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00:00H.G. Wells envisioned mind-blowing advances in science and technology in terrifying detail
00:07and became haunted by one question.
00:10Will mankind annihilate itself?
00:14Are Wells' novels prophecies of an advanced human race or predictions of its extinction?
00:21He took Victorian science and propelled it into the space age.
00:26He always had, in all of his stories, a backdrop not only of what science will do in the future,
00:32but what humans will do with science.
00:37Tomorrow begins with a spark of imagination.
00:40A flash of insight that demolishes yesterday's limitations
00:44and inspires technologies to create new worlds.
00:48I'm Ridley Scott, and these are the prophets of science fiction.
00:56You've got to be looking at a man who's coming out of industrial Victorian England.
01:03What a vision to have at that particular time.
01:08For him to put that together, those imaginary works together, I think was absolutely remarkable.
01:14His predictions that he'd started probably in the 1890s were all coming true.
01:22Surrey, England, 1895.
01:2829-year-old H.G. Wells is searching for inspiration for his latest story.
01:34He lives in a world where the first motion picture camera has just been invented.
01:39And the latest in transportation technology is a bicycle with chain drive and pneumatic tires.
01:48But Wells imagines something more advanced.
01:54Scenes appear before him from his novel in progress.
01:59Futuristic images of world destruction.
02:23He went bicycling around the countryside in Surrey,
02:28marking out various sites for destruction by the Martians
02:33and inventing what he called painful and eccentric ways in which to kill my neighbors.
02:40As powerful stories take shape in Wells' mind,
02:43he draws on a lifelong interest in science to fuel his fiction.
02:49Herbert George Wells was born in 1866 in the town of Bromley near London.
02:55The youngest child in a lower-middle-class family,
02:59he is pulled from school at 13 and put to work.
03:03But within three years, he earns a scholarship to continue his education.
03:08He studied science at college, went on to become a science teacher,
03:12but then because of illness, I actually discovered he couldn't carry on being a teacher,
03:16and so he turned to writing.
03:17An interesting kind of dichotomy in H.G.
03:20because he was both a creative man and a man of science.
03:25Wells conjures visions of scientific horror
03:27that will become the hallmark of an emerging literary genre.
03:32I would say that H.G. Wells was perhaps a century ahead of his time.
03:37In fact, he helped to create science fiction.
03:40He always had in all of his stories a backdrop not only of what science will do in the future,
03:46but what humans will do with science, the direction in which humanity was going.
03:50He wasn't just writing things because they were cool.
03:53He really wanted to know what the implications were.
03:56Wells lives at a time of exciting scientific speculation.
04:00In 1877, Mars is positioned especially close to Earth.
04:06Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli reports seeing canali on Mars.
04:12He means channels, but the term is mistranslated as canals.
04:18Wells' imagination is ignited by the idea of life on the Red Planet,
04:24but it is Herbert's brother who provides inspiration.
04:29One day, he was having a conversation about the British Empire with his older brother, Frank.
04:35And in particular, the two of them were recalling the genocide of the native Tasmanians by British settlers in the
04:4319th century.
04:44His brother said to him,
04:47suppose somebody were to drop out of the sky right here and start laying about us the way we laid
04:55about the Tasmanians.
04:56And that speculation by his brother gave Wells the germ of the idea for the War of the Worlds.
05:06In Wells' most famous novel, humanity is on the verge of annihilation.
05:13The War of the Worlds depicts a sudden, totally unexpected invasion of the Earth by Martians,
05:21which land all around the countryside in greater London.
05:26Martians stalk the Earth, indiscriminately targeting humans with deadly heat rays.
05:32It is a bleak vision of science perverted that will resonate down the decades.
05:38Well, my confrontation with E.J. Wells was really when I was very young,
05:43probably 12, 13 or 14 or something like that, when I saw War of the Worlds.
05:49I was completely blown away by that.
05:52And that was, for me, for 10, 15 years, probably the most important movie that I'd ever seen in my
05:57life.
05:58After I saw the original War of the Worlds, I was quite young, of course,
06:01my reaction was to be sick all night.
06:04I was so terrified.
06:06The idea that there could be life out there that was sufficiently interested in our planet to mount an invasion.
06:12What an idea that was.
06:15But Wells had not only created a new type of fiction, he had accurately predicted a new type of warfare.
06:24Wells depicts what happens when an entire urban population is suddenly under threat from invasion and massacre.
06:33That ends up prefiguring, to a remarkable degree, what would happen when civilians became the targets in global war.
06:44Wells fears the abuse of science will have apocalyptic consequences.
06:50He foresees chemical warfare, tanks, and laser weapons.
