All language subtitles for Year.Million.S01E06.Beyond.the.Cosmos.1080p.WEB-DL.DD5.1.H.264-NTb_track3_eng

NARRATOR: So, here we are.

Humanity has merged with
artificial intelligence.

We've created
a solar system-wide Dyson sphere

that will power our
technologically-heavy lives.

And now Oscar and Eva
are getting ready

to see their friend
who left Earth behind

to colonize planets
in far-flung galaxies.

OSCAR: When will she be here?

EVA: Any minute.

OSCAR: How long has it been
since we've seen her?

EVA: Years.

OSCAR: That's crazy.

NARRATOR: In the deep future,
revolutionizing space travel

also means we'll have to
rethink the human form.

EVA: Sajani.

SAJANI: Eva, you haven't
aged a day.

EVA: Oh.

Wow, you look...

SAJANI: A little different?
Yeah.

NARRATOR: Yes, those are gills.

They'll come in handy if
we need to breathe underwater

on some kind of
ocean-covered planet.

They also might be
the beginning of the end

of the human race as we know it.

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.

I've shown you a version
of the future

when in the Year Million era

humanity as we know it

will have undergone such
a radical transformation,

we can hardly imagine what
it will mean to be human.

MICHIO KAKU: By the time
we're at the Year Million,

we will be
a galactic civilization.

We'll be able to roam
the galactic space lanes,

to play with black holes,
and leap through a wormhole.

And you may say, well, why?

NARRATOR: Why?

Well, because A) it's cool,

and B) because we need to find
a few spare planets

where we can chill for a second

in order to survive any sort of
extinction event here on Earth.

RANGA-RAM CHARY: All species
that have undergone a major boom

have also undergone
a major bust.

GEORGE DVORSKY:
An asteroid hits the planet

once every 200,000 years.

So if we're talking about

half a million to a million year
timescales,

we should at least
anticipate one,

if not several of those events,

on the scale that drove
the dinosaurs to extinction.

CHUCK NICE:
The Earth will continue.

We just won't.

NARRATOR: I understand.

The end of the human race on
Earth is tough to think about.

But the good news is that we are
a pretty resilient species,

and more importantly, we've got
a nearly unquenchable lust

for exploration baked deep
into our collective bones.

KAKU: I think we have
a curiosity gene,

a gene within us that says,

what's on the other side
of that hill?

So there will always be
restless people

who will want to go to Mars
just for the hell of it.

NARRATOR: So when we find
ourselves looking

for another rock to park on,

that wanderlust,

that craving for thrills,
chills, and adventure,

will ultimately be
the saving grace of our species.

Right now, all of our eggs
are here in the Earth basket.

If we plan on surviving,

we need to scatter those eggs
around the galaxy.

ANDERS SANDBERG:
If an intelligent species

starts spreading
between the stars,

it's pretty unlikely
to go extinct.

NARRATOR: So if we are going
to launch ourselves

into galaxies far, far away,

we've got a little work
to do first.

Here's how we human beings will
achieve intergalactic travel.

First we'll need to understand
the effects

of extreme space travel
on our bodies.

Because it'll be
even harder on us

than that little chip shot
of a trip to Mars.

That's when our future tech
will serve us well,

since we will send out
artificially intelligent robots.

They will be our advance team,

helping us travel
deeper into space.

They'll terraform planets
for us,

and have them all set up before
we even leave our atmosphere.

And when we do decide
to depart from Earth,

we'll need to rethink whatever
space bus we'll be driving.

And humanity,
through gene manipulation,

changes into another species.

One that could withstand
the toxic environment

of whatever exoplanet
we've decided to make our home.

And while we're out rocketing
between far-flung stars,

we'll probably come
face to face with ideas

that are now only theoretical.

We may discover
parallel universes,

where every choice, every
possibility, exists in tandem.

And hopefully, we will finally
be able to understand

the greatest mystery of all--
dark matter.

The elusive, invisible material
that the universe is made of...

theoretically.

I know, that's millions
of light-years of information.

So let's look at how
we are going to get ourselves

not just to Mars and other
planets in our solar system,

but farther out,
to other galaxies.

PETER DIAMANDIS:
Thousands of years from now,

whatever we've evolved into,
whatever we've become,

we're going to look back in time
at these next few decades

as the moment in time
when the human race

irreversibly has moved
off the planet.

