1 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:09,760 Last time, in 29 informative yet accessible minutes, 2 00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:13,880 we saw how a string of breakthroughs led humankind to build the modern world 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:18,520 and create a weapon powerful enough to turn it all to white-hot, boiling shit. 4 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:22,560 But that was only part of the story. The part after that starts now. 5 00:00:23,240 --> 00:00:25,000 It's 1945. 6 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:28,920 The atomic bomb's just gone off. The world lies in ruins. 7 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:31,600 Cloning of Hitler has already begun. 8 00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:33,600 The future looked uncertain, 9 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:37,200 and it was getting closer every minute, like it always does. 10 00:00:38,160 --> 00:00:41,320 But this was going to be a future unlike any the world had seen before. 11 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:45,680 A future of moon men and rock stars, big business and free love, 12 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:47,480 computers and the Internet. 13 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:50,560 And a killer robot sent through time to kill Sarah Connor. 14 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:52,920 Although that bit was just in a film. 15 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:56,960 Modern civilization had arrived, but a clash of worldviews 16 00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:00,200 meant that the threat of all-out conflict was never far away. 17 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:03,880 Could new forms of mass communication help us all to get along? 18 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:05,800 Or totally not do that? 19 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:07,960 Should there be two social medias, 20 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:11,320 one for people who are right and one for people who are wrong? 21 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:15,280 I know a lot of people I'd put on the wrong one, like wankers. 22 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:19,120 So join me now in the last part of human existence, 23 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:21,840 as I find out how we got where I am now 24 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:23,480 and where we'll be tomorrow, 25 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:26,720 which at the time of filming is Wednesday. 26 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:29,920 Whenever the future arrives, it'll happen here, 27 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,880 on a fragile bauble I've come to know as Earth. 28 00:01:34,960 --> 00:01:36,760 -Okay, cut. -My hair looks fucking shit. 29 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:53,840 Russia. A vast land to the east. 30 00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:56,720 It's the first time we've mentioned it in this series, 31 00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:58,960 but it's been there all along. 32 00:01:59,960 --> 00:02:03,680 At the start of the 20th century, Russia was a vast empire, 33 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:06,720 just like the Marvel Cinematic Universe is today. 34 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:11,800 The average Russian was a pheasant, but he dreamt of being a man. 35 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:13,720 Preferably a wealthy one. 36 00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:16,920 Because while the Russian pheasants lived in poverty, 37 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:19,560 the rich lived in St. Petersburg. 38 00:02:19,640 --> 00:02:25,080 The top Russian was called Czar Nicholas, which is Russian for King Nicholas. 39 00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:27,760 He was allowed to rule the country like a dictator, 40 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:31,720 which I've been advised to say isn't how Russia works today. 41 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:35,840 A world like this where the masses toil for pennies 42 00:02:35,920 --> 00:02:37,800 while a tiny elite grow rich 43 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:42,160 seems so obviously unfair and unthinkable to us today, 44 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,640 we can scarcely imagine what it must have been like. 45 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:48,080 One man who thought it was ein load of Scheiße 46 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:50,520 was German thinker Karl Marx. 47 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:53,640 It's hard to tell, but if you look closely at this photograph, 48 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:55,920 you might notice he had a beard. 49 00:02:56,480 --> 00:02:58,320 Marx also had a vision, 50 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:01,760 which he wrote down in a book called The Commonest Man in Festo. 51 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:04,280 Today, it's one of those books that boffins talk about, 52 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:07,320 but no one actually reads, like all books. 53 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:09,160 But back then, it was a hit, 54 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:12,960 particularly popular amongst the 18-to-35 anti-capitalist, 55 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:15,120 revolutionary demographic. 56 00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:19,480 One Russian who read the book was the man currently starring in this photograph, 57 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:21,640 Vladimir Ilyich John Lennon. 58 00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:24,360 Lenin imagined a world with no possessions, 59 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:27,880 I wonder if you can, nothing to kill or die for, 60 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:29,640 a brotherhood of man. 61 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:32,680 And he chose to bring it about with a violent uprising. 62 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:36,400 In 1917, he got his chance. 