --> 00:17:13,800
On her maiden voyage, the Titan 1C
311
00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:17,040
sailed straight from Southampton
to the bottom of the sea,
312
00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:19,920
where the brave explorers
could live in the lap of luxury
313
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:22,079
for the few moments
it took for them to discover
314
00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:25,440
that the atmosphere on the ocean floor
was non-breathable.
315
00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:31,800
Having conquered light, sound, the sky,
the road and the bottom of the ocean,
316
00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:36,120
humankind was about to discover
something it hadn't even heard of before,
317
00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:39,840
courtesy of female scientist and woman
"Mary Curry,"
318
00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:42,080
lady father of radiation.
319
00:17:42,680 --> 00:17:45,440
How did Marie Curie realize
320
00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:50,160
that she'd discovered radioactivity
if it's invisible?
321
00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:53,920
Marie Curie invented
the word "radioactivity."
322
00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:59,600
And radioactivity is when a substance,
like radium, polonium, plutonium,
323
00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:02,520
gives off lots of energy
and disintegrate naturally.
324
00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:05,400
So it's a real thing,
even though it's invisible.
325
00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,360
Lots of real things are invisible, yes.
326
00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:13,680
So it's like chakras and energy fields,
327
00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:16,016
you know, like the ones
you get on the inside of your face
328
00:18:16,040 --> 00:18:18,200
that connect to your star signs
329
00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:20,880
and affect the way you digest gluten.
330
00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:22,000
They're real, aren't they?
331
00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:25,120
- Well, I don't think that they are real.
- I think they are real.
332
00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:26,280
Well, lots of people...
333
00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:31,040
My Aunt Carol realigns people's chakras.
She charges 80 quid an hour.
334
00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:33,360
I think if she was earning
that kind of money,
335
00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:36,320
it's not nonsense, is it?
336
00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:39,960
Tragically, Curie's curiosity was fatal.
337
00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:44,960
Long-term exposure to radiation is thought
to have contributed to her death.
338
00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:46,880
It's not fair, is it?
339
00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:52,080
When a male scientist like Bruce Banner
gets exposed to gamma radiation,
340
00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:55,200
he gets to be, like,
a superhero, doesn't he?
341
00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:59,120
He gets his own comic book
and movie franchise.
342
00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:01,120
Marie Curie just gets killed.
343
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:03,160
You know, he got to be the Hulk.
344
00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:07,560
That's not fair, is it?
Is it the fault of the patriarchy?
345
00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:11,200
Also, what is a patriarchy?
346
00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:16,920
Meanwhile, other less female scientists
were working on theories of their own.
347
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:20,040
Physicist and professional tongue model
Albert Einstein
348
00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:23,400
came up with his theory of relativity,
E equals McTwo,
349
00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:25,440
which to this day nobody understands.
350
00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:28,720
I'm only mentioning it because
it turns out to be important later.
351
00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:33,480
Einstein reckoned nothing is faster
than the speed of light,
352
00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:35,520
but shadows go faster than light.
353
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,120
Like, if I shine a light from a torch
against that wall
354
00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:41,600
but I hold the torch behind my head,
355
00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:44,320
my shadow gets there
before the light does.
356
00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:46,640
How would Einstein explain that?
357
00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:52,320
I think he'd say that it's all happening
so quickly that you can't see it properly.
358
00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:54,640
He's always got an answer, hasn't he?
359
00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:57,880
The 20th century
got off to a cracking start,
360
00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:00,880
with science shitting out
innovation after innovation,
361
00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:03,720
so quickly we can
barely edit them together.
362
00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:06,400
But some of these new inventions
had a dark side.
363
00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:09,920
They could be used to kill people,
and not in a good way.
364
00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:14,120
The First World War was known
as "the war to end all wars,"
365
00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:16,840
although some historians
now argue it didn't.
366
00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:19,800
But it was the first high-tech war,
367
00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:23,640
with aeroplanes, machine guns and tanks
368
00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:27,040
all rising up to fight
the human beings that made them.
369
00:20:27,120 --> 00:20:30,840
Despite having no beliefs or ideology
or hearts or souls,
370
00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:33,160
the killing machines were victorious.
371
00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:37,920
The final score was
weaponry 20 million, mankind nil.
372
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,840
When humans go to war,
it always looks quite chaotic.
373
00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:44,080
Is there a lot of shouting involved?
374
00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:46,560
There tends to be
an awful lot of shouting.
375
00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:48,680
It can either be commands being shouted.
376
00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:52,080
It could also be, you know,
the screams of people dying.
377
00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:55,880
So probably a risk of tinnitus
for anyone standing nearby.