CHARLES SOULE: I'd like to think
I'd go up in a rocket

and fly into space.

But as far as
high-risk occupations,

astronaut is pretty,
pretty up there.

MAN: The men rose early,
ate breakfast,

and dressed
in their space suits.

NARRATOR: Being an astronaut's
pretty much

every kid's dream job.

But most kids only think
of going to the moon or Mars.

We're talking about traveling

for hundreds of thousands,
or even millions of years.

DVORSKY: The human body was
definitely not meant to work

and function in space, and
it does a very poor job of it.

SYD MEAD:
These guys up in orbit,

they come down after up there
about eight months to a year,

they can't walk,
they're helpless.

They're like little,
little babies.

NARRATOR: When we start talking
about intergalactic travel,

that's when we need to
figure out how to stay strong

for a lot more than just a year.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Here at the NASA

Extreme Environment Mission
Operations, or NEEMO for short,

scientists are figuring out
how to keep astronauts in space

for extended periods of time.

You heard me right--

NASA's got a space station
60 feet below sea level.

It's one of the closest things
we have on Earth

to the no-gravity, or more
accurately, microgravity

environment of space.

And like space,
it is stressful and isolated.

A perfect real-life simulation
for deep space astronauts.

DAWN KERNAGIS: It's like
a very long scuba dive.

So essentially
we are diving for days.

We were actually weighted out to
simulate partial microgravity.

The setup was that
we were rigged

to be like we were walking
on the surface of Mars.

NARRATOR: Astronauts live
in small, pressurized pods,

just like the space station,

with daily excursions
that mimic space walks.

Here, scientists hope
to unlock the secrets

of staying healthy in space,

no matter how long
we need to be out there.

NARRATOR: And they've already
got some answers.

KERNAGIS: I study how
to help humans work

to the best of their abilities
in extreme environments.

We were looking
at molecular-level changes

in response to living
with a crew of people

in a small environment,

and there's changes
at the epigenetic level.

NARRATOR: It turns out that
the hardships of space travel

aren't just limited to
the effects of microgravity.

It can affect the very
building blocks of who we are.

Space travel can change our
genes, maybe even permanently,

in what are called
epigenetic changes.

KERNAGIS: Things like
psychological remoteness,

stress, or diet, or exercise,

can change how our genes
are read.

And we actually can pass those
on to our offspring.

What we want to
attain eventually

is when you see Spock
going with the device

where it scans you
and diagnoses you.

SPOCK: Severe heart damage.

KERNAGIS: That's what
we're aiming for.

NARRATOR: So, no problem.

Once genetic engineering becomes
an everyday doctor's tool,

we can just fix any broken genes

before the problem expresses
itself in the body.

And that'll be important
not only for us,

but for future generations

that may have to be born
out in space.

NICE: To go to Proxima Centauri,

which is, you know,
our closest neighbor,

you would have to send
generations into space.

It would have to be, wow, these
people are going to be born,

the next people are
going to be born,

the next people are going to be
born, those people will die.

And now, I'm out.
Thank you, goodnight.

NARRATOR: If we could travel
at the speed of light,

that would cut down on
our travel time immensely.

But no one is sure that
we can ever get around

the laws of physics
to make that possible.

Luckily, in the future,

we'll have designed
artificial intelligence

who can do our dirty work
for us.

While we humans wait in comfort
here on Earth,

our robot explorers
will voyage into space

to find a nice parking spot
for us,

and even set up colonies
for us to live on.

NARRATOR: At some point,
traveling to planets like Mars

in our solar system will be
like a trip to the park.

Totally last week's news.

Going to deep space will be

what all the cool kids
are talking about.

But we can't do it alone.

MICHAEL GRAZIANO: Space travel
is really hard for humans.

We don't live long enough
to go anywhere interesting.

But artificial intelligence is
just fundamentally different.

It can live indefinitely, it can
be engineered to live in space.

It can swim through space,
like fish in water.

NARRATOR:
Artificial intelligence

is our secret weapon for
traveling to other galaxies.

DVORSKY: We will have
generation ships,

where you create
these massive ships,

fill them with individuals
and robots or whatnot,

and send it off into
the depths of space.

