The Age of Robots ~ Bioinspired Robots

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the second episode of “The Age of Robots”.

In this instalment, we look at robots whose design was inspired by biology, evolution and the natural world.

The Future is Wild - Episode Six Waterland

Sampus

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the sixth episode of the highly acclaimed documentary series “The Future is Wild”. Today’s installment is entitled “Waterland” and presents us with an interesting array of creatures.

Toraton

The episode is set in the Bay of Bengal, 100,000,000 years into the future. The episode focuses on three species: (1) Toraton, a descendant of the giant tortoise and the largest creature ever to walk the Earth. They can weigh up to 120 tonnes; (2) Swampus, a descendant of the octopus which has formed a symbiotic relationship with a plant to house its young. They are very intelligent; (3) Lurkfish, a descendant of the electric catfish that can fire up to 1000 volts to stun prey. They are ambush predators. 

Is Poverty Genetic?

Today on Far Future Horizons we present another exciting episode  of the acclaimed documentary series Through the Wormhole hosted by Morgan Freeman.

In this installment we explore the question Is Poverty Genetic?

Did God Create Evolution?

Today on Far Future Horizons we join veteran actor Morgan Freeman for another exciting installment of the acclaimed documentary series Through the Wormhole.

This episode explores the question - Did God Create Evolution?

How Life Began

Today on Far Future Horizons we explore the origin of life on Earth. How was non-living matter transformed into life and sentience? What was the firing pistol that started the evolutionary race to ever increasing complexity from simple organic matter to matter that has become alive and aware?

Carl Sagan's Cosmos – One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the second episode of Carl Sagan’s highly acclaimed PBS documentary series – Cosmos.

Join us as we follow Carl Sagan on an odyssey through time and space as he uncovers the origin of life and its evolutionary history from its humblest beginnings.

What Darwin Didn't Know

Earth teems with a stunning diversity of living things. The source of this profusion of life was a profound mystery until Charles Darwin presented his revolutionary ideas on natural selection in his book “On the Origin of Species” on November 24th, 1859.

Natural selection has given rise to a plethora of living organisms each adapted and specialized to occupy a particular ecological niche and over time this process eventually led to the emergence of new species.

This portrait of Charles Darwin was painted by George Richmond in the late 1830s, around the time Darwin was fleshing out his theory of evolution.

But Darwin's radical insights raised as many questions as they answered. What actually drives evolution and turns one species into another? To what degree do different animals rely on the same genetic toolkit? And how did humans evolve?

The Mystery of the Neanderthal

Once upon a time in the history of our planet two distinct species of human walked the Earth together. Then some thirty five thousand years ago, in the ultimate contest of survival one species alone would survive to inherit the Earth – Homo sapiens. We are the descendants of the winners of that evolutionary contest.

Eventually we would spread out from the Old Worlds of Europe and Asia into the New Worlds of the Americas and Australia and became a planetary species. We discovered agriculture, built the first cities, developed culture and writing and became the pioneers of a totally new domain of evolution which is distinctly non-biological - Cultural Evolution. It is this new realm of evolution that has made us the most dominant life form on this planet and has set us on a trajectory that will one day take us out amongst the stars.

Homo Futurus

Today on Far Future Horizons we present a somewhat controversial documentary concerning the future course of human evolution.

The Aquatic Ape

In Reverend Charles Kingsley’s satirical novel “The Water Babies” his central protagonist Tom, a young chimney sweep, dies and is transformed into a "water baby". 

The novel is both a critique of Victorian England’s treatment of the poor and the closed-minded approaches of many scientists of the day in their response to Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution.

The Water Babies was also a portent of things to come in the field of human evolution.  A century after Kinsley’s novel many paleoanthropologists were to greet another theory concerning the distinctly aquatic origins of modern humans with equal vitriolic scorn.

Humans v2.0:Human Evolution at the Cross Roads

Will the human species take the course of its own future evolution into its hands as a result of advances in genetic engineering and the merging of the human mind with advanced computer technologies?

We are approaching a very uncertain future beyond which we can barely glimpse. On our immediate horizon lies Vernor Vinge's "Singularity", the point at which computers reach and surpass human intelligence. Will humans become extinct or will we merge with our machines in a symbiosis that will create a new player in the future evolutionary story of planet Earth. We are at the cross roads of evolution and what really lies ahead is anybody’s guess.

In the following BBC Horizon documentary meet the scientific prophets who claim we are on the verge of creating a new type of human - a human v2.0.