All language subtitles for Photon.2017.720p1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]-English

We're being as efficient as possible.

Some people, including my friends, sacrifice

their personal lives looking for answers.

- Let's change the subject.

After your last success, you got famous

but you were known beforehand.

Because of a series of lectures for

people not familiar with science.

Universities of technology

are full of your pupils.

But...

- Yes, l'm fond of those lectures.

Before we go through
the story from the start,

l should talk a bit about the space
where l'll show the visuals.

This is mind warm-up,
it'll take two minutes.

Let's look at a point. lt's a simple item.
Nothing simpler but the lack of it.

There,

not there.

There,

not there.

There.

There's hardly a simpler distinction.

Let's give the point some freedom,

the first space in history. . .

and from now on,

it can be here,

here,

or here,

there. . .

For the first continuous movement
to take place, we need time and space.

When l turn the view around,
things are different.

That initial symmetry is broken.

What the object looks like now,

depends on the point of view.

So now we have a point
in time and space.

Which is enough for what l'm
about to show, to make sense.

How do we get time and space,

and why is there actually
something instead of nothing?

Science has no answer to that.

Some religions do.

We're looking at a section of spacetime.
Let's make it a bit denser...

This grey slime, that's
just so you can see better.

The sound too,

it's just there to show you,

no one knows what space
is really made of.

l'll start swinging points around...

each one rages on its own,
like noise on TV. No communication.

Only when l add these
links, a kind of glue...

There, so movement is
passed onto neighbors.

lt's the first space where
cause and effect work.

lt's only now we can even talk about
a future or a past for this cube.

Which instantly makes it
more interesting.

End of warm-up.

Let's talk about life

from the beginnings
of the universe.

The very beginning is
probably infinite energy:

outrageous temperature
and wrinkling of spacetime,

as first distinctions separate.

Like when boiling water
oozes foamy scum.

Gravitational waves.

l'll separate the gravitational field from
the rest of the noise and we have this.

The graviton.

Within less than a nanosecond,
there's new turbulences.

lt's gluons.

But here another particle
separates: the Higgs boson

or ''God particle''.

Probably at the moment
when Higgs field emerges,

monster tensions
and linkages are produced.

lt's inflation.

Upon a violent relaxation,
matter doesn't spread smoothly.

On a cosmic scale, spacetime
wrinkles form everywhere.

Like on a scrotum in winter.

ln quantum scale,

the aforementioned Higgs field
seems to suppress relaxation.

The other fields wrinkle
into new, distinct fluctuations...

the first quarks, for instance.

They're awfully small,
vibrating among the gluons.

Photons and weak bosons
W and Z separate.

A new field of electrons also emerges. And,
their perfect opposites - the positrons.

The free electron is quite hard
to show as a phenomenon,

as it can be elsewhere in
every frame of film.

ln simple words:

the electron, or another particle,

can be precisely shown in space
and its photograph is sharp.

But then we don't know about
the direction it travels in.

Or, l find out about the direction,
but l'll lose the sharpness of position.

We can never have both kinds
of information at once with high precision.

And now you can see quarks join together.

They're held by an immense force
generated by gluons buzzing inside.

New balls of energy are thus
formed, to last over time.

They'll be called protons one day.

Or neutrons.

Depending on the way
the quarks are bound.

Balls of energy fail to meet,
as it's still too hot for them to link.

Upon cooling down,
some of them stick together.

Around them, a field of photons buzzes.

They cannot flow freely, always bumping
into other items: electrons, for instance.

lf we could look at that world from outside,
it would be fog smothering radiation.

Temperature keeps falling.

Upon several milion years
it's cool enough

for free electrons to start clinging
to those balls of energy.

Stable clusters are formed.

ln a dozen billion years people
will call them hydrogen atoms.

The once imprisoned photons
shoot in all directions.

A religious person will say,

''there was light''.

For some billions of years,
he universe keeps on expanding.

Balls of energy, or atoms, float around.

An atom is overlapping waves

of very specific parameters.

First l'll mention the scale
and proportions.

They're incredible.

lf the atomic nucleus is
the size of a MP's head,

the electron cloud is as
big as an agglomeration.

lf the cloud were smaller, all of it
would fall apart, and we wouldn't be there.

Now fix your eyes on your thumb,

on the nail.

A few bilion milion atoms
on the tip of the nail. . .

lt's good for you to train
mind leaps like that.

Quarks held by strong gluons
are protons and neutrons.

The latter, combined, create a superior
cluster called the atomic nucleus.

A positively charged nucleus
oozes an electromagnetic field.

A negative electron falls into this trap.

So that there's any kind
of permanence of the whole thing,

the electron spreads around the center.

Hence the popular image of atoms as small. . .

jelly beans, or balls.

lt's a huge simplification.

lt's more like a sphere of fog
thickening towards the center.

A different amount of protons
and neutrons inside

is a different shape of fog on the orbit.

l haven't made that up. This much you can
see directly under a special AFM microscope.

That is the beauty in physics:

theoretical fun on paper coincides
with what is seen under a microscope.

This will one day be called carbon.

