0:00:09 > 0:00:11We are surrounded by order.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15Over the last 300 years,
0:00:15 > 0:00:20we've developed amazing new ways to harness energy.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25We've used this ability to transform our environment.
0:00:31 > 0:00:36But all these structures that we see around us are just
0:00:36 > 0:00:41one type of visible order that we've created here on planet Earth.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44There's another type of invisible order,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48every bit as complex that we are only now beginning to understand.
0:00:48 > 0:00:53It's something that nature has been harnessing for billions of years.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55Something we call information.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07The concept of information is a very strange one.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11It's actually a very difficult idea to get your head round.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15But in the journey to try and understand it, scientists
0:01:15 > 0:01:20would discover that information is a fundamental part of our universe.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27This film is the story of information.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30And the immense power released from manipulating it.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38It's the story of how we discovered the power of symbols.
0:01:41 > 0:01:42And how writing, codes
0:01:42 > 0:01:48and computers would revolutionise our understanding of the universe.
0:01:51 > 0:01:56It's the story of how, in a cosmos collapsing into disorder,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00information can be used to create order and structure.
0:02:50 > 0:02:56At first glance, information appears to be a very straightforward idea.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00It exists everywhere in our world.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03Our brains are filled with it.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06And we constantly exchange it between each other.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11But information has been one of the subtlest
0:03:11 > 0:03:14and most difficult concepts that science has had to grapple with.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20Understanding and harnessing it has been an extremely long
0:03:20 > 0:03:22and difficult process.
0:03:24 > 0:03:30The power of information would first be glimpsed over 5,000 years ago,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33when a revolutionary technology was developed.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36One that would set the modern world in motion.
0:03:44 > 0:03:49Over the years, mankind has come up with some pretty remarkable stuff.
0:03:49 > 0:03:55But of all humanity's inventions, there's one that really stands out.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59It's the most transformative, destructive,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02creative technology ever conceived.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05It is also one of the simplest.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09That invention is the written word.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15At its heart, writing is all about the transmission
0:04:15 > 0:04:17and storage of information.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34Words allow ideas to endure through time.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39These are some of the earliest texts in existence.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43They give us an incredible insight into the development of writing.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50I've come to meet one of the few people who can still read them -
0:04:51 > 0:04:52Dr Irving Finkel.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58We take writing so much for granted these days,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01it's easy to forget that it was invented.
0:05:01 > 0:05:02It certainly was.
0:05:02 > 0:05:04How did it first come about?
0:05:04 > 0:05:07The earliest writing that we have is written on clay tablets
0:05:07 > 0:05:11and it comes from Iraq, Ancient Mesopotamia.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13It comes from the culture of the culture of the Sumerians.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17What happened here was that they started off with purely
0:05:17 > 0:05:20pictographic signs to express an idea.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24This lasted for quite a long time, until it occurred to somebody,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27perhaps accidentally, that what you could do is make one of these
0:05:27 > 0:05:31graphic symbols on the surface of the clay not for what it
0:05:31 > 0:05:37looked like but for the sound it represented.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40So not a picture of an object, a picture of a sound?
0:05:40 > 0:05:44That's what we always called the giant leap for mankind.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51By combining different sounding pictures,
0:05:51 > 0:05:56the ancient Mesopotamians could express any idea imaginable.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00The essence of their breakthrough was to see, for example,
0:06:00 > 0:06:02that a picture of an eye
0:06:02 > 0:06:07and a picture of a deer didn't have to mean an eye and a deer.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12The pictures could be used simply for the sounds that they made.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14In this case, idea.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20Once this system was discovered,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24it meant anything that could be spoken, even the most strange
0:06:24 > 0:06:29or abstract thoughts could be transformed into symbols.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34Information could now live outside of the human brain.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39This meant it could endure over vast spans of time.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44It was an idea that fascinated the ancient Mesopotamians.
0:06:49 > 0:06:56This lovely tablet here, this king lived in about 2100 BC.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58He buried this in the foundations of his temple as a message
0:06:58 > 0:07:00for the future.
0:07:00 > 0:07:06This King Ur-Nammu, the powerful male, King of Sumer and Akkad -
0:07:06 > 0:07:10that's the south and north part of Ancient Mesopotamia.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Her house - he built for her and he even restored it afterwards.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16This is a proud thing.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18He wants everybody to know about it
0:07:18 > 0:07:21and this is a real message for the future.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23What's so remarkable for me
0:07:23 > 0:07:27is this is information stored on clay for thousands of years.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31- Yes.- Ideas that someone had 4,000 years ago are still there.
0:07:31 > 0:07:36You have ideas, you have speech, human hopes, literature,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40prayers - all these sorts of outpourings of the human soul
0:07:40 > 0:07:42fixed for ever in clay.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52By turning sounds into symbols,
0:07:52 > 0:07:56the Mesopotamian scribes had discover that information could be
0:07:56 > 0:08:00changed very easily from one form to another.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07From something that existed as spoken sounds,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11to something that existed as symbols on clay tablets.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15This was just the beginning.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19Humans were yet to realise the true power of symbols.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42For 4,000 years, writing was pretty much the only
0:08:42 > 0:08:45information technology people used.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49But in the 19th century, during the great Industrial Revolution,
0:08:49 > 0:08:51things would begin to change.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55In the maelstrom of ideas and inventions,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59a series of seemingly unconnected technologies would emerge
0:08:59 > 0:09:04that all began to hint at the immense power of information.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09These technologies would all come from very practical,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12very un-theoretical origins.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15They would start to reveal that information was a much deeper
0:09:15 > 0:09:20and more powerful concept than anyone had realised.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26One of the first of a new breed of information technologies would be
0:09:26 > 0:09:30developed in the French city of Lyon at the end of the 18th century.
