trom

2014-07-02 12:25:20

Home of the Future

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YEAR: 2012 | LENGTH: 5 parts (45 minutes each) | SOURCE: CHANNEL4

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What happens if you ask a normal family to boldly go where no one has gone before – to live in the future?[ps2id id=’magnet’/]

This five-part series transforms a family’s home from top to bottom, filling it with futuristic technology and gadgets. As well as having cutting-edge technology and gadgets to play with, the family will be challenged by scenarios likely to come in the next 20 to 50 years.

Overseen by expert Chris Sanderson, the family will discover how we may work, rest and play, as well as how we may eat, travel, stay healthy and power our homes.

episodes:

Episode 01

In the first episode, the family discover what rest and relaxation will be like, as they road test some of the latest sleep-enabling gadgets, designed to help them fall asleep quicker, stay asleep longer, stop snoring, and monitor the quality of their kip. There are even brainwave-controlled meditation games.

The programme also reveals what a fully automated house is like, with everything from the blinds and the lights to the music and the TV controlled from a ‘smart’ device. And forget about a front door key; the house now has a computer-controlled thumb print door entry system!

For the first time, youngest son Leon gets a space all to himself – a bedroom in the garden – while mum Michele tries out the latest driver-aided cars, which do the difficult job of parallel parking for her, and presenter Chris finds out about the future of driverless cars.

There are also robot lawnmowers that cut the grass by themselves and a mini power station installed in the house to provide electricity for the new technological toys.

Episode 02

It’s all change for junior exec Joel as he’s given a home office packed with the cutting-edge technology that will be coming to our workplaces (and growing number of home offices) in the future.

There’s everything from pocket-sized virtual laser keyboards to robots on wheels that let you ‘walk around’ an office in California while sitting on the sofa in Sheffield. Joel also discovers how sci-fi is becoming a reality, with computers you can control with magic wands.

Meanwhile, the run-down family MOT testing centre business gets an overhaul, as expert presenter and futurist Chris Sanderson sets them up with their own electric charging point, and mechanic Leon discovers the secrets behind the future of both electric and hydrogen-powered cars.

But the most exciting gadgets are the 3D printers, allowing the family to ‘print’ solid objects.

Meanwhile, life gets a little easier for Mum and Dad as they are given robots that wash the floor and do the vacuuming. There’s also a cool new kitchen to speed Michele’s mountain of laundry, and a visit to a UK company that’s invented a ‘virtually waterless’ washing machine.

There are also apps that help with the shopping; a bath that runs itself to your chosen temperature, depth and bubble consistency; and vast solar farms that turn the power of the sun into unlimited energy.

Episode 03

The family discover the fun of the future as they get to grips with brainwave-controlled video games (including archery and tug of war) and discover how our minds might soon be altering movie endings.

They also try exercise bikes which combine the best of the gym with gaming technology to encourage us to train harder, and the show reveals how similar ideas could be used to save lives in hospitals.

On a day trip to London to explore the world of future fashion, the family try on designer dresses that feature in-built light shows, and instant T-shirts that come out of a spray can – not to mention pants to protect you from passing wind. Teenager Miah gets to design her own little black dress online – but has to suffer mum Michele monitoring her with home-surveillance technology.

There’s also a look at how holidays will continue to change, from augmented reality travel guides on smart phones to super-small hotel rooms and the planes of tomorrow – which are built like cruise ships and promise to take passengers to Tokyo in a little over two hours.

There’s even some cool tech for four-year-old grandson Lucas to play with.

Episode 04

The family face up to the reality of the food in the future.

Mum Michele tackles the latest hi-tech gadgets making the move from restaurants to home kitchens, including slow-cook water baths that take an hour to cook the perfect steak, and liquid nitrogen machines that flash-freeze food – perfect for making ice cream in ten seconds.

There are also super-fast soup makers and hot composters that turn a year-long job into one that takes two weeks.

The family are also kitted out with the latest home-grow gadgets, including an aquaponics system that provides a self-sustaining fish farm in their greenhouse, a vertical veg patch for their garden wall (perfect for people with no growing space), and a soil-free growing machine invented by NASA They also discover how farming could become a high-rise urban industry.

The family get to play with the weird and the wacky, from breathable chocolate to see-through toasters and temperamental touch-free kitchen-roll dispensers.