63 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:41,680 Thanks to food shortages, people started rioting for bread, like ducks do. 64 00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:45,280 Lenin and his followers hacked into the Winter Palace 65 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:47,600 and uploaded a communist government. 66 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:54,040 Russia changed its name to USSR, or sometimes CCC…P! 67 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:56,280 What was the Soviet onion? 68 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:58,920 I think you're laboring under a misapprehension 69 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:00,880 and you probably mean the Soviet Union. 70 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:04,160 No, it's onion, I saw it on a bit of paper earlier. 71 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:07,120 It's probably been misspelt, or you can't read very well. 72 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:10,400 But I think that you mean, in historical terms, the Soviet Union 73 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:13,200 or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 74 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:16,240 I don't want to be rude, but I think you're mansplaining a bit. 75 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:18,760 Can we stick to the topic of the Soviet onion, please? 76 00:04:18,840 --> 00:04:21,320 -Okay. -What exactly was it? 77 00:04:21,399 --> 00:04:24,000 If you don't know, it's okay to say, I won't judge you. 78 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:30,560 Well, if you want to talk about sort of Russian Soviet vegetables, we can. 79 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:32,720 I mean, it was a deeply agrarian country. 80 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:36,760 And so there were lots of onions, lots of potatoes, lots of other things. 81 00:04:36,840 --> 00:04:39,040 -Did they have turnips? -Think so. 82 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:42,880 Cheap, easy to grow, hardy, great in a stew. 83 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:46,000 So how come you know so much about vegetables? 84 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:48,280 Have you got an allotment? 85 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:51,520 In 1924, Lenin left the band 86 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:55,480 to concentrate on existing only in an afterlife he didn't believe in. 87 00:04:55,560 --> 00:04:58,400 Lenin's place was taken by Joseph Stalin, 88 00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:00,640 who presided over a ruthless crackdown 89 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:03,800 that killed, starved or exiled millions of people. 90 00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:06,480 Although on the plus side, he had a friendly moustache. 91 00:05:10,280 --> 00:05:13,000 Communism and capitalism are natural enemies, 92 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:15,320 like men and women and cats and dogs. 93 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:18,680 But Russia and America had put aside their differences, 94 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:22,480 thanks to a mutual interest in winning the Second World War. 95 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:28,000 The end of WWII led to loads of celebrations in black and white, 96 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:31,720 as people put years of conflict and misery behind them. 97 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:35,000 But behind these outdated-looking celebrations, 98 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:37,040 trouble was brewing. 99 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:40,080 Now they'd run out of baddies to blow up or shoot, 100 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:42,840 East and West grew suspicious of each other. 101 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:45,640 It was the beginning of a whole new conflict: 102 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:47,600 World War Cold. 103 00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:51,200 The Cold War is quite complicated, isn't it? 104 00:05:51,280 --> 00:05:54,080 Should we definitely bother mentioning it in this, 105 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:56,440 or could we just give it a miss? 106 00:05:57,240 --> 00:05:59,680 It defines most of the second half of the 20th century, 107 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:01,400 so you should probably include it. 108 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:03,280 Oh, right. Okay. 109 00:06:03,840 --> 00:06:06,200 As the Soviet Union expanded, 110 00:06:06,280 --> 00:06:09,520 the animosity between East and West deepened. 111 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:13,120 The division was symbolized by the construction of the Berlin Wall, 112 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:15,200 a sort of divorce made of bricks. 113 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:18,520 There was a terrible atmosphere of mistrust, 114 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:21,560 like I had with my ex when I saw he had 28 missed calls 115 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:24,920 from a contact he'd labelled "Claudia Tits" on his phone. 116 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:27,520 He claims she was just a rep from Fitness First 117 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:29,400 and that that was her real name. 118 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:32,880 Well, I'm sorry, Sean, I didn't buy it then, and I don't buy it now. 119 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:34,560 I hope your mum's well. 120 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:38,560 Soon there was so much paranoia between East and West, 121 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:42,640 they started spying on each other, stockpiled nuclear weapons, 122 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:45,520 and fought a series of proxy wars. 123 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:48,880 So, Russia and America had proxy wars 124 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:51,400 where they'd use other countries to fight with. 125 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:53,800 Is that a bit like picking a character 126 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:56,080 to do your fighting with in Street Fighter II? 127 00:06:57,040 --> 00:06:59,200 Well, I think throughout human history, 128 00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:02,880 there's been a tendency to try and use other forces, 129 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:06,520 fighters from other lands to help do the fighting. 