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00:00BIRDS CHIRP
00:49BIRDS CHIRP
00:49Would you do me a favour?
00:51I'd like to stop talking for a minute, and when I do,
00:55take a look at the room you're in, and above all,
00:57at the man-made objects in that room that surround you,
01:00the television set, the lights, the phone, and so on,
01:03and ask yourself what those objects do to your life
01:06just because they're there.
01:09Go ahead.
01:20Well, that is what this series is going to be all about.
01:25It's about the things that surround you in the modern world,
01:27and just because they're there, shape the way you think and behave,
01:32and why they exist in the form they do,
01:35and who or what was responsible for them existing at all.
01:39The search for those clues will take us all over the world
01:43and 12,000 years into the past,
01:46because it's in those strange places and in those long-gone centuries
01:50that the secret of the modern world lies.
01:53And you'll never believe the extraordinary things
01:55that led to us being the way we are today.
01:59Things like, for instance,
02:01why a 16th century doctor at the court of Queen Elizabeth
02:04did something that made it possible for you to watch this screen now.
02:10Or the fact that because 18th century merchants
02:12were worried about ships' bottoms,
02:14you have nylon to wear.
02:17Or why a group of French monks
02:19and their involvement with sheep rearing
02:20helped to give the modern world the computer.
02:25Or what medieval Europeans did with their fire in winter
02:28that led to motor car manufacture.
02:38The story of the events and the people
02:40who over centuries came together
02:42to bring us in from the cold
02:43and to wrap us in a warm blanket of technology
02:46is a matter of vital importance.
02:48Since more and more of that technology
02:50infiltrates every aspect of our lives,
02:52it's become a life support system
02:54without which we can't survive.
02:56And yet, how much of it do we understand?
03:00Do I bother myself with the reality
03:02of what happens when I get into a big steel box,
03:04press a button, and rise into the sky?
03:07Of course I don't.
03:08Có.
03:13Go.
03:14Go.
03:28Go.
03:29Go.
03:30Go.
03:31Go.
03:32Go.
03:32Go.
03:46I take going up in the world like that for granted.
03:48We all do.
03:50And as the years of the 20th century have gone by,
03:52the things we take for granted have multiplied way beyond the ability of any individual to understand in a lifetime.
03:58The things around us, the man-made inventions we provide ourselves with,
04:03are like a vast network, each part of which is interdependent with all the others.
04:07I mean, cross the road.
04:09Whether or not a car coming around the corner knocks you down
04:11may have something to do with a person you've never met fitting the brakes correctly.
04:16Change anything in that network and the effects spread like ripples on a pond.
04:21And all the things in that network have become so specialised
04:24that only the people involved in making them understand them.
04:27I don't mean use them. Anybody can use them.
04:30Down there is one of the biggest, most complex cities in the world,
04:33full of people using things as if they understood them
04:37and sometimes not even knowing they're doing it.
04:44New York City, like all the other major high-density population centres scattered across the earth,
04:49is a technology island.
04:51It can neither feed nor clothe nor house nor warm its inhabitants without supplies from outside.
04:56Without those supplies, the entire massive structure and the teeming millions it encloses would die.
05:03And yet, in cities everywhere, we act as if that were not so.
05:07We have no choice.
05:09The pace of life in New York is set by the pace of the technology that serves it.
05:13You just have to hope it'll stay that way.
05:19I'd like you to meet a few people who were in or near New York City on a November evening
05:23over a decade ago.
05:25And the reason I'd like you to meet them is because they all have one thing in common.
05:29They were all brought to a sudden and catastrophic realisation of how vulnerable they were,
05:34how dependent on one aspect of that technological network I was talking about,
05:39because of what this did to their lives.
05:43Now, until I was told what this is, I was no more able to recognise what it is than you
05:47are now.
05:47But watch what it did to those people.
05:49And if you look very carefully, you'll see evidence of what this does in every second of what follows now.
05:59It's one minute past five in the evening.
06:02Rush hour in downtown Manhattan.
06:07800,000 people crowd onto subways, looking forward to home, to the end of this journey.
06:12For most of them, the technology carrying them doesn't exist.
06:16They take it for granted.
06:252 minutes past five.
06:27Kennedy Airport.
06:28The usual evening departure rate.
06:30Passengers with appointments in New Delhi, London, Tokyo.
06:34Appointments they expect to keep.
06:36And 200 planes due to arrive in the next five hours.
06:39Turn left heading 230.
06:41No delays expected.
06:47Three minutes past five.
06:48At the energy control centre downtown, nothing special is happening.
06:52It's the standard rush hour condition in the main control room.
06:55The time of day when power consumption starts to come up to a maximum,
06:59as people head for home and meals get cooked.
07:02It's cool outside.
07:04After a high of 58, the temperature's falling to an expected low of 39,
07:07with a predicted wind chill factor of five degrees.
07:11The energy levels are more than enough to cope, even on a chilly November evening.
07:2110 past five, Mount Sinai Hospital.
07:24Fair enough, I'm just giving you a bit of oxygen at the moment.
07:26I'll give you a bit of time when you're ready.
07:27Okay.
07:28The patient, Mrs. Markana, is expecting twins.
07:34Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
07:36May I first say to my distinguished colleague, the ambassador from the USSR...
07:40Twelve minutes past five, the UN General Assembly in session.
07:43The speaker is President Roosevelt's son.
