[music playing]
NARRATOR: September,
2003, Clemson University,
South Carolina.
Dr. Thomas Boland files
the first patent for inkjet
3D printing of viable cells.
Already a multi-billion
dollar industry,
this process involves
placing biological materials
into modified ink cartridges
and printing onto bio
paper made of soy and collagen.
What we see is little
Petri dishes with a culture
medium like agar in them.
And then you have a little
nozzle that comes over
and spray paints these little
hexagons onto the agar.
And within only a few minutes,
they start growing cells,
and they become these
brown spots, which are
the beginnings of human livers.
NIC RADFORD: Dr.
Boland has some very
interesting research looking
at printing cell tissue.
I think that opens up some very
interesting ideas about how
to bio-manufacture things.
At some point, it
will have application
in the field of
robotics, especially
as we start combining
devices with the human body.
NARRATOR: Many believe this is
the first step in constructing
engineered human organs.
Ultimately, the goal is to do
the same for every other part
of the human body.
But there is a movement to
go much further in merging
biology with technology.
It is called transhumanism.
The ultimate goal
of the transhumanists
is to become an immortal god.
And literally,
these people believe
that they will merge with
technology and become cyborgs.
They believe that
they will unlock
the immortality,
anti-aging systems encoded
into the human
race, and that that
will be the supposed final
evolution of human beings
as they ascend into godhood.
NARRATOR: Some experts
believe that by the year
2050 scientists and engineers
will have unlocked the secrets
of immortality through the
production of artificial organs
and silicone-based structures.
Ancient astronaut
theorists suggest
that, considering the fact
that we are experimenting
with transhumanism today, it is
very possible a more advanced
extraterrestrial
race has already
achieved similar
technological advancements.
A civilization millions of
years older than us could have
actually evolved
much beyond the baby
steps that we're
taking right now.
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS:
If we are doing this,
is it possible that another
civilization has done
the same thing, but
perhaps thousands,
if not hundreds of thousands
of years before us?
When we look at some of these
ancient texts that we have,
we're always talking
about ancient astronauts
that came to visit us.
But what if we were
visited by machines?
And so the idea then
arises, will we, ourselves,
be able to become cyborgs?
MARK DICE: Companies
have actually
built what are called
narrow interfaces,
where they have wired
computers into people's brains.
They believe that they can map
the entire human brain and all
of the data that's stored
in it, and then replicate it
into an artificial, intelligent,
silicon-based system
where it can then be stored
and essentially never die.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that
an entirely non-biological
being could have sentience?
And if extraterrestrials
have been visiting Earth
for thousands of years, might
it be more likely that they are
actually fully robotic beings?
NICK POPE: Biological
entities may actually
be a rarity in the cosmos.
We may be largely
living in a universe
where the real intelligences
out there, and perhaps
coming down here, are robots.
There are some who believe
that machines may have already
achieved a level of intelligence
vastly in excess of our own
and that they may be giving us a
trail of breadcrumbs to help us
rebuild the technology that
would get us to become enough
like them that we
could eventually
be merged into their
society in some fashion.
