Man, voice-over:
A few summers ago, I was
at the beach with my family.
And right when we got there,
we took off our shoes
and ran to the ocean's edge.
And we've all
experienced this before.
The waves kind of come in.
And as they wash out,
we feel ourselves sinking
because the sand beneath us
is getting wet.
But at the same time,
if we're looking out
to the horizon line,
it doesn't seem like
much changes.
It's very discombobulating.
Marine biologists
call this area
that is sometimes above water
and sometimes below water
the intertidal zone.
In many ways, that's where we
are right now as a society.
We're in an intertidal moment.
You feel like everything's
in some ways the same.
You still wake up.
You're still you.
But there's a shift,
and you can't quite
put your finger on it.
It's really a crossroads
moment for humanity.
Imagine, if you will, sitting
down to your morning coffee,
turning on your home computer
to read the day's newspaper.
Well, it's not as far-fetched
as it may seem.
Well, I think
what we're seeing
is a new digital wild west
where no one is in charge.
Thank you for the likes!
Let's get to 40,000.
This is freaking crazy.
More than
3 billion people
in almost 70 countries
and territories
have been asked
to stay at home.
- The question is--
- The radical left--
- Will you shut up, man?
- Listen.
Abnormal behaviors
mean more panic,
aggression, confusion, or
anxiety during waking hours.
I don't believe we've even
se
\h
en the tip of the iceberg.
I think we're really
on the verge
of something wonderful
and terrifying.
I can hear you.
I think it's a filter.
Yes. I'm here live.
I'm not a cat.
How come you're
smoking weed in the Capitol?
Because I can.
Do you feel like too much
is changing too fast?
I use the term
the intertidal moment
to kind of describe
where we are
in the current kind of arc
of human history.
What sets this apart
from almost any other
intertidal
that has come before,
this is probably
the first time that we can
actually recognize that we're
actually in an intertidal.
So, instead of it
just kind of happening
and everyone
feeling discombobulated,
we all feel
something is not working.
And at the same time,
we're grappling and looking
for something else.
Hello there.
I'm curious about how
we can find and embrace
the creative potential
of this moment.
But first,
we have to get a bearing
on what moment
we're actually in.
That's led me here
to Columbia University,
where I sat down with a group
of graduate students
training to become the
future leaders of tomorrow.
So, it's 2040, and you're
being asked to kind of
describe this moment
in human history,
in the big scope.
Talk to each other.
Talk to me about
how you're going to describe
what it is that
we're going through right now.
Coming out of the pandemic,
and there's a lot of confusion
around, well,
if we're coming out of this,
what are we going into?
The world that we knew before
is just much different.
What is, you know,
that next step?
What's the life that
we're moving towards?
Nobody really knows.
Like, from individuals
to business leaders
to government leaders,
we're all here
just really trying
to figure it out.
And that
sense of leadership
as this is who
I want to follow to get there
is probably more unclear now
than it maybe has ever been.
I think this is
an interesting moment
of, like, excitement
and opportunity,
but it's all founded
in a level of uncertainty
that I have not been in before.
There were a lot of
things that I think
we took for granted,
a lot of certainties
that we had taken for granted
that I think have all
bubbled up to the top right now
in terms of, you know,
where is there security?
What does it look
like for something
to function correctly
for everyone?
What is it that
we are taking for granted?
Just revenue building
can't be the bottom line,
that individualistic mindset
can't be it anymore.
So, in 2040, if I looked back
and I explained to my kids
hopefully what this time
looked like,
I think it was a time
of opportunity
with responsibility.
I feel like also
climate-wise, this is--
I mean, these years are really
going to be, like, deciding
about our future, right?
So, by 2040, hopefully,
we'll be looking back
and say we made some very
wise decisions in that regard,
and we won't have
to tell our kids,
well, sorry,
we, like, did it wrong.
I really do hope that.
And I think
with regards to that,
there are a lot of
sort of turning points
that we are able
to shape right now,
which gives us a
responsibility you mentioned
and which means that
you have to think about
how you want
to shape the future.
Wallach, voice-over:
When things are stable,
it feels safe.
But that's the opposite
of what the world feels like
right now.
From our lives to
our own jobs to our families
to our country to the climate
to the politics,
it feels unsteady,
it feels in flux.
When that happens,
your brain, your amygdala,
is going to say,
"This is not safe."
I don't feel like we're
in a stable place.
You look at
any long form of humanity
over thousands and thousands or
hundreds of thousands of years,
if you go way back
to the beginning,
and it's flat.
It's flat in terms
of population.
It's flat in terms
of technology.
It's flat in terms
of communication.
It's flat.
And then for the last
eye blink, it explodes.
You've never had a period on a
planet like the last 50 years,
really half a century of
un
\h
precedented human progress.
Education levels increased.
Infant mortality reduced.
Life expectancy
grew extraordinarily
all over the world.
Now, there were costs
to that globalization.
We are now at the beginning
of a new globalization in ways
that even a year ago,
never mind 20,
seemed inconceivable,
and, of course, I'm talking
about the AI revolution.
We're living through a moment
of extraordinary change.
Even good change can be hard.
