Two documentaries about matters very close to the heart of Remotely Interesting air next week.
One looks into work being done on what we consider to be mankind's next stage: the merging of man and machine to create a super being.
The other has funny videos about cats.
The first is a show called Breakthrough, beginning on Sky's National Geographic channel on November 17.
Breakthrough has the rather unusual premise of six actors and directors, including Ron Howard, fronting one episode each of a show that looks at scientific discoveries and the cutting-edge innovations resulting that are changing the world in which we live.
Why actors and directors? - I don't really know, but I suppose it doesn't much matter.
Over the six episodes the show will cover breakthroughs in brain science, longevity, water, energy, pandemics and cyborg technology.
Cyborg technology has always interested Remotely Interesting, mainly because of our growing realisation the body is an inefficient and often very poorly designed vessel in which to spend the few short years it lasts.
What better than an indestructible, immortal machine to hold our brains, in particular one that doesn't need to go to the toilet, an activity we have always thought unnecessarily unpleasant.
The episode that looks at this issue is episode two, and is hosted by Paul Giamatti.
You may not recognise Giamatti's name but the man himself is very familiar - the sort who has played supporting roles in what feels like hundreds of movies, a little like Steve Buscemi before Fargo and Boardwalk Empire.
In Breakthrough he travels to the US state of Georgia to look at aluminium and carbon fibre exoskeletons that help people operate heavy tools for hours in emergency situations such as earthquakes or terrorists attacks.
He flies to Brazil to talk to a scientist linking brains with computers, and Houston to meet a neuroscientist turning sound into something that can be felt through a vest, worn by the profoundly deaf.
Interesting and excellent.
Keep at it scientists, and work hard - our escape from these puny meat-sacks cannot some quickly enough.
Meanwhile on TV2, another extremely important documentary is set to be broadcast on Monday at 8.30pm.
Cats Make You Laugh Out Loud 2 takes up where the brilliant Cats Make You Laugh Out Loud, which ran earlier this year, left off.
As you will know, 80% of video footage online has funny cats as its subjects, or some other percentage.
I'm not sure.
Cats Make You Laugh Out Loud 2 compiles those hilarious videos, hires a narrator, and puts them on the television.
Brilliant.
- Charles Loughrey
