1
00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:20,400
(wind)

2
00:00:22,734 --> 00:00:25,233
SAGAN: We were
hunters and foragers.

3
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,800
The frontier was everywhere.

4
00:00:37,100 --> 00:00:42,000
We were bounded only by the
earth and the ocean and the sky.

5
00:00:49,533 --> 00:00:54,133
The open road still softly
calls like a nearly forgotten

6
00:00:54,266 --> 00:00:56,266
song of childhood.

7
00:00:57,233 --> 00:01:00,667
For all our failings,
despite our limitations and

8
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,767
fallibilities, we humans
are capable of greatness.

9
00:01:10,567 --> 00:01:14,533
How far will our nomadic
species have wandered by the

10
00:01:14,667 --> 00:01:17,200
end of the next century?

11
00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,800
And the next millennium?

12
00:01:41,233 --> 00:01:47,467
♪ ♪

13
00:01:49,033 --> 00:01:52,734
TYSON: Welcome back to the
shores of the cosmic ocean...

14
00:01:53,100 --> 00:01:55,066
An immensity of
space and time,

15
00:01:56,233 --> 00:01:58,700
a vastness still
mostly uncharted.

16
00:01:59,500 --> 00:02:03,200
We're bound for the possible
worlds revealed by science.

17
00:02:03,967 --> 00:02:07,400
We'll take a ride on the
underground worldwide network

18
00:02:07,533 --> 00:02:09,266
that no one knew was there.

19
00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:13,333
I'm going to tell you a first
contact story that's true.

20
00:02:16,333 --> 00:02:19,200
We'll meet some of
the most courageous
people who ever lived.

21
00:02:20,500 --> 00:02:25,367
And we're going to
venture into the
future we can still have,

22
00:02:25,900 --> 00:02:30,233
to the homes
of our distant
descendants among the starts.

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00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:34,100
Science can carry us
across that vastness.

24
00:02:34,233 --> 00:02:36,900
But without imagination,
we go nowhere.

25
00:02:39,133 --> 00:02:42,533
Our Ship of the Imagination
is propelled by twin engines

26
00:02:42,667 --> 00:02:44,867
of skepticism and wonder.

27
00:02:45,533 --> 00:02:49,667
It's guided by the simple set
of rules that define science

28
00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:51,133
and make it so powerful.

29
00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:54,233
(splash)

30
00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:57,834
Test ideas by
experiment and observation.

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00:02:57,967 --> 00:03:00,567
Build on those ideas
that pass the test.

32
00:03:01,266 --> 00:03:03,367
Reject the ones that fail.

33
00:03:03,500 --> 00:03:06,333
Follow the evidence
wherever it leads.

34
00:03:06,467 --> 00:03:08,600
and question everything.

35
00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:13,800
Take these rules to heart,
and the cosmos is yours.

36
00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:17,000
Come with me...

37
00:03:24,767 --> 00:03:30,567
(theme music plays).

38
00:03:50,033 --> 00:03:55,800
♪ ♪

39
00:04:14,967 --> 00:04:21,333
♪ ♪

40
00:04:40,700 --> 00:04:46,567
♪ ♪

41
00:04:48,633 --> 00:04:51,500
TYSON: Our Ship of the
Imagination can take us

42
00:04:51,633 --> 00:04:54,567
anywhere in space and time.

43
00:04:56,033 --> 00:04:59,133
The cosmos is right
outside our front window.

44
00:05:00,333 --> 00:05:03,600
If you want to see
the past, look down.

45
00:05:16,333 --> 00:05:19,400
And if you want
to see the future, look up.

46
00:05:33,066 --> 00:05:36,900
On this voyage, we are
bound for a distant galaxy.

47
00:05:38,967 --> 00:05:42,467
And we'll discover how
we as a species became

48
00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:44,800
explorers of the cosmos.

49
00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:47,934
There. There she is.

50
00:05:48,066 --> 00:05:50,200
NASA's Voyager 1.

51
00:05:50,333 --> 00:05:52,567
Launched in 1977,

52
00:05:52,700 --> 00:05:55,467
she is the most distant
object built by human hands.

53
00:05:56,867 --> 00:05:59,367
She's done some hard traveling
since our last encounter,

54
00:06:00,033 --> 00:06:02,333
logged another
billion and a half miles.

55
00:06:02,934 --> 00:06:06,266
Voyager's making for
other parts of our Milky Way,

56
00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:09,700
but we have another, far
more distant destination.

57
00:06:10,934 --> 00:06:14,166
The cosmic ocean is
made of space and time.

58
00:06:14,967 --> 00:06:18,000
You can't move in space
without also moving in time.

59
00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,834
Our voyage will take us
a long way from home,

60
00:06:22,166 --> 00:06:25,233
a little more than a
billion light-years.

61
00:06:25,367 --> 00:06:28,867
We're also traveling a
billion years into the past,

62
00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:32,333
to an event so violent it
will even shatter time.

63
00:06:43,834 --> 00:06:46,266
Now, we're getting
close to our destination.

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00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:48,700
This is what we came for.

65
00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:54,467
These two black holes were
born from the collapse of a

66
00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:57,400
pair of massive stars.

67
00:06:58,066 --> 00:07:00,567
And they've been doing a
gravitational tango ever since

68
00:07:00,967 --> 00:07:02,667
for millions of years.

69
00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:05,200
We're here for the climax.

70
00:07:05,467 --> 00:07:08,300
When those two collide,
they will set off a space-time

71
00:07:08,433 --> 00:07:10,800
tsunami that will
stretch and compress space

72
00:07:10,934 --> 00:07:12,467
in all directions.

73
00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:15,233
And it will slow
down time itself,

74
00:07:15,367 --> 00:07:17,934
before speeding it up
and slowing it down again.

75
00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:28,533
(distorted, echoes).

76
00:07:44,700 --> 00:07:47,900
Gravitational...

77
00:07:48,433 --> 00:07:51,300
and it will slow
down time itself...

78
00:07:52,867 --> 00:07:55,967
Set off a
space-time tsunami...

79
00:07:56,300 --> 00:07:59,333
Stretch and compress space
in all directions a billion

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00:07:59,467 --> 00:08:01,266
light-years away.

81
00:08:04,266 --> 00:08:07,633
(grunts and exhales).

