Homo digitalis

Homo Digitalis

The Perfect Friend

La amiga perfecta

Idealna przyjaciółka

Will human relationships become obsolete in the future, to be replaced by artificial intelligence and virtual reality? Today, researchers can simulate the presence of a loved one. In this episode, Helen Fares finds herself faced with the hologram of her best friend Josy, and explores the nature of friendship in the digital age.

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Will human relationships become obsolete in the future, to be replaced by artificial intelligence and virtual reality?

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We will be able to upgrade our brains with a microchip, blurring the boundaries between man and machine in a way that we've never seen before. But what will happen to us when our computers become smarter than we are? Helen Fares is on a mission to test the limits of the human brain.

Helen Fares is on a mission to test the limits of the human brain

The Upgraded Brain

Does living in a digitised world divert sexual pleasure away from other people and towards the screen? A recent study confirms the trend in both Japan and Europe. Since the advent of the smartphone, the amount of sex couples have has decreased. At the same time, sex robots are now a reality. Helen Fares meets one of these lovers of the future.

Does living in a digitised world divert sexual pleasures away from other people and towards the screen?

The Digital Orgasm

Eternal life: an impossible dream or our reality in just a few decades? And would you even be willing to modify your DNA to live longer? Is the body is only a computer and DNA the source code? Quite possibly...

Is the body is only a computer and DNA the source code?

Eternal Youth

According to futurist Ian Pearson, the holidays of the future will be virtual. The first wave of immigration into the virtual world has already taken place: you can dance, chat or play board games. Some people have even got married via VR. The possibilities are endless to escape real life, or enrich it.

The possibilities are endless to escape real life, or enrich it

Virtual Fun

Each technical revolution has taken us one step closer to simplifying our daily lives. Now, the old fear is back: machines will take our jobs. But will these robots be able to make us more efficient and happier at work?

Now, the old fear is back: machines will take our jobs

Digital Happiness at Work

Is humanity and technology becoming so meshed together that chips in the brain, 3D printed organs and virtual sex will one day just be considered a normal part of life? And if we were to become no longer totally human, but not totally digital either, would that make us a new species - Homo Digitalis? Are we going to take over evolution and decide for ourselves how we want to change?

Are we going to take over evolution and decide for ourselves how we want to change?

A New Type of Human

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Are rural eco-neighborhoods a weapon against the rural exodus? We take a look at three next generation, eco-friendly villages in France to find out.

Ecotopia

Are rural eco-neighborhoods a weapon against the rural exodus?

Rural Eco-homes

Eco-neighbourhoods are experiments in how to live together but do they represent the future for our cities?

Are eco-neighbourhoods the future for our cities?

Cities of the Future

The pole vault is a discipline is based on the transformation of kinetic energy into elastic energy and then into gravitational energy. Athletes must play with energy, optimise it, transform it, and conserve it.

The Strongest of Them All

Athletes must play with energy, optimise it, transform it, and conserve it

Pole Vaulting: Overcoming Gravity

If you spin a top, it will continue to rotate on its own for a while. Physicists found the explanation for this phenomenon: inside angular momentum. In sport it is used by trampoliners. They are true masters of the art of turning and can perform up to 50 spins in 20 seconds.

The Mechanics of Strength

Trampoliners can spin up to 50 times in the space of just 20 seconds

The Trampoline and Kinetic Energy

Since antiquity, scientists have tracked down the principles behind the movements of moving things, from planets to athletes. Running champions make sure of basic principles of physics developed by Newton to improve their performance. We take a look at the maths behind the movement. 

Since antiquity, scientists have tracked down the principles behind the movements of moving things, from planets to athletes

Sprinting and Newton's Law

A look at three pioneer eco-districts in Europe, set up between 1995 and 2005, to encourage ecological living..

A look at three pioneer eco-districts in Europe

Pioneering Green Neighbourhoods

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Faced with more frequent and violent natural disasters caused by climate change, animals and plants are adapting. Some species, such as sharks, which are able to sense the change in atmospheric pressure of a coming hurricane, move away from danger. Others learn to live with it, such as curlews, which use the hot ash from erupting volcanoes in Papua New Guinea to incubate their eggs. A surprising and inspiring documentary about nature's survivors.

How Animals and Plants Survive

Faced with more frequent and violent natural disasters caused by climate change, animals and plants are adapting. A surprising and inspiring documentary about nature's survivors.

Natural Disasters

Behind his polite exterior lies a formidable leader with a ruthless character, ready to do anything to make China the world's leading power by the People’s Republic’s centenary in 2049. This well-documented portrait of the Chinese president gives an unprecedented insight into his politics and shows how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

A portrait of the Chinese president giving an unprecedented insight into his politics and showing how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

The New World of Xi Jinping

Pippi Longstocking, the superhumanly strong redhead with pigtails and freckles, conquers the world of classical ballet. The Swedish dancer and choreographer Pär Isberg stages Astrid Lindgren’s favourite character from the Villa Villekulla for the Helsinki opera house. The ballet music is the work of Georg Riedel and Stefan Nilsson.

From the Helsinki Opera

The Swedish dancer and choreographer Pär Isberg stages Astrid Lindgren’s favourite character for the Helsinki opera house.

Pippi Longstocking

Lowriding is a passion for cars where owners customise their vintage vehicles to look cool gliding along the Los Angeles boulevards. For long a male-only pursuit, more and more women are getting into it lowriding.