The information environment
that we're living in,
it is completely
surrounding us.
It's coming at us 24/7.
And unfortunately
a lot of times,
this information that
comes at us is negative.
It stokes fear and anxiety.
But for young people
in particular,
there is more and more data
that we have that is telling us
that many young people are
in fact harmed.
There are 3 numbers
that really stick out to me.
If you look at a high school
with 1,000 kids in it,
about 450 of those children
are feeling persistently sad
or hopeless.
200 of those children
have considered
taking their own life.
And 100 of those kids
have attempted suicide.
As much as we're struggling
right now,
as much as our kids are
in a mental health crisis,
it does not have
to be this way.
There's a choice we have
between a world where people
are increasingly in despair
and a world where people are
connected to one another,
where we look at the future
and see possibility.
Wallach, voice-over: Life has
always been full of change.
But the growing sense that we
ar
\h
e entering uncharted waters
is being felt around the world
in unprecedented ways
right now.
We're living in a time
between times
when what was
is no longer working
and what will be
has yet to be born.
But what happens in a moment
when the usual shifts
we experience all the time
in one industry or culture
become heightened
and intertwined?
What does it take to
navigate through a period
when the degree of complexity
and confusion in our lives
feels like
it's turned up to 11?
And what kind of stress
is this all putting
on our brain's ability
to make sense
of
\h
what we're living through?
So, Ari, we're going to do
a neurofunctional assessment.
This is called a TheraQ.
It's picking up
brainwave activity.
There we go.
Beautiful.
This will only
take a few minutes.
Your assessment
is starting now.
Close your eyes.
Wallach, voice-over:
Dr. Brown has spent his life
following the effects the
modern world is having on us
through traditional psychology
as well as
neurofeedback systems
that are getting
increasingly powerful
at monitoring
our brains' response
to the pressures of this
moment we find ourselves in.
One of the things
that I'm curious about
is how you see
this current moment.
And by that,
I mean this current moment
for humanity writ large.
Broadly,
I think we're in a time
that has moved more
and more towards
kind of the atomization
of individuals.
There are stressors that are
putting demands on our bodies
and on our brains
that are in turn
affecting the way
we live our lives
and the way we live together.
One way of thinking
about this is that
our bodies and our brains
have a blueprint
that was laid down
for what was useful to survive
100,000 years ago.
And back then,
what you're trying to do
was not be eaten by a bear
or a saber-toothed tiger,
depending on how
far back you go.
So, everything in our evolution
was shaping us
towards developing
an effective
fight or flight system,
dealing with physical threat,
immediate threat.
And that's not very well
suited to our life now.
Instead, we have
stressors and demands
that are longer term,
that are chronic,
and our bodies aren't
really designed for that.
Our brains aren't really
designed for that.
So, what happens when
you take someone who's wired
for fight or flight, you know,
hundreds of thousands
of years of evolution,
but you stick them
in a cubicle,
or you stick them, you know,
on a factory floor,
doing the same thing
over and over again,
or you put them
in a classroom
for 8 hours a day,
sitting at a desk?
I think we perceive a lot of
threat right now in our world.
And it's not often
the kind of threat
that we're designed
to deal with.
We're designed to deal
with concrete,
time-limited threat.
What we have is diffuse,
something bad's
going to happen,
I don't know what,
kind of threat.
And it's not time-limited.
It's ongoing.
Wallach, voice-over: A lot of us
feel that right now,
this kind of low-grade sense
of fear and uncertainty
about where we're headed.
And it can leave us
feeling powerless
over what comes next.
But what do we do when
some of these threats
are not imagined,
but rather painfully real?
One of those is a threat to
the natural world around us.
The systems that sustain
all life on this planet
are warning us that
things are not OK.
And yet if you're like me,
it
\h
's so easy to feel helpless
in the face
of a challenge this big.
That led me here to
the northeast coast of Canada,
where Valérie Courtois leads
a growing group of people
who refuse to ignore
this threat right here,
in one of the most
ecologically important
places on Earth.
Tell me about this land.
Where are we right now?
We're in Nitassinan, which
is the Innu word for our land
or the place of the Innu,
specifically known as
Labrador today.
We're at the foot of
the Mealy Mountains.
Interestingly, the
Mealy Mountains is a joint park
between the Innu Nation
and Parks Canada.
It's the largest intact forest
left on this planet.
It is home to over
5 billion birds.
It's got a quarter of
the world's wetlands,
a fifth of the
world's freshwater.
It actually absorbs
twice as much carbon
as tropical forest
per hectare.
And so, in terms
of climate regulation,
this is the most important
terrestrial landscape
on the planet.
There's a movement afoot,
several movements afoot
around the planet,
but especially here
for First Nations
and obviously
in Indigenous groups,
to actually have
a much stronger part
in protecting
and preserving these lands.
Why is that so important?
Well, you know, 80% of the
world's remaining biodiversity
is on lands that are loved
by Indigenous peoples.
And that's not an accident.
It's because we know that
we're responsible
for those landscapes.
And unfortunately, Western
society has lost its way.
And, so we're finding
that more people
are looking
to Indigenous peoples
and looking to us
for new ways
of thinking about
that relationship.
