1
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,072
I begin this last programme in Iceland,
2
00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:07,711
because this is the seat
of the oldest democracy in Northern Europe.
3
00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:10,716
In this natural amphitheatre,
4
00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:12,870
where there were never any buildings,
5
00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:16,635
met each year the Althing of Iceland -
6
00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:20,838
the whole community
of the Norsemen of Iceland -
7
00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:23,718
to make laws and to receive them,
8
00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:27,110
at a time when China was a great empire,
9
00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:32,354
when Europe was the spoil of princelings
and robber barons.
10
00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:35,716
That's a remarkable beginning to democracy.
11
00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:42,278
But there's something more remarkable
about this misty, inclement site.
12
00:01:43,320 --> 00:01:46,869
It was chosen,
because the farmer who had owned it,
13
00:01:46,960 --> 00:01:48,712
had killed
14
00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,360
not another farmer, but a slave,
15
00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:53,396
and had been outlawed.
16
00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:58,599
Justice is a universal of all cultures.
17
00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:03,192
It's a tightrope that man walks
18
00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:07,796
between his desire to fulfil his wishes
19
00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:12,829
and his acknowledgement
of social responsibility.
20
00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:16,630
No animal is faced with this dilemma.
21
00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:18,870
An animal is either social
22
00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:20,916
or solitary.
23
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:25,551
Man is alone in being a social solitary.
24
00:02:25,640 --> 00:02:30,760
To me, that is a unique biological feature.
25
00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:34,799
That's the kind of problem that engages me
26
00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:39,158
and that I want to discuss in my home,
in California.
27
00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:52,032
It's something of a shock
28
00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:56,636
to think that justice is part of
the biological equipment of man.
29
00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:05,470
And yet, it's exactly that thought
which took me out of physics into biology.
30
00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:08,956
And that's taught me, since then,
31
00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:10,996
that a man 's life,
32
00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:13,036
a man 's home,
33
00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:18,831
is a proper place
in which to study his biological uniqueness.
34
00:03:20,920 --> 00:03:22,876
It's natural that, by tradition,
35
00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:25,190
biology is thought of in a different way,
36
00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:30,115
that the likeness between man and the animals
is what dominates it.
37
00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:34,310
Back, before the year 200AD,
38
00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:38,757
the great classic of antiquity in medicine, Galen,
39
00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:42,833
studied, for example, the forearm in man.
40
00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:48,158
How did he study it?
By dissecting the forearm in a Barbary ape.
41
00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:51,072
That's how you have to begin.
42
00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:53,116
And, to this day,
43
00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:58,558
the wonderful work on animal behaviour
by Konrad Lorenz,
44
00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:03,998
naturally makes us seek for a likeness
between the duck and the tiger and man.
45
00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:10,194
Or BF Skinner's psychological work
on pigeons and rats.
46
00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:12,236
They tell us something about man.
47
00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:15,316
But they can 't tell us everything.
48
00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:18,756
There must be something unique about man,
49
00:04:18,840 --> 00:04:22,435
because otherwise, evidently,
50
00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:26,069
the ducks would be lecturing
about Konrad Lorenz
51
00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:29,197
and the rats would be writing papers
about BF Skinner.
52
00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:32,196
Let's not beat about the bush.
53
00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:38,389
The horse and the rider
have many anatomical features in common.
54
00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:43,228
But it's the human creature that rides the horse
55
00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:45,470
and not the other way about.
56
00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:47,915
The rider is a very good example.
57
00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:52,111
Because man was not created to ride the horse.
58
00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:55,636
There's no wiring inside our brain
that makes us horse riders.
59
00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:00,150
Riding a horse
is a comparatively recent invention,
60
00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:02,196
less than 5,000 years old.
61
00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:06,516
And yet, it's had an immense influence,
62
00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:09,433
for instance, on our social structure.
63
00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:14,753
It's the plasticity of human behaviour
that makes that possible.
64
00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:17,070
It's what characterises us
65
00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:19,993
in our social institutions, of course.
66
00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:24,112
But naturally, above all, in books,
67
00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:27,954
in the product, the interest, of the human mind.
68
00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:32,876
Newton,
69
00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:38,114
the great man dominating the Royal Society
at the beginning of the 18th century.
70
00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:43,552
Blake writing the Songs Of Innocence
late in the 18th century.
71
00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:47,918
They are two aspects of the one mind.
72
00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:50,916
How can I put this most simply?
73
00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:55,870
I wrote a book called The Identity Of Man.
74
00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:00,596
I never saw the cover
75
00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,513
until the book reached me.
76
00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:08,230
And yet the artist had understood exactly
what was in my mind,
77
00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:10,276
by putting on the cover
78
00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:12,316
the brain
79
00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:14,356
and the Mona Lisa,
80
00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:16,590
put one on top of the other.
81
00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:22,596
Man is unique.
82
00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:24,636
Not because he does science
83
00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:27,792
and he's unique not because he does art,
84
00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:30,713
but because science and art, equally,
85
00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:35,590
are expressions
of his marvellous plasticity of mind.
86
00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:38,596
The Mona Lisa is a very good example,
87
00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:42,468
because, after all,
what did Leonardo do for most of his life?
88
00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:46,358
He drew anatomical pictures.
