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TYSON: We search the heavens
for signs of intelligent life.

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But what would we
do if we found it?

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Are we ready
for first contact?

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Would we be smart enough
to even know if someone was
sending us a message?

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We've only been able
to detect radio signals for
a little over a century.

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Extraterrestrial civilizations
could have been bombarding

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Earth with radio signals
for millions and billions
of years before then,

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and nobody here would
have had any inkling that
it had ever happened.

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And what if we seem
just like ants to them.

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We all know
how we treat ants.

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What if the extraterrestrials
are smarter than we are,

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have technology, weapons
that render us helpless?

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The history of first contact
among terrestrial civilizations,

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the humans of east and west,

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north and south,
has been scarred by genocide.

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In all of the cosmos,

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is there such a thing as
a first contact story
with a happy ending?

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I know of one
first contact story,

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but it's too soon to
know how it will turn out...

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♪ ♪

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(theme music playing)

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♪ ♪

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♪ ♪

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This scientific and
architectural wonder of the

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world is in Southern China,

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it's the largest
radio telescope on Earth,

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in fact it's the largest
telescope of any kind.

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The Five-Hundred Meter Aperture
Spherical Radio Telescope,

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or FAST,
as it's known.

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This dish is a giant listening
device for detecting radio waves

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that propagate
throughout the cosmos.

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The mission of this telescope
is to solve unanswered questions

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about the origin
of the universe,

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and its early history.

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It will also
search for pulsars,

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those rapidly
rotating neutron stars,

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and for telltale signs
of gravitational waves,

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ripples in the
fabric of space-time...

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And it will search for
signs of alien civilizations.

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Especially
those very far away...

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I want to take you to
a place where we've begun to

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eavesdrop on an intricate
global communications network.

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We didn't even know it
existed until recently.

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Complex beyond
our wildest imagining,

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it was built by a
community whose population

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is inconceivably vast.

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Our distant ancestors,
tiny shrew-like animals,

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came of age in places not
too different from this one.

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Forests.

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Maybe they knew what we've
only recently discovered.

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The secret life of this
place is filled with drama,

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abuzz with conversation.

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Much of it is spoken in
an electrochemical language,

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and it takes place
on a scale too small,

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and in motion too slow,

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for creatures
like us to even notice.

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But there's something even
more amazing that was going

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on right beneath our feet,
for the longest time,

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and on a global scale,

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and we had no inkling
that it was there.

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An ancient,
subterranean worldwide web,

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a vast neural network is
what binds the forest together,

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making it an
intercommunicating,

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and interacting
dynamic organism.

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One with agency,
and the power to influence
events above ground.

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It's called the mycelium.

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It's a hidden matrix,
the creation of an enduring

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collaboration among fungi,
plants, bacteria, and animals.

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90% of all the trees and
plants on Earth are involved

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in the mutually
beneficial relationship made

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possible by the mycelium.

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They exchange
nourishment, messages,

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and empathy with one
another, across species,

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and even across
the kingdoms of life.

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Mushrooms are the
reproductive organs,

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the fruiting
bodies of the mycelium.

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To see a mushroom growing
wild in the forest is to know

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that the great natural Internet
is online beneath your feet.

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Some mushrooms
spread trillions
of spores on the breeze,

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each spore a paratrooper
carrying life's message.

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This is mushroom sex.

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After a while, in
their search for moisture,

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this new segment of the
mycelium will return down

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to the underworld, and
link up to the greater network.

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The secret lives of trees
have been long-hidden from us.

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For them, the mycelium is
their lifeline to one another.

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It makes the
forest a community.

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They use it to parent,

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to nurture each other

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and even to devise a
stay of execution,

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a reprieve from the axe.

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When a tree is
cut down in the forest,

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other trees reach out to
the victim with their root tips,

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and send lifesaving
sustenance, water, sugar,

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and other
nutrients via the mycelium.

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This continuous IV drip
from neighboring trees can

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keep this stump alive for
decades, and even centuries.

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And they don't only
do it for their own kind.

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They do it for the
trees of other species.

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Why?

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Is it because they know
that their lives depend on

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the health of the whole forest,

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and even on beings very
different from themselves?

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Is it possible that
the trees can think in
longer terms than we do?

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We know they have
excellent parenting skills.

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Take this fir tree.

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This younger tree
here is its offspring,

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and it requires
constant attention.

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It's hardly young by
our standards, 60 years old.

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But young trees don't
know that if they
grow up too quickly,

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there will be too much air
in the cells of their trunks.

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Later, when the stormy
winds and predators come,

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they'll be weak
and vulnerable.

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Like the young
of other kingdoms,

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the fir wants to grow into
the light as soon as possible.

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But the mother fir shades
it with her branches so that

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it cannot binge on sunlight,

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and grow up too
fast for its own good.

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How many forests have I
been in without any awareness

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of what was really
happening all around me?

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Who are we to search
for alien intelligence when
we can't even recognize,

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or respect, the
consciousness all around us,

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and even beneath our feet?

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This stately maple
senses that the tiny caterpillar

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is nipping at its leaf.

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A signal is sent
through the tree,

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just as it would go
through our own nervous system.

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But not nearly so fast.

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Again, the trees live
on a much slower time scale.

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The speed of "ouch"
for a tree is only an inch,

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every three minutes.

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So, it will take at least
an hour for the tree to react

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by generating the chemical
that will chase this pest away.