NARRATOR: Take a look at
our future AI daughter, Jess,

who clearly took her father's
advice to go change the world.

Jess has volunteered to lead
a ship of AI and human explorers

who will voyage out
far into the universe

to find humanity a new home.

JESS: Welcome to the ark.

Now, no matter what
your backgrounds,

no matter what your beliefs,
you are welcome here.

These are tight quarters,

and they are probably
not as comfortable

as what some of you are used to,

but we hope that you can make
yourselves feel at home

here in this safe haven.

Now, if you'll all follow me.

NARRATOR: The human passengers
will have

the adventure of a lifetime.

But the AI on board could last
for millions of years,

and they won't need
food or doctors.

They could even
simply power down

until they got to
their destination.

And once they got there,

they could set up
some living pods for us,

or just report back
on what they found.

If only everything
were this easy.

But it's not just about
sending up robots in spaceships.

AI will help us
travel through space

in far more innovative ways.

ANNALEE NEWITZ:
That's where space travel

gets really interesting.

DIAMANDIS: We're going to be
sending avatars,

and we're going to transmit
our consciousness

and not necessarily
our meat bodies to go there.

NARRATOR: Meat bodies? Really?

That's just creepy.

KAKU: What will space travel
look like

hundreds of years from now?

One possibility is something
that I call laserporting.

We're going to be able
to beam our consciousness

into outer space
at the speed of light.

You don't have to worry about
accidents with a booster rocket,

radiation, weightlessness,
none of that,

'cause you're literally
riding on a light beam,

pure consciousness,
going through the heavens.

We put our consciousness
on a laser beam,

shoot that information
to the moon.

On the moon, there's a receiver.

This machine relays that
information to a robot,

a superhuman robot.

So your consciousness now sees
through the eyes of a robot

with superhuman capability.

NEGIN FARSAD:
I would love to check out

the rings on Saturn or Neptune.

Um, I'm just fascinated
by the ring.

So, because the universe liked
it, so they put a ring on it.

What? Why did I say that?

I'm so embarrassed, but that,
it's also a valid joke.

NARRATOR: There's another
factor to consider

once we are spending all of our
time flying around the universe.

Spaceships are going to become,

for all intents and purposes,
our new homes.

According to science fiction,

those ships will either be
functional, industrial vessels,

or flying luxury palaces.

MEAD: 'Alien,' the first one,
in that film,

the spaceship was sort of
a floating refinery,

very mechanical,

industrial-looking
piece of stuff.

NICE: Me being a huge
Star Trek dweeb,

what I really would like to see
is space travel reach a point

where we leave this solar system
in comfort.

I would love to see that like
where a city is built in space

and then that city travels
to another solar system

or that city moves out
to explore the universe

with a bunch of Earthlings.

So just imagine all of Manhattan
as a floating spaceship.

NARRATOR: But comfort aside, the
real issue we've got to take on

is how to get those ships

to go into what Star Trek
called 'warp drive,'

traveling at the speed of light.

Without that, space travel is
definitely a lot trickier

and infinitely slower.

JON SPAIHTS:
To get the kind of travel

that you see in the movies,
interstellar travel,

is simply not possible

by extrapolating from
the technologies we have.

Getting any massive spacecraft

to something approaching
the speed of light

is a very tricky proposition.

Your gas tank grows
bigger and bigger,

and your spaceship balloons
ludicrously

as you try to get close
to those speeds.

And of course, it's complicated
by the fact that,

as you start getting closer
to light speed,

relativity rears its head.

NEWITZ: I think space travel
is still going to be

kind of grindy for a while,
take a long time,

and, you know, you might take
a vacation on another world

once in a while,

but it would be kind of like,
you know,

ship travel was 500 years ago,

where you really
got to be committed

if you want to go
across the Atlantic.

FARSAD: I have such
motion sickness,

like I really just don't think
I could make it in a spacecraft,

like I would be a nightmare,

and like no amount of Dramamine
would like help that situation.

NARRATOR: Dramamine probably
won't help on a little jaunt

to, say, the Andromeda I galaxy,

which you could fly to
in 2.5 million years,

if you could fly
at the speed of light.

Which, right now, you can't,

because of that pesky
theory of relativity.

