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This is a fantasy documentary.

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The pioneering work shown in "Hyperland"

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however, is very real.

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HYPERLAND

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Ladies and gentlemen,

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I had a dream the other night, as a result of a hard evening's dozing in front of the television.

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I dreamt that I'd finally decided, just to get rid of the thing.

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[Voices from television shows]
I thought there must be a better way of spending my time,

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[Voices from television shows]
like walking to the nearest scrap heap and
throwing the wretched object away.

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...Win this... a Color TV...

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... A television set which you would obviously like to have very much, then we'll go on to the next bend in the golden road, and there you could win ...

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... we live in a television age and television is selective ...

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... one camera shot of a pretty nurse helping
an elderly patient out of an empty hospital ...

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[Dialog from various television shows]
...It just needs a final mix. The dough must next be kneaded like this...

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Stop!

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You may think you only have unsocial body odors in your armpits,
but are you "Pit Stop fresh"?

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You need new environmentally safe "Pit Stop" ...

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It seems such a waste of the technology ...

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Maybe in the future ...

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we'll find a better use to put it all to.

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On the day that Japan has agreed to fix the dollar exchange rate at one cent to the yen, in return for the state of California,

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we'll be gauging international economic reaction on the floor of
the Moscow stock exchange.

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Also, in tonight's program, the greenhouse
effect really starts to bite...

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Yes, but this isn't anything new...

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It's still the same boring old television.

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... the England cricket team is in deep trouble ...

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Are you tired of linear non-interactive television, Mr. Adams?

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Don't even know what linear, non-interactive television means, Mr. Adams?

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Are you tired, Mr. Adams, of the sort of
television that just happens at you?

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That you just sit in front of, like a couch potato?

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That doesn't involve you?

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Come on. Interact with me.

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Wait a minute.

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Yes. What is it you want to know?

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Who the hell are you?

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Me? Oh, I'm just him.

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My name is Tom and I'm your agent.

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May I ask if you know what that means?

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You want 15%?

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It means that I am here to do your every slightest bidding.

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To fetch and carry for you, to work tirelessly and selflessly on your behalf, 
always ready, always willing,

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no job too small or too menial.

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Are you sure you mean "agent"?

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I mean that I'm a software agent.
I am merely a simulacrum, an artificial
and completely customizable personality.

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And I only exist as what we call
an "application" in your computer.

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I have the honor to provide instant
access to every piece of information
stored digitally anywhere in the world.

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Any picture, or film, any sound, any book,
any statistic, any fact,

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any connection between anything
you care to think of,

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you've only to tell me and it will be my humble duty to find it for you and to present it to you for your interactive pleasure.

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Is there anything I can do for you now, Mr. Adams, sir?

100
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Well yes, you could stop being so obsequious for a start.

102
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It will be my very great and profound pleasure
to be less obsequious, oh master. 

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I am, as I humbly mentioned to you a moment ago,
fully customizable.

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Allow me to present you with my control panel.

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Would you care to alter me in any way which takes your fancy?

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Just touch the appropriate control.

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Okay, Buster,
What do you want now?
Get bloody move on, can't ya?

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Good.
What would you like to find out about now?

116
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Hang on, I'm rather enjoying this. What else can we change?

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All lines to London are engaged.
Please try later.

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As you can see, there's nothing
about me at all, at all, God bless ya face,

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that isn't completely customizable, 110%,

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in any way you like, Sheila ...

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All right, boyo,

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if you want me like that,
You'd better find me a tank then,
hadn't you?

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Ah, there is a new version of the software
due out any minute now, which will,
of course, be completely reliable. Ahem.

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Look, what is this thing?
Does it have a name?

134
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It has lots of names.

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All right, who invented it?

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Lots of people invented it.
Do you want to hear about a few of them?

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Eh, maybe. Just a little bit.

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One of the first was an American government
scientist called Vannevar Bush.

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He thought of it as long ago as 1945.

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1945?

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Then there's Ted Nelson, who developed
the idea of hypertext in the 1960s.

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From the 1970s onwards, there's been a group of people working at what is now called the "media lab" at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Then, in the late 1980's, came the
"multimedia lab" in San Francisco. 

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In the early 1990s, Robert Abel developed
a pioneering example of multimedia based on
Picasso's painting "Guernica".

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Can I just interrupt you a moment?

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Oh absolutely, at any moment. That's the whole point.

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What are those things?

161
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They are called "Micons". They were
invented by a Norwegian called
Hans Peter Brandmo at MIT in 1989.
Try touching him.

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A "Micon" is a motion icon. It's
motion because it's a sequence of frames

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that are run in a loop and it's an icon because it's a representation it's used
in a representation for an idea,

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or a concept, or a piece of information in some form.

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Imagine, for example, that you are
watching this interview with me, and
I make a reference to Ted Nelson.

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Now, Ted Nelson was the person
who back in the 60s coined ... 

