A history of cybernetics from first machines to mankind's aspirations to create a being in its image, and about the computing power of machines that were able to detect Leonardo da Vinci's figure among the characters of his own paintings.
Social & External
Charles Babbage (1791-1871), computer pioneer, designed the first automatic computing engines. He invented computers but failed to build them. The first complete Babbage Engine was completed in London in 2002, 153 years after it was designed. Difference Engine No. 2, built faithfully to the original drawings, consists of 8,000 parts, weighs five tons, and measures 11 feet long. We invite you to learn more about this extraordinary object, its designer Charles Babbage and the team of people who undertook to build it. Discover the wonder of a future already passed.
Dr Hannah Fry and a virtual host present a new way of making television, as the BBC uses artificial intelligence to delve into the treasures of the BBC Archive.
Launched in 1982 by three friends in a Houston diner, Compaq Computer set out to build a portable PC to take on IBM, the world’s most powerful tech company. Many had tried cloning the industry leader’s code, only to be trounced by IBM and its high-priced lawyers. Explore the remarkable David vs. Goliath story, and eventual demise, of Compaq, an unlikely upstart who altered the future of computing and helped shape the world as we know it today.
"Give me ten million dollars and trust me, we'll deliver a low-cost microprocessor compatible with Intel". This was former IBM Fellow and Dell Senior VP Glenn Henry's 1995 pitch to start a microprocessor company focused on low-cost Intel-compatible processors ("x86"). This documentary follows Henry and his team as they race to complete their latest chip, and offers an inside look at Centaur's unique management environment.
Portrait of the early era of computing which examines the workings of a new and mysterious machine: the Canada Land Inventory Geo-information System. This "instant library" was created to help assess and document the geographical landscape, including sampling and analysis of soil, forestry, timber, wildlife, resources, industrial sites, and many other aspects.
Comprehensive survey of robotics filmed in the leading labs of the world (primarily the United States and Japan) and featuring experts such as Rodney Brooks of MIT and William “Red” Whittaker of Carnegie Mellon University. Incorporates pop culture robots with the less glamorous real world and delves into the ultimate issues of what constitutes life and whether consciousness is a product of intelligence.
A documentary on the rise and fall of Project Cybersyn, an attempt at a computer-managed centralized economy undertaken in Chile during the presidency of Salvador Allende.
This Is A.I. follows the history, development and future of artificial intelligence in different aspects of our lives. Interviewed experts give their opinion on the various ways this 'smarter' future is going to impact us.
Memoirs of a Spectrum Addict is a full length documentary feature film which takes a detailed look at the ZX Spectrum, its history, developers, games and fans. The film is a unique tribute to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Memoirs of a Spectrum Addict has re-enactments, interviews like you’ve never seen before with major Spectrum industry figures, and features real people who grew up influenced by the Sinclair ZX Spectrum!
George Oppenheimer has two problems: an eccentric wife and an uncontrollable child. At work his team invented a computer with personality. George thinks the computer is faster, smarter and elegant. When his life falls apart, the computer offers suicide as the only alternative.
From hardware to software, the basics of then-current computing technology is explained.
A fictitious biography of Aira Samulin, the goddess of dance and importer of all the international dance crazes to Finland for some fifty years. The life story of this extravagant ever-teen, well beyond the usual retirement age, is told inside a fictitious plot about a Master of Ceremonies trying to persuade Aira to stage a show at his cabaret restaurant. Besides Aira Samulin, many other Finnish celebrities appear among the eccentric lineup auditioning for the show, playing more or less their fictionalised selves.
Serial killer Aileen Wuornos writes down her darkest secrets for her best friend while on Florida's death row; now, for the first time, those secrets are revealed in detail.
In 2009, a man and two accomplices try to evict members of the Indigenous community of Chuschagasta in northern Argentina. Claiming ownership of the land and armed with guns, they kill the community’s leader, Javier Chocobar. The murder is caught on video. It takes nine years of protests before court proceedings are finally opened in 2018. During all this time, the killers remain free. The film combines the voices and photographs of the community with courtroom footage to explore the long history of colonialism and land dispossession that led to this crime.
The diagnosis of mantle cell lymphoma not only ruined Albert Farkas' summer day when he received it. He narrates scenes from everyday life with the diagnosis. Josephine Ahnelt's short documentary shows Farkas' self-assertion through his humor, with which he defies the initial low point.
An anti-war documentary featuring original on-the-ground footage and interviews from the 1999 NATO war against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Watch the 78 days of untold destruction, bombing bridges, hospitals, schools, and dropping up to 11 tons of depleted uranium across the country that NATO considers a successful “humanitarian intervention” in Yugoslavia. Filmmaker Gloria La Riva lifts the veil of imperialist propaganda to reveal the humanitarian crisis caused by the war.
A special retrospective of Peter Davison's tenure as the Fifth Doctor.