All language subtitles for Year.Million.S01E03.Dude.Wheres.My.Body.1080p.WEB-DL.DD5.1.H.264-NTb_track3_eng

NARRATOR: In the future,
you and everyone around you

will exist solely
in a digital universe.

You will open your eyes and live
whatever fantasy you've selected

from an infinite menu
of options.

You will be the hero
of your own story.

Every experience will be
razor-sharp and gorgeous,

like the best smart drug
ever invented.

Say goodbye to all that
brain chemistry

trapping you in the darkness
of your mind.

No more PTSD, no more pain,
no more loss.

Remember that daughter you lost
in a terrible car accident?

Rewind the clock and
imagine a new outcome.

You can have the equivalent
of a digital lobotomy.

Not feeling well?

Just reboot yourself.

This is the future
of your digital existence.

♪ ♪

It's the deep future.

Your body, gone.

You're all computer,
all the time.

Your brain is way more powerful

than even a billion
supercomputers.

Jobs, food, language, water,
even traditional thought,

all of humanity's building
blocks, all that's done.

And you are immortal.

Squirming in your chair yet?

You should be.

This isn't science fiction.

Today's visionary thinkers say
it's a strong probability

that this is what your world
is going to look like.

Tonight, they'll guide you
toward that spectacular future,

and we'll see how
one family navigates it,

one invention at a time.

This is the story
of your future.

This is the road
to Year Million.

♪ ♪

You might not know it yet,
but pay attention,

because we are on a crash course
to Year Million,

an epoch somewhere
in the deep future

where you can't even
begin to imagine

how technology will utterly
and completely alter

our notion of what
it means to be human.

NEGIN FARSAD: The idea behind
the Year Million

is like a time in the future

where, like, everything
is different.

It's a total paradigm shift.

An idea of this future time,

otherworldly from what
we understand right now.

NARRATOR: I've shown you
how artificial intelligence

is the root of all
future technology.

It will elevate the human race
to a dazzling level

of super-intelligence, and
it will make us all immortal.

Now, we'll launch you
out into the waters

of the largest paradigm shift
for mankind,

where we will live completely
and totally online.

MICHIO KAKU:
After a hard day's work

a lot of people turn on the TV
and they see these worlds,

these imaginary worlds
coming at you like that.

But then afterwards
you turn off the TV

and say, well, that was nice.

It was just a TV program.

Hundreds of years from now,

you will literally leap
into a cyberworld.

You'll be able to touch and feel
the emotions, the fear.

They'll be beamed
right into your brain.

Where you cannot just
play video games,

but all of a sudden,

you are the hero of your,
of your story.

You are the captain of the ship.

NARRATOR: And why does being
the captain of your ship matter?

Allow me a moment to digress.

Perhaps one
of the greatest talents

that we human beings have

is the ability to tell stories,
to dream.

Ever since we invented fire
and huddled around it,

it's how we left
the daily grind behind,

from Shakespeare's stage
to 'Leave it to Beaver.'

The media may change, but
it's still a window on fantasy.

We escape our day, our families,
our fears, even love.

But we need it.

And one day,
we'll have a new choice,

the ultimate chance to escape.

PETER DIAMANDIS: We can digitize
our brain, digitize our persona,

and upload it to the cloud,

where we forget about
our physical body,

but it's really
our consciousness,

our memories, who we are,

and that is resident
on a computational platform

that has infinite
growth potential.

KAKU: We would become the gods

that we once feared
and worshipped.

FARSAD: I mean, could my avatar
just be me

but without all of the anxiety
and insecurity?

Like, I think
that would be great.

She could, like, lose
a few pounds and all that stuff,

you know, typical lady crap.

But I mostly just want her
to, like, sleep better at night

and, like, not worry

that she like offended
the guy at the deli

by like ordering
her coffee weird, you know?

NARRATOR:
That choice to play God,

or just someone who doesn't
tick off a barista,

in some futuristic
microprocessor

is hurtling toward us
faster than you can imagine.

And we are already
smack in the middle

of a soul-rattling,
mind-bending revolution,

where the ultimate destination

will be plugging in
and dropping out.

We're talking about a future
where we are no longer shackled

by all of the fickle quirks
of brain chemistry.

It will be an escape
from reality so pure,

I can't see anyone
not jumping on board

that speeding digital train.