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I thought of the idea of hypertext in the
fall of 1960, but not under that name, and for
years I tried to explain the idea to people everywhere,

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and apparently, most people thought I was literally insane.

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But it seemed so clear to me from the very
beginning that writing should not be sequential,

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because the problems we all have
in writing sequential prose

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derive from the fact that we're trying to make
it all lie down in one long string

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and if we could only break it up into different
chunks that the reader could choose,

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why then we wouldn't have to decide
what goes in and what goes out, we could just ...

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Okay, so how do I find something?
Like, how do I find my way back?

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You just ask me.

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I just did.

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Or you can touch the "go back" button,
which is a thing that looks like a
minimalist fishhook.

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So, what do I do now?

196
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May I just make a point here...

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Shall I stop you?

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Of course. But the point I wanted to make was that you don't have to ask me what you have to do all the time.
Do whatever you want.

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I'm doing what I want. I'm telling you that I don't know what to do.
I'm completely lost.

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Then you need a guide.

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Find me one.

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Now you're getting the idea.

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Look, why don't we just start at the beginning?

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Well Bush, of course, was
President Roosevelt's science
advisor during World War II,

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and so he was very much in communication with scientific thinking, and recent experiments

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and the development of the nuclear bomb project all through the war ...

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Well you had a good trip?

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Very good.

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Well, on the way back?
Very smooth trip coming back.

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What's this show?

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This is Vannevar Bush himself recreating
an historic breakfast for the American government film archive.

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Strange notion of history.

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I'm going to see the President tomorrow.

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I'm quite sure that he agrees with us that
the job has to be done and that we
will have the support we need.

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Bush conceived of a device he called the
"Memex," and he wrote it up in of all places the "Atlantic Monthly," in summer of 1945,

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when World War II was essentially won.
He knew it was won, although we the public did not.

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And this "Memex" was to be a device that would contain, essentially, all the writings and publications

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of every field on microfilm, and he conceived it to be so handy and so small that every scientist would be able to have one. 

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... the modern way, micro film.

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Of course, he rather underestimated how much people would be writing and publishing, but then we all tend to underestimate such things.

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Well, I don't  know what effect it had in general.
I know that Doug Engelbart, who invented word processing and outline processing and the mouse,

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and multiple windows on the computer screen,

250
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Doug Engelbart read it in the South Pacific, and I suspect, although I vaguely remember it, of course, this is highly unlikely as a clear memory since I was eight years old,

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but I think we read it at the dining room table when I was a boy, because we did take the Atlantic Monthly and we did read it a great deal aloud.

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So what about ...?

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Hello? Where've you gone?

258
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Uh, oh I'm still here. Normally we agents prefer to hover discreetly in the background.

260
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I noticed that when we went off on our ramble ...

262
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The technical term is "browse".

264
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Can we call it a ramble?

266
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We can call it what you like, it's your system.

268
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All right, let's call it an ice lolly.

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Fine. You were saying we went off on our ice lolly ...

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When I touch the ... the Norwegian Micon inventor, Micon ... where is it?

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It's just here.

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Oh yeah. Well, we went off on our ice lolly when I pointed at that,

278
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but when we came back from our ice lolly, we seem to come back via Ted Nelson. Does it all interconnect?

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Absolutely. The system is constantly at work in the background, sifting its data for connections.

282
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Every time I show you something, I start to line up other things connected to it that you might want to see.

284
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For example, think of something. Anything.

286
00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:17,000
All right.  Um. Well you've got the "Atlantic Monthly" up there. What about, just the Atlantic?

288
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Your wish is my command.

290
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Tom ...
Yoh.

292
00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:45,000
What's this?

294
00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:46,000
What did you ask for.

296
00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,000
A live feed from the Atlantic Ocean.

298
00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:52,000
Well, you have just encountered the principle of WYAFISWYG

300
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:53,000
WYAFISWYG?

302
00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:55,000
What You Ask For Is What You Get.

304
00:12:55,000 --> 00:13:00,000
This is a live signal from MariSat west which is currently in geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic Ocean.

306
00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:04,000
Do you mean that this is actually live?

308
00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:09,000
Yes. Well, yes-ish. It takes 10 seconds for the pictures from the satellite to resolve.

310
00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:15,000
The feed from the two submersible sources is absolutely live, well, give or take a few milliseconds.

312
00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:17,000
That's astounding.

316
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,000
Tis, rather, isn't it.

318
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Water, water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink ...
Man the mastheads...call all hands..
[many voices reading]

320
00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:06,000
In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan
a stately pleasure dome decree ...

322
00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:08,000
hang on, hang on, hang on.

324
00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:09,000
Yes?

326
00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:11,000
Why have we suddenly got what's his name, again?

328
00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:12,000
Ted Nelson?

330
00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:13,000
Yes.