06:55The heat rays that H.G. Wells imagines in the War of the Worlds are directed from rotating lenses.
07:03And these lenses focus a beam of light intensely on whatever target it is directed at,
07:10and that target will immediately burst into flames.
07:14In Wells' time, the idea of a heat ray is pure fiction.
07:18But 19 years after the War of the Worlds was published,
07:23Albert Einstein identifies the theoretical basis of laser technology.
07:28Within decades, scientists successfully amplify electromagnetic radiation to a specific frequency
07:35and breathe Wells' imagination into life.
07:41Today, low-wattage lasers are everywhere,
07:44from pointers to DVD players to industrial and surgical cutting tools.
07:52Defense contractors continue to develop technology
07:55to create a real heat ray for the military.
07:59I did read H.G. Wells when I was a kid.
08:02I read his War of the Worlds.
08:04The idea of aliens coming down with heat rays,
08:06it was a terrifying concept, but also a compelling concept
08:09in terms of, can that really be done?
08:13Rob Gregory is now director of laser technology
08:17at Textron Systems in Massachusetts.
08:20The U.S. Department of Defense funds multiple programs
08:24to develop laser weapons.
08:26In one version, lasers would be used
08:29to zap incoming missiles and mortars out of the sky.
08:33The terminology you'll hear is speed of light engagement.
08:37If you can engage an object of interest or a target
08:40with the speed of light,
08:42then there's essentially no delay
08:44between when you decide to fire
08:46and when you start to engage that target.
08:49A laser's effect on almost anything
08:51is to put an enormous amount of energy in a very small area.
08:55Textron has developed an advanced prototype
08:58that it tests in a high-security environment.
09:01The laser powers that we're involved with are dangerous.
09:04It's something that you want to do
09:07under very carefully controlled conditions.
09:09So we're using TV cameras so that we can keep an eye
09:12on what's going on there.
09:15The laser is aimed at a special target
09:18capable of absorbing the high energy.
09:21Fire in three, two, one.
09:27The laser fires over 100 kilowatts of directed power,
09:31enough energy to shoot a plane out of the sky.
09:37There are already lasers in use
09:39that can disable slower targets.
09:43But Textron engineers predict that in around five years,
09:47lasers will be ready to pick off enemy missiles in mid-flight.
09:52When H.G. Wells wrote War of the Worlds,
09:55the Gatling gun, the machine gun,
09:57was perhaps the most advanced form of military hardware.
10:01A hundred years after War of the Worlds,
10:03we now have military lasers every bit as powerful
10:07as the heat rays in War of the Worlds.
10:11But in War of the Worlds,
10:13it is not our weapons that ultimately defeat the Martians.
10:17It's our biology.
10:19Wells does a surprising thing.
10:20The Martians whom he's treated
10:22as these monstrosities bent on taking over the Earth
10:26actually become quite moving and tragic figures
10:30as they begin to die.
10:33The message is clear.
10:35Advanced technology does not necessarily equal invincibility.
10:39One can still suffer annihilation from the unexpected.
10:45In most Wells' tales, destruction stems not from an outside alien force,
10:51but from our own dark nature.
10:54Wells writes of how we are capable of creating extraordinary inventions,
10:58and yet we are also little more than animals.
11:03It is a prophetic paradox Wells will explore in his stories
11:08and dramatically confront in his own life.
11:20It's 1891, and H.G. Wells is running late.
11:24He's scheduled to meet Frank Harris,
11:27publisher of the prestigious journal Fortnightly Review.
11:30Thank you for agreeing to see me.
11:33Sure.
11:34Harris is perplexed by Wells' latest submission,
11:37a scientific essay titled The Universe Rigid.
11:41Frank Harris was not going to accept the second essay
11:45and told Wells,
11:46I don't understand six words of it.
11:49Wells has attempted to describe
11:51a four-dimensional time-space universe,
11:55three planes of space,
11:56and a fourth time.
11:59This is a proof of concept of the fourth dimension.
12:03That's time.
12:06Time as a fourth dimension just means that
12:08in order to locate something in the universe,
12:10you have to tell me three numbers for where it is in space
12:13and a fourth number for when it is in time.
12:17But Wells is too far ahead of his time.
12:20This is ten years before Einstein would publish
12:23his special theory of relativity.
12:26Mr. Wells,
12:27I wish you luck on this.
12:29This is an idea which could...
12:32Wells' efforts to explain his essay are futile.
12:38At that point, Wells began to realize that, for him,
12:42the best way to convey ideas
12:44was really in the form of fiction.
12:47The fourth dimension becomes the foundation
12:50of Wells' debut novel,
12:52The Time Machine.
