Every year, scholars make new d iscoveries,
wh ich shatter ou r vision of ou r own past.
They u nearth cl ues, wh ich reveal that ancient people
created extraord i nary i n novations
h u nd reds, even thousands of years ahead of thei r ti me...
Did the Ch i nese i nvent the fu ndamentals of space exploration
centu ries before Col u m bus?
What weapons of modern warfare were conceived by Leonardo da Vi nci
One of the world's g reatest artists?
Jou rney to the remote reg ion of Pacific
where a long dead civi I ization fash ioned a vast city
on scores of lslands it bu i It itself?
travel h ig h among the And ies i n South Africa
to d iscover mon u ments constructed by van ished people
with stones twice the size of those that bu i It the pyram ids
what were the lost tech nolog ical secrets of ancient ti mes?
how were they created then thoug ht to be lost forever?
and how wou ld ou r world have been transformed
if the d iscoveries had been developed over the centu ries
i nstead of bei ng lost i n the shadows of the past
joi n us as we explore the i n novative gen i us of ancient men
and probe the past to reveal
the startl i ng lost secrets of ancient tech nology
E u rope i n the 1 0th Centu ry.
It was a world g ri pped by fear and ig norance,
pesti lence and i I l iteracy,
su perstition and bloody warfare.
Between the fi rst m i I len n i u m after the death of Jesus
and the th i rteen h u nd reds,
E u rope was beset by m u lti ple catastrophes.
Faster than g raves cou ld be d ug ; victi ms of the Black Death were bu ried.
I n th is bleak world, Science, Med ici ne and T ech nology
were seen as bei ng i n d i rect confl ict with Ch ristian ity.
W estern E u rope was m i red i n the "Dark Ages"
and the hau nted landscape of the med ieval m i nd.
Y et half a world away there was a startl i ng ly d ifferent u n iverse.
`He who pai nts i n brig ht colors
can not use h is brush here.
Creation alone leaves the masterpiece. '
E m peror H u i-T su ng 1 1 00 C. E.
Ch i na.
Its civi I ization that reaches back over 3,000 years.
Y et, paradoxical ly, th is ancient ki ngdom
wou ld n u rtu re tech nolog ical ach ievements
wh ich scholars today consider su rprisi ng ly modern.
Wh i le E u ropean su rgeons were bleed i ng people to death
i n the false hope of cu ri ng them of the plag ue,
the Ch i nese had al ready u n locked the secret of i nocu lation agai nst d isease.
But it wasn't on ly med ici ne
where the Ch i nese made i nventions far ahead of thei r ti me.
F rom the fish i ng pole and the u m brel la
to the suspension bridge,
the Ch i nese had solved a myriad of tech nolog ical problems
far before the West.
For scholars of ancient tech nology the end u ri ng mystery remai ns.
Who were these m ig hty i n novators?
Why were the Ch i nese so far ahead of thei r ti me?
"Ch i na developed i ndependently of the rest of the world,
and that g ives us a fasci nati ng com parison poi nt.
Ch i na is an ancient civi I ization. U n I i ke the civi I ization of ancient Egypt,
it never broke down, went away and col lapsed and went th roug h a Dark Age.
So we have got a very long record of conti n uous Ch i nese civi I ization."
If necessity is the mother of i nvention,
perhaps cu riosity is its father.
Two h u nd red years before the bi rth of Ch rist,
the fi rst Ch i nese em peror, S h i H uang Ti,
became obsessed with d iscoveri ng the secret of I ife itself.
He bel ieved h i mself to be a god
and wanted to i nsu re that he wou ld I ive forever.
He scou red the cou ntryside for wise men and mag icians
who m ig ht u n lock the ridd le of everlasti ng I ife.
S h i H uang Ti never fou nd the answer
but h is q uest for knowledge establ ished a trad ition i n Ch i na,
wh ich conti n ued for over 1,000 years.