How do you feel about
the biodiversity loss
that these lands are
going through right now?
I feel grief.
I feel a loss of
responsibility,
and I feel guilt that
we've gotten to this place.
But I also know
that not all is lost.
You know,
the world is resilient.
The land is resilient.
We are resilient.
Wallach, voice-over:
Valérie has spent years
lobbying the Canadian
government to invest in
protecting these ecologically
rich environments.
And her work led
to the creation of a group
known as The Guardians,
a First Nations-led initiative
across the country
tasked with defending
the long-term health
of the land.
Together, they steward not
on
\h
ly these fragile ecosystems
but also an ancient way
of seeing themselves
in relationship
with the land itself.
- Yeah.
- Cheers.
This is the first time
that we talked about
working as a superintendent
here in the National Park
and also with working
with Innu Nation.
We've been asked to
do up a guideline
- Mm.
- About how to protect it.
And I say to the government
that we've been doing this
for thousands of years.
If we didn't manage
the way we managed,
there wouldn't be any animals.
There wouldn't be
any resources at all.
And now you're expecting us to
write it and put it on paper
and have it stamped
and say this is how it is?
It's a way of thinking.
Exactly.
It's a mindset.
In the Western world,
you get people
that want to overcut,
want to overkill,
want to k*ll every fish
in the water,
every caribou that
walks on the Earth.
But the Innu,
they don't think like that.
There's not clear cut
in the whole area
just for profit
or to sell to somebody else.
They just think, OK,
I just need this for this long,
or I need this to feed my
family and my mother-in-law.
So, I'll take this many salmon
out of the river,
and then I'm done.
I think we need to--
we need to go kind of go back
to that relationship and make
a conscious effort to do it.
I think if more people were
connected to the land,
we'd be a much better world.
Mm.
Courtois, voice-over: Our
la
\h
nguages come from the land.
Our practices, our laws,
everything
comes from the Earth.
We can
learn those things again.
I don't know about you,
but I want to be here
for a little while.
Yeah.
And I want my children to
be here for a little while.
And I want my grandson
to be here for a little while.
We have a role to play
and we should be
helping decide and taking care
of this place.
Wallach, voice-over: It's
an unforgettable experience
to spend time with people
wh
\h
o simply refuse to give up,
building on ancient wisdom to
lo
\h
ok beyond our modern moment
to a future
worth fighting for.
These are the stories
we need right now.
It's so easy
to see what's wrong
and even easier
to lose hope altogether.
But the creativity comes
in finding new ways
to do something about it.
I'm in Rotterdam
to meet Boyan Slat,
who's doing this very thing,
inventing a technology
designed to give our oceans
a second chance.
Tell me how you got started.
I was 16 years old.
I went scuba diving in Greece.
And I was hoping to see
all these beautiful things.
Then I looked around me,
and I just saw a garbage dump.
I just saw more
plastic bags than fish.
And I was so dismayed
and shocked by that
that I asked myself
a simple question.
Why can't we just
clean this up?
The Great Pacific
Garbage Patch is
the largest accumulation of
trash in the world's oceans.
It's an area halfway between
Hawaii and California.
It spans twice
the size of Texas,
and it contains about
250 million pounds of trash.
Plastic is one of
the largest threats
our oceans face today.
There's now 700 species
known to be directly impacted
by plastic pollution.
A few hundred of those
are actually threatened
with extinction.
The most uncertain
factor but perhaps
even the most
impactful factor
is the health impact
to us humans.
Plastic breaks down
in
\h
to smaller, smaller pieces.
They transport toxic chemicals
into the food chain,
and that's a food chain
that includes
more than 3 billion people
that rely on fish
as their key source
of protein.
Wallach, voice-over:
Boyan and his team are
working towards a goal
to clean up 90% of
floating plastic pollution.
And here's
the most powerful part.
It took several attempts
be
\h
fore they created something
that even had a chance
to achieve that.
It was touch and go.
People said the system
he was inventing
would never work.
But then it did.
Slat, voice-over:
So, the system itself
is a long, U-shaped
floating barrier
that we drag forth very slowly
just to make sure that
the fish can escape in time.
It acts like a funnel.
Pl
\h
astic goes towards the center
where we have what we call
the retention zone,
which is a collection bag.
Every few days when it's full,
we take the bag onto a ship.
We empty it, sort the waste,
and then ultimately, we bring
it back to land for recycling.
Actually, the oldest
object we ever collected.
And you can see
how it's been degraded.
Yeah.
So, these flakes are
coming off.
The thing is
because of UV light,
because of the sun,
the plastic becomes
more brittle.
So, then, layer by layer,
like an onion,
it kind of peels.
So, this eventually can end up
in the fish that we eat.
Yeah, and this can
turn into
millions of pieces
of microplastics.
Yeah.
So, in here,
what you see is the,
essentially, the recycling
process in steps.
So, actually, half
of what we get out of
the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch is fishing nets.
- Mm-hmm.
- So, it looks just like this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I would say probably
the most harmful type
because this, of course,
ensnares a lot of wildlife.