Entirely different properties
while colliding and sticking.

lt's only these differences
that chemistry stems from,

and the possibility of forming
all these sorts of molecules.

Let's add 92 protons.

The electron cloud takes
an eerily complex shape.

Nonetheless, the nucleus is unstable.

lt pukes photons in all directions.

They tremble aggressively.

Atoms collide incessantly.

Exchange of photons eventually occurs,
and transfer of the movement direction.

This is the simplest collision.

Problem is, it might work out different.

For instance, the photon
emitted can skip like so.

Or so.

Possibilities are many.

Too many.

To precisely calculate
the angles of electron collisions

will make the fastest computer lag...

Nonetheless, once we've worked out
a few dozen diagrams of collisions,

we can obtain....

an approximation sufficient
to meet human needs:

plugs, computers, washing machines.

These events were once counted by hand,

for you to be able to switch
on the light in the staircase.

Does anyone even know
who we owe that to?

While l'm talking about starcases,

atoms of helium and hydrogen
thicken into the first structures

visible to the naked eye.

This thickening of atoms will
one day be named a nebula.

l have a purpose in not showing color.
Color is human invention.

For color to be visible, we need
an observer with a brain

which can produce
the impression of red.

Otherwise it's just anonymous vibration.
Like sound with no witness.

So these shots should stay black
and white until spiders are created.

But as the public, you are
observers and you do have brains,

so l'll let color in already.

The range of waves seen
with our eyes is meager.

Let's say someone's hand is drifting here.

We miss very dense photon
waves called Roentgen waves.

Now, somewhat longer waves
are ultraviolet. We almost see them.

Next there's that familiar blue.

Even longer waves, that's green.

Then red.

Slightly longer waves and there
we go missing out.

lt's ultrared, received by touch as warmth.

Even longer waves are microwaves.

Their crests are several centimeters long.
They yield very poor image.

Waves longer than a meter are radio waves.
They are invisible,

but the radio will receive them.

That someone's hand is a bit too
small to reflect them well.

We've just made it to see
the first visible structures

which the normal audience
has heard about.

lt'll get easier from now on.

This is one of the first
galaxies which emerged.

How's it even possible today to see
an event from 1 3 billion years ago?

Well, when looking into the sky
we look at the past.

lt's only now that photons
released in these times, reach us.

Worse thing is, our
spacetime keeps expanding. . .

so part of them won't
catch up with us at all.

This is how a limit
to our observation is formed.

Looking at this frontier,
the last thing we see

is a wall of photons called
background radiation, coming our way.

Should you like to experience that,
switch your TV onto an empty channel.

The radio buzz is largely
background radiation

from the beginnings of the universe.

Balls form which are
the size of small town.

They're pulsars. They spin
7 00 times per second.

Just imagine what's going on there!

lf you took all public railway wagons and
pressed them into the size of a sugarcube...

This pulsar winds matter
from a nearby star onto itself.

A vampire.

With unabated gravitational flow, a whole
menagerie of creations originates.

ln various stages of metamorphosis.

Millions of years go by.

Some stars lose their balance
and start yielding to pressure.

Here, it shows that
the star softens up.

The death of a big star is spectacular.

A series of shocks pukes
a layer into the cosmos.

Among the shreds are also
atoms of carbon and oxygen.

The same ones you're made of.
Plus, there's other, heavier atoms.

They join other condensations,
forming new clots.

Planets suspended in vacuum.

Let's talk about nothing for a minute.

Take a section of vacuum.

ls it empty?

Or rather: what is there
between two nearby atoms?

l don't want to discuss vacuum
like a physics teacher,

because you'll take it for abstract
matter that doesn't concern you.

l'll better show it on something common.

The artist brings alcohol home.

The bag is made of black plastic,

it's mainly chains of
hydrogen and carbon atoms.

Look at the spot where the bag
weighs down on his finger.

Tense atoms emit virtual photons.

Thanks to which the bag won't
penetrate through the finger.

Thanks to which we have hardness.

lt seems you can zoom in ad infinitum.

lt's a recipe for a mathematical
catastrophe.

There's a few options not to go crazy.

For the time being, it's helpful

to establish the shortest possible
length and assume that the

the world's smallest pixel is
the so-called Planck's length.

Anything smaller than
that is undifferentiated.

Another proposal is this: note the noise.

lt's quantum foam.

Loops of spacetime flicker.

This flickering is where our tridimensional
space and time emanate from.

Or we can assume that the smallest
point in space has more to it.

Additional dimensions
are curled into shapes.

These determine the way atoms
vibrate in three dimensions.

Coming back
to the chronology of events.

Some galaxies collide. A sudden
process throws stardust into vacuum.

On one of the star's orbits, the
dust thickens into small clots.

Creaky rocks. This one's
the size of a fist.

A few million years later,
it's the size of Germany.

Millions of years go by and gravity
slowly enforces a spherical shape.

Unluckily, another ball
enters collision course.

What's left is two orbs
and lots of dust.

The lighter shred starts spinning
around the heavier ball.

lt has survived the collision.

The fog gets even denser.

lt binds atoms of oxygen,
carbon, sulfur, and hydrogen.