So, yes, you get it.

Until we figure out
some big physics problems,

intergalactic travel could
take a very long time.

Which means we might
want to consider

looking for a shortcut
through space.

And that means wormholes.

KAKU: If you could bend
the fabric of space and time,

and rip it, you might be able
to take a shortcut, a wormhole,

through the fabric
of space and time.

Take a sheet of paper,
and then fold it

so that two ends
meet in the middle,

and you punch a hole
straight through.

That is a wormhole.

Like the looking glass of Alice.

When Alice stuck her hand
in the looking glass,

her hand went from
the countryside of Oxford

to Wonderland.

MATT MIRA: The Lincoln Tunnel
is a great example

of what a wormhole
could be like,

but you'd have to think of it
as the entrance and the exit

of the Lincoln Tunnel being
the same point in space.

If we can't figure out
warp speed,

we'll have to figure out
how to create wormholes,

because there's going to be
no way to travel

such a great distance unless
we go through the wormhole.

NARRATOR: That means you could
get from one point to another,

thousands of light-years away

as easily as walking
through a door.

It's a little
too good to be true.

Instead of sitting
in Los Angeles traffic,

just walk through a wormhole

and get to work
in about three seconds.

That'd be a huge hit amongst
pretty much everyone

who has ever taken
the 405 freeway.

Maybe that's why
Hollywood has had

such a long-standing love affair
with the wormhole.

ROSE EVELETH: Hollywood loves to
use wormholes as kind of like

a, oh, we need to get them
from one place to another,

so we're going to do some,
like, cool visual effects,

and we're going to send them
through the wormhole,

and they're going to be
wherever they need to be.

MIRA: I do like a wormhole.

They're all over Star Trek.

Deep Space Nine was the guardian
of that wormhole

and sort of let ships
pass through

and didn't let
ships pass through.

NICE: I got a wormhole,
and I can go there.

Hmm. I'm going to say Detroit.

It's making a comeback!

I'm telling you,
Detroit's making a comeback.

I would love a wormhole that
could get me there and back

with no problem.

Mostly back.

NARRATOR: If we could find
and use a wormhole,

it could be the key to
opening up immediate travel

to anywhere in the universe
we wanted to check out.

NEWITZ: Like, we invent
something like jump gates

or, you know, portable wormholes
or whatever,

obviously all bets are off.

BARATUNDE THURSTON:
It's a pretty cool idea.

Like, I want a wormhole instead
of the New York City subway.

NARRATOR: Oscar even installed
a wormhole in his living room

to meet Eva at their
remote mountain getaway

seven galaxies away.

OSCAR: Eva?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: We know Oscar
is a late adopter

to all things future tech,

but it looks like his wormhole
is something

he'll be using
more often than not.

EVA: Took you long enough.

NARRATOR: There is, as always,
just one issue--

traveling through a wormhole
could destabilize the tunnel,

leaving any travelers
stranded or dead.

Not exactly how you want an
intergalactic trip to turn out.

EVELETH: And we certainly
wouldn't send

something we cared about
into one.

NARRATOR: Right, so let's add
'shoring up wormholes'

to our to-do list.

Interstellar and
intergalactic travel,

where we travel in our,
uh, sorry, meat bodies,

is going to take
a lot of scientific progress

before it's a reality.

As we develop technologies
to take us around the universe,

we'll simultaneously
have to figure out

how we will exist
on other planets.

And that means
we'll change our DNA

to suit the environment
around us,

triggering something
called speciation.

We'll be able to exist on a
planet that has, say, toxic air.

The bad news is that
we won't be human anymore,

but we'll get to that
in a minute.

NARRATOR: Humanity is going
to try to explore

intergalactic space,

whether we do it on board
a spaceship,

via artificial intelligence,
or through a wormhole.

But getting out there beyond our
galaxy is only half the battle.

The bigger question is how
humans are planning to survive

wherever we decide
to hang our hats.

KAKU: We will be able to tinker
with our genetic heritage.

It's only a matter of time.

NARRATOR: And that's when
humanity is going to start

looking very different
than we do today.

PHIL ROSEDALE: Space travel is
going to separate us

into separate colonies,

you know, that'll never
talk to each other again.

DIAMANDIS: We're going to become

a multitude of different
human species.

We are going to speciate.

NARRATOR: Meaning,
we'll deliberately mutate

our genetic code

to ensure an upgraded version
of our species survives

what would be the toxic,
uninhabitable environment

of an exoplanet.

DIAMANDIS: We're going from
what has been Darwinism,

evolution by natural selection,
to something different.

Evolution by intelligent
direction, by our own desires.

NEWITZ: People will have
modified their DNA

to be more resistant
to cosmic radiation,

or building bodies
that are better able

to deal with low gravity.

Or even more radically,

modifying their
respiratory systems

to actually be able to process
the Martian atmosphere.

SANDBERG: If we go to space,
over time, of course,

parts of humanity are going
to be very separated.

And some people might indeed
go for very radical changes.

FARSAD: It just sounds
entirely unpleasant

to make a genetic modification
to myself,

to be able to like breathe
Mars' air or whatever it is.

I imagine it would involve
some sort of a hole

in, like, placed in my person,
you know what I mean?

I imagine some sort of a third
arm would need to be attached.

Uh, what kind of clothes
would I wear with a third arm?

NARRATOR: Totally hear you.

But the need for a third arm may
not only be entirely necessary

for survival,
it may even be fashionable.

But let's not get sidetracked.

The point is, right now, some
of the world's brightest minds

are examining how extremophiles

can survive even
the harshest conditions,

conditions where life
shouldn't survive.

When you think about it,

we have already gotten
pretty comfortable

with drastically modifying
our bodies--

think cochlear implants,
heart transplants,

and hip replacements.

It's even tough to find someone
without a tattoo these days.

But once we start changing our
bodies on a much larger level,

like our half-fish friend,

that's when you start
talking about

the birth of a new species
beyond humanity.

That group will become
post-humans.

DVORSKY: A post-human could be

a very radically redesigned
genetic human.

CHURCH: We could
intentionally speciate,

we could make ourselves
radiation resistant

by just changing
a handful of genes,

maybe as few as four genes.

NARRATOR: That means the next
incarnation of humanity

will be a little like
a pre-fab home--

we'll design it ourselves

and have it built
to our specifications

to optimize our comfort in life.

♪ ♪

But in order to survive on Mars
we have to learn

how we could survive in
a Mars-like environment.

NARRATOR: It was widely believed

that the Red Planet look-alike
landscape of the Atacama Desert

was sterile.

And then Armando Bustos
discovered something remarkable.

NARRATOR: That's what we call
in the business

a scientific jackpot.

Life was discovered in a place

that, like Mars,
no one believed was possible.

NARRATOR:
So if there is life here,

could there be life up there?

And more importantly, could
these tiny desert microorganisms

show us how our bodies
can be adapted

to live in the Mars environment?

NARRATOR: Even if these little
organisms don't crack the code

for making us Martians,

studying them might help us

live on the Red Planet
more comfortably.

Okay, so once we're tearing
around in space,

driving through wormholes
from one galaxy to another,

that's when we may start
to bump into a few things

that are truly mind-bending.

For instance, what if every time
you made a decision,

you didn't just leave behind
a road untraveled?

What if that road spun off
and became a parallel universe?

Makes that agonizing decision

over what wireless plan to
choose kind of moot, doesn't it?

NARRATOR:
As we travel ever closer

to that Year Million scenario,

let's take a quick look and
see just how far we've come.

Space is now our playground.

We've sent robots to every nook
and cranny of the universe,

and we've even mastered
wormholes.

We've developed new technologies

to transcend huge distances
in space,

and we've evolved our bodies.

But the real mind-bender?

We might find that we don't have
to travel beyond our doorstep

to find alternative universes.

EVELETH: The way that I imagine

like the parallel universe
thing,

is it's like, you know when you
wake up and you're in a dream?

You're in your house, but
it's not actually your house,

but it feels like your house.

OSCAR: Hey, Oscar. You made it.

EVELETH: You are in
this weird state,

where you sort of are aware
that something is wrong,

but everything feels right.

[record scratches]

Um, you know what? I don't,
I have no idea how this works.

NICE: Hmm, let's see.

There are some that see
a parallel universe

as an infinite number
of universes

that exist alongside of the one
that we live in,

where things are
pretty much the same,

but certain things
are different.