But let me take you through it,
step by digital step.

The first step is
already under way.

Virtual reality is
in its infancy,

but it will soon be so developed

that your sensory nervous system

will believe every touch,
smell, and taste

in the simulated environments
you choose to live in.

That's when you'll be able
to do everything

plugged into a VR universe,
from work to school to play.

That virtual universe is
a new environment on Earth

called the metaverse,
version 1.0.

A new and infinite reality
where you, or your avatar,

can do whatever
your heart desires.

Next there's the metaverse 2.0.

That's when
we'll discard our bodies,

scan our brains into a computer,

and live as a digital signal
in an online cloud collective.

Now don't worry, you'll probably
still have your own identity.

But in metaverse 2.0,
there is no escape hatch.

It's all paradise until
someone's avatar gets deleted.

With a new world
comes new dangers,

and we'll need to control
and police the digital sphere

from a whole host of new crimes.

And here's the thing that'll
really rock your world:

some futurists believe, in fact,
they think the odds prove,

that we are already living
in that simulation.

You heard right.

These are people with PhDs
who are saying this.

Before we begin the adventure,
let's step back in time

and role play
the first time you plug in.

Our future family is taking

a walk in the woods together,
right?

Well, they are,
except their bodies are here

in their living room.

Mom and daughter are big fans
of living in that digital world;

now, if they can
just convince Dad.

OSCAR: So your designers
can recreate anything.

Yet they recreate Earth?

EVA: They create
all kinds of things.

OSCAR: Right. But...

EVA: I thought you'd like to
start with something familiar.

JESS: What do you want
to see, Dad?

NARRATOR:
It seems crazy to believe

we'd ever get a simulation
to look this good.

But remember where we were
nearly 40 years ago

when Atari first transformed
the living room experience.

♪ ♪

Well, now think about
how realistic

a PlayStation VR is today.

CHUCK NICE:
I was in fear of my life

that these robot zombies
were going to kill me!

NARRATOR: Exactly.

So, tack on another 40 years

and imagine how much more
amazing it'll look

if you want to digitally
hike the Himalayas

or parachute out
of a virtual airplane

into the Amazon Rain Forest.

Or--and this isn't even in
the future--you could be Batman.

MATT MIRA: I played the Batman
virtual reality game

where you wake up
in Wayne Manor,

you go down to the bat cave,

you put on the bat suit,
and it's great.

It, you feel like you're Batman.

You'll be on the top
of a rooftop in Gotham,

and you look down,
and I swear to God,

sometimes I would feel
a breeze go by me.

Even though I was
in my living room,

like the rest of my body was
being tricked into thinking

I was outside at night
in the rain.

I love it.

NARRATOR: Man, that sounds cool.

But right now,
it's still just a game.

You know you're pretending.

It'd be impossible to sustain
for, say, a lifetime.

But that's only because VR
is in the dark ages

compared to where it will go.

PAUL BETTNER: Today, virtual
reality is a big headset,

it's bulky,

but it will eventually become
an invisible technology.

PHILIP ROSENDALE:
We can definitely get closer

to the retina
with contact lenses.

We should be able to make
ourselves able to see things

we don't see.

Hallucinate visually, basically.

ANDERS SANDBERG:
In the long run,

we want to splice the signal

straight into
our nervous system.

MIRA: You know, all you have
to do is trick five senses.

You don't have to
do anything great.

You just have to trick
your eyes, trick your ears,

trick your nose,
and trick your touch,

and you will be tricked.

NARRATOR: So once VR tricks you,
you won't know the difference

between walking to the bus stop
for real,

or doing it while plugged into
a totally digital landscape.

DAVID BYRNE: It's surprising
to experience things

that aren't there,
that are not real.

You know they're not real,
but you still experience them.

NARRATOR: Our brains
are pretty much

the most sophisticated
instruments on Planet Earth,

so is it possible that
some fancy contact lens

or even a neural implant are
going to make you believe

with every fiber of your being

that you are a Dark Ages knight
or a Mars astronaut?

The question is how will you go
from playing Batman

to being Batman?

This little doll
has your answer.

Visionary artist and
musician David Byrne

is captivated
by the potential of VR.

He's interested in looking
at just how much the technology

can trick our brains.