A big part comes from stones which
evaporated during the collisions.

Toxic rains.

This young planet is a transition
place where atoms combined

into big molecules can hold on longest,
in their trembling stability.

On stars, that won't do,

everything tears apart there.

Stability allows for keeping
up new states of matter.

Water is perfect for binding
molecules in even stranger shapes.

Here it'll touch them a bit,
but no binding.

There, it'll move them
a bit, no tearing though.

ln some spots on land,

warm mud is formed.

lt is bombarded with photons that
come flying in from the closest star.

Photons bring particles in vibration.

The distance from the star is such
that the mud neither fries not freezes.

A similar mechanism
occurs deep under water,

near warm currents coming out
of hell, from the planet's insides.

What is being formed here is made
out of the most common atoms.

On land, the next bombarding
phase takes place.

The mud, seen up close, is French
mustard of various molecules.

The wall is clung to by simplest
balls of energy, or hydrogen atoms.

They're the only ones that can do so.

The other ones bounce away.

This is how lots of atomic
spikes are set aside.

They're officially called ''fatty
acids'', but it's a disgusting word.

Spikes can't glue together,
as water is boiling.

The geyser explodes
and throws it all in the wind.

Some drops of water are spiked.

Water evaporates, and spikes remain
in a stellate layout. Urchins are formed.

Their official name is ''micellae''.

Urchins emerge on land
and in the deeps.

Part of them gets thrown out in foam.

Let's take a closer look.

The wave motion makes
the urchins join in sheets.

With fluctuations and the acidic
environment, the sheets curl up into balls.

This is how membranes form.

The most complex structures on the planet.

Bear in mind that here there's
still water particles all around,

but l have to exclude them from
view so that we see anything.

Some membranes reach scandalous sizes.

We'll come back to these in a minute,
as in the meantime, in muddy

in muddy areas on the shore, even
more interesting structures emerge.

On the clay walls, molecular
chains are set aside.

Or strings,

as they're flimsy and tear easily.

More and more of them.

With the vast ocean space,
with violent storms,

no wonder the strings
came across membranes.

Most strings are torn into shreds.

But some of their fragments happen
to fall inside the membrane.

That's how a capsule is formed.

The strings inside, sheltered
from the surrounding chaos,

can tangle and randomly
combine into longer chains.

This kind of process goes on for some
millions of years in all warm oceans.

Containers keep growing.

The bigger ones absorb the smaller.

There is no purpose or will to survive.
Physical forces only.

Finally, the membrane
is cast onto the shore.

The wind ruffles the foam,
the container can't take it anymore.

The content is divided at random.

Strings inside remain intact and can
go on sticking together freely.

They have different particle models.

The ones which took shapes
encouraging simple divisions,

multiply more efficiently,
sheltered by the container.

The most durable models live
for as long as a few months,

thousands of copies form from them.
Some mutate at random.

Here, an atom has shifted.

Oh, that links a bit better.

Most of these shapes
are good for nothing.

But once in a while
a shape is formed which

helps strengthen
the container from inside.

Some strings have time
to curl into spirals.

The atom layout fosters this.

This seems improbable
and too purposeful,

but figure that one drop
of waterholds five undecilion atoms.

So how many chances of similar events
are there, in the globe's oceans?

Over the course of the next
ten milion years?

After milions of years, durable string
cannot exist without containers.

And vice versa.

You can see the areas
for waste disposal.

The protrusions you see

help move in whichever direction is
richer in useful building material.

l'd say ''cells'',

but this is a cliched name.

l'll refer to them as ''capsules''.

Survival capsules.

Why?

Because strings have now found
themselves in the best position.

Sheltered from all the surrounding mess...

Longer than ever.

We can remember how first containers
divided under gusts of wind.

After so many years
of shredding, it's less random.

Let's take a closer look.

The string trembles around discs.

lt's an introduction to denser packing.

The discs tighten up even
more, and the spooled string

takes a shape which tangles
the least possible.

A baguette.

The spindle from the stretchers
additionally fosters

the baguettes fitting together.

And here shows a hook called a kinetochore.

Left, we have string spooled on discs.

All is set.

Allong the tubules, kinesines
and dyneins start.

They signal: it's time to divide.

The capsules multiply,
each one holds copies of strings.

lneffective ways of dividing
are lost forever.

Broken string goes into the abyss,

and its molecules will
produce some new string.

lt's not over yet.

The capsule conglomerate keeps expanding.

Multiplication is regulated.

Proper concentration
of chemicals slows it down.

Or changes the direction.

lnitially, capsules multiply
via simplest division.

The underwater swinging
of some clusters slowly

takes its toll on the strings'
atomic model.

Out of some areas that carry electrons
better, calluses are formed.

This has no purpose.

But sometimes the electrones
extracted from the background. . .

skip so far over the body, that
random contortions are produced.

The generations whose contortions lead
them towards light and food, survive.

Others are lost.

Some hundred thousand
generations later, you can see

the distinct concentration on the crest.

Most photons come from above.

Here one of the sides is more dense...

which orders up the mess
in the electron flow.

The thing's motion is less chaotic.