Geo Reportage

Lowriders of Los Angeles

A special gala concert to celebrate five years of Hamburg’s fantastic new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie, opened on January 11 2017. The NDR Elbphilharmonie orchestra performs works by Adams, Adès and Salonen with conductor Alan Gilbert and pianist Kiril Gerstein.

With Kirill Gerstein, Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

A special gala concert to celebrate five years of Hamburg’s fantastic new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie.

5 Years of the Elbphilharmonie

Present on the coast but also inland, dunes are shaped by the wind and are in perpetual movement. These extraordinary landscapes made of infinite grains of sand are ephemeral and inhospitable. Yet the environment they offer is astonishingly diverse.

Present on the coast but also inland, dunes are in perpetual movement, creating extraordinary ephemeral landscapes.

Dunes: Europe's Moving Landscapes

A region of Europe with a shared experience of communism and USSR dominance, Eastern Europe today is characterised by nations with diverse cultural and political identities.

Mapping the World

How many Eastern Europes?

Meet two of Poland's oldest hippies: Juliusz (92) and Krystof (77) have been living on the shores of Lake Solina, in almost total isolation and surrounded by nature and animals, for decades. But life in the middle of nowhere is increasingly hard on their aging bodies. 

Meet two of Poland's oldest hippies: Juliusz (92) and Krystof (77)

Re: An Unconventional Retirement

To celebrate 50 years of French radio station FIP, Sting gives a special performance in the monumental surroundings of the Pantheon in Paris.

50 Years of FIP Radio

Sting at the Pantheon in Paris

Vadum Minsyuk and Yuri Andreyev fled the war in eastern Ukraine in 2014. In search of a new beginning, they decided to start a new life in the Chernobyl region, close to the exclusion zone from the 1986 nuclear disaster. The dangers of radiation are better than the rockets of war.

Vadum Minsyuk and Yuri Andreyev fled the war in eastern Ukraine to start a new life in the Chernobyl region,  The dangers of radiation are better than the rockets of war for them.

Re: New Beginning in Chernobyl

A journey through Middle-earth, or rather New Zealand. Peter Jackson used the natural beauty of his native land to great effect in his film adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien’s classic trilogy. A tour through locations for the Shire, the Misty Mountains and Mordor… 

Cult Film Locations

A journey through New Zealand used to great effect in the film adaptation of Tolkien’s classic.

Looking for the Lord of the Rings

The Indian state of Sikkim has banned pesticides completely, allowing only organic farming. The results: healthy food and healthy soils.

ARTE Reportage

India: Sikkim - A Green New World

It's big business: in summer, hundreds of kilos of mushrooms are illegally picked every day in Romanian forests. They are then transported to Italy by intermediaries where they are sold at astronomical prices. Romanian authorities do nothing as the forests are looted unsustainably for their grey gold.

It's big business: in summer, hundreds of kilos of mushrooms are illegally picked every day in Romanian forests

Re: Truffle Traffick in Romania

Stuttgart Ballet performs ‘Onegin’, John Cranko’s acclaimed 1965 choreography of Alexander Pushkin’s novel. Classical ballet at its best in a version created for the cinema.

A Ballet by John Cranko

Stuttgart Ballet performs ‘Onegin’, John Cranko’s acclaimed 1965 choreography of Alexander Pushkin’s novel.

Onegin

Iraq in 2022: Will the emerging nation succeed in resisting foreign influence and from Iran in particular? What does the future hold for the Kurdish autonomous region? And will the USA ever really leave?

Iraq in 2022: Will the emerging nation succeed in resisting influence from foreign powers, and from Iran in particular? 

Iraq - A Sovereign Country?

Saudi Arabia is reputed to be one of the richest and most conservative nations on the planet. But how do its citizens live today?

Unknown Arabia

Saudi Arabia: The West

Aquile di San Martino is the oldest mountaineering association in the Dolomites. Rocco is the oldest and most experienced active guide, and young Livio is in his last phase of mountain guide training. They are out on their last expedition before Livio is a fully-fledged 'aquile' - an eagle of the mountains. 

GEO Reportage

Young Livio is in his last phase of mountain guide training, and has just one last expedition to complete

Mountaineering in the Dolomites

This documentary tells the story of German Expressionism in the context of colonial exploitation for the first time. When German artists Emil Nolde and Max Pechstein travelled to what was then the colony of German New Guinea and the Palau Islands in 1910, they wanted to revolutionise painting through inspiration from indigenous art and peoples. But their "South Sea paradise" had already been destroyed by the European colonial masters and their art would reveal the ideals and prejudice of early twentieth century Europe.

Expressionism and Colonialism

This documentary tells the story of German Expressionist art for the first time in the context of colonial exploitation. 

The White Gaze

Reinhold Messner is a mountaineering legend. From an early age he climbed the breathtaking Dolomites in his native South-Tyrol before conquering the highest peaks in the world. He shares his passion for mountaineering and his life philosophy.

Man of the Peaks

Reinhold Messner

In Northern Ireland tensions are high as the realities of Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol become apparent. ARTE meets members of the loyalist community leading up to 12 July, Orangemen’s Day.

Homo Digitalis

Homo Digitalis

The Upgraded Brain

The Digital Orgasm

Eternal Youth

Virtual Fun

Digital Happiness at Work

A New Type of Human

The Perfect FriendHomo Digitalis

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