All language subtitles for Next World - 01x01 - Future Life on Earth.DVDRip.English.HI.orig

NARRATOR : ln the future,
we will fly over traffic. . .

live to 150. . .

and travel the world
at the touch of a button.

Technology is pushing
from every direction,

getting faster
with each passing second.

Prepare yourself.

The future is closer
than you think.

As future cities grow,

so do the dangers
of climate change.

More than half of the population
are living in cities worldwide,

and that is forecast
to go up to as much as 75 %

over the next 30 years.

NARRATOR : 8 of the 10
largest cities in the world

are located on the coastline,

and nearly half
of the entire world's population

lives within 90 miles
of the sea.

JOACHlM : l n the current
world crisis that we're in,

especially climate change,

we need to rethink cities
from scratch.

NARRATOR : But what if
we could build cities

that ride the rising tides?

OLTHUlS: So,
we have to find new solutions.

Not fighting against the water,
but living with the water.

The house you see
is a floating house.

This house can go up and down
with the water.

NARRATOR : But homes like this
are just the beginning.

Koen Olthuis wants to build
entire cities that float

using building blocks
of foam slabs

encased in a concrete shell.

Putting them together,

he can create platforms
as large as 400, 000 square feet.

That's the size
of two city blocks.

OLTHUlS: That gives us
a lot of very stable,

large-scale foundations

on which you can do
almost anything.

You can build towers on it,
apartments, put trees on it.

We're really floating right now.
lt feels really stable.

NARRATOR :
Floating homes will combine

into floating neighborhoods,

which can detach and float to
a new area whenever they like.

OLTHUlS: Floating roads,
floating car parks,

floating airports.

NARRATOR : Koen's architecture
firm, aptly named Waterstudio,

plans to build whole sections
of movable cities.

OLTHUlS: Built in one place,
and after 10 years,

maybe relocated
to another part of the city.

NARRATOR : l n fact, whole cities
can decide to weigh anchor

and drift off in search
of more appealing climates.

This is really gonna happen.

NARRATOR : Even existing cities
will find ways

to escape
the limitations of land.

l nstead of merely
scraping the sky,

we'll be building
entire avenues in it,

suspending massive structures
in the air.

The first glimmer
of what that might look like

is the Chinese television tower
CCTV in Beijing,

arguably the world's
most audacious building.

SCHEEREN : l n many ways, the
design is an anti-skyscraper.

lt really proclaimed
very clearly

not to follow
the race for height,

to dominate the skyline
by being the tallest.

NARRATOR :
At over 4 million square feet,

the CCTV building will be

the largest office building
in the world,

pushing the Pentagon
to number two.

SCHEEREN : The building will
house 1 0, 000 permanent staff

and receive several thousand
visitors daily,

which really makes it a building
at the scale of a small city.

NARRATOR :
The CCTV building is big,

but big was never the point.

The point was to create
vast areas of usable space

that do not take up space
on the ground.

But this is not simply
a sky bridge.

lt is an 1 1 -story building
hanging 500 feet in the air.

SCHEEREN : Here you can see
the overhang of the building,

a cantilever
that projects out 7 4 meters

and 1 62 meters height
with up to 1 1 stories on top.

NARRATOR : Two main towers
lean 1 0 degrees on a diagonal.

During early construction,

Chinese officials called it
''the dangerous building. ''

SCHEEREN : There was,
indeed, great concerns

at the beginning
of this project --

kind of public disbelief
if a building like that

could really stand up.

lt stands on two big raft slabs,
two concrete footings

that, in themselves,
are anchored by 1 , 400 piles

that go 33 meters
into the ground.

Maybe one of the most
important contributions

that the building could make
is to go a lot further

and to imagine new possibilities
for people to inhabit space.

NARRATOR :
Buildings suspended in the sky

are an intelligent use
of future real estate.

But in the future,
every square inch of every city

will be alive with intelligence.

Because every street
and every building will have

a network of microcomputers
built right into them.

Dr. Kris Pister
calls it ''smart dust. ''

PlSTER :
A smart dust particle, or mote,

is a wireless sensor
with sensing computation,

communication, and power
in one package.

NARRATOR : These all-in-one
microcomputers will be small --

very small.

PlSTER :
The size of a mote today

is about the size
of a grain of rice.

We've shown that we can make
the circuitries

small enough and light enough

that, eventually, it will be
possible to make things

that are
on a submillimeter-size scale.

NARRATOR : Tiny specks
of computer smart dust will form

a vast invisible network
that can help manage

the infrastructure
of even the largest city.

