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Replacing human brawn with machinery has provided us with surpluses of food and goods, greater safety and, for many people, more leisure time. But what happens when machines eclipse us in brain power as well? This insightful video essay from the podcaster and commentator CGP Grey explains the existential threat intelligent robots pose to the human workforce, and why even the most intelligent, specialised and creative among us aren’t safe from being rendered obsolete.
Video by CGP Grey
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Biology
Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short
3 minutes
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Information and communication
‘Astonished and somewhat terrified’ – Victorians’ reactions to the phonograph
36 minutes
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Engineering
From simple motors to levitating trains – how design shapes innovation
23 minutes
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Animals and humans
Are zoos and natural history museums born of a desire to understand, or to control?
57 minutes
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Archaeology
What’s an ancient Greek brick doing in a Sumerian city? An archeological investigation
16 minutes
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Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes
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History
From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War
22 minutes
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Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes