[narrator] Poppy and Georgie Carlton are back.

Reporting live for News Today, I'm Nerissa Knight at a private airport in California where English aristocrats, Poppy and Georgie Carlton, have arrived on US soil.

[narrator] The royal siblings, 58th and 59th in line to the English throne... [Poppy] How do you do?

I'm Poppy.

Hello, Lisa Vanderpump.

[narrator] ...are still being followed 24 hours a day by a documentary crew.

Georgie, we share a common name.

-Yes.

-[narrator] And this time they're joining the ranks of the internet generation.

Hello, investigative journalist Poppy Carlton here.

[narrator] Filming themselves as they embark on a cultural tour across the United States.

-Are you ready?

-[Georgie] Three-- No, I'll do it, I want to do it.

-[Georgie] Okay.

-Three-two-one, record.

[narrator] As they investigate the subjects that define American life today.

Technology can be used in many ways.

[Georgie] I was always worried that robots would take over but having seen this I think we're all right.

So why are you here in the United States?

We're here to learn about the future, robots and space, things like that and so forth.

You've heard it here first, I'm Nerissa Knight for News Today... -Hello, Nanny!

-...Day.

I'm in America!

[narrator] Intrepid online commentators, Poppy and Georgie Carlton, are in the United States of America, learning all they can about American culture.

This week they're looking forward, investigating the future.

-[man] Action.

-Hi, I'm Georgie-- No, that's ridiculous, you've done far too much already.

In the future will we still need science?

Oh, absolutely [Georgie] In the future, do you think people will be numbers, gas or computers?

-Computers.

-Same.

In the future, who will win from robots and holograms?

It would have to be the robots Robots.

Yeah.

Robots, ghosts, transformers, electric women, booby butlers, killer gas wasps, and Wi-Fi everywhere, those are the things we need to expect from the future.

[narrator] Poppy and Georgie are beginning their odyssey into the future at the Chabot Space and Science Centre, where they will embark on a simulated flight to Mars.

Hello.

Hello, Georgie Carlton, lovely to meet you.

[narrator] After a brief costume change they are ready to start the mission.

[Chabot employee] Welcome to the space craft.

Goodness!

[Georgie] Oh, wow!

It's like a film.

Yeah, from the 80s.

[man] Now at each of your stations there's something that looks like this.

These are your task cards, these are your step by step instructions for how to operate your station.

Now do astronauts use task cards?

You bet they do.

Here's a photograph of Catherine Thornton -on a spacewalk.

-[Georgie] A lady?

And you'll notice-- yes, that's a lady.

[Georgie] Oh, hilarious.

Is it just the lady ones who need the task cards?

No, everyone uses task cards in space.

Sometimes women are slower than men.

-That's feminism.

-We've not found that to be true on these missions.

Okay.

[narrator] Midway through the mission, the crew guide Poppy and Georgie through some essential equipment.

[woman] All right.

So I'm gonna open the airlock and this is gonna show you the motherboard... -[Poppy] Lovely.

-[woman] ...of the probe that we have built.

-[Georgie] When I hear probe... -Uh-huh.

[Georgie] ...sometimes people say they've been taken by aliens and they had something put up their back nostril, is that to do with that?

-Up their what?

-[Georgie] Back nostril.

Okay.

Uh, this is-- that's not what we are-- what we are doing.

[Georgie] That's not what this probe is for?

No, this probe is going to be, uh, trying to get some information from one of the moons of Mars.

[Georgie] 'Cause that's what's confusing me as well.

Because moon is--in England is when you pull your trousers and pants down and show your bottom to the teacher.

I'd like to move you both over to the life support station.

Now we are in a situation and we could use couple of extra set of hands.

[Georgie] What's the matter?

Oh, God!

-[Poppy] Uurgh!

-We have a situation now.

All hands on deck.

All your hands on deck.

-[Georgie] Oh, no!

-[siren sounds] [narrator] The crew are simulating a crisis, to test how Poppy and Georgie perform in an emergency.