So, what we then do
is we wash it,
and we shred it to get
to this kind of pulp.
Yep.
And then ultimately,
we injection-mold it,
we compound it,
so, we add some additives
to make sure that
the materials is safe
and high quality.
And then it becomes this.
So, these are what
you call pellets.
And these are the building
blocks for any new object.
So, you can just mold this
into something new,
and the idea is that
we are producing durable,
sustainable products
out of this,
and with that,
help fund the cleanup.
Actually,
as a proof of concept,
we made these sort of
high-end designer sunglasses.
Wow.
So, this is 100% made from
the plastic we took
out of the Great Pacific
Garbage Patch.
They look good on you.
These are great.
So, if the Garbage Patch is
cleaned up in 10 to 15 years,
what's to prevent another one
20 years from now forming?
Realistically, the amount of
plastic that's being produced
is not going down.
In fact, the projections
are that by 2060,
the amount of plastic produced
will increase threefold.
So, really what we need
to do is
we need to decouple
the plastic usage
from the plastic flows
into the ocean.
We have interceptors now
in 11 rivers,
some of the most polluting
rivers in the world.
And we believe we can really
stop most of
the world's plastic emissions
from leaking into the ocean.
What do you think
when people say
what you're doing
is impossible?
I think when somebody says
something is impossible,
I think the sheer absoluteness
of that statement
should make you suspicious
of it.
If you look at history,
everything that we now
take for granted
used to be impossible
at some point in time.
So, if you're an entrepreneur,
if you're trying to
make something,
if you're trying to create
something, yes,
I think it's very important
to listen
and to listen
to people's advice.
But if there's
one bit of advice
that you should
really ignore,
it's people who say that
something can't be done.
Wallach, voice-over:
The challenges facing Boyan
and us all are daunting.
Intertidal times
are full of danger,
but it's also where
all the creative juice is.
And for those of us who want
to push the envelope
on who we are
and what's possible
on this planet
looking forward,
this is our moment.
Man, voice-over: Man,
one of the most fragile of
Earth's creatures,
the builder of civilization,
entrusted by nature with the
unique but dangerous ability
to alter the very conditions
that gave him rise.
Wallach, voice-over:
We've been in moments
like this before.
The big one is moving from
hunter-gatherer
to agricultural.
That was maybe 10,000,
12,000 years ago.
We went from being
in small clans and tribes
to now actually
starting to urbanize.
We also have things like
the Gutenberg press.
So, we went from an era
where knowledge could
only be held by a few people
to now being able
to mass-create knowledge
in a way that would actually
bring it out to people.
Now, from that,
you got the Reformation
and all sorts of
upheaval around Europe
and around the world.
Another one is kind of
moving from this idea
that the Earth is the center
of everything,
to moving towards heliocentric
models of how the world works.
Moving from us being
the center of the universe
to just being one kind of node
in a multi-noded galaxy
and universe was
highly disruptive.
The Industrial Revolution,
moving from this idea
that the power that
we had in the world
was just what we could do
with our own hands and backs
and change where we lived,
what we ate, how we travel.
It changed how we fought wars.
And it also fundamentally
changed the way we told stories
about who we are
and where we're going.
When we go through
these moments
of flux and creativity,
all sorts of new things
start to arise.
That's the potential
before us right now.
These threats and challenges
hold opportunities
to remake the world.
As the old ways break down
and fall apart around us,
what does it look like
to
\h
reimagine what comes next?
In Albany, Eben Bayer
and his team at Ecovative
are working to answer
that question
using mushrooms.
So, we're going to
head right over here.
All right.
So, as I understand,
this is kind of just
a beautiful piece
of mycelium, basically,
in a sense.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Like foam-like substance.
What is this?
This is a
leather-like material.
We call it a forager hide.
And it's made from
this foam.
We just squish it
and tan it and color it
and you get something
that behaves, looks,
and feels a lot like leather.
So, how long will this last?
So, this particular
leather-like hide
will last for
a year or two
in this application
as tanned.
You could make it
last longer by putting
other tannery
chemistries in,
like we use
for conventional leather.
So, this is where
we actually
started with something
called mushroom packaging.
These are just little
corner blocks
that would go on a box
you might get in the mail,
and, you know, they've got
little breakaways on them.
And then when it gets to you,
unlike Styrofoam,
big difference is you can
just start to break this up.
If you have a compost at home,
you can put it in your compost,
or you could put it
in your yard waste bin.
And within 30 days,
this will turn into
a nutrient,
not a pollutant,
in whatever
your local ecosystem is.
What are the biggest problems
that you're trying
to tackle here?
The problems that
we focus on at Ecovative
are around plastic pollution,
so, this idea that we just
created this incredible
miracle material
that can't degrade,
and it's, like,
clogging up the lungs
and everything
of our Earth's ecosystem.
And the other is around
animal agriculture,
so, the mass production of
animals for food or materials.
I grew up farming
in Central Vermont.
It's fine to raise animals.
Doing it industrially is
not ecologically responsible
or ethically responsible.
here.
Those units over there
Wallach, voice-over:
Eben sees times of
di
\h
sorder and chaos like these
as full of opportunity
for transformation.
