Munich born and Los Angeles based film maker Werner Herzog who is known for inquisitive and enlightening documentaries like Encounters at the End of the World (2007) takes in Lo and Behold on the history, the present day impact and the future implications  of the internet – the technology which has transformed human live in scope and depth like only fire and electricity have done before.

Herzog succeeds in his signature style of letting mostly others do the talk to craft a powerful narrative about an abstract issue of technological, sociological and psychological dimension. Interviews with pioneers of the internet who sent the first messages from UCLA to Stanford as well as modern tech entrepreneurs like Sebastian Thrun and Elon Musk tell the story of how a signal between two university research labs evolved into a global phenomenon and from there into artificial intelligence.

Technological advancements are measured against the negative impact on people and society. Herzog picks personal stories from a family which got harassed on the web, a group of individuals who suffer from electromagnetic radiation and the global epidemic of online gaming addiction to show that increased connectedness creates many forms of serious collateral damage.

Join us to discuss the origins and the evolutionary objective of a technology which has transformed our lives like nothing ever before. Where does this trajectory take us? Can we influence its teleological direction? Are we actors or spectators in this performance of universal transformation? If we are actors, what should we do? If we are spectators, should we continue to watch?