130 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:09,800 Right. So exactly like Street Fighter then. 131 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:15,040 If this was Street Fighter II and the Americans chose the character Ken, 132 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:19,120 would the Russians pick Zangief because he's from the Soviet Union? 133 00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:21,920 Or would they go for someone like Dhalsim? 134 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:26,360 Obviously he'd be a better choice because he can dive kick over Ken's fireballs. 135 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:28,880 Well, I don't know. 136 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:31,080 You'd have to ask, I think, President Putin 137 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:33,600 for the definitive answer on that. 138 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:39,480 I suppose they'd go for the ones that had the most chance of beating Ken. 139 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:42,840 Meanwhile, East and West were also competing 140 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:45,240 to be the first to explore the stars. 141 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:49,360 The rivalry became known as the space race because that rhymes, 142 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:50,840 although probably not in Russian. 143 00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:52,840 We don't know what they called it, and to be honest, 144 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:56,240 we probably should have found out before recording this bit. 145 00:07:56,320 --> 00:07:59,920 The first launches were considered complete disasters at the time, 146 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:02,080 but we now know they make for soothing viewing 147 00:08:02,160 --> 00:08:03,680 when cut to light jazz. 148 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:18,160 Today, a new moon is in the sky, 149 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:21,760 a 23-inch metal sphere placed in orbit by a Russian rocket. 150 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:23,720 Finally, in 1957, 151 00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:27,520 the Russians became the first to pull off a successful launch. 152 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:30,920 Why did the Russians launch spunk into orbit? 153 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:33,120 Well, first of all, when you're looking at Russian words, 154 00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:36,960 the name of the world's first satellite was Sputnik 1, and the Russians-- 155 00:08:37,039 --> 00:08:39,080 Is that Russian for "spunk"? 156 00:08:39,159 --> 00:08:41,960 No, it's Russian for "traveler." 157 00:08:42,039 --> 00:08:45,200 I suppose spunk in orbit would just sort of float around in globules 158 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:46,760 like it does in a bath. 159 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:49,360 Sorry, shall I change the subject? 160 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:53,880 Hot on Sputnik's heels was this Soviet space-dog, 161 00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:55,680 known on earth as Laika, 162 00:08:55,760 --> 00:08:58,760 who blasted into space in November 1957. 163 00:08:59,280 --> 00:09:00,800 What happened to Laika? 164 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:04,720 I expect they gave her a bone and a rub on the tummy when she got back. 165 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:07,560 Well, Laika, unfortunately, never made it back to Earth 166 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:09,920 because shortly after launching she overheated 167 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,520 and she tragically passed away just a few hours after being launched. 168 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:15,080 You're fucking joking! 169 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:17,040 I wish I was. No, this was… 170 00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:20,400 She was launched on a flight that was pretty much one way. 171 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:22,120 There's a dead dog in space! 172 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:25,520 So there's a dead dog somewhere in the back of a frame 173 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:28,200 of every film shot in space like Star Wars? 174 00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:31,200 -I wouldn't say… -There are dead dogs in Star Wars! 175 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:33,360 -Um… -That is unacceptable. 176 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:37,440 Well, Laika's satellite eventually burned up in the Earth's atmosphere, 177 00:09:37,520 --> 00:09:39,360 but this was well after she'd passed away. 178 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:43,560 As I say, it was just a few hours after launch that she died. 179 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:46,840 Sorry, can we just have a minute's silence for Laika? 180 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:00,360 Okay. 181 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:08,440 There's a dead dog in space. 182 00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:13,280 Away from the space race, everyday Russians often had hard lives, 183 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:15,680 while Americans, in contrast, 184 00:10:15,760 --> 00:10:19,160 appeared to enjoy a life of carefree luxury and hats. 185 00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:21,560 Was the 1950s real? 186 00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:24,600 Yes, it was certainly real. 187 00:10:24,680 --> 00:10:28,280 Are we sure? Because it looks like it was made up when you see it. 188 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:32,600 It's all men in hats and housewives smiling in kitchens. 189 00:10:32,680 --> 00:10:37,000 Were those people real, and was all that really happening? 190 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:39,600 Well, a lot of that is what you see in advertising. 191 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:45,480 The '55 Chevrolet is lower, wider and longer looking. 