Utterly brilliant. If you haven't seen it before then do watch the whole series. It may be over 40 years old, but its still as relevant as ever.
The opening piece about the fragility of our modern technostructure was eye-opening when I first saw it and still packs a punch today. And especially right now.
Spooky co-incidence: the initial pieces to camera were made from the World Trade Centre. Then in the sequence on the power cut he talks about Scandinavian Flight Nine-Eleven being in danger of hitting the towers of down-town NY.
Also in Episode 4, look at the size of that military sat-nav! For bonus points, type the coordinates into Google Earth to see where he is sitting.
Is it really that old? I remember seeing it in the 90s and it didn't look that old. I loved it, I wish there was a remake or something similar more current. May be someone can add commentary on the old series updating it with current knowledge. I would watch that.
Undoubtedly James Burke is the reason I give a shit about history at all today (without which one cannot really have a meaningful grasp on the current world or its inhabitants, IMO). I was lucky enough to be exposed to these at a young age.
I have a directory on my file server with local copies of everything he ever released.
If you’ve never watched this or The Day The Universe Changed, please do. (I say this as someone who hates TV.)
For those who are interested in The Day the Universe Changed, you can find copies of the episodes at the internet archive or on Dailymotion. It really is well worth watching.
I cannot stand having my television viewing experience interrupted by irrelevant advertising, and because of this I do not have anything in my house that connects to the antenna on the roof the previous occupant(s) of this dwelling installed.
Television shows themselves, or whether they’re called? Series? Damn there are some good ones!
Another wonderful series is "The Secret Life of Machines". Cartoonist Tim Hunkin explains how machines work, with lots and lots of models and cut-aways of real life devices. And animations! And moving sculptures! His humor is pervasive and a delight.
These overviews give you just enough knowledge to start debugging a broken household machine. I love it. If anyone's looking for more videos from this series here's a playlist of the complete series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDpNQQqdSh8&list=PLByTa5duIo...
James Burke, and Richard Rhodes as well, are the reason I began to see history as something important and useful, a way of understanding both "how science happens" as well as "why our society is the way it is".
This knowledge, in the way it is presented, leaves the viewer or reader with a sense of agency, that what they do can either intentionally or not cause outcomes with great consequence.
It leaves one feeling one can do important things.
Thanks for mentioning Richard Rhodes. I highly recommend his book The Making of the Atomic Bomb to anyone who is interested in a mix of science and history.
Yes, so much good stuff in this series. Sagan must have been inspired when he released his "Cosmos" a year or two later.
But this one has that central thesis that ties all the episodes up with a bow.
Not sure I cared as much for Burke's follow-on series but maybe I need to give them a second watch. They probably couldn't measure up to his original "Connections" masterpiece anyway though.
Funny enough but, there was just a Reddit front page gif clip of Burke narrating his Connection with a perfectly timed NASA rocket launch. Nice to see him introduced to a new generation and some of the commentors miss the cold War referances. "The difference between a Moon Rocket and an ICBM is the top 15 feet"
I remember, when I was a child, my father brought the Connections video game home. It was one of the first games I played on our home PC. The game was similar to Myst, but had a lot of nice explanations and history lessons in there.
How timely. I found this series after watching The Ascent of Man, which I found after watching Cosmos. Highly recommend all three, especially the Ascent of Man.
James Burke has a way of conveying a sort of fundamental optimism about society that I find invigorating. I remember listening to an interview with him from the past couple years and after all this time, he still sounds as sharp as ever.
I'm typing this comment atop a 1978 fourth printing of CONNECTIONS I just pulled off my shelf, after seeing this post. A prized possession, found used in rough shape. It was printed in the US, by Little Brown.
I remember seeing a TV science series in the 80’s that had Richard Feynman explaining how a 30k calorie pyramid of jelly donuts on a barbecue grill was the equivalent energy a Tour de France cyclist expends in a day.
The opening piece about the fragility of our modern technostructure was eye-opening when I first saw it and still packs a punch today. And especially right now.
Spooky co-incidence: the initial pieces to camera were made from the World Trade Centre. Then in the sequence on the power cut he talks about Scandinavian Flight Nine-Eleven being in danger of hitting the towers of down-town NY.
Also in Episode 4, look at the size of that military sat-nav! For bonus points, type the coordinates into Google Earth to see where he is sitting.