FutureProofing

Will technology enable us to communicate in all languages in future, or will we all be using just one? FutureProofing discovers the future of language and finds out how we may not need it all.

Presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson explore the growing influence that technology exerts on the evolution of language, and discover the new words we may be using, and the new ways we might be using them in the 21st century and beyond.

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.

New research points to a future where we can artificially create and manipulate memory inside our own heads. What are the implications when we can control memory in this way, and why is it so important to our future?

FutureProofing travels to California to meet the neuro-scientists creating the means for us to make and control memories inside the human brain, and to hear what the future holds when we can manipulate the process of forming and storing memories.

Presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson also explore the implications of having our memories distributed in many places - a development that is gathering pace as we increasingly use the internet as the repository of our lives - from social media to cloud storage and all our online shopping data.

And the programme visits Jerusalem to discover how both Israelis and Palestinians are meeting the challenge of creating and maintaining memorials and museums which not only preserve their history but also offer a relevant guide to future generations.

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.

If new energy sources offer cheap, plentiful power to everyone, how will the planet cope? FutureProofing examines a new method of power generation promising clean, limitless power for everyone. Can it work, what are the consequences, and is there a viable alternative?

Fusion has long-promised cheap, clean and limitless power, but over half a century of effort this technology has still not delivered an operational power plant. Now hopes are high that a vast project in the south of France will finally crack the problems and deliver a working model that can be replicated around the world. FutureProofing presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson travel to Provence to find out what the prospects are for a scheme costing upwards of £10billion which could transform the energy supply for us all and with it global geo-politics and the environment for centuries to come.

The programme explores what viable alternatives there could be to generate power at the same scale for billions of people across the world, and whether such an alternative is a better route to achieving the goal of cheap, plentiful and clean energy for the future.

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.

Who will be on top in the world of future crime - the cops or the criminals? How will crime change and what can be done to prevent it in future? Presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson explore how crime and punishment will change in the 21st century.

They discover how crime and technology combine to create a toxic mix of threats and vulnerabilities in the next few decades. As criminals swiftly adopt and adapt emerging technologies to enable them to stay one step ahead of anyone trying to combat crime, the programme examines what kind of crimes this might lead to, and how it might be possible to stop offenders in future. New technology also holds out the prospect of radically different kinds of punishment, as well as significant developments in the understanding of how and why crime happens.

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.

Should we retire the concept of 'ageing'?

The first episode of the new series of FutureProofing explores the technology and demography which herald a revolution in our ideas about ageing, and a fundamental shift in the expectations we all have for the course our lives might take.

Presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson travel to California to meet the scientists at the cutting edge of the quest to stop age-related illness and decline. And they explore the ideas that will have to change if we all live to 150 and beyond.

Even conservative estimates now place human lifespan for new-borns today in a developed country at more than 100. FutureProofing examines the fundamental changes to our expectations, hopes and dreams which ensue from the scientific work taking place now to postpone, or even end, ageing.

FutureProofing is a six part series which explores the ideas that will shape our future. Episodes in the second series for April-June 2016 include programmes on the future of Ageing, Crime, Energy, Memory, Language and War.

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.

How will we move from place to place in future? Will speed and freedom always be the goal? FutureProofing examines how huge changes in mobility will alter our world.

Presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson look at their belongings, and those of others, with fresh eyes as they ask - is ownership over? It may be a central pillar of most societies, but in the future will people still want to own so much stuff if they can easily share?

Financial constraints and increased awareness of the planet's finite resources may mean a new generation is prizing access and experience over belongings. The growing tech revolution can provide the digital platforms to make this possible. FutureProofing unpicks the consequences: Will we see a shift in our attitudes towards owning physical objects? What will be the implications of the new ideas economy? And can objects own themselves?

The programme tackles these subjects with the help of writer Rachel Botsman, Daan Weddepohl of Peerby, software developer Mike Hearn, psychology lecturer Sheila Cunningham, journalist Paul Mason, the residents of Christiania in Copenhagen, and the comedian George Carlin with his routine on 'stuff'.

Producer: Marnie Chesterton.

Presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson taste some strange foods of the future, as they investigate how technology and a rising global population might transform what we eat.

With a predicted two billion extra mouths to feed by 2050 and a rapidly rising obesity problem in many richer countries, the world faces a 21st century food crisis which combines the threats of starvation and ill health from over-eating at the same time.

FutureProofing examines possible responses to these twin problems: change in the way food is produced, and change in the way we think about food and its place in our lives, could significantly alter what we eat in the decades to come. Visiting Italy, the programme finds what solutions are on offer at the huge Expo 2015, as countries from across the world present their ideas for the future of food.

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.

FutureProofing is a series in which presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson examine the implications - social and cultural, economic and political - of the big ideas that are set to transform the way our society functions.

Episode 3: The Blockchain

Can computer technology and its systems for record-keeping, transparency and verification replace the role of trust in our society? The digital currency Bitcoin can be used to make peer to peer financial transactions without a central banking authority. The technology underlying this system is called the blockchain, and is enthusiastically advocated by libertarians. In this programme Timandra and Leo investigate whether its ramifications could go much further than currency and reach into disrupting the roles of government, from providing identity documents to tax collection. Or will governments, banks and other large powerful bodies meet the political and technical challenges of the blockchain by incorporating it into their own activities?

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.

FutureProofing is a series in which presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson examine the implications - social and cultural, economic and political - of the big ideas that are set to transform the way our society functions.

Episode 2: Identity

Timandra and Leo explore how we will answer the question 'Who am I?' in future. New thinking points towards identity becoming increasingly a matter of choice rather than a fixed set of personal characteristics and social experiences. Instead of the geographical accidents which determine our places of birth and the environments in which we spend our formative years, future identities appear set to become more fluid, shaped by individual preference and an increasing range of options available to us - and not just culturally, but also regarding qualities such as our ethnicity and gender.

How might people express a more nuanced form of gender and sexuality in future? If you are born with one ethnicity, could you choose to identify as another? And if we are to shift identity often, could that remove the stigma traditionally attached to all those who present themselves as very different people at different stages of their lives?

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.