89
00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:49,476
The baby in the womb.
90
00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:54,479
And the brain and the baby
is exactly where it begins.
91
00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:00,949
I have an object which I treasure.
92
00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:08,876
A cast of the skull of a child
93
00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:10,916
that is...
94
00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:14,396
...two million years old.
95
00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:17,392
Of course, it's not strictly a human child
96
00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:19,436
and yet, if she -
97
00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:21,476
I always think of her as a girl -
98
00:07:21,560 --> 00:07:23,710
if she had lived long enough,
99
00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:26,234
she might have been my ancestor.
100
00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:32,997
What distinguishes her little brain from mine?
101
00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:36,190
In one sense, only the size.
102
00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:39,033
That brain, if she'd grown up,
103
00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:42,078
would have weighed
perhaps a little over a pound
104
00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:44,833
and my brain, the average brain today,
105
00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:46,876
weighs three pounds.
106
00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:55,677
I am not going to talk about the neural structure,
about one-way conduction in nervous tissue,
107
00:07:55,760 --> 00:07:58,718
because that's what we share with the animals.
108
00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:05,116
I'm going to talk about the brain,
as it is specific to the human creature.
109
00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:09,596
The first question we ask is,
110
00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:14,629
well, is the human brain a better computer,
a more complex computer?
111
00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:16,278
Of course.
112
00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:19,875
Artists, in particular,
tend to think of the brain as a computer.
113
00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:23,555
Here is Portrait Of Dr Bronowski
by Terry Durham.
114
00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:27,315
Of course, the spectrum and the computer
115
00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:30,597
is what he thinks into the mind of the scientist,
116
00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:34,958
because that's how an artist
thinks of a scientist's brain, a computer.
117
00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:37,873
But, of course, that can 't be right.
118
00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:40,520
If the brain were a computer,
119
00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:42,556
then it would be carrying out
120
00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:45,598
a pre-wired set of actions
121
00:08:45,680 --> 00:08:48,638
in an inflexible sequence.
122
00:08:49,680 --> 00:08:52,638
Think of a very beautiful piece
of animal behaviour.
123
00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:57,709
My friend Dan Lehrman 's work
on the mating of the ring dove.
124
00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:01,031
If the male coos in the right way,
125
00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:03,634
if he bows in the right way,
126
00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:06,678
then the female explodes in excitement,
127
00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:08,716
all her hormones squirt
128
00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:11,030
and she goes through a sequence
129
00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:14,476
as part of which she builds a perfect nest.
130
00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:19,756
Nobody ever gave her any set of bricks
to learn to build a nest.
131
00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:23,196
But you couldn 't get a human being
to build anything...
132
00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:28,354
...unless the child
had put together a set of bricks.
133
00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:31,398
That's the beginning of the Parthenon
134
00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:33,436
and the Taj Mahal,
135
00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:35,476
of the dome at Soltanieh
136
00:09:35,560 --> 00:09:37,516
and the Watts Towers,
137
00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:39,556
of Machu Picchu and...
138
00:09:39,640 --> 00:09:41,198
and the Pentagon.
139
00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:46,200
If we are any kind of a machine,
140
00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:49,238
then we are a learning machine.
141
00:09:51,640 --> 00:09:54,200
We do that in specific areas of the brain.
142
00:09:54,280 --> 00:09:59,229
You see, the brain hasn 't just blown up
to two or three times its size.
143
00:10:00,280 --> 00:10:03,158
It has grown in quite special areas.
144
00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:06,156
Where it controls the hand.
145
00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:08,196
Where speech is controlled.
146
00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:12,239
Where foresight and planning
are controlled. Here.
147
00:10:14,560 --> 00:10:16,516
One by one. The hand.
148
00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:22,319
The evolution of man certainly begins
with the development of the hand
149
00:10:22,400 --> 00:10:24,356
and the selection for a brain,
150
00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:27,796
which is particularly adept
at manipulating the hand.
151
00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:29,836
So that, for the artist,
152
00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:32,275
the hand remains a major symbol.
153
00:10:32,360 --> 00:10:34,316
The hand of Buddha,
154
00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:37,358
giving man the gift of humanity,
155
00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:39,396
the gift of fearlessness.
156
00:10:41,440 --> 00:10:43,396
But also, for the scientist...
157
00:10:44,440 --> 00:10:46,396
...the hand has a special gesture.
158
00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:50,398
We can oppose the thumb to the fingers.
159
00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:53,112
Well...
160
00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:55,156
The apes can do part of that,
161
00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:58,312
but we can oppose the thumb to the forefinger.
162
00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:00,834
That's a very special human gesture.
163
00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:04,436
And it's done...
164
00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:10,156
...because there is an area in the brain,
165
00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:12,196
which is...
166
00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:15,716
Well, I can only describe its size to you
in the following way.
167
00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:21,158
We spend more grey matter in the brain
manipulating the thumb,
168
00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:24,596
than in the total control
of the chest and the abdomen.
169
00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:28,076
I remember, as a young father,
170
00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:33,314
tiptoeing to the cradle of my first daughter when
she was four or five days old and thinking...
171
00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:37,316
These marvellous fingers.
172
00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:39,356
Every joint so perfect.
