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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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Mood and emotion
A century of letters captures the emotions of life in a new city, far from home
21 minutes
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Ageing and death
Death is a trip – how new research links near-death and DMT experiences
9 minutes
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The environment
Photographs of rainforests dissolving in acid strike a beautiful note of warning
10 minutes
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Technology and the self
Adaptive technologies have helped Stephen Hawking, and many more, find their voice
5 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
Experience the dazzling displays that fireflies create when humans are far away
5 minutes
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Stories and literature
Solaris and beyond – Stanisław Lem’s antidotes to the bores of American sci-fi
7 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
To renew Yosemite, California should embrace a once-outlawed Indigenous practice
6 minutes
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Music
Before the Beatles dropped acid, a BBC workshop was creating far-out sounds
6 minutes
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Art
Is paying with hand-drawn banknotes artistry or forgery? The knotty case of J S G Boggs
10 minutes