OSCAR: I don't know what's real.

OSCAR: It's all real.

NICE: And I don't want to get
too much further into that,

because I'll start
sounding stupid,

'cause I don't know
what I'm talking about.

NARRATOR: Looks like we're going
to have to turn to the big guns,

or at least
to someone with a PhD.

BRIAN GREENE:
So, in string theory,

which is an attempt to realize
Einstein's dream

of a unified theory
of all of nature's forces,

we find the mathematics suggests
that our universe might be one

of a grand collection of realms,

each of which would rightly be
called a universe of its own.

Perhaps the Big Bang,
which gave rise to our universe,

was not a unique event.

Maybe there are many big bangs,

each giving rise
to its own universe.

EVELETH: What, what, what?
I have some questions!

NARRATOR: I think we all do.

Is there a simpler way
to explain it?

GREENE: I like to think of it
as though we are one bubble

in a big cosmic bubble bath,

where the other bubbles
are other universes.

SPAIHTS: The exciting idea
about parallel universes

is that in almost exactly the
same way, when a human is born,

it's possible for an ovum
to split and form twins.

It is possible to imagine, in
the birth agony of a universe,

in that big bang, for that
explosion also to split.

That means that there is another
universe just like ours,

separated from us
by the thinnest of walls,

if we only can learn how
to pierce it and cross over.

THURSTON: Yeah, that's really,
that's just...

My head's kind of spinning.
It's a funky idea.

We could have a world
dominated by chimpanzees.

We could have a world where
the Hindenburg didn't crash.

NARRATOR: Multiple big bangs
isn't the only way

to get to parallel universes.

GREENE: The many worlds approach
to quantum physics

says that the act of observation
winds up yielding two universes,

one with one outcome
where you see one result,

and another universe where
you see a different result.

So this morning, when
you're trying to decide

between pancakes and eggs,
and you chose eggs.

In another universe,
you chose pancakes.

MARTIN REES: Both options
are fulfilled,

and the universe splits
into one way it did happen,

one way it didn't.

SPAIHTS: The most extreme notion

is that we are forming universes
around us at every moment.

That every atomic interaction,
every choice we make,

every little thing that happens,

creates an explosion
of universes from that moment.

THURSTON: Maybe it's just
this infinite hall of mirrors.

EVELETH: There's this idea
that these parallel universes

sort of touch us every so often,

and they slightly
tweak our reality.

One example of this is that
there is a large group of people

on the Internet who believe
that there was a movie

at some point made
called Shazaam,

which starred Sinbad as a genie.

This movie does not exist.

Sinbad has repeatedly been like,

I don't know what
you're talking about.

But there are all of these
people who remember

and can describe the plot
from a movie called Shazaam.

There is a movie called Kazaam,

in which Shaquille O'Neal
is a genie.

But that's not the movie
they're talking about.

People really, truly believe
this thing exists.

And some small subset
of those people

believe that they actually
have crossed over

from a parallel universe,
in which Shazaam existed.

That's literally,
I swear to God,

that's literally the theory.

I'm not making this up.
I did not make this up.

NARRATOR: So is this just
an Internet conspiracy,

or our best documented evidence
of a parallel universe?

Could there really be
multiple universes

bumping into one another
and shapeshifting around us?

N.K. JEMISIN: I can't see
why it wouldn't exist.

The more that we come
to understand our universe,

the more we realize
it's much more complex.

Things like time
are much more complex

than we thought that they were.

So why wouldn't the universe
be more complex, too?

THURSTON: I think the value
of many universes theory

is that it's a reminder

that we can choose to live
in different ways,

and that the way we exist
isn't the way we have to.

NARRATOR: In fact, if there
really are parallel universes,

then we are all living
all possibilities

in another universe
somewhere else.

KAKU: Many people come up to me
and say, 'Professor,

if there are parallel universes,

then is Elvis Presley
still alive

in one of these
parallel universes?'

And the answer is,
you can't rule it out.

There could be
a certain probability,

calculable probability that,
yes, the king is still alive.

GREENE: Because all
of the possible outcomes

of every experiment, every
observation, every happening,

they all take place, just
in their own distinct universe.

SPAIHTS: There may be

a literally infinite number
of universes.