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When a predator strikes,
the first thing a tree does

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is to take a saliva sample
in order to sequence the
DNA of the invading species.

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It then tailors its chemical
response to the special

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vulnerability of its enemy.

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In certain cases, it releases
the precise pheromone that

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will attract its
enemy's enemy to do the
tree's fighting for it.

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Is it fair to say that the
trees have a deep knowledge

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of chemistry, entomology,
and other earth sciences?

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How exactly is their
knowing different from ours?

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Is it any different when
we humans do these things?

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Throughout nature,
we find these electrochemical

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conversations between the
life-forms of different

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species and kingdoms.

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But what of a conversation
between different worlds?

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What might we share with
the intelligent civilization
of another world?

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Science and mathematics.

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The symbolic languages of
the scientist, mathematician,

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and the engineer avoid
those things that are lost

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in translation from
one culture to another.

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Symbolic languages, including
those used in programming,

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have a much higher degree
of precision than words do.

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They are not as open
to misinterpretation.

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I know of only one
nonhuman symbolic language,

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and only one instance when
we humans made contact with

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the life-form that uses it.

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Their knowledge of
astronomy and mathematics
would astonish most of us.

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Their commitment
to resolving their
differences democratically,

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and reaching
the broadest possible
consensus through debate,

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is unparalleled by any
human society that I know.

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Tens of millions
of years ago,

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they had been carnivores,

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but they gave that
up to become vegans.

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It changed their world,

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and resulted in surpassing
beauty wherever they wandered.

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They are explorers who
use their symbolic language

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to tell each other
about the things they have
discovered on their travels.

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This is their night sky.

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I want to tell
you their story.

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TYSON: This is the shore
of the Panthalassic Ocean,

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a sea that covered Earth's
entire Northern Hemisphere

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in a period
named the Ordovician.

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We've compressed all of
the time from this very second,

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back to the
beginning of the universe,

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into a single calendar
Earth year, a Cosmic Calendar.

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Every month represents
a little more
than a billion years.

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Every week,
nearly 300 million years.

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Every day,
about 40 million years.

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The Big Bang is the
first moment of New Year's Day.

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Our present, right now, is
at the stroke of midnight on

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New Year's Eve.

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I'm standing on the
morning of December 20th
on the Cosmic Calendar,

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480 million years
ago in Earth's history.

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This was the time when
life began to diversify.

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It's remembered as the
Great Ordovician
Biodiversity Event.

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It came 40 million years
after life's first big leap

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into diversification known
as the Cambrian explosion.

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This was the dawn
of the arthropods,

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the invertebrates who wear
their skeletons on the outside,

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instead of on the inside,

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as we would one day do
hundreds of millions
of years later.

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The arthropods of the
Ordovician pioneered the most

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00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:13,300
successful body plan
ever evolved by life.

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Even today, more than
80% of all living
animals are arthropods.

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But around the time the
plants began to venture out

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of the waters, a
crustacean staggered ashore,

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and made a home in the
new world of the land.

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00:14:34,133 --> 00:14:37,100
Insects evolved
from the crustaceans.

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A thought I do my best to
hold at bay whenever I'm dining

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00:14:41,033 --> 00:14:43,200
in a seafood restaurant.

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00:14:45,867 --> 00:14:48,400
We think that the insects
and the plants colonized

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00:14:48,533 --> 00:14:53,100
the land at
about the same time,
400 million years ago,

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or December 21 on
the Cosmic Calendar.

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00:14:58,567 --> 00:15:02,066
This was a time when
giant mushrooms towered
over the world's trees,

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00:15:03,233 --> 00:15:05,934
which were then no
more than a few feet high.

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00:15:10,100 --> 00:15:13,700
Mushrooms this gigantic
make you wonder just how big

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00:15:13,834 --> 00:15:16,734
the underground network that
supported them must have been.

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00:15:22,533 --> 00:15:26,000
And this was
the time on Earth when
life learned how to fly.

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00:15:40,567 --> 00:15:44,567
The insects would have
it all to themselves for
another 90 million years.

212
00:15:46,233 --> 00:15:49,333
No flying reptiles,
no birds, no bats to
gobble them up,

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00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:53,200
just other bugs.

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00:15:55,734 --> 00:15:59,667
Powered flight was a huge
evolutionary leap for insects,

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00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:02,767
allowing them to
spread all over the planet.

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00:16:03,367 --> 00:16:06,100
The insects put
human pretensions to shame.

217
00:16:07,133 --> 00:16:09,934
Their tenure on Earth
is hundreds of times
greater than ours.

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00:16:11,500 --> 00:16:14,033
They look much
the same to us today,

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00:16:14,166 --> 00:16:17,100
as they did to the dinosaurs
in the late Cretaceous.

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00:16:18,700 --> 00:16:21,533
Even back then, you
didn't want to mess with a wasp.

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00:16:22,333 --> 00:16:25,133
They've always
been voracious hunters.

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00:16:29,567 --> 00:16:34,100
Yes, there were giant
redwoods on the Earth
240 million years ago.

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00:16:46,100 --> 00:16:50,066
That wasp is out
hunting for food for her young.

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00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:11,533
Wasps did their thing
for another 100 million years.

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00:17:11,667 --> 00:17:15,367
And then, something happened
on an almost microscopic scale

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00:17:15,500 --> 00:17:19,033
that would paint the Earth in
a whole new spectrum of colors.