A lifehack that makes capsule
multiplication efficient.

The systems which shrink
at the ''shade moment''

last longer and multiply more string.

Next generations come in ever
stranger shapes and behavior.

Body shape is the external expression
of string hidden in each survival capsule.

The ones that multiply with abandon, are
dangerous as they mess up the environment.

The ones with a division counter
are left on the scene.

lf the body hasn't managed to copy
the string, then its model is lost forever.

ln the meantime, here comes danger.

Due to its position
towards the nearby star,

the planet slowly turns
into a ball of ice.

The cold means slower vibrations.

Stillness may make these splendid
molecular machines scarce.

But somewhere deep beneath the ice,
a few strings keep on ruffling.

Closed off in particularly
thick survival capsules.

A few hundred thousand laps later,
the planet is aligned differently again.

The ice melts and we get
a new tide of photon waves.

All of it multiplies even faster,

with less and less loss in strings.

Some capsules excrete oxygen atoms.
lt's quite reactive.

Ever stranger shapes grow.

Strings get their transport again.

This cluster has as much
as a quarter million capsules,

called neurons. ln each
one there's some string.

An ordered flow of impulses
leads to an ordered movement.

Let's sum it up before people arrive.

The string is found in cells
of every living being.

Starting from cabbage, then
snails, and finally, in humans.

Nature is blind, sadly.

ln 2008, a fragment of string was
rearranged in the fruit fly. . .

lt's offspring's bodies was
overgrown with extra eyes.

The insects died, but the eyes
worked partly right.

The same fragment,

called PAX 6,
is in your body.

lt regulates eye growth.

How with all this research and prizes,

do you find time to be with your family?

- What time?... What do you mean?

You have a young wife, a one year old son.

Do you have time for them?

- Excuse me, where did you learn this?

Anyway, what doesthis have
to do with the interview?

- l'm just asking, as a human being.

Outside the lab, do you have time for them?

- l do or l don't and it really isn't

the subject of this interview!

- What if we turnt this camera off?

- Excuse me, don't you
understand the words ''l don't''?!

ln search of energy, the survival
machines move further into land.

After all these millions
of years of copying,

the transport for strings takes
quite a mobile form.

As yet, the strings which have survived are
those that form a kind of a supersystem.

l mean a stock.

Ancestors from another continent
didn't understand what death is.

lt's only the next generations
who began to grasp that.

The wandering goes on
for several thousand years.

The offspring is a bit smarter.

A volcano explosion
on the opposite side of the globe

reduces their number to a few thousand.

Every bit of data saved is precious,

as these are probably the world's
most complex structures.

The ones who straighten
their backs see more.

Keeping bodies up straight is tiring,
they seldom do that.

But in the better nourished stocks
it's become a habit to imitate.

This thin layer of cells gets
denser with every generation.

Which is why communication within
the stock gets much better.

These brains discern minor nuance.

Body language is faster than sound.

Energy-saving.

Expressive eye whites make it
easier to read directions of looks.

They make tools.

This is something you can't
transfer in the string.

The young mimic the parents.

For the first time, weaker
individuals are valuable.

They are carriers of behavior,
which is not there in the strings.

lt's in the brains instead,
as a sustained impulse flow.

ln a hundred thousand years,
this will be named culture.

One of the most contagious
skills is control over fire.

The whole group becomes
a superior survival capsule.

lt's bound by social ties, simple emotions
and beginnings of love as we know it.

Dispassionate, as of yet.

Multiplying bodies is still
vital for the strings.

But protecting the brain gets
more important than ever.

From now on, biology goes
hand in hand with culture.

Next to the dead body, they
lay down tools and hides.

ln case she wakes up, right?

The brain is dense enough
to allow creating event simulation.

No risk, no need to leave the cave.

Today, we call it imagination.

Fear of harsh weather gets
combined with fear of predators.

That l don't know how to show.

But see what's before my eyes
when l think of those days.

Like an impression.

ln the more developed brains,
emerges a sensation of some

impalpable being of tremendous supremacy.

Local imagery can be seen in rituals.

These behaviors are transferred
via mimicry from generation to the next.

They make their way into brains
of more and more beings...

Only in a few thousand years,
the wide notion of ''God'' comes about.

Wherever the circumstances are stable,

faith in a protective and kind
deity is usually formed.

Like a flow of opium milk.

But where nature is brutal, what
develops most often is a belief

in a capricious deity, clotted
milk, compote and ...smells.

Religious behaviors also mutate.

Those which help survive,

last in millions of brains
as patters of neuron activity.

Thousands of years later,
only a few prominent

religious behaviors
remain on the globe.

People reside in groups of a few
hundred, often near rivers.

ln these small social cells,
simple punishment is developed,

concerning incest and all actions
which lead to degradation in the group.

For instance: having several partners
at a time is a tough challenge.

lt's a constant fight with other males.

Which is probably why monogamous
relationships get more numerous.

lndividuals living outside norms
are expelled from groups.

Clear bans for harmful behavior arise.

With small populations
it's especially important.

We call it law today.

Extreme conservatism however, leads
to lack of adaptation in new conditions.