82
00:08:09,900 --> 00:08:11,667
What does an event that
took place more than a billion

83
00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:14,967
light-years away
have to do with us?

84
00:08:15,467 --> 00:08:18,333
Albert Einstein was the first
to understand that matter

85
00:08:18,467 --> 00:08:21,133
could send ripples
across space-time.

86
00:08:21,500 --> 00:08:24,033
He imagined that catastrophic
explosions of matter should

87
00:08:24,166 --> 00:08:27,500
create something much bigger
than ripples, great waves,

88
00:08:28,500 --> 00:08:30,533
gravitational waves.

89
00:08:30,667 --> 00:08:33,500
You are seeing and
hearing me right now,

90
00:08:33,633 --> 00:08:36,867
on whatever device you have,
because we figured out a way

91
00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:39,967
to manipulate the
electromagnetic spectrum.

92
00:08:40,300 --> 00:08:42,667
If we can learn to surf
those gravitational waves the

93
00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:45,800
way we know how to ride
the electromagnetic ones,

94
00:08:45,934 --> 00:08:47,533
who knows?

95
00:08:47,667 --> 00:08:50,867
It's as impossible to foresee
as our world was to the

96
00:08:51,066 --> 00:08:53,467
scientists who experimented
with electricity back

97
00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:56,100
in the 19th century.

98
00:08:56,233 --> 00:08:59,100
Cosmologists predicted the
existence of black holes.

99
00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:03,567
Gravitational waves are the
first direct evidence that

100
00:09:03,700 --> 00:09:05,900
black holes are real.

101
00:09:06,033 --> 00:09:08,467
But they may also provide
a new way of knowing and

102
00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:10,300
exploring the cosmos.

103
00:09:10,433 --> 00:09:12,934
We can add it to the
other senses that science has

104
00:09:13,066 --> 00:09:16,600
devised to penetrate
the great dark ocean,

105
00:09:16,734 --> 00:09:19,667
all the kinds of
light we use; gamma ray,

106
00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:26,066
X-ray, ultraviolet,

107
00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:31,200
infrared, microwave,

108
00:09:32,700 --> 00:09:36,900
radio wave and visible light.

109
00:09:38,533 --> 00:09:41,667
This newest way to search the
cosmos could help us to one

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00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,233
day know what's happening
inside those black holes,

111
00:09:46,333 --> 00:09:48,533
and the other hidden
places that make up most

112
00:09:48,667 --> 00:09:50,633
of the universe.

113
00:09:50,767 --> 00:09:53,734
What if we could detect the
gravitational waves that were

114
00:09:53,867 --> 00:09:56,166
caused by the first
moment of creation,

115
00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,734
the birth of the cosmos?

116
00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:05,233
What if we could extend our
vision to see the whole sweep

117
00:10:05,367 --> 00:10:08,667
of 14 billion years
of cosmic evolution?

118
00:10:21,633 --> 00:10:24,233
So, how did we get so smart?

119
00:10:25,533 --> 00:10:28,600
We know something about the
evolution of our species,

120
00:10:28,734 --> 00:10:31,367
but how did the
human mind evolve?

121
00:10:32,567 --> 00:10:35,467
Where did that crazy ambition
to climb the ladder to the

122
00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:37,333
stars come from?

123
00:10:38,100 --> 00:10:42,633
How did we become a way for
the universe to know itself?

124
00:10:44,800 --> 00:10:47,633
It started over there.

125
00:10:53,867 --> 00:10:56,633
is a way for us to grasp theCr

126
00:10:56,767 --> 00:10:58,767
vastness of time.

127
00:10:58,900 --> 00:11:00,500
We've taken all of time,

128
00:11:00,633 --> 00:11:03,100
from the birth of the
universe to this very moment,

129
00:11:03,233 --> 00:11:06,233
and compressed it into
a single calendar year.

130
00:11:06,367 --> 00:11:08,767
On this scale, every
month represents a little

131
00:11:08,900 --> 00:11:10,967
more than a billion years.

132
00:11:11,100 --> 00:11:14,400
Every day represents
nearly 40 million years.

133
00:11:16,133 --> 00:11:19,033
Our own story begins
with all the other life on

134
00:11:19,166 --> 00:11:21,333
our little world.

135
00:11:21,467 --> 00:11:24,433
Every living thing on
Earth is descended from

136
00:11:24,567 --> 00:11:26,467
a single origin.

137
00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:30,400
It happened in the deep ocean
darkness on September 15,

138
00:11:30,533 --> 00:11:33,567
about four billion years ago.

139
00:11:34,567 --> 00:11:38,900
Within this tiny single-celled
organism was a kind of
chemical ladder,

140
00:11:40,033 --> 00:11:42,433
the DNA double helix.

141
00:11:44,467 --> 00:11:46,867
Star stuff...

142
00:11:47,233 --> 00:11:50,166
Oxygen, carbon, nitrogen...

143
00:11:50,300 --> 00:11:53,333
Elements cooked in the
hearts of distant stars,

144
00:11:53,467 --> 00:11:56,834
combined with hydrogen from
the Big Bang to become alive

145
00:11:56,967 --> 00:11:59,233
on this little world.

146
00:11:59,533 --> 00:12:02,934
Through random changes,
mutations in the genes,

147
00:12:03,066 --> 00:12:05,700
some of which led to
more successful life-forms,

148
00:12:05,834 --> 00:12:08,333
what we call evolution
by natural selection.

149
00:12:09,166 --> 00:12:13,834
The ladder grew,
adding more and more rungs.

150
00:12:15,433 --> 00:12:18,967
It took another three billion
years for life to evolve the

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00:12:19,100 --> 00:12:22,333
complexity of the plants and
animals that you could see

152
00:12:22,467 --> 00:12:24,633
with the naked eye.

153
00:12:30,834 --> 00:12:33,567
If the Cosmic
Calendar had holidays,

154
00:12:33,700 --> 00:12:36,600
surely December 26
would be one of them.

155
00:12:37,233 --> 00:12:40,467
Some time on this day,
about 200 million years ago,

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00:12:41,867 --> 00:12:44,166
the first mammals evolved.

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00:12:44,533 --> 00:12:46,867
They brought a new
feature to life on Earth:

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00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:49,467
the neocortex.