"What happened was that Ch i nese Alchem ists
were engaged i n a long search for el ixi rs of i m mortal ity,
med ici nes that wou ld make you I ive forever.
And i n the cou rse of i nvestigati ng some of the i nteresti ng su bstances
that they'd come across, particu larly potassi u m n itrate, saltpeter,
they made certai n m ixtu res, wh ich they fou nd had very strange properties.
One text of the 9th Centu ry AD
detai Is one m ixtu re with su lfu r saltpeter and honey and says
th is is one of a n u m ber of reci pes that you m ust never make."
I ron ical ly, Alchem ists seeki ng the form u la for eternal I ife,
fou nd i nstead a su bstance desti ned to ki I l u ntold m i I l ions of people.
For the Ch i nese alchem ists had u nwitti ng ly d iscovered g u n powder.
"G u n powder was al ready i n use i n Ch i nese arm ies i n the 1 1 th Centu ry AD,
when people i n E u rope were sti I l certai n ly h itti ng one another
over the head with cl u bs and stabbi ng one another with swords and spears."
Usi ng thei r new d iscovery, the Ch i nese developed rud i mentary g u ns
but then, su rprisi ng ly, never developed them fu rther.
Some scholars bel ieve it was Ch i na's isolation from su rrou nd i ng cou ntries
that accou nts for th is mystery.
"lt wasn 't u nti l Ch i nese g u n powder weapons
reached E u rope d u ri ng the Midd le Ages,
they began to be put u nder the ki ndof pressu re for development
that you on ly get when several cou ntries have al I got g u n powder weapons.
And they're al I desperately tryi ng to get the d rop on everybody else.
Whereas i n Ch i na
the pressu re for development for the weapons
beyond a certai n poi nt of adeq uacy was not there."
Althoug h the E m peror eq u i pped h is army with g u n powder weapons,
the new i nvention was used by the Ch i nese pri mari ly for thei r own enjoyment.
Du ri ng a fi reworks festival honori ng E m peror Li T su ng i n 1 264,
one fi rework m isfi red.
I nstead of head i ng for the stars
it sped d i rectly at the E m peror's fam i ly.
W itnessi ng th is m ishap
an i ngen ious Ch i nese i nventor saw an appl ication
that was far removed from entertai n ment.
When arrows were attached to fi reworks tu bes fil led with g u n powder,
it was fou nd they cou ld travel over 1 000 yards.
He had i nvented the rocket
precu rsors to the destructive weapons of the Second W orld War
and the fearsome m issi les of the N uclear Age.
I ncred i bly, Ancient Ch i nese tech nology has taken us to the moon and back.
I n the soph isticated cou rt of the E m peror's palace,
a spoon laid u pon a bronze plate
had the power to I iteral ly change the world.
Mag icians and conj u rers i n the E m peror's i n ner ci rcle
used the device i n the art of "Geomancy" or Feng S h u i :
the su pernatu ral Ch i nese study of al ig n i ng dwel I i ngs
harmon iously with the mag netic cu rrents of the Earth 's su rface.
The spoon, made of mag netic lodestone was spu n on the plate
and its motions exam i ned closely.
The plate was d ivided i nto North, South, East and W est.
I ncred i bly 300 years before the bi rth of Jesus,
the Ch i nese had i nvented the com pass.
It is a mystery to scholars that
thoug h the Ch i nese developed the com pass for use i n mag ic,
they d id not, at fi rst, use it as a tool of navigation.
Meanwh i le i n E u rope, without the com pass,
adventu rers had lau nched an age of exploration
usi ng on ly the stars as thei r g u ide.
I n Med ieval E u rope rel ig ion was often at odds with tech nology
strangely, i n Ch i na,
rel ig ion hastened the development of tech nology
especial ly the art of pri nti ng.
"Pri nti ng was i nvented i n Ch i na
and exploited centu ries before it was used i n the W est.
I n Budd h ism there is an i m mense store of merit attached to somebody
who, passes on or copies or freely d istri butes
one of the Budd h ist scri ptu res."