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00:17:20,667 --> 00:17:24,066
Back then, there was no such
thing as an animal partner to

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00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:26,600
aid the plants in
their fertilization,

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00:17:26,734 --> 00:17:29,500
to efficiently transport
their seed to the reproductive

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00:17:29,633 --> 00:17:32,600
organs of distant
plants, in other words,

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00:17:32,734 --> 00:17:35,200
to play cupid for them.

232
00:17:38,533 --> 00:17:41,266
The drama unfolding here
is not the struggle between

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00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:43,400
the spider and the wasp,

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00:17:43,533 --> 00:17:47,000
it's those tiny particles
sticking to the wasp's legs.

235
00:17:47,133 --> 00:17:50,533
Nothing much to look
at, just a few grains,

236
00:17:50,667 --> 00:17:54,300
but this magic
dust, called pollen,

237
00:17:54,433 --> 00:17:57,233
contained the power
to transform the world,

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00:17:57,367 --> 00:17:59,433
and to make possible
some of the most beautiful

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00:17:59,567 --> 00:18:02,934
sights ever seen
on this planet.

240
00:18:03,066 --> 00:18:06,266
Even today, more than
100 million years later,

241
00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:09,333
this is still true.

242
00:18:09,467 --> 00:18:13,433
Each grain of pollen sculpted
differently by evolution,

243
00:18:13,567 --> 00:18:16,500
each a novel
strategy for survival,

244
00:18:16,633 --> 00:18:20,066
sharpened by vast
expanses of time.

245
00:18:20,767 --> 00:18:22,667
Pollen is tough.

246
00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:24,266
It has to be.

247
00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:28,000
It's so well-built that
you can fire it from a gun,

248
00:18:28,133 --> 00:18:31,734
and it will emerge unscathed
with its identity fully intact.

249
00:18:33,300 --> 00:18:35,900
The wasps had nurtured their
young during their helpless,

250
00:18:36,033 --> 00:18:39,834
larval stage by bringing
home game for them to feast on.

251
00:18:40,100 --> 00:18:43,100
The pollen was
rich in protein,

252
00:18:43,233 --> 00:18:47,467
a meal for the grubs when
Mom came home without any kills.

253
00:18:48,233 --> 00:18:51,533
Over the eons, a new
kind of life-form evolved,

254
00:18:51,667 --> 00:18:54,533
one that stopped bringing
meat home for dinner.

255
00:18:54,667 --> 00:18:58,500
This new creature brought
only the magic dust
that the flowers made.

256
00:19:01,734 --> 00:19:03,166
Bees.

257
00:19:03,300 --> 00:19:06,600
They had no appetite for the
mangled parts of dead insects.

258
00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:11,133
They went on the all-pollen
diet, and it was no fad.

259
00:19:11,266 --> 00:19:15,200
The bees became fully
committed pollinators.

260
00:19:15,333 --> 00:19:18,066
The plants rewarded
them handsomely by evolving

261
00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:21,834
evermore alluring
female sexual organs,

262
00:19:21,967 --> 00:19:24,867
in outrageous colors
and seductive forms.

263
00:19:26,333 --> 00:19:29,867
They concocted delicious
secretions, sweet nectars,

264
00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:33,300
that would keep the
bees coming back for more,

265
00:19:33,900 --> 00:19:37,066
again and again.

266
00:19:38,500 --> 00:19:42,500
The Age of the Flowers
had begun.

267
00:19:51,300 --> 00:19:53,967
Bees are masters of time,

268
00:19:54,100 --> 00:19:56,867
traveling across
100 million years,

269
00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:59,266
and they are
none the worse for wear.

270
00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:02,700
These beings did more
than anyone else to fill the

271
00:20:02,834 --> 00:20:06,066
Palace of Life with
sustenance and beauty.

272
00:20:08,266 --> 00:20:13,533
We will explore its
treasures and mysteries
later on our voyage.

273
00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:20,734
TYSON: For thousands of years,

274
00:20:20,867 --> 00:20:24,166
bees have been
symbols of mindless industry.

275
00:20:24,300 --> 00:20:25,934
We always think of them
as being something like

276
00:20:26,066 --> 00:20:30,567
biological robots,
doomed to live out
their lives in lockstep,

277
00:20:30,700 --> 00:20:34,000
shackled to the dreary roles
assigned to them by nature.

278
00:20:35,233 --> 00:20:38,433
This is our
first contact story.

279
00:20:38,567 --> 00:20:42,233
It happened in a place called
Brunnwinkl in rural Austria,

280
00:20:42,367 --> 00:20:45,200
in the early 1900s.

281
00:20:48,900 --> 00:20:52,100
From the time
Karl von Frisch was a child,

282
00:20:52,233 --> 00:20:55,166
he longed to understand
what the other animals knew,

283
00:20:55,300 --> 00:20:57,800
how they perceived the world.

284
00:20:57,934 --> 00:21:00,533
He wanted to know
if tiny fish saw color,

285
00:21:00,667 --> 00:21:02,767
or had a sense of smell.

286
00:21:02,900 --> 00:21:05,867
He invented experiments
to explore animal experience,

287
00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:08,133
and he filmed them.

288
00:21:08,266 --> 00:21:10,467
Starting in the
early 20th century,

289
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:13,433
he was the first to use the
new medium of motion pictures

290
00:21:13,567 --> 00:21:16,900
to create popular science
entertainment and communication.