159
00:12:50,567 --> 00:12:52,166
Back in the Triassic,

160
00:12:52,300 --> 00:12:55,834
the odds were against her kind,
but the dinosaurs that

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00:12:55,967 --> 00:12:58,800
terrorized the
mammals went extinct.

162
00:12:59,934 --> 00:13:02,900
It was the evolution of
the neocortex in small,

163
00:13:03,033 --> 00:13:05,033
furtive creatures
such as this one,

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00:13:05,567 --> 00:13:09,233
that enabled their descendants
to take over the planet.

165
00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:13,033
Mammals brought
something else that was new.

166
00:13:13,333 --> 00:13:15,066
They suckled their young.

167
00:13:15,900 --> 00:13:17,800
They nurtured them.

168
00:13:17,934 --> 00:13:20,233
And there was love.

169
00:13:21,667 --> 00:13:24,867
Mother's Day on
the Cosmic Calendar.

170
00:13:28,100 --> 00:13:31,600
Evolution by natural selection
means that those living things

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00:13:31,734 --> 00:13:34,834
able to better adapt to their
environment are more likely to

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00:13:34,967 --> 00:13:37,333
survive and leave offspring.

173
00:13:38,066 --> 00:13:41,700
Intelligence can be a
huge selective advantage.

174
00:13:42,066 --> 00:13:45,867
The fate of this planet was
changed forever by an event

175
00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:48,500
involving just 13 atoms.

176
00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:51,133
How small is 13 atoms?

177
00:13:51,266 --> 00:13:54,934
It's a quadrillionth the
size of a grain of salt.

178
00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:59,467
A mutation occurred in the DNA
of just one of our ancestors.

179
00:14:00,266 --> 00:14:03,967
Every source of self-esteem,
everything we've learned,

180
00:14:04,100 --> 00:14:07,734
and built, might come down
to nothing more than this.

181
00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:11,734
One base pair of
a single gene.

182
00:14:12,767 --> 00:14:17,000
Just a single rung programmed
the neocortex to grow larger

183
00:14:17,133 --> 00:14:19,133
still and fold more deeply.

184
00:14:19,934 --> 00:14:22,567
Maybe it was a random
zap from a cosmic ray,

185
00:14:23,100 --> 00:14:26,200
or a simple error
in transmission from
one cell to another.

186
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:31,800
Whatever it was, it led to
a change in our species that

187
00:14:31,934 --> 00:14:34,467
would ultimately
affect every other species

188
00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:37,133
of life on Earth.

189
00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:40,600
It happened late on
New Year's Eve on this

190
00:14:40,734 --> 00:14:43,800
Cosmic Calendar of ours.

191
00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:51,066
To think that,
for good or evil,

192
00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:54,400
our ability to feel loyalty
and concern for increasingly

193
00:14:54,533 --> 00:14:58,033
larger groups, our obsession
with certain belief systems,

194
00:14:58,700 --> 00:15:01,266
our capacity to
imagine the future,

195
00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:05,533
our power to transform the
world and to search the cosmos

196
00:15:05,667 --> 00:15:08,000
for answers...

197
00:15:08,333 --> 00:15:11,233
The very name we gave
to our own species,

198
00:15:11,367 --> 00:15:15,567
homo sapiens, Latin for
"wise persons" all of it

199
00:15:15,700 --> 00:15:20,200
comes down to nothing more
than a single rung on our tiny

200
00:15:20,333 --> 00:15:22,500
DNA ladder to the stars.

201
00:15:26,133 --> 00:15:28,800
For much of the last hour
on the Cosmic Calendar,

202
00:15:29,400 --> 00:15:31,700
for all but the last minute,

203
00:15:31,834 --> 00:15:34,200
our ancestors were
hunters and gatherers,

204
00:15:35,700 --> 00:15:38,533
living in small bands.

205
00:15:44,867 --> 00:15:47,533
You know, when
people just shrug and say

206
00:15:47,667 --> 00:15:50,867
"chalk it up to human nature,"
it puzzles me.

207
00:15:51,967 --> 00:15:54,033
They're usually
talking about our greed,

208
00:15:54,166 --> 00:15:56,967
our arrogance, our violence.

209
00:15:57,100 --> 00:15:58,667
But we've been human
for at least a couple of

210
00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:00,700
hundred thousand years.

211
00:16:00,834 --> 00:16:03,934
For most of that time we
weren't that way at all.

212
00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:06,433
How do we know?

213
00:16:06,567 --> 00:16:09,133
From the accounts of
explorers and anthropologists

214
00:16:09,266 --> 00:16:11,934
encountering surviving
hunter-gatherer societies

215
00:16:12,066 --> 00:16:14,867
across four centuries.

216
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:17,500
There are, of course,
exceptions, especially in

217
00:16:17,633 --> 00:16:20,233
the circumstances
of extreme scarcity.

218
00:16:20,367 --> 00:16:24,066
But the overwhelming consensus
paints a picture of humans

219
00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:26,467
who lived in relative
harmony with each other

220
00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:28,500
and the environment.

221
00:16:28,633 --> 00:16:31,500
We shared the little we
had because we knew that our

222
00:16:31,633 --> 00:16:34,033
survival depended
on the group.

223
00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:38,066
We didn't prize wealth beyond
our needs because possessions

224
00:16:38,200 --> 00:16:40,233
would just weigh us
down as we wandered.

225
00:16:41,233 --> 00:16:44,233
We were different from our
non-human primate ancestors

226
00:16:44,367 --> 00:16:47,500
with their alpha-males
bullying their way to dominance.

227
00:16:56,734 --> 00:16:59,300
And where was God?

228
00:17:01,233 --> 00:17:03,066
Everywhere.

229
00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:04,934
In the rocks and in the rivers,

230
00:17:05,066 --> 00:17:09,133
in the trees, in the
birds and every living thing.

231
00:17:09,433 --> 00:17:11,400
And that was human nature
for a couple of

232
00:17:11,533 --> 00:17:13,967
hundred thousand years.

233
00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:17,567
I'm standing on the southern
tip of Africa and imagining

234
00:17:17,700 --> 00:17:19,967
what it was like some
time in the last hundreds

235
00:17:20,100 --> 00:17:21,800
of thousands of years.

236
00:17:21,934 --> 00:17:26,166
Back then, Africa
was home to all the
world's homo sapiens...

237
00:17:27,433 --> 00:17:29,767
All 10,000 of them.

