one day we'll be able to actually have a choice or we could just live forever and not have children a transhuman future of might not be science fiction from artificial i used to chips in our brains it seems man is not too far off from meeting his match we'll show you what the future could hold when it comes to machines. and russian president vladimir putin signs a bill banning americans from adopting russian orphans we visit a ranch in montana where russian orphans stay when their parents send them away their stories coming up. on the wake of one of the deadliest school shootings in american history at the city of los angeles is offering grocery store gift cards in

exchange for guns but you won't believe what else was turned into in the arms collection that's coming up in a moment. it's friday december twenty eighth eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching r.t. . well we begin today with the technology which is advancing exponentially before our very eyes our computers phones and other gadgets are getting faster smaller more powerful now machines are being used to improve the human body but where do we draw the line between man and machine a scientific community believe the two will become one in just a few decades r.t. takes a look at what a transhumanist world will look like it sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. we can reveal. we have the technology.

we have the capability to make the first one on a mixing man and machine to enhance the human body. but a scientific community believes it will become a reality in the coming decades the interest rate curves while predicts the are twenty forty five will be the technological tipping point he's an award winning scientist and engineer a millionaire several times over because it turns well serious chronicled in film director barry but ptolemy is transcendent man something radical is going to happen because our technology is speeding up we think that this is going to stop we're going to hit a wall somewhere well technology is advancing at an exponential rate for example just a few decades ago the firepower in this i phone once took up entire rooms but with technology rapidly getting faster and smaller it's believed that the hardware and this phone will be able to fit into our blood cells the vast supercomputers of the

future only twenty years from now will actually be in our bloodstream will be in our brains every internal connection transhumanist enthusiasm believe it will transform life as we know it being disease being involuntary ending mental illness and providing material of. that's not a imagine that's the beginning and there's proof it's already happening we're putting computers in our brains if you're parkinson's patient. even a cochlear implant is a form of computer inside our bodies are emerging and all these different ways from artificial eyes to prosthetic limb electronic skin tattoos that monitor patients some are quick to point out how the technology will be used to help mankind will start to create new medicines that will reprogram a biology away from diseases in them away from aging process is that means not only finding the fountain of youth but it cheating immortality it gives people like

matthew doing that fear death some hope one day we'll be able to actually have a choice or we could just live forever and not have children if he dies he says he plans to have his body preserved until science can revive him and allow him to live forever but others warn of the risk the technology could fall into the hands of mad men joel garo calls it the health scenario in that scenario what happens is that you create. viruses and diseases that can weigh about the human race another scary scene the technology used to track and control people the minute that happens then that we're never going to have much control over our future again but despite these scary a possibility of transhumanist believers say the merging of man and machine is going to happen soon whether we want it to or not here in washington liz wahl r.t. just about there's a blurring of lines between man and machine i was joined earlier by our team lead

producer and her blake. well i mean we just saw those people here in a little package there they're talking about you know having their heads we generally froze and preserved till the end of time to make sure that they can get through it the right people i think this is a fountain of youth i mean we can actually advance our bodies so that we don't even that one day we won't even get sick and invest in science fiction for like us centuries so if people are actually saying it's about to happen you know maybe it's just my own refusal to take my own more mortality seriously by that we've kind of penance for all by the idea of being able to live forever but i think like humans have been fascinated with that yes so i'm not the only was not i was the weirdo but you know growing up i was always you know i'd never read that much science fiction i was into that idea of being able to create this biopic android or cyborg or whatever that would be able to to to get past the shortcomings that there are bodies have. forced us to develop and even this conversation town ludicrous that we

just saw you know that means ray kurzweil he's here very a renowned future as an inventor and he's saying you know we're actually not too far off from this being a reality just go back to last couple of decades look at the investments in prosthetic limbs and eyes and what we've been able to see you know the medical community and the engineering community come together and actually make it so that people who have lost body parts can just surpass these boundaries these obstacles that you know a few decades ago would have been unimaginable talking about you know actually entering bloodstream and actually automating breathing now through a machine so it's absolutely looks like it's going to be something that is going to be more and more mainstream as time progresses but obviously this is going to be technology that is going to have to be absolutely perfected before we actually rely on machines to do the living for us right now we just saw in that story there

