Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00If an extraterrestrial scouting party were to survey Earth, what would they
00:11make of us? Who are we? Are we as a species capable of fundamental change? Or is
00:22there something in our DNA that will determine our fate? Do the dead hands of forgotten ancestors
00:31impel us in some direction beyond our control? Can we free our children from the demons that
00:39torment us and haunt our species? Can we be trusted with our own future? Since the civilization
00:48of ancient Persia and probably even before, we've wondered if there's something about
00:55human nature that contains the seeds of our destruction?
01:18.
01:25.
01:28.
01:33.
01:37.
01:52.
01:56.
01:57.
01:58.
01:59.
02:00If there are places on Earth that are sacred to our species, surely this must be
02:14one of them. The earliest site we know of where fire was tamed for human needs. More
02:21than a million years ago, here, in what is today known as Vondover Cave in South Africa,
02:27our ancestors gathered and first kindled the hearth of human culture.
02:34.
02:36.
02:37.
02:38.
02:39.
02:40.
02:41.
02:42.
02:43.
02:44.
02:45.
02:46.
02:47.
02:48.
02:49.
02:50.
02:51.
02:52.
02:53.
02:54.
03:06.
03:07.
03:08.
03:09.
03:10.
03:23.
03:24.
03:25.
03:26.
03:27.
03:28.
03:29.
03:30.
03:31.
03:32.
03:33.
03:34.
03:35.
03:36.
03:37.
03:38.
03:39.
03:40.
03:41.
03:42.
03:43.
03:44.
03:45.
03:46.
03:47.
03:48.
03:49.
03:50.
03:51.
03:52.
03:53.
03:54.
03:55more than 200 million and life about four billion years old all but a few of our ancestors are
04:04wholly unknown to us and we sift through the earth to find the bits of ash and animal bone
04:11that are the only surviving evidence of our humanity we only began living with the future
04:18in mind consciously leaving a detailed record of who we were and what we believed around 5 000
04:24years ago and yet one thing remained constant from homo erectus to the greatness of ancient persia
04:33our fascination with fire
04:38and this was true here at persepolis the magnificent complex built by the persian
04:44emperors of the sixth century bce when persia was the only superpower on earth
04:54this great kings worshiped a god named ahura mazda whose origins in time are lost to us
05:10his prophet was zoroaster
05:12every zoroastrian temple was consecrated to fire it played the central role in zoroastrian worship
05:22symbolizing both the purity of their god and the light of the illuminated mind
05:27tending an eternal flame through the centuries was one of the few ritual obligations of the zoroastrians
05:34they chose this first truly human achievement the domestication of fire as the focal point of their
05:41worship the god ahura mazda didn't ask much he didn't want your ritual sacrifices he didn't want your
05:49money all he asked of human beings was good thoughts good words and good deeds
05:56but for some reason most people couldn't fulfill these simple requests often they had bad thoughts
06:04and said evil things and some of them committed crimes that were evil why
06:11it was all because of ahura mazda's polar opposite ungram mind you this is where the devil was born
06:19from his short horns to his hoofs zoroastrianism was the dominant religion from greece to india for a
06:30thousand years no wonder they were so influential on the religions that came after for the zoroastrians
06:37all the evil in the world the crimes committed by humans as well as the catastrophes of natural
06:44disasters and disease were the results of anger my news unceasing mischief their god ohura mazda
06:53looked to human beings to help him defeat the devil any person by their actions could tip the scales
07:01of the whole future of the universe in either the direction of good or evil
07:06in this pre-scientific world when evil reared its ugly head what better way to understand it than
07:18demonic possession
07:28this is not a story of good and evil of the struggle between a god and a demon
07:41it's actually just a story of a predator and its prey in this case the predator is microscopic
07:49and it's been incubating in its victim disease microbes can be formidable predators
07:56not only attacking and eventually killing but also taking over their hosts changing their behavior
08:03to spread their microorganisms to other hosts we're in the bloodstream of that poor unlucky dog
08:11who through no fault of his own just because of a chance encounter with a rabbit bat
08:16now finds himself the main character in a zombie horror story
08:24those bullets are the rabies virus
08:29on being injected into the bloodstream of this placid people-loving dog
08:33they head to the dog's brain right to the limbic system where the control buttons for rage reside
08:49by attacking the nerve cells the rabies virus is converting the poor animal into a marauding
08:55snarling vicious predator without loyalties or love for anyone
09:01rabid animals can be fearless
09:05now that the limbic system has been conquered another detachment of rabies viruses are dispatched
