Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
In 1973, near the height of the ‘population bomb’ panic, a computing programme called World1 offered up some predictions for the future. It anticipated a grim picture for humanity based on current trajectories. Tracing categories such as population, pollution and natural-resource usage, World1 calculated that, by 2040, human civilisation would collapse – a century after the best year to have been alive on the planet: 1940.
This film was originally broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News as part of a report on predictions for the coming decades made by cutting-edge computing technology and leading thinkers of the time. The second segment features interviews with members of the Club of Rome, an elite think tank composed of government officials, academics and business leaders focused on the future of humanity. Their view is a bit sunnier, anticipating a world where global governments are forced to cooperate to solve complex problems, people widen their cultural horizons and work fewer hours, and limited consumption – not wealth – becomes a mark of prestige. Viewed today, it makes for an engrossing artifact, raising far more questions than it answers about humanity’s ability to effectively predict its future and correct its course.
Via Open Culture
video
Evolution
How – and how not – to think about the role randomness plays in evolution
60 minutes
video
Art
A prisoner in Guantánamo finds some escape in building intricate model ships
6 minutes
video
Making
Forging a cello from pieces of wood demands its own form of virtuosity
27 minutes
video
Education
Scenes from a school year paint a refreshingly nuanced portrait of rural America
25 minutes
video
Physics
The rhythms of a star system inspire a pianist’s transfixing performance
5 minutes
video
Art
Watch as Japan’s surplus trees are transformed into forest-tinted crayons
4 minutes
video
Meaning and the good life
‘Everydayness is the enemy’ – excerpts from the existentialist novel ‘The Moviegoer’
2 minutes
video
Biology
A spectacular, close-up look at the starfish with a ‘hands-on’ approach to parenting
5 minutes
video
Food and drink
Local tensions simmer amid a potato salad contest at the Czech-Polish border
14 minutes