Original subtitles

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: Right now, we are inventing

all these different technologies,

with which we could actually make ourselves

superhumans with super intelligence.

DAVID WILCOCK: The potentials are quite extreme.

You could eventually have printable noses,

ears, lungs, kidneys.

KEVIN WARWICK: The big question is immortality.

Dying, is it something we have to do?

WILLIAM HENRY: I'm convinced that the engineers at MIT

are looking back into the ancient examples of the gods.

DAVID CHILDRESS: You've got to wonder,

are extraterrestrials somehow guiding us,

and manipulating us

into this new future, and this new human

that we are destined to be?

NARRATOR: Since the dawn of civilization,

mankind has credited its origins to gods

and other visitors from the stars.

What if it were true?

Did extraterrestrial beings

really help to shape our history?

And if so, might their ultimate plan be revealed...

with the rise of the Next Humans?

*

NARRATOR: Mountain View, California.

August, 1962.

At NASA's Ames Research Center,

the newly formed Division of Biotechnology and Human Research

begins a study on the possibility of exploring space

with technologically-enhanced humans,

otherwise known as cyborgs.

Ten months later, they release a report

called "The Cyborg Study: Engineering Man for Space."

In it, they propose that astronauts will require

artificial organs and pharmaceuticals

to survive in the harshest environments of deep space...

...as we explore beyond our solar system.

While the program was quickly abandoned

due to the lack of available technology,

it helped usher in a new era of scientific research focused

on augmenting the human species into a new stage of evolution:

the Transhuman.

WARWICK: Transhumanism is the use

of technology by humans,

to enhance the physical, psychological,

and most of all, intellectual capabilities.

We transhumanists want to use science and technology

to self-direct our evolution.

There are lots of transhumanists now

that don't even consider themselves transhuman--

for example, people who have pacemakers,

or cochlear implants, or hip replacements.

These are technologies that we're using,

and that is beyond human.

JONATHAN YOUNG: The idea of their being a transhuman

is actually a very old notion,

and it stems from our longing for immortality.

so there were attempts to extend human life.

SCOTT: Transhumanism has been thought of for a very long time,

throughout mythology.

From Gilgamesh's search for immortality,

to alchemy...

...to the search for the fountain of life.

Really, the quest to overcome what it means to be human,

to see if we can live forever,

that has been the quest for a very long time.

If we look, things like prosthetics,

which are adding bits of technology on, in some way,

even the Egyptians, in mummies,

in tombs, have been found where they've had

a little wooden replication of a toe.

Where somebody has lost their toe,

and they've been given a... this false toe.

But it shows that, thousands of years ago,

transhumanism, in some basic form,

was being thought of.

NARRATOR: Although the notion of modifying

the body with technology

has been around for thousands of years,

transhumanists say the 21st century

will radically change what it means to be a human...

...when we begin to genetically engineer

an entirely new generation of humans.

April 22, 2015.

Guangzhou, China.

Geneticists at the Sun Yat-Sen University

make history as the first team in the world

to genetically modify a human embryo.

Using a gene editing technique known as CRISPR-Cas9,

the scientists were able to correct the gene defect

that causes beta-thalassemia, a blood disease,

by snipping out and replacing portions of the DNA

in the fertilized egg.

By using a new technology called CRISPR,

scientists are able to actually cut into the DNA

and replace parts of the DNA

with genetically-modified proteins.

This allows us to literally transform who we are.

WARWICK: When we look at DNA changing,

it can be used not just to overcome problems,

but to improve your looks, maybe change the color or your hair,

or your eyes, or perhaps

even more importantly, change your intellectual

or physical abilities.

NARRATOR: Will the modification of human embryos

soon lead to a wave

of what futurists call "designer babies,"

children whose physical features

and mental capabilities

were selected by their parents.

Many believe that not only is this a possibility,

but that the very definition

of a parent may soon change as well.

The UK is on its way to becoming the first country

to legalize the creation of babies

from three different people.

And a large majority of the House of Commons

voted in favor of the controversial

"Three Parent In Vitro Fertilization," or TPIVF.

