May concludes that the major breakthroughs in transportation over the last 100 years shrunk the world not by allowing us to see more of it, but--thanks to television, computers, and fiber optic cable--by increasingly bringing it to us.

May reruns the 20th century's space races. He begins with the V2 rockets that the Nazis launched on London and moves on to the rocket rivalry between Russia and America. All the while, he asks, was it all really worth it?

How did we construct skyscrapers that appear to defy gravity? Why is an electrician from Newcastle the unsung hero behind our 24-hour lifestyle? And what motivates May to drop a Mini Cooper on a plate-glass window?