09:11to the saliva manufacturing machinery in the dog's throat their assignment is to put it into
09:17overdrive while paralyzing the nerves for swallowing this maximizes the chances for the infected saliva
09:25to leave the dog and invade the next target but how is such a degree of tactical coordination
09:32possible by a virus how can a virus know which part of another creature's brain is the seat of anger
09:39we ourselves didn't figure that out until very recently this is the power of evolution by natural
09:46selection given enough time a random mutation no matter how highly specialized say a virus's ability
09:53to paralyze a victim's throat will take hold if it enhances the virus's chance of survival
10:00it will be passed on all it needs in every generation is a victim to carry the disease
10:08keeping that wicked flame alive the transformation from the family guardian to the ferocious wild-eyed demon
10:16is complete the dog is furious although he has no idea why a helpless pawn of viruses within him he can't
10:25resist the impulse to attack if the attack is successful the viruses in the dog's saliva will
10:31enter the bloodstream of the victim through the lesion or laceration and then they'll set about taking
10:37over this new victim the rabies virus is a brilliant manipulator it knows its victims and how to pull their
10:46strings it coordinates its attack circumventing defenses infiltrating outflanking accomplishing a coup d'etat
10:54within its prey and turning the most gentle among us into the most violent
11:00we are at the mercy of unseen forces viruses microbes hormones our very own dna
11:14where does the programming end and free will begin
11:18if it ever does at all
11:30do honeybees have free will
11:35when a honeybee dies it releases a special chemical it's a death pheromone that has a characteristic odor
11:43signaling its fellow bees to remove it from the hive
11:48the death pheromone is oleic acid
11:53what happens if a perfectly healthy bee is dabbed with a drop of oleic acid
11:59then no matter how hardy it might be it's carried kicking and screaming out of the hive by oblivious
12:06pallbearers
12:09do the bees understand the danger of infection from corpses decomposing in the hive
12:15are they aware of the connection between death and oleic acid
12:20do they have any idea what death is
12:24do we
12:27in the tens of millions of years of collective bee experience
12:31there's never been a way that a bee could give off oleic acid other than by dying so for bees
12:38there's no ambiguity here scent of oleic acid always means dead bee there's been no reason for
12:47evolution to develop a greater sense of nuance about it elaborate contemplative machinery is unnecessary to
12:54assess the situation bee perceptions are adequate for bee needs
13:05something similar is true for moths
13:09this poor guy has no idea what the problem is
13:13there have been moths for 190 million years and clear glass windows were only about a thousand
13:20no wonder there isn't a voice in the moth's brain that tells it if you keep bumping into something
13:26even if you can't see it you should try to fly around it until very recently on nature's timescale
13:33there were no penalties for moths without any such inner voice moths evolved in a world without glass window
13:50you
13:53what then are we to conclude when we find similar very simple behavioral programs unsupervised by any
14:00apparent central executive control in so-called higher animals when a goose egg rolls out of the nest
14:10does the mother goose who has been incubating her eggs for weeks understand the importance of
14:15retrieving one that is rolled away can she tell if one is missing in fact she will retrieve almost
14:24anything placed near the nest including ping pong balls and beer bottles the value of this behavior for
14:31goose genes is clear she understands something but by our standards not very much
14:39does a beetle have any emotions any consciousness or is it only a subtle robot made of organic matter
14:48a carbon-based automaton packed with sensors and actuators programs and subroutines all ultimately
14:55manufactured according to its dna instructions we might be willing to grant the proposition that
15:01insects or even geese are mindless machines
15:08but what about us
15:10what if anything do the other animals think what might they have to say to us if we could only
15:18communicate when we observe them carefully don't we find evidence of spontaneous decision making
15:25when we consider the genetic kinship of all life on earth
15:29is it plausible that humans have immortal souls and all other animals do not
15:37in nature the goose's egg retrieval program is adequate but when the goslings hatch and especially
15:44just before they're ready to leave the nest the mother is delicately attuned to the nuances of their
15:50sounds looks and smells she has learned about her chicks
15:55now she knows her own very well and would not confuse them with an alien object or even someone