people kind of touting the. if it's saying that this could really be used to improve mankind on the other hand we had the that author and professor there are saying that you know this could get scary i need you you know you report a lot about. machines being able to get hacked. in kind of this kind adieus day of of it turning around being able to control you or a it's i mean we already have like the web sites for you know the country's top intelligence companies possibly getting under attack by teenage hackers and they're able to take them down and just you know with a couple clicks of a mouse and those are the top intelligence companies in the united states right now imagine if you actually put literally your life in the hands of robots how do you see it going to be to take that down you know it's going to be more than just a virus or disease it's going to be or i guess it would be a computer virus. absolutely and you know we are seeing and part of that that gentleman spirit is that we are seeing it before our eyes acknowledging it

advancing exponentially i mean we see these smartphones today what they can do i mean you know ten years ago twenty years ago you can even imagine this small gadget being able to have this much memory and fire power and capabilities and you know you can only imagine how far this is going to go i guess that brings up this next question i mean how much is a can there be too much technology where do you draw the line i mean especially when you're talking about merging it with the human body i mean i think that is going to have to be a moral debate that someone way more qualified than either you or me is going to be able to handle but look let's look at drones for example let's look at these automated remote controlled killing machines that can be sent thousands of miles across the world and be used by people right here in the united states to gun down suspected insurgents and actually kill people without ever seeing them face to face being in the same country or continent as them so we're already to we're already

able to extend ourselves outward by using machines so. or to do things as take away lives and it shouldn't be that farfetched that we're going to be able to create lives by using machines i can only imagine what the unabomber either kozinski with think of all this and it's only been twenty years since they caught him in a little shack in the woods you know trying to run away from technology confused already terrified of the way things were advancing that we didn't have smartphones we can really have cell phones that i'm not that i'm really thinking about the unabomber that much but it's amazing to think about just in our generation just going back to the ninety's you know what we see happening in terms of both medicine and engineering. that was our producer andrew blake. one hundred nine years ago the wright brothers celebrated their first flight a corporate space travel group space x. celebrated with the launch of its highest test rocket to date the grasshopper.

here it is you're looking at the grasshopper take a twelve story at leave and a test flight recently in mcgregor texas the grasshopper has a fully controllable and reusable first stage launch vehicle for future trips to orbit and beyond this launch reached one hundred thirty one feet and lasted twenty nine seconds before returning back to its launch pad and if you look very closely you can see a cowboy manic at the space x. founder says it got to hop on the grasshopper in order to prowl provide a sense of scale space experts believe that the key to keeping the cost of space launches down is to make more of the launch vehicle reusable. well today russian president vladimir putin signed a law banning americans from adopting russian children americans have adopted over sixty thousand russian children since one nine hundred ninety nine nineteen of whom have died in child abuse related cases artie's ramon glen dos shows us some of the

most contentious cases. the outrage over russian adoptions has been highlighted by some recent high profile cases of abuse by american parents they include the case of torry hansen who sent her seven year old a doctor's son back to russia with a letter saying he was disturbed and that she didn't want to be his mother anymore then there's dimitri jekyl of the toddler who died of heat stroke in virginia when his adoptive father left him in a parked car for nine hours how many more there is there's absolutely no way of knowing we certainly have no idea how many children are enduring abuses. surviving abuses of all kinds the u.s. state department had previously stated that russian authorities should have more access to russian adoptees in twenty twelve great made its way to a tiny town in montana eureka's home to the ranch for kids which is built by american media as a haven for troubled adopted children but child advocates in russia have become

suspicious claiming it is a dumping ground for unwanted children they were sent mainly by their adoptive parents the kind of the purpose of steam the. therapy it's called in her words in. words wilderness therapy and but in reality they do not have any medical or psychological assistance and they're they're just staying you know more tyria in detention like conditions similar american families who are having problems with their russian adopted children send them here to the ranch for kids in montana near the canadian border now like some russian critics some montana regulators have raised concerns about what's happening inside of the ranch operators say it's all political which are a few years ago montana authorities. after examining the strange decided to. withdraw their license for such an institution

and of the reasons were just simple the absence of over night guard you know i think what fire protection some children spend there's just if you months and they are sent home some of them have to stay longer years and years i think the department of labor. contacted the russian government said. there are russian children here want to come to this again what's going on with the shoulder ranch operator joyce circle says about seventy percent of the children at the ranch eventually return to their adoptive parents the vast majority of russian adoptees who contravene ited states have done very well and they are an asset to their family including my own three children i have three i don't show who were russian adoptees we have an approximate number off the russian other teas it's up to four hundred who are kind of recycled through this institution over the period of

