From our amazing brain and its inspiring design for artificial neural networks to the hope of artificial general intelligence (AGI), this feature film covers the science of emulating the power of our own brains. Will such technology surpass our own intelligence? Will we reach the Technological Singularity? And what will this mean for humanity? Toward Singularity takes a look at how neuroscience is inspiring the development of artificial intelligence. Our amazing brain, one of the most complicated systems we know about, is inspiring the development of intelligent machines. Machines that may well surpass our own intelligence and could birth a new species on the planet.
The film follows Opportunity, the Mars exploration rover launched in 2003, affectionately dubbed Oppy by her creators and scientists at NASA. Oppy was originally expected to live for only 90 days but she ultimately explored Mars for nearly 15 years. With access to archival and interview footage with scientists and engineers and re-creations of the rover's treks over the Martian landscape in search of water, we will explore her groundbreaking journey on Mars and the remarkable bond forged between a robot and her humans creators millions of miles away. The narrative interrogates the significance of Opportunity's endurance for the future of interstellar discovery.
A new era of space is dawning where small satellites no bigger than a shoebox will be deployed not in one or twos, but in their thousands - referred to as satellite swarms. It's been described as the democratization of space. What was once the preserve of governments and superpowers is evolving into a truly global industry. The catalyst for this dramatic change is this new generation of satellites.
The meteoric rise of renewable energy has consequences for our electricity supply. While coal and gas fired power stations can generate electricity whenever you need it, renewables are intermittent by nature. So we need a backup plan for when the wind stops or the sun goes down. All over the world, engineers and scientists are racing to solve one key problem; how to safely and efficiently store electricity at a huge scale but at a low cost. The quest is producing some truly remarkable ideas and this episode details three of them.
In the second episode, the murder of a political staffer in 2016 spawns a myriad of unfounded conspiracy theories as the man's family and the truth hang in the balance. Following Seth Rich's murder, his parents filed a lawsuit with Fox News after conspiracy theories about his murder spread across the internet. Mary Rich told NPR that the combined trauma of her son's death and the attacks by conspiracy theorists caused intense and lasting distrust. After the case was resolved, Rich's parents said in a statement at the time that they were 'pleased with the resolution of this matter and sincerely hope that the media will take genuine precautions in the future'.
In this mind-bending series, Professor Jim Al-Khalili explores the vast range of size in the universe, from tiny atoms to gigantic, interconnected galaxies. In the first episode, Jim will enter the world of objects that are too tiny to glimpse with the naked eye. Starting with the smallest insects, he moves on to encounter living cells with amazing superpowers and confronts some of humanity's deadliest enemies in the form of viruses. Going smaller still, he encounters wondrous new nanomaterials such as graphene, discovered by physicist Andre Geim. These are revolutionising engineering, medicine, computing, electronics and environmental science. Finally, Jim comes face to face with the fundamental building blocks of the world around us – atoms – and reveals why understanding the science of the 'small' is crucial to the future of humanity.
Toward Singularity takes a look at how neuroscience is inspiring the development of artificial intelligence. Our amazing brain, one of the most complicated systems we know about, is inspiring the development of intelligent machines. Machines that may well surpass our own intelligence and could birth a new species on the planet.