Tomorrow’s World

Britt Wray and Ellie Cosgrave take a deep dive into our data. They discuss the implication of personal data rights in everything from city planning to medicine to human rights. You’ll hear from: Paul-Olivier Dehaye, who testified in the Cambridge Analytica case; Ravi Naik, the solicitor from ITN Solicitors taking on Cambridge Analytica; Martha Lane Fox CBE, founder of the think tank Doteveryone; digital sociologist and strategist Lisa Talia Moretti; Francesca Bria, the chief Technology and Digital Innovation Officer for the City of Barcelona; Eric Schadt, Founder and CEO of Sema4 and expert in big data and medicine; Judith Deportail, data journalist; Jamie Bartlett, author of 'People vs Tech' and Director for The Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos; Michael Veale, researcher in responsible public sector machine learning at University College London; and Edina Harbinja, senior lecturer in law, University of Hertfordshire.

Look around you. It’s all there, right? It’s real, it’s tangible, it’s the physical world. But, what if it’s not? In the final episode of the series, Britt and Ellie discover the ideas of Simulation Theory – the concept that the world around us could be a simulated reality. Some believe there’s proof all around us that our reality is created outside our world. Virtual Reality could hold the answers. Britt and Ellie visit the companies creating the faux realities that shape our understanding of what’s real and what’s not, and step inside these new frontiers. As VR landscapes become more believable, does this add weight to the argument that our reality may not be quite as it seems? Contributors include Nick Bostrom, from the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, Dave Ranyard, CEO of Dream Reality Interactive and Herman Narula, CEO of Improbable. Pop on your headphones for the full experience and follow Tomorrow’s World on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using #MyTomorrow. Subscribe to catch every episode

All around the world, governments are increasingly looking at control of the internet; whether it’s to regulate content, hide or ban content or increase ownership of your data. Is this the opposite of what the internet was originally designed to be - a free, open and uncensored space? In this seventh episode, Britt Wray and Ellie Cosgrave meet the people who want to bring that dream back using their alternative internet networks. Together, they imagine what the internet could or should look like in the future. Cory Doctorow joins Britt and Ellie to navigate this huge subject as we meet former Wikileaks journalist James Ball, blockchain experts Stephen Tual and Juan Benet, Jilian York from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, security researcher Leonie Tanczer, Chaos Computer Club spokesman Linus Neumann, TOR developer Isis Agora Lovecruft and Mr C, co-founder of Hack Lab. Pop on your headphones for the full experience and follow Tomorrow’s World on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using #MyTomorrow. Subscribe to catch every episode

In the sixth episode, entitled Dorothy, Britt and Ellie imagine a world that is completely free from disease and look at the current technology that is paving a way to that world. They investigate the cutting-edge science of CRISPR, human genome writing and the mysterious world of the Diamond Light Source. But in a world where humans are cured of disease – should they also be “cured” of ageing? Scientist Aubrey De Grey thinks so. Not only does he think ageing can be eliminated – but that the first human to live to a thousand years old already exists. To do this he says we have to turn back the clock before it’s too late. But is this really possible? Pop on your headphones for the full experience and join the conversation using #MyTomorrow. Click subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Do more aggressive and unknown outbreaks lie in our future? In a world where we continue to be struck by new pathogens, Britt and Ellie pit two teams of scientists against each other. In a game with a virus at the heart of it, one team works to spread it, the other tries to contain it. Will lives be saved or will the virus prove too deadly? Plus, join us as we journey into the hidden depths of a level four containment lab where some of the most contagious viruses in the world are housed. Pop on your headphones for the full experience and join the conversation using #MyTomorrow. Click subscribe so you never miss an episode. Please note: this episode contains mild swearing.

Meet Mary. She’s sentient and she’s conscious, just like us. The difference? She’s an Artificial Intelligence. Britt and Ellie want to know what the future holds for AI, and so they follow Mary through her dramatic tale. At every twist and turn, they ask if she needs humankind to protect her. If Mary mirrors human qualities, should she also have human rights? Britt and Ellie also investigate the embodiment of robots and why we feel compelled to produce them in human form. They meet those fighting to give “human” rights to chimpanzees… Pop on your headphones for the full experience and join the conversation using #MyTomorrow. Click subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Will the cities we live in become uninhabitable due to climate change, overpopulation and other factors that lie in our future? If so, should we be investing in floating cities now to solve this problem? What might they look and sound like? We meet the so-called Aquapreneurs and Seavangelists crafting models for these floating habitats. They have ambitious, yet dramatically different theories to solve these not-so-distant problems. Ship scientist Philip Wilson puts their futuristic ideas to the test, along with the plans of our “mystery floaters”. Pop on your headphones for the full experience and join the conversation using #MyTomorrow. Click subscribe so you never miss an episode. Guidance: Contains science experiments that should not be repeated at home.

In the second episode of Tomorrow’s World, Britt and Ellie investigate the more practical applications of brain-machine interfacing. They meet the “wizards” sharing their hats. What does it mean to “download our brains”, and will we morph our own intellect with artificial intelligence? If you haven’t already, go back and listen to episode one first to discover the theory behind the wizard’s hat and how we’ve got this far. Pop on your headphones for the full experience and join the conversation online using #MyTomorrow Click subscribe to keep up to date with all the latest episodes.

Britt Wray and Ellie Cosgrave ask how can we meld machinery and our minds? Is it possible to create seamless communication between human brains and computers? Inventors and scientists, including Elon Musk, are fascinated by brain-machine interfacing. Not only do they hope we’ll be able to control technology with our thoughts – they are working towards humans being able to transmit information directly into one another’s brains. It’s taking factual ideas to sensory inputs. So, don the wizard’s hat (and your headphones) and enter Tomorrow’s World. Join the conversation online using #MyTomorrow Click subscribe to keep up to date with all the latest episodes. Please note: this episode contains mild swearing.