Rising Concerns • 2018 • episode "1/2" • Futuropolis: Mapping the City of Tomorrow

42:41

Learn about the technologies that will usher in a whole new way of life: we will live in floating cities, fly to work and travel in cars capable of operating underwater. And, with new technologies, humanity will find new ways of protecting and conserving resources to meet the needs of a growing population by using renewable sources of water, food and electricity. The era of smog-filled skies will be over, because fewer of us will be driving cars. Where we’re going, we won’t need roads. We’ll be piloting environmentally friendly personal vehicles between cities and under the seas. And the good news is we’ll never be lost, thanks to new advances in GPS-driven virtual mapping. Then again, with the ability to teleport our presence anywhere on Earth, we might not have to travel at all. And, best of all, we’ll all have more time to enjoy the astounding advances of our near future, because we’ll all be living longer. A lot longer.

1/6 • Next World • 2010 • Technology

52:57

With the rapid emergence of digital devices, an unstoppable, invisible force is changing human lives in ways from the microscopic to the gargantuan: Big Data, a word that was barely used a few years ago but now governs the day for almost all of us. This award-winning film explores how the real time visualization of data streaming in from satellites, billions of sensors and GPS enabled cameras and smart phones is beginning to enable us, as individuals and collectively as a society, to sense, measure and understand aspects of our existence in ways never possible before. Together these devices are helping create a new kind of planetary nervous system. This massive gathering and analyzing of data in real time is also allowing us to address to some of humanity biggest challenges, including pollution, world hunger, and illness. But as Edward Snowden and the release of the NSA documents have shown, the accessibility of all this data comes at a steep price.

NOVA PBS • 2016 • Technology

42:56

What if aliens landed on Earth? Much of science fiction explores the moment of first contact – what will people do when the aliens land? From H. G. Wells’ pioneering The War of the Worlds to Independence Day, Men in Black, and District 9, Invasion deals with our fears of alien invasions of earth. David Tennant explains the appeal of Doctor Who’s Daleks and Cybermen while John Carpenter and Chris Carter explore the rich appeal of the paranoia fuelled by hidden aliens with The Thing and The X-Files. It also asks what if the monsters were our own creation? With the aid of rarely seen animation tests, Phil Tippett takes us behind the scenes in the creation of the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. But not all invasions are hostile. Peter Coyote and Richard Dreyfuss discuss the creation of Spielberg’s spellbinding classics E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. There is more than one kind of invasion.

Part 3 • The Real History of Science Fiction • 2014 • Technology

52:13

Go into the physical heart of the Internet and learn about the very first message sent by UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock.

1/3 • Digits • 2017 • Technology

52:17

What will our cities look like in 2050? How will they be able to accommodate the one million additional people who arrive every week? The challenge is enormous. To reduce the impact on the planet and the energy footprint and optimize exchanges within megacities, digital technologies will be crucial.

S1E1 • Dream the Future • 2017 • Technology

55:41

Steven Johnson relates the story of people who take us out of the dark and into the light. Hear about Edison’s light bulb, which he didn’t actually invent, and learn how an 18th-century shipping community discovered a source of illumination by putting a kid inside a whale’s head. See how a French scientist accidentally discovered how to create neon light, leading to a revolution in advertising. Dispelling the myth of the individual “eureka” moment, Johnson reveals that teamwork and collaboration led the way to the most transformative ideas. Whether, altering the world’s sleeping patterns, giving rise to mass spectator sports, revolutionizing how global business is done or triggering one of the great social reforms in American history, the pioneers of light have made themselves indispensable throughout human history.

4/6 • How We Got to Now • 2014 • Technology