The earl iest pri nted text i n the world was a Budd h ist charm scrol l
pri nted i n the year 704.
At that ti me i n E u rope,
the com mon man was barely I iterate.
By the T enth Centu ry pri nti ng had exploded i n Ch i na,
as a variety of books was pu bl ished i n the m i I l ions.
"The generation of pri nted text i n Ch i na is i m mense.
It is the land of the book.
Whereas i n the W est a scholar wou ld have to, before G utten berg,
copy out of books if he wanted them.
I n Ch i na, you went to a book shop and you boug ht one."
Johan n G uten berg has long been cred ited
with i nventi ng moveable type i n Germany, i n 1 458.
It had i n fact, been i nvented over 400 years earl ier by the Ch i nese.
"l n the 1 7th Centu ry, F rancis Bacon
was writi ng about the g reat d iscoveries
that made h is world d ifferent from the world of the G reeks and the romans.
And he named th ree g reat i nventions
pri nti ng, mag netic com pass and g u n powder,
the orig i ns of wh ich, he said `are obscu re and i ng lorious.
The th i ng he d id n 't know was i n fact, they are al I Ch i nese i nventions,
and they had al I reached E u rope by d u ri ng the Midd le Ages."
Mysteriously, over the centu ries,
the Ch i nese themselves became as ig norant as the W est
of thei r ancestors'g lorious ach ievements.
Why with al I thei r i nventive gen i us d id they not fu I ly develop
many of thei r g reatest d iscoveries?
Perhaps the answer I ies i n the structu re of Ch i nese society itself.
"Th is h uge feudal bu reaucratic structu re left I ittle room for i n novation.
And it wasn 't the ki nd of structu re, wh ich welcomed new ideas and change.
So i n many ways, the u nderdeveloped and frag mented natu re of E u rope
someti mes gave it a head start i n maki ng use of Ch i nese i nventions."
F rom the 1 7th Centu ry onwards,
the Ch i nese became i ncreasi ng ly dazzled by E u ropean tech nolog ical expertise
When the Ch i nese were shown a mechan ical clock by Jesu it m issionaries,
they were awestruck.
The Ch i nese had forgotten that it was they
who had i nvented mechan ical clocks i n the fi rst place,
thousands of years before.
Lost i n the vast u ncharted oceans of ti me,
some of the most remarkable ach ievements of ancient tech nology
can be fou nd i n some of the most i naccessi ble places on earth.
Here, overg rown by the vi nes of a pri meval mang rove swam p,
I ies one of the g reat en ig mas of ancient tech nology.
"On a remote Pacific island i n Micronesia,
about a thousand m i les northeast of New G u i nea,
an island known as Poh n pei
is what is probably the eig hth wonder of the world.."
The people of the island cal l th is forbidden place,
Nan Madol, "The City of the Gods".
They are rel uctant to set foot here,
for they fear the spi rits hau nti ng the om i nous g randeu r, wh ich su rrou nds them.
Who cou ld have possi bly created it?
"It's total ly u n i n habited.
The islanders who I ive on Poh n pei lsland are afraid to go to th is city.
And they bel ieve if they do go there that they wi I l d ie.
it's I i ke a city of the dead
And it's reported by people who I ive near it at n ig ht
that they see I ig hts movi ng th roug h the city."
Scholars bel ieve Nan Madol was bu i It over 1 500 years ago.
As if the chal lenge of its construction was not form idable enoug h
the city was bu i It on a series of n i nety-two man made islands.
T o ach ieve th is colossal feat,
h u nd reds of thousands of g igantic stone logs made of basalt were stacked together,
and then fil led with tons of coral ru bble.
The resu It : from an esti mated 250 m i I l ion tons of basalt
rose a city wh ich covers eleven sq uare m i les.
The I rish seaman who d iscovered th is lost world i n 1 828,
refused to bel ieve it cou ld have been created by the pri m itive fishermen
who had I ived there i n g rass h uts on the island of Poh n pei for centu ries.