12:53It is incredible that Wells was able
12:55to write a book like this in the 1890s.
12:57We didn't know about relativity.
12:58In 1890s, physics was still according to Isaac Newton.
13:03The Time Machine is one of the greatest works
13:06of science fiction of all time.
13:08Not only did it spin off
13:10a thousand other novels and movies,
13:12it also reaches right into our hopes and dreams.
13:16Everyone has asked that question,
13:18why am I a prisoner of time?
13:21In Wells' 1895 masterpiece,
13:24a man journeys many millennia into the future.
13:27There he discovers that humans have evolved
13:30into two distinct species.
13:32The idle Eloi pursue a carefree existence.
13:36The subterranean Morlocks breed Eloi
13:38like cattle for their own consumption.
13:41For Wells, the story is a comment
13:43on Britain's widening gap
13:45between the social classes.
13:47What we find in The Time Machine
13:50are essentially the descendants
13:52of upstairs and downstairs
13:54from the 1890s,
13:56except that in many ways
13:58the roles have now switched.
14:00And it's the Morlocks
14:02who are calling the shots
14:03in the far future.
14:08Could we ever build a machine
14:10that could really travel through time?
14:13Surprisingly, many physicists now say yes.
14:18One way would be to find
14:20or create a wormhole.
14:23A wormhole is a shortcut
14:25through space and time.
14:27Let's say I take a sheet of paper
14:29and I mark two points on it.
14:30Usually you have to go across the paper
14:33to go between these two points.
14:34But now, if I warp the fabric
14:38of space and time,
14:39I can hop across
14:41and thereby take a shortcut
14:43through space and time itself.
14:47Another solution lies
14:49in traveling close to the speed of light.
14:52There's one form of time travel
14:54that we can actually execute even today.
14:57That is, take an astronaut,
14:59put him in a rocket ship,
15:00and speed him toward the speed of light.
15:03In a rocket ship,
15:04time beats slightly slower
15:06than on the planet Earth.
15:08As he orbits the Earth
15:10and comes back,
15:11he's actually a fraction
15:12of a second younger
15:14than he would have been on the Earth.
15:16The faster you're going,
15:18the less time is being elapsed.
15:20So yes, you can make one year,
15:23two people back here on Earth,
15:24last a day for you,
15:25or a minute, or a second.
15:27It's just how close you can get
15:29to the speed of light.
15:30Physicists aren't able to prove
15:32one way or the other
15:33whether or not it's possible
15:33to actually travel backwards in time.
15:35We suspect it's not possible,
15:37but it's an open question.
15:40If it were possible
15:42to go backwards in time,
15:44we might open up
15:45a metaphysical Pandora's box.
15:48It's known as the butterfly effect.
15:52The butterfly effect
15:54is when the flapping
15:55of the wings of a butterfly
15:56creates a gentle wind,
15:59which then eventually cascades
16:01into a thunderstorm.
16:02So what happens
16:04if you go backwards in time
16:05and affect butterflies?
16:07They can have a ripple effect,
16:09which then creates a situation
16:11where the present is impossible.
16:15Then there's the grandfather paradox.
16:18Simon Wells directed
16:20the 2002 film version
16:22of his great-grandfather's novel.
16:24The problem with time travel
16:26is what's known
16:27as the grandfather paradox.
16:28And I can illustrate that
16:30by saying if I went back
16:32back to the 1890s
16:34and killed H.G. Wells
16:38before he had children,
16:41therefore his son wouldn't have a son
16:43and his son wouldn't give rise to me,
16:46then how would I exist
16:48in order to be able to go back
16:49and murder him?
16:52The Time Machine is Wells' first
16:54in a series of bestsellers.
16:56But as his fame and fortune grow,
16:59his personal behavior shocks
17:01his Victorian peers.
17:04Wells marries his first cousin,
17:07Isabel, at age 25.
17:09It was a disastrous marriage,
17:11and he almost immediately began
17:13taking up a relationship
17:15with a student of his
17:16named Amy Catherine Robbins.
17:18It's only the first
17:20out of scores
17:21of notorious affairs.
17:24He caused scandals
17:26with his numerous love affairs,
17:28some of which were quite public.
17:31He fathered three illegitimate children.
17:34So in his private life,
17:35Wells was a truly scandalous figure.
17:39The tension between public virtue
17:42and personal morality
17:43is a preoccupation of Wells.
17:45When freed from the normal
17:47constraints of society,
17:48will man turn towards good or evil?
17:51It is a question Wells asks
17:54often in his life,
17:55and most famously in his 1897 novel,
17:59The Invisible Man.
18:00Long considered one of Wells'
18:02greatest unfulfilled prophecies,
18:05invisibility is now being realized
18:07right before our eyes.