Can these folks truly believe

that they are this
ugly little doll?

BYRNE: Everybody comes in,

we have this kind of
semicircle of chairs.

A curtain parts in,
in the middle,

and they see a little doll
in a chair.

MAN: Welcome to your new body.

NARRATOR: Yes, I know
you'd rather be a superhero.

But today, you're the doll.

It's all about baby steps,
people.

MAN: We're going to perform

something called an embodiment.

Go ahead and put on the virtual
reality headsets or goggles.

Now I need you to look
down at your legs.

And you should be seeing
your new doll legs.

MAN: Uh, what do you feel
when I touch your knee?

[laughter]

So your eyes tell you
that you are Brita.

Now your sense of touch is
reinforcing this reality.

[laughter]

BYRNE: What you see is
the doll's knee being touched.

But what you feel is your
own knee being touched.

That's when they really feel

like their body
is the doll's body.

Then we kind of culminate by...
[laughs]

by threatening the doll's body
a little bit.

MAN: If you just hold still,
this won't hurt a bit.

Just a little pin prick.

So I'm just gonna
go ahead with that.

Okay.
[laughs]

BETTNER: With the right audio

and the right
visual stimulation,

your brain is willing to fill in
all the rest of the sensations.

The saying 'if you could walk
a mile in someone's shoes,'

that's actually
what you can do now.

NARRATOR: So, yes, it turns out
VR can be extremely persuasive

when it comes to showing you
a simulated world.

ROSEDALE: I would say
that we, as humans,

have already had a great deal
of experience

creating and entering
other worlds.

Our books, shows,
our role-playing,

our everything we do has to some
extent been a creative exercise

in trying to expand the limits
of where we live.

I think that the idea of using
computers to simulate the world

is just kind of the next
logical step in that.

And maybe, as some people
have said, the last one.

NARRATOR: That's right,
the last one.

That's because once we step
into that digital world,

we might never want to leave it.

That could be our future.

It'll be totally normal
to live online all the time,

in a massive planet-wide digital
network known as the metaverse,

where the sky's the limit,

and you can choose your own
adventure every single day.

Better than a cubicle, right?

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The next technological
boom propelling us forward

from virtual reality will mark
an event horizon so dramatic,

that it very well may be
the beginning of the end

of human life
as we've defined it.

I'm not talking end of days;

it's more an evolution
of the human form.

Once we get a taste
of this escapism,

we may never want to come back.

And if you're like me,
you're probably wondering,

can I really be seduced?

And if so,
what will it feel like

to escape into this
shared online world?

Well, try this on for size.

ROSEDALE: If we have
100 billion brain cells,

we have about 100 million or so
of those

that are leading out
to our nerves--

touch, our vision,
smell, everything.

What would it be like to have
100 times more nerves

that were connecting you
to the world around you?

What would it be like
to, to touch someone

with 100 more times
the nerve endings

than you have
in your skin today?

And in a computer,
you could do this.

NARRATOR: The metaverse,
a limitless digital refuge

from our
less-than-perfect world.

Driven by an artificially
intelligent engine.

Once we hook in, we will access
recesses in our brain

we never knew existed, connect
with minds all over the planet,

and collectively rebuild
the world as we envision it,

digital brick by digital brick.

EBBE ALTBERG: The metaverse
connects all humans

in one shared media space.

You can interact
with other people,

like we do
in the physical world.

You can interact
with the environment,

move things, touch things.

SANDBERG: A shared,
joint virtual reality,

that you can move around in,

that most of society
have access to.

KAKU: In the future,
we'll be able to create

an imaginary world
the size of a planet.

BETTNER: I mean, there will be
virtual construction companies

and architects and all these
sorts of crazy jobs,

that would sound ridiculous now
but are completely inevitable.

ROSENDALE: Even in a completely
digital form,

we'll form into tribes
and groups,

and find our people
and fall in love,

and, and do all these things.

But I bet we'll still have
very rich decisions going on

around, you know, how we choose
to live with each other.

And that is still going to be
a very fundamental conflict

that is going to be just as real
inside a digital matter

as it would be
in the real world.

NARRATOR: Ah, yes,
the ever-evolving calculus

of love and relationships
in a world we design.

The temptation could be
unimaginable.

Say you are a woman
in a really long marriage,

what do you do
to add a little spice?