Rather than simply
seeing problems,
he sees openings
full of potential
to invent entirely new ways
of doing things
that most of us take
for granted.
Welcome to
the magic store.
So, what you're seeing here
are the aspects
of a conventional
vertical mushroom farm.
You've got your
shelving system here.
You've got your
environmental controls.
And now we've modified it
to use the soil we use
to grow our special forms
of mycelium.
And rather than getting
a bunch of mushrooms
growing out of that bed,
you're actually getting
a slab of mycelium tissue.
That's really the power.
- There's no wasted space.
- There's no wasted space.
- Because it's sheer mycelium
all the way across.
- Yep.
- Like in a slab.
Well, one of these
rooms could produce
20,000 pounds of mycelium.
So, a harvest machine
will pull up.
And it comes out
like a conveyor.
It comes across and
squishes into basically
like a pork belly,
or a mush belly, we call it.
And then those come off
and those go
to the bacon facility.
- Wow.
So, now,
this came out in a block.
Yeah.
And then
you started slicing it?
It rides along just like
a piece of pork belly
would be.
So, run it through
the slicer,
you get your
slices of bacon,
you add salt and sugar
and some natural flavorings.
And then at the very end,
we put the coconut oil on,
which is the fat,
because mushrooms don't have
any fat in it.
And this is
minimally processed.
Sliced and smoked, basically.
Compare and contrast
the inputs
that would go into, you know,
5 pounds of this
versus 5 pounds
of bacon from a pig.
So, to produce a million
pounds of our product
takes about an acre of land
in
\h
one of our vertical farms,
and it occurs over
about 10 days.
To produce the same amount
of bacon using a pig,
you'd need about
a million acres of land.
- Hmm.
- And you would also need
to feed that pig
high-quality food,
so, like, grains
versus woodchips.
And then you have
to grow them
for a period
of 6 to 9 months.
And so, in each of those
dimensions, land use,
the input material,
and the time frame,
we're massively,
like by an order of magnitude,
improving the equation.
- Mm-hmm.
Tastes like bacon.
Now, tell me,
where does this go,
because so far, we've heard
about packaging, right?
Obviously, there's food,
and you've mentioned leather.
- Yeah.
- Where do you take this?
My dream is
we grow everything.
You know, I think we can grow
almost everything around us
from the buildings
to the medicines we need
to the food we eat.
And we'll do that through
structural materials,
nutritional materials,
and even things that might
be alive when you use them.
Such as?
Well, you could
imagine a building that
senses the environmental
conditions within it
and maybe even releases
beneficial compounds to,
like, clean the air.
You can imagine buildings in
an earthquake develop cracks
and in those cracks,
there are, like,
embedded little water ba*ls
that break open.
And the fungus is not dead
but is dehydrated,
which it can do,
and it'll start growing
and seal up all those cracks.
Mushrooms are uniquely
situated to save the world.
Wallach, voice-over:
What Eben and his team
are doing here is inspiring
and it gives me a renewed
sense of possibility
for the kind of futures
we can choose
to create in this moment.
Here in New York, an architect
named Bjarke Ingels
is working with
a similar perspective
to reimagine the cities
in which we live.
Ingels, voice-over: I think
ma \h ybe the best way to explain what's so special
about architecture
and the power of design
is that the Danish word
for design isformgivning,
which literally means
form-giving.
When you design something,
you're giving form
to that which has not yet
been given form.
In other words, you are
giving form to the future.
So, when you're designing
a place or a building,
you are giving form
to
\h
a little part of the world
that you would like
to find yourself
living in in the future.
How do you think
about the moment of time
that we're in right now?
It's kind of chaos and flux.
And a lot of people will
want to look backwards,
where others will want to
stick their head in the sand
to keep what they have.
How do you think
about this moment?
Ingels, voice-over:
We're living in a time where
a lot of technologies
are bringing possibilities
to the table
that we have never been
even close to before.
And I sense that this
innovation that has been
maybe locked in virtual
in the last few decades
has finally arrived
in physical space.
And maybe give
you one example.
The building we designed
in Copenhagen called CopenHill
is the cleanest
waste-to-energy power plant
in the world.
The steam that
comes out of the chimney
is actually cleaner than
the air of Copenhagen.
Suddenly, the power plant
no longer had to be
some ugly, dirty,
polluting eyesore.
It could actually
be a welcoming,
inclusive environment.
We could make the facade into
the tallest man-made
climbing wall in the world
and we could turn the roof
into an alpine ski slope.
So, it's an idea we call
hedonistic sustainability,
that the sustainable building
or the sustainable city
is not only better
for the environment,
it's also much more enjoyable
for the people that get
to inhabit it.
A lot of times,
when people hear the term
sustainability
or even regenerative,
they think,
"Something's going to
be taken away from me.
"It's not going to be
as fun.
"I'm not going to
be as happy.
I'm going to lose
all these things."
That's not the way
you think about it.
23 years ago, we opened
the Copenhagen Harbour Baths,
a simple floating
structure that
extends the life of the city
into the water around it.
On opening day,
it became so clear
that the clean port is not
only nice for the fish,
it's actually amazing for the
people that live in that city,
and this idea that
the sustainable city
is not only better
for the environment,
it's much more enjoyable
for the people that live in it.
Like half of the Copenhageners
commute by bicycle,
not because it's
environmentally friendly
but because it's the most
enjoyable and effortless way
to move around
the city quickly.
So, in that sense, we just
keep reminding ourselves that
there is a better and more
enjoyable way of doing it.
And I think the benefits
of a sort of environmentally
friendly city is that it is
greener and cleaner
and more enjoyable.
Tell me
ab
\h
out the cities of the future.
Where are we going?
Where do we need to go?
What does it look like?
If you would return
to Manhattan in 10 or 20
or maybe 50 years,
you might see streets
that entirely become
almost like linear parks
woven together in both
directions of Manhattan.
People can walk and play
where you used to have traffic
and parked cars.
You might have different
kinds of personal mobility
also taking over whole areas.
Our cities will really become
greener and more enjoyable,
which will make them more
walkable and more bikeable.
So, I think a lot of the
dichotomy between the city
and the countryside,
you're going to get
mu
\h
ch more interesting blends.
The city isn't the way it
is because it has to be.
The city is the way it is
because that's how far
we've gotten.
And if we would like
to ask more of our city
or if we would like
our city to accommodate
another kind of life
than what it used to,
we actually not only
have the possibility,
we actually have
a
\h
responsibility to make sure
that our city fits
wi
\h
th the way we want to live.
Wallach, voice-over:
In 1945, my mother was born
in Oakland, California.
And very early on,
she realized that where
she could kind of bring
her gifts to bear in the world
was through creativity.
And so, she ended up becoming
a professional artist.
Growing up, my mom would often
bring paintings
that she was working on kind
of back into circulation.
So, most people think
of an artist
as someone who
paints something.
They're done.
They put it up on the wall.
My mom had paintings
hanging in her garage
or around the house
that she had painted
in the 1960s and '70s.
And every once in a while, I'd
see one of those on the easel,
and she would
kind of add to it.
And I'd say, well, "I thought
that painting was complete."
She said, "A work of art is
never necessarily complete.
It's up to the artist."
And so, what I learned is
even when
you're crafting something,
that you can always
come back to it.
You can always make changes
because you've
learned new information.
You can take from the past.
You can augment it.
It really means that things
are fungible and changeable
as long as you're trying
to make them better.
Sometimes, the way
to make things better
is to look at who needs help.
Where is there a need?
And how can we improve
on the way things are
currently being done?
We have powerful new tools
and technology
available to us right now.
And rather than just
using them to entertain
or sell us more stuff,
we can meet
actual human needs,
altering and improving
the experience of being alive.
My name is
Veena Somareddy,
and I'm the co-founder and CEO
of Neuro Rehab VR.
We create virtual reality
therapy applications
for physical therapy,
occupational therapy,
for patients who might
have gone through a stroke
or a spinal cord injury
or Parkinson's or MS,
and we help them get
back their limb function
as best as we can.
Physical therapy
hasn't really
changed since the sixties.
It's very manual.
It's very tedious
for the patient
as well as
the physical therapist.
And sometimes, you need
one or two therapists
working on one patient.
So, it's just not possible
in a modern world
when there is shortage
of clinicians
and also access to care.
What's the big opportunity
for humanity
in terms of these new kind
of digital reality realms
that are being built,
and that we're kind of,
in many ways,
kind of living into?
For me, I think
on the health care side
would be access to care,
access to care for anybody,
not--you know,
in any socioeconomic status
that they're in, which has been
a huge problem in health care,
being able to send our systems
to somebody who doesn't
have access to therapy
so they can do it on their own
in their own time
and get back that function
that they might have lost,
and come back into society.
Wallach, voice-over: Veena
di
\h
dn't just see what was broken
in the field of
physical therapy.
She saw what was needed,
what could be,
and created something new.
While we were at the clinic,
she let me experience
the work for myself.
So, you'll have
a green ball coming at you,
and you have to dodge it.
You can move to your left
or you can move to your right.
- Now I see a picnic table.
- There you go.
You'll see the ball
coming at you.
There you go.
Do you feel like Neo
from "Matrix"?
- Yes.
- There you go.
I mean, obviously,
this is helping with balance.
But what other things
is this helping with?
Weight shifting is a huge
thing with stroke patients.
- OK.
- Because usually
when they're affected,
when they have a stroke,
they're paralyzed on one side.
And they're very
afraid about
putting their weight
on that affected side.
Is it that you can't do it
or it's like the fear of
doing it
and what might happen?
It is mostly the fear,
especially
with chronic patients.
They're used to what
they cannot do, they know,
"This is what I cannot do,
and these are my limitations."
And they're stuck with it.
- Yeah.
But once you put them
in an immersive environment
where they don't see the bias
of their diagnosis,
that you don't see
your body right now.
All you're concentrated on
is on dodging that cannonball.
- I am.
- Right?
So, that takes them
out of that fear
of not being able
to do something.
Now, what should I do
with the chicken?
Should I eat it?
You can eat it.