291
00:21:18,667 --> 00:21:20,233
For thousands of years,

292
00:21:20,367 --> 00:21:23,867
humans have noted the
eccentric dances of the bees.

293
00:21:24,734 --> 00:21:27,000
But no one had ever looked at
them with the kind of respect

294
00:21:27,133 --> 00:21:29,934
that assumed there was
a reason to their dancing.

295
00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:32,633
Before Karl von Frisch,

296
00:21:32,767 --> 00:21:35,533
no one ever thought to
ask why they moved this way and

297
00:21:35,667 --> 00:21:38,533
that way in a succession
of elaborate figure eights...

298
00:21:39,967 --> 00:21:43,133
Von Frisch studied
every tiny bee gesture,

299
00:21:43,266 --> 00:21:46,100
and became fascinated by a
mystery he couldn't explain.

300
00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:50,033
He would set out a dish
of sugar water for a bee from

301
00:21:50,166 --> 00:21:53,133
his experimental hive.

302
00:21:53,667 --> 00:21:56,233
The bee would feast upon
it before flying back home.

303
00:21:59,533 --> 00:22:01,934
The marked bee would
later return to dine on

304
00:22:02,066 --> 00:22:04,367
the delicious sugar water.

305
00:22:04,500 --> 00:22:07,233
Von Frisch noted
that in just a few hours,

306
00:22:07,367 --> 00:22:09,734
a multitude of other
bees would join her there.

307
00:22:12,233 --> 00:22:15,800
They were always
her fellow hive mates.

308
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:19,100
But here was the
really amazing thing,

309
00:22:19,233 --> 00:22:21,433
von Frisch knew that
the other bees had not

310
00:22:21,567 --> 00:22:24,200
followed the marked
bee to the feeding place.

311
00:22:24,333 --> 00:22:25,867
How?

312
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:28,967
Because he had the hive
closely watched at all times.

313
00:22:29,100 --> 00:22:31,900
He had been careful to use
sugar water, and not honey,

314
00:22:32,033 --> 00:22:35,433
so that the bees'
sense of smell could not
guide them to the reward.

315
00:22:36,667 --> 00:22:39,734
He continued to move the dish
of sugar water farther away,

316
00:22:39,867 --> 00:22:42,700
until it was several
kilometers from the hive.

317
00:22:42,834 --> 00:22:46,834
Still, the hive mates
would find their way to it.

318
00:22:46,967 --> 00:22:49,700
So, how did the painted
bee reveal the exact location

319
00:22:49,834 --> 00:22:52,667
of the sugar water with such
precision that her hive mates

320
00:22:52,800 --> 00:22:55,433
could unerringly
find their way there?

321
00:22:58,367 --> 00:23:01,734
There was a secret
message in her choreography.

322
00:23:02,667 --> 00:23:05,567
What had seemed to countless
generations of observers

323
00:23:05,700 --> 00:23:07,567
to be nothing more
than the meaningless,

324
00:23:07,700 --> 00:23:12,266
spasmodic motions
of a dumb animal was
actually a complex message,

325
00:23:13,633 --> 00:23:17,367
an equation informed
by mathematics, astronomy,

326
00:23:17,500 --> 00:23:20,400
and an acute
knowledge of time,

327
00:23:20,533 --> 00:23:23,500
all synthesized to convey
the location of the riches

328
00:23:24,266 --> 00:23:26,800
she hoped to
share with her sisters.

329
00:23:30,033 --> 00:23:33,600
The dancer used the
angle of our star, the sun,

330
00:23:33,734 --> 00:23:36,467
to indicate the
general direction of
the food's location.

331
00:23:40,567 --> 00:23:43,734
Von Frisch noted that when
a bee danced straight upward,

332
00:23:43,867 --> 00:23:46,367
she meant,
"fly toward the sun."

333
00:23:46,500 --> 00:23:49,367
And when she moved downward,
she meant, "fly away from it."

334
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,800
Her swivels left and
right conveyed the food's
exact coordinates in space,

335
00:23:55,467 --> 00:23:57,734
sometimes kilometers away.

336
00:24:05,100 --> 00:24:07,767
The duration of her dance, down
to a fraction of a second,

337
00:24:09,166 --> 00:24:12,433
indicated the length
of time it would take her
fellow bees to get there.

338
00:24:16,233 --> 00:24:19,967
She even factored in wind
speed to more finely calibrate
the message she danced.

339
00:24:23,834 --> 00:24:26,500
And this was true at
any time of the year,

340
00:24:26,633 --> 00:24:30,333
and from hive to hive,
from continent to continent.

341
00:24:33,166 --> 00:24:36,533
Bees can do the math.

342
00:24:42,133 --> 00:24:45,400
Why do I call this
a first contact story?

343
00:24:45,533 --> 00:24:49,000
Two species as different
as any you can imagine,

344
00:24:49,133 --> 00:24:52,967
humans and bees, evolved
on evolutionary pathways that

345
00:24:53,100 --> 00:24:55,734
diverged 600
million years ago.

346
00:24:57,166 --> 00:25:00,967
And yet, these two
species and as far as we know,

347
00:25:01,100 --> 00:25:03,600
only they and
we on this planet,

348
00:25:03,734 --> 00:25:06,066
managed to create a
symbolic language written

349
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:09,200
in mathematics and science.