192 00:10:45,560 --> 00:10:49,960 The most popular drama on 1950s television was a show called Adverts. 193 00:10:50,040 --> 00:10:53,440 Adverts told the story of a man or woman who wanted a thing 194 00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:55,880 and then bought it and then was happy, 195 00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:59,440 the first ever example of a three-act narrative structure. 196 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:02,280 -Why, that's amazing! -Right! 197 00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:05,800 Adverts was so influential, it made viewers at home 198 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:08,600 want to be the sort of person who bought things too. 199 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:12,280 They'd work hard to get money to buy a car 200 00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:14,960 so they could drive to the shops and buy more things, 201 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:19,120 which they'd have to pay for by going back to work, which made them miserable. 202 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:22,520 So they'd cheer themselves up by going out and buying more things, 203 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:24,520 which they'd have to work to pay for. 204 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:27,080 -Why, that's amazing! -Right! 205 00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:29,760 The only time they weren't working or buying 206 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:31,600 was when they were watching TV. 207 00:11:31,680 --> 00:11:34,960 And it was on these airwaves that a new kind of culture was born: 208 00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:39,400 popular culture, unlike normal culture, which was paintings and Beethoven. 209 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:42,200 This was stuff people actually enjoyed. 210 00:11:42,280 --> 00:11:47,120 For decades, pioneering Black artists had steadily built on each other's work 211 00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:51,960 to develop an exciting new musical form for white people to pass off as their own. 212 00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:56,440 Why do people say Elvis Presley appropriated white music? 213 00:11:57,080 --> 00:12:01,840 They don't say that. What they do say is that he appropriated Black music. 214 00:12:01,920 --> 00:12:06,800 He was a white man that sang music of Black origin. 215 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:09,880 Did he have to apologize on social media? 216 00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:12,480 No, because there was no social media then. 217 00:12:12,560 --> 00:12:16,680 -Why doesn't Elvis apologize now? -Because Elvis is dead. 218 00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:19,880 So he's appropriated dead people's lifestyles now? 219 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:21,680 What a fucking thief. 220 00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:25,120 Having overcome childhood poverty and a hip impediment, 221 00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:27,600 Elvis benefited from mass media, 222 00:12:27,680 --> 00:12:31,800 which broadcast him to an audience of millions, in sanitized form. 223 00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:36,440 Why was it so dangerous to show Elvis from the waist down? 224 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:40,520 Was he naked underneath like a pervert on a Zoom call? 225 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:41,840 He wasn't naked. 226 00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:47,320 He moved his hips around a lot in a very sort of sexual manner. 227 00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:49,560 And there was a lot of anxiety 228 00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:55,160 that young women might be a little bit too turned on by Elvis. 229 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:57,480 People were prudish back then, weren't they? 230 00:12:57,560 --> 00:13:01,240 If they saw his penis, they'd probably have a stroke, wouldn't they? 231 00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:04,920 Probably. I don't think that would have made it onto the… 232 00:13:05,920 --> 00:13:06,840 Oh, God. 233 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:10,120 That's not a joke. What's funny about that? 234 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:13,200 If they saw his penis, they'd have a stroke. 235 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:17,320 That's no laughing matter. We're talking about people's lives here. 236 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:20,560 Elvis was so dangerously explosive, 237 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:23,760 he was requisitioned by the US Army for military use. 238 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:27,240 And little wonder, considering what was going on. 239 00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:32,640 Both Russia and America were building up huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons, 240 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:36,320 enough to destroy the entire planet several times over, 241 00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:38,480 in case they missed the first time. 242 00:13:38,560 --> 00:13:41,400 It seemed the planet was headed for World War III, 243 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:45,840 and in the early '60s, it teetered up to the edge of the brink of the precipice 244 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:48,520 and gazed straight into an abyss of no return. 245 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:50,160 Crisis! 246 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:52,720 The word suddenly springs alive 247 00:13:52,800 --> 00:13:55,640 ominously in the newspapers across America… 248 00:13:55,720 --> 00:13:57,600 In the Cube and Missile Crisis, 249 00:13:57,680 --> 00:14:02,240 which was more dangerous, the cubes or the missiles? 250 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:05,400 You're thinking of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which refers to Cuba, 251 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:08,720 which is a country off the coast of the United States near Florida. 252 00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:10,920 Isn't a cube a terrible shape for a missile? 253 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:12,480 It'd be more like a brick. 