PlSTER :
Smart cities in the future

will take this low-power,
inexpensive, small technology

and basically
distribute it everywhere.

NARRATOR : These tiny computers
record information

about their surroundings,

information they can send
to other computers or to you.

Smart dust on the tracks
will monitor your commuter train

so you know
if it's running late.

Potholes will be able to report
themselves and warn your car.

And you'll never have to wait

for a radio traffic report
again.

PlSTER : They're monitoring
the flow of traffic

and giving you alerts about what
route is the right way to go

to keep the traffic moving.

NARRATOR : Bridges will get a
coating of smart dust particles

that can warn us when
they detect stress fractures,

helping avoid deadly collapses.

But smart dust will also allow
buildings and streets

to recognize you
and respond accordingly.

jOURET: l think increasingly
the environment will respond

to who we are
and adapt in consequence.

The city will know where you are
if you want it to.

NARRATOR :
Your workplace will know you.

Smart dust at the entrance
will boot up your computer.

And smart dust embedded
in the elevator doors

will automatically
ring your floor.

Smart dust is going to sense
the environment and allow us

to improve the way
that we live our lives.

NARRATOR : No matter how we live
in the future city,

it will be radically different.

And once you leave
the future city,

the road you take
may not be a road at all.

HANCHETTE: One day,
you'll simply be able to get

into your personal aircraft
and push a button,

and the airplane will do
everything on its own.

NARRATOR :
There are approximately

600 million vehicles

on the planet today.

By 2020,
it's estimated there will be

1 . 2 billion automobiles
on the road,

leading to a traffic nightmare.

[ Horns honking ]

But the coming decades
promise entirely new ways

of getting from ''A'' to ''B. ''

The advances in civilization
has always come about

with advances
in the way we can travel.

NARRATOR : Where we're going,
we don't need roads.

lt's every kid's dream
to be able to fly,

have no constraints,

and be completely free
to fly through the air.

NARRATOR :
And let's admit it.

lt's also the dream
of most grown-ups.

Eric Strauss and Troy Widgery
would like to introduce you

to the 2 1 st-century jetpack.

SCOTT: The feeling
of flying this machine,

it's like jumping off the ground

and not having to
come back down.

l n the future, l could see
people buying jetpacks

to commute back and forth to
work 'cause it is much easier.

You don't have to worry
about traffic,

and you can fly directly
from work to your yard,

almost like
you had a helicopter.

NARRATOR :
Today even a 20-mile commute

into Atlanta or New York City

could take up to an hour.

But you could fly it
in five minutes.

Fly as the crow flies,
so to speak.

30 years from now,

as power plants evolve
and technology evolves,

it could be possible
to fly a jetpack

for 1 0 minutes, 20 minutes.

A 22-minute flight
would be a 65-mile flight.

NARRATOR : Tomorrow's jetpacks
could be fueled

at a local filling station.

And what they lack in luxury,

they will deliver in speed,
convenience, and future fun.

l n 30 years, you could probably
get one for 50, 60 grand,

like you'd pick up a Hummer
or a Mercedes for.

And it'd be a lot cooler way
to get to work, for sure.

NARRATOR : But for those times
when you need to get

a little farther
a little faster,

you'll probably want to fly
your own automated jet.

The future of flight to me

is being able to fly
on my schedule,

utilizing
state-of-the-art technologies

in first-class comfort,

and doing it
at 500 miles an hour.

This is the future --

making aircraft stronger,
lighter, and faster,

like this aircraft.

NARRATOR : The next generation
of personal jets,

like the Viper Fanjet,

will be able to fly you
from point ''A'' to point ''B''

in comfort and style.

ltalian leather,
Brazilian burl wood,

full, integrated flight system,
autopilot.

All the things that you might
expect on a corporate jet,

the Viper Fanjet has.

NARRATOR :
Except the operating costs.

Your average corporate jet

chugs over 400 gallons of fuel
per hour in the air.

Thanks to its state-of-the-art
carbon-fiber frame,

the Viper sips
only 55 gallons per hour.

And while a corporate jet will
set you back around $20 million,

you'll be able to get your very
own Viper Fanjet assembly kit

for a mere 400 grand.

But best of all, you won't
have to pay for a pilot.

Because in the future,
we'll be flying ourselves.

One day you'll simply be able to
get into your personal aircraft

and push a button
where the coordinates

of your next destination
will be preprogrammed,

and the airplane
will do everything on its own.