350
00:25:09,333 --> 00:25:12,400
We lived side-by-side
with the bees for millennia,

351
00:25:12,533 --> 00:25:15,967
never dreaming
of the complexity
of their communications.

352
00:25:16,100 --> 00:25:18,600
What we've learned about bee
society in the decades since

353
00:25:18,734 --> 00:25:22,500
von Frisch puts
some of our loftiest human
aspirations to shame,

354
00:25:24,066 --> 00:25:29,400
and changes forever our idea
of intelligent life on Earth.

355
00:25:41,700 --> 00:25:44,533
TYSON: We live in a time when
the world's democracies are

356
00:25:44,667 --> 00:25:47,133
even more fragile than ever.

357
00:25:47,266 --> 00:25:49,867
But there are places on
Earth where that's not true.

358
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:52,100
Where every
individual has a voice.

359
00:25:52,233 --> 00:25:54,400
Where corruption is unknown.

360
00:25:54,533 --> 00:25:57,066
Where the community
acts only when it has arrived

361
00:25:57,200 --> 00:25:59,867
at consensus
through reason and debate.

362
00:26:01,834 --> 00:26:05,333
This is one of those places.

363
00:26:13,567 --> 00:26:18,133
Contrary to popular belief,
the hive is no monarchy.

364
00:26:18,266 --> 00:26:22,767
The queen is no absolute ruler
controlling the other bees.

365
00:26:22,900 --> 00:26:26,633
The queen's role is
almost entirely reproductive.

366
00:26:26,767 --> 00:26:30,900
Any female bee,
and that's what the vast
majority of bees are,

367
00:26:31,033 --> 00:26:34,834
can ascend to the throne
given the right food
and the space to grow.

368
00:26:36,100 --> 00:26:39,166
When the weather warms,
and the trees bloom,

369
00:26:39,300 --> 00:26:42,233
she graciously passes
her scepter to a new
generation of queens.

370
00:26:44,533 --> 00:26:46,800
That's the time in
the life of a hive,

371
00:26:46,934 --> 00:26:49,033
in late spring
or early summer,

372
00:26:49,166 --> 00:26:52,533
when about half the hive's
bees, around 10,000 of them,

373
00:26:52,667 --> 00:26:54,934
grow restless.

374
00:26:55,066 --> 00:26:58,333
They decide it's time
to leave the mother hive,

375
00:26:58,467 --> 00:27:01,233
to found a new colony,
they know not where.

376
00:27:02,767 --> 00:27:05,567
Once they depart,
there's no turning back.

377
00:27:06,633 --> 00:27:09,333
It takes courage to
leave home with no way back,

378
00:27:09,467 --> 00:27:12,633
to risk everything,
and choose the unknown.

379
00:27:15,066 --> 00:27:18,133
That pushing and shoving
is not meant to be hostile.

380
00:27:18,266 --> 00:27:20,433
The workers are putting
the queen on a rigorous

381
00:27:20,567 --> 00:27:23,633
exercise program so
that she can lose weight,

382
00:27:23,767 --> 00:27:26,533
and get back
into flying shape.

383
00:27:26,667 --> 00:27:28,033
When everything's ready,

384
00:27:28,166 --> 00:27:31,433
it's time for the first
leg of their odyssey.

385
00:27:31,567 --> 00:27:34,400
It's time to swarm.

386
00:27:47,100 --> 00:27:50,800
With a new queen
now installed on her throne
in the original hive,

387
00:27:50,934 --> 00:27:53,800
the old Queen Mother has
pride of place at the very

388
00:27:53,934 --> 00:27:57,300
center of the
swarm of adventurers.

389
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:02,800
Hundreds of their most
senior members, scouts,

390
00:28:02,934 --> 00:28:06,533
are dispatched on missions
of reconnaissance over
a five kilometer radius.

391
00:28:08,867 --> 00:28:12,567
The scouts reconnoiter
the local trees for
the best possible new home.

392
00:28:13,567 --> 00:28:15,900
And they're extremely picky.

393
00:28:16,033 --> 00:28:18,166
Not just any place will do.

394
00:28:18,300 --> 00:28:20,533
The front door,
a hollow in a tree,

395
00:28:20,667 --> 00:28:23,600
must be too high for
bears and other marauders to

396
00:28:23,734 --> 00:28:26,500
easily reach in and
plunder their precious honey.

397
00:28:27,567 --> 00:28:30,266
Total square footage
is of critical concern.

398
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:32,433
Honeybees don't hibernate.

399
00:28:32,567 --> 00:28:35,000
They'll have to heat the
place for the long winter,

400
00:28:35,133 --> 00:28:37,734
and be sure to
produce enough food, honey,

401
00:28:37,867 --> 00:28:40,066
to see them through.

402
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:43,000
Each scout must measure
the exact dimensions,

403
00:28:43,133 --> 00:28:45,767
height, width, and depth.

404
00:28:45,900 --> 00:28:49,066
If it's even slightly
too small, or too large,

405
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:52,233
the entire swarm will be wiped
out before the next spring.

406
00:28:55,300 --> 00:28:58,233
When all the scouts return,
the bees are ready to hold

407
00:28:58,367 --> 00:29:01,266
their annual convention.

408
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:05,100
Each scout finds a place
to stand on the swarm.