173
00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:41,396
The fingernails.
174
00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:44,153
I couldn 't have designed that in a million years.
175
00:11:44,240 --> 00:11:49,189
But, of course,
it's exactly a million years that it took me,
176
00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:51,840
a million years that it took mankind.
177
00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:56,031
For the hand to drive the brain,
178
00:11:56,120 --> 00:12:00,796
for the brain to feed back and drive the hand
to reach its present stage of evolution.
179
00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:04,634
That takes place
in a quite specific place in the brain.
180
00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:06,676
The whole of the hand
181
00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:08,716
is essentially monitored
182
00:12:08,800 --> 00:12:10,756
by a part of the brain that's up here.
183
00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:12,592
Up here.
184
00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:19,469
Take an even more specifically human area,
185
00:12:19,560 --> 00:12:22,791
which doesn 't exist in animals at all.
186
00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:26,429
Speech. That goes from here to here.
187
00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:31,837
On this model,
it goes from that sort of pinkish area
188
00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:35,071
down here to this green area here.
189
00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:39,596
Is that pre-wired? Yes.
190
00:12:39,680 --> 00:12:42,638
Because if we don 't have this,
we can 't speak, at all.
191
00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:47,315
Does it have to be learnt? Of course it does.
192
00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:52,270
I speak English,
which I only learned at the age of 13.
193
00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:55,675
But I could not speak English,
194
00:12:55,760 --> 00:12:58,991
if I had not, before that, learned language.
195
00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:04,234
You see, if you leave a child
that speaks no language until the age of 13,
196
00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:07,995
then it's almost impossible for it to learn, at all.
197
00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:11,356
I speak English, which I learnt at the age of 13,
198
00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:14,273
because I learnt Polish at the age of two.
199
00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:16,396
I've forgotten every word of Polish,
200
00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:18,630
but I learnt language.
201
00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:25,153
On this model that's cut in half,
202
00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:29,119
I can 't really show that,
because the speech areas are very peculiar.
203
00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:32,636
You see, the human brain
is not symmetrical in its half.
204
00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:35,678
Speech is on the left, here and here.
205
00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:40,716
Whether you're right-handed or left-handed,
speech is almost certainly on the left.
206
00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:44,998
There are exceptions, the way there are people
who have their heart on the right,
207
00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:47,036
but the exceptions are rare.
208
00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:50,036
By and large, speech is here.
209
00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:52,832
And what's here?
210
00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:54,876
Well, we don 't exactly know.
211
00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:58,396
We don 't exactly know
what the right-hand side of the brain does
212
00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:01,517
in those areas
which are devoted to speech on the left.
213
00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:04,716
But it looks as if
214
00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:10,238
they take the input that comes by way of the eye
215
00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:12,276
of a two-dimensional world
216
00:14:12,360 --> 00:14:16,558
and turn it, organise it,
into a three-dimensional picture.
217
00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:25,156
If that's right, then it's clear that speech
is also a way of organising the world
218
00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:28,915
into its parts and putting them together again.
219
00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:33,390
The main organisation of the brain...
220
00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:37,396
...is here,
221
00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:40,438
in the frontal lobes and the prefrontal lobes.
222
00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:42,795
I am, every man is,
223
00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:46,555
a highbrow, an egghead,
because that's how his brain goes.
224
00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:52,552
We know that this skull is not just a child
that died recently and that we've mistaken,
225
00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:57,309
because she has a sloping forehead.
226
00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:02,590
Exactly what do these frontal lobes do?
227
00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:08,471
Well, they certainly do one very specific
and important thing.
228
00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:13,353
They enable you to...
229
00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:17,791
...think of actions in the future...
230
00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:21,276
...and wait for a reward then.
231
00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:27,959
Those are beautiful experiments which were
first done by Hunter, round about 1910,
232
00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:31,794
and then refined by Jacobsen in the 1930s.
233
00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:35,429
The kind of thing that Hunter did was this.
He would take...
234
00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:39,116
...some reward.
235
00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:43,720
He would show it to an animal
236
00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:45,756
and hide it.
237
00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:49,958
Now, if you take a rat and do that
and you let it go at once,
238
00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:52,793
the rat, of course, goes to this hand immediately.
239
00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:57,396
But if you keep the rat waiting for some minutes,
240
00:15:57,480 --> 00:16:00,233
then it's no longer able
241
00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:04,836
to identify where it ought to go for its reward.
242
00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:09,873
Children are quite different.
Hunter did the same experiments with children.
243
00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:13,635
You can keep children of three or four
for half an hour, for an hour.
244
00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:17,316
Hunter had a little girl
245
00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:20,551
whom he was trying to keep amused
while keeping her waiting.
246
00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:23,108
He talked to her and, finally, she said to him,
247
00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:26,431
"I think you're just trying to make me forget."
248
00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:36,995
The ability to plan actions
249
00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:41,392
for which the reward is a long way off
250
00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:45,792
is the central thing
that the human brain has
251
00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:48,952
to which there's no match in animal brains,
252
00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:52,316
well, until they become quite well up in the scale,
253
00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:55,153
like our cousins the monkeys and the apes.
254
00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:02,156
That means that...