238
00:17:30,233 --> 00:17:33,200
If you were an
extra-terrestrial
on a survey mission,

239
00:17:33,333 --> 00:17:36,834
you might have thought we
were an endangered species.

240
00:17:36,967 --> 00:17:40,867
Someday soon there
will be ten billion of us.

241
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:42,333
What happened?

242
00:17:42,467 --> 00:17:44,667
How did we become
the globe-girdling,

243
00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:47,767
space-traveling
species that we are today?

244
00:17:56,834 --> 00:18:00,300
Welcome to the first
laboratory on Earth.

245
00:18:00,433 --> 00:18:03,300
We're in Blombos Cave
where the evolution of the mind

246
00:18:03,433 --> 00:18:05,300
made a great leap.

247
00:18:05,433 --> 00:18:07,767
Our ancestors were conducting
chemistry experiments

248
00:18:07,900 --> 00:18:11,867
here with a mineral
rich in iron, ocher.

249
00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:16,533
They used it to decorate
objects with bits of red color,

250
00:18:16,667 --> 00:18:19,100
but it may have
also had other uses,

251
00:18:19,233 --> 00:18:21,033
to preserve animal
hides or as a medicine,

252
00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:24,100
or as a way to
sharpen their tools,

253
00:18:25,867 --> 00:18:28,333
or maybe as an
insect repellent.

254
00:18:29,834 --> 00:18:32,100
And they engraved the
ocher with symbols.

255
00:18:32,233 --> 00:18:36,000
Something completely
new on the planet Earth, art.

256
00:18:37,633 --> 00:18:39,467
Not to be eaten.

257
00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:41,333
Not to provide shelter.

258
00:18:41,467 --> 00:18:44,066
But to symbolize something...

259
00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:46,367
Or just to be.

260
00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:48,900
It looks a little
bit like a ladder,

261
00:18:49,033 --> 00:18:50,533
or a double helix.

262
00:18:50,667 --> 00:18:52,333
Whatever it was
supposed to be,

263
00:18:52,467 --> 00:18:55,600
it's the earliest remnant
we have of human culture.

264
00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:00,367
We had found a
way to leave behind
something distinctly human.

265
00:19:00,734 --> 00:19:04,133
A means to communicate,
however enigmatically,

266
00:19:04,266 --> 00:19:08,600
to you and me
100,000 years away.

267
00:19:09,667 --> 00:19:12,633
A great power was discovered
here in Blombos Cave.

268
00:19:20,433 --> 00:19:23,800
At 25 cosmic
seconds-to-midnight,

269
00:19:23,934 --> 00:19:27,266
between 10,000
and 12,000 years ago,

270
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:31,834
humans discovered
another great power.

271
00:19:32,567 --> 00:19:35,000
Instead of foraging for food,

272
00:19:35,133 --> 00:19:37,734
we learned how to
grow it in the earth.

273
00:19:39,133 --> 00:19:42,400
This changed everything.

274
00:19:42,834 --> 00:19:44,767
Our ancestors did
something else they had

275
00:19:44,900 --> 00:19:46,633
never done before.

276
00:19:46,767 --> 00:19:49,166
They invented new tools,
technology,

277
00:19:50,300 --> 00:19:53,333
to plant and pull
food out of the earth.

278
00:19:54,033 --> 00:19:57,100
They settled down
and moved indoors.

279
00:19:57,667 --> 00:20:00,600
Our relationship to
nature, and to one another,

280
00:20:00,734 --> 00:20:03,300
would never be the same.

281
00:20:03,767 --> 00:20:06,166
This agricultural revolution,

282
00:20:06,300 --> 00:20:09,133
the domestication of
plants and animals,

283
00:20:09,266 --> 00:20:12,433
is the mother of all
revolutions because all

284
00:20:12,567 --> 00:20:14,834
others trace back to it.

285
00:20:14,967 --> 00:20:17,367
Its consequences
reach far beyond even our

286
00:20:17,500 --> 00:20:19,834
own moment in time.

287
00:20:19,967 --> 00:20:21,800
Like most revolutions,

288
00:20:21,934 --> 00:20:24,867
this one brought
change that was both great,

289
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:26,600
and horrifying.

290
00:20:26,734 --> 00:20:30,533
There was a new concept
in the world, "Home."

291
00:20:31,734 --> 00:20:34,867
A specific place on the
planet where your ancestors,

292
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,300
and you, were born and lived.

293
00:20:38,767 --> 00:20:41,633
And over time these
settlements grew larger,

294
00:20:41,767 --> 00:20:47,367
until about 20 cosmic seconds
ago or around 7000 BCE.

295
00:20:53,667 --> 00:20:56,100
Welcome to Çatalhöyük,

296
00:20:56,233 --> 00:20:58,734
a community on
the Anatolian plain.

297
00:20:58,867 --> 00:21:01,967
It's about 9,000 years ago
and everyone has settled

298
00:21:02,100 --> 00:21:04,200
in for the evening.

299
00:21:04,533 --> 00:21:07,533
Tonight, roughly the same
number of people who once

300
00:21:07,667 --> 00:21:11,300
populated all of Africa
are living together

301
00:21:11,433 --> 00:21:13,667
in this proto-city.

302
00:21:14,300 --> 00:21:16,800
The city is such a new idea,

303
00:21:16,934 --> 00:21:19,266
they haven't
invented the street yet,

304
00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:21,066
or the window.

305
00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:23,900
So the only way you can get
into your apartment is to walk

306
00:21:24,033 --> 00:21:26,934
along the rooftops till
you arrive at the opening

307
00:21:27,066 --> 00:21:28,567
to your dwelling.

308
00:21:30,033 --> 00:21:32,967
Çatalhöyük lacked something
much more significant than

309
00:21:33,100 --> 00:21:36,233
streets and windows.

310
00:21:36,867 --> 00:21:40,066
There is no palace here.

311
00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:42,767
The bitter price that the
invention of agriculture cost

312
00:21:42,900 --> 00:21:45,967
human society had
yet to be paid.

313
00:21:46,266 --> 00:21:50,100
Here, there was no dominance
of the few over the many.

314
00:21:50,233 --> 00:21:53,600
There was no 1%
attaining lavish wealth,

315
00:21:53,734 --> 00:21:56,800
while most everyone
else merely subsisted.

