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WILLIAM SHATNER: You know,
I've been around for a while.

Met some interesting people,
done some crazy things.

So you just might think
that there's not much that

can take me by surprise.

You'd be wrong.

The world is full of
stories and science and

things that amaze and
confound me every single day,

incredible mysteries that
keep me awake at night.

Some I can answer.

Others just defy logic.

NARRATOR: Is the end
of the world upon us?

In Wyoming, a deadly force
is sleeping underneath

Yellowstone National Park.

Could it awake and
destroy the planet?

ROBERT VICINO: It
could happen today.

It could happen tomorrow.
It's a race against time.

NARRATOR: In Alabama, a
NASA scientist makes

a remarkable discovery.

Is a killer solar
storm coming our way?

LAWRENCE JOSEPH: If it
were to hit today,

it would knock us out.

It would knock
civilization to its knees.

NARRATOR: And across the
world comes the threat of

an invasion by robots.

Could the
terminator be real?

WILLIAM SHATNER: Yeah,
it's a weird world.

And I love it.

[♪]

WILLIAM SHATNER: Do you
believe in prophecies?

Some of the biggest events
in history have been

foreseen by some of
the greatest minds.

Nostradamus predicted
World War I, Hitler,

Napoleon, the election of
US president Barack Obama

and the atomic destruction
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

How did he do that?

And why can't I do that?

Were they simply
lucky guesses?

Can we somehow see with
incredible accuracy what

will happen hundreds or
perhaps thousands of years

into the future?

And if we can, do we really
want to know what's coming?

NARRATOR: Patrick
Geryl is an astronomer.

In 1996, he did
something extraordinary.

He devoted his life to
studying the complex and

mysterious texts of
the ancient Mayans.

What he found is now the
stuff of Hollywood -

the world is coming to
an end, and soon.

PATRICK GERYL: What
captivated me the most

after reading the Mayan
prophecies was that they

calculated this huge
cataclysm at the end of

2012 and this was very uh
disturbing information for me.

I said, wow, gee, my whole
future and the whole

future of everybody will
be destroyed in a few years.

What am I going to do?

And that changed
my whole life.

NARRATOR: But knowing when the
world would end wasn't enough.

Patrick had to know
how it would happen.

For the next two years,
using complex mathematical

formulas, he set out to decode
the Mayans' hidden messages.

PATRICK GERYL: I was
immediately grasped by the

fact that they had very
high accuracy in that they

were able to calculate
something very spectacular

into the future and it
took me several years to

decode it but I found
what will happen in 2012.

NARRATOR: What
did Patrick find?

Is it an asteroid? Nuclear war?

How will the world end?

Geryl believes on December
12th, 2012, a sleeping

giant will awake.

PATRICK GERYL: The super
volcano will erupt and

that will destroy
completely our civilization.

NARRATOR: There are
at least seven known

supervolcanoes on earth.

They contain massive
amounts of molten rock,

which is trapped inside
them below the earth's crust.

The pressure builds
until finally it bursts,

exploding in a
catastrophic eruption thousands

of times more powerful
than a regular volcano.

The last eruption occurred
over 70,000 years ago.

Could one of these giants
be a threat to us now?

Remarkably, the answer
could be yes - and it's

underneath Yellowstone
National Park.

Over two million tourists
visit Yellowstone every year.

Little do they know that
under the surface lies one

of the deadliest
forces on the planet.

Incredibly, this sleeping
supervolcano may be coming

to life.

In 2004, scientists
detected the ground

starting to bulge
around Yellowstone.

Soon after, over one
thousand mini earthquakes

occurred there in
just a few months.

Some dismiss it but others
say it can only mean one thing.

PATRICK GERYL: The
scientists that are saying

that well the rumbling at
Yellowstone Park, that is

normal, well they don't
know what the Maya knew.

The rotation from the
earth will change.

Once the inner core of the
earth starts moving on its

head, then the lava that is
around the inner core will

be pushed also very sharply
to the crust and we will

have an eruption of the
Yellowstone, at the end of 2012.

NARRATOR: Did Patrick Geryl
unlock the Mayans' secret?

Is the Yellowstone
supervolcano about to erupt?

And could it mean
the end of the world?

Robert Vicino is an
entrepreneur and survivalist.

He's not waiting
to find out.

ROBERT VICINO: If you
thought Mt. Saint Helens

was something to see, wait
'til you see Yellowstone go.