07:45In their boxes, the interpreters.
07:47The invisible support structure of the debate.
07:50Whatever the language.
07:51At the UN, that's taken for granted.
08:03In the subway, Herbert Friedman, a lawyer,
08:06reads his paper on his way home to suburban Jamaica.
08:12Al Hainek works for a publisher on Fifth Avenue.
08:14He passes the time doing a crossword.
08:18Marjorie O'Shaughnessy also works for a publisher,
08:20looking forward to spending a quiet evening at home.
08:24Steve Bawati, late, been to a movie.
08:27Bruce Singer, works in Greenwich Village.
08:30Bill Palmer is a student, just been playing basketball.
08:33And Hans Kramer, insurance broker.
08:36All these people take the subway every evening.
08:39They expect to get home.
08:40They always do.
08:445.15 at Kennedy Airport.
08:46At one of the international terminals,
08:48on the board, Scandinavian Airlines, 9-11.
08:53Scandinavian 9-11 is on its way into Kennedy.
08:56The pilot is veteran captain Carl Lofstedt.
08:59Kennedy, approach control.
09:00Scandinavian 9-11.
09:02With information, Yankee.
09:045,000 feet approaching Graverhead.
09:07Scandinavian 9-11, roger.
09:08Part Deer Park, on 221 Radio, back to the final.
09:11Runway 4R, ILS.
09:13A clear, moonlit night.
09:15The flight manifest lists 89 passengers.
09:17Landing lights.
09:23The descent into Kennedy is so far uneventful.
09:26It's now 15 minutes and 30 seconds past 5.
09:39I'll run my lights at 2 o'clock.
09:44OK, I see that.
09:46With the next contraction, dear,
09:47you'll take a deep breath and push real hard, OK?
09:51I think one is about to start.
09:52Take a deep breath and push real hard.
09:55OK.
09:56At Mount Sinai Hospital, Mrs. Markana is in labour.
09:59OK, Fred, I think you can put her to sleep now.
10:01Fair enough, man.
10:03The anaesthetic being used at the time is a mixture of gases,
10:06including one called cyclopropane.
10:08It's potentially explosive.
10:10But everybody knows that.
10:15OK, she's fairly sleepy now, though.
10:17OK, with the next contraction, we'll hover.
10:19A little bit of pressure.
10:20OK.
10:21It's good.
10:22The first bit.
10:23All right, well, she's starting a contraction now.
10:25Just a little bit more.
10:26OK.
10:27And half there.
10:29OK.
10:30OK.
10:30Fine, here we go.
10:31OK.
10:32OK, we've got a baby.
10:34It's now exactly 16 minutes and 10 seconds past 5.
10:39One second later, several hundred miles northwest of New York City,
10:43this did what it was built to do with disastrous consequences.
10:48You may have already guessed what kind of technological network this is part of.
10:53It's a bit of a power station.
10:55The power station known as Adam Beck 2 here at Niagara,
11:00where electricity is generated by the tremendous power of falling water.
11:04The water turns turbine blades that make a shaft spin.
11:08At the top of the shaft are magnets,
11:10and they spin inside a cylinder up there that has copper wire coils on its inner wall.
11:17The interaction between the spinning magnets and the copper coils makes electricity.
11:24That's where this comes in.
11:26It's a relay, and its job is to detect changes in power going onto a transmission line.
11:31These up here.
11:33Power flows north along these lines.
11:35And on the particular evening in question,
11:37this relay detected an increase in power on one of those lines that was above a preset limit.
11:43When that happened, magnets set around this metal cup caused it to rotate,
11:47and that brought this arm to make a contact like this.
11:53That contact was made on the evening of November the 9th, 1965,
11:58at 16 minutes and 11 seconds past five.
12:02The effect was to cascade power off the overloaded line and onto another,
12:06which overloaded and tripped the next,
12:08until all five lines going north had tripped out,
12:11dumping their entire load onto lines going south.
12:13Within seven seconds,
12:16the tremendous overload began to take out generating stations all over Northeastern America,
12:20from Boston to New York, as the network fell apart.
12:23As each area went, it overloaded the next.
12:26Within ten seconds, the only major system left was the great energy island of New York.
12:40As the network fell apart, links between one energy center and another broke.
12:44Instead of 300,000 kilowatts coming into New York to help meet demand,
12:49one and a half million kilowatts were draining out of the city
12:52to supply areas now cut off from the network,
12:54but still connected like leeches to the New York generators.
13:02As the overload hit the New York generators, they too began to trip out.
13:10Hello, old barbline.
13:11Your 13-speed is okay. Your bikes are all in.
13:14Bring it up. Bring it up. Give me number two right now.
13:16We've had a major power to go.
13:18Bring it up. Bring it up.
13:18I'd like you to man all the tunnels.
13:20Get in by with your auxiliary cops and man the auxiliary generator.
13:25As the lifeblood of the city drained, it went into spasm.
13:31At the UN, chaos, the power to keep the lights on, also served the interpreters.
13:36Who, in the growing darkness, has, however, I hope, brought a glimmer of light.
13:43And without interpreters, trapped in their darkened boxes,
13:46deprived of access to the ears of the delegates,
13:48the United Nations were suddenly and totally disunited,
13:52as completely as if at war.
13:56The city's elevators stopped.
14:00Perhaps the subways were the only technology that people expected to fail.
14:05There we go again.