How about a game of role play?

♪ ♪

WOMAN: Hey, stranger.

OSCAR: What's a nice girl like
you doing in a place like this?

WOMAN: Exploring my options.

OSCAR: I'm sorry,
but I'm married.

WOMAN: I won't tell
if you won't.

NARRATOR: Now, if this world
makes you uneasy,

you'll still have
an escape hatch--

simply unplug.

But it may not be that simple.

You may feel, well,
more at home in the metaverse.

In fact, there are some
in today's world

who are already spending a lot
of quality time in that bar,

or rather, in this bar.

In virtual clubs on a massive
multiplayer online program

called Second Life.

Second Life attracts
nearly a million patrons

to a digital world,
even without VR.

NICK LOIZIDES: My full name
is Nick Loizides,

and my avatar name is Loz Hyde.

I've been in Second Life
just over 10 years.

NARRATOR: This is a prototype
for the metaverse.

Players live whatever life
they choose.

Living as whatever avatar
they design.

LOIZIDES: When you first log in,

you go through
this metamorphosis

of recreating yourself
into either your likeness

or into something else.

I've seen people
as mermaids or dragons.

Whatever you want to be,
you can be.

NARRATOR: For people like Nick,

Second Life may be just as rich
and nuanced as real life.

LOIZIDES: The people that stick
around and stay in for years

have that moment,

possibly spiritually,
I guess, in some way.

You do something like dance
at the same time,

and that drives another emotion.

And of course,
as you're dancing,

you're not operating anything.

Your avatar is literally
just doing the moves,

and it's very graceful.

NARRATOR:
And how can you blame Nick

when this computer program
can make your average dude,

well, a graceful dancer?

Second Life is a new world

full of experiences
and possibilities.

And that's exactly what
Second Life's creator,

Philip Rosedale,
was looking to do

when he dreamed up the program

as a first step toward
building the metaverse.

Rosedale believes
that the metaverse

could set humanity free.

ROSENDALE:
When Second Life took off,

we saw people are
a good deal more free

about being able
to be themselves.

The dynamics between women
and men inside Second Life

were different than they are
in the real world.

Women took over,

dominated a lot of the economy
and manufacturing,

and I think some of that
comes from the fact

that we had finally
removed all bias.

LOIZIDES: I have a manager
in there, Samantha is her name.

She's amazing.

We have a club called Core,
she basically runs that for me.

Core, the nightclub,
is underwater,

so you have glass around,
you can see fish.

NARRATOR: So the future bar
where Oscar and Eva meet up

for a digital tryst, those kinds
of connections are being forged

right now,
even in today's digital bars.

And those relationships inspire
real emotions, even love.

LOIZIDES: The way I met Sam,
my manager,

I was dancing
with somebody else,

but I was flirting with her.

[laughs]

Whether we meet
in real life or not,

whether I know what she looks
like in real life or not,

it doesn't matter.

I totally trust her
and love her to death.

ANNALEE NEWITZ:
Virtual reality could enhance

a lot of the experiences
that we're already having now

through the Internet

and make them feel
a lot more real,

and give us much more emotional
and visceral reactions.

NARRATOR: Programs like
Second Life

are laying the groundwork
for a metaverse

that will attract
more and more users

until it is as omnipresent
as smart phones.

But Second Life is about to take
a giant step forward.

It's about to morph
into something else,

something that uses
3D virtual reality,

and makes the program
far more immersive,

meaning that
we are getting closer

to being able to experience
the metaverse,

just like
our future family does.

Linden Lab, the company
behind Second Life,

is hard at work on developing
a program called Sansar.

It's Second Life,
but on steroids.

You'll be able to roam around
a digital world,

but now it will be
fully 3D, interactive,

and virtual reality-accessible.

Instead of punching keys
on a keyboard,

it will mimic your movement.

It's realer.

ALTBERG: I put on my headset,

and then I meet
other people there.

And I can have really natural
social interaction with them,

because I can use
my body language.

As my head moves,
my avatar's head moves,

and as I speak, my mouth moves.

Which then makes the way
you communicate with people,

and especially when
you're a group of people,

it sort of becomes
a very natural way

of communicating
with each other.

LOIZIDES: Hey, Bjorn.

BJORN LAURIN:
Hey, Nick, how are you, man?

