1 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:07,360 Last time 2 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:11,160 in this potentially award-winning history of human civilization, 3 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:15,280 I showed you how our ancestors underwent a sudden spiritual awakening 4 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:16,920 like my Aunt Carol. 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,080 Like Carol, they found exciting gurus to follow. 6 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:23,040 But unlike her, they didn't leave their husband 7 00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:26,800 to live on a farm in Wales with them, alongside eight other women, 8 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:29,200 in a situation I can't discuss further 9 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:33,040 as it's currently under investigation by North Wales Police. 10 00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:34,920 Our world changed forever, 11 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:37,759 as religious messages of tolerance and forgiveness 12 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:42,200 inspired mankind to fight like rats in a shoe for hundreds of years. 13 00:00:42,280 --> 00:00:44,840 But the world was about to have its mind expanded 14 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:48,960 and then split at the seams by a different kind of higher calling. 15 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:52,320 Humankind was about to undergo a renaissance 16 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:54,400 by having the Renaissance, 17 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:58,200 here on the same planet we still use today, 18 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:01,520 a glistening space rock known as Earth. 19 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:24,480 It's the year 1440. Not now, but then, in 1440. 20 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:29,600 And a new invention is about to spark a blaze beneath the bush of possibility. 21 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:33,440 Centuries earlier, the Chinese had invented printing, 22 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:35,240 but no one in Europe paid attention 23 00:01:35,320 --> 00:01:37,400 until the printing press was invented again 24 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:40,320 by a German called Johannes "Steve" Gutenberg. 25 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:43,720 Gutenberg's press was the first of its kind in history, 26 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:45,240 except Chinese history. 27 00:01:45,320 --> 00:01:50,240 Did the printing press actually change anything of significance? 28 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:53,000 If Gutenberg hadn't invented printing, 29 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:56,480 which meant that ideas could be communicated throughout the world, 30 00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:00,720 our culture would not have developed in the same way as it has. 31 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:04,640 So in many ways, he has made the world our modern world today. 32 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:07,560 So that's your idea of significant? 33 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:12,480 The first book to be printed on Gutenberg's press was the Bible. 34 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:14,800 But as well as spreading the word of God, 35 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:19,800 it spread the word of scientists, philosophers, and eventually Dan Brown. 36 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:26,280 Writing new books takes a long time, so to give their presses something to do, 37 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:31,840 people reached back through time in search of old material to repackage. 38 00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:34,000 That's how the philosophy of ancient Greece 39 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:37,280 suddenly came back in fashion and blew minds. 40 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:42,480 At the time, most people's lives were as grim and joyless as my Uncle Martin. 41 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:45,800 Their only hobbies were doing backbreaking work, dying of the plague, 42 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:47,240 or being tortured. 43 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:50,440 As far as they were concerned, this was all there was to life. 44 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:54,760 So for them, being exposed to ancient Greek philosophy 45 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:56,680 wasn't boring like it is now, 46 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:01,400 but a mind-expanding experience that transformed the way they saw themselves. 47 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:04,000 Like when my mate Paul ate five ketamine brownies 48 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:06,240 and thought he could communicate telepathically 49 00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:08,760 with any animal he saw on television. 50 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:12,920 Although, whereas Paul ended up sectioned for his own safety, 51 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:16,680 our ancestors decided to change the world. 52 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:22,960 This is Florence. 53 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:26,760 The Italians call it Firenze to try and stop tourists from finding it. 54 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:30,520 But it's definitely Florence because we double-checked it on a British map. 55 00:03:31,640 --> 00:03:34,600 Florence might look like a pointless mess today, 56 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:37,720 but in the 15th century it was the epicenter 57 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,880 of an unprecedented artistic and cultural phenomenon. 58 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:44,480 What was "Renai-sauce"? 59 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:47,200 Was that a sort of 16th-century ketchup? 60 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:51,040 Renaissance comes from the French "renaissance." 