14:08800,000 people were now deep in the ground under New York,
14:11caught in a technology trap most of them had never thought twice about.
14:20As light went, so did the one in Mrs. Marcona's operating theatre.
14:24Here she is.
14:25Okay, I've got her.
14:26What the hell's going on?
14:27Someone's trying to joke.
14:29Hey, don't.
14:29It was now only ten minutes since the crisis had been triggered
14:32by the relay at Niagara, more than 500 miles away.
14:40The generators continued to trip out,
14:42and at Kennedy Airport, the radar screens went black.
14:46And Flight 9-11 was in trouble.
14:49Roland, I got flag warning.
14:51Switch number two to the ILA.
14:53Okay.
14:54Kennedy Airport.
14:54Hello.
14:55Who we got?
14:55Yeah, John?
14:56Can you hold it at 250?
14:57I'll take 200 if I can.
14:59What time to go out?
15:00Astoria 2 and 3 went out.
15:02They can't hold on.
15:04By 5.28, the time had come to protect the system
15:07by deliberately switching what was left off.
15:10We shut down those lights in Brooklyn.
15:11It's the only thing left going.
15:12Arthur Kill is supplying Brooklyn.
15:15I'm worried about overloading Brooklyn with that Arthur Kill unit.
15:18Should we leave that in or shut it down?
15:20No, we'd better shut it down, I guess.
15:22The system operator recommends shutting down Staten Island.
15:25Yeah, let me know what you'll find out, all right?
15:27Okay.
15:28So, uh...
15:33Over an area of 80 million square miles,
15:3630 million people were now in darkness.
15:39Hold us down, that's right.
15:40All right.
15:42Oh, boy.
15:42So how was this for?
15:43John, a bit of chairman on the phone.
15:50Isolated from each other in small groups,
15:52millions of people were still unaware of the extent of the blackout.
15:56In the subway, especially.
15:57I like the rigs.
15:59People started chatting, but for the most part,
16:01no one really got into it yet
16:02because we thought it was just another typical rush hour delay.
16:06But it was dark, and that was kind of unsettling,
16:08to be in such a crowd, but not to be able to see anybody.
16:12So one of the women had candles in her bag.
16:15You know, I have some candles.
16:17Maybe you can light them.
16:19This abnormal business of actually talking to anybody on the subway
16:22caught on, briefly, all over New York.
16:25Let's put some light on the situation.
16:27My birthday anyway.
16:28Anybody feel like singing?
16:29Happy birthday to you.
16:31Make a happy situation out of a terrible one.
16:34What?
16:35My name?
16:36Louise.
16:37Happy birthday to you.
16:40Happy birthday to you.
16:44Happy birthday to you.
16:45My birthday had taken on a meaning nobody expected.
16:47So, too, at the hospital,
16:49had Mrs. Markana's delivery of twins,
16:51thanks to the anaesthetic.
16:53There was then a general scurry around to find flashlights,
16:56and I immediately commandeered one
16:58so I could see what was happening.
17:01One of the nurses, who I shall never forget,
17:03walked into the room carrying a lighted candle.
17:05Put the candle out!
17:06Get out of here!
17:06What's going on?
17:07Get out of here!
17:09It scared out of my mind.
17:10With an explosive anaesthetic agent,
17:12I had visions of all of us.
17:13The whole place blowing up in one great conflagration.
17:19The phone system was the only thing working,
17:21if you could get a number.
17:24I can't see the runway.
17:27And Captain Lofted was learning the full extent of his predicament.
17:31ILS, the landing aid that guided him in,
17:33wasn't there anymore.
17:35Nils, check the radio.
17:37Kennedy approach controls Scandinavian 9-11.
17:40The ILS went to US.
17:41I've got some wine.
17:42Who do you need knives and cake?
17:44The extraordinary thing in the subways
17:45was that a full hour into the crisis,
17:47nobody was trying to escape from the trap.
17:49Yeah, it's not even a quick scoop.
17:51Would it be crooked to put one in the end?
17:53Yeah.
17:53Okay.
17:54Now, what we need is the knife.
17:56I think I have something.
17:58Now you know it.
17:59We need now the cups.
18:01Anyone got cups?
18:03Got a wish.
18:04Ah, the wish is that we get home tonight.
18:07Maybe it should be about the size of it.
18:09Yes, good health to the birthday girl.
18:11Hope you've enjoyed many years.
18:14I just assumed that something went wrong
18:16with a particular train that I was riding on.
18:20There was a feeling of it's being something
18:22we all just had to wait out together.
18:24There was nothing anybody could do about it.
18:26No one knew anything about anything.
18:29Kleenex.
18:30I'd carry napkins around.
18:31I'd wipe the seats off so I don't get my clothes dirty.
18:33Put yourself in this position.
18:35Would you do any different?
18:36Here they were, one hour into a major disaster
18:39and still trying to laugh their way out of it.
18:41Drinking wine on the subway, I'll tell you that.
18:44Yeah, help yourself.
18:44If anybody's driving, don't drink.
18:46Remember that.
18:47How about singing a song?
18:48Anybody know any songs?
18:50Well, I'm fired and I want to go to bed.
19:02People began to be very jovial and began to sing.
19:08Show me the way to go home
19:10and everything that people could think of
19:12that related to our plight.
19:15Let's just keep on going on.
19:18At the hospital, darkness made no difference.