LOIZIDES:
Good to meet you finally.

NARRATOR: Sansar's VR world
could make the online landscape

even more appealing

for dedicated Second Life
players, like Nick.

LAURIN: Nick, personally I've
only known him for a short time,

basically, but I've kind of
seen him around Second Life.

He applied for Sansar

when we opened up what we call
a creator preview.

We selected him based
on his previous work,

to be part of us now,

basically, one of the early
creators in Sansar,

to work with us.

Let's do some fun and
switch avatars now, basically.

Follow me up here,
up these stairs.

I will show you something fun.

There you go! And then try
to throw it like this.

See, I missed,
I'm really bad apparently.

Nice!

NARRATOR: Once VR makes a bar
that looks real,

is filled with beautiful people,

and always has your favorite
microbrew on tap,

that's when that online world
may just be irresistible.

KAKU: We don't have that
computational power today.

We're not going to have it
100 years from now.

But with quantum computers,
it's a game-changer.

It means that things that
are preposterous today

become possible.

NARRATOR: When we choose to be
hooked up to it all the time,

that will be the birth
of the metaverse 1.0.

BETTNER: But by the time
we get there,

what those experiences will
give us will be so compelling

that, you know,
and then it's there,

and there we're using it,
and there's no going back.

BARATUNDE THURSTON: The Matrix
is coming for all of us.

I don't know that any of us
has a choice.

NARRATOR: That's right,
Baratunde.

We probably don't.

The seductive escape
of the metaverse

is ensnaring us in its web
as we speak,

and you are more
vulnerable to it

every single time you pick up
that smart phone of yours.

But if that makes
you want to throw

every single one
of your screens away,

wait until you hear about
the next incarnation

of the metaverse,

where your body won't even exist

and you'll have transformed
into a post-human,

living entirely
inside the machine.

NARRATOR: It's no secret
that we humans

are pretty obsessed
with how we look.

Look at how many billions
we spend every year

on beauty, fashion,
and exercise.

But what if you didn't
have to be limited

by whatever biology you had
the stupid luck to be born with?

Well, in the future,

we'll be able to escape
the jail of our bodies.

It sounds trippy,

but the metaverse will
eventually graduate

to version 2.0, where we will
abandon our bodies,

upload our minds, and live
permanently on a hard drive.

We're talking about
the ultimate escape.

MIRA: If you're able to digitize
your consciousness

and send it to
a cloud or a body,

we're talking about us all being
able to leave our bodies behind.

NARRATOR: Sci-fi has
recently imagined

one version of this metaverse

where humans upload
to a server farm

and choose, for whatever reason,

a hip '80s dance club
to hang out in.

THURSTON: There's an episode
of 'Black Mirror'

that had a version of this

where you uploaded your
consciousness to the cloud.

And you could, you could choose
where you wanted to hang out.

sort of what theme.

And there were nightclubs
and beaches,

and it was like
a resort style of life.

NARRATOR: But bar culture aside,

not having a physical body
will bring the human race

to a whole new and
super-advanced level.

We'll live as long as
the computers keep working away.

So when we get old and wise,

we'll be able to keep on
getting older and wiser.

MICHAEL GRAZIANO: People
accumulate incredible amounts

of experience over a lifetime,
and then it goes away.

If you upload brains,
essentially what you're doing,

you're preserving wisdom,
you're preserving knowledge.

CHARLES SOULE:
Digital consciousness

is going to drastically
change the way

human beings think
about their lives

and what they're supposed
to achieve with them.

We'll become a very, very
different species.

MIRA: I'll leave my body behind
for another body,

but I don't want to like
be put into a car

or like, you know,
I don't want to be KITT.

That wouldn't be fun for me.

NARRATOR: I'm going to have
to disagree with you, Matt.

Being able to go 100 miles
an hour on the Autobahn

doesn't sound too shabby.

That's why there are
some intrepid explorers

who will welcome
that chance to upload.

OSCAR: There are boundaries,
Eva.

There are lines you can't cross,
even for us.

EVA: But why,
why should there be?

There is a whole universe
of new places and new ideas.

Why keep getting pulled back
into a physical body?

OSCAR: We don't even know
all the risks.

What's to stop me from
being copied or hacked?

EVA: Oscar, I want to live in
the digital world permanently.