316
00:21:56,934 --> 00:22:00,100
Forensic analysis of the
women, men, and children

317
00:22:00,233 --> 00:22:03,600
who lived here show a
remarkable similarity in diet.

318
00:22:04,967 --> 00:22:09,100
They still cherished
the hunter-gatherer
ethos of sharing.

319
00:22:09,734 --> 00:22:12,900
Çatalhöyük was egalitarian.

320
00:22:13,033 --> 00:22:16,166
The weakest ate the same
food that the strongest did,

321
00:22:17,133 --> 00:22:20,333
and everyone lived in
the same kind of home.

322
00:22:20,834 --> 00:22:23,333
But, man, it was
anything but drab.

323
00:22:23,467 --> 00:22:26,233
Come on. I'll show you.

324
00:22:40,900 --> 00:22:44,300
TYSON: This was a
typical apartment in
one of the first cities,

325
00:22:45,300 --> 00:22:47,567
Çatalhöyük,
in what is now Turkey,

326
00:22:47,700 --> 00:22:50,333
as it looked about
9,000 years ago.

327
00:22:52,533 --> 00:22:55,200
They were a lot like us.

328
00:22:56,734 --> 00:22:59,166
This bit of volcanic glass,

329
00:22:59,300 --> 00:23:01,800
called obsidian,
made an excellent mirror.

330
00:23:05,133 --> 00:23:08,533
If we could only find a
way to see all the things

331
00:23:08,667 --> 00:23:10,533
that were once reflected here.

332
00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:16,233
This apartment was home
for an extended family of

333
00:23:16,367 --> 00:23:18,400
seven to ten people.

334
00:23:18,533 --> 00:23:20,500
Every apartment had a
similar floor plan.

335
00:23:21,700 --> 00:23:26,633
Bedroom. Living room.
Kitchen.

336
00:23:29,700 --> 00:23:32,000
Plaster auroch head.

337
00:23:32,133 --> 00:23:35,734
The people of Çatalhöyük
had a passion for decorating.

338
00:23:36,033 --> 00:23:38,834
Apartments were richly
appointed with the teeth and

339
00:23:38,967 --> 00:23:41,166
bones and skins of animals.

340
00:23:42,233 --> 00:23:44,900
The ocher that our
ancestors picked up in Africa,

341
00:23:45,033 --> 00:23:48,600
about 100,000 years before,
was now the medium of choice

342
00:23:49,667 --> 00:23:52,400
for the interior
decorators of Çatalhöyük.

343
00:23:57,266 --> 00:24:00,166
And the red ocher had yet
another profound application.

344
00:24:01,233 --> 00:24:04,800
They used it to create
an entirely new art form:

345
00:24:05,133 --> 00:24:06,667
the map.

346
00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:09,100
For the first time ever,
humans created a

347
00:24:09,233 --> 00:24:12,300
two-dimensional representation
of their location

348
00:24:12,433 --> 00:24:14,867
in space and time.

349
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:20,567
"This is where my home is
in relation to the volcano."

350
00:24:21,633 --> 00:24:23,600
And with a few
magical strokes,

351
00:24:23,734 --> 00:24:26,867
the artist sent a message
across 9,000 years...

352
00:24:27,767 --> 00:24:31,533
"I was here when the
volcano awakened."

353
00:24:40,433 --> 00:24:43,433
The experiment at
Çatalhöyük was a success,

354
00:24:43,567 --> 00:24:47,000
and within a few thousand years
there were cities everywhere.

355
00:24:57,033 --> 00:25:02,600
♪ ♪

356
00:25:04,567 --> 00:25:06,734
TYSON: When different
kinds of people congregate

357
00:25:06,867 --> 00:25:08,066
in a single place,

358
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:11,000
ideas are exchanged
and new possibilities arise.

359
00:25:12,100 --> 00:25:14,400
The city is a kind of brain,

360
00:25:14,533 --> 00:25:16,967
creating and
processing new ideas.

361
00:25:20,133 --> 00:25:22,200
Here, in the
city of Amsterdam,

362
00:25:22,333 --> 00:25:24,767
in the 17th century,
citizens of the old and

363
00:25:24,900 --> 00:25:27,567
new worlds mingled as
they never had before,

364
00:25:28,500 --> 00:25:30,934
and there was an unprecedented
freedom of thought.

365
00:25:31,867 --> 00:25:35,767
These conditions produced a
golden age of science and art.

366
00:25:36,467 --> 00:25:39,567
In Italy, Giordano Bruno
had proclaimed the existence

367
00:25:39,700 --> 00:25:41,166
of other worlds.

368
00:25:41,300 --> 00:25:44,834
For this he had
been made to suffer.

369
00:25:45,867 --> 00:25:48,233
But a mere 50 years
later in Holland,

370
00:25:48,367 --> 00:25:50,166
the astronomer
Christiaan Huygens,

371
00:25:50,300 --> 00:25:53,533
who held the same belief,
was showered with honors.

372
00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:00,133
Light was the
central theme of the age:

373
00:26:00,533 --> 00:26:04,500
The enlightenment
of human curiosity set free,

374
00:26:04,834 --> 00:26:07,266
and the light shed
by Europe's first look at

375
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:10,133
the once hidden realms
of the planet.

376
00:26:10,900 --> 00:26:14,066
The light that permeated
the paintings of the time,

377
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:16,900
particularly the
work of Vermeer.

378
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:21,500
And light as an object
of scientific inquiry.

379
00:26:22,700 --> 00:26:25,867
For generations, textile
merchants had used a lens to

380
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,400
examine the thread count
of finely stitched fabrics.

381
00:26:29,533 --> 00:26:31,367
In the Amsterdam of that time,

382
00:26:31,500 --> 00:26:33,467
there lived three
men whose passion for

383
00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:37,967
light inspired them to
use that ancient device
in a completely new way.

384
00:26:39,367 --> 00:26:42,467
They aimed the textile
merchants' lens at objects no

385
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:45,734
one had ever thought to
examine closely before.

386
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:49,266
It became a window, an
aperture for finding and

387
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:51,867
exploring new worlds.

388
00:26:52,266 --> 00:26:55,633
Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek
used a single lens to reveal

389
00:26:55,767 --> 00:26:58,533
the teeming microcosm
in a drop of water.