Yep. Exactly.
I was working with
a stroke patient.
And her goal for therapy
was being able to
go grocery shopping
with her grandkids again.
And so, we were like,
let's create that.
So, you can practice
everything that you'll
have to do in real life
right here in VR,
so, it feels like
you've done this before,
and you're not afraid.
So, you've got eggs.
So, what you're doing right here
is pattern-matching,
being able to pattern match
from the item that's
on the shopping list
to the item that's
on the shelf,
which is something a lot of
people can forget
or lose that
after a stroke incident.
So, right here, we're able
to simulate everything
from the touch, the feel,
the visual aspects,
and the ambience, too,
so that they can
get used to all of that
before they actually
go into a grocery store.
Wallach, voice-over:
Obviously, the VR that
you're mostly working on
right now are people
who have suffered either
from a stroke
or neurodegenerative diseases.
Somareddy, voice-over: Right.
But I would imagine
it also can start
working for other traumas.
So, this is
something that works
on also PTSD for veterans.
Exposure therapy has
been shown to desensitize them
for the fear that
they might have experienced,
the trauma that
they might have experienced.
Just the sounds of
being in a b*ttlefield
can help them
decrease that anxiety.
A fear of spiders,
a fear of heights,
you can work on all of this
in the virtual world.
And you know that you're not
going to get hurt.
And then maybe go back
to the real world
and be able to experience that
without the amount of fear
that you might have had.
The overlap between
digital and lived realities
is growing every day.
And as new AI tools continue
to expand what's possible,
Veena believes this work
is only the beginning.
AI has been around since
the early 20th century
as a concept.
1, 2, 3.
Hello, Kismet.
- Peek-a-boo!
- I love you, doll.
In the nineties,
we got computers
that could process
vector graphics
for video games
and that type of thing.
And that enabled
a revolution to happen
in neural computation.
So, we could start to
stack up layers of neurons,
and that's what's called
deep learning.
And that's what's really
advanced the field so much.
We could create a world
where AI is just driving us
towards more consumption
and more recommendations
of products.
Or we can create a world where
AI is allowing us
to express different things,
to understand ourselves
in different ways.
Whichever of those outcomes
is more likely to happen
has a lot to do with
who's making the AI
and why they're making it.
Wallach, voice-over:
The conversation around
artificial intelligence
is thrilling and complex.
And at the current speed
of innovation,
it's hard to keep up
with how fast
these tools are developing and
to what end they will be used.
Greg Cross and his team
at Soul Machines
have been working on these
technologies for years.
What is surprising you
most about the field
and/or the state of
AI today?
We are living in
a moment of time
where sort of AI has crossed
the threshold from something
that the techies and the geeks
talked about all the time
to it's now on the lips of,
you know,
just about every human being
on this planet.
Artificial intelligence--will
it be the savior of humanity
or lead
to our ultimate demise?
Woman, voice-over: Many people
are going to ask,
"Why on Earth did you
create this technology?"
Cross, voice-over:
The speed at which
things are moving now
is just, you know,
astonishing.
You know, stuff that I used
to think about, well,
that's 3 to 5 years away,
that's, like, now
12 months away now.
Wallach, voice-over: So,
what are you and your team
working on right now?
So, Soul Machines sits
at this intersection
of technology
and entertainment.
We create avatars, you know,
so, CGI characters.
And we bring them to life
using some very,
very specific different fields
of artificial intelligence.
So, our digital characters
are alive.
- Mm.
- They are digitally alive.
A lot of people feel
we are very much
at a crossroads moment
for humanity,
for our species
on this planet.
But you're generally
very kind of optimistic.
But what's driving most
of that hope right now?
One of the really, really
cool things about
artificial intelligence is
you're creating
a learning system,
so, the way in which
we simulate human behavior,
the subtlety which we can
simulate human behavior.
I mean,
this is about making, yeah,
it sounds like a corny phrase,
but making AI your friend.
It's great to meet you.
Patrice, what do you think
the future will be like?
I'm very optimistic
about the future of AI
and how it will
shape our lives.
The possibilities are endless.
Can you tell me
about yourself, Patrice?
Absolutely.
I consider myself
a vibrant
and professional personality,
and I bring energy and
enthusiasm to everything I do.
Patrice, how will AI change
what it means to be human?
On one hand,
AI can help us
achieve things
that were once impossible.
At the same time,
we need to remember
that AI is still a tool
and cannot replace humans
when it comes
to making decisions.
Tell me more about
the work that goes into
creating something
like this.
Yeah. So, you know,
Patrice is what we call
a synthetic digital person.
So, she doesn't exist
in real life.
She's not a clone
of a real person.
So, she's entirely made up.
So, to create Patrice,
we've built a creation suite
we call Digital DNA Studio.
So, right now, there's
a lot of fear and concern
about what AI could do
to us, do to humans.
How do you see this?
Well, I mean,
at the end of the day,
I think the debate is really,
really the most positive thing
that can happen at the moment
in terms of people
talking about what it means
for the businesses
that they work in,
the industries
that they compete in,
the communities they
live in, the type of
regulatory environment
they would like to see.
But the debate
is absolutely critical.