NARRATOR : Someday you'll be able
to go out to your home hangar,

pull out your airplane,
jump in, and go.

No more canceled flights
or long waits

for overpriced
and underserved seats.

But how will it be possible
for everyone to share the sky

without causing

a far more deadly version
of a fender bender?

You've already got
a highway in the sky.

NARRATOR :
That's right.

The engineers
at Boeing's Phantom Works

are building
a highway in the sky.

We are working on technologies
that will enable anybody

to be able to fly these vehicles
in a safe manner

with minimal or possibly even
no training at all.

NARRATOR : Boeing is developing
a system that will create

flexible and trackable
preprogrammed routes

that will allow aircraft to take
off, fly, and land themselves.

jONES: lt's really this tube
in the sky.

The paths would be generated
on the fly

based on your takeoff
and landing locations.

lt's like
a roller-coaster track.

lt allows you to understand

and know what the vehicle's
going to do before it happens.

NARRATOR : The system depends
on building intelligence

into our future air vehicles.

These vehicles know where they
are, know where the weather is,

know what is available
for takeoff and landing,

and that allows a vehicle
to be fully autonomous

and get to your destination
exactly where you want to go.

NARRATOR : Future aircraft
will talk among themselves,

automatically keeping
out of each other's way

no matter how thick the traffic,

and doing it far more safely
than any human could.

Flying every day, it will be
a common thing for everybody.

NARRATOR :
And not just flying in the air.

We'll also be flying underwater.

HAWKES:
This is an ocean planet,

and no one seems
to have figured that out.

We need the freedom of flight
in this place

every bit as badly
as we needed it in the air.

NARRATOR : Graham Hawkes
thinks our future lies

beneath the waves,

so he's working on perfecting

one of the world's most advanced
submersible crafts --

the Deep Flight Super Falcon.

HAWKES: lt's been built
for human comfort, human safety,

to be the highest performance
in underwater flight.

lf you want to go and do
barrel rolls with the whales,

that's gonna be the machine
to go do it with.

NARRATOR : Graham sees a future
where people move underwater

as easily
as they take to the highways.

HAWKES:
l magine a world where it begins

to seep into
the public consciousness

that this is actually
an ocean planet.

NARRATOR :
The current two-seater Falcon

flies at a moderate speed
of 1 0 miles per hour,

though future models
will go faster.

l magine how much more fun
it would be

to zip over
to the Bahamas underwater,

stopping off along the way

to check out
a sunken treasure or two.

HAWKES: The Super Falcon, we
think, will change everything.

We can train somebody to fly
underwater in about three days.

lt is such a sexy,
gorgeous machine.

lt's hard to look at that

and not want to take a ride
in that machine.

NARRATOR : We won't always need
personal vehicles

that can venture out
into or under the oceans.

Sometimes you wish
you could drive

over a river or through a lake.

But that only happens
in the movies, right?

We just decided to put
this fiction into reality

and make a car actually dive.

NARRATOR : Frank Rinderknecht's
latest concept car

is everything you'd expect
from a futuristic vehicle --

fast, stylish, and -- with
zero emissions -- eco-friendly.

At the touch of a button,
it can even drive itself.

But that's not why they call it
the sQuba car.

Strap on your seat belts.

lt doesn't just ride
on the water.

lt goes under it.

We are the first guys
to build a car which can dive.

Probably the most
astonishing fact

is that we dive in the open,

which means that people get wet,

that the whole compartment
is flooded.

NARRATOR :
l n diving mode,

the car provides its passengers
with oxygen masks

attached to an integrated tank
of compressed air,

much like the ones
scuba divers use.

Today, the sQuba's
underwater speed tops out

at around 2 miles per hour.

RlNDERKNECHT: We have
two propellers in the back

and two water jet engines
in the front

to really get it moving.

NARRATOR :
The squba can stay underwater

for up to three hours,

which should be enough
to get you across

any river or lake that happens
to lie in your path.

Whether we fly through the air
or under the water,

once we leave
the crowded roads of today,

getting there will definitely be
twice the fun.

But if all you care about
is getting there,

the future holds other options,

like being someplace
without having to go there.

Transported presence
is the next big thing.

Ultimately, it'll erase the
distance that exists between us,

the ability to connect
to anybody across the globe

in a heartbeat.

NARRATOR : l n the future,
you'll be able to be someplace

without having to physically
go there

because new technologies
are ushering in

an age of transported presence,

the ability
to experience a place

right from where you're sitting.

You'll be able to watch
where you're going -- literally.