332
00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:16,000
Well, I rather like to arrange meaningful coincidences
and this is quite a good one.

334
00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:21,000
Ted Nelson has invented a vast system for
unifying all of the world's literature,

336
00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:27,000
and there's a very specific reason why
that system is related to ... well, let 
him explain it himself. 

338
00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:39,000
The project I've been working on, which has taken, which really began with my term project in the Fall of 1960 and has gradually become something far larger,

340
00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:47,000
is now intended as that unifying world.
So it would be a storage mechanism
and indexing structure

342
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:52,000
by which anyone can add documents to the ever-growing pool, and their own style of indexing.

344
00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:59,000
This repository needs to be a place we
can all reach electronically, through the
telephone, perhaps through laser beam and satellite,

346
00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:05,000
but through various electronic means so that to our computer screens we can bring the material we want

348
00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:06,000
As fast as we need it.

350
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:09,000
And this has to be available to everyone, everywhere.

352
00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:18,000
And of course, because of its literary
tradition and because it means the
magic place of literary memory, it has
to be called Xanadu.

354
00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:25,000
... where Alph, the sacred river ran,
Through caverns measureless to man,

356
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down to a sunless sea.
So twice six miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round;

358
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:40,000
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense bearing tree;

360
00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:46,000
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

362
00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:56,000
But Oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place!

364
00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:05,000
...  miracle of rare device,
a sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice

366
00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:10,000
A damsel with a dulcimer,
In a vision once I saw ...

368
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:12,000
Hold on.

370
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:13,000
Yes? Problems?

372
00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:16,000
No. I'd just like to know a bit more about the
dulcimer, I'm very interested in music.

374
00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:18,000
What do you want to know about it?
Its history?

376
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:24,000
Thought to have originated in
Persia in the 10th century. One of its
descendants is the piano.

378
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:30,000
The sort of music people play on it,
or its shape is very interesting. Are you
interested in shapes?

380
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,000
Yes I am. I'm very interested in shapes
in music.

382
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:37,000
After all, music is shape, or rather,
shape over time. The shape of a wave form
gives you pitch ...

384
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:39,000
Like this?

386
00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:43,000
Yes. Then if you lay an envelope shape over that, you get timbre. Like this.

388
00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:45,000
Very good.

390
00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:52,000
Yes. If you then extend the time axis...
You got rhythm.

392
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:57,000
Then you impose a shape on the rhythm
and you get...
A more interesting rhythm.

394
00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:03,000
Well, slightly more interesting.
If you then put a shape on the pitch axis,
you get ...
The melody.

396
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:09,000
Sorry, that was my Louis Armstrong impression.
Good, isn't it? I got it straight off compact disc.

398
00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:14,000
Now, here's a shape for you. What do you
think it looks like?

400
00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:24,000
Ah, it looks like an alpine mountain range, with a river, a flock of birds flying over it, small birds down there, a few clouds ...

402
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:27,000
Do you want to hear it?

404
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,000
Hear it?

406
00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:32,000
It's the opening of Bach's Fugue in C Minor.

408
00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:50,000
But this is very interesting. If you
can handle shapes and sounds so well,
it might be a very good way of studying music.

410
00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:55,000
One of the problems of music is that you can't actually see the structures though you know they're there.

412
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:56,000
Aha.

413
00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:58,000
Oh. You're way ahead of me again, are you?

414
00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:01,000
Not just me. There's an American professor of music called 
Robert Winter

416
00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:07,000
who published an interactive version of
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1989 to
help people see its structure.

418
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:14,000
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony exhibits
a very profound structure.

420
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:21,000
Music is structure over time, and in one
sense, this is the natural flow of life,
which after all takes place in time,

422
00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:24,000
but this also creates great obstacles for the listener.

424
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:28,000
Because unlike a painting, for example Picasso's "Guernica", where you can take in the entire canvas

426
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:33,000
at one look and focus on that portion which you wish to study or peruse, with music you haven't got that liberty.

428
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:40,000
However, imagine that we were able to freeze time and to create, as it were, a kind of picture of the piece,

430
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:46,000
as here. And here we have, for example,
the various movements, all four of them, 
the portions of the movements, the exposition,

432
00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:52,000
the development, the recapitulation, and so forth.
And that we can at will, for example, pick on any of them.

434
00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:59,000
Unlike any composer before him, rather than
presenting us with a full blown theme,

436
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:04,000
Beethoven takes us back to the very process of creation. We kind of come out of this void,

438
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:10,000
and this little unit of energy, a "ta-tam"
figure, which all there is
there at this hushed beginning,

440
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:17,000
grows gradually in intensity, and
little by little it is as if we are watching
the 20 year growth of a mighty oak tree,

442
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:28,000
compressed into 40 seconds, so that finally
it just bursts out of the texture and explodes.