T oday, scholars theorize that Nan Madol was
somehow, bu i lt by the islanders themselves
for an el ite dynasty of ru lers.
"The most persistent mystery about Nan Madol,
I bel ieve, for me at least as an archaeolog ist,
is among other th i ngs, how they moved the largest stones
G iven the smal I popu lation size of Poh n pei,
that is the island cou ld n 't have su pported
a total popu lation of more than 25 or 30 thousand people,
they created an arch itectu ral mon u ment
that rivals mon u ments i n early civi I izations al I over the world."
"Basalt is one of the heaviest stones i n the world.
Some of the stones weig h u p to 50 tons at Nan Madol.
Stacked u p i n wal ls 40 or 50 feet h ig h.
It bogg les the m i nd how it cou ld be created."
How cou ld th is su perh u man feat of eng i neeri ng
have been possi ble for a popu lation scholar's esti mate
may have on ly n u m bered 25,000 people?
"The stone is brittle and they're easi ly cracked or fractu red
and yet they elevated these col u m ns u p to eig ht meters above the tops and wal ls
and d id th is thousands of ti mes without breaki ng very many of them,
and that remai ns one of the real en ig mas for me
is the detai Is of the construction tech n iq ues itself."
How cou ld th is vast city bu i It of stones
weig h i ng as m uch as fifty tons,
possi bly have been created?
It is a ridd le, wh ich hau nts the i mag i nation of the islanders
as powerfu I ly as it perplexes modern scientists.
"The islanders absol utely i nsist
that the stones of th is city were levitated
and mag ical ly flown th roug h the ai r and then put i nto place."
Other legends among the islanders of Poh n pei relate
that a potent d rug made from the pepper plant
gave thei r ancestors su perh u man strength to I ift the stones.
Scientists bel ieve that the truth is every bit as su rprisi ng.
"One of the stri ki ng th i ngs about Nan Madol and Pon pei
is the fact that g iven a very smal I popu lation of 25000 people
they were able to accom pl ish many of the same th i ngs
with regards to stone construction and transport
of massive stones that we see
i n the evolvi ng civi I izations I i ke Egypt and Meso-America."
The creators of Nan Madol had no beasts of bu rden
or wheeled veh icles to hel p them.
I nstead, scientists bel ieve that somehow,
the stones wh ich bu i It Nan Madol were moved with noth i ng more than ropes
hand made from h i biscus vi nes
and tree tru n ks used to sl ide the g iant blocks i nto place.
If these theories are true,
then perhaps nowhere on earth have such mon u mental structu res
been so i ngen iously created with such pri m itive tech nology.
Proof that even when h u man tech nology is severely I i m ited
the potential for h u man creativity is bou nd less.
recently, scientists have proposed an even more startl i ng possi bi I ity:
Cou ld an u nderwater city exist near Nan Madol,
even more awe-i nspi ri ng than the one they bu i It on thei r man made islands?
" Pon h peian oral trad itions
do refer to a concept of various ki nds of other worlds,
where thei r spi rits go when they d ie,
there are elements of a deep sea world that are reflected i n some oral h istories
but the reference to an u nderwater city
is u n iq ue and it's tied j ust to Nan Madol itself."
I ntrig ued by tantal izi ng legends of a lost u nderwater city at Nan Madol,
author and explorer David Ch i ld ress
cond ucted h is own i nvestigation of the site.
"The islanders d id not want us to actual ly go d ivi ng there.
They felt that the city itself was a ki nd of sacred city, a city of the gods.
There's also a n u m ber of what appear to be col u m ns,
coral encrusted col u m ns that are about 80 feet deep i n the water.
A n u m ber of archeolog ists have done some stud ies on th is
i ncl ud i ng the U n iversity of Hawai i and the U n iversity of Oh io,
where they have looked at some of these u nderwater structu res
and tried to fi nd al ig n ments to them.