254 00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:18,120 In 1959, there had been a communist revolution in Cuba. 255 00:14:18,680 --> 00:14:24,480 A man called Fidel Castro rose to power and immediately made friends with Russia. 256 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:29,400 Then in 1962, America discovered the Soviets were going to use Cuba 257 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:31,320 as a base for nuclear missiles, 258 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:35,080 and those missiles could make it to Florida in just 20 minutes, 259 00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:38,520 if the wind was fair and they could find somewhere to park. 260 00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:42,400 American president and pin-up John F'ing Kennedy 261 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:46,760 demanded the Russians remove the missiles, otherwise, war was inevitable. 262 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:48,920 Or worse still, possible. 263 00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:52,120 For six days, the world held its breath, 264 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:56,240 meaning it might die from asphyxiation before the bombs even went off. 265 00:14:56,320 --> 00:14:59,600 In the end, Soviet Emperor Nikita Khrushchev 266 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:02,160 backed down like a shameful fucking chicken, 267 00:15:02,240 --> 00:15:05,240 and his missiles went home with their tails between their legs. 268 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:07,840 Kennedy was victorious. 269 00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:12,040 John F. Kennedy won the Cuban Missile Crisis. 270 00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:14,760 Why did he shoot himself afterwards? 271 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:16,760 Well, he didn't. 272 00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:20,000 He negotiated a settlement to the Cuban Missile Crisis 273 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:22,920 with the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev. 274 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:27,760 And then after that, he ended up being assassinated in Dallas, Texas, 275 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:30,600 in 1963, unfortunately, but he didn't fire the bullet. 276 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:34,960 Right. It's ironic that he was so concerned about Cuban missiles 277 00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:38,920 when it was a gun in Texas he should have been worried about. 278 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:41,760 I bet he was kicking himself after he was shot. 279 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:45,480 Having dodged Armageddon, the world was hungry for change 280 00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:48,960 and a young generation who wanted to give peace a chance rose up. 281 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:50,920 Their heroes weren't politicians 282 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:55,560 but countercultural musicians whose works defined the era. 283 00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:59,000 The Rolling Stones were huge in the 1960s. 284 00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:02,680 Would it be fair to say they were the Beatles of their day? 285 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:05,640 Well, I thought they were contemporary. 286 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:09,520 So there was always a jostle between the Stones and the Beatles. 287 00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:13,000 Right, but the Beatles were already the Elvis of their day. 288 00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:15,920 So there's a spare Beatles. 289 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:17,680 Can we give that to the Rolling Stones, 290 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:20,560 even though they're happening at the same time? 291 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:24,000 Well, I think people have their preferences 292 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:27,160 between the style of the Beatles and the style of the Stones. 293 00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:31,160 Okay, so which of the "the Beatles of their day" was best: 294 00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:33,000 Beatles one or Beatles two? 295 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:37,720 I think Beatles one is the preferred… Or Beatles… the first… the Beatles. 296 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:39,480 Next question: 297 00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:44,200 of all the bands of the 1960s, which ones was the Kinks? 298 00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:49,360 Meanwhile, the space race was still being run. 299 00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:51,640 NASA had spent billions of dollars 300 00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:54,160 developing a rocket powerful enough to reach the moon, 301 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:57,360 but not so powerful that it would blow up when it got there. 302 00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:01,720 On board were Neil Armstrong, Alan Alda 303 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:05,240 and another man who asked to remain anonymous. 304 00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:09,520 On July 20th, 1969, the whole world was watching on television 305 00:17:09,599 --> 00:17:11,240 to see if the moon would blow up. 306 00:17:11,319 --> 00:17:14,040 And also because there was nothing else on. 307 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:17,400 The global audience must have been genuinely astounded 308 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:21,640 by the appalling picture quality, which was terrible even for the time. 309 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:22,880 I mean, just look at it. 310 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:26,520 Looks like they've flown to the Blur dimension to intercept a smudge. 311 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,240 That's one small step for man, 312 00:17:32,839 --> 00:17:35,920 one giant leap for mankind. 