390
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:07,700
His friend,

391
00:27:07,834 --> 00:27:10,333
Christiaan Huygens used
two lenses to bring the stars,

392
00:27:10,467 --> 00:27:13,133
planets, and
moons close enough to

393
00:27:13,266 --> 00:27:15,233
reveal their features.

394
00:27:15,967 --> 00:27:19,133
Huygens became the first to
see that Saturn's rings did not

395
00:27:19,266 --> 00:27:23,500
touch the planet, and
the first to understand
what they really were.

396
00:27:25,166 --> 00:27:28,066
He also discovered
Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

397
00:27:29,567 --> 00:27:31,133
Huygens, like Bruno,

398
00:27:31,266 --> 00:27:33,867
believed that the
stars were other suns,

399
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:37,266
orbited by their own
systems of planets and moons.

400
00:27:37,900 --> 00:27:40,200
But why was there no hint
of those other worlds and

401
00:27:40,333 --> 00:27:44,433
their living things in
the sacred books?

402
00:27:45,934 --> 00:27:48,633
Whatever disquiet this
contradiction may have stirred

403
00:27:48,767 --> 00:27:52,000
in the hearts and minds of the
leaders of the Enlightenment,

404
00:27:52,133 --> 00:27:55,667
there was only one man who
dared to address it head-on.

405
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:58,767
He was another
wizard of light.

406
00:27:58,900 --> 00:28:01,333
Baruch Spinoza had been
a member of the Jewish

407
00:28:01,467 --> 00:28:04,000
congregation of Amsterdam
through his teenage years.

408
00:28:05,166 --> 00:28:07,867
But in his early 20s, he
began to speak publicly of

409
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:10,300
a new vision of God.

410
00:28:11,667 --> 00:28:14,633
Spinoza's God was the
physical laws of the universe.

411
00:28:16,500 --> 00:28:19,633
His sacred text,
the book of nature.

412
00:28:22,367 --> 00:28:24,567
The Jews of Amsterdam
were mostly refugees from

413
00:28:24,700 --> 00:28:27,633
the vicious Inquisitions
in Spain and Portugal,

414
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:30,900
where so many of them had
been tortured and murdered.

415
00:28:32,900 --> 00:28:35,900
Amsterdam had
offered the Jews a refuge,

416
00:28:36,033 --> 00:28:38,400
and they must have seen
Spinoza's radical ideas as a

417
00:28:38,533 --> 00:28:41,567
threat to their
hard-won security in Holland.

418
00:28:42,233 --> 00:28:44,133
They excommunicated
the young rebel,

419
00:28:44,266 --> 00:28:46,867
and decreed that he
must be forever shunned.

420
00:28:47,533 --> 00:28:50,734
Spinoza accepted their
punishment with dignity,

421
00:28:50,867 --> 00:28:53,400
but without a
trace of submission.

422
00:28:53,533 --> 00:28:55,500
He moved nearby, to The Hague.

423
00:28:55,633 --> 00:28:58,900
Where he went even further,
daring to write that the Bible

424
00:28:59,033 --> 00:29:02,834
was not dictated by God,
but written by human beings.

425
00:29:03,333 --> 00:29:04,767
Spinoza wrote:

426
00:29:04,900 --> 00:29:07,100
"Do not look for
God in miracles.

427
00:29:07,233 --> 00:29:10,100
Miracles are violations
of the laws of nature.

428
00:29:10,633 --> 00:29:13,633
God is best apprehended in
the study of those laws."

429
00:29:15,467 --> 00:29:18,233
No one had ever said
these things aloud before.

430
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:22,200
Spinoza knew that
he was testing the
limits of free thought,

431
00:29:22,333 --> 00:29:24,367
even for Holland.

432
00:29:27,500 --> 00:29:30,867
To him, an official
state religion was more than

433
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,166
spiritual coercion
of the individual.

434
00:29:34,300 --> 00:29:37,500
Spinoza regarded the
miraculous events of the major

435
00:29:37,633 --> 00:29:40,900
religious traditions as
organized superstition.

436
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,967
In his view, magical
thinking posed a danger to

437
00:29:46,100 --> 00:29:49,867
the future citizens of a
rational, free society.

438
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:53,600
There could be no such
thing as democracy without the

439
00:29:53,734 --> 00:29:56,433
separation of
church and state.

440
00:29:56,567 --> 00:29:59,300
He wrote a book that
introduced the ideas at the

441
00:29:59,433 --> 00:30:02,800
heart of the American and
many another revolution.

442
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:07,734
Then, as now, there were
those who were threatened

443
00:30:07,867 --> 00:30:09,834
by this view of God.

444
00:30:10,633 --> 00:30:12,100
(grunting).

445
00:30:20,967 --> 00:30:23,500
Spinoza continued to
write and speak about his

446
00:30:23,633 --> 00:30:26,133
revolutionary view of God,

447
00:30:26,266 --> 00:30:29,100
always wearing the slashed
cape as a badge of honor.

448
00:30:31,300 --> 00:30:35,266
He died at 44, possibly from
inhaling particles of dust

449
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:37,333
during his years of
grinding lenses for

450
00:30:37,467 --> 00:30:39,633
microscopes and telescopes.

451
00:30:40,934 --> 00:30:44,800
250 years later, another man
with a passion for light made

452
00:30:44,934 --> 00:30:47,400
a pilgrimage to the
humble workroom that had been

453
00:30:47,533 --> 00:30:50,133
preserved as a testament
to the vast influence of

454
00:30:50,266 --> 00:30:52,300
Spinoza's philosophy.

455
00:30:52,433 --> 00:30:56,166
This man, world famous for
finding a new law of nature,

456
00:30:56,300 --> 00:30:59,500
was often asked if
he believed in God.

457
00:30:59,633 --> 00:31:01,633
Albert Einstein replied:

458
00:31:02,233 --> 00:31:08,300
"I believe in Spinoza's God,
who reveals himself in the
harmony of all that exists."

459
00:31:12,233 --> 00:31:15,500
Our understanding
of nature's laws
has advanced far beyond

460
00:31:15,633 --> 00:31:18,667
Spinoza's, and even
Einstein's wildest dreams.

461
00:31:19,967 --> 00:31:23,600
But there is one law of nature
we cannot seem to grasp.

462
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:27,033
Inscribed in the book of
nature is a parable about an

463
00:31:27,166 --> 00:31:29,800
ancient alliance
between two kingdoms.