0:09:36 > 0:09:4018th-century Lyon was home to some of the best craftsmen in the world.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43It was also a place of great opulence,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46grandeur and, above all, money.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48Thanks to the rich and fashionable aristocrats
0:09:48 > 0:09:50and bankers who lived there,
0:09:50 > 0:09:55it would become home to the greatest silk-weaving industry in the world.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57Almost a third of the city's inhabitants worked in
0:09:57 > 0:10:02the silk industry, and it was home to over 14,000 looms.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15This is brocade.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19The material that made Lyon famous.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22It's a beautiful and intricately woven fabric that,
0:10:22 > 0:10:26as you might imagine, is incredibly labour intensive to produce.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30A two-man team, working flat out for a day,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33could at best produce about an inch of this amazing stuff.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43The demand for the fine fabrics of Lyon was immense.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46But the silk weaving process was painful slow.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53But thanks to a soldier and weaver named Joseph Marie Jaquard,
0:10:53 > 0:10:57a device will be developed to help speed up weaving.
0:10:57 > 0:11:02In the process, it would reveal a fundamental truth about information.
0:11:15 > 0:11:20Building on the work of a number of others, in 1804 Jaquard
0:11:20 > 0:11:22patented his invention.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26At the time, the loom was the most complex mechanism
0:11:26 > 0:11:27ever built by humankind
0:11:37 > 0:11:41Jaquard's loom was a miracle of ingenuity.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44You see, he had designed a single machine, which without any
0:11:44 > 0:11:49alteration to its construction - its hardware, to use a modem term -
0:11:49 > 0:11:53could be programmed to weave any pattern a designer could think up.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57It fact, it could produce a whole range of silk designs
0:11:57 > 0:11:59with barely a pause in production.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03Jaquard had found the holy grail of weaving.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07And the secret was a simple punched card.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17The punched card held within it the essence of the designs
0:12:17 > 0:12:19that the loom would weave.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27When these punched cards were fed into the loom
0:12:27 > 0:12:31they would act to lower and lift the relevant threads...
0:12:35 > 0:12:38..recreating the pattern in silk.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48Any design you could think of could be broken down and translated into
0:12:48 > 0:12:52a series of punch cards that could then woven by the loom.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03Information was being translated from
0:13:03 > 0:13:06picture to punch card to the finished fabric.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14It's a machine for weaving textiles, that's its task,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17but there is nothing specific about what textile it should weave.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20That is contained in the information,
0:13:20 > 0:13:22which is encoded on the cards.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27So if you like, the cards, programme it, that is to say instruct it
0:13:27 > 0:13:31what to do. And this has huge resonances for what came later.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37Jaquard's Loom revolutionised the silk industry.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40But at its heart was something deeper, something more universal
0:13:40 > 0:13:45than its industrial origins and its ability to speed up weaving.
0:13:45 > 0:13:50The loom revealed the power of abstracting information.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54It showed you can take the essence of something, extract the vital
0:13:54 > 0:13:57information and represent it in another form.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07Writing had revealed you could use a set of symbols to capture
0:14:07 > 0:14:09spoken language.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13Now, Jaquard had shown that with just two symbols -
0:14:13 > 0:14:17a hole or a blank space, it was possible to capture
0:14:17 > 0:14:20the information in any picture imaginable.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31This is a portrait of Jaquard that's been woven in silk.
0:14:31 > 0:14:36It's spectacularly detailed with hundreds of thousands of stitches.
0:14:36 > 0:14:41Yet all the information you need to capture this life-like image can be
0:14:41 > 0:14:48stored in a series of punched cards. 24,000 of them to be precise.
0:15:03 > 0:15:08This picture is a fantastic example of a really far-reaching idea.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11That the simplest of systems -
0:15:11 > 0:15:15in this case, cards with a series of holes punched in them -
0:15:15 > 0:15:22can capture the essence of something much, much more complicated.
0:15:24 > 0:15:30If 24,000 punched cards could create an image like this...
0:15:33 > 0:15:36What would happen if you had 24 million?
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Or 24 trillion cards?
0:15:49 > 0:15:52What new types of complex information
0:15:52 > 0:15:55might be able to be captured and represented?
0:16:02 > 0:16:05Jacquard had stumbled on an incredibly deep
0:16:05 > 0:16:07and far-reaching idea.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17As long as you have enough of them, simple symbols can be used
0:16:17 > 0:16:21to describe anything in the entire universe.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42Translating information into abstract symbols
0:16:42 > 0:16:47to store and process, had proven to be an extremely powerful idea.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51But the way information was sent,
0:16:51 > 0:16:55the way it was communicated, hadn't changed for thousands of years.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58The world before telecommunications technology
0:16:58 > 0:17:00was a very different place,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03cos you could only send messages as fast as you could send objects.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06You'd write a message on a piece of paper or something like that
0:17:06 > 0:17:09and then you'd give it to somebody who could run very fast,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11or could go on horse or on a ship very fast.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13The point was you could only send information as fast as
0:17:13 > 0:17:14you could send matter.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20But in the 19th century, the speed at which information
0:17:20 > 0:17:23could be sent would dramatically increase,
0:17:23 > 0:17:28thanks to an incredible new information-carrying medium -
0:17:28 > 0:17:31electricity.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38Very soon after electricity was discovered,
0:17:38 > 0:17:43excitement grew about its potential as a medium to transmit messages.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47It seemed that if it could be controlled and summoned at will,
0:17:47 > 0:17:52electricity would be the perfect medium for sending information.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Electricity seemed to offer many advantages
0:17:56 > 0:17:59as a way of sending messages.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03It was sent down a wire which means it could pretty much go anywhere.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06It wasn't affected by bad weather conditions
0:18:06 > 0:18:10and most importantly, it could move very quickly.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14But there was one big problem facing those in the early 19th century
0:18:14 > 0:18:17who wanted to use electricity as a means to communicate.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22How could such a simple signal be used to send complex messages?
0:18:25 > 0:18:28Here in the Science Museum archive,
0:18:28 > 0:18:31they have one of the most impressive collections
0:18:31 > 0:18:35of early electronic communications technology in the world.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Here are just some of the early devices
0:18:42 > 0:18:45designed to send signals using electricity.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47This one's particularly fun.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51It was developed in 1809 in Bavaria by Samuel Soemmering.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53So if the sender wants to send letter A,
0:18:53 > 0:18:57he sends a current through that corresponding wire.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00At the receiver's end is a tank full of liquid
0:19:00 > 0:19:03and electric current forces a chemical reaction
0:19:03 > 0:19:07causing bubbles to appear above the corresponding letter A.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10The whole process is ingenious, if a little laborious.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14But what's really fun is that the sender has to let the receiver know
0:19:14 > 0:19:16he's about to send a signal.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19He does that by sending extra electric currents
0:19:19 > 0:19:21so that more bubbles appear,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24forcing an arm upwards which releases a ball...
0:19:24 > 0:19:26BELL RINGS
0:19:26 > 0:19:28..and triggers a bell.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38As you can imagine, this wouldn't be the quickest of systems.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41After Soemmering, all sorts of approaches were taken
0:19:41 > 0:19:46in trying to crack the problem of sending messages using electricity.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51But they all suffered from having over-complex codes.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57These devices, each cunning and innovative in its own way,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00were all destined for the scrap heap of history.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04And that's because in the 1840s, they were superseded by a way
0:20:04 > 0:20:08of sending signals that still endures to this day.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13It was developed by artist and entrepreneur Samuel Morse,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16together with his colleague Alfred Vale.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19What was so special about their system wasn't the technology
0:20:19 > 0:20:22that was used to carry their messages,
0:20:22 > 0:20:26but the incredibly simple and effective code
0:20:26 > 0:20:27they used to send them.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41Just like Jacquard's punch cards, the genius of Morse and Vale's code
0:20:41 > 0:20:43lay in its simplicity.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49Using a collection of short and long pulses of electrical current,
0:20:49 > 0:20:52they could spell out the letters of the alphabet.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57Vale suggested that the most frequent letters
0:20:57 > 0:21:00in the English language get the shortest code.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06So an E is sent like this.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11While an X is sent like this.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16This means that messages can be sent quickly and efficiently.
0:21:18 > 0:21:20Figuring out the code part of it, the software if you like,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24was as complicated as figuring out the hardware side of things
0:21:24 > 0:21:28with the batteries and the wires, and together they made an entirely new
0:21:28 > 0:21:30technology which is the electric telegraph.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35The telegraph had once again revealed the power
0:21:35 > 0:21:39of translating information from one medium to another.
0:21:41 > 0:21:46Information had at first been fixed in human brains.
0:21:46 > 0:21:51Then held in symbols in clay and paper and punched cards.
0:21:53 > 0:21:58Now, thanks to Morse, information could reside in electricity
0:21:58 > 0:22:02and this made it unimaginably lighter and quicker
0:22:02 > 0:22:03than it had every been before.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11In just a few short years, the telegraph network
0:22:11 > 0:22:13would spread around the entire globe,
0:22:13 > 0:22:17laying the foundations of the modern information age.
0:22:26 > 0:22:32Between them, Jacquard and Morse had found new novel ways to manipulate,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35process and transmit information.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39What had begun with the invention of writing thousands of years ago
0:22:39 > 0:22:43had culminated in the binding of the entire planet
0:22:43 > 0:22:47in a lattice of wires carrying highly abstracted information
0:22:47 > 0:22:49at incredible speeds.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52For people at the end of the 19th century
0:22:52 > 0:22:56it may have seemed that humanity's ability to manipulate
0:22:56 > 0:22:59and transmit information was at its zenith.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02They couldn't have been more wrong.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05Information would reveal itself to be a more important,
0:23:05 > 0:23:10more fundamental concept than anyone could have imagined.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15It would soon become apparent that information
0:23:15 > 0:23:19wasn't just about human communication.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22It was a much further-reaching idea than that.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27The true nature of information would first be hinted at
0:23:27 > 0:23:29thanks to a strange problem,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32one dreamed up by a brilliant Scottish physicist
0:23:32 > 0:23:35who appeared to be thinking about something else entirely.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56James Clerk Maxwell was one of the great minds of the 19th century.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03Among his many interests, Maxwell became fascinated
0:24:03 > 0:24:07by the science of thermodynamics -
0:24:07 > 0:24:09the study of heat and motion that had sprung up
0:24:09 > 0:24:11with the birth of the steam engine.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20Maxwell was one of the first to understand
0:24:20 > 0:24:24that heat is really just the motion of molecules.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28The hotter something is, the faster its molecules are moving.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35This idea would lead Maxwell to dream up a very bizarre
0:24:35 > 0:24:39thought experiment in which information played a crucial role.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51Maxwell theorised that simply by knowing what's going on
0:24:51 > 0:24:56inside a box full of air, it'll be possible to make one half hotter
0:24:56 > 0:24:59and the other half colder.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Think of it like building an oven next to a fridge
0:25:02 > 0:25:04without using any energy.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21It sounds crazy, but Maxwell's argument was extremely persuasive.
0:25:21 > 0:25:22It goes like this.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26Imagine a small demon perched on to of the box,
0:25:26 > 0:25:30who has such excellent eye sight that he could observe accurately
0:25:30 > 0:25:34the motion of all the molecules of air inside the box.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52Now, crucially,
0:25:52 > 0:25:57he's in control of a partition that divides the box into two halves.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01Every time he sees a fast-moving molecule approaching the partition
0:26:01 > 0:26:07from the right-hand side he opens it up, allowing it through to the left.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10And every time he sees a slow moving molecule approaching the partition
0:26:10 > 0:26:14from the left, he opens it up, allowing the molecule
0:26:14 > 0:26:15through to the right.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30Now, you can see what's going to happen.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35Over time, all the fast-moving hot molecules will accumulate
0:26:35 > 0:26:37on the left-hand side of the box,
0:26:37 > 0:26:40and all the slow-moving cold molecules on the right.
0:26:41 > 0:26:46Crucially, the demon has done this sorting with nothing more
0:26:46 > 0:26:49than information about the motion of the molecules.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57Maxwell's demon seemed to say that just by having information
0:26:57 > 0:27:02about the molecules, you could create order from disorder.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07This idea flew in the face of 19th-century thinking.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15The science of thermodynamics had shown very clearly
0:27:15 > 0:27:20that over time, the entropy of the universe, its disorder,
0:27:20 > 0:27:25would always increase. Things were destined to fall apart.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35But the demon seemed to suggest that you could put things back together
0:27:35 > 0:27:38without using any energy at all.
0:27:38 > 0:27:43Just by using information, you could create order.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51It would prove to be a fiendishly difficult problem to solve,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55not least because the brilliant Maxwell had come up with an idea
0:27:55 > 0:27:57far, far ahead of its time.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04It's amazing, the impact that he had on physics,
0:28:04 > 0:28:08and that he came up with this very intricate concept
0:28:08 > 0:28:14and that he already in some sense pre-anticipated the notion
0:28:14 > 0:28:17of information. It wasn't actually there at the time,
0:28:17 > 0:28:19there was no such thing.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24I think this idea was astonishing.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28He didn't really have a resolution, he raised it as a concern
0:28:28 > 0:28:29and he left it open.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34And I think what followed is more or less 120 years
0:28:34 > 0:28:38of extremely exciting debate and development
0:28:38 > 0:28:42to try to resolve and address this concern.
0:28:53 > 0:28:57So what was going on with Maxwell's demon?
0:28:57 > 0:28:59It may sound far-fetched and fanciful,
0:28:59 > 0:29:03but imagine the possibilities if we could build a machine
0:29:03 > 0:29:07in the real world that could mimic the actions of the Demon.
0:29:07 > 0:29:12I could use it to heat a cup of coffee, or run an engine,
0:29:12 > 0:29:18or power a city all using nothing more than pure information.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20It's as though we could create order in the universe
0:29:20 > 0:29:22without expending any energy.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27Scientists felt intuitively that it had to be wrong.
0:29:27 > 0:29:32The problem was it would take over 100 years to solve the problem.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41While Maxwell's riddle rumbled on,
0:29:41 > 0:29:43something quite unexpected was to happen,
0:29:43 > 0:29:48a new device was dreamt up that could perform quite incredible
0:29:48 > 0:29:52and complex tasks simply by processing information.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56What's more, this was a device that could actually be built.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00The machine would come to be known as the computer, and the idea
0:30:00 > 0:30:05behind it came from a quite remarkable and visionary scientist.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23Alan Turing was the first person to conceive of the modern computer,
0:30:23 > 0:30:29a machine whose sole function is to manipulate and process information.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33A machine that harnesses the power of abstract symbols.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37A machine that enables almost every aspect of the modern world.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44Turing's incredible idea would first appear in a now-legendary
0:30:44 > 0:30:48mathematical paper published in 1936.
0:30:51 > 0:30:56In his brief life, Alan Turing brought fresh, groundbreaking ideas
0:30:56 > 0:30:59to a whole range of topics,
0:30:59 > 0:31:02from cryptography through to biology.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06The sheer breadth of his thinking is breathtaking.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11But for most scientists, it's the concepts he outlined
0:31:11 > 0:31:18in these 36 pages that mark him out as truly special.
0:31:18 > 0:31:23It's this work that makes him worthy of the title "Genius".
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Published when Turing was just 24 years old,
0:31:29 > 0:31:31On Computable Numbers
0:31:31 > 0:31:33With An Application To The Entscheidungsproblem
0:31:33 > 0:31:35tackles the foundations of mathematical logic.