16:01else's goslings however similar they may seem to a human observer
16:07consider our friend the beetle again it can see walk run smell taste fly mate eat excrete and lay eggs
16:19it has internal programs for accomplishing these functions contained in a brain with a mass of only
16:26a milligram and specialized dedicated organs for carrying the programs out
16:32but is that all is there anyone in charge anyone inside anyone controlling all these functions
16:41and what do we mean by anyone or is the beetle just the sum of its functions and nothing else
16:48with no executive authority no insect soul stow away
17:03see how it's triangulating on me trying to get a sense of this immense looming three-dimensional
17:08monster before it the fly strides along unconcernedly until you lift the rolled newspaper and it quickly
17:16buzzes off we know this behavior is wired into the fly's neurons
17:26some scientists get nervous if you ask about the consciousness of a housewife
17:31on the inside within its tiny brain does it have no perception of making choices
17:40no awareness of its own existence not a milligram's worth of self-consciousness
17:45not a hint of hope for the future not even a little satisfaction at a day's work well done
17:55if its brain is one millionth the mass of ours shall we deny it one millionth of our feelings and our
18:03thoughts and if after carefully weighing such matters we insist it is still only a robot
18:10but how sure are we that this judgment doesn't apply to us as well
18:16what is distinctly human is there anything that's ours alone
18:33would our imaginary extraterrestrial observer think that there's anything we do
18:45that distinguishes us from every other living thing on earth something that all or almost all of us of
18:53every culture throughout history have done and still do something that no other animal does
19:03plato was one of the earliest commentators to define what is human
19:07what is human he declared man is a featherless biped when news of plato's definition reached the
19:15philosopher diogenes he brought a plucked chicken to plato's academy asking the assembled scholars to
19:22salute plato's man plato's protege aristotle took another crack at it he said man is a social animal
19:33man is a political animal
19:38but ants
19:42bees
19:46and termites have much better organized and much more stable social structures than we have
19:55the 16th century french philosopher michel de montaigne wrote as to fidelity
20:01there is no animal in the world so treacherous as man
20:06but he never dated a firefly you know how fireflies blink on and off to attract a female
20:18well some males sabotage their fellow fireflies come on by adding their own blinks it's like hacking
20:25a friend's romantic message to his girlfriend and turning it into an insult the female gets turned
20:32off and the saboteur now has his chance with her man that's cold
20:41adam smith the 18th century scottish philosopher wrote in his classic justification of free enterprise
20:47capitalism that the propensity to barter to exchange one thing for another is to be found in no other
20:55race of animals is this true chimpanzees are fond of trade and understand the idea very well food for sex
21:08a back rub for sex betrayal of the leader for sex spare my baby's life for sex virtually anything for sex
21:19okay but we're the only species that makes art right except this work of art was created by a bowerbird
21:36as was this one
21:45and this one
21:46we're the only species that parents their young through adolescence into adulthood wrong again the
21:56elephants parent at least as long as we do
22:02all right well we're the only species that enslaves and exploits other animals keeping them in captivity
22:16tell that to this poor cockroach of the african savanna
22:21an emerald wasp is stalking it to drug and enslave it in its basement
22:29the wasp administers a venom which robs the cockroach of its will to escape
22:39turn on the lights and this is one roach that won't scurry away
22:46now the wasp drags the roach to her lair
23:01depositing a single egg on the roach's body
23:10before boarding up the entrance with rocks and pieces of wood
23:16the idea is to keep the roach alive as long as possible
23:26so that its organs will remain fresh
23:30the wasp's offspring will bore into the roach's body and feast upon it
23:36when it's full grown it will tunnel out of the roach's grave
23:40yeah but what about using tools technology
23:59is
24:10model
24:11i
24:12i
24:13i
24:14don't kabob
24:15are
24:16if
24:16i
24:17are
24:18missing
24:22model
24:24so
24:57Could it be that, after all, our species' only real distinction is our neurotic need to feel special?
25:19Remember this place? It's the memorial to the broken branches of the Tree of Life.
25:25It's mostly filled with the casualties of environmental catastrophe and competition that happened long before we ever got here.
25:35But there's a corridor that we built ourselves.