That is to say that everything
that could be possible

somewhere is real.

Right next door,
through the membrane

separating this bubble
from that bubble.

NARRATOR: So the big question
is, how do we get there?

Can we reach other universes?

SPAIHTS: How to leap from
this bubble to that bubble,

is a mystery for future science
or for the black arts,

or for a science fiction writer

to speculate
irresponsibly about.

NARRATOR: So, maybe not now,
or in the near future,

but in Year Million,
maybe, just maybe,

humanity will discover a way
to travel between universes.

Even now, scientists speculate

that those massive gravitational
fields where light goes to die,

may be portals through which
we can reach other universes.

DVORSKY: We might be able
to exploit black holes,

and how that could be a gateway
to, you know, another realm

that's separate from
this current universe.

That holds some promise.

KAKU: The mathematics says
that a spinning black hole

collapses to a ring,
a ring of neutrons.

If you stick your hand through
the ring of spinning neutrons,

you wind up on another universe.

It's bizarre.

It's mind-shattering,
if you think about it.

But it's something that we
physicists take very seriously.

NARRATOR: Once we are able
to pierce the veil

and travel from one universe
to the other,

then there are literally
no limits for us.

Even if black holes
are our pathway

to this final frontier
of exploration,

there is plenty more
to figure out.

Like getting a grip on the most
mysterious and pervasive

concept of them all,

one that has baffled scientists

since they first realized
it may exist.

Because dark matter is
just plain bizarre,

and it might be the answer

to absolutely everything
in the universe.

NARRATOR: We've traveled into
outer space, through wormholes,

and into parallel universes.

But the biggest, most important
discovery of all

may actually be all around you.

But you can't see it.

KAKU: Every high school textbook
in science

says that the universe is
mainly made out of atoms.

Wrong.

We now know that
most of the universe

is not mainly made out of atoms.

NARRATOR: Instead,
the universe is made up

of something called dark matter.

And it is the holy grail
of science.

KAKU: Dark matter is
invisible matter

that holds the galaxy together.

If I have dark matter
in my hand right now,

first of all, it would be
invisible, but it has gravity.

But it would literally sift
right through my fingers,

'cause it has no interactions
with atoms,

go all the way down to
the center of the Earth,

all the way down to China.

NARRATOR: We don't know
too many concrete facts

about dark matter.

We don't even know what it
looks like or how it is made.

We just have an idea
of what it does.

And this incognito stuff
is definitely doing

some heavy lifting,
universe-wise.

MIRA: No one's ever observed it.

It's not been seen by anybody.

But we just know,

based on, you know,
the movement of regular matter

that it should be there.

You can't scan it,
you can't see it,

we just have to assume
that it's there

based on the movements
of everything else.

NARRATOR: Okay, but what is it?

Is it bigger than
a bread basket?

Is it hard or soft,
black or white or blue?

KAKU: I personally think
that dark matter

is a higher vibration
of tiny little strings.

There's another theory, however,
and that is dark matter

is perhaps ordinary matter
hovering in a parallel universe.

DVORSKY: So, dark matter...
oh, boy.

NICE: So, dark matter is when
Lord Voldemort invokes...

No.
[laughs]

What is that force?

We can't see clearly what it is.

We see darkly what it is.

KAKU: If one of you ever figure
this out, what is dark matter,

be sure to tell me first,

and we can share
the Nobel Prize together.

NARRATOR: So we can see how hard
dark matter is on the brain.

Here's the thumbnail sketch
on dark matter--

something is holding the
universe together with gravity.

And that something,
the theory goes, is dark matter.

We know it is there only because
we can see what it does.

GREENE: Stars should be
flying off,

sort of like water droplets
on a bicycle rim.

You spin the rim, the water
flies off, but they're not.

We believe that dark matter is
what's holding it all together.

Dark matter, we believe,
are likely to be particles

that are wafting through space,

that we believe provide the
additional gravitational pull

in a spinning galaxy.

NICE: I mean, dark matter,
that sounds like my entire life.

I know about 4% of my life.

The other 96%, I am just
trying to figure out.

And that's maybe why I like
dark matter so much.

NARRATOR: So we can't
visualize it or define it,

which makes answering
any questions about it

almost impossible.

But scientists are doing
everything they can

to make a little bit
of this stuff themselves.