JONES: We're the last generation
that will ever be lost,

ever be confused about where
things are or how to get there.

NARRATOR : The people
who have already organized

most of the world's information

are building the ultimate
interactive map of the future,

a 360-degree panoramic view
of every spot on the planet,

complete with information
about that spot,

all accessible
on your computer screen.

We think of them
as geo browsers.

NARRATOR : As a geo browser,
you'll have the option

of surfing the l nternet
geographically.

Phase one is already under way.

JONES: We extended
the capabilities of Google maps

to have something called
''street view, ''

which is the picture that you
would see standing in a street.

NARRATOR : lt won't just be
a pretty picture,

but an interactive experience

with all the l nternet's
information

about any particular location
embedded right on the picture.

JONES: lf you see a store,
you'll know what they sell.

lf you want to find a club,
you'll know where the clubs are.

Everything will be connected.

NARRATOR :
Street view promises

a ground-level,
three-dimensional view

of every road on Earth.

How are they doing that?

By mounting
special omnidirectional cameras

on top of cars --

lots of cars.

But their vision extends
far beyond the street corners.

ln the future,

this ultimate map will be
able to take you everywhere

because everywhere
will be captured on video.

There'll be underwater cameras,
cameras in space.

NARRATOR :
You'll be able to check out

a new city you're moving to,

or confirm the ocean view
on your beach rental.

But you won't just be able
to look at far-off places.

You'll project
your presence there.

jOURET:
We don't have to travel.

We don't have to commute
for us to do our work.

We can do that
pretty much anywhere.

HOOSH MAND:
Hey, how are you?

Did you check out
the june 12th conflict?

l've been working with Cisco
for almost five years now.

NARRATOR : Margaret likes her job
as an executive assistant

in San Jose.

The only problem?

She lives
a good 1 ,700 miles away. . .

in Texas.

HOOSH MAND: l lived in California
for 10 years,

and the cost of living
was really high.

So l decided to move out here.

NARRATOR : But she doesn't
complain about her commute.

Because to get to her office,

all Margaret has to do
is press a button.

Marthin De Beer's office.
This is Margaret.

Actually, he's coming down
the hallway right now.

Can you hold on a second?

Hey, Marthin.
lt's your wife on the phone.

Okay, thanks.

l come in, and l push a button
in here in the Dallas office,

and l pop on a screen there
in San Jose at my old desk.

DE BEER : This new concept
of transported presence

is the next big thing
that we're gonna see

over the next 10 to 20 years
evolve.

With transported presence,

we get to communicate naturally
without having to go there.

So, uh, what does tomorrow
look like?

Really crowded.

The video quality
and the audio quality is so good

that you really feel like
you're in the same room.

HOOSH MAND:
l don't feel like l'm missing

any of the human interaction
at all.

l definitely
have lots of friends

that are at the Cisco office.

l see them every day.

We chat, and, once a week,
we get together

and make sure we have coffee.

DE BEER : You know,
l think she's a pioneer

for how the workplace might look
in the future.

NARRATOR :
Future business travelers

won't need to burn fuel and time

by jetting to Barcelona
for a meeting.

just send your presence.

DE BEER : l can be in
seven countries in a single day.

ln the last year,
l traveled two-thirds less,

and l spent twice the amount
of time that l used to at home.

l expect to lose
my platinum status

on my favorite airline
this year.

Telepresence will be changing
all of our lives

because it will allow us

to connect to anybody
across the globe

in a heartbeat.

Distance won't be a barrier
any longer

to getting
the best quality medical care.

[ Heart beating ]

Hi, l'm Josh Reviz.
l'm here to see Dr. Hemel.

Hello, Josh.
Welcome to lstanbul.

HSlEH :
With these health presence pods,

you can just go
to the closest available pod,

which, hopefully,
would be down the hall

or in your office building
or in your town or village.

One moment while l call up
your medical records.

You go to this kiosk,

and there's
a medical assistant there.

Your doctor will be there,
and he'll say,

''Hey, how are you feeling?
What's wrong?''

Good to see you again.

What's going on?

Well [sighs]
l've got chest pain,

and l'm a little
freaked out.

Let's get an EKG.

HSlEH : They can take
a connected device,

like a blood-pressure cuff
or a heart-rate monitor,

and hook it up to you.

So, they can basically do

just about everything
that they could do in person.

l see some widespread changes
on your EKG.

HSlEH : They'll be able to meet
with the specialist

no matter where they are
in the world

to get
the best possible diagnostics

and the best possible treatment.