25:39What lies beyond are all those species we ourselves have rendered extinct.
25:54Could there be some connection to that widespread delusion of our separateness from the rest of nature?
26:00A sharp distinction between humans and animals is essential if we are to bend them to our will.
26:09Make them work for us. Wear them. Eat them. Experiment on them.
26:14Wipe them out entirely without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret.
26:21But we all know that this carelessness is starting to catch up with us.
26:46Are we automata? Robots?
27:03Our destiny written in our DNA, with no possibility of escape?
27:10Is DNA destiny?
27:14And if it is, does it have the power to write epic tales of heroism and saintliness?
27:21God of God is one another and one another
27:35For you who are LUX and Saintagens, in the universe are the ultimateå¿— to walk with us.
27:41Who does he tell the nature of and will Schloss"?
27:42Okay, just for argument's sake,
27:54suppose we're nothing more than the sum total of our genetic inheritance.
27:58It's not as bad as it sounds.
28:01There are passages in our DNA that are every bit as heroic
28:05as anything ever written in any epic saga.
28:12The mother is starting, deliberately putting her own life in danger
28:33to alert the herd and buy time for them.
28:42So that her offspring and the rest of the herd can get away.
29:03If this isn't heroism, what is?
29:07And yet, this act of valor is encoded in the Thompson Gazelle's programming.
29:13Does that make it any less brave?
29:15She risks being eaten in order to save her kin.
29:19And that's the key.
29:21Kin selection is that genetic impulse for self-sacrifice,
29:25prevalent throughout the kingdoms of life.
29:27Even us.
29:30Skeptical?
29:32Then do this thought experiment with me.
29:37Imagine trying to sleep soundly at night,
29:40knowing that your children are starving, homeless, or gravely ill.
29:45For almost all of us, this would be unthinkable.
29:48But 16,000 children die each day of easily preventable hunger, neglect, or disease.
29:57Children continue to die as we sleep well and watch this show.
30:03They are far away.
30:05They're not directly related to us.
30:08Now tell me you don't believe in the reality of kin selection.
30:12We will die to protect the carriers of our DNA
30:16and turn away from the suffering of those who don't.
30:20Kin selection can inspire us to die saving a brother.
30:24But it's also the drive exploited by the demagogue and the supremacist.
30:30The us against them.
30:38Another thought experiment.
30:40Imagine you're making the first approach to a newly discovered planet.
30:44You've used various techniques to ascertain
30:46that this world supports an astonishing variety of life forms.
30:51You want to make contact,
30:53but not with their version of a scorpion, cobra, or great white shark.
30:59You want to find the life form that's most likely to respond gently,
31:03with empathy and intelligence.
31:05These macaque monkeys are members of what might be the most compassionate species on Earth.
31:14This was demonstrated in a ghastly series of experiments conducted in the 1960s.
31:20Fifteen macaques were fed only if they were willing to pull a chain
31:24and electrically shock an unrelated macaque
31:27whose agony was in plain view through a one-way mirror.
31:30If they refused to shock another macaque, they starved.
31:35After learning the ropes, the monkeys frequently refused to pull the chain.
31:40In one experiment, only a small percentage would do so,
31:44while more than two-thirds preferred to go hungry.
31:47One macaque went without food for nearly two weeks rather than hurt its fellows.
31:52Here's the part that really gets me.
31:55Macaques, who had themselves been shocked in previous experiments,
31:59were even less willing to pull the chain.
32:03Relative social status or gender of the macaques
32:06had little bearing on their reluctance to hurt others.
32:10These experiments permit us to glimpse in non-humans
32:14a saintly willingness to make sacrifices in order to save others,
32:19even those who are not close kin.
32:24The heartless selfishness of the rabies virus
32:27and the transcendent empathy of the macaques
32:30are the extreme ends of a continuum,
32:33one that we ourselves are on.
32:36No, that's a wish.
32:36No, that's a wish.
32:37It was the evolution of successfully larger brains
32:40through the generations of our ancestors
32:42that transformed human childbirth
32:45into an excruciating experience.
32:51Feeling, in mammals at least,
32:54is mainly controlled by lower, more ancient parts of the brain
32:58and thinking by the higher, more recently evolved outer layers.