I want to upload for good.

Why worry about pain and death
if we can live forever there?

OSCAR: Does it even count
as living

if your physical body's dead?

EVA: I've been thinking about
this for a long time.

And I know what I've got to do.

But I would rather do it
with your support.

OSCAR: Okay.

NARRATOR: Someday enough people
like Eva will make that leap

to live digitally.

That's when a new society
will form...online.

ROSENDALE: I think
the digital world will form

kind of bottom-up, the same way
a society like America did.

Small cities and groups
that kind of fused together

and found each other
over long periods of time.

NICE: The great thing about
uploading your consciousness

is go to work
looking any way I want.

Hey, guys, I'm not wearing
any pants. Mm-hmm.

Seriously! Who truly wants
to wear pants to work?

Nobody.

NARRATOR: And it is that promise
of being equally free

from both oppressive leadership
and pants

that could propel
people like Eva

to run off and join
the metaverse.

But will it actually be possible
to digitize your mind?

Futurists like Elon Musk
are banking on it.

He's already unveiled
the Neuralink initiative,

which will link the brain
with computing devices

in the next 10 years.

GEORGE DVORSKY: There are
several attempts right now

around the world to map the
brain in excruciating detail,

and that's what's required.

GRAZIANO:
It's scanning technology.

So it's possible, it's going
to happen, I'm positive of that.

NARRATOR: So you will be
part of a computer.

Yes, it sounds freaky.

But here's a major upside--

we could bring our dead
back to life.

One futurist is already working
toward doing just that.

RAY KURZWEIL: I've had a project
to gather all the information

about my father.

He died when I was 22, in 1970.

He kept all of his letters
and all of his electric bills,

and every document.

The idea is to create an avatar
that would represent my father.

Ultimately, I think
artificial intelligence

can create a virtual person.

GRAZIANO: So your friend
passes away.

So now you can text your virtual
friend, and he'll answer.

It's like back in the day
when people looked at a statue

and thought it had
a little bit of the soul

and essence of
the original person in it.

KAKU: Why not have
a holographic image

with all the memories and
mannerisms of Winston Churchill?

In the future,

your descendants may go to
the library and talk to you.

NARRATOR: Now here is where

things get
philosophically sticky.

When we are all bodiless
computer signals,

is that still humanity?

KAKU: Now, of course, it all
goes back to the question of

how do you define you?

Is that really you
that's been digitalized

and uploaded in a computer?

Well, it depends on
how you define you,

and how you define soul.

BRIAN GREENE: I'd like to think
that what makes us who we are

transcends our physical form.

And if we evolve to a
digital form, a simulated form,

the essence of who we are
will stay with us.

MIRA: I think we are
our consciousness.

I think we are our experiences.

NARRATOR: Okay, so in
a digitally rendered metaverse,

what about our flaws?

Is that digital world
utterly perfect,

with no parking tickets or
getting fired or messy breakups?

How do you have something
as awesome as blues music

if there's no heartache?

Well, I, for one, am hoping
the programmers think of that

before I plug in.

BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS: There's
that great line in The Matrix

where they describe that they
had created a different matrix

that was perfect,
it was like heaven.

And the humans rejected it.

Like they needed a crappy life
to, to see as reality.

NARRATOR: Even if the metaverse
2.0 has a few warts

to keep us interesting,

I'm thinking the perk of
cheating death is awesome enough

that the lines on day one

are going to be like
the ones you stood on

for your Nintendo Switch.

But there is a truly terrifying
aspect of metaverse 2.0--

you open yourself up
to getting hacked.

But it's not your computer
getting hacked here,

it's your brain.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: In the first
incarnation of the metaverse,

version 1.0, the digital world
will be an escape

from the real world.

But in metaverse 2.0,
when we leave our bodies behind,

that's the point of no return.

JESS: Dad.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: It's like volunteering

to go on that first
long flight to Mars.

It's probably a one-way ticket.

It will be the end of humanity.

But even for those with the best
intentions like Eva here,

there are stakes
that we cannot ignore.

FARSAD: There's the kind
of rosy possibility

that the metaverse
would bring us together,

that we'd all be able
to convene in this place,

and we'd all look gorgeous
'cause of our avatars.