409
00:29:05,233 --> 00:29:07,967
There, she presents her
argument for the best site

410
00:29:08,100 --> 00:29:09,633
she has discovered.

411
00:29:09,767 --> 00:29:12,266
This house-hunting
discourse is conducted in

412
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:16,300
their scientific and
mathematical language.

413
00:29:16,433 --> 00:29:19,934
Hundreds of scouts now use
the waggle dance to advertise

414
00:29:20,066 --> 00:29:22,633
the home that they've found.

415
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,266
At first,
opinions vary widely,

416
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:29,867
as each advocate attracts
her share of followers.

417
00:29:31,900 --> 00:29:35,633
At our political conventions,
people routinely lie.

418
00:29:35,767 --> 00:29:38,633
They press our buttons,
demonizing, scapegoating,

419
00:29:38,767 --> 00:29:40,767
appealing to our fears.

420
00:29:40,900 --> 00:29:43,667
But the bees can't risk that.

421
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:46,433
In both cases,
ours and theirs,

422
00:29:46,567 --> 00:29:49,967
the future depends on
seeing reality clearly.

423
00:29:50,100 --> 00:29:51,600
But for some reason,

424
00:29:51,734 --> 00:29:54,633
we are easily
manipulated and deceived.

425
00:29:54,767 --> 00:29:58,100
The bees somehow know that
they have to stick to the facts.

426
00:29:58,533 --> 00:30:00,166
They have to be accurate.

427
00:30:00,300 --> 00:30:02,233
They can't oversell.

428
00:30:02,367 --> 00:30:05,834
They act as if they understand
that it matters what's true.

429
00:30:05,967 --> 00:30:08,633
That nature won't be fooled.

430
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:11,600
The scouts who have found
the optimum sites for the

431
00:30:11,734 --> 00:30:15,467
swarm's new home are the
most passionate waggle dancers.

432
00:30:17,100 --> 00:30:20,200
Close scientific observation
over many decades affirms

433
00:30:20,333 --> 00:30:22,433
this astonishing fact,

434
00:30:22,567 --> 00:30:26,400
each bee has a platonic
ideal of home in mind.

435
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:29,800
Moreover, the members
of the swarm don't take the

436
00:30:29,934 --> 00:30:33,433
testimony of the most
popular dancers on faith.

437
00:30:33,567 --> 00:30:36,467
Many of them go
to see for themselves.

438
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:40,400
Skepticism is a
survival mechanism.

439
00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:43,767
The fact-checkers fly
off to the site to make

440
00:30:43,900 --> 00:30:46,433
an independent evaluation.

441
00:30:46,567 --> 00:30:49,266
Just think for a minute
how articulate the waggle

442
00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:51,934
dance messaging has to be.

443
00:30:52,300 --> 00:30:54,867
It's the coordinates
for one particular tree in

444
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:57,467
a whole forest of them.

445
00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:01,133
The scouts make a
beeline for it every time.

446
00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:04,734
If the hollow turns out
to be as good as advertised,

447
00:31:04,867 --> 00:31:07,000
they will return to
the swarm, where they,

448
00:31:07,133 --> 00:31:11,166
too, will dance its praises.

449
00:31:11,767 --> 00:31:15,667
Without deceit, or
violence, or back-hive deals,

450
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:19,533
the scouts are the first
to arrive at consensus.

451
00:31:20,900 --> 00:31:24,333
But the larger population
remains to be persuaded.

452
00:31:24,467 --> 00:31:27,333
Once they all
align behind one dance,

453
00:31:27,467 --> 00:31:31,633
once they've achieved
unanimity on the best
new place to call home,

454
00:31:31,767 --> 00:31:34,700
the great migration can begin.

455
00:31:34,834 --> 00:31:37,900
Within 60 seconds
of the first takeoff,

456
00:31:38,033 --> 00:31:41,667
10,000 bees depart in
formation for their new home.

457
00:31:43,567 --> 00:31:45,600
With the sun
as their compass,

458
00:31:45,734 --> 00:31:49,066
the airborne colony turns
to its queen for leadership.

459
00:31:49,767 --> 00:31:53,900
The swarm is a kind of mind,
a collective consciousness to

460
00:31:54,033 --> 00:31:57,233
which every individual
bee makes a contribution.

461
00:32:03,433 --> 00:32:07,600
Now that the move is
complete, it's time to unpack,

462
00:32:07,734 --> 00:32:11,233
decorate the nursery,
stock the pantry,

463
00:32:11,367 --> 00:32:14,467
and make the place their
own, until the weather warms,

464
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:17,100
and the trees bloom again.

465
00:32:17,233 --> 00:32:21,600
And so it has been for
tens of millions of years.

466
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,600
This intimate knowledge of
the lives of the bees is the

467
00:32:26,734 --> 00:32:30,967
legacy of Karl von Frisch,
who was the first to decrypt

468
00:32:31,100 --> 00:32:35,367
their symbolic language, to
make contact with a completely

469
00:32:35,500 --> 00:32:39,233
different kind of mind.

470
00:32:39,367 --> 00:32:42,633
Today, we study bee brains.

471
00:32:42,767 --> 00:32:45,567
We are building a bridge over
the chasm that has separated

472
00:32:45,700 --> 00:32:49,400
two species for
half a billion years.

473
00:32:49,533 --> 00:32:51,834
And yet,
after all that time,

474
00:32:51,967 --> 00:32:55,700
there are places
where our species
and theirs converged,

475
00:32:55,834 --> 00:33:00,133
agriculture, architecture,
language, and politics.