Deep underground,

at the European Council
for Nuclear Research,

sits the largest machine
on the planet.

This, my friends, is the famed
Large Hadron Collider.

This giant tube could reveal

all the secrets
to the known universe.

GREENE: The Large Hadron
Collider has the capacity,

at least in principle,
to be a dark matter factory.

Because what it does is
it slams protons together.

After they cycle around
an 18-mile-long tunnel,

they slam together
near the speed of light.

And we believe that some of
the energy from those collisions

can go into producing
particles of dark matter.

JILL HEINERTH:
Smashing particles

in the Large Hadron Collider
might be the next step

to discovering, you know,
what's happening

in the rest of dark matter,
in quantum physics.

NICE: There are
certain particles

that we are looking for,

and the Large Hadron Collider
helps us find these particles.

One was the Higgs boson,
which we found,

and when I say we, I mean me,

because I was heading up
that project.

Thank you, you're welcome.

[laughs]

NARRATOR:
Thank you for that, Chuck.

Scientists have used
the Hadron Collider

to essentially recreate
the conditions of the Big Bang.

That's when dark matter
was theoretically born.

The Hadron Collider could
potentially generate dark matter

so we could poke it and prod it
and just maybe understand it.

Because if we comprehend
dark matter,

we could figure out things

about how the universe works
that have eluded us.

Dark matter could show us how
to bend the laws of physics,

and let us travel
at the speed of light.

And it could be the answer to,
well, everything.

MIRA: Eventually, it could
affect all of humanity.

SPAIHTS: If we are trying
to reach other stars,

then we're going
to need something

down at the root level of
reality to sink our hooks into,

to invent that new technology.

And what dark matter tells us is

there's something about
the makeup of the cosmos

that will,
when we understand it,

tell us something fundamentally
new about the world.

GREENE: We're getting close,
we think,

to understanding the basic laws.

But as I say that, I know that
nature loves to just grab us

and slap us in the face and say,
'Get rid of that hubris,

you don't actually
understand anything.'

NARRATOR: To that point, there
are a few out there who believe

that the Hadron Collider could
inadvertently cause a black hole

that would swallow up the
universe and everything in it.

THURSTON: Yeah, that would suck.

It's like, oops,
I destroyed the universe.

We're monkeying around
with some powerful forces,

and you know, so we're like
kids playing with matches.

You know, maybe we'll
burn our house down.

NARRATOR: Well, the Swiss are
known for their precision,

so here's hoping that they keep

their Hadron Collider
well in line.

Also, you'll be happy to hear

that it's
an unsubstantiated theory

that the Earth will get
swallowed by a black hole.

If not, well, you'll be
amongst the first to know.

This invisible, mysterious stuff
could crack every code

that's stumped scientists.

It could show us how to build
an intergalactic spaceship

or even how to travel
through space and time.

And if we figure out
how to access

and manipulate it earlier,

that Year Million era
could be happening

a hell of a lot sooner.

But once we've mastered
dark matter,

it's not like our journey
will end there.

In our quest for knowledge, we
will change humanity's destiny.

Every new discovery leads
to another mystery.

Every question inspires
some brave soul

to set off on a journey
to explore the unknown.

It is what has led us
every step of the way

on our incredible journey
to the Year Million.

When we arrive
at that future point,

we will have built
artificial intelligence.

JESS: Hi, Dad.

NARRATOR: We'll communicate
telepathically.

[muffled conservation]

We'll not only
reengineer our DNA

to resist all life-threatening
diseases and viruses,

we'll be able to create

the ultimate sustainable
biological body,

designed to our exact
specifications.

Then there may be a time when
our descendants will choose

to discard their physical bodies

and live as a giant
digital collective

inside the metaverse.

We may look totally different,

since we've altered ourselves to
be able to colonize new planets.

And even beyond mere cosmetics,

we could be uploaded
into the digital realm,

living immortal lives inside
the massive Dyson sphere.

And parallel universes
and dark matter

all became a reality.

Every step
in humanity's maturation

has led to a more fantastical
leap forward

in our technological development

and our understanding
of the universe.

What will the next million years
after that be?

Only our imaginations can tell.

And if there's one thing I know,

it's that the human imagination
is thrillingly limitless.