Allado-McDowell, voice-over:
You have to look at
the holistic picture
of everything
that's happening right now.
AI is not happening
in a vacuum.
It's a really profound
technological shift.
But it's also
happening alongside
mass extinction,
climate change,
the greatest economic
inequality that we've had.
We're becoming aware that our
actions have global effects.
Bremmer, voice-over:
When we start talking about
artificial intelligence,
that's the first thing
in our history
that has the potential
to either
change us as human beings
into a future form
or extinguish us.
There's never
been such a thing.
Allado-McDowell, voice-over:
Th
\h
is is part of a profound shift
in how we see
the role of the human.
And that's a little scary but
also potentially very hopeful.
Because I think
a lot of the reason
we're having these perceptions
is because of problems.
It's because of things that
human-centricity created,
shortsightedness.
If we think about AI
in the long term,
it really does matter
what we do now
because it will affect
future generations
just like it does with
everything else that we do.
We cannot be narcissistic
as a species.
So what should
we be optimizing for?
As leaders,
if you want to galvanize
and bring people together,
you have to have a vision.
You want to co-create
that vision.
But you need to--
you know, there's a telos.
There's an ultimate aim.
There's a goal
if we want to move forward.
And I will put on the table
that we've lost that.
So, take me there.
I think we are
at an inflection point.
Like across society,
we have this access
to amazing technology.
We have people that are
thinking differently
about what is their purpose?
What is the world
going to be in 2040?
So, that gives us a chance
to make change
and make decisions
that can be beneficial to all.
However, we can very much
have all these conversations
and not make any decisions.
So, nothing actually
does change.
So, my fear is that while
we have this opportunity
that we don't
take advantage of it,
and then we're continuing
to live through the same things
years from now.
Are we providing basic human
rights, basic human needs?
And then beyond that, like,
how do we incentivize
that innovation which pushes
GDP, that solves cancer,
that brings AI into the new age
and allows us to just sit
and make music all day
instead of having to worry
about, you know,
building another slide deck.
I would like
to challenge you on GDP.
- OK.
- Because I feel like GDP
is what we're all chasing now.
The question is, like,
up until what point?
Some people
or some corporations
are super successful,
they drive innovation,
they drive the GDP.
But actually, the rights
you're chasing after
or the equality or equity
isn't achieved because of that.
And I feel like GDP
doesn't account for
all of those things
we care about,
and I feel like that's
not always money-related.
It sounds like to
answer your question,
we need a social contract.
That's the thing
I'm tying together
from everyone's answers
is there's a need
for accountability from people
that we're going
to call leaders.
It sounds like we need to
hold each other accountable
in some contractual way that
emphasizes the need for rights
and no harm to others.
Wallach, voice-over: When I
look around and I see people
working on projects and ideas,
they're not all just thinking,
how do I get as much as I can?
Like, what's my
little pot of gold?
I see the folks who
are building and making
better tomorrows
for themselves,
for their kids, my kids,
future generations.
I mean, I see things that are
being worked on right now
that are going to have
downrange impact
for the better
for hundreds of years.
Courtois, voice-over:
We're in a world of turmoil.
The human nature in turmoil
is to kind of cocoon
and to become
more conservative.
If you're insular,
then you don't learn.
We could do better.
We can imagine a better future
and work on it together.
Ingels, voice-over: My son
was born right around the time
we finished
the CopenHill Power Plant.
So, he doesn't know
- Mm.
that there was
a time when
you didn't ski
on the power plant.
For him, that's just like
a natural part
of the landscape
of Copenhagen.
So, if that's
the normal for him
and his generation
of Danish kids,
imagine when they have
to start coming up
with what-if scenarios
for their future.
They're going to come up
with some pretty wild stuff.
Bayer, voice-over:
Innovation occurs at
the intersection of things.
The greatest opportunities
are in chaos.
In times of, like, change,
there's a maximum opportunity
to change everything.
The future is
all about integrating
different interdisciplinary
areas into one.
So, anybody who is younger,
go beyond just
the computer science.
Look at the arts.
Look at what's happening
in marine biology
and then neuroscience.
And you'll be able to bring
all of those ideas into one
and create something that
nobody might have
thought about.
Slat, voice-over:
Progress is not inevitable,
and it really requires
conscious effort.
Sometimes, people ask me,
why you?
Why did you decide
to work on this?
And I think it's
a strange question.
A much more interesting
question to me
is why isn't
everyone doing this?
If there is something
that's bothering you,
I think it would be strange
to just wait
for somebody else to solve it.
Wallach, voice-over:
Hundreds of years from now,
they are going to look back
on our moment
that we're in right now
as potentially the most pivotal
in human history.
The decisions that we make
around our technologies
and how we're going
to live on this planet
will actually dictate who
and what we are to become.
We have to ask ourselves,
in
this moment of complexity,
what is it that
we want to see happen?
Where do we want to go?
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01x02 - Chaos & Complexity
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Series takes viewers on a global journey to meet with scientists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries who are shaping the world of tomorrow.
Series takes viewers on a global journey to meet with scientists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries who are shaping the world of tomorrow.