Time Trip

 

Horizon’s Time Trip is a thrilling journey deep into the strangeness of cutting-edge physics – a place where beautiful, baffling ideas are sometimes indistinguishable from the utterly crazy. On this journey, we meet a time-travelling pizza, a brilliant mathematician in a ski mask and even God. The journey ends with a strange and dark conclusion – one which calls into question our very existence.

Ever since Einstein showed it was theoretically possible, the quest to travel through time has drawn eccentric amateurs and brilliant scientists in almost equal numbers. The amateurs include Aage Nost, who demonstrates his time machine in front of the cameras. The professionals include the likes of Professor Frank Tipler of Tulane University. His time machine sounds good – but it would weigh half the mass of the galaxy.

There is, however, one way that time travel to the past could be possible. And it would be much more convenient. Future civilizations could use computers to create exact replicas of the past. Unfortunately that idea has physics trembling in its socks. Because if you can generate a perfect virtual reality version of the past, who’s to say we are not one of the replicas?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Exploring Life Extension

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6581761732541483047#

 

The Immortality Institute’s science documentary, Exploring Life Extension, aims to create a realistic impression of the modern scientific pursuit of Life Extension.

The documentary includes interviews with authors from the Immortality Institute’s book, The Scientific Conquest of Death, plus more than 80 other individuals working to advance Life Extension.

What prompted you to explore life extension? How long do you want to live and why? What is the biggest hurdle to life extension? What technologies are most promising for life extension and why?

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The Great Robot Race

 

 

Twenty-three bizarre looking vehicles line up at the starting gate of the DARPA Grand Challenge with one thing in common: there s nobody behind the wheel.

Sponsored by the Pentagon s research agency this race for robotic driverless vehicles has a $2 million prize. Its ultimate goal is to gather new ideas for the future of unmanned warfare.

With names like Terramax Highlander Ghostrider and Stanley these vehicles are armed with cutting-edge technology including artificial intelligence laser-guided vision GPS navigation and 3-D mapping systems.

But can some of the world s most advanced robots overcome a grueling 130-mile stretch of Nevada’s scorching desert terrain? NOVA follows the competing engineering teams as they deal with the glitches system crashes and tight deadlines that threaten to derail them at every turn.

NOVA’s cameras capture the race s technical challenges hilarious pitfalls and a final twist as a surprise contender comes up from behind to steal the race.

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Scientific American Frontiers

Part 1:  Surgical Slimmers.

In spite of the risks, people are lining up to solve their weight problems in the operating room. And if the latest device – an implantable stomach “pacer” – works out, millions more will be taking the surgical way out.

 

 

Part 2:  Cars that Think.

The fully automatic car may be down the road a ways, but cars that do your thinking for you are just around the corner – they watch out for hazards, they listen to you, they read your lips, they even know when you’re distracted.

 

 

Part 3:  Going Deep.

A look back at the decades of effort that culminated in the deep sub Alvin reaching the ocean floor, and a look forward to what’s next now Alvin’s retiring.

 

 

Part 4:  Chimp Minds.

A visit with an engaging if unruly bunch of cousins that we formally broke up with about 6 or 7 million years ago – with whom we share almost all of our genes but not a lot of our lifestyle. Why the difference? Maybe it’s in how we learn.

 

 

Part 5:  Hot Planet – Cold Comfort.

So you think global warming won’t affect you? Wait until the great Atlantic Conveyor shuts down. And find out what’s already happening in Alaska.

 

 

Part 6:  Hydrogen Hopes.

Hydrogen may be the fuel of the future, but what will it take to safely and efficiently make the transition from today’s fossil fuels?

 

 

Part 7:   Hidden Motives.

If you think you know why you do things, you’re probably wrong. How does the unconscious mind determine human behavior?

 

 

Part 8:  The Secret Canyon.

The best kept secret of American archeology is now revealed – an entire canyon of perfectly preserved 1,000-year-old remains.

 

 

Part 9:  Cybersenses.

Replacement synthetic senses for people are now a reality. Children as young as 12 months are already getting artificial hearing – while the first trials of electronic retinas for the blind are just beginning.

 

 

Part 10:  Robot Pals.

To be really useful, robots need to behave as cooperative partners rather than mindless machines. We’ll meet three robots – including a future member of an astronaut team – that are trying to better understand us.

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How to Make Better Decisions

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4226287159610515131

We are bad at making decisions. According to science, our decisions are based on oversimplification, laziness and prejudice.

And that’s assuming that we haven’t already been hijacked by our surroundings or led astray by our subconscious!