There appear to be I i ke stand i ng stones movi ng away from the city."
Other scientists, however, d ispute Ch i ld ress' clai m.
"W e've done some u nderwater archelog ical exploration of th is area
and have fou nd a series of large col u m ns of rock-I i ke material
that extend u p from the coral reef,
but these appear to be natu ral coral g rowth..."
Does an u nderwater city exist near Nan Madol?
Or is the legend on ly an echo of the mystiq ue of Nan Madol itself?
The on ly certai nty is that,
as scientists u n lock the secrets of ancient tech nology,
th is Forbidden City remai ns one of its most mystifyi ng en ig mas.
I n al I of h istory,
no si ng le i nventor has rivaled the bri I l iance of one transcendent gen i us...
Leonardo da Vi nci.
"When we look at Leonardo's m i nd
what we see is a man who was capable of worki ng i n many d i mensions.
He was one of these men who was good at everyth i ng."
The renaissance pai nter is renowned as an artist
who created some of the most serene i mages of earth ly peace ever conceived.
Y et i ron ical ly, the same visionary artist who shaped the Mona Lisa's sm i le
planted the dead ly seeds of modern warfare.
For he desig ned cou ntless fearsome weapons centu ries before thei r ti me.
The mach i ne g u n wou ld not be i ntrod uced i nto warfare u nti I W orld War l
when it wou ld see action with devastati ng effect.
By early 1 500, Leonardo had al ready conceived a m u lti-barreled can non
a major conceptual breakth roug h.
Mechan ized warfare has proved decisive i n modern battles
from the nazi bl itzkrieg of W orld War I l to Operation Desert Storm...
but i ncred i bly,
Leonardo had al ready conceived of the pri nci ple of the tan k centu ries earl ier.
"lt wi I l need eig ht men to work it and make it tu rn and pu rsue the enemy.
Th is is good to break th roug h the ran ks.
LEONArDO DA Vl NCl
Of al I the awesome weapons of the space age,
one has been cal led the "jewel i n the crown"
the su bmari ne - the most tech nolog ical ly com plex weapon of modern warfare.
Here, i n a prophetic sketch,
Leonardo envisions h is desig n for the fi rst su bmari ne.
Cou ld Leonardo have g I i m psed the futu re
and real ized the om i nous i m pl ications
of th is al most i nvi nci ble weapon of destruction?
H is letters reveal the g rave m isg ivi ngs of a man who feared the power
of an i nvention before its ti me.
"l do not descri be my method for remai n i ng u nderwater
for as long a ti me as I can remai n.
Th is I do not pu bl ish or d ivu lge on accou nt of the evi I natu re of men
who wou ld practice assassi nation at the bottom of the seas..."
Leonardo Da Vi nci,
Housed i n the F rench chateau where he spent h is last years,
these prototype models captu re Leonardo's vi rtuosity i n the arts of war.
U lti mately, however,
he wou ld decide to abandon h is desig ns for weapons of destruction,
for he cal led war "mad ness".
But perhaps even a visionary such as Leonardo cou ld not i mag i ne
that the tech nology of warfare he hel ped to advance,
wou ld u lti mately th reaten man ki nd itself..
Leonardo wou ld now tu rn h is prod ig ious talents i n an awesome series of d i rections
h is vision ranged from civi I eng i neeri ng and hyd rodynam ics to physiology.
The sketch books of Leonardo
provide a startl i ng i nsig ht i nto the m i nd of an i nventive gen i us
centu ries ahead of h is ti me.
"Th is tech nology that he was writi ng about and d rawi ng desig ns for
had to be kept secret as wel l,
there was clearly su ppression of science goi ng on.
He had to write i n h is own notebooks i n a reverse m i rror i mage
j ust so that the powers that be wou ld n 't even know
what he was doi ng with these tech nolog ical advances."
The very tech n iq ue with wh ich Leonardo recorded h is ideas
offers a cl ue to the extraord i nary natu re of h is i ntel I igence.