The British government officially declared it legal,

so actual children have been born

that have DNA from three different parents.

I think it is quite possible, in the future,

that it won't be just two

or three parents that the child has,

but could be any number.

That sounds like science fiction,

but it's actually something the Japanese scientists

are working on right now.

And what that would entail

is using an artificial womb.

(heart beating, baby fussing)

Actually gestating the child

within that artificial womb.

Now, you can imagine, if we can get to this stage,

it doesn't matter who... who the parents are.

You could have a community of people with the best genes

contributing to making that child.

And that is really the future that is in front of us.

NARRATOR: Is it possible

we could synthetically create human beings,

picking and choosing genetic traits

from any number of donors?

Could the characteristics of a person

soon be limited only by our imaginations?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and suggest an even more incredible possibility:

that we are not the first to do this.

Luxor, Egypt.

Here in the Deir el-Bahari mortuary temple

lies the burial chamber of Hatshepsut,

one of the only queens to ever become a pharaoh.

And on the frescoed walls of this tomb is a scene

portraying Hatshepsut's conception

at the hands of divine beings.

On the walls of Queen Hatshepsut's mortuary temple,

it says... that... a long time ago...

...God Amon came to Hatshepsut's mother,

Ahmose, in her sleep,

and with the power of God Anum,

and with the key of ankh in his hand,

he created baby Hatshepsut.

He uses the ankh...

...that key-shaped tool,

to give life, to create a human.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: Any device that can give life

upon something would have to appear as magical...

...so you have to wonder who were these gods

that they were talking about?

What we have in this story

is actually the immaculate conception of

Hatshepsut, and it is clear that this is the story

of an extraterrestrial intervention in the creation

of a star child, Hatshepsut.

So, we appear to be dealing with some sort of a technology,

a DNA-based technology

that can manifest human bodies or alter human DNA.

NARRATOR: Could Hatshepsut have been genetically engineered

by otherworldly beings?

And is it possible that humans are just now starting

to unlock the incredible potential hidden within us

by our extraterrestrial creators,

as ancient astronaut theorists propose?

Perhaps further clues can be found in our own attempts,

not in creating life, but in reversing death.

NARRATOR: State College, Pennsylvania.

October 15, 2015.

Dr. Gong Chen and a team of biologists

from the Life Sciences Department

at Penn State University

reveal research on a cocktail of specialized drugs

designed to convert non-neuronal cells in the brain,

called glial cells, into neurons.

90% of our brain is made up of what's called glial cells.

These cells are just a support mechanism

for the neurons themselves.

WARWICK: What we can do at the moment

is to take glial cells from the brain

and to use different chemicals, essentially,

to alter the functioning of the glial cells.

Chemicals will cause them

to become fresh neurons.

Gong Chen's belief for this research is that

things like severe brain trauma,

Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's could actually

be effectively transformed and healed.

NARRATOR: Could degenerative brain disorders

like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's

be cured by a simple chemical injection?

And if so, could we eventually rid the brain

of neurological diseases entirely?

Transhumanists believe the therapeutic uses

for this incredible discovery

are only a small part of the bigger picture.

In the future, we could see using that technology

to increase our intelligence to a, to a superhuman state.

Now imagine, because the brain is only ten percent neurons,

imagine if we could

increase the brain's capacity to 35%.

That could change everything.

I mean, we could become a super intelligent species.

Could you, in fact, advance the human IQ,

perhaps to such a degree

that you might have people walking around now

with a 1,000 IQ?

GEORGE NOORY: We've seen what has happened

with HGH, or steroids pumped into athletes.

What would happen if you developed a serum

that could augment the brain?

I think we're gonna be able to do that.

NARRATOR: Could Dr. Chen's research

lead us to an exponential increase of the human intellect?

And if so, will we seem like primates

to the people of tomorrow?

Transhumanists suggest that if we can create new brain cells,

we could potentially reproduce all of the body's cells,

which would have profound implications.

WARWICK: The big question is immortality.