33:05A rudimentary ability to think
33:07was superimposed on the pre-existing programmed behaviors.
33:12This is the evolutionary baggage we carry with us
33:19into the schoolyard,
33:21into the marriage,
33:22into the voting booth,
33:24into the lynch mob,
33:26and onto the battlefield.
33:29So what does that tell us about our future?
33:32Will it be nothing more than a series of dreary repetitions
33:35repetitions with no escape for our children?
33:42I know a story that gives me hope.
33:45It's the saga of a life that means we can change.
33:50From this distance in time,
33:51it's hard to know how much of it is true.
33:54It happened a couple of thousand years ago,
33:57which is a long time to us,
34:00but only about five seconds ago,
34:03on the cosmic calendar.
34:05The cosmic calendar compresses all of time
34:09into a single year.
34:10I know no better way of wrapping our heads around the fact
34:13that we are still very young,
34:15very new to the universe.
34:18January 1st is the Big Bang.
34:20And midnight on December 31st on our cosmic year
34:24is this very second.
34:28All of cosmic evolution,
34:30nearly 14 billion years,
34:33compressed into a single Earth year.
34:38Only five cosmic calendar seconds ago,
34:42which represents about 2,200 years,
34:46much of the world was in the grip of absolute rulers.
34:50Their armies rampaged across the planet,
34:53bringing torture,
34:56rape,
34:57murder,
34:58and mass enslavement wherever they went.
35:03A young man came out of an obscure backwater
35:06called Macedonia,
35:08and in less than a decade,
35:09carved out an empire that stretched from the Adriatic
35:12to beyond the Indus River in India.
35:16Along the way,
35:18Alexander the Great crushed the implacable Persian army.
35:24And at about the same time,
35:26King Chandragupta conquered all of northern India.
35:30His son, Bindusara,
35:32assumed the throne after his death.
35:34As Bindusara's own death approached,
35:42he intended to bequeath his empire to a favored heir.
35:47And legend has it that another son,
35:50one who had been rejected by Bindusara,
35:52was so ruthless in his quest for power
35:55that he murdered every one of his 99 half-brothers.
36:01Dressed in the finery that only an emperor was entitled to wear,
36:05the hated son stood before his dying father
36:08and declared contemptuously,
36:09I am your successor now.
36:16This was Ashoka.
36:20And he was just getting started.
36:22In the second century BCE,
36:32the Indian emperor Ashoka
36:34initiated a reign of terror
36:36known for its new heights of sadism and cruelty.
36:41When Ashoka's ministers
36:42balked at his command
36:44to cut down all the fruit trees
36:45surrounding his palace,
36:47Ashoka said,
36:49fine,
36:50we'll cut off your heads instead.
36:58His fiendishness knew no bounds.
37:01Ashoka built a magnificent palace
37:03for his unsuspecting victims.
37:06They did not know until it was too late
37:08that deep inside the palace
37:10were torture rooms
37:12designed to inflict
37:13the five most painful ways to die.
37:17It came to be known
37:18as Ashoka's Hell.
37:21But that was not
37:23Ashoka's greatest atrocity.
37:25He now set out
37:26to complete the conquest of India
37:28that his grandfather had begun.
37:30The nation of Kalinga to the south
37:33knew no peace could be made
37:34with such a madman.
37:36They courageously stood their ground
37:38as Ashoka's army besieged the city.
37:41When they could bear no more,
37:43Ashoka sent his troops in
37:44for the kill.
37:45As Ashoka surveyed his triumph,
38:02there was one
38:03who dared to approach him.
38:05mighty king,
38:18you who are so powerful
38:21you can take hundreds of thousands
38:23of lives
38:23at your whim.
38:25Show me how powerful
38:26you really are.
38:28Give back but one life
38:30to this dead child.
38:37Who was this fearless beggar
38:39who dared to confront Ashoka
38:41with his crimes?
38:43His exact identity
38:45is lost to us.
38:47But we do know
38:48that he was a disciple of Buddha,
38:50then a little-known philosopher
38:52who had lived
38:53almost 200 years before.
38:56Buddha preached
38:57non-violence,
38:58awareness,
38:59and compassion.
39:01His followers
39:01renounced wealth
39:02to wander the earth,
39:04spreading Buddha's teachings
39:05by their example.