255
00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:06,790
We are concerned,
256
00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:09,235
in our early education,
257
00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:12,073
actually, with the postponement of decisions.
258
00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,596
We have to put off the decision -making process,
259
00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:18,638
in order to accumulate enough knowledge
260
00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:20,870
as a preparation for the future.
261
00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:26,915
That seems an extraordinary thing to say,
262
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:32,518
but that's what childhood is about, that's what
puberty is about, that's what youth is about.
263
00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:35,034
I want to put this quite dramatically -
264
00:17:35,120 --> 00:17:37,076
and I mean that literally.
265
00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:40,709
What is the major drama
in the English language?
266
00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:42,552
It's Hamlet.
267
00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:44,596
What is Hamlet about?
268
00:17:44,680 --> 00:17:47,638
It's a play about a young man, a boy,
269
00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:50,280
who is faced with...
270
00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:53,595
...the first great decision of his life
271
00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:55,830
and it's a decision beyond his reach.
272
00:17:56,880 --> 00:17:59,235
To kill the murderer of his father.
273
00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:04,075
It's pointless the ghost nudging him and saying,
"Be revenged on me."
274
00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:07,118
The fact is that Hamlet, as a youth,
275
00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:11,034
is simply not mature intellectually, emotionally.
276
00:18:11,120 --> 00:18:14,669
He's not ripe for the act
that he's asked to perform.
277
00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:16,716
The whole play
278
00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:20,759
is an endless postponement of that decision,
279
00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:23,195
while wrestling with himself.
280
00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:26,238
The high point is in the middle of Act III.
281
00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:30,033
Hamlet sees the King at prayer.
282
00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:33,150
The stage directions are so uncertain
283
00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:38,189
that he may even hear the King at prayer,
confessing his crime.
284
00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:40,236
And what does Hamlet say?
285
00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:42,595
"Now might I do it, pat!"
286
00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:50,991
But he doesn 't do it. He is simply not ready
for an act of that magnitude in boyhood.
287
00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:55,708
So, at the end of the play, Hamlet is murdered.
288
00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,959
But the tragedy is not that Hamlet dies,
289
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:07,155
it's that he dies exactly when he is ready
to become a great king.
290
00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:13,237
In man, before the brain
is an instrument for action,
291
00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:17,029
it has to be an instrument of preparation.
292
00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:22,671
For that, quite specific areas are involved.
293
00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:26,833
For example,
the frontal lobes have to be undamaged,
294
00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:28,876
but, far more deeply than that,
295
00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:33,909
it depends on the long preparation
of human childhood.
296
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:37,515
In scientific terms, we are neotenous.
297
00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:40,910
We come from the womb still as embryos.
298
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:45,949
Perhaps that's why our civilisation,
our scientific civilisation,
299
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:49,191
adores above all else the symbol of the child,
300
00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:51,430
ever since the Renaissance,
301
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:54,193
the Christ child painted by Raphael,
302
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:56,236
talked about by Pascal,
303
00:19:56,320 --> 00:19:58,276
Mozart and Gauss,
304
00:19:58,360 --> 00:20:00,920
the children in Rousseau and Dickens.
305
00:20:02,120 --> 00:20:06,318
It never struck me
that other civilisations are different,
306
00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:10,359
until I sailed south from here, out of California,
307
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:13,876
4,000 miles away to Easter Island.
308
00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:26,596
Every so often,
some visionary invents a new Utopia.
309
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:28,432
Plato,
310
00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:30,476
St Thomas More,
311
00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:32,118
HG Wells.
312
00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:34,350
Always, the idea is
313
00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:39,389
that the heroic image shall last,
as Hitler said, "for a thousand years".
314
00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:43,796
But the heroic images always look like this.
315
00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:46,838
Crude, dead, ancestral faces.
316
00:20:47,880 --> 00:20:49,836
Why, they even look like Mussolini.
317
00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:55,069
That's not the essence of the human personality,
318
00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:57,515
even in terms of biology.
319
00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:02,515
Biologically, a human being is changeable,
320
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:04,556
sensitive, mutable,
321
00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:07,074
fitted to many environments
322
00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:09,116
and not static.
323
00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:13,159
The real vision of the human being
is the child wonder,
324
00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:15,196
the Virgin and child,
325
00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:17,236
the Holy Family.
326
00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:21,995
When I was a boy in my teens,
327
00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:26,631
I used to go on Saturday afternoons from
the East End of London to the British Museum,
328
00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:30,679
in order to look at the single statue
from the Easter Islands,
329
00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:33,718
which, somehow,
they didn 't get inside the museum.
330
00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:35,950
So, I'm fond of these...
331
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:40,196
...ancient ancestral faces.
332
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:43,392
But in the end,
333
00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:47,598
all of them are not worth
one child's dimpled face.
334
00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,074
I was a little carried away at Easter Island.
335
00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:01,596
And yet with reason.
336
00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:07,311
Think of the investment
that evolution has made in the child's brain.
337
00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:10,316
My brain weighs three pounds.
338
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:13,551
My body weighs 50 times as much as that.
339
00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:17,512
But when I was born,
340
00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:20,592
my body was a mere appendage to the head.
341
00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:23,911
It weighed only five or six times
as much as my brain.