476
00:33:01,667 --> 00:33:04,834
We now know that bees sleep,

477
00:33:04,967 --> 00:33:09,233
and some scientists
suspect that they dream.

478
00:33:13,967 --> 00:33:16,033
What knocked us
out of our trance,

479
00:33:16,166 --> 00:33:19,066
so that we could finally
recognize another intelligence

480
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:20,834
that had always been there?

481
00:33:20,967 --> 00:33:23,333
A few generations
before von Frisch,

482
00:33:23,467 --> 00:33:27,100
one man did more than
any other to open the way.

483
00:33:27,233 --> 00:33:31,033
For me, he was the
greatest spiritual teacher
of the last thousand years.

484
00:33:32,433 --> 00:33:36,500
The flowers he planted
here long ago still bloom.

485
00:33:40,633 --> 00:33:43,166
The hive he founded,
and studied with open eyes,

486
00:33:43,300 --> 00:33:45,367
continues to flourish.

487
00:33:45,500 --> 00:33:48,667
It was he who figured out
how the Palace of Life could

488
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:53,400
evolve from a modest
one-room structure to an
edifice of soaring towers,

489
00:33:53,533 --> 00:33:56,667
reaching to the
stars and it was he who

490
00:33:56,800 --> 00:34:02,000
first glimpsed the secret
lives of our fellow earthlings.

491
00:34:15,367 --> 00:34:19,033
,

492
00:34:19,166 --> 00:34:22,900
a shrine to all the broken
branches on the tree of life.

493
00:34:23,033 --> 00:34:25,400
But that tree still lives,

494
00:34:25,533 --> 00:34:29,433
it's seen 4 billion
springtimes since
it first took root.

495
00:34:29,567 --> 00:34:33,066
Its flowers burst forth with
unforeseeable possibilities.

496
00:34:36,867 --> 00:34:39,567
A tiny, one-celled
organism evolves into you

497
00:34:39,700 --> 00:34:42,500
and everything else
that is Earthlife.

498
00:34:42,633 --> 00:34:45,200
There's just no way of
predicting, for now, anyway,

499
00:34:45,333 --> 00:34:47,033
where life can lead.

500
00:34:47,166 --> 00:34:49,734
No way of foretelling the
forms and capabilities that

501
00:34:49,867 --> 00:34:53,400
can issue from
simpler organisms over
vast expanses of time.

502
00:34:55,033 --> 00:34:59,100
Life itself can be seen as an
emergent property of chemistry,

503
00:34:59,233 --> 00:35:02,633
science as an
emergent property of life,

504
00:35:02,767 --> 00:35:06,667
a way that life has found
to begin to know itself.

505
00:35:13,333 --> 00:35:17,033
Four billion years.

506
00:35:18,934 --> 00:35:22,500
These are the most
ancient towers that life built.

507
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:46,066
♪ ♪

508
00:36:06,767 --> 00:36:09,834
Nobody knew this
palace existed.

509
00:36:09,967 --> 00:36:14,800
It was hidden by the mists
of time, and enshrouded in myth.

510
00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:19,200
But one man dared
to part that curtain.

511
00:36:19,333 --> 00:36:22,433
He studied as many
kinds of life as he could.

512
00:36:32,433 --> 00:36:34,834
He sailed to a group of
islands on the far side of

513
00:36:34,967 --> 00:36:38,233
the planet in search
of exotic species.

514
00:36:38,367 --> 00:36:41,734
He studied the bees,
the flowers, the finches,

515
00:36:41,867 --> 00:36:46,000
mollusks, and
earthworms, for 30 years.

516
00:36:46,133 --> 00:36:49,767
A radical pattern emerged,
one that would shake the world.

517
00:36:50,633 --> 00:36:55,166
It still does, he debunked
the story of Adam and Eve.

518
00:36:56,500 --> 00:36:59,133
Humans are not the kings
of life, created separately,

519
00:36:59,266 --> 00:37:02,200
and charged with its
management but instead,

520
00:37:02,333 --> 00:37:05,533
an upstart offspring of
its stately, ancient family.

521
00:37:06,934 --> 00:37:09,200
He waited to tell the world
what he had discovered until

522
00:37:09,333 --> 00:37:12,900
he could demonstrate its truth
beyond a shadow of a doubt.

523
00:37:13,033 --> 00:37:16,333
But then he made
another great leap,

524
00:37:18,166 --> 00:37:21,567
Charles Darwin was also one
of the first to recognize that

525
00:37:21,700 --> 00:37:23,934
if all life is related,

526
00:37:24,066 --> 00:37:27,433
there were certain
philosophical implications.

527
00:37:32,767 --> 00:37:35,266
If we were not created
separately from
the other animals,

528
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:39,066
must we not share more
of who we are with them?

529
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:42,400
Our awareness, our
relationships with others,

530
00:37:42,533 --> 00:37:44,600
even our feelings?

531
00:37:44,734 --> 00:37:48,266
Instead of a single
island of human perception
in the universe,

532
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:51,500
Darwin realized that
we are surrounded by other

533
00:37:51,633 --> 00:37:54,934
ways of being
alive and conscious.

534
00:37:55,066 --> 00:37:58,266
For Darwin, science was
a pathway to a deeper level

535
00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:01,633
of empathy and humility.

