NARRATOR: November 17, 2015, a team of researchers from North
Carolina State University and Rice University
unveil the first motor-driven submersible
nano-machines ever created.
Molecular nanotechnology is the idea of building devices,
machines at a molecular scale.
Nano refers to a billionth of a meter so very, very small.
We're getting down to atomic scale.
NARRATOR: Measuring only 244 atoms across,
these miniature robots are designed
to deliver specialized medicines throughout the body
using the bloodstream.
Scientists have created biobots
that are the first of its kind.
These tiny little biohybrid semi-bots are
capable of travelling through viscus
material through our bodies.
GRAY SCOTT: They take submersible nano-machines
that can be controlled with UV light.
And using the UV light, they can control where
these nano-machines take nutrients
and take medicines into the body.
KEVIN WARWICK: As long as we have a way of controlling them
from the outside, they can move around very, very quickly,
perform a function.
If we're looking at operating on a cancer, then potentially
they could do that operation for you from within.
DAVID WILCOCK: This could lead to huge advances in medicine,
in healing, leading to nano-machines
that could actually heal the wounds in our bodies,
close things up much faster, repair damaged tissue,
extend our lifespan, and literally
bring us into a new level of human evolution.
NARRATOR: Transhumanists believe our bodies will soon
be home to swarms of nano-machines
that will both heal and also warn of disease.
And some propose this technology is advancing so rapidly that it
will not just be future generations that will live tens
or even hundreds of years longer but people who are alive today.
GREGORY STOCK: The possibility of reversing human aging,
as opposed to just slowing it down,
is not a very big stretch.
So if you understand aging and the fundamentals
of the processes that are leading to it,
it would be quite possible both to slow it,
and it would also be possible to reverse it.
GRAY SCOTT: An example of this is a study
that has gone on at Harvard.
By reversing the muscle tissue in mice,
we have actually reversed the age in these mice.
And so if we can do that in the laboratory setting,
it's only a matter of time before we're able to reverse
our own aging process.
NARRATOR: Could millions of microscopic robots
soon be swimming in our bloodstreams, augmenting
our immune system, and even reversing
the aging process entirely as transhumanists believe?
Ancient astronaut theorists suggest
that if such a transformation does occur,
it may be a sign that we are evolving to become
more like our alien ancestors.
As evidence, they point to the Sumerian King List, a series
of stone tablets that are believed to be over 4,000 years
old and record the reigns of ancient Mesopotamian kings
that ruled for upwards of 43,000 years.
WILLIAM HENRY: The Sumerian Kings List was handed
down to humanity by the gods.
What's extraordinary is that the reigns of these kings
last into the thousands of years.
These people weren't making allegorical
or metaphorical statements.
These were accurate historical records.