342
00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:28,596
For most of history,
343
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:33,629
civilisations have simply ignored
that enormous potential.
344
00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:36,473
In fact, the longest childhood
345
00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:40,838
has been that of civilisation to understand that.
346
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:42,876
For most of history,
347
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:48,353
children have been asked
simply to conform to the image of the adult.
348
00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:57,996
We travelled with the Bakhtiari of Persia
on their spring migration.
349
00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:02,312
They are as near as
any surviving vanishing people can be
350
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:05,278
to the nomad ways of 10,000 years ago.
351
00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:09,756
You see it everywhere
in such ancient modes of life -
352
00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:14,436
the image of the adult
shines in the children 's eyes.
353
00:23:17,120 --> 00:23:19,475
The girls are little mothers in the making.
354
00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:23,596
The boys are little herdsmen.
355
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:27,229
They even carry themselves like their parents.
356
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:53,959
Of course, history didn 't stand still
between the nomad and the Renaissance.
357
00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:57,396
The ascent of man has never come to a stop.
358
00:23:57,480 --> 00:23:59,948
But the ascent of the young,
359
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,270
the ascent of the talented,
360
00:24:02,360 --> 00:24:04,715
the ascent of the imaginative,
361
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:09,271
that became very halting
many times in between.
362
00:24:09,360 --> 00:24:11,715
Of course there were great civilisations.
363
00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:18,239
Who am I to belittle the civilisations of Egypt,
of China, of India...
364
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:22,078
...even of Europe in the Middle Ages?
365
00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:27,316
And yet by one test they all fail:
366
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:31,359
They limit the freedom of the imagination
of the young.
367
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:36,557
They are static,
368
00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:39,632
and they are minority cultures.
369
00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:43,872
Static because the son does
what the father did,
370
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:46,190
and the father what the grandfather did.
371
00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:50,671
And minority, because...
372
00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:57,154
only a tiny fraction
of all that talent that mankind produces
373
00:24:57,240 --> 00:24:59,231
is actually used -
374
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:03,836
learns to read, learns to write,
learns another language,
375
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:08,710
and climbs that terribly slow
ladder of promotion
376
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:12,236
in the Middle Ages, through the Church.
377
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:13,992
And at the end of the ladder
378
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:20,428
there's always the image,
the icon of the godhead, that says,
379
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:26,038
"Now you have reached the last commandment:
Thou shalt not question."
380
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:31,157
~ GRUPPO POLIFONICO F. CORADINl:
Credo from 14th century Mass: Cum Giubilate
381
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:40,150
The Mass is old enough
for Erasmus to have heard.
382
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:44,199
The church is San Pietro in Gropina,
and is older.
383
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:47,829
When Erasmus was left an orphan,
in 1480,
384
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:51,151
he had to prepare for a career in the Church.
385
00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:53,879
The services were as beautiful then as now.
386
00:26:53,960 --> 00:27:00,877
But the monk's life was, for Erasmus,
an iron door closed against knowledge.
387
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:07,832
~ Sanctus from Cum Giubilate
388
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:20,160
Only when Erasmus read the classics
for himself, in defiance of orders,
389
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:22,549
was the world opened for him.
390
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:26,315
"A heathen wrote this to a heathen," he said,
391
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:30,757
"yet it has justice, sanctity, truth.
392
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:36,278
I can hardly refrain from saying,
'Saint Socrates, pray for me."'
393
00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:46,114
Erasmus made two lifelong friends,
394
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:50,910
Sir Thomas More in England,
and Johann Frobenius in Switzerland.
395
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:57,269
From Sir Thomas More,
he got what I got when I first came to England -
396
00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:02,798
the sense of pleasure
in the companionship of civilised minds.
397
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:09,831
From Frobenius,
he got a sense of the power of the printed book.
398
00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:14,155
Frobenius and his family
were the great printers of the 1500s.
399
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:17,674
This is the Galen.
400
00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:22,709
This is Frobenius's Hippocrates...
401
00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:29,588
...one of the most beautiful books ever printed,
402
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:36,472
in which the happy passion of the printer
sits on the page
403
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:39,074
as powerful as the knowledge.
404
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:44,234
The is the democracy of the intellect.
405
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:48,916
And that's why Erasmus
and Frobenius and Sir Thomas More
406
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:54,279
stand in my mind
as gigantic landmarks of their time.
407
00:29:55,880 --> 00:30:01,079
The democracy of the intellect
comes from the printed book.
408
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:05,392
And the problems that it set from the year 1500
409
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:08,756
have lasted
right down to the student riots of today.
410
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:13,076
What did Sir Thomas More die of?
411
00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:18,678
He died because his king thought of him
as a wielder of power.
412
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:24,035
And what More wanted to be,
what Erasmus wanted to be,
413
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:27,271
what every strong intellect wants to be,
414
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:30,989
is a guardian of integrity.
415
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:39,713
There is an age-old conflict between
intellectual leadership and civil authority.
416
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:42,758
How old, how bitter, came home to me
417
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:46,879
when I came up from Jericho
on the road that Jesus took
418
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:51,192
and saw the first glimpse of Jerusalem
on the skyline
419
00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:54,477
as he saw it, going to his certain death,
420
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:59,111
because Jesus was then
the intellectual and moral leader of his people.