But the Pereras are in for a shock when they discover that meat will be off the menu in 2050 because of rising food prices…

And they’re not too impressed with the alternatives, as ‘food futurologist’ Dr Morgaine Gaye gets the family to try out future gourmet delights and cook up an insect meal, and we find out about a future that promises everything from lab-grown steaks to Japanese ‘crap’ burgers.

Episode 05

The family are put through their paces, to get fit to face the future using some of the latest gadgets and gizmos, including electric bikes to get them out of their cars.

But, to test if they really work, the family are set some tough challenges: to take on pro-cyclists on Sheffield’s notorious hills and do the weekly family supermarket shop on two wheels.

There are also computers to take over the jobs that humans used to do, from a prototype robot dietician that talks to you as it monitors what you eat and how you exercise, to a computerised version of a personal fitness coach to monitor and map your exercise regime.

Super-fit Joel also tests out scientifically designed post-workout suits created to get your body back in shape, promising 50% less fatigue!

In the newly-futurised bathroom there’s a £5000 mirror that monitors your health by reading your weight, BMI and body fat percentage (as well as displaying news, weather and social media sites), and a toilet that gives you an intimate ‘wash and blow dry’.

Meanwhile, the family are on a diet of ‘super shakes’ – tipped to take off in the next decade as smoothies did in the last one – complete with spirulina, raw cocoa and bee pollen. Can it help diabetic dad Tony control his blood-sugar level?

And there are more edible medicals, as the family experiment with Japanese sweets that promise to boost your collagen or even make your breasts grow.

SIMILAR TITLES:

Hacked: Smart Home SecretsTomorrow’s Food10 Things You Need to Know About the FutureRichard Hammond’s Miracles of NatureVictorian SensationsThe Big Life Fix

Victorian Sensations

Victorian Sensations transports us to the thrilling era of the 1890s. Dr Hannah Fry, Paul McGann, and Philippa Perry explore a decade of rapid change that still resonates today.

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trom

2012-10-22 17:01:45

The Enemies of Reason

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YEAR: 2007 | LENGTH: 2 parts (50 minutes each) | SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA

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The Enemies of Reason is a two-part television documentary, written and presented by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, in which he seeks to expose “those areas of belief that exist without scientific proof, yet manage to hold the nation under their spell”, including mediumship, acupunctureand psychokinesis.[ps2id id=’magnet’/]

The documentary was first broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK, styled as a loose successor to Dawkins’ documentary of the previous year, The Root of All Evil?, as seen through the incorporation of brief clips from said documentary during the introduction of the first part by Dawkins. The first part aired 13 August 2007 and the second on 20 August 2007.

It includes interviews with Steve Fuller, Deepak Chopra, Satish Kumar, and Derren Brown.

episodes:

01. Slaves to Superstition

Dawkins points to some of science’s achievements and describes it as freeing most people from superstition and dogma. Picking up from his superstition-reason distinction in The Root of All Evil?(while recycling some footage from it), he then says reason is facing an “epidemic of superstition” that “impoverishes our culture” and introduces gurus that persuade us “to run away from reality”. He calls the present day dangerous times. He returns to science’s achievements, including the fact that, by extending people’s lifespan, it helps them to take more advantage of life. He turns his attention to astrology, which he criticizes for stereotyping without evidence. Having put astrology to the test and referred to larger-scale experiments, he then briefly describes the mechanics of astronomy, and then expresses frustration that 50% of the UK population – more than are members of one religion – believe in the paranormal.

He then visits a psychic medium, Simon Goodfellow, who makes statements Dawkins interprets as referring to retirement – which most people his age would soon be going in for but not Dawkins. Cornell then finds himself in contradiction over whether or not the “spirit G”, who allegedly communicates with him, is Dawkins’s family member. Cornell next tries suggesting this spirit was in the military – again, typical of deceased relatives of people Dawkins’s age, but not of Dawkins. Cornell finishes with several explanations of why his powers might not always work, but Dawkins insists extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and then talks to the sceptical Derren Brown about cold reading, including misleading tricks it uses.

In another notable segment Dawkins visits a psychic for £50 who said she could hear or see his father “on the other side.” Dawkins let the woman do the reading and at the end informed her that his father is alive, and he visits him frequently.

