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Popular culture is awash in stories of humanoid robots gone wrong. As we transition to a world where human-robot interactions are part of everyday life, how can we create robots we find trustworthy and that act more like us? According to Brian Scassellati, professor of computer science at Yale’s Social Robotics Laboratory, getting people to interact naturally with chunks of plastic is an ongoing challenge, but making them small-time cheats might actually be a good start.
Director: Liz Garbus
Producers: Liz Garbus, Karen K H Sim
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Thinkers and theories
A rare female scholar of the Roman Empire, Hypatia lived and died as a secular voice
5 minutes
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Anthropology
Why are witchcraft accusations so common across human societies?
4 minutes
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Subcultures
Drop into London’s eclectic skate scene, where newbies and old-timers find community
5 minutes
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Technology and the self
A deepfake porn victim confronts the pain of having her likeness stolen and vandalised
19 minutes
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Wellbeing
Born in China, Zee seeks a gender-affirming life in the American Midwest
11 minutes
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Chemistry
Why do the building blocks of life possess a mysterious symmetry?
12 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A whale hunt is an act of prayer for an Inuit community north of the Arctic Circle
8 minutes
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Cosmology
Tiny, entangled universes that form or fizzle out – a theory of the quantum multiverse
11 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A beginner’s guide to a joyful Persian tradition of spring renewal and rebirth
3 minutes