19:21I got the feet.
19:23Membrades are after you.
19:24Here we go.
19:24Follow the head down.
19:25I'm following you.
19:27All right.
19:27Well, the baby was delivered without the lights
19:29because you didn't need the lights for the delivery.
19:31That's manipulative.
19:32Remember, you're reaching up into the uterus,
19:34grabbing a foot, which is strictly by feel.
19:37You rupture the membranes and you bring the foot down.
19:40The second baby was vigorous and we repaired the piece.
19:44There you go.
19:44Oh, you're such a pretty girl.
19:47Yes.
19:49Kennedy approach for drive.
19:50Scandinavian 9-11.
19:51Captain Lofted had only a few seconds left to make his decision.
19:55He was at 2,000 feet, past the airport
19:57and heading straight for Manhattan in the darkness.
19:59There was only one thing he could do.
20:09Lofted and 200 other jets that night
20:11landed with the help of radio working on planes sitting on the ground.
20:16In the subway, people were still coping.
20:18About after an hour or an hour and a half,
20:21people became very restless.
20:23It was not pleasant.
20:25It was not very congenial, but everybody felt scared.
20:39It's never been this late.
20:42The train employees would pass outside,
20:46but not look at us and not answer us
20:49when people banged on the windows and called out.
20:51They just ignored us.
20:53No, I think he's the conductor from the train,
20:55but I'm not sure.
20:57SpongeBob are you turning around?
20:58Maybe he's gone for help.
20:59I don't know.
21:00That's all.
21:00He must be honest.
21:02Gradually, finally,
21:03people began to realise where they were.
21:05Lost under the ground.
21:07Helpless.
21:07Unless help came.
21:09When we have a major power blackout
21:11and at least hits the entire city,
21:12because it's all relaxed,
21:13we'll be trying to get you off as soon as possible.
21:15We've been sitting here.
21:17We would have to be in between stations.
21:19Why can't we be on a platform?
21:20I don't know how long this will take.
21:21It's Con Edison.
21:23It affects the entire city.
21:24We have people coming by,
21:25evacuating the trains now.
21:26Please relax.
21:29Mrs. Makarna found out what had happened to her,
21:31though not the way she expected.
21:34Mrs. Makarna,
21:36call the staff.
21:39When I woke up and I saw all the candles lit around the room,
21:42I thought I was dead.
21:43And there was a priest standing nearby.
21:45And for a minute there,
21:47I thought he had come to give me my last rites.
21:48And I was afraid that all my family knew that I was dead
21:51and they came to light candles for me.
21:53No, no, no.
21:54I'm not dead.
21:55I'm not dead.
21:56I'm not dead.
21:56I'm not dead.
21:57I'm not dead.
21:58I'm not dead.
21:58Don't be frightened now.
21:59You're going to be okay.
22:02And finally,
22:02as in all good fairy stories,
22:04it was over.
22:08Exactly five hours after the train stopped,
22:10about 10.30,
22:12the train began to empty
22:13by having all the passengers
22:14walk out singly upon the catwalk.
22:18A few days later,
22:20people were back at their daily routine
22:21as if it had never happened.
22:23The night New York became a trap,
22:25forgotten.
22:26Everyone hold on.
22:28This is one of the more perfect examples
22:31of the kind of technological trap
22:33that we set for ourselves.
22:34The lift, the elevator.
22:36I mean, what is it?
22:37It's a steel box with some buttons in it
22:39and maybe a trap door for emergencies.
22:41But whoever looks that close?
22:43Except when this happens,
22:46where is it?
22:47And even in this situation,
22:49closed in,
22:50with an escape route that we can't handle,
22:52we behave like many of those New Yorkers did.
22:55We strike a light
22:57and we look around to see how badly things are.
23:00And if we find, in this case,
23:01an emergency button,
23:03absolutely great,
23:04we sit back and we wait for help to come.
23:06We wait for technology
23:07to come back and save our lives.
23:09Because it's inconceivable that it won't,
23:11isn't it?
23:12I mean, if you admit that,
23:14you've got to admit
23:15that every single day of your life,
23:17in some form or other,
23:18you unconsciously walk yourself
23:20into a technology trap.
23:22Because that's the only way to live
23:23in the modern world.
23:25So you don't admit it.
23:26You say,
23:27oh, well, in this situation,
23:28we'll cope.
23:29But what happens
23:30when the effects become widespread,
23:33irreversible, devastating?
23:35What happens when
23:35what little resources you have
23:37to help you cope
23:39give up?
23:41Then what?
23:44Well, in all the disaster scenarios you read,
23:47what happens is that,
23:48without power,
23:49technologically-based civilization
23:51cracks up rapidly.
23:52Without enough auxiliary power,
23:54and most major cities don't have it,
23:56organization is impossible.
23:57It's every man for himself.
23:59Looting and arson follow.
24:01And in a city not prepared
24:03to be a fortress,
24:04supplies run out, fast.
24:06And however frightening
24:08the thought of leaving
24:08your technological womb,
24:10sooner or later,
24:11there is nowhere to go
24:12but out,
24:13away from the danger.
24:19The minute you decide to move,
24:22you're on your own
24:23in a way that no modern
24:2520th century city dweller
24:27has ever been in his life.
24:29And then the traps begin to close.
24:32To start with,
24:33do you even know where to go
24:34in order to survive?
24:36Did you manage to get a map
24:37before you left?
24:39And if you did,
24:39how do you get out?
24:40Walk?
24:42Drive until you run out of fuel?
24:45Are you ahead of the
24:46millions of other people
24:47pouring down these roads
24:48trying to do just what
24:49you're trying to do?
24:51And if they catch up with you,
24:53have you got something they need?
24:55And if you have,
24:57can you protect yourself?
24:59Did you bring enough food and drink
25:00to last as long as necessary?
25:02And if you didn't,
25:03where will you get it?
25:05Steel?
25:06How far out
25:08will you have to push on
25:09until you're far enough out
25:11to be safe?
25:13And can you be sure
25:14that's far enough?
25:16And even if by some miracle
25:18you finally make it,
25:21do you know enough
25:22to recognise a place
25:23to stop when you see it?
25:24I mean, what does
25:25survival without technology
25:27look like?
25:28The Beano signs up.
25:34So, let's say that
25:36finally somewhere
25:37far out into the country
25:38you come across
25:38a place that looks right.
25:40And let's say that
25:41you've had the good sense
25:41and the good luck
25:42to look for a farm.
25:44Because that's where
25:45food comes from,
25:45doesn't it?
25:46Okay, so it's a farm,
25:47so you decide to stop.
25:50Has anybody got there first?
25:56Or are the owners
25:58still here?
25:59Because you're going
25:59to need shelter
26:00and people don't
26:01give their homes away.
26:03They barricade themselves in.
26:05So, sooner or later,
26:07exhausted and desperate,
26:08you may have to make
26:09the decision
26:10to give up and die.
26:12Or to make somebody else
26:13give up and die
26:14because they won't accept you
26:15in their home voluntarily.
26:18And what in your
26:20comfortable urban life
26:21has ever prepared you
26:22for that decision?
26:26Okay, let's say
26:26by some miracle
26:27the place is empty
26:28and it's all yours.
26:29Is there enough food
26:29in the house?
26:30How long will it last?
26:31How will you cook it?
26:32Wood fires?
26:33Are you fit enough
26:33to chop all the wood
26:34you need before winter comes?
26:37If you're lucky,
26:38you've got livestock
26:38on the farm.
26:39Great.
26:40Meat.
26:41But can you slaughter
26:42and bleed
26:43and butcher an animal?
26:44Okay, supposing
26:45you manage that,
26:46you've got enough
26:47meat to eat
26:47until you've eaten
26:48all the cows.
26:49But at least you can
26:50start running your farm.
26:52But it's a modern farm,
26:53remember?
26:53It's mechanised.
26:55There's a gasoline pump,
26:56but it's empty.
26:58So you can't use
27:01the tractor.
27:02What you need
27:02is a horse and cart.
27:03But when did you last
27:04see a horse and cart
27:05on a modern farm?
27:06And everything else here,
27:08the saw,
27:09the power drills,
27:10the light,
27:12the steriliser,
27:13the water supply,
27:15the sewage system,
27:16the hoist,
27:17the milking parlour,
27:18the pumps,
27:19and everything
27:20on this control panel
27:21demands the one thing
27:23you don't have.
27:26Electric power.
27:28Everything on this farm
27:29that you've found
27:29doesn't work.
27:31The place is a trap.
27:34But there's nowhere else
27:35to go.
27:36The only way you're
27:37going to survive
27:37is if you find
27:38the one thing you need
27:40to keep on providing
27:41the food you've got to have.
27:42And you don't need
27:43the mechanised version
27:44of that thing.
27:45You need the kind
27:47people haven't used
27:48in a hundred years.
27:49Ah, you need
27:49that kind of plough.
27:51You're saved.
27:55Or are you?
27:56Because what it comes
27:57down to at this point
27:57is this.
27:58Can you use a plough?
28:00It's taken a series
28:00of miracles just
28:01to get you this far
28:02and here you are
28:03with the biggest miracle
28:03of all,
28:04a plough
28:04and animals to pull it.
28:06So maybe
28:07after a few days
28:08of fumbling around
28:08with the harnesses
28:09and the bits and pieces
28:10you manage to yoke up
28:11the oxen
28:11and plough the land.
28:13And then
28:13and only then
28:14can you say
28:15that you have
28:15successfully escaped
28:16the wreckage
28:17of technological civilisation
28:18and lived off the land
28:19and survived.
28:20If you know
28:21how to use the furrow
28:23you plough.
28:24I mean,
28:24can you tell the difference
28:25between an ear of corn
28:26and a geranium seed?
28:27Do you know when
28:28to sow whatever it is
28:29you think it is?
28:30Do you know
28:31when to harvest it
28:32and eat the bit
28:32that you think
28:33isn't poisonous?
28:35I mean,
28:35it's no accident
28:37that the chain of events
28:38triggered off
28:39by that relay
28:39in the power station
28:40back there
28:41in Niagara Falls
28:42ends here
28:43with the plough.
28:43The relay itself
28:44doesn't matter.
28:45I mean,
28:46any one of a million
28:46things could fail
28:47and cause our
28:48complex civilisation
28:49to collapse
28:50for an hour
28:51for a day
28:52however long
28:53because that's
28:54when you find out
28:55the extent to which
28:56you are reliant
28:57on technology
28:58and don't even know it.