18:18In the summer heat of 1895,
18:21Wells is writing
18:22The War of the Worlds.
18:24But a new work is formulating,
18:27one with a provocative theme.
18:29When no one is watching,
18:31do good men become evil?
18:35What would people do
18:36if they could become invisible?
18:43Wells finds his inspiration under the sea,
18:47a world teeming with strange creatures.
18:50Some are too small to be seen
18:52by the naked eye.
18:53Others, such as the jellyfish,
18:55are simply transparent.
18:58The story Wells will tell
19:00explores the scientific phenomenon
19:03of invisibility,
19:04but it is also a morality tale.
19:08The Invisible Man's a dark story.
19:11The guy who makes himself invisible
19:13is a very angry and violent character.
19:17Let's face it,
19:18that's a superpower
19:19which is given to sneaking around
19:21and doing underhand stuff.
19:23In The Invisible Man,
19:25a former medical student named Griffin
19:28discovers that by modifying
19:29the refractive capabilities of light,
19:32objects seem to disappear.
19:35Invisible,
19:36Griffin is free to move
19:37through the world undetected
19:39and plots a reign of terror
19:41over his neighbors.
19:43It didn't just deal with
19:45how cool would it be to be invisible.
19:48It dealt with a lot of the negatives
19:49of if you're invisible,
19:51chances are you're going to go loony.
19:53He got in all sorts of trouble
19:54because basically he was suggesting
19:57that it's not going to be
19:58a good thing necessarily
20:00if a person had the ability
20:01to be invisible.
20:03Despite Wells' warning,
20:05scientists are developing
20:06new synthetic materials
20:07that may make true invisibility
20:09a reality.
20:10The Pentagon is not stupid.
20:13They've dumped billions of dollars
20:15perfecting weapon systems
20:16like stealth bombers
20:18and they're not even invisible
20:20to ordinary light.
20:22Now we're talking about
20:23the real McCoy,
20:25an object that will totally disappear
20:27even under visible light.
20:31The U.S. Air Force
20:32is funding Professor Xiong Zhang
20:34and his colleagues at UC Berkeley.
20:37The Berkeley team
20:38has perfected a method
20:39for making objects
20:40invisible to the eye
20:41using a new technology
20:43called metamaterials.
20:46Metamaterials can be used
20:48to make things invisible
20:49or partially invisible
20:51by virtue of controlling
20:53how light is reaching that object
20:57and coming back to our eyes.
20:58Now imagine you use
21:00a metamaterial cloak device
21:02on top of that object
21:03and what happens is that
21:04the light is approaching
21:06touching that object
21:06you just divert it
21:08and without hitting that object
21:10it comes back to your eyes
21:12as if nothing existed there.
21:14Light is diverted
21:15around a minuscule object
21:17that is covered
21:18with a metamaterial carpet cloak
21:20a silicon material
21:22that is perforated
21:23with a special pattern
21:24of tiny holes.
21:26These holes alter the speed
21:28at which light travels
21:29so the light is reflected
21:31in such a way
21:32that the object covered
21:33by the cloak
21:33is invisible to the eye.
21:36This is a zoom in
21:37of how the cloak are made
21:39and the light comes in here
21:41where the light speed
21:42can be accelerated
21:43or decreases
21:44and then when they come out
21:45they are all
21:46in the same speed again.
21:47So that's how we actually
21:49hide things under here
21:50as a cloaking device.
21:53Presently the cloak
21:54is very small.
21:55It can only hide an object
21:57100 times thinner
21:58than a human hair.
22:01Using a microscope
22:02the team can watch their cloak
22:04make an object invisible.
22:08We're now actually conducting
22:10a cloaking experiment.
22:12Mg is routing a laser
22:14into a microscope
22:15into the cloaking device.
22:18When a laser beam
22:19first strikes a flat mirror
22:21it reflects as a single point.
22:23An object placed
22:25in the laser's path
22:26causes the laser light
22:27to scatter.
22:28The laser no longer reflects
22:30as a single point
22:31but rather as several
22:32indistinct points.
22:34But when the team
22:35covers the object
22:36with their invisibility cloak
22:37the light is slowed
22:39and diverted
22:39and the laser again
22:41appears as a single point
22:42as though it were reflecting
22:44off the flat, empty mirror.
22:47So this of course
22:48is working on monitoring
22:49what's light coming off
22:51from the cloak.
22:52This is what he see
22:53a single light spot
22:54as if from a flat mirror.
22:57For now, scientists are only able
23:00to construct tiny invisibility cloaks.