421
00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:06,151
But he was facing an establishment for which
religion was simply an arm of government.
422
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:12,475
And that's a crisis of choice
that leaders have faced over and over again.
423
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:14,755
Socrates in Athens.
424
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:20,790
Jonathan Swift in Ireland,
torn between pity and ambition.
425
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:22,791
Gandhi in India.
426
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:27,590
And Einstein
when he refused the presidency of Israel.
427
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:33,634
I bring in the name of Einstein deliberately
because he was a scientist,
428
00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:40,671
and the intellectual leadership
of the 20th century rests with scientists.
429
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:43,479
And that's a grave problem,
430
00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:48,315
because science is also a source of power
that walks close to government,
431
00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:51,278
that the state wants to harness.
432
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:55,517
But if science allows itself to go that way,
433
00:31:55,600 --> 00:32:00,628
the beliefs of the 20th century
will fall to pieces in cynicism,
434
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:04,315
because no beliefs can be built up in this century
435
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:09,918
that are not based on science
as the recognition of the uniqueness of man
436
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:14,118
and a pride in his gifts and his works.
437
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:19,836
It is not the business of science
to inherit the earth,
438
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:23,356
but to inherit the moral imagination,
439
00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:27,035
because man,
440
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:31,238
and beliefs, and science,
441
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:34,437
without that, will perish together.
442
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:40,078
I must bring that concretely into the present.
443
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:45,632
The man who personifies these issues for me
is John von Neumann.
444
00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:50,749
He was born in 1903,
445
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:54,795
the son of a Jewish family in Hungary.
446
00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:59,395
If he'd been born 100 years earlier,
we would never have heard of him.
447
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:04,634
He would have been doing
what his father and grandfather did,
448
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:07,792
making rabbinical comments on dogma.
449
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:12,509
Instead, he was a child prodigy
of mathematics -
450
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:14,795
"Johnny" to the end of his life.
451
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:18,759
In his teens,
he already wrote mathematical papers.
452
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:23,516
He did the great work
453
00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:28,594
on both the subjects for which he's famous
454
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:30,636
before he was 25.
455
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:36,396
Both subjects...
456
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:40,239
...are concerned...
457
00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:44,552
...I suppose I should say, with play.
458
00:33:46,520 --> 00:33:48,988
You see, of course, in a sense,
459
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:53,915
all science, all human thought, is a form of play,
460
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,878
the neoteny of the intellect,
461
00:33:56,960 --> 00:34:00,350
man able to continue
462
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:04,911
to carry out activities
which have no immediate goal
463
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:09,994
in order to prepare himself
for long-time strategies and plans.
464
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:17,157
I worked with Johnny von Neumann
during the war in England.
465
00:34:17,240 --> 00:34:21,597
He first talked to me about the theory of games
in a taxi in London...
466
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:28,195
...one of the favourite places
in which he liked to talk about mathematics.
467
00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:32,068
And I naturally said to him,
since I'm an enthusiastic chess player,
468
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:35,118
"You mean the theory of games like chess?"
469
00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:36,918
"Oh, no," he said.
470
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:42,028
"Chess isn 't a game.
Chess is a well-defined form of computation.
471
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:46,159
You may not be able to work out the answers,
but in theory
472
00:34:46,240 --> 00:34:50,119
there must be a solution,
473
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:53,636
a right procedure, in any position."
474
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:57,638
"Now, real games," he said,
"are not like that at all.
475
00:34:57,720 --> 00:34:59,312
Real life is not like that.
476
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:05,236
Real life consists of bluffing, of little tactics,
477
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:08,630
of asking yourself
what is the other man going to do.
478
00:35:08,720 --> 00:35:10,517
And that's what games are about."
479
00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:12,556
And that's what his book is about.
480
00:35:14,720 --> 00:35:16,278
It seems very strange
481
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:22,196
to find a book in which
there is a chapter called Poker And Bluffing,
482
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:27,593
and moreover, to find it covered with equations -
very pompous.
483
00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:32,509
But mathematics is not a pompous activity,
484
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:38,596
least of all in the hands
of extraordinarily fast and penetrating minds
485
00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:41,478
like Johnny von Neumann 's.
486
00:35:41,560 --> 00:35:47,749
What's running through the page
is a clear intellectual line, like a tune.
487
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:52,595
And all the heavy weight of equations
is simply the orchestration down in the bass.
488
00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:00,235
In the latter part of his life,
489
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:04,552
he carried the subject into what I've called
his second great creative idea.
490
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:11,631
He began to realise
that computers would be technically important,
491
00:36:11,720 --> 00:36:16,840
but he also began to realise
that one must understand clearly
492
00:36:16,920 --> 00:36:20,913
how real-life situations
are different from computer situations,
493
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:25,516
exactly because they do not have
the precise solutions
494
00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:31,835
that strategies in chess
or in engineering calculations do.
495
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:34,672
And in his last years,
496
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:37,638
he wrote a beautiful book -
The Silliman Lectures
497
00:36:37,720 --> 00:36:40,712
that he should have given,
but was too ill to give, in 1956 -
498
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:43,553
called The Computer And The Brain.