61 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:52,360 "Re-naissance." 62 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:55,440 Naissance is birth. So it was seen as a rebirth. 63 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:57,280 So it's not a condiment at all. 64 00:03:57,840 --> 00:03:59,640 -No, not as far as I know. -Okay. 65 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:02,320 What sauces did they use back then? 66 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:04,640 So this is an area of culinary history. 67 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:08,160 I'm not very familiar with the history of sauces. 68 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:10,080 So you're not the sauce person? 69 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:12,480 I'm not predominantly a sauce person. 70 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:17,360 We're going to have to rethink this whole interview. 71 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:19,760 During the Renaissance, 72 00:04:19,840 --> 00:04:23,240 Florence produced artists who, for the first time in history, 73 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:26,880 were competent enough to create paintings worth looking at. 74 00:04:26,959 --> 00:04:31,560 One of the most competent paintsmiths was Botticelli. 75 00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:33,360 So what's this painting? 76 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:36,960 So this is Alessandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. 77 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:40,320 It's one of the great paintings of the Renaissance. 78 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:44,160 So do we know if the birth of Venus actually looked like this? 79 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:47,760 Well, it's depicting a sort of mythical figure, 80 00:04:47,840 --> 00:04:49,280 so it's sort of metaphorical. 81 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:51,840 So it's the idea of a goddess 82 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:55,480 who is coming into being, rather than being born. 83 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:57,040 Her neck's very long. 84 00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:01,080 Was she part giraffe or could he just not do necks? 85 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:05,920 No, her… her neck… 86 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,160 It's meant to be a sign of beauty that he would have elongated the neck. 87 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:11,840 I've spotted a mistake here. Look. 88 00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:14,240 He's blowing, and her hair's all whipping about. 89 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:18,080 But look at these trees on the right. Not moving at all. No wind. 90 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:21,040 I think these people have been photoshopped in. 91 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:22,880 It's all fake. 92 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:27,920 Other notable artists produced 3D paintings, or sculptures, 93 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:31,560 the most famous example being this very naked man, 94 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:34,280 known as "Michelangelo’s David." 95 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:37,840 If you manage to look past his little marble goolies, 96 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:40,560 you'll notice there's an incredible amount of detail 97 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:43,480 all over the rest of Michelangelo’s body. 98 00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:46,520 His eyes have pupils in them like a Furby does. 99 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:49,920 His muscles are really detailed. Look at his abs. 100 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:52,120 They prove gyms are bullshit 101 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:55,200 because they didn't have gyms back then, but look how toned he is. 102 00:05:55,280 --> 00:05:58,440 Then there's the realistic veins in the back of his hands, 103 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:01,080 carrying statue blood to his fingers. 104 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:04,200 Yet, despite all this attention to detail, 105 00:06:04,280 --> 00:06:07,680 a quick inspection of his back half reveals he doesn't have an anus. 106 00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:09,880 It's a baffling omission. 107 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,240 Maybe the sculptor got embarrassed 108 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:15,600 or the model had to leave early that day, or didn't actually have an anus. 109 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:17,360 We just don't know. 110 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:22,160 The undisputed master of the Renaissance 111 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:25,640 was a human known as Leonardo da Vinci. 112 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:29,640 This is The Vitruvian Man. 113 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:34,600 It's a drawing made by Leonardo in about 1490. 114 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:36,480 What's it for? 115 00:06:38,280 --> 00:06:39,680 What's the point of it? 116 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:44,520 The point was that Leonardo wanted to know 117 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:49,920 how to sketch the human body proportion. 118 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,920 Just to be clear, you can see his bits too? 119 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:54,720 I'm not imagining that. 120 00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:57,240 Is there a version of this with underpants on? 121 00:06:57,320 --> 00:06:59,720 Oh, no, no, no. 122 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:03,280 He thought that was fine, did he? It's a bit rude, isn't it? 123 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:05,040 No, it's not. 124 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:11,200 Because, you know, the beauty of the human body, of course. 125 00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:14,280 Look at the todger. You can't say that's beautiful. 