444
00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:49,000
If we jump to a point, six minutes later
in this movement, many years later in
this character's life,

446
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:56,000
we think we hear an echo of this theme,
some portion of it, but it seems to be locked
in a mighty struggle,

448
00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,000
to be, in a sense, at war with itself.

450
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:16,000
Not until the very end of this massive movement does Beethoven permit this theme in essence to find itself, to reach a kind of equilibrium.

452
00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:28,000
And he does this, curiously, not by having some sort of external force come in, but by having the theme grow from within, that is a kind of growth or maturation in character.

454
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:38,000
And this expansion on the inside is exactly
what enables us, for the first time
in the movement, to hear the last note be the
last note.

456
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:49,000
We can explore a piece of music like Beethoven's Ninth because it's stored digitally and the computer can control it with absolute precision.

458
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:53,000
Another example is the interactive version of Picasso's painting, "Guernica", that I mentioned earlier. Would you like to see that?

458
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:55,000
In a minute.

460
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:59,000
Do you mind coming back? I'm fed up
with talking to a disembodied voice.

462
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,000
Absolutely.

464
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:05,000
Close up?

466
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:06,000
Mid shot?

468
00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:10,000
Lounging unobtrusively in a panoramic wide shot?

470
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:13,000
Mid shot will be fine.

472
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:17,000
Now, you were saying that computers let you see structure.

474
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:20,000
I suppose that once any information
is stored digitally,

475
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:25,000
you can start to look for shapes yourself in the data.
I remember a piece I once read by Kurt Vonnegut ...

476
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,000
I remember it well.

478
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:28,000
I haven't told you what it is, yet.

480
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,000
But everything is instantly accessible to me.

482
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:36,000
And the moment you mentioned Vonnegut, I scanned through all his published work and found an essay on shapes in stories

484
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:39,000
and assumed that was what you were talking about.
Correct?

486
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,000
Eh, well, yes.

488
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:49,000
Vonnegut says that stories have shapes
which can be drawn on a graph,

490
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:57,000
and that the shape of a given society's stories is at least as interesting as the
shape of its parts or spearheads.

500
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:06,000
'G' stands for good fortune,
'I' stands for ill fortune,
'B' stands for the beginning of a story,
'E' stands for its end.

502
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:14,000
The late Nelson Rockefeller, for example, on his wedding day, would be very close to the top of the "G-I" scale.

504
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:22,000
A shopping bag lady waking up on a doorstep this morning would be somewhere nearer the middle, but not at the bottom, since the day is balmy and clear. Ha ha.

506
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:31,000
A much beloved story in our society,
says Vonnegut, is about a person who
is leading a bearable life,

508
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:38,000
who experiences misfortune, who overcomes misfortune, and who is happier afterwards for having demonstrated resourcefulness and strength.

510
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:43,000
Almost all creation myths are staircases like this:

512
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:50,000
a god of some sort gives the people a sun,
the moon, the oceans, the animals, the trees, and so on.

514
00:22:50,000 --> 00:23:00,000
The Old Testament creation myth is unique, in that here, as you can see, he takes it all
away again, ejecting Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.

516
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:09,000
The shape of Kafka's metamorphosis,
in which an already hopelessly unhappy man turns into a cockroach, looks like this:

518
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:11,000
But then ...

520
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:15,000
So the point I was trying to make is that,
since you can find shapes in all kinds of information,

522
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:21,000
if that information is stored digitally,
the computer can find them, yes?

524
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:22,000
Exactly!

526
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,000
Searching by shape is a very powerful tool.

528
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:28,000
Here.  Pick a shape. Any shape.

530
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:36,000
The trapezoid is a four sided shape with two
parallel faces.

532
00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:39,000
The dulcimer is trapezoid-shaped, right?

534
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:44,000
So are the timber houses built by Neolithic
people living on the banks of the Danube.

536
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:49,000
The carved stone windows in the ancient
Inca city of Machu Picchu,

538
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:54,000
the sails of Thor Heyerdahl's Ra,
The pressure-time curve of a well-designed rocket ...

540
00:23:54,000 --> 00:24:00,000
Picasso's painting "Guernica" is a special
case of a trapezoid, i.e., a rectangle.

542
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:05,000
Now hold on, hold on, that's a huge jump.
Why are you constantly trying to push "Guernica" at me?

544
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,000
Well, it's ever so good ...

546
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,000
All right, let's see it.

548
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:11,000
You'll be glad you did.
It was one of the first ...

550
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:13,000
Let's just see it!

552
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,000
All right, all right, don't get impatient.

554
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:23,000
The Guernica project is about Picasso's painting, the famous painting of "Guernica", which occurred at the time of the Spanish Civil War.

556
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:30,000
But it's really much more than that.
It is, as we used to say in Art School,
is that art is a mirror held up to life.

558
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:35,000
And for us, what we wanted to do was to choose the most simple of databases, if you will,

560
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:40,000
because we're running off a computer, that would allow us a window into a much bigger world.