NARRATOR: In 2003, Robert
decided that there was

only one way to
survive the blast of a

supervolcano - by building
volcano-proof bunkers

all over America.

ROBERT VICINO: It's a race
against time to get our

shelters built.

You could say it isn't
so and ignore the

possibilities but it's not
gonna make it go away.

NARRATOR: Made of
concrete and steel, these

self-contained bunkers
are buried underground.

They can house up to one
thousand people and store

enough food for a year.

But who is going
to use them?

ROBERT VICINO: We have
about ten thousand members

currently signed up from
all over the world.

NARRATOR: Could Vicino and
his friends someday be the

only surviving members
of the human race?

ROBERT VICINO: If
Yellowstone blows, you're

looking at a life
extinction event.

The only parties that are
gonna survive are those

that are underground.

It could happen today. It
could happen tomorrow.

NARRATOR: Does this survivalist
know something we don't?

Whatever the truth is,
he's taking no chances.

ROBERT VICINO: I don't
know what inspired Noah

but I would imagine he was
as passionate about what

he was doing as I am.

NARRATOR: Are Robert
Vicino and Patrick Geryl

simply prophets of doom?

Or could they be right?

Will a supervolcano cause
he end of the world?

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Crazy, isn't it?

I mean if you listened to
every doomsday prediction,

prophecy or conspiracy
theory, you'd never leave

the house right?

I mean what is it
with these people?

Do they think that just
because they say a giant

volcano is gonna rip
through this planet and

wipe us out that we're
gonna believe them?

I don't believe
a word they say.

I'm just being careful.

NARRATOR: A man decoding
the texts of the ancients

Mayans uncovers an
astonishing prophecy.

Will a supervolcano at
Yellowstone destroy our planet?

Stanley Ambrose is
an anthropologist.

He thinks we have reason
to believe it might.

STANLEY AMBROSE: I suppose
if you really wanted to

stay around in a place
that was struck by an

apocalypse that
would be a good idea.

I'd rather move.

NARRATOR: A lifetime spent
studying supervolcanoes

has convinced Ambrose
they're a force to be feared.

STANLEY AMBROSE: If
Yellowstone blows,

it would eject a huge amount
of dust and gasses up

to fifty kilometers into
the stratosphere.

We have to fear
global famine.

We can imagine complete
loss of crop production

for decades to centuries.

NARRATOR: In 1980, Mount
St. Helens erupted in

Washington State, sending
volcanic ash over

ten kilometers into the air.

Ambrose thinks this
massive eruption would be

dwarfed by Yellowstone.

Could humans survive this
kind of catastrophic explosion?

We may know the answer,
because it's already happened.

STANLEY AMBROSE: The
volcanic eruption of Toba

stands among the most
explosive and largest

in earth history.

NARRATOR: Around seventy
thousand years ago,

a supervolcano exploded
at Toba in Indonesia.

It was so powerful it
left a crater one hundred

kilometers long,
still visible today.

STANLEY AMBROSE: Volcanic
ash rained down over an

area larger than the size
of the United States.

That's big.

The earth was surrounded
by this thick blanket of

sulfuric acid haze.

The sun weakened.

Much solar energy was reflected
back into outer space.

The landscape around the world
was basically de-vegetated.

It's a global shock to the
world's system, what

I call an instant ice age.

NARRATOR: Before the
eruption at Toba,

the earth was home to a
healthy population of humans.

Ambrose believes we can
judge our fate by looking

at what happened to them.

STANLEY AMBROSE: The
volcanic eruption caused

a population crash unlike
any that had been seen

previously in human
history and during the

next 10,000 years
there were very few

archaeological
traces of humans.

NARRATOR: Did a
supervolcano take us to

the brink of extinction?

Could Yellowstone
do the same now?

STANLEY AMBROSE:
Everything within the

blast zone will be buried.

There would probably be
general infrastructure failure.

Agricultural production
would of course be hammered.

The United States would
lose its entire grain belt.

And if the whole world got
cold the way it did with

Toba, then there would be
few choices of where to go

to get food.

NARRATOR: It's an
alarming scenario.

Should we heed
the warning?

Is the Yellowstone
supervolcano ready to blow?

STANLEY AMBROSE: Sometimes
it's bulging up like

it's going to explode.

Then these bulges
go back down.

One of these bulges coming up
is not going to go back down.

The pressure just might
continue increasing and

that's when it's time
to head for the hills.