464
00:31:30,533 --> 00:31:33,667
And those who
would tear it apart.

465
00:31:46,333 --> 00:31:48,967
TYSON: Long ago,
there were two kingdoms.

466
00:31:49,100 --> 00:31:51,400
An alliance was
formed between them,

467
00:31:51,533 --> 00:31:54,533
one that would bring them
both riches beyond measure.

468
00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:59,400
A partnership lasting more
than a 100 million years.

469
00:31:59,533 --> 00:32:03,700
And then a new kind
of being evolved in
one of the two kingdoms.

470
00:32:04,233 --> 00:32:08,834
Its descendants plundered
the riches and violated
the alliance.

471
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:12,567
In their arrogance, they
became a mortal danger to both

472
00:32:12,700 --> 00:32:15,500
kingdoms and to themselves.

473
00:32:27,166 --> 00:32:29,433
This parable is true.

474
00:32:29,567 --> 00:32:33,266
It's the story of
two of the half dozen
realms of life on Earth,

475
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:36,467
the plant and animal kingdoms.

476
00:32:37,166 --> 00:32:39,967
It's not easy being green.

477
00:32:41,133 --> 00:32:44,600
Sex is challenging when
you're stuck in one place.

478
00:32:44,734 --> 00:32:46,000
There's no dating.

479
00:32:46,133 --> 00:32:49,033
You just sit there and
cast your seed to the winds.

480
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:51,633
Literally.

481
00:32:51,767 --> 00:32:54,200
You just wait for
the wind to blow.

482
00:32:54,333 --> 00:32:56,467
If you get lucky,
some of your pollen will

483
00:32:56,600 --> 00:32:59,500
be carried away and land on
the sexual reproductive part

484
00:32:59,633 --> 00:33:02,066
of another plant.

485
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:04,600
The plants played this
hit-or-miss game of chance for

486
00:33:04,734 --> 00:33:06,967
a couple of
hundred million years,

487
00:33:07,100 --> 00:33:10,834
until insects
evolved to play cupid.

488
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,800
What resulted was one of the
great co-evolution marriages

489
00:33:17,934 --> 00:33:19,800
in the history of life.

490
00:33:19,934 --> 00:33:22,333
The insect would visit a
flower for a dinner of

491
00:33:22,467 --> 00:33:24,667
protein-rich pollen.

492
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:27,633
Inevitably, some of the
pollen would stick to the body

493
00:33:27,767 --> 00:33:29,467
of the insect.

494
00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:31,500
The insect would
visit another flower,

495
00:33:31,633 --> 00:33:34,367
bringing along the
leftovers on its body.

496
00:33:34,934 --> 00:33:37,967
That pollen
fertilized the next flower,

497
00:33:38,100 --> 00:33:40,333
allowing it to reproduce.

498
00:33:41,233 --> 00:33:44,467
It was a win-win deal for both
the flowers and the insects,

499
00:33:45,300 --> 00:33:48,000
causing a series of delightful
evolutionary developments.

500
00:33:49,233 --> 00:33:52,100
A new plant arose that
produced sugary nectar in

501
00:33:52,233 --> 00:33:54,033
addition to the pollen.

502
00:33:54,166 --> 00:33:58,000
Now, the insects
came not just for
their basic meal of pollen,

503
00:33:58,667 --> 00:34:01,066
but also for dessert.

504
00:34:01,667 --> 00:34:05,166
The insects got chubbier,
evolved furry bodies and even

505
00:34:05,300 --> 00:34:08,400
little pouches on their legs
to snag more pollen on their

506
00:34:08,533 --> 00:34:10,767
daily rounds in the flowers.

507
00:34:13,066 --> 00:34:15,300
Now there were bees.

508
00:34:16,433 --> 00:34:18,533
This was a bonus for
yet another species of

509
00:34:18,667 --> 00:34:20,367
the animal kingdom...

510
00:34:20,500 --> 00:34:22,300
Us.

511
00:34:25,734 --> 00:34:28,567
We are indebted to the bees
and their fellow pollinators

512
00:34:28,700 --> 00:34:32,000
for something even more
vital to our survival.

513
00:34:32,300 --> 00:34:35,700
Every third bite of food you
take-and this is even true for

514
00:34:35,834 --> 00:34:39,633
those of us who are omnivores,
was made possible by them.

515
00:34:40,467 --> 00:34:44,000
35% of the world's crops
depend on their cooperation.

516
00:34:44,867 --> 00:34:47,100
The plants eat starlight...

517
00:34:47,233 --> 00:34:50,567
And we, and the animals,
we eat plants.

518
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:54,734
And they don't
just increase the
quantity of available food.

519
00:34:54,867 --> 00:34:57,767
We owe them for much of the
biodiversity that has made our

520
00:34:57,900 --> 00:35:01,200
food supply so dependable.

521
00:35:01,333 --> 00:35:03,700
But we're
working them to death.

522
00:35:03,834 --> 00:35:05,400
And for the first time ever,

523
00:35:05,533 --> 00:35:10,066
many kinds of bees are on
the endangered species list.

524
00:35:22,066 --> 00:35:25,000
I think you know
where this is headed.

525
00:35:34,300 --> 00:35:37,900
The blessing and the curse
of the invention of agriculture

526
00:35:38,033 --> 00:35:40,467
has brought us here, to
the Halls of Extinction.

527
00:35:51,133 --> 00:35:55,333
A memorial to all the
living things lost in the mass

528
00:35:55,467 --> 00:35:58,033
extinction events
in Earth's history.

529
00:35:58,934 --> 00:36:03,600
It's a monument to the broken
branches on the tree of life.

530
00:36:04,633 --> 00:36:07,500
Five times in the
history of life,

531
00:36:07,633 --> 00:36:11,133
cataclysmic geological,
and astronomical events,

532
00:36:11,266 --> 00:36:15,867
have threatened to
extinguish life itself.

533
00:36:17,533 --> 00:36:20,867
The sixth one is different.

534
00:36:21,133 --> 00:36:24,266
The last time we were
here together this hallway

535
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:26,000
had no name.

536
00:36:26,133 --> 00:36:27,333
Why?

537
00:36:27,467 --> 00:36:30,000
Because back then a
scientific consensus had yet

538
00:36:30,133 --> 00:36:34,533
to be reached that we
were in the midst of a
mass extinction event.

