Mathematician and author Professor Hannah Fry explores the science, technology, and people on the cusp of the most transformative breakthroughs of our age.
From the development of physics-defying quantum computers, to eradicating chronic pain, or even talking to animals using the power of AI. In each episode Hannah investigates the latest technological advances that will affect all our futures, for better or worse.
Is super-intelligent AI inevitable? And if so, what is the future for humanity? Hannah travels to Berkeley to witness how embodied robots can learn about the world for themselves, meets with leading AI scientists to discuss the future of advanced AI and at MIT explores what intelligence really is.
Could we even use AI to talk to them? Hannah treks to a Californian beach to record the calls of mating elephant seals, meets a dog who can communicate with buttons and travels to Kenya to see how a deeper understanding of communication might help save elephants and humans from conflict.
Who will be the first to harness this mind-bending new force, and what might they do with it? In New York, Hannah gets a glimpse of IBM’s latest quantum computer system. In London, she explores how banks must overcome threats to encryption and Hannah travels to Singapore to see early plans for a global satellite-based quantum communication network.
Hannah travels across the UK and Singapore to explore the fundamental mechanisms of how pain emerges in the body and meets with scientists working on futuristic ways to control it.
The internet has changed the lives of its 5 billion current users. In five years, another billion people will be online across the developing world. Hannah travels to Kenya to explore how new Silicon Valley laser technology is connecting thousands of people in difficult to reach areas, and the economic and human consequences of expanding internet access in the region.
Hannah travels to Kenya to see how changing rain patterns are impacting the lives of nomadic communities. She explores how satellite systems and geopolitical data can help predict where future water shortages may lead to conflict. And reveals how Singapore is building a solution to reuse its limited supply of fresh water.
| Series Producer | Henry Fraser |
| Executive Producer | Dan Kendall |
| Producer & Directors | Alastair Duncan , Catherine Gale |
| Production Executive | Anna Cowdry |
| Line Producer | Eleanor Harris |
| Junior Production Manager | Rob Furnell |
| Assistant Producers | Lydia Bird , Biddy Kalinski |
| Series Researcher | Lucy Lipscombe |
| Production Coordinator | Lily Henman |
| Editors | Francis Robertson , Ian Strang , Renoir Tuahene |