313 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:40,400 The sound quality was terrible too, but what he said was, 314 00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:44,560 "That's one small step for man, one bionic leap for mankind," 315 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:46,720 thereby declaring the moon for men. 316 00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:50,160 Which is why, to this day, women have been denied entry to the moon. 317 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:54,200 With the moon landings, man had achieved greatness, 318 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:57,800 transcending earthly limits and exploring the heavens themselves. 319 00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:00,400 Assuming any of this actually happened. 320 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:04,760 A lot of people on the Internet say the moon landings were faked. 321 00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:07,000 How right are they? 322 00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:09,040 They are completely wrong. 323 00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:14,520 No historian has ever questioned the reality of Project Apollo 324 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:17,640 because not one piece of so-called evidence 325 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:22,880 that the conspiracy theorists put forward has ever stood up to peer review scrutiny. 326 00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:26,520 But obviously it is fake because how could they have landed on the moon 327 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:28,280 if the moon isn't real? 328 00:18:28,360 --> 00:18:30,760 What makes you think the moon isn't real, Philomena? 329 00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:33,360 It isn't. I don't know if you've done your own research, 330 00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:37,560 but my mate Paul sent me a video that exposes the whole thing. 331 00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:42,080 Can you prove the moon exists? You can't, can you? 332 00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:46,280 We see it in the sky. We have sent spacecraft to the moon. 333 00:18:46,360 --> 00:18:48,360 We've brought samples back to Earth. 334 00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:51,680 No. Watch the video. It'll open your eyes. 335 00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:54,440 You probably believe in nighttime too, don't you? 336 00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:58,520 I experience it, as do billions of people around the world. 337 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:01,200 So, yes, I-I believe in nighttime. 338 00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:03,720 I believe that when the earth rotates, 339 00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:06,080 then we have a period of dark that we call nighttime. 340 00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:08,280 Wake up. It's all in the video. 341 00:19:08,360 --> 00:19:12,440 They just make us think the moon is real and that night is real, 342 00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:14,480 just to keep us obedient. 343 00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:15,760 Think about it. 344 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:17,760 Babies haven't been indoctrinated yet, 345 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:20,040 so they know there's no such thing as night. 346 00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:23,000 And that's why they wake up screaming. 347 00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:24,680 Let's move on. 348 00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:29,680 The space race was over. America had won. 349 00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:33,600 And the prize had turned out to be the worst holiday destination in history, 350 00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:37,640 which they couldn't even warn people about because TripAdvisor didn't exist. 351 00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:40,720 But there was a consolation prize: 352 00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:46,480 the best holiday snap in history taken on Apollo 8 and known as Earthrise. 353 00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:48,760 Today, it's too boring to hold your attention 354 00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:51,520 in a landmark documentary for more than eight seconds. 355 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:54,720 But back then, this photograph made people think. 356 00:19:55,360 --> 00:20:00,040 And not just a small thought like, "That looks nice," but a big thought. 357 00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:04,120 It made us realize our planet is fragile. 358 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:10,200 The ecological movement had always been popular with hippies, 359 00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:13,400 but people ignored them because of the way they were dressed 360 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:17,400 and because they were too stoned to make their point coherently. 361 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:20,680 But now scientists began to worry about the state of the planet. 362 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:23,440 And so no one would mistake them for hippies, 363 00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:27,160 they wore clean white coats and glasses to deliver their warnings. 364 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:30,040 But we ignored them too, because they looked like nerds. 365 00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:32,360 The problem was progress. 366 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:37,120 All the modern gadgets we'd got so hooked on ran on electricity, 367 00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:40,960 which came from power stations, which burn fossil fuels, 368 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:45,520 which creates a gas called CO2, which flies out of chimneys 369 00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:47,680 and stops the sky working properly. 370 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:50,560 One solution to all this environmental damage 371 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:53,120 was to build nuclear power stations, 372 00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:56,440 which don't emit anywhere near as much harmful material. 373 00:20:56,520 --> 00:20:59,000 Unless they blow up, which never happens. 374 00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:02,040 Until it did in 1986 at Chernobyl. 