Josh, l've called in
a cardiologist, Dr. Hudson,

to take a look at your results.

Okay.

l'm looking at your EKG,
and l'd like to run a scan.

HSl EH :
lt reads all your vitals.

lt does some kind
of matching in the network

to figure out
what disease you might have,

and that information is actually
transmitted to a doctor

on the other end
of the telepresence connection.

Josh, you have pericarditis, an
inflammation around the heart.

For this,
l'm gonna prescribe

some anti-inflammatory
medications.

Okay, how, uh, long
will that take?

Why don't you check back
with Dr. Hemel in two days?

You should be feeling
much better by then.

Oh, that's great.
Thank you so much.

HSlEH :
So, it's a pretty exciting way

to extend healthcare
to far corners of the Earth

and to areas where getting
quality medical care

is just not as easy.

Josh, remember --
check back in two days.

Will do.

DE BEER : This is going to happen
in our lifetime.

l n fact, l'm convinced it will
happen within the next 10 years.

NARRATOR : And transporting
your presence onto flat screens

is just the beginning.

DE BEER : Very close
to be able to transport

a full three-dimensional image

and, therefore,
presence of you or any object

and render it on the other side

in full 3-D,
high-definition color.

lt will change everything.

NARRATOR : With fewer of us
jetting around the world,

telepresence will greatly reduce
our reliance on fossil fuels.

But what about our planet's
other natural resources?

With the Earth's population
steadily rising,

how will the planet
be able to sustain us all?

ln the future,
we will need more of everything.

Will there be enough?

With new technologies,

we may be on the edge
of an era of great abundance.

KURZWElL:
l believe within 25 years,

the common denominator will be
a very high standard of living.

We'll be able to create all
the physical products we need,

even for an expanded
biological population,

at very, very low cost.

NARRATOR :
What if the future was so smart,

we never ran out
of the things we needed?

What if the price of gas
hardly mattered?

What if we were
our own energy source?

We are going to have
substantially greater population

in our urban areas
in the future.

lf we can all contribute
our kinetic energy

to generate
the electricity we consume,

why not?
[ Chuckles ]

PowerLeap is a flooring system

that generates electricity
from human foot traffic.

NARRATOR : Future sidewalks might
be covered with smart panels

that capture piezoelectricity --

power generated from
applied mechanical pressure.

REDMOND: So, when you step down,
you're stimulating

the piezoelectric plate
that generates charge

to be output to the battery
to harvest it,

to export it
for electrical production.

NARRATOR : By placing
piezoelectric pads like this one

in high-traffic spots,

electricity can be harvested

and then stored
right where it's used.

REDMOND:
So, the more local your energy,

the more efficient
the distribution model can be.

Store the power that's created
and use it for exit signs,

for elevators,

for all sorts of things
in our public infrastructure

that consume
small amounts of power.

NARRATOR : A person walking
at a moderate speed for an hour

can only produce
about 50 watts of electricity.

But multiply that person
by thousands,

and it starts to add up.

REDMOND:
As this technology develops,

we will be able to place this

into every single
airport terminal,

every railway station,

every large-city intersection,

on every sidewalk.

This could really be enough
to power

all of the streetlights
in a city.

We'll be able to generate
a whole lot of power.

NARRATOR : Great inventors
can't help themselves.

They're problem solvers.

And with advanced technology
will come advanced solutions.

KAMEN :
To me, technology is a tool.

You figure out
what human problems exist,

and if there's a technology
that can be applied

to a great human problem,
you set about making it happen.

NARRATOR : just as power
will be generated locally,

so will clean water.

At least this is the vision of
legendary inventor Dean Kamen.

Today, more than a billion
people have a crisis every day

trying to find
clean water to drink.

We're all gonna have to
deal with the fact

that water is not free.

lt's not infinite
in its availability.

ln 30 years,
a gallon of clean water

will cost more
than a gallon of oil.

NARRATOR : l n fact, only 3%
of all the water on Earth

is freshwater.

So, in the future,
it may be water, not oil,

that will drag nations
into war. . .

unless someone is smart enough
to turn something polluted

into something pure.

Our goal was to create
a small, portable machine

that could be placed anywhere,
and, at point of use,

create clean, reliable
drinking water from any source.

NARRATOR : Dean Kamen believes
he can turn anything wet

into drinkable water --
anything --

ocean water, sludge,
even sewage --

using a device
he calls the SlingShot.

KAMEN : A simple box
with two hoses on it --

one that goes into
anything that looks wet,

out of the other one comes
pure drinking water that's safe.