23:02But if Xiong Zhang and his team
23:05succeed in scaling the technology
23:06they will have created
23:08a new kind of weapon
23:09unlike anything before it.
23:11One that could be used
23:13by spies and special forces
23:15or by bank robbers
23:17and terrorists.
23:19The only concern would be
23:21the abuse that may go
23:23with this
23:24and that's something
23:25that scientists need
23:26to prevent.
23:27It's going to change
23:28a lot of things
23:28in our lives.
23:29As many of the technology
23:31there is always
23:31the plus side
23:32and minus side
23:33we just have to be vigilant
23:35of what we are doing.
23:37The positive or negative impact
23:40of a new tool
23:41depends on the user.
23:43Wells' stories
23:44leave little doubt
23:45about which path
23:46he believes
23:46his fellow man
23:47will take.
23:49An invisible man
23:50can rule the world.
23:52He can rob
23:53or race
23:54or kill.
23:57Wells' outlook
23:58may have been colored
23:59by his upbringing
24:00in industrial England.
24:03Those factories
24:04delching filth
24:05into the stratosphere
24:08is not a pretty sight
24:10and so any storyteller
24:11has a big streak
24:12of romance in him
24:13but romantic side
24:15can be very dark.
24:16I think he looks
24:17towards a dark future.
24:20On the hinge
24:21of the 20th century
24:23Wells turns
24:24his dark imagination
24:25to medical progress.
24:27His disturbing predictions
24:29in the island
24:30of Dr. Moreau
24:31are truly horrifying
24:33but many of them
24:34are coming true
24:36today.
24:46It is 1896.
24:48H.G. Wells
24:49is working on a disturbing
24:51and cautionary tale.
24:53The island of Dr. Moreau
24:55is a dark vision
24:57of nature
24:57corrupted by amoral science.
24:59The story
25:01is about animal evolution
25:03manipulated
25:04and perverted
25:05by a madman.
25:08The idea is born
25:10when Wells
25:11is still a student
25:12not long after
25:13Charles Darwin
25:14introduces his theory
25:15of natural selection.
25:17He studied under
25:18T.H. Huxley
25:20known as Darwin's bulldog,
25:23the great defender
25:23of the theory of evolution.
25:27Wells comes of age
25:29at a time
25:29when our understanding
25:30of biology
25:31is expanding
25:32by operating
25:32on living animals,
25:34strapped down
25:35and sometimes awake.
25:37It is a morally
25:38controversial practice
25:40known as vivisection.
25:45Moreau is a disgraced
25:47physiologist
25:47who flees England
25:49for a remote island.
25:50In an operating room,
25:52Moreau vivisects animals
25:54in an effort
25:55to make them
25:55more human.
25:57Shocking his detractors,
25:59the scientist
26:00is adamant
26:01that his work
26:01is advancing science.
26:03But the results
26:04are monstrous.
26:06A dogman
26:07crafted from a St. Bernard
26:08and a hybrid
26:09of a hyena
26:10and a pig
26:11that can talk.
26:13In the island
26:14of Dr. Moreau,
26:16H.G. Wells
26:17modifies animals
26:18to give them
26:20the Promethean gift
26:21of intelligence.
26:22But he assumes,
26:24as Pierre Boulet
26:25does in Planet of the Apes,
26:26that we'll do it badly,
26:27that we'll oppress
26:28and enslave
26:30these creatures
26:31instead of making
26:31them fellow citizens.
26:33He does this
26:34in order to do
26:35the cautionary tale.
26:38The island
26:39of Dr. Moreau
26:40is Wells'
26:40scientific take
26:41on the ancient myth
26:43of chimeras,
26:44human-animal hybrids.
26:46Today,
26:47chimeras are myth
26:48no longer.
26:50Dr. Ishmael Zanjani
26:51is hard at work
26:52in his University
26:53of Nevada lab
26:54creating humanized sheep.
26:57When we first
26:58observed the humanization
27:01of some of these organs,
27:03it was really
27:04like science fiction
27:06to us.
27:07Zanjani's goal
27:09is to create sheep
27:10with organs suitable
27:11for transplant
27:11into humans.
27:13To induce
27:14this humanization,
27:16Zanjani injects
27:17human stem cells
27:18into an unborn
27:19sheep fetus.
27:20The human cells
27:21gestate,
27:22and the lamb
27:23is born with organs
27:24partially comprised
27:25of human cells.
27:27We found
27:29almost every tissue
27:30we looked at
27:31was partially humanized.
27:33By increasing
27:34the dose of stem cells
27:36we put in
27:37and the number
27:39of times
27:39we injected the fetus,
27:41we were able
27:42to get increased
27:43amounts of donor
27:45human cells
27:46into these organs.