562
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:44,000
So that by simply accessing the painting we
could open doors to a thousand
different types of experience.

564
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:53,000
So what you see down below here is the subject, of course,the painting Guernica, and up above it, a series of tools whose basic function

566
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:57,000
is to answer the who,
what, when, where why of how
we would get to any subject.

568
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:13,000
Spain. 1937.
Pablo Picasso's homeland is divided by a brutal civil war.

570
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:23,000
First pictures from the vast republic of
the holy city of Guernica, scene of the
most terrible air raid

572
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:27,000
our modern history yet can boast.
Hundreds were killed here: men, women and children.

574
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:33,000
Four thousand bombs were dropped out of a
blue sky into a hell that raged unchecked
for five murderous hours.

576
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:38,000
This was a city,
and these were homes like yours.

578
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,000
Picasso was appalled by
the massacre at Guernica.

580
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:54,000
He expressed his deepest feelings in a vast
canvas populated by distorted figures.

582
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:00,000
The painting is considered among
his greatest work.

584
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:13,000
What's interesting is that we have just seen a very serious and very sad description of what happened to Guernica on that day,

586
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:19,000
but interpretation is everything, and
interpretation as we know is that everything is correct.

588
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:23,000
Picasso's interpretation is correct,
the newsreel we just saw is correct.

590
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:29,000
It would be very interesting for me to be
able to reach out or reach back in time and talk to people who were there at that time.

592
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:35,000
So, if we select "witness", I suggest that
we can select any one of these Germans or Spaniards

594
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:40,000
who could tell us from their point of view
their personal experience of this moment.

596
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:54,000
When I see the animals and the dead people in the picture, I remember that night when I went along the road to Guernica, after we left the air raid shelters.

598
00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:03,000
It was full of dead animals, and people
covered in sacks.  Dead.

600
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:15,000
I have always been filled with emotion to see that woman burning on the balcony, with her arms outstretched. I think she could be my grandmother.

602
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:27,000
Having selected the timeline tool, which is very powerful, because we can look at all of Picasso's life,

604
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:33,000
or we could examine the twentieth century
and all the things that influenced him
and in turn he influenced.

606
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:42,000
And if we can zero in for instance on a particular area, let's say six years later in 1943, and using an actor to actually read from Picasso's diary,

608
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:49,000
we can come upon a piece of philosophy that maybe is equally as important as the painting itself.

610
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:59,000
Picasso continued to live and paint in Paris. He was still so incensed that he continued to print propaganda leaflets of the Guernica painting.

612
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:11,000
One day, in 1943, at 8 AM, there was a knock at the door. Picasso stumbled out of bed and there was a German officer at the door,

614
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:16,000
and he was waving one of  the photographs of Guernica. He was very angry, and he said to Picasso:

616
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,000
"So you did this?"

618
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:24,000
And Picasso calmly looked him in the eye
and said, "No, you did!"

620
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:32,000
Now imagine that you've been through this whole experience. The database is four hours long.

622
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:38,000
But we want people, to be able, in multimedia, to take away their own unique experience.
So what we'd like to share

624
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:47,000
with you is what we did, in encapsulating our personal experience, of what we discovered in the Guernica project in this 90 seconds,

626
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:52,000
is a preview of what you, the viewer,
might be able to do with the very same material.

628
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:08,000
Whew!

630
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:15,000
Better?

632
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:17,000
Yes thank you.

634
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:24,000
In fact, Bob Abel calls that a
"synapse sequence," it's intended as a high speed action replay of everything you've explored.

636
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:31,000
It seems to me that if people are going
to make sense of all this, there's a kind
of language that has to be invented.

638
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:38,000
Yes. Like films have a grammar
that someone who'd never seen one
would probably have difficulty following.

640
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:45,000
The jump cut, the sudden juxtaposition of
scenes and images, time jumps, zooms,
hand held shots, fades...

642
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:51,000
all the sort of things that make a modern movie much richer than just a camera stuck in front of a play.

644
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:59,000
Abel Gance and D.W. Griffith invented a lot of these techniques way back at the early part of the century, but they became ...

646
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:08,000
No! Oh! Agh! Oh, oh, ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh ...

648
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:10,000
You see the sort of thing I mean?

650
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:14,000
Yes, but that grammar has to evolve gradually, doesn't it? Or people will just get lost.

652
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:19,000
Yes. And a lot of thought has been going into exactly how it should work.

654
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:23,000
Have a look what the Multimedia Lab have been up to while I get myself cleaned up.

656
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:39,000
[ahem]
We're trying to explore the area of multimedia. The idea is that in a computing
environment you have images and sounds,

658
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,000
and you want to think about what you can do with those.

660
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:47,000
You want to think about what you can make
with them, and you want to think about what you can understand with them. [ahem]  And we're finding the rules for doing that.