28:59That's when you see
29:00that
29:02it's so interdependent
29:03you take one thing away
29:04and the whole thing
29:05falls down
29:05and leaves you
29:05with nothing
29:06unless you can plough
29:08and survive
29:10and start the whole process
29:11off again
29:12from scratch.
29:14And it's no accident
29:15that to do that
29:17you have to have a plough
29:20because it was the plough
29:21that triggered everything off
29:23a long way back
29:24in the past
29:24after a different set
29:26of people
29:27also found out
29:28that their comfortable life
29:29was falling apart.
29:34In a world
29:35where events
29:36came to a point
29:37where a fundamentally
29:38new way of life
29:39had to be found.
29:53that's exactly what happened
29:55about 12,000 years ago
29:58in maybe four places
29:59on the earth
29:59northern India
30:01Syria
30:02Egypt
30:02Central America
30:04it stopped raining
30:06and got very hot
30:08the result of that
30:09change in the weather
30:10was to
30:11lead to an invention
30:13that would
30:14trigger
30:14the development
30:15of a civilisation
30:16that ends with that
30:17in the modern world
30:17let me explain that
30:19you see
30:20the high grasslands
30:21started to dry out
30:22became like this place
30:24and the plants
30:25and the animals
30:25that had sustained
30:26the wandering tribes
30:27started to disappear
30:29people began to die
30:31there was only one thing
30:32the survivors could do
30:33head for water
30:35and so down they came
30:37into the great river valleys
30:51here in Egypt
30:52that river was the Nile
30:53and the Nile
30:55was an extraordinary river
30:56it rose in two places
30:57from one it brought
30:58rotting vegetation
30:59and from the other
31:00potash
31:01and any gardener
31:02will tell you
31:02what that means
31:03when it flooded
31:04every year
31:05it dumped compost
31:06and fertiliser
31:07onto the land
31:08and the land
31:09bloomed
31:09too well
31:10with easy food
31:12the population grew
31:12to where not even
31:13the Nile
31:13could support it
31:14without help
31:15faced with starvation
31:16the river dwellers
31:17tried planting grain
31:18by hand
31:19not enough
31:20what solved their problem
31:22was an invention
31:23that triggered off
31:24a series of events
31:25which ends with us
31:26in our modern
31:27technology trap
31:27because that invention
31:29was to trigger
31:30the beginnings
31:31of civilisation
31:32for a new- theme
31:35which winds
31:35intensive
31:37has
31:39failed
31:40and
31:43to
31:44understand
31:44besides
31:44this
31:45War
31:45is
31:46the
31:47of theirстро
31:47up
31:56the
32:11This is the first great man-made trigger of change, the plough.
32:18Because with it, you know how much harvest you're going to get next year.
32:21And because of that, you know you're going to be here next year.
32:24And because of that, you can plan for the future.
32:29And after a while, when you can produce surplus food,
32:32then that's when things really start to move in the tiny settlements.
32:40With regular food supplies, the population explodes.
32:45The village expands.
32:47There are more buildings, and they're bigger for bigger families, and they're more permanent.
32:51You domesticate animals for their milk and their meat and their skin
32:54because they're not there to hunt anymore.
32:57And basket weaving and the twisting of grass to do it teaches you how to spin flax.
33:03And that makes linen.
33:07But it's the grain that causes the fundamental change.
33:10Because with it, you bake the bread that is the staple diet on which everybody lives.
33:14And you learn about ovens and about the effects of heat on mud and brick.
33:21But above all, you have to have somewhere to store the grain surplus, in pots.
33:26But there's so much surplus by now, you need the pots to be made faster,
33:29and you need them to last longer.
33:30So the potter's wheel happens.
33:33Then comes the problem of who does it belong to.
33:35And the only answer to that is this.
33:40Writing.
33:41And the very first writing takes that form.
33:43A name and a symbol for what's inside this pot, or a lot of pots, or an entire village granary.
33:53And so the little villages grew with their huts and their granaries.
33:57And then, almost out of nowhere it seems, that happened.
34:04The oldest stone building in the world.
34:07The Step Pyramid of King Zoser at Saqqara, near Cairo.
34:11Built around 2700 BC.
34:15Instant, sophisticated architecture from mud huts in one jump.
34:20How do they do it?
34:24Because of what they'd had to do to feed themselves.
34:26Irrigate.
34:29Because the river flooded every year and destroyed landmarks,
34:32and then retreated, leaving the soil to dry out,
34:35they had to do two things.
34:37Find a way of measuring the land so the farmer got his own fields back,
34:40and a way of channeling the water away for use after the flood had gone.
34:45The kind of measurement you need to do those things
34:47involves geometry and the type of mathematics a civil engineer uses.
34:52And building canals teaches you to work stone.
35:00If you know stonework and geometry and mathematics,
35:03you can build pyramids.
35:05Especially if a strong central government
35:07that was developed to run the irrigation schemes in the first place
35:10tells you to.
35:11If the pharaoh said he wanted a pointed stone monument,
35:14that's what he got.
35:23Funny thing is, the same drought that drove everybody down to the Nile
35:26and the pharaoh also preserved the things they built,
35:28like their tombs, for thousands of years.
35:34The stuff on the walls in this tomb, for example,
35:38is 4,500 years old.
35:41A kind of cartoon view of the civilisation the plough created.
35:45I mean, look, here's the irrigation.
35:47There are these people carrying water pots.
35:49You see them?
35:50And they carry them across,
35:51and they pour the water into a garden that has a wall around it.