Group degradation follows.

Too many mischief-makers, in turn, cause
disappearance of rules and chaos,

which devastates the tribe as well.

Religions and laws usually
promote conservatism,

striving at keeping up tried behaviors.

ln this way a shaky balance between
stability and elasticity of societies is kept.

Oh, sorry...

Over thousands of years,
this self-regulation

turns out to foster
duration of largest groups.

As a result, the DNA strings
are doing better than ever.

l've just presented ten million
years in four minutes.

Sorry. But it's good sometimes
to see these things

from the DNA strings' perspective.
Not like, human only.

- But everywhere there are

people suspicious of science.

These people need to trust
that the quarks are real

or that their DNA chains
are half a meter long.

They need to take for granted that...

- That we landed on the Moon?

They don't have to.

You know what?

Please, spit in here.

- Excuse me?

- Come on, spit in here.

- Alright.

- Thank you.

- ln other words, what l mean is that you

have your story, but there are others.

- Yes, and that's the problem.

lf someone doesn't like the kinesins walking

on the DNA and deems it as

too far fetched to be real

and says that photons are just another tale

as silly as others,

then this person should look for a country,

where the laws of physics are more

accessible, the molecules bigger...

easier to understand.

You can't convince them.

Yeah.

You can't change what you see

under the microscope, it is what it is.

And we don't know why.

Basically, even this unawareness

is better than knowing everything.

Here we have your DNA chain.

Probably, with the kinesins still attached.

We can go downstairs and take a closer look.

String division in people
is a dramatic process.

You're really lucky
to have been able to hatch.

Look how little you need for something
to go wrong. A couple of atoms.

Day one: lt starts out classic,
a father's spermatozoons carrying string.

They swarm around the female egg.

Dissolving the wall.

lt plants tangled string inside.

Some proteins attach immediately.

lt's a nucleosom,

it spins the string onto its disc,
as discs allow efficient packing.

They curl into cigars.

These are chromosomes.

The microtubule spindle helps to compress.

And makes them stand on end.

This hook is a kinetochore,

here it checks if division should start.

Not yet.

Not yet.

Not yet.

But now. . .

dyneins and kinesines
drag along the spindle.

Regulating the load.

Braces let out cigars,

and spindles draw backwards,

spreading out up there.

See, there's a problem with this bracket.

lt hasn't let out a cigar to divide.

lt's been left inside, one too many.

The body is growing,

replisomes copy with an error.

Day three, eight capsules now.

Oh, a loop.

Another problem.

And again.

Tape jammed in a tape recorder.

And now it multiplies over limbs,

slightly altered protein is formed.

The child grows,

has Down syndrome
and problems with its fingers.

The parents don't know that yet.

The body takes shape.

l don't have to remind you
what it's all made of.

Boy or girl?

Brain structures responsible
for the sex form quite slowly.

The primary pattern is female,

it's only the soaking with testosteron
that makes the difference.

That one's a boy.

Or not, maybe. . .

Not much hormone.

Probably a boy.

But with a brain built like a female's.

The environment will shape the rest.

Your institute spent 300

thousand on free will research.

- What does free will

have to do with science?

- We need this research

to find something to weaken

the OCD accompanying

the Parkinson's disease.

and we're really close.

And among other things, that's why

our team received the prize.

- For trying to cure

the OCD or the Parkinson's?

- Both. l suppose that in this building

there are at least two
persons suffering from

OCD and l don't mean frequent hand washing

because you can live with this.

l mean intrusive thoughts,

like the fear of losing control

or doing some nasty things.

lt really can ruin people's lives.

For example, religious people

have sacrilegious or pornographic thoughts

or thoughts about their sister's funeral.

BE YOND MANKlND

Let's deal with the organ which enabled
such a tiny group of beings

to change so much all over the globe.

This is my father in law.

Stanisław.

l don't want to discuss the brain
as they do in school,

on anonymous drawings
and dummies.

l like it truer. For you to feel that
all of it concerns you, every day.

Let's look at Staszek's brain.

The deeper the area, the more
basic function it holds.

This is the brain stem,
a primitive reptile part.

Breathing, heartbeat,
salivating, digestion.

This part is the limbic part.

Responsible for emotions
and simple social behaviors.

And back there is the cerebellum.

Motion coordination.

The outer, ridged layer is the area where
complex processes are processed:

the point of that joke
about the MP,, calculations,

awareness of the self,
and imagination.

Obviously, the borders are not sharp.

Our behavior results from a rhythmic
melody of these structures.

When the melody loses
the rhythm, problems arise.

Stanisław, for instance, has Parkinson's.
But that's for later.

Looking closer, the knots turn
out to be capsules called neurons.

Of course, each of them
is a capsule for the string.

lt can also send information.

The way this happens is extraordinary.

Current flow in an integrated circuit
is nothing compared to this.

Ordinary current is electrons
flowing in a specific direction.

ln the brain, it's different.

Everyone seems to realize
that, but somehow. . .

Showing nervous impulse as christmas
lights is embarassing

and it introduces bad thinking habits.

lt gets more interesting.

Here we have an atom surplus.