27:48We feel that
27:49we can actually
27:50increase the levels
27:51to about 26, 27,
27:53maybe 30%.
27:55On the surface,
27:57Zanjani's chimeras
27:58look like regular sheep.
28:01This is the
28:02experimental farm facility
28:04of where we keep
28:05our sheep.
28:06These animals
28:07have large areas
28:08to walk around
28:09and pasture
28:11and enjoy themselves.
28:13but biological tests
28:15reveal the animal's
28:16true chimeric nature.
28:18What you see here
28:19are groups of animals
28:20that were transplanted
28:22in utero
28:23with human stem cells.
28:25After birth,
28:27you look at these animals
28:28to make sure
28:28that they are chimeric.
28:30If you notice
28:31in the back
28:32of each animal,
28:33you can see a site
28:34where we've taken
28:35bone marrow cells
28:37to determine
28:38whether human blood
28:39cells exist.
28:41In some experiments,
28:42a sheep's brain
28:43is partially humanized,
28:45which leads to the questions
28:47Zanjani is asked most,
28:49do human cells
28:50cause these sheep
28:52to act like humans?
28:54In the science fiction
28:57part of the island
28:58of Moreau,
28:59it seems that the animals
29:01have transformed.
29:04Whereas, actually,
29:06in these studies,
29:07there is no change
29:08in the overall behavior
29:10of these animals.
29:12They remain sheep
29:13for the life
29:15of the animal.
29:17Zanjani hopes
29:18to eventually use
29:19a patient's actual stem cells
29:21to custom grow
29:22humanized organs
29:24inside sheep.
29:25The theory is
29:26that these organs
29:27will be less likely
29:28to be rejected
29:29after transplant.
29:31Even before birth,
29:32these animals
29:33have livers
29:34that are ready
29:34for possible transplants.
29:37The question is
29:39whether these organs
29:40can be useful
29:42in a clinical setting
29:44and start treating
29:45patients
29:46with different needs.
29:49Zanjani is aware
29:50of the ethical complexities
29:52of his work.
29:53Generally,
29:54if a scientist
29:55can do something
29:57like this,
29:59should they go ahead
30:00and do it?
30:01I think these issues
30:03have to be addressed
30:04at some point
30:05by the society
30:07as a whole.
30:09It's possible
30:10that Wells
30:11would agree.
30:13Wells often dramatized
30:14the bad choices
30:15in order to encourage people
30:17people to realize
30:18that they do indeed
30:20have choices
30:20about how they will use
30:22this new scientific knowledge.
30:24He never wanted
30:25to discourage research,
30:27but he always wanted
30:28to know
30:29to what end.
30:33The science
30:34in the island
30:35of Dr. Moreau
30:36is shockingly prescient.
30:39But on the eve
30:40of World War I,
30:41Wells' bleak vision
30:42of scientific advancement
30:44misused manifests
30:45in the most terrifying
30:47prediction
30:47in human history.
30:49Wells was the first
30:51to take
30:52the apocalyptic notion
30:54that human beings
30:55might bring about
30:56their own destruction
30:57and we might do it
31:00with our own
31:01darn tools.
31:16Between 1895
31:18and 1898,
31:19H.G. Wells
31:20writes four
31:21now classic novels
31:23exploring
31:23fantastic possibilities.
31:26From Martians
31:27to time travel
31:29to invisibility.
31:32But at the dawn
31:33of the 20th century,
31:35a maturing Wells
31:36grows consumed
31:37with a pressing reality.
31:39Conflict
31:40between nations.
31:42I think there's
31:42a lot of foresight
31:43really going on.
31:44You had to be looking
31:45at the industrial empires
31:47then of England
31:48certainly,
31:49heading towards its peak
31:50and the industrial empires
31:52of Germany.
31:53So you had to be
31:53looking at that as well
31:54and looking at
31:55global dominance.
31:58Wells' stories
31:59begin to foreshadow
32:00the mechanized brutality
32:02of war
32:03in the 20th century.
32:06H.G. Wells
32:07took credit
32:08for inventing
32:09the idea
32:10of the tank
32:10which he did
32:11in a short story
32:12called
32:13The Land Ironclads
32:14published in 1903.
32:18He expands
32:19his predictions
32:20in a book called
32:21The War in the Air.
32:23He foresees
32:24the shape
32:24of things to come
32:25six years
32:26before the dogfights
32:28of World War I.
32:29In many ways,
32:31Wells was anticipating
32:32in that 1908 novel
32:34the widespread use
32:36of aerial warfare.
32:42But Wells'
32:44darkest prophecy
32:45will change
32:46the course
32:47of human history.