Dying, is it something we have to do?

Cells die away, but if we can start replacing the cells,

and if we can replace brain cells

and keep the functioning of the brain going,

then it does, potentially,

really extend life, in theory, forever.

Some people, like Ray Kurzweil,

have suggested by 2045 we'll be able to do that.

NARRATOR: Ray Kurzweil

is Google's Director of Engineering,

a transhumanist, prolific author and inventor.

He believes, in the near future,

humans will be able to extend their lives indefinitely.

To reach that point, he maintains

a daily diet of over 100

different body and mind enhancing pills,

called nootropics.

Nootropics are essentially drugs of one kind or another,

chemicals if you like, that can change the way

most of the body functions,

but particularly how the brain functions.

SCOTT: Choline, for example,

helps with memory, and so, people are using

these nootropics to enhance their memory,

to have better recall, to have better focus.

You're starting to see nootropics pop up everywhere,

especially in Silicon Valley.

In the future, the idea

of enhancing the cognitive ability in the human being

is going to be sort of commonplace.

NARRATOR: Kurzweil and others predict

nootropics will become a new multi-billion dollar industry

as people turn to supplements to enhance their bodies

and prolong their lives.

But ancient astronaut theorists believe that,

like genetic manipulation,

evidence of nootropic use can be found thousands of years ago.

Dating back to the fifth century BC,

the Hindu Sanskrit epic known as The Mahabharata,

tells the story of Samudra Manthana,

a celestial battle between the gods

for a rare substance that grants immortality.

The "Samudra Manthana" means the "churning of the ocean."

And in this case, the ocean is visualized

as a cosmic sea of milk.

It is, in essence, the Milky Way itself.

There were two primary forces at odds in the universe.

There were the Asuras...

and they were at odds

with a new order of gods-- the Devas.

The gods went to Lord Vishnu and Vishnu said,

why don't you try to cooperate with them?

At the very depths of the ocean,

there is a substance called Amrita,

a divine nectar of immortality.

Churn the cosmic ocean of milk,

and it will yield forth the nectar of immortality,

and you can share it.

YOUNG: The gods and the demons start churning,

in the heavens, the Milky Way,

and what is produced by this is an elixir,

an elixir that can grant immortality.

Well, there was a terrible war now,

because everyone wanted this.

CHILDRESS: In order to win the battle for the gods,

they decide they need this amrita,

this elixir of life.

So you have to wonder if this story isn't about some kind of

extraterrestrial war in heaven,

where aliens are fighting over nootropics.

NARRATOR: Could the story of the Samudra Manthana

be an ancient account of a celestial battle

over a highly advanced nootropic?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and point to legends of immortality elixirs

throughout antiquity.

The ancients had many stories of immortality--

that it was touchable or reachable.

The Chinese had the peaches of immortality.

The Greeks had ambrosia.

The Mesopotamians had the idea of "soma."

In the Biblical tradition, there is the tree of life.

There is something that you can ingest and gain immortality.

CHILDRESS: This quest has been going on

for thousands of years,

around the world, by many different cultures.

This quest for these smart drugs,

that will enhance our lifestyle and our mental clarity.

So you have to wonder,

was this nootropic drug

some kind of extraterrestrial elixir

that was well-known in ancient times?

NARRATOR: Could ancient accounts

of elixirs of immortality really be descriptions

of extraterrestrial nootropics?

And might it soon be possible

to unlock our full human potential

simply with the right potion or pill,

perhaps fulfilling a destiny

to become like our alien ancestors?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and suggest molecular chemistry

is only the beginning of the human upgrade.

NARRATOR: November 17, 2015.

A team of researchers

from North Carolina State University, and Rice University,

unveil the first motor-driven,

submersible nanomachines ever created.

Molecular nano-technology is the idea

of building devices, machines,

at a molecular scale.

"Nano" refers to a billionth of a meter,

so, very, very small.

We're getting down to atomic scale.

NARRATOR: Measuring only 244 atoms across,

these miniature robots are designed

to deliver specialized medicines

throughout the body, using the bloodstream.

