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Far out in the ocean of discovery huge swells have been gathering and combining to create the great tsunami that will soon engulf us, We look back at how innovation in technology has, from the first, changed our ways of living, our sense of who we are and what we are to expect from life.

Researched, written & read by Stephen Fry. Music composed and conducted by Guy Farley with The Chamber Orchestra of London.

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A medieval tech start-up led by serial entrepreneur Johannes Gutenberg and his invention that unleashed a societal revolution.

As Europe recovered from the scourge of the Black Death, a young man from a family that had made its name in metalwork, specifically in gold and silver smithing pondered a new invention, It would combine his knowledge of working hot and molten metals with other technologies that had yet fully to coalesce in his mind. He believed that if he got it all right it would make him a staggering amount of money.

Researched, written & read by Stephen Fry. Music composed and conducted by Guy Farley with The Chamber Orchestra of London.

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The spark that Napoleon sent across the century from Paris to New York with the prize fund that seeded the Bell Labs energised the next century's, in ways that the emperor could never have guessed at.

Researched, written & read by Stephen Fry. Music composed and conducted by Guy Farley with The Chamber Orchestra of London.

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The sperm whale, Bell Labs, vacuum tubes and the dawning age of information at the speed of light.

Researched, written & read by Stephen Fry. Music composed and conducted by Guy Farley with The Chamber Orchestra of London.

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The War of the Currents and a new type of person arises, an almost wholly American invention - the salesman. The foundations are set for the rise of one of the mightiest company's the world had ever seen - International Business Machines. Or as we all know it today, IBM.

Researched, written & read by Stephen Fry. Music composed and conducted by Guy Farley with The Chamber Orchestra of London

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Series 1 Finale! Across the ocean of discovery the swells are building with ever increasing mass and speed. The swells of robotics, AI, nano science, the internet of things, quantum computing, genomics, gene editing, bio-augmentation, bionics, autonomous weaponry and transport, brain machine interfacing – all these existentially transformative developments are gathering pace and momentum now and a remarkable future beckons.

Researched, written & read by Stephen Fry. Music composed and conducted by Guy Farley with The Chamber Orchestra of London.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.