six years more than sixty thousand russian children have been adopted by americans since one thousand nine hundred nine in eureka montana ramon the lindo r t. oh russian official that visited the ranch you just saw there in that story tells our it's here that instead of a school bus they use a pickup truck they say that kids sleep on triple bunk beds and that the cost to attend that ranch for the family is three thousand five hundred dollars per month per kid and if the parents can pay they simply kick the child out the closest medical facility we're told is several miles away the woman that owns the ranch is a nurse and for the most part that is the only medical care that they can get this official also says that there are signs all over the ranch that say quote we do not call nine one one ever. so ahead here on our team despite the last ditch

effort from several u.s. senators the war is that the warrantless wiretapping bill known as fight has been extended what this means for your privacy ahead. let me let me again wouldn't let me ask you a question. on this board is what we're having the debate we are going. to do this right it was the right thing there again hearing the story would be an

ideal way to talk about surveillance. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that many americans call. i don't know. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares an awful lot about you sorry are you know what kind of mind they're

terrorists out but i don't want to be listening to futurism be on the liberal democrats and republicans. can really sort of. going to support me to distract us from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that's all the facials that garbage you call that breaking news i'm out here martin and we're going to break this but. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old so if you told the truth. i'm a consensus and i'm a total get of friends that i love driving hip hop music and for.

that he was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the world without you it's a place. well just moments ago the senate approved a sixty billion dollars hurricane sandy relief package but critics many of them republicans say the reconstruction package is too massive bigger than the annual budget for the department of interior labor and treasury beyond providing hurricane victims relieve a large chunk of the funds go towards various pet projects another issue is that much of the funds won't be used any time soon the congressional budget office has estimated about nine billion dollars of the senate bill would be spent in two thousand and thirteen the rest won't be spent until two thousand and fourteen and

two thousand and fifteen. now into a controversial bill with major implications for your privacy it also passed the senate today the foreign intelligence surveillance act allows the government to wiretap american citizens living abroad without a warrant here's a few things you should know about this piece of legislation it was first signed into law in one thousand nine hundred seventy eight a two thousand a to madmen allows the n.s.a. to wiretap conversations on u.s. citizens phones without a warrant it was set to expire on new year's eve of the past in the senate today with bipartisan support in the seventy three to twenty three vote meaning it will be extended for another five years senate opponents include rand paul ron wyden mark udall jeff merkley and mike lee here's part of senator wyden speech from last night he argued that we simply don't know enough about what the n.s.a. and other government organizations are doing with the information they collect. the

fines amendments act states that acquisitions made under section seven zero two may not quote intentionally target a specific american and may not quote intentionally acquire communications that are known at the time of acquisition to be wholly domestic but mr president the problem with that is it still leaves a lot of room for circumstances under which americans phone calls and e-mails including purely domestic phone calls and e-mails could be swept up and reviewed without a warrant. this by senator wyden vocal criticism of science and now goes to president obama for his signature critics of the law like the electronic frontier foundation say it violates americans fourth amendment rights they say the government can get ahold of e-mails and phone calls without a warrant and without the person knowing about it none of the amendments proposed

by senators to increase the bills transparency passed and with much of the media fixated on the fiscal cliff the controversial bill is likely to be renewed with little attention. left at the tragedy at sandy hook elementary school two weeks ago today there's been a huge push for more gun control and gun lovers have taken notice there's been a significant increase in gun purchases these past two weeks are to corresponding guy n.h.s. you can take a look at this phenomenon about two weeks ago actually on this particular wall here . they are four rows down or rows across. with everything going on in politics right now with the possible back and everything everyone is flooding in. purchasing right away gun stores all across the u.s. are reporting record sales. just two weeks after the tragic shooting at the

elementary school in newtown americans are scrambling to buy the same type of weapon that adam lanza used in the connecticut shooting plus high capacity magazines and a lot of them panic buying triggered out of fear that the white house is out to ban the weapon but this time the words need to lead to action no a r fifteen for this customer all sold out at the store while prices on line have gone through the roof has been going for two thousand and fifteen hundred eight hundred dollars to twenty five hundred three thousand dollars even in some cases it's just the most amazing gun buying spree i've ever seen many gun retailers now quite cynically refer to the administration ben talk as the obama girl doing that's how good it's been for their business so how do you go from a president with a tough gun control agenda to full on gun dealers call the greatest gun salesman in america manufactures of semi-automatic rifles were reported that their market has