But then there's also this kind
of, like, darker possibility,

you know, where we learn that
being in the metaverse

is actually like no substitute
for actual human interaction,

and that it creates maybe
more division, more seclusion,

more isolation,
maybe like more bigotry,

and like maybe just like
a far worse society.

NARRATOR: Chances are
you've clicked 'accept'

on those privacy agreements
that come up

when you download an Internet
application or enter a website.

Ever read those
privacy agreements?

Me neither.

If that's the gateway to
the newest social media site

that everyone else is using, of
course you're going to say yes.

Thing is, sometimes you're
giving a giant conglomerate

access to the kind of things
you'd rather not let them know,

things like your browser history
or your email address.

If that sounds a little too
Big Brother for you,

imagine what life will be like
when you are digital,

and your world is the metaverse,

and you can't exist unless
you let the metaverse access

every memory and thought
in your brain.

Houston, we have a problem.

Especially since it's likely

that something as big
as the metaverse

isn't going to be built by
a couple of kindhearted hackers

in their spare time.

GRAZIANO: I imagine that
initially, at least,

this is corporate control.

Because what other entity
has the resources

to build something like this?

And so you have an incredible
concentration of power

in corporate hands.

LOUIS ROSENBERG: We could
ultimately create a replica

of our own world that is just
giving power to third parties.

And that company has
goals and aspirations.

Those goals and aspirations are
probably to sell you something,

to study you,
to collect data about you.

People will lose more and more
of their privacy.

They will be advertised to
more and more.

They will be manipulated

by these
artificial intelligence bots

that are running
behind the scenes.

DVORSKY: You could get
a situation

where there's a kind
of hydraulic despotism,

which is an old-fashioned term
that basically says

that if you control
a very fundamental resource,

you control everything.

ROSE EVELETH: I want to have
very detailed privacy controls

on that upload.

NARRATOR: Not that I have
anything to hide,

but I might have
one or two secrets

I don't want
the Metaverse Corporation

getting their hands on.

You'd hope we'd be smart enough
to click 'decline'

on any metaverse like this.

And some believe that
it's a long shot

that our new digital world

will be in the hands
of one single company.

ROSEDALE: The largest-scale
systems that we have today

are almost all decentralized.

They're never owned by one
company except in the movies.

And so I believe that VR,
and hopefully AI,

these will be
the product of everyone.

I think that someone,
hopefully me and my company,

will build a standard
kind of open source server

that lets millions of people

start to put up little
communities and meeting places

and teaching facilities.

NARRATOR: Even in that
kind of best-case scenario,

we are still human.

We'll still be greedy or angry

or violent towards
each other sometimes.

SANDBERG: People will always do
what they do in the real world

in the virtual worlds, too.

So of course we're going
to see crime,

and of course
we're going to see attempts

at both preventing it
and punishing it.

There are both questions
of virtual theft,

but also virtual sexual
harassment, virtual rape,

virtual murder, maybe, if you
delete somebody's character.

ROSENDALE:
Although we won't be able

to come to physical harm there,

we'll still be able
to hurt each other.

People will still be able to
isolate themselves from others,

or make someone more alone than
they want to be, for example,

or exclude then from a group.

It means that people will still
have control over each other.

DVORSKY: You as a digital copy

are going to be
under constant threat.

Somebody might want to copy you
against your will.

There's even potential for the
corruption of your source code.

NEWITZ:
I mean, I think, you know,

you're looking at
future regulatory agencies,

and you're looking at something

like health regulatory agencies
of today.

MIRA: I don't know who
wants the metaverse.

You, you just wind up...
it's like social media.

I think if the metaverse is
anything like social media,

we're in for a rough ride.

NARRATOR: If you don't want
to cross over,

how will you negotiate living in
what's left of the real world?

Especially if your wife
of several hundred years

has made the decision to upload?

[air hissing]

JESS: Hey, stranger.

OSCAR: This is a nice surprise.

Oh, could you, uh, could you,
could you pass me that brush?

Yeah, thanks.

JESS: Mom's been asking
after you.

You know there's no reason
why you can't visit.

OSCAR: Yeah, I know,
I've just, I've been busy.

JESS: You've been avoiding her.

If you want to be
together forever,

the only place to do it is
in the collective.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Well, I get how Oscar
might not want to have a life

that could be ended
with a delete key.