They want to mix with the ones inside

but a wall separates them.

Nature strives at leveling out
surplus, so tension is produced.

The capsule wall is a membrane
spiked with valves.

Which eventually let go.

ln a rhythm that makes
it a cascade of pumpings.

This thing is an impulse.

This is how our thoughts flow.

The average impulse speed
is 1 00 kilometers per hour.

On the tip, excitement
makes bags with dust open.

Professionally called neurotransmitters.

But you can also say dust.

These are super tiny particles,
a few dozen atoms at the most.

Upon release, they cling
to canals at the other side.

The energy cascade moves on,

and the rest of dust gets absorbed
and packed in bags again.

Why does the brain need these breaks?

To regulate the impulse flow
more precisely, among others.

We have several kinds of dust.

For instance, shortage in this,

dopamine, gives symptoms
of Parkinson's disease.

Too little dust,

and impulses do not move on,

which in effect interferes
with Staszek's muscle performance.

l'd like to apologize in advance
to my colleagues

for the scandalous simplification.

To be fair with this, l'd have
to make a TV series on synapses.

Let's look at Emilia for a change
- Stanisław's wife.

She's making a scarf for her husband.

Counting the rows.

You can see the activation
of areas above the ears.

A branch of this neuron is a dendrite.

ln real time,
little stems form on its walls.

Then they die. And so it goes.

Stems are surrounded
with a molecular scaffolding.

lt's actin. lts growth
influences the shapes of stems.

A freeze for biologists.

This is cofilin, for instance.

lt helps grow the scaffolding.

And here's the ''Arp 2 to 3'' joint.
A friend of mine invented the name.

Why does my mother in law need it all?

Let's see.

She's counting the rows.

Each number remembered means physically
thickening the dendrite's stems.

The scaffolding makes
bridges between dendrites. . .

The impuls goes a different way...

These seconds are enough to sustain
attention over a row number.

Not only the stems have scaffolding.

Whole neurons have it.
Virtually all cells in your bodies.

And this is Bruno.

New transport for my string.

Bruno has a myriad of sensory receptors.
They're dispersed thoughout the body.

ln this strip of the brain,
there's a map of sensation.

lf l were to show it in 3D, this
sort of homunculus would form.

The bigger the fragment, the
more innervated the body region.

ln a dog, the map looks different.

The insides are also mapped,
but the resolution is much lower.

Thankfully enough,

as the sensation of swallowing in HD
is some kind of gluey schizophrenia.

Not to mention sex.

Or excretion...

Which is what my son's doing right now.

Let's look at the drive
of Bruno's intestines,

although this concerns all of your muscles.

Thick fiber is composed of minor ones,
made up of even smaller ones, sarcomeres.

All in all, it's almost the same
scaffolding as in the brain.

Actin in oblong form.

Upon a signal from the brain,
actin filaments

are moved along an
immobile slat of myosin.

A similar mechanism works in the heart.

All your life, without rest.

Stuff moves through the intestines.

l'm only showing one sarcomere, one fiber.

But when a finger, or poo, are to be moved,

this happens in bulk along all fibers.

By the way: Have you ever
seen a child's skull?

No big deal, but a second set
of teeth is waiting right there.

Stanisław is observing an object.

Let's watch it in slow motion.

lnitially, Staszek doesn't
know what he's looking at,

although he might have seen it many times.

The backyard is penetrated by photon waves:
the lnternet, cellphones, TV, the army.

These are colorless vibrations,

differentiated only by crest density.

Atoms on a watermelon.

The surrounding photon waves
are bouncing off them.

A photon spurt gushes into the eyes,

passes through cloudy spots
and sits in the back of the eye.

Here, in the back of the eye,

the waves are divided
and transferred to the optic nerve.

Meeting in his head and then flowing
into the back of the skull,

to the area known as V 1 .

ln V 1 the signals from the eye are
not understood as a ''watermelon''.

Part of the impulses
goes further onto V 2...

but they hook against memory areas.

The melody of this shape as if overlaps
with the pattern of red seen somewhere.

Staszek gets the impression
of ,,something red''.

Then there's dispersion onto other
areas of V 3, V 4 and so on.

A quarter second later,

Staszek does not know what he's looking at.

The sum of signals gets through here,
the hypocampus or the memory area.

A comparison takes place,
with familiar objects.

lf it's positive, then
signals reach consciousness

and somewhere in the front of his head,
Staszek senses: ''oh, a watermelon''.

The fruit has provoked
an association with sunny climes...

that he'd never visited.

Subjectively,
what Stanisław feels is regret.

Sleep function is somewhat like
defragmentation of nervous links.

Removing unfinished stems,
thickening the ones often used.

This is probably what brings forth dreams.

Some kinds of dust get
extinguished altogether.

Whereas a stronger activityin the amygdala,

or the emotion area,
and the hypocampus, or memory,

infuses dreams with strange images.

The sleeper is not responsible
for the content of dreams.

This depends largely on proportions
in dust and the memories' layout.

This process is impossible
to describe in a film.

Plus it's not researched well enough.

Why does the body stay in bed despite
such things under its eyelids?