NARRATOR: Could Stanley
Ambrose be right?

Are billions of people in
imminent danger of death

by supervolcano?

Jake Lowenstern is the
chief scientist at the

Yellowstone Volcano
Observatory.

JAKE LOWENSTERN: It's my
job to worry about whether

Yellowstone's
going to erupt.

NARRATOR: Jake's studied
the supervolcano's

behaviour.

He believes it's not a
monster, but a pussycat.

JAKE LOWENSTERN: People
talk about impending doom

because they know there
have been eruptions in

Yellowstone's past.

There have been very,
very large eruptions at

Yellowstone the size of
eruptions that people will

call super eruptions but
there's no reason to

expect an, a big eruption
at Yellowstone within our

lifetime, which doesn't
seem very worrying to me.

NARRATOR: Why
is Jake so sure?

He thinks there's
something the prophets of

doom have overlooked.

JAKE LOWENSTERN: Well the
way that Yellowstone has

erupted most of the time
is through these smaller

lava flows which are
similar to those that happen

in Hawaii, which as you
can imagine would be locally

very interesting but not
an international uh problem.

NARRATOR: In the last
two million years, the

Yellowstone supervolcano
has had three giant eruptions.

Jake believes a crucial
fact is preventing another one.

Yellowstone erupts all the
time, but on such a tiny

scale it produces nothing
but harmless flows of lava.

JAKE LOWENSTERN: Lava
flows can block roads.

Forest fires might start
but they sort of roll very

slowly across the ground.

You could generally outrun
them very easily so

they're not very
damaging events.

NARRATOR: Far from causing
a disaster, Jake thinks

these lava flows are keeping
a lid on the sleeping giant.

JAKE LOWENSTERN: Anytime
that you're having a volcanic

eruption you're removing
pressure on the magma chamber.

It seems to be relatively
commonplace for

Yellowstone to have
this kind of activity.

NARRATOR: Are mini
eruptions at Yellowstone

keeping us safe from
the supervolcano?

Do they explain its
recent rumblings?

JAKE LOWENSTERN: Around
2009, 2010, we had a

couple earthquake swarms.

In a swarm you have a
number of medium sized

earthquakes and they
happen all in one

particular location.

They were among the larger
ones that we've had.

NARRATOR: But what
caused the quakes?

Scientists believe magma
is flowing into the

volcanic chamber,
pushing up the crust.

Is this a sign of an
impending giant eruption?

JAKE LOWENSTERN: There
was about twenty-five

centimeters or ten inches,
something like this, of

uplift at Yellowstone.

Between 1925 and 1975, it
rose about three times

that amount so that uplift
doesn't in particular seem

very worrying to me.

The kinds of activity
we're seeing are the kind

of activity that clearly
has been going on for

hundreds and even
thousands of years.

NARRATOR: Even if Jake is
right, there's another

burning question.

Why are some people
certain the Yellowstone

supervolcano will
erupt in 2012?

JAKE LOWENSTERN: I think
there's a subset of the

population out there that just
likes to be scared in a way.

They like to, to come up
with things that, that

kind of stir the pot but
there's no clock beneath

volcanoes that tells
them when to erupt.

Based on the information
that we're seeing,

there's no guarantee that
Yellowstone will ever

have another one of
these super eruptions.

NARRATOR: Were the
ancient Mayans right?

Will a supervolcano wipe
out the human race in the

greatest mass extinction
since the big bang?

Or is Yellowstone's
sleeping giant nothing

more than a harmless
firecracker?

Weird or what?

[♪]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
Everywhere you look,

our planet is teeming with
life, whether a single

celled amoeba, a snail,
or incredibly complex

organisms and
species - like us.

But all life forms on
earth have one thing in common.

Our very existence depends
upon - in fact is at the

mercy of - just one thing.

If it's in trouble, then
there's trouble for all of us.

NARRATOR: They say you
shouldn't stare directly

into the sun.

But for over three
decades, NASA scientist

David Hathaway has
done exactly that.

In 2005, he noticed
something very strange.

DAVID HATHAWAY: It was a
little unexpected by many

of us, myself included.

NARRATOR: Hathaway was
tracking sunspots in giant

regions of intense
magnetic activity that

occur on the
surface of the sun.

But the greatest danger
to our planet is what

explodes out of
them - solar flares.