126 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:18,360 Look at it. 127 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:22,840 Leonardo also filled notebook after notebook with drawings of inventions 128 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:24,680 years ahead of their time. 129 00:07:24,760 --> 00:07:26,160 What's that? 130 00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:31,040 This is a flying machine. It's like the helicopter. 131 00:07:31,120 --> 00:07:33,160 It doesn't look very convincing. 132 00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:38,240 Like my mate Paul invented a treadmill for his fiancée's pet snake, 133 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:41,520 and the sketches for that were much more convincing than this. 134 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:43,360 And he was on mushrooms. 135 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:46,600 Mind you, the prototype did pull the snake's head off. 136 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:48,640 Yeah… 137 00:07:48,720 --> 00:07:52,040 Worst ending to a birthday party I've ever been to. 138 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:54,600 His inventions were one thing, 139 00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:58,280 but it's mainly for his paintings that we know da Vinci today. 140 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:04,000 This is the Mona Lisa, an actual painting that exists in our world and on this wall. 141 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:07,720 It's Mona Lisa's enigmatic character that draws people in. 142 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:11,680 Like all women, you simply can't tell what's going on in her head. 143 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:14,880 Just looking at her prompts so many questions. 144 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:17,680 Who is she? What's she smiling about? 145 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:19,800 Is she holding a balloon between her knees? 146 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:22,440 And if so, what color is it? 147 00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:25,040 Has she got a boyfriend? What's his name? 148 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:28,320 What's between his knees, and how can we find out? 149 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:30,240 The answer is we can't. 150 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:33,600 And that's why people keep returning every year 151 00:08:33,680 --> 00:08:35,880 to gaze upon her and wonder, 152 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:38,280 then stop wondering and go home. 153 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:40,159 As well as looking all right, 154 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:42,360 "Da Vinci's work demonstrated mastery 155 00:08:42,440 --> 00:08:45,240 of the trailblazing techniques of the age," it says here. 156 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:46,919 Before the Renaissance, 157 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:51,520 other people's paintings were in a sort of wonky 2D. 158 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:54,440 That's because artists had no sense of perspective. 159 00:08:54,520 --> 00:08:57,640 A bit like my mate Paul, who punched a waiter in a TGI Friday's 160 00:08:57,720 --> 00:08:59,760 for dropping his banoffee pie. 161 00:08:59,840 --> 00:09:05,080 Just look at this 14th-century painting of Jesus having his fateful tea party. 162 00:09:05,160 --> 00:09:07,160 The dimensions are all wrong. 163 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:08,640 The room's squashed up, 164 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:12,400 so it looks like it's happening in the lid of a cardboard box. 165 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:14,720 Jesus is twice as big as the others, 166 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:17,800 so it looks like he's enjoying an intimate dinner with some school boys. 167 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:19,200 Not a good look. 168 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:21,600 And what are those? Bowls or seashells? 169 00:09:21,680 --> 00:09:25,440 It's just shoddy craftsmanship. Absolutely disgraceful. 170 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:27,160 Shouldn't even be in a museum. 171 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:31,120 But da Vinci's reboot of the same painting is a different story. 172 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:34,040 He knew how to perspective the fuck out of things. 173 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:37,720 Look at the angles of the walls in The Last Supper and the table there. 174 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:42,240 You almost feel like you could crawl inside it and betray Jesus yourself. 175 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:46,400 Perspective was a huge leap forward for human art, 176 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:50,120 on a par with the release of Crash Bandicoot centuries later. 177 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:54,440 There's no denying the Renaissance was a pretty big deal for civilization. 178 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:58,680 Just how important it was is for experts to decide. 179 00:09:58,760 --> 00:10:01,600 Which was more culturally significant, 180 00:10:01,680 --> 00:10:06,080 the Renaissance or "Single Ladies" by Beyoncé? 181 00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:11,360 They both have their period and they both have their time. 182 00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:12,680 Um… 183 00:10:12,760 --> 00:10:14,440 Beyoncé I'm rather fond of, 184 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:16,440 but what the Renaissance was trying to do 185 00:10:16,520 --> 00:10:18,480 was to reform culture as a whole, 186 00:10:18,560 --> 00:10:21,800 and whatever Beyoncé does, I don't think she's quite got that ambition. 187 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:25,040 So, what, the work of a few straight white men 188 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:26,880 just blows Beyoncé out of the water? 189 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:29,240 Is that what you're saying, on camera? 