35:55And then over here, look,
35:57there's a fellow doing a bit of weeding.
36:01There's the plough.
36:06They domesticated oxen.
36:07They tried to domesticate any animal
36:09that they could get their hands on.
36:11I mean, take a look at this.
36:13Animal flatten its back,
36:15tie its back legs,
36:16hang on to its front legs,
36:17stuff food down its throat,
36:19and hope it'll learn to love you.
36:20You didn't get too far with that one.
36:22It was a hyena.
36:26Well, you've got a growing community
36:28and plenty of spare food,
36:29and you'll need to protect yourself.
36:30So making weapons becomes very important.
36:33And here on this wall,
36:34there's a whole thing about handling metals.
36:37Look.
36:39Here are the weights and measures people
36:40checking on how much metal's going to be used.
36:44Next to them, the furnace men.
36:46You see the way they're raising the temperature?
36:49They're blowing on these tubes
36:50to create a draft in the furnace
36:52to get the temperature high.
36:54Next to them,
36:55here's the molten metal
36:56being poured into a mould.
37:00And here,
37:02the fellow's beating it flat.
37:10Okay, you get yourself a kingdom.
37:11You get what you deserve.
37:12You get bureaucrats.
37:13Here they are,
37:14the scribes,
37:15writing everything down.
37:16See the pens behind their ears?
37:18In this case,
37:20they're noting taxes.
37:21Here are the people coming in
37:22to pay their taxes,
37:24led persuasively by the local police.
37:26Here's a policeman with a rod of office.
37:30More policemen.
37:33Here's an Egyptian scruff of the neck.
37:34He obviously doesn't want to pay.
37:36If you end up not paying,
37:38they get out their whips
37:40and they tie you to a pole
37:42and that's what you get
37:43for not coming up with the money.
37:47So you have a busy,
37:49sophisticated society.
37:50You have to have people
37:51at the top in charge.
37:52This is the tomb of one of them.
37:54He was a kind of Egyptian chancellor
37:56responsible directly to the king.
37:58There he is.
38:00His name was Mereruka.
38:05By sometime around 3200 B.C.,
38:08the entire 700-mile length of the Nile
38:10from the Mediterranean to Aswan
38:12was united and administered
38:14by officials like Mereruka,
38:16each one running
38:17what was called a water province,
38:19the section of the irrigation network
38:21and of the river under his command.
38:28What held it all together
38:30was the king's magic ability
38:32as a god
38:32to come up year after year
38:34with an inundation of the Nile
38:36and to know
38:37exactly how high
38:38the waters would go.
38:39Of course, it wasn't magic.
38:41It was his astronomers.
38:42They observed
38:43that one particular star,
38:45Sirius,
38:46rises just before dawn
38:48on one particular day,
38:49the 17th of July,
38:50every year
38:51and that day
38:52is one day
38:53before the flood begins.
38:55They also saw
38:56that on average
38:57the flood itself came
38:58once every 365 days.
39:01Now, you put those two facts together,
39:03the star before dawn
39:04and the flood
39:05and you've got yourself a calendar
39:07and with a calendar
39:08you can organise people,
39:10you can give them a date
39:10to do something on.
39:12And as for the king's ability
39:14to predict how high
39:15the water would go,
39:15well, you record the level
39:17of the flood every year
39:18with a scratch on the wall
39:19and after a while
39:20your experience
39:21will tell you early on
39:23how high the water
39:24is going to be later.
39:25Now, in Egypt
39:27where water is life,
39:29that kind of knowledge
39:30and ability to control
39:32gives you the power
39:33to build empires.
39:52These are the great
39:53ancient temples of Karnak
39:55on the edge of the Nile
39:57about 450 miles
39:58south of Cairo.
39:59They were the centre
40:00of Egyptian religion
40:02built in the imperial city
40:03of Thebes
40:04when the Egyptian empire
40:06was at its height,
40:07the greatest power
40:08in the world.
40:09This was the New York
40:11of the time.
40:13The temples were built
40:14over a period
40:15of about 2,000 years,
40:17each pharaoh adding his bit,
40:19leaving his name in stone
40:21to last forever.
40:28Inside the temple domain
40:30there were 65 towns,
40:33433 gardens and orchards,
40:36400,000 animals
40:37and it took 80,000 people
40:39just to run the place.
40:41Small wonder
40:42that centuries afterwards
40:43the Greeks and the Romans
40:44came here
40:44and gawked like peasants
40:46at a civilisation
40:47that made their efforts
40:49look like well-dressed mud huts.
40:52It still has that effect today.
40:57You come here
40:58from the great modern cities
41:01full of the immense power
41:03of modern technology
41:04at your fingertips,
41:05press a button,
41:06turn a switch
41:06and this place
41:08stops you dead.
41:21and then just when you think
41:24you've got the measure of Karnak
41:25you come here
41:26at dawn
41:26to the Hall of Columns,
41:28one of the most massive structures
41:30ever built
41:31and anything
41:32I was going to say
41:33isn't enough.
41:35Look at it.
41:35The Hall of Columns
42:20The Egyptians built an empire
42:22and ran it
42:23with a handful of technology
42:24the wheel
42:26the irrigation canals
42:27the loom
42:27a calendar
42:28pen and ink
42:29some cutting tools
42:31simple metallurgy
42:32and the plough
42:33the invention
42:34that triggered it all off.