662
00:31:47,000 --> 00:32:00,000
The group is itself made up of a lot of diverse and very rich [ahem]
talents and backgrounds and I think [ahem]  there's a lot to be learned from how you ...

664
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:08,000
One of the interesting features of
multimedia is that it allows you to
put together many different stories,

666
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:17,000
so it's not just one story; but it's really a multiplicity of interwoven stories or representations.

668
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:22,000
And it's that multiplicity that makes the difference, [ahem] the fact that it can really hitchhike from one to another,

670
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,000
bounce around, and compare [ahem] different points of view ...

672
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:33,000
I think people, as they're watching a drama, will be motivated to find out more about it if it's a good drama.

674
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:39,000
What we need [ahem] to provide for them is a simple way to quickly get to that information if they have the urge to do so.

676
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:44,000
And then they'll find their own
idiosyncratic path. We don't need to
prepare that path for them.

678
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:52,000
I think "Life Story" is a good example of that, where people can leave a drama and dive into more information about DNA or about the...

680
00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:01,000
We are looking at a demonstration prototype
that we built around a film called
"Life Story" produced by the BBC

682
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:07,000
about the discovery of the DNA double helix
by Jim Watson and Francis Crick in 1953.

684
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:12,000
One of the things that this prototype allows us to do is to play back key scenes from the drama.

686
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:17,000
For instance, the first encounter between
Jim Watson and Francis Crick.

688
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:19,000
You're interested in genes?

690
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:20,000
Certainly.

692
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:21,000
All yours.

694
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,000
Where would you look for a gene,
if you were looking?

696
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:33,000
Oh, excuse me, my hunch is the nucleic acid.
I mean, if you ask me what's fun, right now, I'd say DNA.

698
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:40,000
Me too.
I'm sorry, is it Francis?

700
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,000
Yes.

702
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:44,000
Jim.

704
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:45,000
Hi.
Hello.

706
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:54,000
Now that we've been introduced to the key
characters, we can explore other scenes
in the drama, using this plot map.

708
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:59,000
For instance, let's select the next scene down,
"Why DNA?".

710
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:04,000
Why DNA?

712
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:08,000
Because it's there, ...
...doing nothing,
...in every single living cell...

714
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:13,000
... where as so far, the gene is entirely an imaginary entity... a function without a substance ...

716
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:15,000
we need a substance without function ...

718
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:21,000
Now, what's it's made of?  Okay, we know that phosphates and four bases ...

720
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,000
What shape is it? I mean in all
probability a helix...
Bye bye helix.

722
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:32,000
This scene has piqued our curiosity, and yet there are words that I can't understand.

724
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:40,000
One of the tools that this example provides is ability to query the transcript of the scene.

726
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:47,000
Which allows us to select words we don't
understand, such as, for instance, DNA.

728
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:52,000
I am then taken to a new pamphlet of information, this time about DNA,

730
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:59,000
and I can browse through animations that show me the molecular structure of DNA ...

732
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:11,000
Or select Fireside conversation to watch a documentary interview with the actual Watson and Crick, talking about their working relationship.

734
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:15,000
Francis, do you think we were lucky to have solved it, or was it real brain work?

736
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:22,000
Well, I guess we were certainly lucky, and
of course you give the impression, Jim,
we didn't really do too much thinking,

738
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:25,000
but we were lucky I think for two reasons:

740
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:33,000
We were thinking about the problem at the right time and then the two of us,
by collaborating, when one of us got on the wrong track,

742
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:35,000
the other one could get us out of it.

744
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:42,000
I've often had the thought, in a slightly different way, that if either of us, you know, was either two years older or two years younger,

746
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:45,000
at least in my case,
I would have never solved it.

748
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:52,000
So you see what happens? We jumped from a drama about Watson and Crick to this ...

750
00:35:54,000 --> 00:36:00,000
So with all this jumping around, in what's supposed to be a drama, what happens to stories?

752
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,000
More to the point, what happens to authors?

754
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:08,000
Haven't you ever wished, in writing a story,
that you could take several alternative
paths through it?

756
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:09,000
No,...

758
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:15,000
Don't talk such rot. I happen to know you've written interactive fiction yourself. Shut up and don't be difficult. Push a button.

760
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:25,000
Who are the children?
Are they playing a computer game?

762
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:28,000
No, they're far too old for that. They are playing at cat and mouse. It's a form of interactive story telling.

764
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:45,000
[children's voices]
My stories are different from stories that
a child would read in a book because,
first of all, they are very much visually oriented.

766
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:51,000
A child actually moves the pointing device
to an area that interests her

768
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:58,000
and there may be several on the screen
at one time, and she can choose
which one looks the most interesting to her.

770
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:04,000
And each object leads down a different
branch of the story.

772
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:09,000
Each branch leads eventually
to a happy ending.