499
00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:51,192
In them, he looks at the brain
as having a language
500
00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:56,957
in which the activities
of the different parts of the brain
501
00:36:57,040 --> 00:37:02,751
have somehow
to be interlocked and made to match
502
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:07,630
so that we devise a plan, a procedure,
503
00:37:07,720 --> 00:37:11,599
as a grand overall way of life -
504
00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:17,278
what in the humanities
we would call a system of values.
505
00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:29,270
There was something endearing and personal
about Johnny von Neumann.
506
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:34,036
When he died, in 1957,
it was a great tragedy to us all.
507
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:36,918
And that was not
because he was a modest man.
508
00:37:38,720 --> 00:37:40,870
When I worked with him during the war...
509
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:45,314
...we once faced a problem together.
510
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:47,356
And he said to me at once,
511
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:52,230
"Oh, no, no. You're not seeing it.
Your kind of visualising mind isn 't seeing this.
512
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:54,197
Think of it abstractly.
513
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:58,159
What is happening
on this photograph of an explosion
514
00:37:58,240 --> 00:38:02,791
is that the first differential coefficient
vanishes identically,
515
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:06,589
and that's why you're seeing the trace
of the second differential coefficient."
516
00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:08,591
That's not the way that I think.
517
00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:11,596
However, I let him go to London.
518
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:13,750
I went off to my laboratory in the country.
519
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:16,229
I worked late into the night.
520
00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:20,359
Round about midnight, I had the answer.
521
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:22,712
Well,
522
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:24,836
Johnny von Neumann always slept very late.
523
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:29,471
So I was kind. I didn 't wake him
until well after ten in the morning.
524
00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:34,953
When I called his hotel in London,
he answered the phone from bed.
525
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:37,600
I said, "Johnny, you're quite right."
526
00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:39,398
And he said to me,
527
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:43,632
"You wake me up early in the morning
to tell me that I'm right?
528
00:38:43,720 --> 00:38:45,995
Please wait until I'm wrong."
529
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:53,794
If that sounds very vain, it was not.
530
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:57,953
It was a real statement of how he lived his life.
531
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:04,195
And yet it has something in it which reminds us
that he wasted the last years of his life.
532
00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:07,356
He never finished the great work.
533
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:12,511
That has been very difficult to carry on
since his death.
534
00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:17,030
And he didn 't, really,
because he became more and more engaged
535
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:21,352
in work for private firms,
for industry, for government,
536
00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:26,195
for enterprises
which brought him to the centre of power
537
00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:29,511
but which did not advance
either his knowledge
538
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:35,914
or his intimacy with people who, to this day,
539
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:39,595
have not yet got the message
of what he was trying to do
540
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:43,798
about the human problems of life and mind.
541
00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:49,994
Johnny von Neumann
was in love with the aristocracy of intellect.
542
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:52,799
And that's a belief
543
00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:58,034
which can only destroy
the civilisation that we know.
544
00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:05,391
If we are anything,
we must be a democracy of the intellect.
545
00:40:05,480 --> 00:40:09,837
We must not perish by the distance
546
00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:16,234
between people and government,
people and power,
547
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:22,350
by which Babylon, and Egypt,
and Rome failed.
548
00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:30,512
And that distance can only be... conflated,
549
00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:33,398
can only be closed,
550
00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:36,836
if knowledge sits here, and not up there.
551
00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:42,357
That seems a hard lesson.
552
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:45,512
After all, this is a world run by specialists.
553
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:48,672
Isn 't that what we mean
by a scientific society?
554
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:50,716
No, it isn 't.
555
00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:58,710
A scientific society is one
in which specialists can indeed do
556
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:04,079
the things like making the electric light work.
557
00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:09,359
But it's you, it's I, who have to know
how nature works,
558
00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:14,560
how electricity is one of her expressions,
in the light, and in my brain.
559
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:19,873
And we are really here
on a wonderful threshold of knowledge.
560
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:23,077
The ascent of man
is always teetering in the balance.
561
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:25,674
There's always a sense of uncertainty
as to whether,
562
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:30,709
when man lifts his foot for the next step,
it's really going to come down ahead.
563
00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:33,431
And what is ahead of us?
564
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:36,273
At last, the bringing together
565
00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:39,750
of all that we've learnt
in physics and in biology,
566
00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:46,757
towards an understanding
of where we have come, what man is.
567
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:52,834
Knowledge is not
a loose-leaf notebook of facts.
568
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:58,790
Above all, it is a responsibility
for the integrity of what we are,
569
00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:03,556
above all, of what we are
as ethical creatures.
570
00:42:05,240 --> 00:42:08,550
You can 't possibly maintain that
571
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:11,200
if you let other people run the world for you,
572
00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:14,556
while you yourself continue to live...
573
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:21,358
...out of a ragbag of morals
that come from past beliefs.
574
00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:24,711
That's really crucial today.
575
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:28,839
You see, it's pointless to advise people
to learn differential equations,
576
00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:33,436
or, "You must do a course in electronics
or in computer programming."
577
00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:35,476
Of course not.
578
00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:39,629
And yet,
579
00:42:39,720 --> 00:42:42,314
50 years from now,
580
00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:46,837
if an understanding of man 's origins,
581
00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:51,072
his evolution, his history, his progress,
582
00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:55,551
is not the commonplace of the schoolbooks,
we shall not exist.