-[man] Everyone remain calm.

-Smells like dry ice.

[man] The instruments are telling us we've got three minutes of breathable air left in-- in the spacecraft, that means we've got -a full oxygen system shutdown.

-[Georgie] Okay.

Do we have to decide who to kill?

But luckily we've got two oxygen systems on this ship, we need to reconfigure the oxygen system.

-Oh, lovely.

-This is it.

Keep rolling, keep rolling through.

My shoe got stuck in that.

-[man] You're doing fine.

-Georgie, can you help me with my shoe, I am really stuck.

Sorry, I'm just... [Poppy] It's stuck!

-[Georgie] What's the matter?

-[Poppy] My shoe!

-[Georgie] Oh, no!

-[woman] Commander, we're reporting only three minutes left of air.

[Poppy] Georgie can you get it out?

Hang on, Poppy's shoe is stuck!

-[siren blaring] -[indistinct chatter] [woman] We've got one minute of breathable air, that is one minute.

Faster!

Toby's not making it.

-[Georgie] Toby's dying!

-[indistinct chatter] [woman] Toby's not making it.

[Georgie] That screen, that needs to be green!

[man] Oxygen levels are returning to normal.

You've saved our lives!

-Life support team, good job!

-Hooray!

-[applause] -What happened?

-[Georgie] Well done.

-Good job.

Just in the nick of time.

[man] Excellent work.

Thank you.

-[Poppy] Phew.

-So, Toby, -are you all right now?

-Nice job.

Great job guys, you made it in the nick of time.

[man] Thanks guys, you saved him, you saved him.

[Poppy] I was really close as well, did you see my shoe got stuck?

I don't like being a shoe put over my life.

Yeah, I was-- I was really concerned about the shoe as well, I-- [Georgie] It's all right, the shoe's all right.

[Poppy] It's absolutely fine.

I wasn't concerned about your shoe being okay, I was concerned about the safety of my life, personally.

[man] All right.

We're now ready to land on Mars, you all set?

Yeah, lovely.

Prepare for touchdown.

-Thank you, Toby.

-Thank you, Toby.

But to be fair, it's about time you did something after you had that little wobbly earlier.

[all] Five, four, three, two, one.

Nought.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have landed on Mars.

-Good job.

-[cheers and applause] [man] Nicely done.

[narrator] To serve as their guide to the future, Poppy and Georgie have enlisted the help of legendary Star Trek actor and activist George Takei.

I'm Poppy Carlton for Poppy Culture sitting here with George Takei, interviewing him about the future for Poppy.

And Georgie Carlton.

-Every time you don't... -I do.

She never mentions me.

Georgie, we share a common name.

Yes.

George.

-My father was an Anglophile.

-[Georgie] Oh.

[George] He loved things English.

-That's really nice.

-And I was born in 1937, that's the year that George the Sixth was crowned and hence my name.

-And when my brother was born... -Yeah.

...he was round and fat and roly-poly.

-[Poppy] Oh.

-As fat as Henry the Eighth.

-Oh, really?

-Oh!

So guess what his name is?

[laughs] Fat.

Fat Boy?

-Henry.

-Oh!

Oh, lovely!

So tell me about your trip here, you're touring the United States.

Yeah, we're learning about the future.

-Learning about the future.

-Yeah.

-You came to the right place.

-Okay.

America is the future.

[narrator] In the name of research, Poppy and Georgie are attending a tech conference to observe futuristic inventions in action.

What's that on your head?

[man] So this is a EEG headset, electroencephalograph, -it's measuring my brain waves.

-[Georgie] Oh, lovely.

And right now we're using it to control a flower.

To make it bloom when I'm focused.

So I'll stop talking for a moment and I'll concentrate.

And if I stop concentrating, if I distract myself, the ball will fall back down and the flower will start to close again.

And what's the point?

So what's all this then?

This is an automatic cooking machine.

[Georgie] Oh, my goodness!