539
00:36:35,266 --> 00:36:36,800
That's changed.

540
00:36:36,934 --> 00:36:40,100
Now, this hallway has a name.

541
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:42,867
It's ours.

542
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:46,066
The Anthropocene.

543
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:52,633
"Anthropo" from the Greek
word for "human" and "Cene."

544
00:36:54,200 --> 00:36:56,900
the Greek word for "recent."

545
00:37:14,333 --> 00:37:17,100
TYSON: These are the species
we hunted to extinction back

546
00:37:17,233 --> 00:37:19,633
when we were wanderers.

547
00:37:19,900 --> 00:37:23,367
Including our own
cousins, the Neanderthals.

548
00:37:38,867 --> 00:37:41,200
What is it about
us, as a species,

549
00:37:41,333 --> 00:37:45,133
that wherever we go,
we bring death?

550
00:37:49,233 --> 00:37:52,333
Beyond here lies the future.

551
00:37:52,467 --> 00:37:56,367
Even now it's not
too late to keep this
corridor from lengthening.

552
00:37:58,467 --> 00:38:01,266
If we fail...

553
00:38:04,767 --> 00:38:08,033
(children playing).

554
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,233
But if we succeed...

555
00:38:15,567 --> 00:38:17,333
Come with me.

556
00:38:30,834 --> 00:38:34,400
TYSON: In a possible
future only decades away,

557
00:38:34,533 --> 00:38:38,934
project Starshot, a
flotilla of 1,000 spacecraft,

558
00:38:39,066 --> 00:38:41,233
will depart from Earth.

559
00:38:41,367 --> 00:38:44,467
This part of the
Atacama Desert west
of the Andes Mountains,

560
00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:47,934
is so dry that it hasn't
rained in recorded history.

561
00:38:49,367 --> 00:38:52,400
And that's great for us
because we're going to need

562
00:38:52,533 --> 00:38:54,367
the clearest of skies.

563
00:39:26,567 --> 00:39:29,066
There were no witnesses
when the first life left the

564
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:32,100
water for the land.

565
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:34,967
There was nobody to file a
report when the first birds

566
00:39:35,100 --> 00:39:37,367
took to the skies.

567
00:39:37,500 --> 00:39:40,033
But this is one great leap
that will be documented in

568
00:39:40,166 --> 00:39:42,600
every conceivable way.

569
00:39:42,734 --> 00:39:45,266
The whole world is watching.

570
00:39:46,166 --> 00:39:49,166
We are, after all, sending
our first craft directly to the

571
00:39:49,300 --> 00:39:52,900
planets of another sun:
the Alpha Centauri system.

572
00:39:56,300 --> 00:39:59,667
These are the ships that
will carry our senses there.

573
00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:03,500
These are interstellar sailing
ships propelled by light.

574
00:40:04,133 --> 00:40:07,700
Their hulls weigh but a gram,
and they are no larger than a

575
00:40:07,834 --> 00:40:11,367
pea, and yet they're equipped
with all that NASA's Voyagers

576
00:40:11,500 --> 00:40:13,633
have and more.

577
00:40:23,166 --> 00:40:26,166
When the first light blasts
forth from this phased array

578
00:40:26,300 --> 00:40:30,533
of lasers, the spacecraft will
accelerate from zero to 20% of

579
00:40:30,667 --> 00:40:34,200
the speed of light
in mere minutes.

580
00:40:34,467 --> 00:40:37,400
Inside each nanocraft is
everything needed to perform

581
00:40:37,533 --> 00:40:41,400
the preliminary reconnaissance
of the worlds of another star

582
00:40:41,533 --> 00:40:44,567
and return that visual
and scientific information

583
00:40:44,700 --> 00:40:46,800
back to Earth.

584
00:40:48,166 --> 00:40:50,533
Space is mostly empty,

585
00:40:50,667 --> 00:40:52,600
but there are tiny dust
particles that could

586
00:40:52,734 --> 00:40:55,467
wreak havoc if they
were to collide with nanocraft

587
00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:57,467
traveling at such high speeds.

588
00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:11,233
That's one of the reasons we
need to send so many of them.

589
00:41:17,967 --> 00:41:21,600
Voyager 1 is traveling
at 38,000 miles per hour.

590
00:41:22,667 --> 00:41:25,767
It left home more
than 40 years ago.

591
00:41:27,066 --> 00:41:29,700
It will take these
nanocraft only four days

592
00:41:29,834 --> 00:41:31,400
to overtake her.

593
00:41:31,533 --> 00:41:33,033
That's pretty fast,

594
00:41:33,166 --> 00:41:36,066
but still only 20%
of the speed of light.

595
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:39,300
Proxima Centauri is
four light-years away.

596
00:41:39,433 --> 00:41:41,600
That's a 20 year one-way trip.

597
00:41:44,567 --> 00:41:47,100
Orbiting Proxima Centauri,
there is a world in the

598
00:41:47,233 --> 00:41:50,934
habitable zone where we
think life might flourish.

599
00:41:53,934 --> 00:41:56,333
Our robotic emissaries
will send accounts from

600
00:41:56,467 --> 00:41:59,166
these new worlds.

601
00:41:59,467 --> 00:42:02,033
Their messages will race
back to us on radio waves

602
00:42:02,166 --> 00:42:03,967
at the speed of light.

603
00:42:04,100 --> 00:42:07,667
They'll take four years to
reach us: 20 years one-way,

604
00:42:08,367 --> 00:42:10,233
four years back.

605
00:42:10,367 --> 00:42:13,367
That's a 24-year round-trip.

606
00:42:13,734 --> 00:42:18,266
Many of you will be there then
to read and to write those new

607
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:20,700
pages in the book of nature,

608
00:42:20,834 --> 00:42:23,767
and to chart our future
course of wandering...

609
00:42:42,133 --> 00:42:46,767
♪ ♪

610
00:42:47,433 --> 00:42:49,834
No longer
bounded by the earth,

611
00:42:49,967 --> 00:42:52,567
the ocean,

612
00:42:52,700 --> 00:42:55,433
or the sky.

613
00:43:06,934 --> 00:43:13,266
♪ ♪

614
00:43:14,133 --> 00:43:15,967
Captioned by Cotter
Captioning Services.