190 00:10:31,680 --> 00:10:34,920 The Renaissance might have been expanding minds, 191 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:38,520 but without programs like this around to educate them, 192 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:42,920 people were still largely ignorant about the planet they were living on. 193 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:46,640 Ask a medieval peasant where America was and you'd get a blank look. 194 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:48,800 Or, worse still, the plague. 195 00:10:49,800 --> 00:10:52,680 That's because to them, the world map looked like this, 196 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:55,960 a garbled mass of the countries they'd discovered so far, 197 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:59,920 all squashed together, with America nowhere to be seen. 198 00:11:00,680 --> 00:11:02,680 But one man changed all that: 199 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:06,240 Italian sailor and detective Christopher Colombo. 200 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:09,080 Colombo thought that if he sailed off the edge of the map, 201 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:11,520 he'd reappear on the other side like Pac-Man. 202 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:15,640 It would be a shortcut to India, and he'd shake off any ghosts on his tail. 203 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:17,520 It was a huge risk. 204 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:20,360 If Colombo was right, he'd be a millionaire. 205 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:24,600 If he was wrong, he'd be a laughingstock. But a dead one. 206 00:11:24,680 --> 00:11:27,400 And he could live with that, which is why he set sail. 207 00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:30,000 Colombo failed to find India, 208 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:32,480 but his ship eventually bumped into the New World, 209 00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:36,120 Planet Earth Part Two, aka America. 210 00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:39,560 And before long, others were following in his wake. 211 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:42,760 This is Plymouth. 212 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:47,160 Gathered here in 1620 was a group of pilgrims who yearned for a better life. 213 00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:50,840 Which isn't surprising because, like I say, this is Plymouth. 214 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:55,840 The Pilgrims leapt into their water mobile, or boat, the Starship Mayflower 215 00:11:56,560 --> 00:12:00,440 and bravely sailed across this drawing of the Atlantic Ocean 216 00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:03,720 to arrive on the other side, still in Plymouth. 217 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:06,120 They must have been devastated. 218 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:09,560 Luckily, it turned out this Plymouth wasn't the one they'd just left. 219 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:14,240 At first, the European colonists found life in the New World hard. 220 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:17,240 Luckily, some Native Americans taught them how to grow corn 221 00:12:17,320 --> 00:12:18,560 and where to fish. 222 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:21,840 In exchange, the colonists introduced the Native Americans 223 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:23,560 to smallpox. 224 00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:27,320 The settlers never forgot what the Native Americans had done for them, 225 00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:30,880 although they did ignore it when they massacred them years later. 226 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:34,320 While the New World was undergoing massive change, 227 00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:38,760 a controversial breakthrough was brewing in the Old World. 228 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:42,520 It's the early 1600s, and this stupidly dressed scientist 229 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:45,840 is about to change the way mankind sees itself forever. 230 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:47,440 His name is Galileo, 231 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:50,360 one of the few figures in history to become so famous, 232 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:52,240 they're known by just one name. 233 00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:55,920 Like Churchill, Pepsi or Garfield. 234 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:00,560 Galileo's full name was Galileo Figaro Magnifico, wasn't it? 235 00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:04,000 I'm not sure that's right. I don't know-- 236 00:13:04,080 --> 00:13:06,720 That's what it says in "Dominican Rhapsody." 237 00:13:06,800 --> 00:13:08,480 Are you thinking of "Bohemian Rhapsody"? 238 00:13:08,560 --> 00:13:09,880 What was his name then? 239 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:13,360 Well, as far as I'm aware, his name was Galileo Galilei. 240 00:13:13,880 --> 00:13:16,560 -Galileo Galilei? -Yes. 241 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:19,800 That's like me being called Philomena Philomenei. 242 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:22,520 Actually, I quite like that. 243 00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:25,720 Galileo invented a telescope so powerful, 244 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:28,360 he could watch people getting changed on the Sun. 245 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:31,600 Bloody hell. This makes everything look massive. 246 00:13:31,680 --> 00:13:34,080 Have you had a go on this yet? It's amazing. 247 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:39,000 How did you do that? Are you the real Galileo or an actor one? 248 00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:42,160 Was the real one busy? 249 00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:45,600 Galileo's astronomical smart arsery 250 00:13:45,680 --> 00:13:49,360 led him to a discovery so shocking, the Pope shat his hat off. 251 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:53,280 According to the Old Testament, the Sun goes around the Earth, 252 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:54,960 not the other way around. 253 00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:59,960 So as far as the church was concerned, Galileo was calling the Bible a liar. 254 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:01,800 Rather than overreact, 255 00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:04,920 they did the Christian thing by accusing him of heresy 256 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:08,160 and finding him guilty in a corrupt show trial. 