Yeah, think about it as your home robotic cook.

Oh, goodness.

I was always worried that robots would take over but having seen this, I think we're all right.

[laughs] I could kill this really easily.

[laughter] [Georgie] First of all thank you for having myself and my sister, Poppy, at your event and giving us a glimpse into the future.

I must say, it all seems rather exciting and that everything is progressing at a ripping old rate.

But what we must remember is that just because something is new, it doesn't mean that it is necessarily better.

Just because a mechanical butler makes a beep-beep boop-boop, that is no replacement for the consistency and tender touch of Nanny.

Also human staff react much better to the threat of violence, just something to bear in mind when you're designing your next robot dog or, uh, rocket shoes or what have you.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

[applause] [Georgie] I think that went really well Poppy, a lot of dweebs.

Do you ever worry about the apocalypse or prepare for it?

People who are always worried about doomsday, the apocalypse coming are a radical small fringe.

-And I worry about them.

-Yeah.

We have a panic room at Caunty Manor where we live, and a picnic room as well in case it gets too wet outside to eat outdoors.

Mm-hmm.

To have an indoor picnic area is sensible.

-[Poppy] Yeah.

-Because in England it does rain a lot.

[upbeat music playing] [narrator] For many, the future is a frightening prospect, so Poppy and Georgie have come to meet a group of people who are preparing for the worst.

-Hello.

-Hi.

How are you folks doing?

-[Poppy] Hello.

-[Georgie] Good, thank you.

[Chris] We're preppers, at least that's the politically correct term now, we used to be what were called survivalists but then of course survivalist has a strange connotation, but now it's pretty much mainstream which is people are concerned about what if our financial institutions collapse, what if we go to war, what if there's a pandemic?

You just go down a whole long list of things that could stop our way of life or end western society as we know it.

Is it a secretive thing to be a prepper then, is it something to be ashamed of?

[Chris] Actually I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of but most people don't like to let people know they're preppers.

One of the reasons being let's say worst case scenario, the last thing you want your neighbors to know is that you actually have food, water, and other supplies, but they don't have anything.

Oh, so just being selfish but it's allowed this time.

-Exactly.

-'Cause I sometimes get told off for that attitude but you're saying it's encouraged.

[narrator] After a brief introduction, it's time for some basic weapons training.

[Chris] In England I know that you guys have restrictive laws on some things, and that's fine.

And I know that most people within the first day or so are going to start to improvise weapons, it's usually broken bottles, chains, and everything.

But I was thinking, what would I do if I was in England?

I'd find the nearest mop, the nearest broom, break the handle off.

What I was thinking, London, cannibal rape gangs, class enemy struc-- -[Poppy] What?!

-Work with me.

That's not a thing in London.

That might just be American.

We don't have cannibal rape gangs in England.

Work with me here, picture this.

I'm absolutely not getting on board with that.

I'm painting a picture here, I'm painting a picture.

If you don't mind, I'm gonna ask my hand to hand specialist, Milo, how would they handle if they had a group of people and they had a stick and the other people had knives, -what would you do?

-[Milo] First of all if there's bunch of people, the fact is everybody can do is just stab, right.

-Right.

-With the stick.

[Chris] The other thing that I don't actually condone but you could do is actually take feces and rub it on the end.

-[Georgie] Oh, my gosh!

-Create a pong.

Science Guy, how long before sepsis gets in?

Doc, you're the expert, so being poked with a pointy stick or any pointy object with any fecal matter is bad.

Uh, yes, I think--I think-- Anything to do with any fecal matter is bad I'd say.

You could almost just do one in front of your door and that would stop people coming in.

-That's really clever -Lovely.

That--it would work for me.

-[man] I've learned so much.

-Or just put up a do not disturb sign, that what I do in the zombie a-pop-alypse because if you do it in the hotel, I did it this morning, nobody comes in, they just let you be.

Even a cannibal rape maid.

[mellow music playing] [Georgie] Apparently the nerds are the future.

-Really?