For i n h is sketch books,
it appears he wrote backwards with h is left hand,
wh i le sketch i ng i n the marg i ns with h is rig ht.
If Leonardo's days were consu med with the practical real ities of i n novation
h is n ig hts were fil led with d reams of fl ig ht.
Obsessed with the possi bi I ities of aviation th roug hout h is I ife
Leonardo end lessly stud ied the anatomy of bi rds,
fasci nated by the ease with wh ich they soared th roug h the ai r.
"The bi rd i n fl ig ht is an i nstru ment worki ng accord i ng to mathematical law
wh ich is i n the capacity of man to reprod uce with al I its movement."
Leonardo Da Vi nci
I n h is q uest to soar with the bi rds,
Leonardo at fi rst tried to i m itate the structu re of thei r wi ngs i n h is desig ns...
But it was not u nti I he i m itated the desig n of a bat's wi ngs
that h is breakth roug h i n aeronautical desig n was real ized.
Its i n novative eng i neeri ng has sparked an i ntrig u i ng q uestion.
W ou ld it have flown?
"l n my view they wou ld n 't work
and they wou ld n 't work on ly because at the ti me he i nvented them
he d id n 't have the materials to make them.
I n today's society where we have these i ncred i ble strong and very I ig ht materials
it's more than possi ble that h is mach i nes or the ideas of h is mach i nes wou ld work."
Leonardo's experi ments with desig ns for fl ig ht
went beyond i m itati ng the anatomy of bats or bi rds.
Was th is strange craft the fi rst desig n i n h istory of a hel icopter?
Was th is sketch, the spark of i nspi ration for the parach ute?
I ron ical ly, it was not u nti I the late 1 800's
that Leonardo's notebooks were carefu I ly exam i ned.
The world wou ld not appreciate h is i n novative gen i us
u nti I others had made h is same d iscoveries h u nd reds of years after h is death.
T rag ical ly, a man whose prod ig ious m i nd conceived cou ntless tech nolog ical wonders
was doomed to never see them take shape.
As if to echo h is frustration,
Leonardo scrawled i n the marg i ns of h is notebooks, agai n and agai n :
"T el I me if anyth i ng is ever done?"
LEONArDO DA Vl NCl
Perhaps for the visionaries on the frontiers of tech nology,
the q uest is never com plete.
I n the ancient world, cou ntless i nventions were conceived and created,
on ly to be lost or forgotten.
F rom the Bag hdad Battery,
to the steam eng i ne,
to the i n novations of Leonardo da Vi nci,
many potential breakth roug hs were never pu rsued u nti I centu ries later.
Why were so many ancient i n novations doomed to obl ivion?
I n ou r modern world we have th is idea that prog ress shou ld occu r
and therefore people push it, and that yields ou r I nd ustrial revol ution.
The ancient people had a d ifferent idea i n m i nd about what the goal of I ife was.
They d id n 't expect prog ress, they d id n 't expect that th i ngs wou ld always get better.
Therefore, when they h it u pon a new i n novation
they d id n 't always fol low it u p...
I n ou r own ti me, as i n the ancient world,
the i nd ifference of an i n novative society
can condem n even the most bri I l iant i nventions to obscu rity.
For perhaps the g reatest enem ies of tech nology th roug hout h istory
have been those who lacked i mag i nation.
Even i n modern ti mes,
the fai I u re to recog n ize the vast potential of tech nology
has h i ndered its advancement.
I n 1 898, the Di rector of the U.S. Patent office i n Wash i ngton D.C.
made an an nou ncement, wh ich, at the ti me may have seemed perfectly reasonable.
He had decided to close the office forever.
"l ncred i bly, the 1 898 d i rector of the U.S. Patent office proclai med
that there was noth i ng new to i nvent, he said everyth i ng had been i nvented,
and he was the d i rector of the patent office, who else shou ld know but h i m?