32:49The biggest prophetic hit
32:51in all of science fiction
32:53took place in 1914
32:54with the world set free.
32:57H.G. Wells predicted
32:58that in 1933
32:59a physicist
33:01would come up
33:01with the idea
33:02of an atomic bomb.
33:04The decay of radium
33:06was only just discovered.
33:08The notion that this
33:09could result in power,
33:11that this could result
33:12in a weapon,
33:14that's an amazing hit.
33:16That's the sort of thing
33:17that makes a guy
33:17like me jealous.
33:21Wells' prophetic science fiction
33:24is firmly rooted
33:25in science fact.
33:28Wells had been
33:29an astute reader
33:31of the latest
33:32science journals
33:33and papers.
33:34He kept up
33:36with what was new.
33:37And he was particularly
33:39interested in the work
33:40of an Oxford University-based
33:42chemist, actually,
33:44named Frederick Soddy.
33:48On the eve of World War I,
33:50the 48-year-old Wells
33:51reads Frederick Soddy's
33:53scientific treatise,
33:54The Interpretation of Radium.
33:58Radium in its metallic form
34:00glows in the dark.
34:01So the question
34:03in everyone's mind
34:05immediately was,
34:06this thing isn't
34:07plugged into a wall,
34:08doesn't have a gas pipe
34:10leading into it.
34:11Where's all the energy
34:12coming from?
34:14Soddy posits
34:15that atomic energy
34:16could someday supply
34:18all the world's power.
34:21But Wells was
34:23a different kind of person.
34:24Wells would start
34:25thinking about,
34:25well, what's that going
34:27to change
34:27in the human world?
34:32Wells fears
34:34that once mankind
34:35taps the power of radium
34:37and harnesses the energy
34:38that fuels the sun,
34:40humanity will inevitably
34:41use that power
34:42power to destroy
34:43rather than create.
34:46In The World Set Free,
34:49Wells writes of a weapon
34:50fueled by radioactivity.
34:53The World Set Free
34:54depicts a global war
34:57in which entire cities
34:59are annihilated
35:00by atomic bombs.
35:03And Wells invented the term
35:04atomic bomb
35:05for this novel.
35:08Having seen many
35:10of his own predictions
35:11violently realized
35:13in World War I,
35:14H.G. Wells becomes
35:15a leading voice
35:16for pacifism.
35:18In 1920,
35:20Wells travels to Russia
35:21as an advocate
35:22for international peace.
35:24But his efforts
35:26are to no avail.
35:30Wells' The World Set Free
35:32is a fascinating example
35:33of a book
35:34that actually changed
35:35the course of history.
35:37The little-known
35:38Hungarian physicist
35:40named Leo Zillard
35:42early on
35:43was fascinated
35:44with H.G. Wells' book.
35:46He realized
35:48that it was
35:49really prophetic.
35:50But the question
35:51in his mind
35:52as a physicist was,
35:54was there a reaction
35:55that could make
35:56an atomic bomb?
35:59Zillard determines
36:00that a chain reaction
36:01of splitting atoms
36:02can create a bomb
36:04of unparalleled
36:05destructive force.
36:07It suddenly dawned
36:09on him
36:09that if you could
36:10find a process
36:11where you got energy
36:13out of one nucleus
36:15of an atom
36:16but enough particles
36:18to hit two more nucleuses
36:20and break them up
36:22and then four
36:23and then eight
36:23and then 16
36:24and 32
36:25and 64
36:26that's the chain reaction
36:28process.
36:28If you could do that
36:30you might be able
36:31to make a bomb
36:32of unsurpassed energy
36:33and destructiveness.
36:38By the summer of 1939
36:40Adolf Hitler
36:42has seized control
36:43of Austria
36:43and Czechoslovakia
36:45and is demanding
36:46more territory.
36:48Fearing what could happen
36:50if the Third Reich
36:51conceives an atomic weapon
36:52Zillard writes a letter
36:54to warn President Roosevelt.
36:57All right
36:57how could he get
36:58to the president?
36:59Who knew the president?
37:00Ah, his friend
37:01Albert Einstein.
37:02So he went to see Einstein
37:04and Einstein agreed
37:05that this was
37:06a serious problem
37:06and agreed that he
37:07and Leo
37:08would draft a letter
37:09together
37:10that they would
37:10manage to find a way
37:11to get to President Roosevelt
37:12and they did.
37:15And the result
37:16of that letter
37:16to Roosevelt
37:17was the beginning
37:18of the Manhattan Project
37:19and the U.S. development
37:21of the atomic bomb.
37:241945.
37:32America drops
37:33two atomic bombs
37:34on Germany's ally
37:35Japan.