-Yeah, well, they invent everything, don't they?

The nerds invent things that make life better and when life's better the handsome rich people can enjoy it more.

-Oh, that's so nice.

-Yeah.

Really nice of the nerds.

[narrator] Poppy & Georgie have been invited to meet Zoltan, presidential candidate for the Trans humanist party.

-[Georgie] Hello.

-[Zoltan] Hey.

[narrator] Zoltan believes that in the future, the human condition will be transformed -using technology.

-[Zoltan] Come on in.

-[Georgie] Thank you.

-[Poppy] Oh, thank you, Zoltan.

So what exactly is transhumanism?

Transhumanism's essentially using any type of technological kinda innovation or any science to improve the human being and improve its experience.

I like to think of it in terms of driverless cars, robotic hearts, bionic arms.

I find it fascinating, all the things that are actually happening.

You go to a war zone you lose an arm, they put on a bionic arm and in a few years that bionic arm's gonna be better than your real arm.

Could you have an extra arm even?

-Yes, yes.

-[Poppy] Oh, yeah.

There are people that are talking about that, too.

-Yeah.

-A couple of extra arms, a couple of extra legs.

Our nanny's got an extra arm.

She keeps it in her bedside drawer, a big extra arm thing.

For what?

I don't know what for.

She just--I asked her about it and she looked really upset.

So what--what is it that you do here that's transhumanist?

Essentially, you would put on a special type of goggles, there's cameras that are filming things, and instead of you seeing right through your reality, you're seeing the reality through the camera that's being filmed, so we call it an augmented reality.

[narrator] Helping them get equipped to play the futuristic game OuterBody, is its creator, Jason.

-How do you do?

I'm Poppy -Pretty good.

Hello, Georgie here on Georgiecam, my camera.

Goggles going on now.

Oh, no, sorry I've got a big head, Jason.

[narrator] Jason fits everyone with headsets that transmit video from a camera in the ceiling... -Whoa!

-Hello, Poppy.

[narrator] ...providing an out of body experience.

-Hello, Poppy.

-Try and point to where your new viewpoint is.

-Oh, there she is.

-All right, so I'm gonna lead you guys to your starting positions in this maze.

The way this maze works, you've gotta collect all four of these white Xs, -just by walking on them.

-Okay.

I'm ready.

[Poppy] I'm really good at things.

[Georgie] This is very odd.

Look at that-- I look like an absolute idiot, why has no one ever told me?

Go.

[Georgie] I went the wrong way.

[Zoltan] This is the different reality.

[Georgie] Can you get dizzy in this reality?

Because I can't work out how to get down here.

[Jason] So the trick of how to be good at this game is to let go of this illusion that you actually exist inside of your body.

Now, I'm gonna put this box down, and you're gonna use those other black and white boxes on the back to recreate a three dimensional copy of this, but it's gonna be bigger.

Okay, let's go for it, let's see it start building.

Zoltan, help him.

-[Georgie] Please, Zoltan.

-Okay.

-Where's your arm?

-Here.

-Can you stand?

-Yeah.

-Okay.

-You need bionic arms, Zoltan.

I'll come behind you and do it.

I'm slipping down.

I--I'm not very good at this.

All right.

There we go.

It's not the past anymore, the future's arrived.

And it's called Poppy.

Don't touch me there, Georgie!

Do you think in the future, there will be an invention of an electric lady that you could marry or at least go out with?

Well, you know, there are people now who fulfill themselves with... mechanical ladies.

Where do you get them from?

On Hollywood Boulevard, you'll find many shops that are called sex shops.

[laughs] So yes, technology can be used in many ways.

[Georgie] Hollywood Boulevard.

Here in Los Angeles, yes.

Have you visited Hollywood Boulevard yet?

No, but I think we will.

[narrator] Poppy and Georgie are immersing themselves in a dystopian world, participating in a live action role play that takes place in a zombie infested post-apocalyptic future.

-[Georgie] Hello.