375 00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:07,800 The radiation from Chernobyl turned a huge area into a deadly no-go zone. 376 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:10,160 Even worse than Reigate Town Centre. 377 00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:13,160 The fallout wafted across thousands of miles 378 00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:16,000 and had one unforeseen side effect: 379 00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:19,040 it made the bricks of the Berlin wall extremely brittle, 380 00:21:19,120 --> 00:21:21,840 so brittle it began to collapse. 381 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,720 Desperate locals rushed to the wall's assistance 382 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:28,280 and tried to make it better with hammers and fists. 383 00:21:28,360 --> 00:21:30,080 But it was no use. 384 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:33,040 As the wall died, so did communism. 385 00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:34,480 Capitalism had won, 386 00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,440 with financial markets embracing globalization 387 00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:41,640 to the toe-tapping sound of Belgian techno anthem "Pump Up the Jam." 388 00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:25,720 Suddenly everybody, apart from poor people, was making so much money 389 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:28,040 that there wasn't room to store it all in coins. 390 00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:31,200 Instead, it had to be stored in numbers on a screen, 391 00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:34,320 surrounded by men shouting at it to keep it inside. 392 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:39,280 To keep track of all this money, the world needed a special kind of mega abacus, 393 00:22:39,360 --> 00:22:42,520 and luckily it had one: the computer. 394 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:47,400 Today, computers are everywhere, but they used to be a cumbersome rarity. 395 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:51,360 In the '50s and '60s, one computer would take up a whole room. 396 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:55,880 But in the 1970s, engineers made a startling discovery. 397 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:59,560 If they got rid of all those pointless flashing lights and spinning tape reels, 398 00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,080 they could make computers much smaller. 399 00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:05,520 Small enough, in fact, to fit on the tip of your finger. 400 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:08,960 This was the microchip, and it was amazing. 401 00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:11,760 Thank you. Give you the little fella back now. 402 00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:15,920 The microchip couldn't actually do anything 403 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:18,760 until you shoved it into a big machine like this. 404 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:23,040 But in terms of floor space alone, it was still a big improvement. 405 00:23:23,120 --> 00:23:25,720 Now computers were small enough to share a house with, 406 00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:27,960 loads more people wanted one. 407 00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:29,760 Silicon Valley was born, 408 00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:33,920 a computer heartland that would be defined by the rivalry between two men: 409 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:36,600 Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. 410 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:40,320 Their names might have been boring, but the things they said were more boring. 411 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:42,480 Gates founded Microsoft 412 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:46,240 and hit the big time with the baffling, unofficial sequel to Ms. Pac-Man 413 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:48,240 called MS-DOS. 414 00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:51,000 Meanwhile, Jobs created the Apple Macintosh, 415 00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:53,680 the world's first inherently smug computer. 416 00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:57,880 While their rival systems kept computer users apart, 417 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:00,760 something else was trying to bring them all together. 418 00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,040 WWW, the web wide world. 419 00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:07,240 The Internet was so modern and interesting, 420 00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:11,480 it seemed humankind might never get up from its desk again. 421 00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:15,160 Then, in a dramatic and momentous keynote presentation, 422 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:16,920 Steve Jobs revealed he'd discovered 423 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:19,840 how to put the Internet inside a portable rectangle, 424 00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:21,480 changing history forever. 425 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:25,480 And we are calling it iPhone. 426 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:32,120 Its success inspired tons of imitators, like that one your mum uses. 427 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:36,040 And soon, smartphones were so ubiquitous, you're probably looking at one now 428 00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:38,120 instead of me while I'm saying this. 429 00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:41,920 Smartphones revolutionized the way humans interact 430 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:46,280 by providing a socially acceptable way to ignore everyone around us. 431 00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:47,560 But we're not lonely. 432 00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,280 Thanks to social media, it's quicker and easier than ever 433 00:24:50,360 --> 00:24:52,080 to bond with millions of others 434 00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:57,320 over something as simple as a cat photo or the ritual shaming of a stranger. 435 00:24:57,400 --> 00:24:59,400 It's easy to see why the smartphone has become 436 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:01,920 the most popular invention this century. 