Water goes into the SlingShot,
where it gets literally boiled

to the point
that it not just boils

as you watch it on a stove,

it turns completely into vapor,
into steam.

NARRATOR : Recondense that steam,
and you get pure distilled water

no matter how polluted
the source water was.

KAMEN : lf the water coming in
has metals

or other kinds
of inorganic toxins in it,

they don't vaporize.

NARRATOR :
Until now, no one's been able

to create this effect
in a portable machine

because of the vast amount
of energy

the distillation process takes.

The secret of the SlingShot

is that it uses
a closed loop of energy.

Once the first batch of water
is vaporized and recondensed,

all that energy is preserved in
a sealed heat-exchange system.

The result?

A machine that runs on
less power than a toaster oven

and about 2% of the power

required by other
water-purifying systems.

We can take any bad water
and turn it into pure water,

and we can do it
with a machine this size

and an amount of electricity

that runs
half of a handheld hair dryer.

And that's a big deal.

NARRATOR : And each will be
manufactured for under $2,000.

This machine was designed

to make 1 ,000 liters
of water a day,

enough for a village
of 100 people.

NARRATOR : 5,000 children
die every day from dirty water.

Dean Kamen sees a future where
that number is ancient history.

l n 30 years, the world
will hopefully have access

to more reasonable
and more secure ways

to give everybody those
basic needs of water and power.

NARRATOR : But man cannot live
on water and power alone.

Feeding the crowded cities
of the future

will take more farmland
than currently exists.

But in the future,

farms will be cropping up
in the unlikeliest places.

DESPOMMlER : Why don't we grow
our food someplace else?

Why don't we grow food
inside buildings?

We're good at making buildings.

NARRATOR : Dickson Despommier
thinks the key

to a more abundant future

is growing the food
where the people are.

He thinks skyscrapers
are the farms of the future.

DESPOMMlER :
Why can't we just grow our food

in vertical greenhouses

and raise most
of the consumable crops

that you and l would buy
at a local grocer?

ZABAR :
We're on East g 1 st Street

in the middle of Manhattan,
New York City.

And it is a farm.
lt's a rooftop farm.

DESPOMMlER : 80% of the things
that you can grow in the soil,

you can grow
inside of urban centers.

That's my dream is to see
cities behave that way.

lf you could construct
a building

that was 30 stories in height

and perhaps one square New York
City block in footprint,

you could continuously
produce enough food

to feed at least 50, 000 people
comfortably per year.

NARRATOR :
The math is simple.

Using Despommier's calculations,
it would take 165 sky farms,

only 165 buildings spread
throughout its five boroughs,

to continuously feed
New York City.

There are huge advantages
to feeding people

who live in the city
from the city.

There is virtually no crop
that can't be grown inside.

NARRATOR :
While we can look forward

to a future of abundance,

we also face a future
that's vulnerable.

You can think of the Earth
as flying around the sun

inside a giant shooting gallery

of hundreds of thousands
of rocks like this,

that if they struck the Earth
would wipe out civilization.

We better either do something
now, or it's gonna be too late.

NARRATOR :
We spend a lot of time today

worrying about the potential
dangers of climate change.

But the biggest threat
to our planet's future

may not be carbon emissions.

Consider what happened
to the last species

that ruled the Earth.

An asteroid hit the Earth,
killed everything

within a few thousand miles
in the initial impact,

and over the next few hours,

the Earth's atmosphere heated up
to hundreds of degrees,

which ignited
everything on Earth.

So, anything that lived
through that fire storm

then starved to death.

A bad day.

NARRATOR : There's no reason
why it couldn't happen again.

l n fact, there's a 10% chance
of another major asteroid strike

in the next 100 years.

This is not something
that's in dispute by anybody.

NARRATOR : Ed Lu knows
what he's talking about.

He had to in his last job

as an astronaut aboard
the lnternational Space Station.

The prospect of being hit
by something from space

is actually something you
have to think about every day

on the space station.

l used to see asteroids hitting
the Earth all the time at night.

NARRATOR : Asteroids are simply
rocks hurtling through space,

ranging from tiny pebbles
to mountain-sized mega-boulders.

The one 65 million years ago

that killed off
all the dinosaurs

was between
5 and 10 miles across.

NARRATOR :
A relatively small asteroid,

say 1 50 feet across,

could level everything within
770 square miles of the impact.

That's an entire city.

Right now, we know of perhaps

700 or so asteroids
that are larger than a kilometer

and a few thousand asteroids

that have the potential
of hitting the Earth.