Because an ancient
reticular formation - here,

sends suppressing signals to the spinal
cord and silences motion neurons.

Sleepwalkers will disagree.

Stanisław is asleep.

We'll take advantage of night-time
to discuss more mysterious matters.

Each of us, including Emilia,
has a sense of the self -

''l, Emilia''.

We place it somewhere in here.

Or here.

Yes. ln my case it's here.

Close your eyes, please,
and recall a toothache.

lt is a clear but elusive feeling.
A percept.

l see something like this.

You see something else.

And my question is - where
does this impression come from?

From some mental space?

ls it enough to explain it as
work of the neural network?

How is the neuron tension converted
to mental images in your mind?

A little more is known
about the imagination.

Essentially, it is the ability
to observe your own thoughts.

We can instantly create ''a mind in the
mind'' and engage in self-reflection.

lmagination is simulating
events without leaving home.

ln computers, it is called a virtual
machine. You need a lot of RAM.

ln people who use their
imagination professionally,

these machines are often mostrous.

At the cost of other skills, obviously.

Look at a man of letters.

He's polishing this sentence -

''l'll eat these stones off the wall.

While chewing, the shards will mix
with my teeth into a single taste''.

The man of letter's trained
system detects mess,

or energy wasting in the brain.

lmmediately, it strives at simplification. . .

''l Eat Stones. They Are
the Taste of Teeth'' .

Perfect: not more, not less.

Those insensitive to literature will not
sense the pleasant melody of this phrase:

''l Eat Stones. They Are
the Taste of Teeth''.

But as a biologist, l have a question:

How come people engage in things
as refined as modern art?

Or, one thing hanged
on another, wood slats,

face obliteration,

nudity, and these fu. . . freaking neons.

Some sort of evolutionary
fitness for brains?

Oh, and secretions.

- What do you do at work?

- lt's boring, nothing of your interest.

Mostly writing applications for grants.

- Yes, but l mean a more
creative part of work

of a molecular biologist.

They say that you research the space.

Come on, let's not spoil the interview.

- Please, at least try to answer.

As if l were a six-year-old.

- What l do is, l keep zooming in

on the pixels looking for new things, and

at one point l can't go any further, because

the photon wave is bigger than the image

l see and it doesn't
reflect back into my eye.

Then we have to resort to other methods.

- Which means?

- lndirect detection
of the smallest particles

is like when a criminologist
examines a staircase.

We're observing the walls of the detectors

after a hit and we try

to understand what happened.

You'd be suprised by how much you can learn

on the basis of these ''splashes''.

- Alright, one last question.

ln the October issue of the
''Science World'', you suggested that

the machines will completly
eclipse us in thinking.

That's now how l put it and l have no
idea what the future will bring us.

- Ar the end, why don't we

boldly predict the future?

For life in general.

- l don't know whether you
realize how much l risk

by doing something like
that on live television.

- No one's going to criticize us for it.

- This is for our archives.

- lt's silly.

- This interview
will be played in a 1 00 years

at your funeral and we'll
see how wrong you were

- Beginning now?

- Yes, today.

- Starting from today.

l don't know.

Your brain's now working on the
verge of transfer. Mine as well.

The fibers are so thin that a denser
cortex seems impossible.

Further condensation is
noise, epilepsy and static.

That is probably why the lnternet,
an excrescence on our brains, was created.

ln 201 5 we already have
several hundred satellites,

they let out balloons so that the network
covers the earth like a second atmosphere.

But let's go further.

l imagine that there
is no annihilation of humanity.

The planet gets quite crammed,

while electronic devices crawl
closer and closer to human heads.

Keyboards are redundant.
My son will not use them.

And there is a way out from
the century-long stagnation in physics,

these flying cars must
eventually come into existence.

Americans still prohibit
filming urban fountains -

as suspicious behavior, but fear
of terrorism gradually fades.

Longing for the old aesthetics increases...

which is why not much seems to be changing.

Electric fabrics enhance
the eruption of motley.

Youths are out of ideas for mixing styles.

They promote fashion for
identical uniforms for everyone.

And total obedience.

Nobody cares for terrorists.

Quality of life improves. Even along
the equator, physical suffering declines.

The Otis Group is the first
to copy a minute

of dog's brain activity
onto a data carrier.

Then it runs a clone
on a virtual machine.

We slowly enter the era
of mind backup.

A mere several decades later,

in the western wing of the headquarters,

that data is successfully uploaded
onto the brain of a volunteer.

For the first time,
if only for a few seconds,

a human experiences directly
what's going on in a dog's head.

And does not forget after being unplugged.

lt is easier from here to form
a human-human interface.

Sugar is the first to volunteer.

Brain activity is turned into a program.

lt can be put onto various data carriers.

Two hundred minds can be run
simultaneously on bred networks.

Of course there are glitches
from simplifications,

but after Sugar's death his
consciousness lives on...

in many copies, called instances.

Serious ethical problems arise.

Conservatives want to stop that,

while in the meantime tissue
hardware proliferates.

The biggest controversy since the artificial
womb problem seems imminent.

A platform that allows to add
and remove instances is created.