Scientists have created biobots that are the first of its kind.

These tiny little bio hybrids and bots are capable

of tying to viscous material through our bodies.

SCOTT: They take submersible nanomachines

that can be controlled with UV light,

and using the UV light, they can control

where these nanomachines take nutrients

and take medicines into the body.

WARWICK: As long as we have a way

of controlling them from the outside,

they can move around very, very quickly,

perform a function-- i-if we're looking

at operating on a cancer,

then, potentially, they could do

that operation for you, from within.

WILCOCK: This could lead to huge advances

in medicine, in healing,

leading to nanomachines that could actually

heal the wounds in our bodies,

close things up much faster,

repair damaged tissue, extend our lifespan,

and literally bring us into a new level of human evolution.

NARRATOR: Transhumanists believe

our bodies will soon be home

to swarms of nanomachines,

that will both heal, and also warn of disease.

And some propose

this technology is advancing so rapidly

that it will not just be

future generations that will live tens

or even hundreds of years longer,

but people who are alive today.

STOCK: The possibility of reversing human aging,

as opposed to just slowing it down,

is not a very big stretch.

So if you understand aging and the fundamentals

of the processes that are leading to it,

it would be quite possible, both to slow it,

and it would also be possible to reverse it.

SCOTT: An example of this is a study

that has gone on at Harvard,

by reversing the muscle tissue in mice.

We have actually reversed the age in these mice.

And so, if we can do that

in the laboratory setting,

it's only a matter of time

before we're able to reverse our own aging process.

NARRATOR: Could millions of microscopic robots

soon be swimming in our bloodstreams,

augmenting our immune system,

and even reversing the aging process entirely,

as transhumanists believe?

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest

that if such a transformation does occur,

it may be a sign that we're evolving

to become more like our alien ancestors.

As evidence, they point to the Sumerian King List,

a series of stone tablets

that are believed to be over 4,000 years old,

and record the reigns

of ancient Mesopotamian kings

that ruled for upwards of 43,000 years.

HENRY: The Sumerian Kings List

was handed down to humanity by the gods.

What's extraordinary is that the reigns of these kings

last into the thousands of years.

These people weren't making allegorical

or metaphorical statements,

these were accurate historical records.

CHILDRESS: Ancient texts,

including the Bible and the Sumerian texts,

talk about ancient kings

and other people living incredibly long life spans.

Methuselah, who was supposedly the father of Noah,

was said to have lived for 969 years.

JASON MARTELL: When we look into the past,

there's a clear record of people who have lived

a much longer life span than what we have today.

We have to wonder if these beings weren't given

or had access to some type of nanotechnology.

And it fuels the idea and understanding,

and our drive today, to be like the gods.

CHILDRESS: And this important nanotechnology

is something that extraterrestrials

and other advanced civilizations would already have.

And it would only make sense that,

if extraterrestrials are coming to our planet,

they would have brought this nanotechnology with them.

NARRATOR: Might our research

into nanotechnology, nootropics and genetic engineering

ascend us to the level of extraterrestrials

that came to Earth thousands of years ago,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest?

Perhaps further clues can be found

by examining the technology that is being developed

to upgrade not just our blood,

but even our flesh.

NARRATOR: New York City.

May 4, 2015.

At TechCrunch Disrupt New York,

an annual new technologies conference,

U.S. biotech startup BioBots

launches a desktop 3D printer for biomaterials...

...which they use to print a replica of Van Gogh's ear.

Instead of plastic,

special ink is combined with biomaterials--

like collagen and cultured cells--

to build living tissue and human organs.

So, right now, we're just at the beginning

of understanding how to 3D-print organs.

It's a process called "biofabrication."

So BioBots has created a biofabrication 3D printer

that can print artificial tissue and small organs.

In the future, what we're going to see

are 3D printers that are

bio-fabricating our bodies and our organs.

WILCOCK: You could eventually have

printable noses, lungs,

ears, kidneys...

and, in certain ways,

this technology is so extreme

that it could make it democratic.