583
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:04,759
The commonplace of the schoolbooks
of tomorrow is the adventure of today,
584
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:06,910
and that's what we're engaged in.
585
00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:14,992
And I'm infinitely saddened to find myself
suddenly surrounded in the West
586
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:20,074
by a sense of terrible loss of nerve,
587
00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:23,675
a retreat from knowledge into - into what?
588
00:43:23,760 --> 00:43:25,990
Into Zen Buddhism.
589
00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:31,313
Into profound questions about
are we not just really animals at bottom?
590
00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:34,233
Into extra-sensory perception.
591
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:40,350
Which simply do not lie along the line
of what we are now able to know
592
00:43:40,440 --> 00:43:43,079
if we devote ourselves to it -
593
00:43:43,160 --> 00:43:46,709
an understanding of man himself,
594
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:48,631
self-knowledge,
595
00:43:48,720 --> 00:43:52,759
at last bringing together
the experience of the arts
596
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:55,195
and the explanations of science.
597
00:43:57,200 --> 00:43:58,872
It sounds very pessimistic
598
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:04,114
to talk about Western civilisation
with a sense of retreat.
599
00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:09,279
I've been so optimistic about the ascent of man.
600
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:13,114
Am I going to give up at this moment?
Of course not.
601
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:16,480
The ascent of man will go on.
602
00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:23,432
But don 't assume that it will go on
carried by Western civilisation as we know it.
603
00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:28,640
We are being weighed in the balance
at this moment.
604
00:44:28,720 --> 00:44:34,556
If we give up, the next step will be taken,
but not by us.
605
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:37,996
We have not been given any guarantee
606
00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:42,198
that Assyria and Egypt and Rome
were not given.
607
00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:45,595
We are a scientific civilisation.
608
00:44:45,680 --> 00:44:48,592
That means a civilisation
609
00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:53,879
in which knowledge and its integrity are crucial.
610
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:57,191
Science is only a Latin word for knowledge.
611
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:03,553
If we don 't take the next step
in the ascent of man,
612
00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:08,430
it will be taken by people elsewhere -
in Africa, in China.
613
00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:13,957
Should I feel that to be sad? No.
614
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:17,794
Humanity has a right to change its colour.
615
00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:25,592
And yet, wedded as I am
to the civilisation that nurtured me,
616
00:45:25,680 --> 00:45:28,069
I should feel it to be infinitely sad.
617
00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:35,753
I, whom England made,
whom it taught its language,
618
00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:39,071
and its tolerance
619
00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:41,674
and excitement in intellectual pursuits...
620
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:48,954
...I should feel it a grave sense of loss,
as you would,
621
00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:52,316
if, 100 years from now,
622
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:59,272
Shakespeare and Newton
are historical fossils in the ascent of man,
623
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:03,148
the way that Homer and Euclid are.
624
00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:06,156
(Wind whistles)
625
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:14,952
I began this series of programmes
in the Valley of the Omo, in east Africa,
626
00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:16,871
and I've come back here
627
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:21,556
because something that happened then
has remained in my mind ever since.
628
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:28,239
On the morning of the day that we were to
take the first sentences of the first programme,
629
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:32,279
a light plane took off from this airstrip
630
00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:36,512
with the cameraman
and the sound recordist on board,
631
00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:40,673
and it crashed within seconds of taking off.
632
00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:46,232
By some miracle,
the pilot and the two men crawled out unhurt.
633
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:50,108
But naturally, the ominous event
made a deep impression on me.
634
00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:55,911
Here was I,
preparing to unfold the pageant of the past,
635
00:46:56,000 --> 00:47:00,869
and the present quietly put its hand
through the printed page of history,
636
00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:03,872
and said, "It's here. It's now."
637
00:47:04,920 --> 00:47:08,117
History is not events, but people.
638
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:10,509
And it's not people remembering.
639
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:16,596
It's people acting and living their past
in the present.
640
00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:23,758
We sat about in the camp for two days,
waiting for another plane.
641
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:28,550
And I said to the cameraman,
kindly though perhaps not tactfully,
642
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:31,632
that perhaps he might prefer
to have someone else
643
00:47:31,720 --> 00:47:34,678
take the shots that had to be filmed from the air.
644
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:39,755
He said, "I've thought of that.
645
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:42,308
I'm going to be afraid
when I go up tomorrow...
646
00:47:43,560 --> 00:47:47,235
...but I'm going to do the filming.
It's what I have to do."
647
00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:52,709
We are all afraid, for our confidence,
648
00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:54,711
for the future,
649
00:47:54,800 --> 00:47:56,518
for the world.
650
00:47:56,600 --> 00:47:59,034
That's the nature of the human imagination.
651
00:47:59,760 --> 00:48:03,036
Yet every man,
652
00:48:03,120 --> 00:48:05,315
every civilisation,
653
00:48:05,400 --> 00:48:12,317
has gone forward because of its engagement
with what it has set itself to do.
654
00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:19,869
The personal commitment of a man to his skill,
655
00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:24,033
the intellectual commitment
and the emotional commitment
656
00:48:24,120 --> 00:48:27,908
working together as one,
657
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:30,833
has made the ascent of man.