0:31:39 > 0:31:44What's amazing about it is that the idea for the modern computer
0:31:44 > 0:31:49emerged simply as a consequence of Turing's brilliant reasoning.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51He was thinking about something else entirely,
0:31:51 > 0:31:53he wasn't, you know, sitting there thinking,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56"I want to try and invent the modern computer," he was thinking
0:31:56 > 0:32:00about this very abstract problem in the foundations of mathematics.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03And the computer kind fell sideways out of that research,
0:32:03 > 0:32:05completely unexpectedly.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10I mean, nobody could have guessed that Turing's very abstract,
0:32:10 > 0:32:13abstruse research in the foundations of mathematics could produce
0:32:13 > 0:32:18anything of any practical value whatsoever, let alone a machine that
0:32:18 > 0:32:21was going to change the lives of, you know, nearly everyone on the planet.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27Turing had set out to understand if certain processes
0:32:27 > 0:32:32in mathematics could be done simply by following a set of rules.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36And this is what would get him thinking about computers.
0:32:39 > 0:32:44In 1936, the word "computer" had a very different meaning
0:32:44 > 0:32:45to what it does today.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49It meant a real person with a pencil and paper,
0:32:49 > 0:32:51engaged in arithmetical calculations.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56Banks hired many such people, often women,
0:32:56 > 0:32:58to work out interest payments.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02The Inland Revenue employed them to work out how much tax to charge.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06Observatories hired them to calculate navigational data.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11Human computers were vital to the modern world,
0:33:11 > 0:33:14dealing with the huge amounts of information produced
0:33:14 > 0:33:18as science and industry grew ever more complex.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26What Turing did in his 1936 paper was ask a simple
0:33:26 > 0:33:28but profound question.
0:33:28 > 0:33:33"What goes on in the mind of a person carrying out a computation?"
0:33:33 > 0:33:38To do this, he first had to discard all the superfluous detail,
0:33:38 > 0:33:43so that only the very essence of the process of computation remained.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46So, first off went the inkpot.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49Then the pen, then the slide-rule.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51Then the pencils and the pads of paper.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54All these things made it easier, but none of them
0:33:54 > 0:33:59were absolutely crucial to the person carrying out the computation.
0:34:03 > 0:34:08Now Turing asked, "What goes on in the brain of a human computer?"
0:34:08 > 0:34:11It's a vastly complex biological system,
0:34:11 > 0:34:15capable of consciousness, thoughts and insights, but to Turing,
0:34:15 > 0:34:19none of these was critical to the process of computation either.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23Turing realised that to compute something,
0:34:23 > 0:34:26a set of rules had to be followed precisely.
0:34:26 > 0:34:28That was all.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32It takes the higher level intelligence
0:34:32 > 0:34:35that was presupposed to be involved in calculation,
0:34:35 > 0:34:39which was thinking, and says you can have a mechanical process -
0:34:39 > 0:34:43and by mechanical, he means an unthinking process -
0:34:43 > 0:34:44to perform the same act.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48And therefore eliminates the necessity of human agency,
0:34:48 > 0:34:50with all its high-level functions.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54And that is what is revolutionary about what he tries to do.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01Turing's brilliant mind saw that any calculation had two aspects...
0:35:02 > 0:35:08The data, and the instructions for what to do with the data.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11And this would be the key to his insight.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17Turing had to find a way of getting machines to understand instructions
0:35:17 > 0:35:20like "add," "subtract," "multiply," "divide"
0:35:20 > 0:35:24and so on, in the same way that humans do.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27In other words, he had to find a way of translating instructions
0:35:27 > 0:35:31like these into a language that machines could understand.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35And with flawless, impeccable logic, Turing did exactly that.
0:35:41 > 0:35:46This may look like a random series of ones and zeroes,
0:35:46 > 0:35:49but to a computing machine, it's a set of instructions
0:35:49 > 0:35:52that can be read off step by step,
0:35:52 > 0:35:56telling the machine to behave in a certain way.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59So, while a human computer could look at this symbol
0:35:59 > 0:36:01and understand the process that was required,
0:36:01 > 0:36:06the computing machine had to have it explained, like this.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11This paper tape that Turing envisaged is what
0:36:11 > 0:36:14we would now call the memory of the computer.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17But Turing didn't stop there.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26Turing realised that feeding a machine instructions in this way
0:36:26 > 0:36:29had an amazing consequence.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33It meant that just one machine is needed to perform almost any task
0:36:33 > 0:36:35you can think of.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38It's a beautifully simple concept.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41In order to get the machine to do something new, all you had to do
0:36:41 > 0:36:46was feed it a new set of instructions, new information.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51This idea became known as the Universal Turing Machine.
0:36:55 > 0:37:01The more you wanted your machine to do, the longer the tape had to be.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05Bigger memories could hold complex, multilayered instructions
0:37:05 > 0:37:10about how to process and order any kind of information imaginable.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16With a big enough memory,
0:37:16 > 0:37:20the computer will be capable of an almost limitless number of tasks.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29This idea of Turing's, that a multitude of different tasks
0:37:29 > 0:37:33can be carried out simply by giving a computing machine
0:37:33 > 0:37:37a long sequence of instructions, is his greatest legacy.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41Since his paper, Turing's dream has been realised.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44So, calculations, making phone calls,
0:37:44 > 0:37:48recording moving images, writing letters, listening to music -
0:37:48 > 0:37:51none of these require bespoke machines.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54They can all be carried out on a single device.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57A computing machine.