39:07This monk
39:08was one of them.
39:10And with his courage
39:11and wisdom,
39:12he found the heart
39:13in a heartless man.
39:17Ashoka
39:17was never the same.
39:19He erected this pillar,
39:24one of many
39:25on the site
39:25of his greatest crime.
39:27Engraved on it
39:28was one of the first edicts
39:30of Ashoka.
39:31All are my children.
39:34I desire for my own children
39:35their welfare and happiness.
39:38This I desire for all.
39:39It wasn't that Ashoka
39:49was violating
39:50the laws of kin selection.
39:52It was that
39:53his definition
39:54of who was kin to him
39:55had expanded
39:56to include everyone.
39:59He banned the rituals
40:00of animal sacrifice
40:01and hunting for sport.
40:03He established
40:04veterinary hospitals
40:05throughout India
40:05and he counseled
40:07his citizens
40:07to be kind to animals.
40:09Asoka saw to it
40:17that wells were dug
40:18to bring water
40:19to the towns
40:19and villages.
40:20He planted trees
40:21and built shelters
40:22along the roads
40:23of India
40:24so that the traveler
40:25would always feel welcome
40:26and animals
40:27would have the mercy
40:28of shade.
40:32Ashoka signed
40:33peace treaties
40:33with the small
40:34neighboring countries
40:35that had once trembled
40:36at the mention
40:36of his name.
40:38He would govern India
40:39for another 30 years
40:40and he used that time
40:41to build schools,
40:43universities,
40:44hospitals,
40:45even hospices.
40:46He introduced
40:47the education of women
40:48and saw no reason
40:50why they could not
40:50be ordained as monks.
40:52He instituted
40:53free health care
40:54for all
40:55and made sure
40:56that the medicines
40:56of the time
40:57were available
40:58to everyone.
40:59He decreed
41:05that all religions
41:06be honored equally.
41:08He ordered judicial review
41:09of those wrongfully
41:10imprisoned
41:10or harshly treated.
41:13The temples
41:13and palaces
41:14of Ashoka's reign
41:15and most of the pillars
41:17he erected
41:17throughout India
41:18were destroyed
41:19by generations
41:20of religious fanatics,
41:22outraged
41:23by what they considered
41:24to be his godlessness.
41:26But despite
41:30their best efforts,
41:31his legacy
41:32lives on.
41:34Buddhism
41:34became one
41:35of the world's
41:36most influential
41:37religious philosophies.
41:40Ashoka's edicts
41:41were carved
41:42in stone
41:43in Aramaic,
41:44the language
41:45of Jesus,
41:46a couple of hundred
41:47years before his birth.
41:48Ashoka sent
41:55Buddhist emissaries
41:56to the Middle East
41:56to teach compassion,
41:59mercy,
42:00humility,
42:01and the love
42:01of peace.
42:03Hear that?
42:05This is one
42:06of the few temples
42:07of Ashoka
42:08that survived
42:09the vandals,
42:10the cave
42:10in the hills
42:11of Barabar
42:12in India.
42:13It's famous
42:14for its echo.
42:16The sound waves
42:17of my voice
42:17ricochet off
42:19the walls
42:19until they're
42:20completely absorbed
42:21by the surfaces
42:22of objects.
42:23And there's
42:24nothing left
42:25at all.
42:32But Ashoka's dream
42:33is different.
42:36Its echo
42:36grows louder
42:38and louder
42:40with time.
42:40who are we?
43:06you tell me.
43:10you tell me.
43:10what you tell me.
43:12what you tell me.
43:13what you tell me.
43:13what you tell me.
43:14what you tell me.
43:14what you tell me.
43:14what you tell me.
43:15what you tell me.
43:15what you tell me.
43:15what you tell me.
43:16what you tell me.
43:16what you tell me.
43:16what you tell me.
43:17what you tell me.
43:17what you tell me.
43:17what you tell me.
43:18what you tell me.
43:18what you tell me.
43:19what you tell me.
43:19what you tell me.
43:19what you tell me.
43:20what you tell me.
43:20what you tell me.
43:21what you tell me.
43:21what you tell me.
43:21what you tell me.
43:21what you tell me.
43:22what you tell me.
43:23what you tell me.
43:23what you tell me.
43:23what you tell me.