It could make it inexpensive.

So in the hands of skilled, trained medical professionals,

it could be possible in the future

to 3D print organs for people

out of their own genetic material.

NARRATOR: Transhumanists believe

we may soon transcend our biological limitations,

as we embed machines directly into our own bodies.

DARPA, the agency of the U.S. Department of Defense

responsible for the development of emerging technologies

for use by the military...

is currently designing neural implants that will improve

cognitive speed and memory retention in soldiers.

And in 2014,

scientists at Seoul National University in South Korea

unveiled research on synthetic "smart skin"--

lifelike ultra-thin crystalline silicon

designed to cover prosthetic limbs,

giving the user all of the sensations of a natural limb.

They have now developed a-a skin

which has touch senses embedded in it

with a very fine matrix,

which can be put around a prosthetic.

So you can actually feel

what that arm is feeling

or you can touch the floor,

feel whether it's hot or cold, or applying pressure.

SCOTT: Future artificial limbs

will look just like our skin,

look just like our hands and our legs.

It's going to affect the entire world.

We're going to see people

using smart prosthetics

that are added to the body,

that can be controlled directly through the brain.

And that really is the future of prosthetics.

WARWICK: I can speak from experience,

because I've had one myself--

our implants that link either into the brain

or into the human nervous system--

and what I had was

100 small electrodes...

fired into my nervous system

to link my nervous system with a computer.

It was a bit like plugging a plug into an electric socket,

but the socket was my nervous system.

I went to Columbia University in New York,

we plugged my nervous system into the Internet,

and I controlled a robot hand from my brain signals.

You can extend your nervous system

by simply plugging into it.

SCOTT: If we can use just the power of our thought

to control artificial limbs...

we can eventually, one day,

use the power of our thoughts to control avatar robots.

(whirring)

I think we're going to see that kind of technology

used to control avatars on the Moon;

we're going to see that kind of technology to control

robotic humanoid avatars on Mars.

NARRATOR: Could we one day venture into the cosmos,

not with our bodies,

but by wirelessly controlling robotic avatars?

And is it possible that extraterrestrials

have utilized these same technologies

to explore Earth in the distant past?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and point to technologies currently in development at MIT

that strongly resemble those in ancient accounts

of gods who descended from the sky.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's

Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies,

they are developing a new smart skin for our soldiers

that would make them resistant to ballistic attack

or chemical attack and also would instantly self-repair.

This is absolutely extraordinary,

because in the ancient texts, we learn of the gods

who wore a similar skin that seemed to make them impervious

to any kind of human weaponry.

They couldn't die.

Now when I hear stories

of semi-divine beings, such as Hercules,

with his impenetrable lion skin,

or in the Sanskrit Mahabharata,

the story of Karna and his impenetrable armor,

I have to ask the question

whether or not these were all misunderstood technologies.

NARRATOR: Could the self-repairing skin

being developed at MIT

be the same technology

our ancestors wrote about

when they described divine beings that were invincible?

And are we on the verge of this incredible biological

and evolutionary leap ourselves?

Some believe that mankind's next step

is not in augmenting our bodies with machines,

but in becoming the machines ourselves.

NARRATOR: Geneva, Switzerland.

2013.

Henry Markram founds the Human Brain Project--

a ten-year scientific venture funded by the EU,

involving hundreds of researchers

from 135 institutions in 26 countries.

The goal of this project is to create a fully simulated model

of the human brain inside a computer.

A lot of people are really excited about the idea of:

if we could map out the structure

of the human brain,

neuron for neuron, and every connection,

then we can download every connection

that we have in our brain,

all that information, onto a computer.

NARRATOR: The Human Brain Project is only

one of a number of brain-mapping ventures.

The next great American project, and that's what we're calling

the BRAIN Initiative.

NARRATOR: In 2013, President Barack Obama

unveiled a $4.5 billion project

called the BRAIN Initiative.

And Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen

has invested over $500 million

in the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

Futurists speculate that if

these initiatives are successful,

the implications could be profound.