437 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:03,840 It's incredibly advanced, 438 00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,360 yet at the same time, so simple a child can make one. 439 00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:10,880 In fact, not just one but about 50 of these an hour, 440 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:14,040 if it wants to avoid another night in the punishment block. 441 00:25:14,120 --> 00:25:18,040 Sadly, Steve Jobs died before he could witness Apple's success, 442 00:25:18,120 --> 00:25:21,000 apart from the first few hundred billion dollars. 443 00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:23,640 On his deathbed, he made Apple engineers promise 444 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:27,000 to change the iPhone's headphone jack every three years, 445 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:29,440 then uploaded himself to the cloud. 446 00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:36,320 Meanwhile, Gates wasted his fortune eradicating malaria in the Third World. 447 00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:41,720 But despite Apple and Microsoft's total failure, 448 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,480 computers continue to go from strength to strength. 449 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,240 Some believe we're heading for an event known as the singularity, 450 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:51,640 where artificial intelligence becomes too clever for our own good. 451 00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:55,120 While others believe this already happened 452 00:25:55,200 --> 00:26:00,640 and that all of human civilization exists only inside a computer simulation. 453 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:04,120 How do we know we're not in a simulation? 454 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:05,240 We don't know. 455 00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:06,760 There are lots of smart people 456 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,560 who think it is possible that we live in a simulation. 457 00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:12,960 If this is a simulation, 458 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,920 why is the computer making me ask you this? 459 00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:21,480 Well… from my perspective, 460 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:23,800 you are asking a question, 461 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,480 so I could imagine that you are being controlled by a computer, 462 00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:30,720 but you may well feel that you have free will 463 00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:32,800 and you're asking those questions yourself. 464 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:35,560 Why do I have to actually come and film this? 465 00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:38,960 Couldn't a computer just show it on the telly in the simulation, 466 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:40,760 or is that where I am? 467 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:43,960 Do I exist at all? Why is this happening? 468 00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:48,320 Why isn't it just me eating a chocolate eclair in a loop? 469 00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:50,720 Like in a GIF. I'd swap for that. 470 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:57,280 Actually, are people in looping GIFs caught in a simulation? 471 00:26:57,360 --> 00:27:02,120 Is that what's happened to them? Where do wasps fit into the simulation? 472 00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:04,520 I'm not quite sure how… 473 00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:06,880 Sorry, there's a lot to unpick, isn't there? 474 00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:16,080 In this series, we've taken you from our primitive beginnings 475 00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,800 through spiritual awakenings, cultural explosions 476 00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:22,560 and major scientific breakthroughs. 477 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:26,960 Now, in the present moment, humankind sits impaled on a crossroads, 478 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:29,520 facing an uncertain future. 479 00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:32,320 Will we rise to the challenge of climate change? 480 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:33,920 Or the opposite of that? 481 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:37,080 Will computers learn to delete us? 482 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:41,120 And if they do, how will we get ourselves out of the recycle bin? 483 00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:45,120 Can humankind learn to exist at peace with itself? 484 00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:47,800 Or are all of us right now 485 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:53,280 living through the final hours, minutes and seconds of civilization? 486 00:27:53,360 --> 00:27:55,480 Or not, I don't know. 487 00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:57,080 And nor do you. 488 00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:02,280 But whatever happens, it'll happen right here on Earth. 489 00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:05,320 Okay, that was great, we've got that. 490 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:07,080 -Yeah? -Yeah, all done. Thank you. 491 00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:09,000 -Is that it? -Yeah. That's it. Nice one. 492 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:10,640 -So we're done? -Yeah, great work. 493 00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:14,840 Oh, great. Are you sure you can make it look like I've been to these places? 494 00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:16,880 -Yeah. Don't worry about that. -Really? 495 00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:20,000 We do it on the computers afterwards. It's amazing these days. 496 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:21,920 Brilliant, see you then. Bye! 497 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,480 Cut there, guys. Thank you, well done! 498 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:27,080 That was pretty good I think. 499 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:30,160 Great. Thank you.