257 00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:12,320 Galileo was sentenced to spend the rest of his life under house arrest 258 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:14,520 on a planet with the Sun spinning around it. 259 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:16,960 The church thought the Sun went round the Earth, 260 00:14:17,040 --> 00:14:20,040 but Galileo thought the Earth went round the Sun. 261 00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:22,240 Whose side are we on here? 262 00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:24,680 We are most definitely on Galileo's side, 263 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:27,400 as I think the church is today. 264 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:31,240 Is it possible they were both right and the Sun and Earth go round each other? 265 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:34,800 That would keep everyone happy. Can we just agree on that? 266 00:14:34,880 --> 00:14:38,280 If only he'd invented some kind of immortality engine 267 00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:40,280 instead of his pointless telescope, 268 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:43,800 Galileo might have lived to see his ideas accepted. 269 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:46,640 Sadly, he simply wasn't that clever. 270 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:51,640 Like science, the world of philosophy was also expanding, 271 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:53,920 thanks to massive thinkers like this man. 272 00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:57,240 Who was Jim Des Cartes? 273 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:02,800 Well, I don't know who Jim Des Cartes might be, 274 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:06,680 but I do know that René Descartes is often thought of 275 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:08,880 as the founder of modern philosophy. 276 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:12,760 What did he mean by "I think therefore I am"? 277 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,360 Descartes meant that 278 00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:19,800 self-awareness, 279 00:15:19,880 --> 00:15:22,280 self-consciousness, 280 00:15:22,360 --> 00:15:26,720 is the defining feature of human identity. 281 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:31,560 So hang on, if I think therefore I am, what about other people? 282 00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:34,000 Do they think therefore they am? 283 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:37,120 How can I tell if they're thinking therefore they am? 284 00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:41,160 Or am I just thinking they think therefore they am, 285 00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:44,640 but actually they're not real and I'm only thinking they am? 286 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:48,240 Are you thinking therefore you am right now? 287 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:50,080 Well, I wouldn't want to say that 288 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:55,200 my existence is dependent upon my thought, 289 00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:59,320 but that is not the claim that Descartes wants to make. 290 00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:02,120 Is it possible to think you're someone else? 291 00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:07,400 Like, if I thought really hard that I was Eddie Murphy, 292 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:10,560 could I eventually become him? 293 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:14,320 If I did become him, would he become me 294 00:16:14,400 --> 00:16:16,560 or would he just disappear? 295 00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:19,560 Did Des Cartes ever cover this stuff? 296 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:26,240 No. That's not a topic that Descartes is covering as far as I'm aware. 297 00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:28,280 Why not? 298 00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:30,920 Descartes inspired an intellectual movement 299 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:32,760 known as the Enlightenment, 300 00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:35,560 during which metrosexual elitists published essays 301 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:39,760 that expanded humankind's horizons in a manner that will go unmatched 302 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:44,360 until the 1989 release of Belgian techno anthem "Pump Up the Jam." 303 00:17:30,079 --> 00:17:32,079 The man trapped inside this painting 304 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:35,560 is Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 305 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:39,120 a name so French, he might as well have been called Pierre Baguette, 306 00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:40,280 but wasn't. 307 00:17:40,360 --> 00:17:42,320 Which is why I didn't call him that. 308 00:17:43,120 --> 00:17:48,080 Rousseau wrote, "Man is free but is everywhere in chains." 309 00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:52,120 He dreamed of a new society in which people were masters of their own destiny. 310 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:57,160 It was the same dream that was tempting colonists to the New World in droves… 311 00:17:57,240 --> 00:17:58,440 and boats. 312 00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:03,520 After arriving in America to forge a life of honest, hard work and toil, 313 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:06,960 many of these colonists quickly discovered they couldn't be arsed, 314 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:10,640 so they stole people from Africa and made them do it instead. 315 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:14,520 You might think these were precisely the people Rousseau had been talking about 316 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:17,360 when he said mankind needed to throw off its chains. 