But the thing is, we've already
started our gradual transition

into living digitally.

You probably didn't even notice

just how much you were
using your phone's GPS

until you were
utterly dependent on it.

Well, that's how it'll be

when you can start to plug
into the metaverse.

It'll gradually take over
without your ever knowing it.

Unless it already has.

I am sorry to be the one
to tell you this,

but the metaverse may have
already been built,

and we are in it.

Can you prove that
we aren't living

inside a giant
digital simulation

built by
an advanced civilization?

I'll answer that.
No, you can't.

Which means maybe all you see,
all you are, is just software.

NARRATOR: For better or worse,

humanity's future
is in the cloud.

We'll plug in,
abandon our mortal coil

and live eternally
in the metaverse.

Just like our future family,

burning a few
simulated s'mores

around a virtual campfire.

Just like life, right?

But that's what leads to our
most bone-chilling idea yet.

There is a possibility that the
metaverse isn't in the future,

but that we are living in it
right now,

and everything around you
is a simulation.

GREENE: How hard would it be
to create a new universe

in the traditional sense?

That's pretty tough.

How hard is it to create a new
universe in the simulated sense?

Not that tough.

You get a powerful computer,
turn it on, kick back,

and let the software go
and create that realm.

Which means, over time,
you would think

there'd be many more
simulated universes

than real universes.

The odds would suggest

that everybody should
come to the conclusion

that they are
in a simulated world.

That would be
the natural conclusion

that any rational,
logical, sentient being

would come to in this framework.

DVORSKY: We ourselves
might be parked

inside of some kind of
fancy super-computer

that's being run by, you know,
our post-human forebears.

THURSTON: So, we're living
in a simulation.

We could just be living
off of feeding tubes,

hanging out in The Matrix.

HOD LIPSON:
I think it's impossible to tell

by definition.

NARRATOR: The idea is that
on an infinite timeline,

with infinite possible
alien species out there,

and with the relative ease

of building a digital
environment on a computer,

odds are that some intelligent
race somewhere has built one.

And more likely than not, there
are lots of these universes.

I, for one, am not finding that
particularly comforting.

BETTNER: It's kind of the only
thing that makes sense.

All the stuff that is
happening right now,

seems it only has
one inevitable conclusion,

you know what I'm saying?

[laughs]

ROSEDALE: Virtual worlds exhibit
these little cracks

or flaws in them.

Well, guess what?

We see these little cracks
in the simulation

when we look at the real world.

Stuff in the real world,
protons and electrons,

will sometimes go
right through each other

when they're not supposed to.

And so the funny hypothesis
that comes from this is,

if we're seeing this problem
with creating virtual worlds,

and we're seeing this problem
in the real world,

doesn't this mean that because
we see these little errors

in the real world,

we're probably running
on somebody's computer?

MIRA: There's a theory out there

that we might already be
living in a simulation,

to which I say, try harder.

This is not a great simulation.

There's still a lot of garbage
happening in the world,

and I don't love the way
it's being simulated.

NARRATOR: The most recent
election has inspired

a new round of 'this can't be
real' in the Twitterverse.

Look, it all goes back
to Descartes,

'I think, therefore I am.'

It's old philosophy
with really new tech.

If I'm a simulation,

should I not bother
going to the gym anymore?

Or will that just mean that
my avatar gets flabby?

You can go down a rabbit hole
thinking about it.

THURSTON: Maybe the race of
beings that controls that world

is so significantly
more powerful,

creative, clever,
and dominating,

that we die out of mere fear,
that we wither under,

'cause we can't handle
that truth.

Maybe the simulation
is to protect us

from a harsher reality.

LIPSON: Did we kill ourselves
in between?

Did we lose control?

Is there a battle
between AI and humans?

Is the battle between
the have and have-nots

with AI before that?

NARRATOR: Those are questions
we just can't answer yet.

But believe you me,
I'm hoping we do.

Simulated or not,
in the Year Million,

we will shed
our physical selves,

view the human form
as something

that held our consciousness
and our society back,

in the dirty old dark ages when
we were enslaved to biology.

Let's look down the road,

to after we exist
on some hard drive.

Communication will
change drastically.

Language itself will be
as obsolete as our bodies,

and we'll relate to each other
in new ways

that scientists are just
beginning to grasp.