378
00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:58,720
It's a real pity we keep doing it.
379
00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:01,720
I'm not trying to be controversial,
380
00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:06,240
but generally speaking,
war does seem a bit of a shame.
381
00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:11,160
Well, it does seem to be
a particularly popular human activity.
382
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:13,040
Maybe it's just in our nature.
383
00:21:13,120 --> 00:21:16,080
What makes us as creatures
turn on each other like that?
384
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:19,800
And could you keep the answer
to one short sentence?
385
00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:22,880
Because otherwise
they get really pissed off in the edit.
386
00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:25,800
Fear, honor and interest.
387
00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:27,960
Really? Those are the three?
388
00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:29,840
That's it in a nutshell.
389
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:36,680
I don't know who edits this,
but that's going to have to do.
390
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,200
The barbarism of World War I
391
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:44,960
inspired a wide range of harrowing
war poems and pacifist literature,
392
00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:48,960
published decades before the release
of unrelated Belgian techno anthem
393
00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:50,360
"Pump Up the Jam."
394
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:08,040
♪ Pump up the jam, pump it up ♪
395
00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:10,000
♪ While your feet are stomping ♪
396
00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:11,520
♪ And the jam is pumping ♪
397
00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:13,800
♪ Look ahead, the crowd is jumping ♪
398
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:15,440
♪ Pump it up a little more ♪
399
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:17,280
♪ Get the party going
On the dance floor ♪
400
00:22:17,360 --> 00:22:19,200
♪ See, 'cause that's
Where the party's at ♪
401
00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:21,960
♪ And you'll find out if you do that ♪
402
00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:25,240
♪ I want a place to stay ♪
403
00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:27,880
♪ Get your booty
On the floor tonight ♪
404
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:29,600
♪ Make my day ♪
405
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:32,840
♪ I want a place to stay ♪
406
00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:35,560
♪ Get your booty
On the floor tonight ♪
407
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:36,680
♪ Make my day ♪
408
00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:38,960
Millions of young men died during the war,
409
00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:42,520
but fortunately, humankind
had discovered a new kind of man:
410
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:43,800
the woman.
411
00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:46,960
Women had always existed
in the background of history,
412
00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:49,840
largely being used as human pets for men,
413
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:53,360
tolerated for their magical ability
to excrete fresh humans
414
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:54,880
through their front holes.
415
00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:57,480
But in the early 20th century,
416
00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:00,440
social scientists
discovered something incredible:
417
00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:03,080
that a woman could do
anything a man could do,
418
00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:05,040
without the need to talk about it.
419
00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:07,720
They also got the vote.
420
00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:11,760
Finally, women could choose
which man would tell them what to do.
421
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,920
Women began
to escape their traditional uniforms,
422
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:19,240
dressing less like haunted furniture
and more like camp young boys.
423
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:22,680
They drank, smoked
and danced at high speed,
424
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:24,400
at an appalling frame rate.
425
00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:26,520
Meanwhile, in Hollywood,
426
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:30,880
a whole new kind of entertainment
was being invented: movies.
427
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:32,840
Unlike with a book,
428
00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:37,120
you didn't have to concentrate
or use your imagination to enjoy a movie.
429
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:41,360
Anyone, even very lazy or stupid people,
could enjoy themselves
430
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:46,080
by simply sitting down and staring
at a screen, like you're doing now.
431
00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:49,800
Nonetheless, early movies
were completely shit, as you can see.
432
00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:52,440
But it's thanks to early films like this
433
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:55,320
that we can see what life was really like
in the olden days.
434
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:58,240
Everyone moved very quickly
and fell over a lot.
435
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:01,560
Why do people in old films move so fast?
436
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:04,840
Is it because it was their first time
on camera so they were nervous,
437
00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:06,840
or because it was a silent film
438
00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,960
so they couldn't hear the director
yelling at them to slow down?
439
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,080
It's to do with the frame rate
of the cameras
440
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:15,200
was different then to what it is now.
441
00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:16,560
So it's our fault.
442
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,600
We're playing it back too fast
and the actors are having to speed up
443
00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:23,080
to make sure they can get
all the story in before the end credits.
444
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,520
They must be panicking.
What happens if they can't keep up?
445
00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:29,520
Would the film cut to a room
the actors aren't in yet?
446
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:31,640
Just footage of an empty room?
447
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:34,440
The actors are going at a regular speed.
448
00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:37,200
It's just the speed of the playback
449
00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:39,720
that makes them look like
they're moving very quickly.
450
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:42,080
Could we communicate
with the actors in the film
451
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:45,480
and tell them that it's all right,
that they can calm down?