774
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:21,000
[Don't press on the birds. Yeah. Do it.  Awww. Poor birds! ]

776
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:33,000
It's possible to combine story telling with
interactivity if you take the story apart

778
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:41,000
and make sure that each thread or each
branch that allows a choice is a story
in itself.

780
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:48,000
If you have three branches that all lead to the same ending, each one has to be an equally valid story, and that is the challenge.

782
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:55,000
It's similar to literature in the sense
that a really good story has different levels.

784
00:37:55,000 --> 00:38:00,000
You bring your own level of maturity to it.
Kipling did that.

786
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:04,000
His stories were enjoyed by children and adults.

788
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:07,000
Knock Knock.

790
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,000
Ah, Who's there?

792
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:10,000
Tom.

794
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:11,000
Tom who?

796
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:13,000
Uh ... I haven't got a second name.

798
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,000
Oh.

800
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:16,000
You seem disappointed.

802
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:18,000
I thought you were trying to tell me a joke.

803
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:21,000
So did I. I'm not very good at it, am I?

804
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:27,000
Computers don't understand about jokes.
Artificial intelligence engineers have been trying to understand how jokes work for years.

805
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:30,000
There's a worrying feeling that it's
nothing to do with intelligence.

806
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:35,000
How many artificial intelligence engineers
does it take to change a light bulb?

807
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:37,000
I don't know.

808
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:38,000
Ah. Neither did they.

809
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,000
Well that was quite a good one!

810
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:42,000
Good what?

811
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:46,000
Oh, never mind.
So you haven't got a second name then, Tom.

812
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:49,000
Well, no. Not unless you give me one.

813
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:53,000
Well most people get their second names from their father. I suppose you haven't got one.

814
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:55,000
Oh yes I have!

816
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:56,000
Well, what's his name?

818
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,000
Ask him.

820
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:04,000
Hi. Or, let me put that another way:

822
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:18,000
Hi. My name is ... well ...
I have a problem with my name.

824
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:23,000
The people who created me, Michael Wahrman and Brad DeGraf, did a pretty amazing job.

826
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:29,000
I represent one of the most astounding feats
of real time computer animation to date.

828
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:38,000
I can talk, I can sing, I can ... well, all right I can't dance, because I haven't got a body, but who's perfect?

830
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:40,000
So, what did they call me?

832
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:44,000
Supremo, The Magnificent?

834
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:49,000
Zagarabanza, The Completely Astounding?

836
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,000
No. They called me ...

838
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:55,000
Mike.

840
00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:04,000
I think people will get that skill to representing human faces that you will be able to make it indistinguishable.

842
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:09,000
In fact, when we first did our work, we had it to a point, where we had to back off in the lighting,

844
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:18,000
to make it clear that this is not someone who was shot, you know a real person, like
Max Headroom, shot and then post-processed to make them look computer.

846
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:23,000
And so I think it is certainly very possible, in the near future, to represent things that well.

848
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:31,000
I think if you do the lighting right, we can do that today. We've got about 10 seconds in one of our rehearsals, which most people think is live.

850
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:33,000
I think we got lucky. But I think it was a mistake.

852
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:44,000
I think it will be possible for these
characters and creatures to express
feelings, and I think it could be truly and
delightfully obnoxious.

854
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:49,000
I think if you go into your kitchen and you don't go to the refrigerator, the refrigerator could grimace at you and try to attract you over to the refrigerator.

856
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:57,000
Tom, I feel my whole working life has been a crusade against the mere possibility of talking fridges.

858
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:01,000
Is this really your idea of a great future?
A world where fridges talk?

860
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,000
Because if it is, I'll wake up, then where will you be?

862
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:07,000
I'll still be here. Where will you be?

864
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,000
Back in the real world.

866
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:11,000
How will you tell?

868
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:14,000
Well ...
walls, ceilings, doors, and so on ...

870
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,000
Can be very deceptive stuff.

872
00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:18,000
Hmm. What do you mean by that?

874
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:19,000
This.

876
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:34,000
What this is in fact, is a package that holds two flat panel liquid crystal displays, a fairly, kind of medium resolution, and there is one for each eye. 

878
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:37,000
We look at those through very wide-angle optics,

880
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:42,000
the idea is to try to match human
field of view as much as possible.

882
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:45,000
We can see about a 180 degree field of view

884
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:50,000
these optics give us about a 120 degree
with a true stereo image.

885
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:05,000
Okay I'm looking at a computer generated image of the actual lab that we're working in here.

886
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:15,000
I'm seeing a monochrome fairly simple database that we developed to see if we could do a life-size virtual environment.

888
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:21,000
It's set up so that I can actually look around in all directions.

890
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:26,000
I'm completely surrounded by the computer generated image. It's appearing in true stereo.

892
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:30,000
As I reach my hand out,
I have an instrument, a glove on it,

894
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:35,000
with which I can control a computer generated model of my hand,

896
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:41,000
that appears to be where my real hand is in
virtual space, so I move my fingers,
the virtual hand moves ...

