Chris McCausland: Seeing Into the Future

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2025

Documentary
Science and technology

Summary

Whereas for many sighted people, innovations such as smartphones and voice-controlled assistants are nice things to have, for Chris as a blind person they have been life-changing. From driverless cars to AI and smart glasses, the comedian is keen to find out what the future might hold for him and travels to Silicon Valley in California and Boston's Massachusetts Institute of Technology to explore how cutting-edge technology could transform his life even more

Review

David Butcher

“I am a geek,” says comedian Chris McCausland with pride. For him, technology isn’t just a convenience, it’s life-changing. He gradually lost his sight from birth and by his 20s was blind. Having studied software engineering at university he now loves the many ways tech helps him through the day — particularly the AI assistant on his smartphone, which can tell him, say, which shirt is hanging in his hotel wardrobe and whether it needs ironing.

That’s just the start. To discover what else the future holds, McCausland visits San Francisco and tries out the latest innovations: Meta’s AI-powered smart glasses (he loves them), driverless cars (the first time he has been in a moving car on his own — “pretty magical really”), and exo-boots — a kind of e-bike for legs. Most excitingly, at an MIT lab, he hears about nano-electronics that, one day, may give him his sight back

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rolenamePresenterChris McCauslandDirectorSamuel PalmerProducerLily ShepherdExecutive producerAndrew BeintExecutive producerAndrew Thistlewood

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