PBS recently broadcasted the first pilot of a promising new science show titled 22nd century. Only one of a series of three pilots of different show will eventually be continued. The website describes the show as follows:

“Ever wonder what the world is going to be like in the future? Will people routinely live to see their 250th birthdays? Will personal computers be smarter than us? (Or more personable?) Will machines shrink so small they can make repairs inside a human cell?

Science fantasy or futuristic nightmare? 22nd Century takes you to the forefront of technology and hears from people on the cusp of a scientific revolution.”

The pilot can be viewed as a video podcast. The first episode looks at a selection of fascinating technological advancements in neuroscience: brain implants for people with locked-in syndrome, cochlear implants (btw, in Frans Erwin Offeciers we have a top specialist in the field based right here in Antwerp), cyborg extentions, nano-wires to enter the brain from within, braingates etc.

The show highlights not only the technological and scientific advancements, but also possible social and other effects to which they might lead, albeit briefly. From a futurist point of view, it would be interesting to address not only the possible effects of technology on the social, cultural, economic, ecological, political aspects of our lives, but also the effects of developments within these areas on these scientific and technological (r)evolutions, i.e. an integrated, scenario-like view of possible 22nd centuries.

By including a few historical references to the origins of some of the ideas underlying the technological advancements or their possible effects for that matter, a show closely related to the concept of ‘time’ and with a (popular) scientific inclination like this, could gain in terms of depth, contextualization and understanding. For example, in the context of the ‘world wide mind’, think about McLuhan‘s global village or Teilhard de Chardin‘s noosphere or other concepts of distributed consciousness or intelligence etc.

Looking forward to next episodes …

Image from Physorg.com article “Researchers get neurons and sillicon talking”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 18:58 and is filed under envision, publication, technology, trends, visions, visualization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.