Of cou rse he was horri bly wrong,
there was so m uch more to i nvent."
Fortu nately, i n spite of h is suggestion, the patent office remai ned open.
And the thousands of i nventions patented i n recent decades have proved
that the potential for i n novation is i nfi n ite.
But what is the true pu rpose of tech nology?
Many bel ieve that, i ron ical ly, as tech nology has m ush roomed,
of man ki nd i n jeopardy.
W e're here, if you I i ke, to tend and look after the garden of the earth.
W e have to fu nction as a spi ritual bei ng and also as a material bei ng.
And as material bei ngs, we need to man i pu late the physical world arou nd us.
W e need to be able to real ize ou r potential
It's perhaps u nfortu nate that ou r material side
becomes dom i nant i n ou r th i n ki ng,
and that we devise tech nolog ies that are pu rely material-oriented
and that don 't i n any way nou rish the spi ritual aspect of ou rselves."
It is no longer a q uestion of what we can accom pl ish with tech nology,
but of whether we have the wisdom to control its awesome power.
For someti mes it seems as if tech nology itself
has become ou r most ruth less and i m placable enemy.
"l 'm su re that there wi I l be many more th i ngs, i nconceivable i nventions...
They wi I l come u pon us. God knows how we wi I l cope with them...
For the last five thousand years,
h u man bei ng have been su bjecti ng themselves
to an u n i mag i nable routi ne of rapid tech n ical change.
So far, we have su rvived.
But there's absol utely noth i ng to g uarantee that we wi I l i n futu re..."
Th roug hout the world, a new wave of tech nology has evolved
one for wh ich ancient man had no need
i nventions to com bat the devastati ng effects of tech nology itself.
Los Angeles, Cal iforn ia suffers from
some of the worst ai r pol I ution i n the U n ited States
Iargely a toxic byprod uct of the automobi le.
And yet, i n a state-of-the-art laboratory i n Southern Cal iforn ia,
an i nventor named Jack Bitterly and a smal I staff of eng i neers
have desig ned a non pol I uti ng energy sou rce for automobi les :
a flywheel made of densely-packed carbon fibers
spi ns i n a vacu u m cham ber at u p to 1 00,000 revol utions per m i n ute.
As the wheel tu rns, it generates electricity.
Wil I th is new tech nology prove a major breakth roug h
or on ly a dead-end, a d ream doomed to obl ivion?
On ly one th i ng is certai n
u n less ou r society succeeds i n com bati ng the toxic effects of ou r own tech nology,
the resu lts wi I l be catastroph ic.
"What we're seei ng is a cycl ical event
and it is more than possi ble
that we are now at the fri nges of another dark age
where al I ou r tech nology is goi ng to get lost
and we wi I l pl u nge back down for another thousand years
back down to pri m itive levels
and then perhaps we'l I rise agai n.
I don 't bel ieve that ou r tech nology wi I l conti n ue to advance the way that it is
because I don 't th i n k ou r society wi I l."
If, th roug h n uclear war or envi ron mental d isaster, we pl u nge i nto another Dark Age,
what wou ld futu re generations know of the ach ievements of ou r ti me?
Ou r u nderstand i ng of the i n novations of the past is j ust frag mentary-
For we have on ly beg u n to probe the treasu res of ancient tech nology.
Expressions of the end u ri ng gen i us of h u man ity.
"The word gen i us means to me the d ivi ne spark i n h u man ity,
that th i ng that is special about us that d isti ng u ishes us from the an i mals,
and we are d ifferent.
There is someth i ng special and very mysterious about man ki nd.
Why do we sudden ly become conscious creatu res capable of self-exam i nation
W onderi ng about the mean i ng of ou r I ives?
There's someth i ng i nside us that seems d isti nct al most from ou rselves
and that g ives mean i ng to everyth i ng arou nd us.
And it's from th is, th is gen i us, th is sou I of man ki nd, if you I i ke,
that everyth i ng that is special and val uable about man ki nd comes."