-Howdy.

-Hello.

-Hello, I'm Georgie.

[narrator] They've come to meet Jess and Folsom, their guides.

So what's going on here then?

This is Dystopia Rising, it's a live action role playing game that we play.

It is played in the post apocalypse, civilization has fallen.

[Georgie] Do you play characters in the game?

[Folsom] Yes.

[Jess] We all create our own characters after a set of sort of rules, we have something similar to race, -we call it strain.

-Yeah.

[Folsom] And now it's more based on like class and... -Like Britain.

-Yeah, like Britain.

So you know who's at the top and who's at the bottom?

-[Folsom] Yes.

-Yes.

Yeah, some people are just born to rule.

[Folsom] Well, it's actually we have a strain that is exactly that, the purebloods.

Can we be a pureblood then?

You most certainly can.

-Thank you.

-Oh, lovely.

In fact since you're really purebloods, you have to decide what house you're from.

-Can it be your own house?

-Caunty Manor.

-Caunty Manor?

-That's--yeah.

-Where we live.

-Caunty.

-Caunty.

-Caunty.

-Caunty.

-Caunty.

-Caunty.

-Caunty.

-Caunty.

-No.

[Folsom] No.

[narrator] Before they can take part in the game, Poppy and Georgie are dressed for the part and taught in the art of combat.

This is dreadful.

[Folsom] Before you can play zombies you've gotta know how to fight.

So hold up your weapon like this.

You have a number of hit points.

So you two will have eight hit points.

So if I go two, two, two, two, you'd be out of health.

Jess, what do you mainly do during the game?

I play a priest of the religion Final Knights.

There was a priest in our village who got arrested for fiddling with a boy.

Oh that's not...

Does that happen in zombie apocalypse?

[Jess] Absolutely not.

That's absolutely not what we do.

That's what the Catholic church say.

Yeah, they always say that, that's how you know they do.

[narrator] Trained and ready, Poppy and Georgie now travel to a nearby village to meet their teammates.

-[Folsom] Oh, no -[Poppy] What are they doing?

Those are really nasty zombies, we need to get to town.

[growling] [Poppy] They sound like mummy after all of her drink.

[growling] [Georgie] Sod off.

Sod off, get off our land!

Go on, get gone.

I want to hit one.

I'm going to hit this one.

Two, two.

Got one!

Seven, seven, seven, seven, seven, seven, seven... [Jess] Five, five, five [Georgie] Yeah, well done, everyone.

Good job.

Good job, everyone.

Team work, good job.

[narrator] During a break from the Zombie attack, Georgie has a brief moment to talk to Jess.

[Jess] Well, if you ever need any entertainment, or anything like that, it's kind of a poor community so I like to try to get the money in there and of course, pure bloods.

You guys are living so much better than we are.

Are you flirting with me?

I'm not flirting with you, no, I'm married.

It feels like you're flirting.

I am absolutely not flirting.

Okay.

I think the priest was flirting with me.

-Really?

-Yeah.

Not the first time a priest's flirted with me.

[indistinct chatter] [Folsom] Put up your shield!

Oh, there's a buffet over here.

[Folsom] Don't let them in!

[Georgie] When does the buffet start?

Is that pesto?

Excuse me, is that pesto?

Oh, lovely.

Can I try the pesto?

-[indistinct chatter] -Really good pesto.

No wonder the zombies want to come over.

-[Folsom] Oh, my God!

-[Georgie] What?

[Folsom] That is the Goliath.

That is a big nasty.

-It will ruin your day.

-[Goliath roars] -[Georgie] Oh, my God!

-[Folsom] You do not want to be near that.

What shall we do?

I--I... Run away?

I don't think I like the apocalypse.

I hate zombie apocalypse.

[Georgie] If you think about doing something it's a future thing, if you do it it's a present thing, and if you've done it it's a past thing.

When does the future start, Georgie?

Now.

So have people already started-- Oh, no, sorry, now.

So are people already-- Sorry, now.