37:39Wells' prediction
37:41of the nuclear aftermath
37:42is horrifically accurate.
37:45He envisions
37:46radioactive vapor
37:48drifting miles
37:48from the bomb site
37:49scorching all it touches.
37:53just as Wells imagines
37:55an uninhabitable
37:56no-man's land
37:57surrounding the targeted
37:59cities in the world
38:00set free
38:00Hiroshima and Nagasaki
38:02are doomed
38:03to spend years
38:04as a radioactive wasteland
38:06after the A-bomb.
38:11But the threat
38:12of atomic fallout
38:13is still years away
38:15from the 1920s
38:16when Wells
38:17turns his attention
38:18from destructive
38:19to creative technology
38:21the emerging field
38:22of cinema.
38:24He decides
38:26to adapt
38:26his own work
38:27into a movie script
38:28and from the silver screen
38:31H.G. Wells
38:32once again
38:33prophesies
38:33his worldwide havoc.
38:35But this time
38:36he sees a light
38:38at the end
38:39of the tunnel.
38:48The year is 1927.
38:52The biggest box office draw
38:53as a science fiction film
38:55Fritz Lang's sleek vision
38:57of the future
38:58Metropolis
39:01H.G. Wells
39:02does not share
39:03the public's enthusiasm
39:04he is unimpressed
39:06by the film's effects
39:08and chides it
39:09for lacking originality.
39:12Wells sets out
39:13to craft
39:14his own cinematic future
39:15scripting the 1936 film
39:18Things to Come.
39:20He was then 70 years old
39:22and delighted
39:24in the notion
39:24that he could
39:25bring his message
39:27to the masses
39:27through a cinematic version
39:29of the shape
39:30of Things to Come.
39:321940
39:33an unnamed
39:34enemy air force
39:35drops bombs
39:36over London
39:37causing the outbreak
39:38of a new world war.
39:40Wells' prediction
39:42of a new war
39:44beginning in 1940
39:45of course
39:45comes very close
39:46to the truth
39:47about the origins
39:49of the Second World War.
39:50His depiction
39:51in the film version
39:53Things to Come
39:54of bombers
39:55in the skies
39:56over London
39:57certainly reverberated
39:59a few years later
40:00during the London Blitz.
40:02Eventually
40:03the enemy uses
40:04its airplanes
40:05to spread a plague
40:06that annihilates
40:07much of humanity
40:08foreshadowing
40:09the capabilities
40:10of modern
40:11biological weapons.
40:13The global war
40:14lasts decades
40:15and results
40:16in the collapse
40:17of civilization.
40:20But even though
40:21technology creates
40:23the global destruction
40:24it also provides
40:26a solution.
40:28Within a century
40:29a council of engineers
40:30and scientists
40:31establish a one world government
40:33and Earth's population
40:35thrives.
40:37We see the development
40:39of a kind of technocracy
40:41that Wells always favored
40:44but that many of his critics
40:46found chilling
40:48and heartless
40:49and frightening.
40:52H.G. Wells sees science
40:55as man's most powerful tool
40:57but warns us
40:58to use it wisely
40:59or else.
41:03On August 13th, 1946
41:05at the age of 79
41:07Herbert George Wells
41:09draws his last breath.
41:12He leaves behind
41:14a rich legacy
41:15of sci-fi tales
41:16that continue
41:17to entertain,
41:19inspire,
41:19and to warn humanity
41:21that at any moment
41:22we could self-destruct.
41:26H.G. Wells
41:27actually considered himself
41:28more of a social critic
41:30and a historian
41:31than a fiction writer
41:33because there's a hidden message
41:35in all of his novels.
41:38Whoever he was with,
41:39this is why I like him,
41:41he was contrary.
41:42If he was around optimists
41:44he would point out
41:45the devastating flaws
41:47in human nature
41:47and when he was around cynics
41:49he would talk about
41:50the possibilities
41:51that we would overcome
41:52our racism,
41:53overcome our sexism
41:54and all these things.
41:55H.G. Wells wants to push things
41:57to the limit, right?
41:58He wants to say
41:59if we keep going down this path
42:00here's where we're going to end up
42:02and it can be a shocking place.
42:04So Wells wants to provoke you
42:06a little bit.
42:06He wants to say
42:06look, here is where we could go,
42:08nowhere close to where we are now
42:10but if you want to be there
42:11then or don't
42:12you have to do something about it.
42:15H.G. Wells
42:16wrote that mankind
42:17can't always be trusted
42:18with new technology.
42:20Wells weaved a cautionary tale.
42:22He believed in the greatness
42:24of science
42:24but in the weakness of man.
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