Featuring exclusive footage of experiments that show how our choices can be confounded by temperature, warped by post-rationalisation and even manipulated by the future, Horizon presents a guide to better decision making, and introduces you to Mathematician Garth Sundem, who is convinced that conclusions can best be reached using simple maths and a pencil!

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The Real Face of the European Union

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2699800300274168460

The EU has been sold to Britain as our best hope for the future. But behind the scenes, has another, more unsettling agenda been unfolding? The European Economic Community (EEC) began for Britain as a free-trade agreement in 1972.

Today’s European Union is well on its way to becoming a federal superstate, complete with one currency, one legal system, one military, one police force – even its own national anthem.

In this shocking new documentary featuring EU insiders and commentators, independent author Phillip Day covers the history and goals of the European Union, as well as the disturbing, irrevocable implications this new government has for every British citizen.

Whether the viewer is for or against Britain’s participation, this film asks the troubling questions the mainstream media has refused to confront.

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Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-184240591461103528

A brilliant young man, he was appointed professor at the University of Basel aged 24 having not even finished his degree. His evanescent philosophical life ended 20 years later when he went insane and died shortly afterwards.

Nietzsche’s argued that the Christian system of faith and worship was not only incorrect, but harmful to society because it allowed the weak to rule the strong – it suppressed the will to power which was the driving force of human character. Nietzsche wanted people to throw of the shackles of our misguided Christian morality and become supermen – free and titanic.

However, without God he felt that the future of man might spiral into a society of nihilism, devoid of any meaning; his aim was for man to realise the lack of divine purpose and create his own values. The core of Nietzsche’s work, including Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-92), Beyond Good and Evil (1886), The Birth of Tragedy (1872) was to find a meaning and morality in the absence of God.

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The Lost Book Of Nostradamus

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8085213155870238095#

Could it be that Nostradamus, the “go to” prophet of all time, is reaching forward into the 21st century to give us a last warning? Is it already too late? In 1994, Italian journalist Enza Massa was at the Italian National Library in Rome conducting research on old texts, when she stumbled upon an unusual find in its stacks; a mysterious manuscript dating to 1629. The name of the book was surprising: Nostradamus Vatinicia Code.

On the inside of the book was the name of the author, in indelible ink—Michel de Notredame—the prophet Nostradamus. This find was particularly remarkable; the manuscript included over eighty watercolor illustrations that were painted by the master prophet himself. Contained in the pages of the book are cryptic, bizarre images that some say are prophecies of our future. Letters, symbolic objects, banners, candles, crosses, and even a burning tower are all included in the manuscript. Are these images visual manifestations of his quatrains, which extend to the 21st century, as some say? How did this book come to be in the library? Why was this book hidden for over 400 years? And are these images so frightening that Nostradamus deliberately hid them, as some say, until their time was near?

This special will follow the investigative trail of how the manuscript came to be found in the archives, and exactly how it got there. The story will also give new insight into the life of Nostradamus—his relationship with his son, Cesar, and his connection to the Vatican—in particular, Pope Urban VIII, who knew about this manuscript and in whose possession it was for many years.

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Plants For A Future

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=659155658226666080

A garden you can eat, a garden you can wear, a garden you can use as your medicines, a garden you can use as fuel and to build your houses… a garden full of purposes, and a garden you can enjoy as well – that you can sit in – and a garden that doesn’t take up all your time. You can actually, for a few hours of work each week, produce the things that you need.

Ten years as a London bus drive drove Ken Fern to look for an alternative way of life. After a period of grindingly hard work growing annual crops on a small plot in Sari, he decided to investigate news ways of rearing plants which were not quite so labor intensive. Inspired by Robert Hart’s ideas and the will to make their dreams a reality, Ken and his wife Addy finally settled on a 28 acre field in Cornwall, which is exposed to the full force of southwest winds blowing in from the Atlantic.

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Flying the Flag – Arming the World

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7896356728565502659

Britain is still a world leader. Indeed it has twenty percent of a world market, second only to the United States. And this industry is considered so important by the government that it consumes almost half of all research and development funds. Strangely it produces not consumer goods that people want, but machines that hardly any of us use or want to use. Moreover, for all its’ preeminence, its’ future is uncertain and depends to a large degree on secret deals with some of the most corrupt and brutal regimes on Earth. One of the biggest manufacturing industries in Britain at the close of the century is ARMS.

John Pilger and David Munro look behind the political rhetoric and discover the world of international arms dealing. Won a Bronze Apple in the category of ‘Domestic and International Concerns’, National Educational Film & Video Festival, Oakland, California, 1995; Certificate of Honourable Mention in the ‘International Relations’ category, The Chris Awards (Columbus International Film Festival), Worthington, Ohio, 1995

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