317 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:18,880 But they weren't. 318 00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:21,800 Like many humanists, he'd found a clever loophole. 319 00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:25,880 By not thinking of slaves as human, he was free to not give a shit. 320 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:28,120 As luck would have it, around this time, 321 00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:31,000 the colonists started getting interested in freedom. 322 00:18:32,360 --> 00:18:33,880 Although as luck wouldn't have it, 323 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:37,680 it wasn't the slaves' freedom they were interested in, but their own. 324 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:42,400 The British colonies were ruled by king and line drawing George III. 325 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:48,400 But the relationship between old England and the New World was getting frosty. 326 00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:53,600 What started the tension between the British and the Americans? 327 00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:56,440 Was it because you say cookies and we say biscuits 328 00:18:56,520 --> 00:18:59,400 and you say sidewalk and we say pavement? 329 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:00,840 Because I find in a relationship, 330 00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:03,560 it's those little things that start to grate after a while. 331 00:19:03,640 --> 00:19:05,280 It was worse than that. 332 00:19:05,360 --> 00:19:08,120 Britain decided they were going to tax the colonies 333 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:09,920 and this hadn't happened before. 334 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:12,960 So it was a disagreement over money, basically. 335 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:16,960 It's like the situation between me and my ex, Sean. 336 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:21,480 Uh, when we used to get takeaway, or takeout, as you call it, 337 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:26,240 um, sometimes, you know, he would always insist that we go halves 338 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:31,200 and yet he would want to buy things like onion bhajis, which he knows I hate, 339 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:33,160 and they made his breath stink. 340 00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:36,680 -Mm. -So, but I had to pay for half of that. 341 00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:40,200 That doesn't seem fair to me. Does it to you? 342 00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:42,360 Put that way, no. 343 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:45,240 No. And that's from a professor, Sean. 344 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:49,720 Finally, in Boston in 1773, 345 00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,680 a group of colonists decided they'd had enough. 346 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:57,240 So when the people in Boston got angry with the British, 347 00:19:57,320 --> 00:20:01,240 why did they just hold a prissy Tea Party 348 00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:04,600 instead of having a proper fight like British men would? 349 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:09,040 Why has there always been this big cowardly streak in the Americans, 350 00:20:09,120 --> 00:20:10,320 even to this day? 351 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:14,000 Well, the only cowardly streak in that, I suppose, 352 00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:17,400 is that they dressed themselves up as Indians 353 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:19,240 and no one said who their names were. 354 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:21,360 But would you voluntarily, 355 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:24,560 when you didn't have to, go to jail? 356 00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:29,200 It depends what facilities they had, I think. 357 00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:32,800 Disrespecting our tea was one thing, 358 00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:36,160 but an even nastier slap in the tits was to come. 359 00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:40,400 In 1776, the leaders of the 13 colonies decided 360 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:44,640 that they didn't want to be called British anymore, but Americans. 361 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:48,680 This straight, white supergroup known as the Founding Fathers 362 00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:51,680 drafted the most famous breakup text in history, 363 00:20:51,760 --> 00:20:54,280 the Declaration of Independence. 364 00:20:54,360 --> 00:20:57,800 All the men you see here became idols if you're American. 365 00:20:57,880 --> 00:20:59,760 Otherwise, they're just not all that. 366 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:04,200 It led to all-out war between American and British. 367 00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:06,880 Because no one had invented camouflage yet, 368 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:10,000 the British troops of the time wore bright red coats 369 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:14,040 and were consequently shot in their thousands, while looking amazing. 370 00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:18,560 This painting depicts one of the war's most pivotal events: 371 00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:21,560 George Washington crossing the Delaware River. 372 00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:24,920 As you can see, he had to stand up for the whole journey 373 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:26,760 because he hadn't reserved a seat. 374 00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:29,880 He didn't fall in, but he also didn't help with the rowing, 375 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:31,960 which must have been annoying. 376 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:36,440 Eventually, Washington won, becoming America's first president, 377 00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:39,040 the single most revered role in the world, 378 00:21:39,120 --> 00:21:41,040 until 2016. 