Ancient Aliens

Incredible strength.

You had the creation

of a superhuman that was indestructible, invincible.

Superior intelligence.

The ultimate goal is to become an immortal god.

And the ability to reproduce.

You have a robotic consciousness

that has become something we would think of as a person.

But is this obsession with creating counterfeit humans

really pointing the way

to mankind's future

or to its past?

Another civilization has done

the same thing hundreds

of thousands of years before us.

We may be living in a universe

where the real intelligences out there

are robots.

Since the dawn of civilization,

mankind has credited its origins to gods

and other visitors from the stars.

What if it were true?

Did extraterrestrial beings

really help to shape our history?

And if so, could there be a connection

between aliens and robots?

Kansai Science City, Japan.

At the Advanced Telecommunications.

Research Institute,

Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro and his team

are developing a series of robots.

Artificial humans that are incredibly lifelike,

both in their appearance and in their facial gestures.

This robot... Part of the Geminoid series...

Is designed to look identical to its maker.

But what separates it from other robots of its type

is the number of miniature motors, called actuators,

used to mimic human expression.

While most use ten to 12,

the latest Geminoids use over 50.

The robot is programmed to mimic

as closely as possible the movements

a human makes while at rest.

It responds spontaneously

to being touched or when asked a question.

It can also be remotely operated.

While the Geminoid robots focus primarily

on replicating facial expression,

engineers at the University of Texas.

Human Centered Robotics Lab

have developed a robot named Dreamer

that can perform an equally impressive series

of sophisticated body movements.

We made Dreamer more human-like through, uh,

features and-and shapes and kind of dimensions of a human.

And at the same time making the movements much more human-like

by understanding and learning from the human.

So one thing that makes unique the movement of Dreamers

is what we call the whole body control.

Although Dreamer's torso rests on a wheeled base,

a bipedal set of robotic legs

are currently being developed

which will make Dreamer fully mobile within two years.

Ultimately, we want these machines

to live 100 years unassisted.

Without any supervision whatsoever.

By combining the lifelike characteristics

of androids like those

developed by Hiroshi Ishiguro

with the mobility of robots like Dreamer,

scientists believe we might soon see a time

when artificial humans will be virtually identical

to the real thing.

We're gonna be able to actually create very human-like

robotic systems to the point that

they are nearly indistinguishable,

both in movement and in morphology.

You look at something like

the sort of entities that were dealt with

in the movie Blade Runner, the kinds of Turing tests

that were done there to try to spot the androids.

I think that in principle,

we could have androids passing

a sophisticated version of the Turing test

that would force the machine to think reflectively about

its own consciousness, about its own past,

about its own feelings,

and I think that this

should not be impossible to do, and in which case

we should count these beings as human.

In the 21st century,

robots are being programmed to do everything

from performing surgery

to driving a car.

And humanoid robots are rapidly

reaching a level of sophistication

that was thought to exist

only in science fiction.

But what are the implications of creating robots

that are increasingly intelligent and independent?

In March of 2015,

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was quoted as saying.

"Computers are going to take over from humans...

the future is scary."

Even Stephen Hawking

and Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk

have predicted that machines may soon surpass

and ultimately replace humans.

Many scientists and thinkers have postulated

that ultimately machines

are gonna take over the world.

Computers are getting faster and more powerful.

Ultimately, we will design machines

that themselves design

even better machines.

If it gets smarter than us, we'd better watch out.

But while conventional scientists

ponder whether or not robots

are destined to take over the earth,

ancient astronaut theorists are asking themselves

quite a different question:

Did this all happen before,

perhaps thousands of years ago?

Abydos, Egypt.

Seven miles west of the Nile.

Within this expansive archaeological site

lies the ruins of the Osiris Hall,

where thousands would gather to worship

the god of the underworld.

In comparison to many of the gods,

Osiris is actually thought to have lived

physically on Earth

as one of Egypt's Pharaohs.

He is often depicted

with a winged disc of the sun.

And while many scholars have suggested

that this is nothing else

but, uh, to worship the sun,

that sun, as far as the Egyptians were concerned,

also had wings and it descended from the sky.

So in my opinion, something else was depicted:

An extraterrestrial event

that in fact took place in real life.

Although most ancient astronaut theorists believe

that the Egyptian gods were, in reality,

extraterrestrial visitors,

there are many who wonder if Osiris

was even made of flesh and blood.

One of the most famous stories

that go hand in hand with Osiris

was that he was dismembered

by his jealous brother, Seth.

Seth went into a fury

and tore his brother's dead body

to shreds, tore it into 14 pieces, had it scattered

far and wide all over the kingdom.

But Isis, the loyal wife, searched far and wide

and found the pieces and pulled it together.

Isis succeeded

in resurrecting him.

Now, when I hear a story like that,

that a being is dismembered

and then somebody puts together those pieces

and then they are able to magically resurrect him,

I have to ask the question:

Is it possible that Osiris was not

some type of biological entity,

but perhaps he was some type

of a machine or a robot?

For ancient astronaut theorists,

perhaps the strongest evidence that Osiris

may have been a robot can be found

in the ancient Pyramid Texts,

which describe the symbol of the Djed Pillar

as Osiris' spine.

Osiris in his resurrected form

was portrayed as a pillar

that clearly resembles

a modern-day Tesla coil.

The Djed Pillar was considered a power pillar.

In this one carving at Abydos,

it is as if Isis has her hand

inserted into Osiris's back.

And so perhaps it illustrates

how she was manipulating Osiris.

Could it be that the story of Osiris

is something completely different

than what we have thought?

Is it possible that our ancestors

encountered highly sophisticated extraterrestrial robots

in the ancient past?

And if so,

might there be some tangible evidence?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes

and believe the evidence was recovered

deep beneath the sea

and dates back

more than 2,000 years.

The Aegean Sea.

April, 1900.