898
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:47,000
I can make various gestures with the glove
that are recognized by the host computer.

900
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:53,000
For example, I can pick up virtual objects, I
can make a gesture to fly through this space,

902
00:42:53,000 --> 00:43:02,000
I can grab objects. To fly I have to make a particular gesture, like that, to make a menu come up

904
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:09,000
and make another gesture to trigger an
item on the menu, to enable flying.

906
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:14,000
And then I make a very simple gesture of
pointing, with two fingers, like this.

908
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:20,000
And I can actually move through this space, move my viewpoint around, and actually ...

910
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:32,000
I'm flying up out of the room, looking down from above, and if I just point my hand again,

912
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:37,000
pointing with two fingers,
I can fly slowly back into the room.

914
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:49,000
Some of the more commercial applications of the technology we've developed here

916
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:53,000
appear to be certainly in the recreation and entertainment industry,

918
00:43:53,000 --> 00:44:01,000
this idea of entertainment, or interactive fantasy where literally a game
player could become a character in...

920
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:09,000
You could driving your own character, you could be creating your own character while you're playing the game.

922
00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:14,000
Of course, you would have to be fairly unconscious so that you weren't spending
all your time just thinking about that.

924
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:20,000
But you could be beautiful or you could be ugly, or you could be a single point of light.

926
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:28,000
If we're going to spend all our time reinventing ourselves in a computer, what's going to happen to families and things?

928
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:34,000
I know what you're trying to say. Hey, when I were a lad, we used to make our own entertainment.

930
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:37,000
We used to walk into living room and switch on the telly ourselves.

932
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:38,000
All right, so what do families do now, then?

934
00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:53,000
My great theory with it is if it
removes people too much from "real reality",
from physical reality, from nature etc.

936
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:58,000
in the same way that living in a city does, somewhat, there's a lot of fascinating ...

938
00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:05,000
People do it already. When people go together to go to a movie, they are in a virtual reality.

940
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:08,000
What's different is that it isn't interactive
and isn't under their control.

942
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:13,000
When you read a novel, if everyone reads a novel, in a way they are sharing a virtual reality ...

944
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:20,000
visual environments, and lands, and characters, in a manner that is convincing,

946
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:23,000
and yet is totally fantastic.

948
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:30,000
I think that words are a poor way to show that. I think what you have to do is, you have to do it.

950
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:33,000
Tom, are you there?

952
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:37,000
Sorry. I was just  having a virtual cup of tea.
It's all right, I've virtually finished it now.

954
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:43,000
Tom, Michael Wahrman just said that in order to understand this,
you have to experience it for yourself.

956
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:49,000
Yes, yes, very true. Bright man. He needs a shave, but he knows what he's talking about.

958
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:52,000
Well, I think I'd like to do that, please.

960
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:53,000
What?  Shave?

962
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:59,000
No. I want to try it for myself.
I want to see what the current state of the art in Artificial Realities is.

964
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:01,000
Oh, why be so modest?

966
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:08,000
It doesn't have to be the current state of the art, I mean this is a dream after all.
Why not take advantage of it?

968
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:12,000
Very good.

970
00:46:13,000 --> 00:46:15,000
Your glove, sir.

972
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:20,000
And sir's virtual reality helmet, sir.

974
00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:22,000
You seem to have gone all obsequious again, Tom.

976
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:25,000
I know that sir secretly prefers it, sir.

978
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:31,000
If sir would just lean forward a little, I'd wish sir bon voyage.

980
00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:55,000
[muffled voices]
... as we're good, we're also making a contribution, because we're not talking here about gizmos, we're talking here about changing the way ...

982
00:46:56,000 --> 00:47:03,000
[Overlapping voices]
In the medium...
by which we can display this
I would predict by the early 90s that this will become a

984
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:07,000
universally accepted method of communication, maybe become dominant, even replacing linear television ...

986
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:22,000
[Overlapping voices]
...make sense of itself, it brings out whatever is special within the individual, and allows them to put part of themself into the story, yes I hope ...

987
00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:30,000
[Overlapping voices]
... while that's one part of the equation, I think we are slowly realizing there's a second, and that is, what are we trying to say with all of this ...

988
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:37,000
... links and quotations stretching forever to
the horizon is a great literature, that will expand...

990
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:45,000
... I think I know how Descartes felt with X
and Y, stretching forever, as it's defining all mathematics, and realizing

992
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:52,000
that he was the first person to stand at the
center, but he wasn't the center, the center itself could be you...

994
00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:26,000
Those then, are the prospects for tomorrow. And the outlook for the rest of the week is something we simply don't know at the moment.

996
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:32,000
But for now,
I'll say good night.
Linear television is closing down.

998
00:48:34,000 --> 00:49:20,000
Subtitles by Nancy Webb
and Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)
Copyright 2017