NARRATOR :
ln the future,

we'll use larger,
more sophisticated telescopes

that can scan the skies,

tracking potential
planet killers

while they're still far away.

LU :
We're gonna discover

thousands and thousands
of asteroids

that have a chance
of hitting the Earth.

We'll be able to say,
''Yes, it's gonna hit the Earth, ''

or ''No, it's not. ''

lf the answer is yes,
then the question is --

What do you do about it?

NARRATOR : Ed has a plan
to intercept asteroids

with an unmanned spacecraft.

Using an ion-propulsion system,

the engines will generate enough
thrust to intercept an asteroid

years before it reaches Earth.

For most of these asteroids,

we actually expect to have
many decades of notice.

NARRATOR : Upon reaching
the rock, the robot spacecraft

will then attempt
to change the asteroid's path

by becoming
a gravitational tractor.

There's
a small gravitational pull

between the asteroid and
your spacecraft -- very tiny.

lf you stay there
for long enough,

that small, tiny force
will begin to pull the asteroid.

NARRATOR : The spacecraft
will maintain position

alongside the asteroid
using its thrusters,

and over weeks, months,
or even years,

its very presence will create a
tiny tug of gravity on the rock.

Even if the asteroid
is only shifted by inches,

that could make
a huge difference

in its long-term trajectory.

But if the asteroid is too large
for such a nuanced approach,

we could always do it
the hard way.

You can actually
take a larger spacecraft

and just run into the asteroid.

NARRATOR : Ed sees
surviving an asteroid hit

as the universe's
ultimate intelligence test.

lf there are other civilizations

that are advanced
in the universe,

they will have passed
this test, too.

Because if you don't,

you eventually get wiped out
like the dinosaurs.

We can go from this point

of being at the mercy
of the heavens

to controlling our own fate.

NARRATOR : Safeguarding against
the extraordinary effects

of an asteroid hitting the Earth

will take
extraordinary measures.

Direct impact would mean
instant death.

But beyond the point of impact,

the swell of fire storms might
wipe out crops everywhere,

subjecting humanity
to a slow starvation.

NARRATOR :
Science is giving us the tools

to avert catastrophes
of the future,

even to the point
where we'll reroute hurricanes.

We can actually change its path
or reduce its intensity.

NARRATOR : Everyone complains
about the weather,

but Dr. Ross Hoffman

of Atmospheric
Environmental Research

wants to do something about it.

And he's starting by tackling

one of nature's
most ferocious threats --

the hurricane.

Hurricanes are enormous,
complicated systems,

notoriously hard to predict,

with many variables contributing
to their path and ferocity.

HOFFMAN :
The winds, the temperature,

the humidity, the pressure --

the atmosphere is actually
governed by chaos.

NARRATOR :
But the same complexity

that makes them unpredictable

also holds
the promise of a solution.

By tweaking
one of the many variables

that contribute to hurricanes,

we might be able
to influence them.

l n our computer models, when
we try to modify hurricanes,

very small changes
at any particular point in time

can result in a very large
change further along in time.

NARRATOR : One of those variables
is temperature.

HOFFMAN :
We found that we could actually

change the intensity
of the hurricane

just by changing
the temperature.

NARRATOR : What if satellites
in orbit around the Earth

could channel the sun's energy
into a beam

and direct it to where
these hurricanes are forming?

We found that changes
of the order of a degree or so

were sufficient
to make large impacts

on the future path
or intensity of the hurricane.

NARRATOR : As future computer
models of weather get better,

Dr. Hoffman thinks
we may be able to apply

the technology
of temperature variation

to control
other weather patterns.

HOFFMAN :
For example, you might want

to not have snowfall
during rush hour.

We might want
to not have a rainy day

on the first day of school.

Or we might want
to have no clouds

for our 4th of july celebrations

so we can see the fireworks.

NARRATOR :
Before this century is over,

humanity will be able
to anticipate and avoid

the planet's
worst natural disasters,

saving millions of lives.

But we may also solve

an even more fundamental
human problem --

death itself.

Death is the great equalizer.

No one here gets out alive.

But new advances
in medical technology

promise to extend our lives.

Could we delay the inevitable?

DeGREY:
Aging is a bad thing.

lt's a fatal disease
that everybody has,

so, ultimately, it is
humanity's worst problem.

NARRATOR :
Don't let his looks fool you.

Aubrey DeGrey
is a Cambridge scholar

and a biomedical gerontologist
who believes we can fix aging

by treating it
as a simple engineering problem.