DAVID HATHAWAY: Solar
flares can blast material

off of the sun a
million miles an hour.

NARRATOR: With a force of
ten billion atomic bombs,

solar flares catapult
billions of tons of red

hot plasma into space and
sometimes directly at Earth.

DAVID HATHAWAY: When it
strikes the earth, can

shake the earth's
magnetic field.

Uh it does some
spectacular things like

produce Aurora Borealis.

It can also do things to our
technology in particular.

Solar flares can cause
satellites to de-orbit and

ultimately re-enter the
earth's atmosphere and

burn up so you literally
lose the satellite.

NARRATOR: Solar flares and
sunspots occur in regular

cycles but in 2008
Hathaway discovered

something remarkable.

Suddenly they appeared
to mysteriously stop.

DAVID HATHAWAY: We're
seeing the sun spot cycle

the smallest we've seen in
at least a hundred years

or perhaps two
hundred years.

We didn't see sunspots for
literally months at a time.

That had us a
little surprised.

NARRATOR: Some scientists
believe the change in the

sunspot cycles is the calm
before an unprecedented

solar storm, a wave
of solar flares so

destructive scientists
call it Space Katrina.

But now other ominous
signs suggest the sun

could be waking from
its deep slumber.

DAVID HATHAWAY: We've gone
from no sunspots to twenty

or thirty sunspots on the
sun at, on a given day now.

We've also seen the number
of flares increase.

NARRATOR: Is there
something wrong with the

star that gives life to
all things on earth?

DAVID HATHAWAY: We've had
some fairly wild predictions.

You've got to go way back.

You've got to go back to
the sixteen hundreds to find

the sun misbehaving or acting
as weirdly as it is now.

NARRATOR: Is our sun
preparing to launch the

biggest solar
stormn history?

NARRATOR: A NASA scientist
discovers strange activity

in solar flares on the
surface of the sun.

Could a giant solar
storm be coming our way?

Or is there another
explanation for the sun's

weird behaviour?

Nassim Haramein
is a scientist.

He believes he
has the answer.

In 2009, he made a
remarkable discovery when

viewing images taken
by a NASA satellite.

NASSIM HARAMEIN: What
I notice is when I was

looking at this, first of
all we see two objects appear.

Those two objects seem to
have moved together and

have moved
across the frame.

What's strange about this
particular sequence is

that when you follow this
object, they make almost a

ninety degree angle turn
and then entering the sun.

NARRATOR: NASA claimed the
objects were simply comets

or glitches, but when
Nassim studied them more

closely he came to an
amazing conclusion.

NASSIM HARAMEIN: When I
started to see these objects,

I couldn't
believe my eyes.

They were immense.

I mean they only looked
like little dots on the

data but the little dot
beside the sun mean that

the object's almost
the size of the earth.

NARRATOR: Planet sized
objects entering the sun?

Had Nassim found something
extraordinary that even

NASA had missed?

He thinks there's
only one explanation.

NASSIM HARAMEIN: I believe
these objects may be

intergalactic ships from
advanced civilization.

They appear to be under
intelligent control.

They don't appear to act
in a natural way that you

would expect from, you
know, cosmological objects

like comets and
meteorites and so on.

NARRATOR: Could this explain
the sun's odd behaviour?

Are changes in its sunspot
and solar flare activity

being caused
by alien ships?

NASSIM HARAMEIN: The solar
flare appears to emanate

right after the objects
impact the sun.

To me, clear that the two
are absolutely related and

the sun flare is most
likely the shock wave

resulting from the
penetration of the objects

through the
surface of the sun.

NARRATOR: Alien spacecraft
deliberately crashing into

the sun?

It's an incredible theory,
but why would they do it?

According to Nassim,
the answer lies in the

astronomical records of
the ancient Egyptians.

NASSIM HARAMEIN: When I
looked at all the data

around the world from all
these civilizations, they

all talked about
the sun gods.

When you looked at these
texts and the way they

described them, they
talked about the sun gods

using the, the
sun as a gateway.

If you were an advanced
civilization, and here I'm

talking about a very
advanced civilization, you

could maybe enter and then
come out at any other

point in the universe.

NARRATOR: Is our sun
part of an intergalactic

highway being used
by alien traffic?

Are they responsible for
disrupting its natural

cycles and
threatening the earth?

WILLIAM SHATNER: Now we
did some pretty strange

things on the Enterprise
but this is ...

weird or what?

Let me see if I've
got this straight.