grown thirty percent over the last four years states like north carolina iowa and you to have seen a one hundred percent increase in gun sales over the same period in the wake of the tragedy newtown one of the country's biggest ammunition suppliers said they sold more than three years worth of magazines in just three days. although president obama himself has so far failed to act on his pledge to been assault weapons his words have certainly provoked action just not the type you may have wanted for someone they say is against. job. search or in order to sell even more weapons many dealers hide books go on apocalypse and there you go and they will be very moment. but many of them don't actually see any drastic changes happening any time soon

after all any significant gun control measures and up it in the past ultimately clashed with the second amendment of the constitution and were subsequently crept. into we were just going to strike him. and now to los angeles where authorities got more than they bargained for at a gun buy back the city offered grocery store gift cards in exchange for guns with no question that some of the weapons in the exchange were questionable to say the least and mission to the more run of the mill firearms the l.a.p.d. got two military grade rocket launchers during the exchange the weapons are designed to launch grenades though no such grenades were turned in during the guy the gun buyback it's unclear how someone as it dealt with these rocket launchers in the first place police believe that the weapons may be family heirlooms or collectibles depending on their age the gun buyback ultimately put two thousand and thirty seven firearms in the hands of authorities including seventy five assault

weapons at times people waited in line for two hours to give back their guns the city even briefly ran out a gift card so what will happen to the weapons collection all of them will be melted down including those huge rocket launchers that's according to the mayor of l.a. but one of the most bizarre parts of the story is that authorities said it wasn't the first time. they have gotten a hold of one of these rocket launchers during a buyback makes you wonder just how many people have rocket launchers lying around in their homes. while we are counting down now the final hours of the year two thousand and twelve and what are americans new year's resolutions laurie harkness takes that question to the streets of the big apple.

it's that time of year again when we all make resolutions for the new year so what's your this week let's talk about the same as always. so you're going to win the lottery and you're going to lose weight and neither of these things are going to happen exactly could just be. kinder gentler and more giving how do you do that new york city i live in cincinnati i've been reading about two weeks song. and why didn't you eat better and twenty twelve no i mean i read a book about fasting for two days a week so that's what i'm going to do that's not going to work here's resolution eat less muffins you know. to take care of myself better eat less muffin no muffins are good because again. that's what it usually is which is unusual are. you going to make the same one that you break. a lot of people do that yeah not to be

so hard on myself. that's a good one it's kind of like the anti resolution more like i'm just going to relax a little bit. that's probably when you can stick to spend more time with my family is that a doable resolution absolutely and is that going to enhance your. thousand and thirteen absolutely you're not going to get more annoyed with your family well. of course not but if you did think about it i added think about it. but why don't you start now because i crave cigarettes you still have them so you're going to smoke oh yeah and then once you don't have many more throughout a car in the cigarettes you're going to smoke your brains out until january first so january first do usually make them why not very good so why does everyone else in the world keep making them it is really just that ourselves up for massive

disappointment. terrible way to start the new year this if you do decide to make a new year's resolution for two thousand and thirteen the bottom line is you're probably not going to keep it so why not just resolve to try to be a better you every day of the year happy new year. and that is going to do it for now but be sure to tune in next week for a bunch of new stories we have on tap first up our team is going to ring in the new year with a countdown of some of our favorite stories from two thousand and twelve from the sad to the serious be interesting to the just plain weird we spent this past year bringing you news an in-depth interviews you won't see on the mainstream stations next week we'll tell you which stories made the cut and we all know no one's

perfect but the national security agency is trying to mold the american people into perfect law abiding citizens and it's spending a good chunk of money trying to do it next week an in-depth look at the ninety one million dollar perfect citizens program. and for years now we've held our breath and watched as the u.s. housing market went through booms and busts but the seed may be different it seems the housing market isn't just getting warmer it's red hot prices for houses are through the roof and only going up so will this trend spread beyond the beltway or is this just another thing that separates the nation's capital from the rest of the country next week well question more those are just a few of the stories we have lined up in store for you here on our team next week so be sure to tune in we're going to leave it off there but for more on the stories we cover check out our you to check.