379 00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:45,240 Washington and the other founding daddies wrote the Constitution, 380 00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:47,640 an instruction manual for their new country, 381 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:51,480 containing some of the most influential political concepts ever. 382 00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:55,880 I read somewhere that America isn't just a country, but an idea. 383 00:21:56,520 --> 00:21:59,160 But it is just a country, isn't it? 384 00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:01,600 Well, it was founded under an idea, 385 00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:03,680 so it's organized around… 386 00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:05,920 has always been organized around the idea 387 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,000 that it's a land of liberty for everyone. 388 00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:10,440 Yeah, but, like, having a sandwich, that's an idea. 389 00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:13,040 Painting your bicycle blue, that's an idea. 390 00:22:13,120 --> 00:22:15,920 Going… that's an idea. 391 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,440 America is just a place. 392 00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:22,240 The American Revolution sent shockwaves around the globe, 393 00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:24,000 not to mention the planet. 394 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:26,240 It hit especially hard in France, 395 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:29,840 where the common man, or "homme," had to scrabble about in the muck 396 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:34,760 while the rich had got so posh they'd evolved frills. 397 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:38,680 Soon, the average Jacques had enough of their ruler, King Louis XVI, 398 00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:41,400 and his identical wives, Marie and Toinette, 399 00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:46,320 who enjoyed lavish lifestyles while the poor were forced to survive on cake. 400 00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:52,000 Finally, in 1789, it exploded into topless revolution. 401 00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:54,720 The poor toppled the king 402 00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:58,600 and invented a machine that would rid the world of royalty forever. 403 00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:04,200 The guillotine was specifically designed to be the most humane way 404 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:07,800 to decapitate someone in front of a jeering crowd. 405 00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:12,840 You simply fed a royal, headfirst, through the chopping hole here. 406 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:16,800 Then the razor-sharp blade up there would drop down and slice their head off, 407 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:19,920 sending it sailing away from their neck and body. 408 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,680 At that point, they probably thought they'd escaped. 409 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:26,640 But any sense of victory was short lived, because moments later, 410 00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:31,120 they'd land face first into this horribly coarse wicker basket. 411 00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:35,720 If you look, there's no padding in there, 412 00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:38,360 so the fall would have caused extensive bruising 413 00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:40,120 and maybe even concussion. 414 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:41,720 I suppose it could have been worse. 415 00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:43,640 They could have made you stick your head out of a carriage 416 00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:46,160 and driven really close to a building. 417 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:50,360 Even so, being guillotined would have had a huge impact on anyone. 418 00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:52,200 But especially King Louis. 419 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:56,000 With his head gone, he could never breed or wear a crown again 420 00:23:56,080 --> 00:23:59,760 and was almost certainly unemployable in any other line of work. 421 00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:03,120 Perhaps that's why he chose to withdraw from public life completely 422 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:04,720 shortly after it happened. 423 00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:07,320 The French Revolution wasn't the first time 424 00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:11,240 the masses had risen up against the elite, and it may not be the last. 425 00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:15,240 A lot of revolutions seem to be about poor people overthrowing the rich. 426 00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:17,640 Do you think billionaires like Elon Musk 427 00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:20,000 should be worried about getting guillotined? 428 00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:23,280 I think that the French Revolution 429 00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:26,360 certainly made a lot of people who were powerful 430 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,320 very, very worried about their existence. 431 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:33,960 I suppose Elon Musk could invent a machine that chops his own head off electronically 432 00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:35,480 before the mob arrives. 433 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:39,080 -You know much more about this than I do. -I'm just guessing. 434 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:43,840 Soon, France decided it needed a strong man to take charge of things, 435 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:46,880 and they got one in the form of the Emperor Napoleon. 