NASA scientists say our
sun's sunspot cycles are

behaving weirdly and this
could cause a giant killer

solar flare to head
towards Earth, right?

While another guy, Nassim,
thinks that there's

something else causing
these solar flares.

He thinks aliens in
spaceships the size of the

Earth are crashing in and
out of the sun wreaking havoc.

Nassim's theory
seems crazy?

Or is it?

NARRATOR: Our sun is
acting like an oddball.

Are its natural cycles
being disrupted by giant UFOs?

Is a fatal solar storm
on its way to earth?

NASA researcher David
Hathaway has an

explanation that's far
more down to earth.

He thinks we have
nothing to worry about.

DAVID HATHAWAY: This
recent sunspot cycle has

started later than
expected and, and I think

I understand it.

The sunspot cycle is
caused by magnetic fields.

NARRATOR: The sun's
magnetic fields violently

swirl around the surface,
like powerful ocean currents.

They produce sunspots
and solar flares, until

finally something
bizarre happens.

DAVID HATHAWAY: The sun's
magnetic field flips.

NARRATOR: Every eleven
years, the sun's magnetic

poles do a back flip.

Scientists believe this
causes a dramatic decrease

in sunspot and solar flare
activity, but does it

threaten us now?

DAVID HATHAWAY: We had
weak magnetic fields produced

on the surface of the sun
during the last sunspot cycle.

Because they were weak,
we'll survive this without

any major inconvenience.

The end of the worlders
almost certainly have it wrong.

The timing's just way off.

NARRATOR: We may be safe
for the moment, but could

a mega solar storm
hit us in the future?

And what would
happen if it did?

Lawrence Joseph is a
science journalist.

LAWRENCE JOSEPH: If a
solar storm hit today,

it would knock us out,
would knock civilization

to its knees without any
exaggeration.

NARRATOR: How?

An historical event could
provide the answer.

On September 1st, 1859,
British astronomer

Richard Carrington was
looking through his telescope

when a giant solar flare
exploded onto the earth.

LAWRENCE JOSEPH: It caused
the northern lights to

dance down to the equator.

You could read a book at
midnight outside because

of the, the
incredible radiation.

The Carrington Event
caused some fires in

telegraph offices and
caused some disruption but

basically it didn't
inflict great damage.

NARRATOR: Why didn't this
massive flare destroy us?

LAWRENCE JOSEPH: There
was no power grid holding

society together.

There was no telecom.

There was no - none of the
things that we've come to

rely upon existed
back then.

NARRATOR: Joseph believes
that if a similar solar

flare hit us today, our
massive reliance on

electricity would
be our downfall.

LAWRENCE JOSEPH: We're
talking a blackout that

could last months or
years, could cover

half to two thirds of
the continent.

After a month, I can't
really see anything but

anarchy or the
beginning of it.

It's the paradox of
progress I call it.

We have become more
vulnerable to these storms

and the storms are
headed our way.

The shields are
down, Scotty.

NARRATOR: In 1989, a small
solar flare knocked out

the Quebec power grid and
left six million people

without power in
the dead of winter.

Joseph believes a giant
flare would destroy every

power grid on the planet.

No electricity
means no food.

LAWRENCE JOSEPH:
I'm damn concerned.

People would really begin
to die off in large numbers.

So what are you gonna do?

We don't know.

I mean people go
head for the hills.

What are you going
to do in the hills?

I don't know what
to do in the hills.

Most people don't.

NARRATOR: Have our
advances in technology

made us vulnerable to
a super solar storm?

Is the sun's mysterious
behaviour natural?

Or are aliens to blame?

Weird or what?

[♪]

NARRATOR: A world-renowned
inventor makes an

astonishing prediction.

RAY KURZWEIL: Twenty years
from now, computers will

be operating fully
at human levels.

NARRATOR: Are we facing an
uprising of killer machines?

Could the
Terminator be real?

WILLIAM SHATNER: It's
incredible, isn't it?

If we're to believe the
ancient prophecies or our

modern day doomsday
theorists or even some of

our best scientists, then
not only is the end of the

world going to happen -
but there's lots of ways

that nature could destroy us -
and none of them are nice.

But what if
they're all wrong?

What if the thing that
will wipe us out has

nothing to do with
volcanoes or solar storms?

What if there's something,
aside from nuclear weapons

of course, that we've
created that's an even

bigger threat.