According to needs.

The Connectome runs ceaselessly.

No, it does not turn against humanity.
lt just needs cooling all over.

lt must be the most influential
phenomenon since the lnternet.

At first, the Connectome is used to resolve
genetic problems and develop new physics.

But commercial applications
of the Connectiome appear soon.

lt's only a few decades later that
they manage to link the Connectome

with the old lnternet which has been
treated like air for a long time now.

Most people breathe information.

Memory is no longer necessary.

Even chewing gum is connected
to the network,

not to mention paper.

The brain gets a bit smaller,
but people don't get dumber.

The body is as if less necessary.
Age is prolonged to nonsensical limits.

The world record is held by Ahdol Unero.

His body keeps up the extended brain
tissue for over three hundred years.

Which it feels like
a thousand on the inside.

Once in a while a safety
copy is made, a mind-save.

Emulation can be stopped and resumed,

which will theoretically
prolong life in infinity.

Can you combine minds?

You can.

That's how the issue of sexual
reproduction gradually disappears.

What's going on in politics?

The progressive encourage
the elderly to use emulation.

Some countries experiment with politics
and economy controlled by fast processors.

Not people.

Both governments and citizens
come off quite well with this.

Whereas conservative parties
focus too much on the past,

preoccupied above all with the increasing
dissolution of national borders.

The number of force conflicts decreases.

Army aircrafts are remodeled
into autonomous weapons.

The profession of pilot is now a thing
of the past. The same goes for troops.

Protest still serves to regulate
the speed of progress. As always.

There really is a problem.

The unemployed go crazy en masse.

Suicides among animals
are harder to explain.

No wonder, if cities clean themselves up.

Nearly everything happens by itself.

A few hundred years go by.

What's up in architecture?

The gaudy motley is in retreat.

Finally.

The duture is easy to discuss
in the context of a glamorous metropolis.

What's with the countryside?

ln Poland, for instance?

Gierczyce eight hundred years later...

Even though the pollution and salt
water problems have been solved,

there's recurrent concern
for energy resources.

Everything eats them up.

Only work in a simulated environment
uses less material resources.

Many spheres of life are transferred
entirely into the Connectome.

World population, traditionally
understood, starts to slowly decrease.

Not because there's not enough people.

Corporeality is no longer
energetically profitable.

Humanity simply changes its
state of matter into a more frugal one.

Almost everything happens inside
the Connectome. Whole lives.

A huge part of the Connectome
focuses on automaton production.

lt's a new industrial revolution of sorts.
This goes on for a few hundred years.

Automatons build more server-buildings.

The Connectome learns in a way
beyond reason, because. . .

here's some national symbols and BlC razors?

Our intellectual advantage is lost.

Automatons do alright in the outside world.

But this world is now almost inaccessible
for the bodily human.

Only the toughest stay there, their
children, and some fortified plants.

Bodily persons follow the fate of aborigines
from a few thousand years before.

This disturbing thing is application fog.

lt helps control the weather
and facilitates many other dispersed tasks.

Local temperatures are
regulated in accordance

with the calculation centers' needs.

Subsequent inventions result
simply from life's inert tendency

towards a possibly optimum
information transfer.

Are there any conflicts at all?

There are.

They involve competing for energy
resources for your own network.

The usual thing, basically.

Connectome area A0232 is
the first to create an apparatus

to draw energy directly from the Sun.

These are, among others,
Dyson rings, ridiculed in 201 4.

The patent is sold to other networks,

exchanged for access
to their energy sources.

Even the outdated ones.

Every single photon starts to count.

Space travel is mainly base
transceiver station installation.

But even the largest transports
are launched with no witness by now.

lndividual bodies don't
exist for some time now.

What counts is activity
patterns in the network.

See, this is civilization 2.0.

The Connectom takes the energy
for it from nearby stars.

ls there space in it
for less practical things,

equivalents of music
or sense of humor?

That's hard to guess.

The old world looks extremely functional.

No need for colors,
as there are no eyes.

Server facilities are placed
in an extremely efficient way.

To us, that's a sorry sight, but we only
see the outside effect of these actions.

Because what happens inside these networks
is inconceivable for a single brain.

No use in trying.

What's next?

There are mistakes, of course.

lt happens for whole planets to get
covered in something like paper clips,

as the local network made
faulty nanomachines.

Perhaps this is a form of sense of humor.

Well, and then it's a nightmare
of a schizophreniac.

Civilization 3.0.

Stations for energy intake from galaxies

are distributed onto large
areas of the cosmos.

No aerials or fiberoptics.

There's less and less
matter in general.

lt's starting to ressemble a thoughtful
vacuum of an increasingly less random flux.

lt can be suspected that...

it is a ''recreational'' activity
of the network to simulate the old times.

Life on Earth, for instance.

Just as we would once frisk through atoms,

here it's dimensions that
are frisked through.

The old Sun and its surroundings have long
died out, sucked out of any photon remains.

The thing is grabbing
increasingly larger areas.

l don't know, l can also try to show it

as perfectly distributed
points of transmission...

New vacuum trembles incomprehensibly.

l don't know what's next.