Stephen Hawking's Science of the Future — Season 1
About this season
Stephen Hawking’s Science of the Future investigates the very latest game changing innovations. Each episode takes one area of progress and sends five top scientists out to actively test the inventions and breakthroughs that are driving it. The team explore human upgrades, the virtual world, bio-mimicry, high-tech emergency responses, and more. Featuring a wide range of examples, from advanced robotics and breathtaking digital actors, to cutting edge smart homes and electronic brain stimulation, the series reveals how science is delivering astonishing improvements to all our lives. Using the evidence they gather, the team reveals the year when each innovation will be rolled out for us all to benefit from, and Hawking then draws out his own uniquely insightful predictions about what our world will be like in the years to come.
Episodes (6)
1. Virtual World
Aired 9 April 2014 • 45 min
Stephen Hawking and his team investigate how reality is being increasingly stretched as people become less dependent on the physical world and more involved with the virtual electronic world. In this episode, a remarkable 3D virtual training program for the military is investigated, a new system is tested that can map places inaccessible to GPS and Sat Nav, bio-printing, where designs created on computers are turned into three dimensional living tissues is examined and a new wave of sci-fi technologically is revealed; a computer that can read people's minds.
2. Inspired by Nature
Aired 15 April 2014 • 45 min
Aarathi Prasad road-tests Boston Dynamics' incredible animal-inspired robots.
3. Code Red
Aired 3 May 2014 • 45 min
Experts examine how scientists are fighting for our survival by battling the world's biggest killer diseases.
4. Perfect City
Aired 10 May 2014 • 45 min
Stephen Hawking and his team investigate how science is on the cusp of making urban living not just a richer experience, but more fun too.
5. Designer Human
Aired 31 May 2014 • 45 min
Stephen Hawking and his team investigate how breakthroughs in technology are being applied to human beings, not only for more effective repairs and replacement body parts, but also for upgrading the brain.
6. Hyper Connections
Aired 6 June 2014 • 45 min
Stephen Hawking and his team investigate the dawning of a new age where machines talk to machines, where previously isolated sciences come together to form new disciplines.