452
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:47,920
No. They'd all be dead by now.
453
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:49,200
Oh.
454
00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:51,160
Early films had subtitles
455
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,440
so people could still watch them
on their phones with the sound off.
456
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:58,040
But before too long,
they figured out how to do sounds too.
457
00:24:58,120 --> 00:25:01,520
What was more satisfactory to you?
458
00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:04,240
Reading was redundant at last.
459
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:08,400
The written word's centuries-long era
of tyranny was finally at an end.
460
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:13,400
But any sense humankind
was embarking on a hopeful new era
461
00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:15,800
was about to be shat through a bin bag.
462
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,440
Dark clouds were gathering over Europe
463
00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:22,440
with a reboot of the World War franchise
about to be unleashed.
464
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:26,520
Soon, the world was plunged
into another global war,
465
00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:31,200
and since this war run on even more
terrible machinery than the previous one,
466
00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:33,680
it seemed
there would be no end to the carnage.
467
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:37,560
Then the Americans had an idea.
468
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:40,360
Instead of dropping thousands
of little bombs on Japan
469
00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:41,960
like they did to Germany,
470
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:44,240
what if they dropped just one big one?
471
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:48,520
Using Einstein's theories,
which I cleverly mentioned earlier,
472
00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:51,960
they began the Manhattan Project,
run by men with hats on,
473
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:54,000
who came up with something fearsome:
474
00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:56,720
an atomic bomb called Little Boy,
475
00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:00,960
the most powerful and inaccurately named
weapon ever used.
476
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:03,160
How powerful was Little Boy?
477
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:04,640
Put it this way:
478
00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:05,960
if that bomb had been dropped
479
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:08,760
on my ex-boyfriend Sean's house
in Westhoughton,
480
00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:12,200
everything, from the Chequerbent
roundabout on the A58
481
00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:14,920
to the florist
next to the Hart Common Golf Club,
482
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:16,600
would have been totally destroyed.
483
00:26:17,120 --> 00:26:19,800
The initial blast
would have vaporized Sean,
484
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:21,960
while the vintage Pac-Man arcade cabinet
485
00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:25,000
he once spent my entire
birthday weekend restoring
486
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:27,520
would have almost certainly
been rendered unplayable
487
00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:29,720
by the raging firestorm that followed.
488
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:33,440
Everything from Wigan to Bolton
would be burnt to a crisp.
489
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:36,880
I'm talking Middlebrook, gone.
Bickershaw, gone.
490
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:39,440
Hindley Green, forget it.
491
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:41,200
The unspeakable horror
492
00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:43,640
of the atomic bomb ended World War II.
493
00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:45,120
Everyone had had enough
494
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:49,080
and the world agreed for the second time
in this episode to never have a war again,
495
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:55,120
a promise it wouldn't break
for a full 52 seconds into episode five.
496
00:26:55,200 --> 00:27:00,400
It's comforting, isn't it, to realize
we don't have nuclear weapons these days?
497
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,200
Well, it depends who you mean by "we."
498
00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:05,120
The British have got nuclear weapons
499
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:08,760
and have recently indeed
decided to increase
500
00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:11,480
the number of warheads that they possess.
501
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:15,080
Yeah, but they're blanks, aren't they?
They're full of blanks.
502
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:16,400
No, not at all.
503
00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:20,640
No, no, these are fully capable
missile systems with nuclear warheads.
504
00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:22,520
Many other states have them.
505
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:26,160
I'm afraid that nuclear war
and the threat of nuclear destruction
506
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:28,040
remains very much with us.
507
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:40,240
Right, can we talk about something
a bit more cheerful?
508
00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:41,880
Anything you like.
509
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:47,920
- Do you like ABBA?
- I love ABBA.
510
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:49,720
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
511
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:52,760
- What's your favorite ABBA song?
- "Dancing Queen."
512
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,120
"Dancing Queen," yeah.
513
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:56,960
Yeah, it's great, isn't it?
514
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,680
Next time we see how a cold war
between East and West
515
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:03,880
paved the way for rock and roll,
516
00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:05,840
which paved the way
for countercultural hippies,
517
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:09,760
who paved the way for Steve Jobs to pave
the way for computers and smartphones,
518
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:11,880
which paved the way for social media,
519
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:13,600
which would pave the way for undoing
520
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:17,280
all the progress
humankind had made so far.
521
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:20,880
Social media has been polarizing
people, hasn't it?
522
00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:23,040
Like what's already happened to the bears.
523
00:28:23,120 --> 00:28:25,800
- What bears?
- Polar bears.
46543
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