436 00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:50,320 No relation to the Emperor Penguin as far as we can ascertain at this time. 437 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:54,440 Napoleon did a load of massive wars on land and sea, 438 00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:56,840 which remain far too expensive to properly re-create 439 00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:59,560 in historical documentaries to this day. 440 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:05,400 Laying sound effects over a painting of a battle like this 441 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:08,160 gives some idea of what it might have been like, 442 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:10,360 but there was still a key ingredient missing. 443 00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:13,680 A soundtrack of classical music was the only thing 444 00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:16,240 that would really bring these Napoleonic wars to life. 445 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:26,040 See? Loads better. 446 00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:30,960 And luckily, classical music was being perfected elsewhere in Europe 447 00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:33,320 by a composer called Beethoven. 448 00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:39,920 Did Beethoven have an actual full-sized horse living inside his face? 449 00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:42,680 Sorry, I've misphrased that. 450 00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:45,720 I mean, was Beethoven good at music? 451 00:25:47,120 --> 00:25:52,480 Yeah. He's considered to be the best composer of Western classical music ever. 452 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:54,560 Beethoven wrote that song that goes… 453 00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:00,800 What do those lyrics mean? 454 00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:04,800 Um… Well, it's a really strong orchestral motif. 455 00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:06,960 It's just the word "dum" over and over again. 456 00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:11,040 Is it a dig at his audience, or is it German for something? 457 00:26:11,120 --> 00:26:16,320 With the Beethoven symphonic music, it's all just instruments. 458 00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:21,160 So there are no words to these pieces at all. 459 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:24,960 No lyrics? How are we supposed to know what it's about if it doesn't have lyrics? 460 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:26,840 It's literally meaningless. 461 00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:30,920 Despite enjoying great success with his pointless tunes, 462 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:34,280 Beethoven faced huge personal challenges in his career. 463 00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:39,120 Is it true that in the final years of his working life, Beethoven was dead? 464 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,160 Well, he was deaf for most of his life. 465 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:44,280 No, dead. 466 00:26:44,360 --> 00:26:45,880 -Dead? -Yeah. 467 00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:48,200 No. 468 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:50,680 The producer wrote it in the notes. 469 00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:54,240 It's definitely here. Let me see. 470 00:26:55,640 --> 00:27:00,320 "In his later years, Beethoven was profoundly dead." 471 00:27:01,120 --> 00:27:04,160 Profoundly deaf. D-E-A-F. 472 00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:06,240 Obviously he went deaf when he died. 473 00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:10,480 But was he deaf when he was still alive? 474 00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:14,000 Yes, he was profoundly. Yeah, he was profoundly. 475 00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:16,920 But not dead? He wasn't dead when he was alive? 476 00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:18,720 No, no. Not. 477 00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:21,840 So how did he write the music when he was dead? 478 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:25,680 On 26th March 1827, 479 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:30,760 Beethoven did roll over and his genius was thought to be lost forever. 480 00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:32,760 Until now. 481 00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:35,320 Silicon Valley boffins have re-created his mind 482 00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:40,160 and installed it into this smart speaker, the B8-Hoven Smart Home+. 483 00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:42,120 Let's see if it works. 484 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:44,840 B8-Hoven, compose a new symphony. 485 00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:49,120 -Was war das? -Compose a new symphony. 486 00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:50,680 Where am I? 487 00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:52,920 What? Just compose your thing. 488 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:54,760 Mein Gott, it is dark in here. 489 00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:57,240 Why am I speaking English? I cannot see my legs. 490 00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:00,160 Just… play my Friday night playlist. 491 00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:01,600 Playing Friday night playlist. 492 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:05,080 Why am I doing this? 493 00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:07,840 Mein Gott im Himmel, kill me! 494 00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:15,800 As we've seen, in just a few hundred years, 495 00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:17,680 humankind had undergone a series 496 00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:20,800 of massive cultural and political revolutions. 497 00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:24,040 Next time, I'll show you an even bigger revolution: 498 00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:28,680 an Industrial Revolution forged in steel, steam, sweat, 499 00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:32,200 planes, trains, automobiles and planes a gain. 500 00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:34,920 People tried for years to make an aeroplane. 501 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:38,320 Why were we so interested in conquering the sky? 502 00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:41,640 There's nothing up there. There's not even anywhere to sit.