Weird or what?

NARRATOR: In 1984,
Hollywood gave the world a

futuristic science fiction
blockbuster - the story of

a cyborg assassin sent
back in time from 2029.

The Terminator posed a
remarkable question.

Could robots take
over and destroy us?

Nearly three decades later,
we may have the answer.

Ray Kurzweil is
a world-renowned inventor

and futurist.

He believes science
fiction will become

reality sooner
than we think.

RAY KURZWEIL: In the last
fifteen years we've seen

millions-fold improvement
in the power of computers

and this is not just an idle
speculation about the future.

That's what we've seen.

Twenty years from now
computers will be

operating fully
at human levels.

NARRATOR: It's an
extraordinary theory based

on an extraordinary fact.

Today's computers are one
hundred billion times more

powerful than they were
a century ago and their

power is growing.

Kurzweil believes they
are rapidly catching us.

RAY KURZWEIL: Computers
already exceed humans at

logical uh thinking
like playing games.

There are robotic
cars with artificial

intelligence that are driving
without human drivers.

A computer today can look
at an electrocardiogram

and diagnose it with the
accuracy of doctors and

that's something that wasn't
feasible even a couple

years ago so things are
moving more and more quickly.

NARRATOR: Are we
experiencing the rise of

the machines?

Are our PCs more than
simply harmless pieces

of plastic and metal?

RAY KURZWEIL: They'll
continue to grow

exponentially in the
basic hardware power,

more than doubling in
power every year.

We'll get to human levels
of intelligence in

a machine by my
estimates around 2029.

NARRATOR: Wait a minute.
What did he say?

[reverses speech]

RAY KURZWEIL: We'll
get to human levels of

intelligence in a machine
by my estimates around 2029.

NARRATOR: 2029 is the year
from which the terminator

made its return.

Will machines equal, then
surpass our brain power

in just twenty years?

Incredibly, Kurzweil
believes it won't end there.

RAY KURZWEIL: By my
calculations, when we get

to around 2045, we will
have multiplied the

intelligence of our human
machine civilization a

billion fold by merging
with this intelligent

technology we're creating.

That will be such a
profound singular

transformation when we can
actually vastly multiple

our own intelligence.

NARRATOR: Will man and
machine merge before the

middle of this century?

And if so, what
does it mean for us?

RAY KURZWEIL: It's not an
invasion, you know,

from another planet.

People say oh we'll
lose our humanity.

In my mind that
is our humanity.

That's part of who we are.

NARRATOR: Could our world
end, not by natural disaster,

but with humankind simply
becoming obsolete?

John Leslie is a professor
of philosophy at the

University of
Guelph in Canada.

JOHN LESLIE: It could be
in the next twenty, thirty

years we have computers
which are more intelligent

than humans and which take
over control over our

lives and there's an
obvious possibility there

that things could
go badly wrong.

NARRATOR: John believes
that far from advancing

humanity, creating über
intelligent robots and

computers could
backfire on all of us.

JOHN LESLIE: If robots
became super intelligent,

they could well have very little
interest in the human race.

They could think of
themselves as superior

humans and look on us in the
same way as we look on ants.

A machine could come to
the answer let's get rid

of biological humans and
put machines in place of them.

NARRATOR: Are the machines
we've created going to

turn on us and take
over our planet?

Is Hollywood right?

JOHN LESLIE: You have to
remember that the science

fiction of today quite
often turns out to be the

science fact of tomorrow.

NARRATOR: According to
John, it's not only

terminators that pose a very
real threat to our survival.

JOHN LESLIE: In fact, one
of the dangers here is

that it may be that
computers are in charge of

the system, which
controls nuclear bombs.

We simply don't know to
what extent they are

in charge of the
destructive forces.

NARRATOR: Could a machine
deliberately trigger a

nuclear holocaust?

It's a terrifying
scenario, but Leslie has

an even more
frightening theory.

The ultimate threat to the
human race is already in

our homes.

JOHN LESLIE: You could
argue that the internet is,

at present, a gigantic
computer and that its

intelligence far exceeds
the intelligence of any

individual human.

Certainly the amount of
knowledge you can get very,

very rapidly on the internet
is much bigger than

you could get by consulting
the greatest memory experts.

I believe that the future
of the internet is pretty

certainly gonna push it in
the direction of more and

more intelligence.

NARRATOR: Every day, over
two billion people log on

to the internet.