536
00:38:03,100 --> 00:38:06,066
When word reached him
that a local farmer was
mistreating his sheep,

537
00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:09,867
Darwin dropped his research
to make an arrest of the man.

538
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,667
He exposed the horrendous
suffering of wild animals

539
00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:15,233
caught in the
jaws of steel traps,

540
00:38:15,367 --> 00:38:18,734
and experimented on surgically
without benefit of anesthesia.

541
00:38:19,867 --> 00:38:23,133
Throughout his entire life,
he was haunted by an image of

542
00:38:23,266 --> 00:38:26,300
the helpless dog who licked
his tormentor's hand while

543
00:38:26,433 --> 00:38:29,633
being dissected by a scientist.

544
00:38:29,767 --> 00:38:34,100
And this compassion extended
even to our own species.

545
00:38:34,233 --> 00:38:37,867
He recognized the blindness of
his 19th century contemporaries.

546
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:40,533
In his autobiography,
he recounted the story of

547
00:38:40,667 --> 00:38:44,467
an African woman who jumped off
a cliff to her certain death,

548
00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:48,300
rather than submit to being
enslaved by the Portuguese.

549
00:38:49,133 --> 00:38:53,533
Darwin observed that
if she had been a Roman matron
from classical antiquity,

550
00:38:53,667 --> 00:38:56,734
she would be
viewed very differently.

551
00:38:56,867 --> 00:39:00,133
We would be naming
our daughters after her.

552
00:39:06,066 --> 00:39:09,533
It was he who began the
scientific study of the hidden

553
00:39:09,667 --> 00:39:13,200
world beneath
the forest floor.

554
00:39:13,333 --> 00:39:16,200
Darwin worshipped nature.

555
00:39:16,333 --> 00:39:20,467
His knowledge of science
informed and drove his
compassion to new heights.

556
00:39:35,333 --> 00:39:40,133
Behold,
Saccorhytus coronarius.

557
00:39:40,667 --> 00:39:43,934
When it lived, 550 million
years ago, it was microscopic.

558
00:39:45,467 --> 00:39:49,400
But for us now, it looms
large because this creature is

559
00:39:49,533 --> 00:39:52,900
the earliest common
ancestor we've yet found,

560
00:39:53,033 --> 00:39:56,667
a physical connection
we share with almost
every animal on Earth.

561
00:40:10,233 --> 00:40:13,433
If we could only take
that connection to heart.

562
00:40:13,567 --> 00:40:16,900
If some day, we could
synthesize all our knowledge

563
00:40:17,033 --> 00:40:21,200
of life, and use it to
build an Arch of Experience,

564
00:40:21,333 --> 00:40:25,834
a way for us to really feel
what it's like to be the other.

565
00:40:29,900 --> 00:40:33,433
What if we could truly
know the joy of a giant condor

566
00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:37,066
riding the thermals
high in the Andes,

567
00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:40,700
or the anguish of a humpback
whale singing to its lover

568
00:40:40,834 --> 00:40:45,100
across the vast Pacific,
or the fear in the heart of

569
00:40:45,233 --> 00:40:49,700
our most hated enemy, how
would that change this world?

570
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:54,967
And all of them,
and each of us,

571
00:40:55,100 --> 00:40:58,367
made from the same toolbox,
with the same genetic

572
00:40:58,500 --> 00:41:02,233
material, but on
different evolutionary voyages.

573
00:41:18,433 --> 00:41:20,834
Are there other possible
worlds in the cosmos where

574
00:41:20,967 --> 00:41:24,633
life's pathways
converge and intersect?

575
00:41:24,767 --> 00:41:27,367
Remember our friends,
the tardigrades,

576
00:41:27,500 --> 00:41:29,867
who can rise from the dead
to thrive on Earth in those

577
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:33,133
hellish places where
no one else can live?

578
00:41:33,266 --> 00:41:37,000
They have survived all
five mass extinctions,

579
00:41:37,133 --> 00:41:41,934
and they can even
live in the vacuum of
space without protection.

580
00:41:42,066 --> 00:41:45,000
These creatures, too small
to see with the naked eye,

581
00:41:45,133 --> 00:41:46,834
have been observed
by scientists,

582
00:41:46,967 --> 00:41:49,066
using a scanning
electron microscope,

583
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:52,333
doing something that we
like to think only humans do.

584
00:41:54,266 --> 00:41:56,433
They're not performing any of
the known biological functions

585
00:41:56,567 --> 00:41:59,233
that organisms
need to survive.

586
00:41:59,367 --> 00:42:02,867
They're gently giving
each other pleasure,

587
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:07,133
affection,
tenderness for its own sake.

588
00:42:09,834 --> 00:42:13,100
If bees dream,
and tardigrades snuggle,

589
00:42:14,467 --> 00:42:16,633
are there countless roads
in the universe that life can

590
00:42:16,767 --> 00:42:19,166
take to wonder and to love?

591
00:42:22,233 --> 00:42:25,700
If we could stand beneath
the Arch of Experience,

592
00:42:25,834 --> 00:42:29,033
or build one inside ourselves,

593
00:42:29,166 --> 00:42:33,867
maybe we'd be able
to give our first contact
story a better outcome.

594
00:42:45,567 --> 00:42:49,066
(computer signals)

595
00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:07,500
(computer signals)

596
00:43:52,233 --> 00:43:55,633
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