42:35And yet look how complex
42:37and sophisticated
42:38their civilisation was
42:39and how soon it happened
42:41after that first
42:42man-made harvest.
42:45The Egyptian plough
42:46and those of the few
42:47other civilisations
42:48that sprang up
42:49around the world
42:50at the same time
42:50gave us control
42:52over nature
42:53and at the same time
42:55tied us for good
42:56to the things
42:57that we invent
42:58so that tomorrow
42:58will be better than today.
43:01the Egyptians knew that
43:03that's why they had gods
43:05to make sure
43:05their systems didn't fail.
43:14Karnak was the first
43:15great statement
43:16of what technology
43:17could do with unlimited
43:18manpower
43:18and the approval
43:19of the gods.
43:24ironically
43:24the modern equivalent
43:26lies again
43:27in the desert
43:27this time
43:28the nomads
43:29also settled
43:30by a river
43:30a river of oil
43:38but what it took
43:39the pharaohs
43:394,000 years to build
43:41took the Kuwaitis
43:424,000 days.
43:43What's happened in Kuwait
43:45the change
43:45from a nomadic existence
43:46to being able to buy
43:48and use everything
43:49modern technology
43:50has to offer
43:50has come in much less
43:52than one generation.
44:05Kuwait represents
44:06the immense power
44:07of technology
44:07used in a way
44:08most of us
44:09have never experienced
44:10because we've lived
44:11with the kind of change
44:12it can bring
44:12for more than
44:13a hundred years.
44:14Here
44:14it's been focused.
44:16Change has been
44:17instant
44:17and total.
44:25Kuwait has suddenly
44:26become like New York
44:27or any other
44:27of the great
44:28urban islands
44:29of technology
44:29totally dependent
44:31on that technology.
44:32Like them
44:33without it
44:34Kuwait would return
44:34to the desert.
44:37Hello
44:37Michelle?
44:39Hi
44:39how are you?
44:42Hey listen
44:43I'm coming
44:45to spend my Christmas
44:46in New York
44:47okay?
44:49You see how
44:49increasingly
44:50the only way
44:51we in the advanced
44:52industrial nations
44:53with our
44:53bewildering technology
44:54network
44:55can survive
44:55is by selling
44:57bewilderment
44:57and dependence
44:58on technology
44:58to the rest
44:59of the world.
45:02or is it not
45:03bewilderment
45:03and dependence
45:04but a healthier
45:05wealthier
45:05better way
45:06of living
45:07than the old way
45:07and yet
45:08whether or not
45:09you dress up
45:10technology
45:10to look local
45:11the technology
45:12network
45:13is the same
45:13and as it spreads
45:15will it spread
45:17the ability
45:17to use machines
45:18as we do
45:19without understanding
45:21them.
45:23Somebody said
45:24a few years ago
45:25about the way
45:26our modern world
45:27affects us all
45:29if you understand
45:30something today
45:30that means
45:31it must already
45:32be obsolete
45:33or to put it
45:34another way
45:35never have so many
45:37people understood
45:37so little
45:38about so much.
45:40So why are we
45:42in this position?
45:43Why is our modern
45:44industrialised world
45:45the way it is
45:46and not some
45:47different way
45:47with different
45:48technology
45:49doing different
45:49things to us?
45:51Well that's what
45:52the rest of this
45:52series is going
45:53to look at.
45:55You saw just now
45:56that the plough
45:58and irrigation
45:58kicked us all off
46:00and that an invention
46:01acts rather like
46:02a trigger
46:03because once it's
46:04there
46:04it changes the way
46:06things are
46:06and that change
46:08stimulates the
46:09production of
46:09another invention
46:10which in turn
46:11causes change
46:12and so on.
46:16Why those
46:17inventions happened
46:17between 6,000
46:19years ago and now
46:19where they happened
46:21and when they happened
46:22is a fascinating blend
46:23of accident
46:24genius
46:25craftsmanship
46:27geography
46:28religion
46:28war
46:29money
46:29ambition
46:31above all
46:32at some point
46:33everybody is involved
46:34in the business of change
46:35not just the so-called
46:36great men
46:38given what they knew
46:39at the time
46:40and a moderate amount
46:41of what's up here
46:42I hope to show you
46:44that you or I
46:45could have done
46:45just what they did
46:46or come close to it
46:48because at no time
46:50did an invention
46:51come out of thin air
46:53into somebody's head
46:54like that
46:58you just had to put
46:59a number of bits
47:00and pieces
47:00that were already there
47:01together
47:02in the right way
47:11following the trail
47:12of events
47:13from some point
47:14in the past
47:14to a piece
47:15of modern technology
47:16is rather like
47:17a detective story
47:19with you as the detective
47:20knowing only as much
47:22as the people in the past
47:23do
47:23and like them
47:25having to guess
47:26at what was likely
47:26to happen next
47:28so
47:29the trigger
47:30that sets off
47:31the first of those
47:32detective stories
47:35is that
47:36and I'd like to leave you
47:37with one question
47:38before next time
47:41why does a modern invention
47:43that fundamentally
47:44affects the lives
47:45of every single human being
47:47on this planet
47:48begin
47:492600 years ago
47:50with somebody doing
48:20this
48:26like the other
48:29a
48:29the
48:30the
48:40the
48:43the
48:46the
49:01¶¶
49:18¶¶
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