Keeping our bodies youthful,
however long we live,

is just a matter of maintenance.

When things break,
we can fix them.

NARRATOR : Dr. DeGrey heads up
the Methuselah Foundation,

which is offering the M prize --

$4.5 million --

to the research group
that can most successfully

extend the life span
of lab mice.

And labs around the world
are getting closer and closer

to claiming that prize.

We'll no longer
need to fear getting older

because we'll know
what's in store.

Each of us
is going to have a copy

of our own body's
instruction manual,

a detailed map of the genome

that lies within each
and every cell of our bodies.

That genetic revolution
is happening in lceland.

The importance of the sequence
of the DNA of an individual

only becomes meaningful
when you look at it

in the context of the DNA
of other individuals.

NARRATOR : Dr. Kari Stefansson
is on a quest

to unravel the secrets
of our genetic limitations

by decoding the DNA
of an entire nation.

There was a relatively small
group of people who came here,

and there has pretty much been
no immigration for 1 ,100 years.

lt is extraordinarily convenient
because we can study

everyone in lceland
with a particular disease.

We don't select
from a group of patients.

We just take them all.

NARRATOR : Dr. Stefansson
has already compiled

the genetic information
and medical records

of over 100,000 lcelanders. . .

in the subterranean vaults
here at deCODE Genetics.

STEFANSSON : We are looking
at the genomes of people

who are at particularly
high risk of disease

and compare that
with the genomes of people

who are at very little risk
of disease.

NARRATOR :
His goal?

To decode which parts of our DNA
are responsible for what

so that all of us can be smarter

about our own body's
medical future.

The fundamental premise

is that the more
you understand the risk,

the better you can
design methods

to prevent the risk
from becoming a disease.

l have very little genetic risk
of Alzheimer's disease.

l have relatively high risk
of prostate cancer.

l have relatively high risk
of type 2 diabetes.

l'm convinced
that a discovery of variations

in the sequence
of the human genome

is gonna be the foundation
of the development

of new preventive medicine.

NARRATOR :
Soon, we'll all be surfing

our entire genetic profiles

on a secure medical uplink.

People will have a profile
of their genome

in 5 to 10 years, just like
the blood groups today.

This is gonna help

a very large proportion
of the population

to lead a healthy,
productive life

and to become much, much older
than people usually are today.

NARRATOR : Already,
the mapping of the genome

has had some rather
interesting side effects,

like a pill
that might someday allow us

to double our life spans.

WESTPHAL: Now that the genome
has been sequenced,

l think we're finding
how various genes function.

ln the coming years and decades,

we will greatly be able
to extend life span.

NARRATOR :
Drs. Sinclair and Westphal

have not only found
a gene that increases life span,

but they've figured out
how to trigger it

using a particular molecule
that promises to fight aging

at the cellular level.

lt's called resveratrol.
lt's found in red wine.

Resveratrol has extended
the life span

of every organism we've tested.

And it's been tried
on worms and flies,

and they also live
about 30% to 40% longer.

Fish live 60% longer.

We can extend the life span
of mice by twofold.

lf we can do even a fraction
of that for humans and patients,

that's gonna be
an amazing future.

NARRATOR : Resveratrol works
by activating the Sl RT1 gene.

Sl RT1 controls the body's
emergency response systems.

When an organism is starving,

it signals the body's cells
to defend and repair themselves,

and the cells are rejuvenated.

What we've stumbled upon

is really the body's
natural defenses

against disease
and deterioration.

WESTPHAL: lf we understand
how we can intervene

and modulate the aging process,

l think that we have a way
of treating diseases of aging

in a new and safer way.

Sl NCLAl R :
What we want is a little pill

that you can take once a day

and be protected
against diseases

as different as diabetes
and cancer and heart disease.

NARRATOR : You'll be able
to combat the effects of aging

by popping a pill.

And it's gonna happen
within your lifetime,

which is about to get
a lot longer.

Everyone would like
a little more quality time.

There's no known reason

why we can't double
or even triple our life spans

in the coming decades.

NARRATOR :
lf the prophecies

of scientists like Aubrey DeGrey
come true,

we'll have more time
to enjoy all the benefits

that technology is bringing
to our collective future,

a world where we live in
smarter, eco-friendly cities

with new ways of getting
across town or across oceans

and new ways to visit
any place on Earth

without ever leaving home.

A world where we enjoy an
abundance of natural resources,

preserving the planet
for future generations.

No matter how long they live,

the next world is closer
than you think.