0:37:58 > 0:38:03This phone is a modern incarnation of Turing's amazing idea.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06Inside here are many, many instructions.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09What we call programmes, or software, or apps,
0:38:09 > 0:38:12that are nothing more than a long sequence of numbers
0:38:12 > 0:38:15telling the phone what to do.
0:38:17 > 0:38:22What's amazing about Turing's idea is its incredible scope.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26The sets of instructions that can be fed to a computer
0:38:26 > 0:38:30could tell it how to mimic telephones or typewriters.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33But they could also describe the rules of nature,
0:38:33 > 0:38:35the laws of physics.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38The processes of the natural world.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46This is a simulation of many millions of particles
0:38:46 > 0:38:48behaving like a fluid.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50To work out how it flows,
0:38:50 > 0:38:55the computer simply follows a set of instructions held in its memory.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00This only begins to hint at the power of computing machines.
0:39:09 > 0:39:14This is a computer simulation of the large-scale structure
0:39:14 > 0:39:16of the entire universe.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20And it reveals the true power of Turing's idea.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26Turning instructions into symbols that a machine can understand
0:39:26 > 0:39:31allows you to recreate not just a simple picture or sound,
0:39:31 > 0:39:37but a process, a system, something that is changing and evolving.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42By manipulating simple symbols,
0:39:42 > 0:39:45computers are capable of capturing the essence,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48the order of the natural world itself.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06By thinking about how the human brain processes
0:40:06 > 0:40:09and computes information,
0:40:09 > 0:40:13Alan Turing had had one of the most important ideas of the 20th century.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20The power of information was revealing itself.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28GARBLED VOICES
0:40:34 > 0:40:38It would be very easy to think that after Turing's ideas were made real,
0:40:38 > 0:40:42the true power of information would be unleashed.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45But Turing was only half the story.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49The modern information age would require another idea,
0:40:49 > 0:40:52one that would finally pin down the nature of information,
0:40:52 > 0:40:57and its relationship to the order and disorder of the universe.
0:40:57 > 0:40:59It was an idea that would be dreamt up
0:40:59 > 0:41:03by a gifted and eccentric mathematician and engineer.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16Claude Shannon was a true maverick, and his desire to tackle
0:41:16 > 0:41:20unusual problems would lead to a revolutionary new idea.
0:41:20 > 0:41:25One that would uncover the fundamental nature of information,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29and the process of communication in all its varied forms.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34This is Claude Shannon's paper,
0:41:34 > 0:41:37The Mathematical Theory Of Communication.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40Now, the title may sound a bit dry, but trust me,
0:41:40 > 0:41:43it's one of the most important scientific papers
0:41:43 > 0:41:46of the 20th century. Not only did it lay the foundations
0:41:46 > 0:41:49for the modern world's communication network,
0:41:49 > 0:41:53it also gave us fresh insights into human language,
0:41:53 > 0:41:58into things we do intuitively, like speaking and writing.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07The paper was published in 1948,
0:42:07 > 0:42:10while Shannon was working at the Bell Labs in New Jersey -
0:42:10 > 0:42:14the research arm of the vast Bell Telephone Network.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17It was an institution famous for its forward-thinking,
0:42:17 > 0:42:20relaxed atmosphere.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25The mathematicians were free to work on any problem that interested them.
0:42:25 > 0:42:31The only thing that the laboratory management required of them
0:42:31 > 0:42:33was that they keep an open door,
0:42:33 > 0:42:37and if anybody from any other department came with a problem,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40that they would at least think about it.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45Otherwise they were absolutely free, and the atmosphere was incredible.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49People were playing, and encouraged to play.
0:42:50 > 0:42:52Hello. I'm Claude Shannon,
0:42:52 > 0:42:55a mathematician here at the Bell Telephone Laboratory.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58Claude Shannon in particular was given free reign
0:42:58 > 0:43:00to do pretty much whatever he wanted.
0:43:00 > 0:43:02This is Theseus.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05Theseus is an electrically controlled mouse, mouse.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09Oh, they treated him as their darling.
0:43:09 > 0:43:14I never saw him juggle, but I certainly saw him ride his unicycle.
0:43:14 > 0:43:16He brought it to work one day,
0:43:16 > 0:43:20and he must have cost Bell Labs
0:43:20 > 0:43:24at least a hundred man-hours of time.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30But despite the frivolity,
0:43:30 > 0:43:34the Bell Telephone Network faced a huge problem.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37Every day, they transmitted vast amounts of electronic
0:43:37 > 0:43:40information all across the world.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44But they had no real idea of how to measure this information properly,
0:43:44 > 0:43:46or how to quantify it.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52In short, their entire business was built on something
0:43:52 > 0:43:54they didn't actually understand.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00Amazingly, their superstar employee Claude Shannon
0:44:00 > 0:44:03would give them exactly what they needed.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07GARBLED VOICES
0:44:11 > 0:44:15In this paper, Shannon did something absolutely incredible -
0:44:15 > 0:44:19he took the vague and mysterious concept of information
0:44:19 > 0:44:21and managed to pin it down.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24Now, he didn't do this using some cleverly-worded,
0:44:24 > 0:44:26philosophical definition.
