Rolls Royce Super Engine • 2020 • episode "S1E7" • Super Factories

51:55

This documentary presented by Professor Simon Schaffer describes the amazing story of automata Designed and built with pen and paper in the 18th Century leveraging the mechanisms employed in making timepieces, these mechanical devices containing 1000’s of parts and are programmable to mimic human actions in Mechanical Theatre. The program describes how there development has led to the creation of the mechanical devices we take for granted today showing the first mechanical weaving looms allowing for the mass production of fabrics and in effect started the industrial revolution.

2013 • Technology

47:24

Enlai explores if we can truly love artificial intelligence, and teach it to love us back. He meets impassioned love robots and chatbots trained on memories of people, living and dead.

S1E1 • Becoming Human • 2020 • Technology

48:22

In 1962, the British and French governments signed a historic agreement: they will produce the first passenger superstructure Concorde. Engineers will move the aeronautical engineering boundaries to fly the Atlantic Ocean in less than three and a half hours. In the midst of the Cold War, Concorde took part in the unrestrained race with Boeing 2707, a project initiated by J. Kennedy and Soviet Tupoljev 144. In the spring of 1969, Concorde successfully carried out the first pilot flight.

S1E1 • Concorde the Supersonic Race • 2017 • Technology

42:05

America and the Soviet Union set out to conquer the moon, but much more was at stake.

S1E6 • American Genius • 2015 • 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.

S1E4 • How We Got to Now • 2014 • Technology

58:59

Hannah goes behind the scenes to look at the technology behind the lift, entering a 246m high lift shaft to test everything from the brakes to her own fear of heights.

S2E6 • The Secret Genius of Modern Life • 2023 • Technology