Dawkins now visits a spiritualist church, and makes several criticisms of the alleged evidence of communication with the dead by medium Craig Hamilton-Parker, and adds that many may become obsessed with such performances and find it difficult to get over the loss of loved ones, adding that most people present are regulars. Hamilton-Parker says his psychic powers have been “proven to me against my rationality”. Dawkins ends his study of séances by noting the arguments are based on untestable, private, subjective anecdotes, and compares this to religion.

Dawkins now describes the history of scientific knowledge of echolocation, and points to the cumulative build-up of corroborating evidence for scientific explanations of the phenomena. He visits psychologist Chris French, who is performing a double-blind test of dowsing. None of the dowsers perform better, in a statistically significant sense, than is expectable by chance alone. While the dowsers are surprised, Dawkins and French note that their confidence is untouched, and they prefer explanations (French states some may call them excuses) that retain the hypothesis that they have paranormal dowsing powers. Dawkins next attempts his own explanation of belief in the paranormal in a combination of evolutionary and psychological terms, saying: “we don’t want to believe things just happen”, and he suggests superstition is just the sort of animal error committed by Skinner’s pigeons.

Dawkins now interviews Satish Kumar about ideas such as ‘treeness’ and ‘rockness’. Dawkins points out that it is all evidence-free assertion. He responds to the “science is bleak” argument by saying that the world is so wonderful that the word ‘mundane’ has a mismatched meaning and etymology. He then complains about the long-term fall in the number of students taking chemistry and physics at A-level. He suggests this is partly because of the UK education system encouraging students to value personal feeling over evidence and reason. He interviews the relativist Steven Fuller and criticises him for being “so close to being right but … damn wrong”. Fuller points out that different people can interpret the same evidence differently. Fuller also points out the benefits of the Internet, and Dawkins agrees, but then turns to the dangers it poses in causing the spread of fabricated statements. He also points to the fact that the MMR vaccine scandal involved an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory about the UK government. Dawkins concludes that reason “built the modern world. It is a precious but fragile thing”.

02. The Irrational Health Service

Richard Dawkins examines the growing suspicion the public has for science-based medicine, despite its track record of successes like the germ theory of disease, vaccines, antibiotics and increased lifespan. He notes a fifth of British children are currently not immunised against measles,mumps and rubella, attributing it to fears arising from a highly controversial report linking the vaccine with autism.

Dawkins criticizes the growing field of alternative medicine which does not pass the same objective and statistical rigour as scientifically derived treatments using controlled double-blind studies. Without verifiable evidence, alternative therapies must rely on biased anecdotes and word of mouth to perpetuate. Dawkins observes these treatments have fanciful rationales and rituals behind them, with many alternative treatments employing pseudoscientific jargon such as “energy”, “vibration” or “quantum theory” to give themselves greater credence to patients.

Homeopathy is singled out as an example of a mainstream alternative medicine that has public support and taxpayer funding through the National Health Service. Dawkins explains that the rationale behind it is unfounded and demonstrates that the magnitude of dilution required is so great the patient is practically imbibing pure water. This is illustrated by the typical homeopathic dilution of 30C, that is thirty steps of dilution by 1% each time), which requires a drop of active ingredient dissolved in a body of water greater than the whole ocean. Dawkins cites a 2005 meta-analysis by The Lancet that concludes that homeopathy has no consistently demonstrable effect on health.

Dawkins hypothesises that practitioners of alternative medicine spend longer time than regular doctors on their patients when attending to them. An interview with Professor Nicholas Humphrey suggests that this empathic attention may cause a placebo effect in patients, but this is not a substitute for conventional science-based medicine.

The episode concludes with Dawkins making an appeal to skeptical, rational inquiry based on evidence, claiming ‘reason has liberated us from superstition and given us centuries of progress. We abandon it at our peril.’

SIMILAR TITLES:

The Root of All EvilRACE: The Power Of An IllusionThe Trap: What Happened To Our Dream Of FreedomEnemy of Enemies: The Rise of ISILIntelligent Design On TrialSecrets of the Psychics

#religion

RACE: The Power Of An Illusion

Race is one topic where we all think we're experts. Yet ask 10 people to define race or name "the races," and you're likely to get 10 different answers.

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