0:44:26 > 0:44:28He actually found a way to measure
0:44:28 > 0:44:31the information contained in a message.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34GARBLED VOICES
0:44:36 > 0:44:39Amazingly, Shannon realised that the quantity of information
0:44:39 > 0:44:42in a message had nothing to do with its meaning.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45Instead, he showed it was related solely
0:44:45 > 0:44:47to how unusual the message was.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54Information is related to unexpectedness.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57So news is news because it's unexpected
0:44:57 > 0:45:00and the more unexpected it is, the more newsworthy it is.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02So if today's news was the same as yesterday's news,
0:45:02 > 0:45:04there would be no news at all.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07And that information content would be zero.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10So suddenly you have a relationship between...
0:45:10 > 0:45:15unexpectedness and information.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18GARBLED VOICES
0:45:18 > 0:45:20But Shannon was to go further
0:45:20 > 0:45:24and give information its very own unit of measurement.
0:45:25 > 0:45:28GARBLED VOICES
0:45:30 > 0:45:33So, how did he do this?
0:45:33 > 0:45:36Well, he showed that any message you cared to send
0:45:36 > 0:45:39could be translated into binary digits -
0:45:39 > 0:45:42a long sequence of ones and zeros.
0:45:42 > 0:45:48So a simple greeting like "Hello" could be written like this.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52Or...like this.
0:45:52 > 0:45:57Just think of this as another way of writing the same message.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01ELECTRONIC MUSIC
0:46:03 > 0:46:08Shannon realised that transforming information into binary digits
0:46:08 > 0:46:10would be an immensely powerful act.
0:46:10 > 0:46:12It would make information
0:46:12 > 0:46:16manageable, exact, controllable and precise.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24In his paper, Shannon showed that a single binary digit -
0:46:24 > 0:46:30one of these ones or zeros - is a fundamental unit of information.
0:46:30 > 0:46:32Think of it as an atom of information -
0:46:32 > 0:46:35the smallest possible piece.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38Then, having defined this basic unit,
0:46:38 > 0:46:42he even gave us a name for it, one we're all familiar with today.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46He used a shortening of the phrase, "binary digit" -
0:46:46 > 0:46:48"bit".
0:46:48 > 0:46:53The humble bit turned out to be an enormously powerful idea.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59The bit is the smallest quantity of information.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03It is highly significant because it's the fundamental atom.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05It is the smallest unit of information in which
0:47:05 > 0:47:09there's sufficient discrimination to communicate anything at all.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18The power of the bit lay in its universality.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22Any system that has two states,
0:47:22 > 0:47:25like a coin with heads or tails,
0:47:25 > 0:47:28can carry one bit of information.
0:47:30 > 0:47:31One or zero.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34Punched or not punched.
0:47:34 > 0:47:35On or off.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37Stop or go.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42All of these systems can store one bit of information.
0:47:45 > 0:47:46Thanks to Shannon,
0:47:46 > 0:47:51the bit became the common language of all information.
0:47:51 > 0:47:56Anything - sounds, pictures, text - can be turned into bits
0:47:56 > 0:48:02and transmitted by any system capable of being in just two states.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14Shannon had founded a new, far-reaching theory.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18The ideas he began to explore would form the cornerstone
0:48:18 > 0:48:20of what we now call, "information theory".
0:48:20 > 0:48:24He'd taken an abstract concept - information -
0:48:24 > 0:48:27and turned it into something tangible.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30What had been just a vague notion
0:48:30 > 0:48:34was now measurable - something real.
0:48:39 > 0:48:43The idea of converting into bits, into making things digital,
0:48:43 > 0:48:47would fundamentally transform many aspects of human society.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52GARBLED VOICES
0:48:56 > 0:49:00But information isn't just something humans create.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03We're beginning to understand that this concept lies at the heart,
0:49:03 > 0:49:07not only of 21st-century human society,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10but also at the heart of the physical world itself.
0:49:10 > 0:49:16Every "bit" of information we've ever created, every book,
0:49:16 > 0:49:21every film, the entire contents of the internet,
0:49:21 > 0:49:22amounts to pretty much nothing
0:49:22 > 0:49:26when compared with the information content of nature.
0:49:26 > 0:49:30And that's because even the most insignificant event
0:49:30 > 0:49:33contains a spectacular amount of information.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35Let me show you.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54Imagine how many bits of information you would need to describe this.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05The beautiful and intricate interplay of physical laws
0:50:05 > 0:50:07taking place at scales and timeframes
0:50:07 > 0:50:10that are normally imperceptible to us.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19But here you're still only seeing a fraction
0:50:19 > 0:50:21of the complexity of nature.
0:50:40 > 0:50:46Imagine the interplay between the trillions upon trillions of atoms.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51The amount of bits you would need to describe this
0:50:51 > 0:50:53is almost unimaginable.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59But what's amazing is that now,
0:50:59 > 0:51:04thanks to the ideas of Turing and Shannon, we're able to describe,
0:51:04 > 0:51:08model and simulate nature in ever greater detail.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14But this isn't the end of the story.
0:51:14 > 0:51:19Information, it seems, isn't just a way of describing reality.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25In the last few years, we've discovered that information
0:51:25 > 0:51:28is actually an inseparable part of the physical world.