SCOTT: Imagine having every piece

of knowledge that every human has ever collected.

And if you crunch that down

into a digital consciousness...

that's going to unlock everything.

We can know things about the world

and about life

that no individuals have ever previously known,

because they're all from the aggregation

of all of human knowledge that's going together.

So these are the kinds of powers that would have been

viewed as god-like in previous eras.

NARRATOR: Could we be on the verge

of creating a superhuman intelligence,

able to outperform a human at any task?

And if so,

are we at risk of being replaced by machines entirely?

Transhumanists believe

what lies ahead could actually be a merging

of man and machine.

WARWICK: If we can map the human brain into technology,

then I could take your brain

or somebody else's brain

and copy it into a computer.

A technological one that could potentially live forever.

WILCOCK: What happens if we gain the ability

to upload our consciousness into some sort

of cloud virtual Internet technology?

It's not that far from the spectrum of a realizable goal,

because we're already seeing neurological implants

that can be put into the brain, that can be used

to control the movement of an artificial arm.

What happens if those neural implants

can actually take the true essence

of what it means to be conscious,

and break that down into some sort of pure information

that could live apart from a biological substrate?

It could make itself far more massive,

far more intelligent,

than any human ever had been before.

NARRATOR: Could extraterrestrials have

steered our evolution towards technology,

so that we may merge man directly with machine,

eliminating our biological restraints?

And if so, might our futures lie entirely

in a digital realm of silicon and bits of code?

Many believe the answer lies not in what we are becoming,

but where we are going.

CHILDRESS: It won't be long before mankind has reached

the point where we have

the technology and the artificial intelligence

to leave our planet

and go into space, just like extraterrestrials before us.

So you've got to wonder: are extraterrestrials

somehow guiding us and manipulating us

into this new future,

and this new human, that we are destined to be?

NARRATOR: Is it possible that extraterrestrials have led us

to a post-biological future,

so that we can rejoin them in the cosmos?

And if so, might they have used these same technologies

to visit Earth in the distant past?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and look to NASA's own attempts

at re-engineering man

for space.

NARRATOR: New York City, 1961.

Psychopharmacologist Nathan S. Kline

and cybernetic mathematician Manfred Clynes

co-publish a paper about human space travel

entitled "Drugs, Space, and Cybernetics."

The two coin the term "cyborg"--

an enhanced human being specifically doctored

to survive in extraterrestrial environments

without a space suit.

In their paper, they detailed various ways

in which to modify the human body for survival

beyond Earth, and later served as the inspiration

for NASA's study "Engineering Man for Space."

TSOUKALOS: Our bodies are not suited for living in space.

After only a few days, we experience muscle and bone loss.

One has to wonder if extraterrestrials

experience the same type of problems.

I do think that any beings that are able

to cross the cosmos and visit this planet

will have learned how to self-direct their evolution,

to survive in deep space

for extraordinarily long periods of time.

Those beings, more than likely,

will be, at least, bio-digital,

meaning that they have merged with their technologies.

Or they will be pure digital beings.

These may be robots or cyborgs.

NARRATOR: Could extraterrestrials have used

the same cyborg technologies we are just now developing?

If so, might our push towards transhumanism

really be inspired by an innate desire

to travel further into space...

and seek out our creators?

There has been a consistent path towards

the fusion of human and machine

throughout all of our history--

this idea that we could somehow advance ourselves

for the betterment of humankind

through this merger

of technology and biology.

CHILDRESS: I think that what will happen

is that our biological bodies

will be able to be perfected,

any imperfections corrected.

Our mental abilities and lifespan

will be enhanced considerably.

And we will be ready, ourselves, to go into space

and ultimately join our creators in the stars.

NARRATOR: Is it possible extraterrestrials left us

with the tools to mold ourselves

into a truly transhuman species...

...one without any limits,

capable of traveling the stars at will?

Or could nanomachines, artificial intelligence,

and the digital revolution render humans obsolete?

Our lives and the very nature of our existence

may balance on this choice,

a choice that is coming much sooner than we think.

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