It connects most of the
world's computers and

databases, moving
information around the planet.

John believes the internet
could evolve into a central

brain that leads a cybernetic
revolt against mankind.

JOHN LESLIE: It could
become immensely

intelligent and become,
therefore, what takes over

world government and
possibly then decides that

humans are irrelevant
and gets rid of them.

That's just one way
in which we could be

annihilated almost
immediately.

NARRATOR: Will robots
blow us up with our

own nuclear weapons?

Is the internet
going to destroy us?

Will man be enslaved
by machines?

WILLIAM SHATNER: You know
I never thought machines

were that smart.

I mean most of the gadgets
I have are incapable of doing

anything useful at all, let
alone reciting Shakespeare.

But if we believe what
some of the world's

greatest minds are telling
us, these things we've

created are gonna take us
over - blow us up with our

own weapons and enslave
us for the rest of time.

Could that, could
be possible?

Not today my friends.

NARRATOR: Leading
scientists believe

machines are becoming so
intelligent they will

overtake humans by 2050.

Will they become
terminators and annihilate us?

Noel Sharky is a professor
of Artificial Intelligence

and Robotics at the University
of Sheffield, England.

He says we have
nothing to worry about.

NOEL SHARKY: We're really
a long way off at the

moment of creating the
kind of technology you see

in the likes of the
Terminator, with big

humanoid robots armed with
machine guns plodding

across the battlefield.

NARRATOR: Some of the
world's greatest minds

disagree, but Sharky
believes they haven't

asked one simple
question - why?

NOEL SHARKY: As a
scientist, I need evidence

and there's no evidence of
any kind of really smart

intelligence or any kind
of desire or robots would

have a desire to take over
the world, any more than

a washing machine would want
to take over the world.

NARRATOR: Not only does
Sharky think that machines

aren't a threat, but
they're not nearly as

smart as we make
them out to be.

NOEL SHARKY: A lot
of people talk about

artificial intelligence at
the moment being at the

level of the rat or the
slug, and it's going to

get so much smarter and
be like a human later.

But for me, I've studied
animals all my life,

really, and I would say
that current robots

weren't at the
intelligence of a bacteria

because bacteria can feed
themselves and they know

how to survive.

Robots don't.

They're dependent on me
and essentially they're

not bright enough
to be called stupid.

NARRATOR: But even if
robots and computers are

nothing more than digital
dummies, couldn't someone

use them for evil
rather than good?

NOEL SHARKY: The problem
is that robots are very

limited in what
they can do.

You just program a robot
but it's all up to what

the programmer
puts in there.

There's no reason why the
robot themselves would do

anything that we haven't
told them to do.

And I certainly wouldn't
be programming a robot to

tell it to take over the
world and I don't think

anybody else would.

NARRATOR: Instead of
creatures with a super

intelligence that
surpasses humans, Sharky

thinks machines are our
moronic slaves that lack

the one essential
ingredient for a robot-led

Armageddon -
human emotion.

NOEL SHARKY: We have
consciousness and we use

that in our everyday
lives, in our thought, in

our desires whereas robots
have a really rigid

silicone intelligence,
no desires, no wants.

NARRATOR: But if robots
have neither the brains

nor the drive
for world domination,

why do so many others
believe it will happen?

NOEL SHARKY: The whole
idea of a robot takeover

is quite odd and it's
really the subject of

science fiction right
back since the word was

invented in 1921.

All science fiction movies
have been about robots

killing humans and taking
over the world, but it is

as it says fiction.

NARRATOR: Are robots just
mindless heaps of metal?

Or will man and machine merge
and destroy the human race?

We'll just have to
wait and find out.

Weird or what?

[♪]

NARRATOR: So there we have
it - doomsday stories from

the earth, and beyond.

In Wyoming, a deadly
supervolcano lies dormant.

Will it explode in 2012
and fulfill a Mayan prophecy?

In Alabama, a NASA
scientist discovers the

unthinkable - a giant
solar storm could be on

its way to
destroy the earth.

And one of the world's
greatest minds makes a

startling prediction.

Man and machine
will merge by 2050.

Will robots take over?

Are we facing a
terminator Armageddon?

Are these stories
evidence that the end of

the world is nigh?

Can we dismiss those who
claim these things are true?

You decide.

WILLIAM SHATNER: Join me
next time for more stories

that will undoubtedly
be weird or what?

[♪]

[♪]

[♪]