0:51:42 > 0:51:48It's a really difficult idea to get to grips with but information,
0:51:48 > 0:51:52everything from a Beethoven symphony to the contents of a dictionary,
0:51:52 > 0:51:54even a fleeting thought,
0:51:54 > 0:51:59all information needs to be embodied in some form of physical system.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06Amazingly, the reason we understand the true connection
0:52:06 > 0:52:11between information and reality is because of Maxwell's demon.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18Remember, it seemed like the demon could use information
0:52:18 > 0:52:23to create order in a box of air that started out completely disordered.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27Moreover, it could do this without expending any effort.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32Information seemed to be able to break the laws of physics.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37Well, that's not true - it can't.
0:52:43 > 0:52:48The reason why Maxwell's demon can't get energy for free lies here -
0:52:48 > 0:52:50in his head.
0:52:56 > 0:52:58What was discovered was this -
0:52:58 > 0:53:01the demon really is using nothing more than information
0:53:01 > 0:53:03to create useful energy.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07But this doesn't mean that he's getting something for nothing.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09Remember how the demon works?
0:53:09 > 0:53:13He spots a fast-moving molecule on one side of the box,
0:53:13 > 0:53:16opens a partition and lets it through to the other side.
0:53:16 > 0:53:21But each time he does that, he has to store information
0:53:21 > 0:53:24about that molecule's speed in his memory.
0:53:25 > 0:53:30Soon his memory will fill up and then he can only continue
0:53:30 > 0:53:33if he starts deleting information.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37Crucially this deletion would require him to expend energy.
0:53:39 > 0:53:44The demon needs to keep a record of which molecules are moving where
0:53:44 > 0:53:48and if the record-keeping device is only finite size,
0:53:48 > 0:53:50at some point the demon is going to have to erase it.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52That's an irreversible process
0:53:52 > 0:53:54that increases the entropy of the universe.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57Its the erasure of information
0:53:57 > 0:53:59that increases entropy once and for all.
0:54:02 > 0:54:03What was discovered
0:54:03 > 0:54:07is that there's a certain, specific minimum amount of energy,
0:54:07 > 0:54:09known as the Landauer limit,
0:54:09 > 0:54:13that's required to delete one bit of information.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19It's tiny, less than a trillion trillionth of the amount of energy
0:54:19 > 0:54:23in a gram of sugar, but it's real.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26It's a part of the fundamental fabric of the universe.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37Amazingly, we can now do real experiments
0:54:37 > 0:54:40that test aspects of Maxwell's idea.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45By using lasers and tiny particles of dust,
0:54:45 > 0:54:47scientists around the world have explored the relationship
0:54:47 > 0:54:52between information and energy with incredible accuracy.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58Maxwell's thought experiment, dreamt up in the age of steam,
0:54:58 > 0:55:02still remains at the cutting edge of scientific research today.
0:55:07 > 0:55:12Maxwell's demon links together two of the most important concepts
0:55:12 > 0:55:16in science - the study of energy and the study of information
0:55:16 > 0:55:20and shows that the two are profoundly linked.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23What we now know is that information,
0:55:23 > 0:55:25far from being some abstract concept,
0:55:25 > 0:55:30obeys the same laws of physics as everything else in the universe.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41Information is not just an abstraction,
0:55:41 > 0:55:45just a mathematical thing or formula that you write on the paper.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48Information is actually carried by something.
0:55:48 > 0:55:50So it is encoded onto something -
0:55:50 > 0:55:54a stone, a book, a CD.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57Whatever it is, there is a carrier where the information is on.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01That means that information behaves according to those laws of physics.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04So it cannot break the laws of physics.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14What humanity has learnt over the last few millennia
0:56:14 > 0:56:18is that information can never be divorced from the physical world.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26But this is not a hindrance.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31What makes information so powerful is the fact it can be stored
0:56:31 > 0:56:34in any physical system we choose.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39From using stone and clay to allow information
0:56:39 > 0:56:41to be preserved over eons
0:56:41 > 0:56:45to using electricity and light so it can be sent quickly,
0:56:45 > 0:56:50the medium that stores information gives it unique properties.
0:56:55 > 0:56:59Today, scientists are exploring new ways of manipulating information,
0:56:59 > 0:57:03using everything from DNA to quantum particles.
0:57:03 > 0:57:08They hope that this work will usher in a new information age,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11every bit as transformative as the last.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18What we now know is that we are just at the beginning of our journey
0:57:18 > 0:57:21to unlock the power of information.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40It's always been clear that creating physical order -
0:57:40 > 0:57:44the structures we see around us - has a cost.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48We need to do work to expend energy to build them.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52But in the last few years, we've learnt that ordering information,
0:57:52 > 0:57:56creating the invisible, digital structures of the modern world,
0:57:56 > 0:57:58also has an inescapable cost.
0:57:58 > 0:58:02As abstract and ethereal as information seems,
0:58:02 > 0:58:06we now know it must always be embodied in a physical system.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10I find this an incredibly exciting idea.
0:58:10 > 0:58:15Think about it this way - a lump of clay can be used to write a poem on.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19Molecules of air can carry the sound of a symphony.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23And a single photon is like a paint brush.
0:58:23 > 0:58:25Every aspect of the physical universe
0:58:25 > 0:58:28can be thought of as a blank canvas,
0:58:28 > 0:58:33which we can use to build beauty, structure and order.
0:58:46 > 0:58:52Subtitles By Red Bee Media Ltd