James Burke : Connections, Episode 4, "Faith In Numbers", 5 of 5 (CC)

[AutodidacticPhd]

What really bakes my noodle is the fact that I've never programmed using cards, but took classes in computer science from guys who graduated in a world where computer science was just a division of the maths department and who did use punch cards for much of their professional lives... and yet, soon even those classroom stories will be gone and the only people who will hear about punch cards will be in the history department.

[StuInTokyo]

Wild, at 7:40 of this clip, holding up an computer punch card he says "Used to program the computers without whose help the entire massive structure of the modern world fall down" then he pulls the punch card down to reveal....... The twin towers of the World Trade Center......

[6661313]

who watches part 5 of 5 and clicks disslike? lol thease shows are awesome i remember seeing them years ago

[victorialucas38]

The prediction of the collapse of American society followed by a shot of the twin towers has been pointed out on here by a few people, but it is genuinely strange - as was the story of the New York blackout in the first episode, concerning flight 911. Is James Burke's middle name Nostrodamus?

[terrybeaton]

As I understand it, IBM punch cards were used by the Nazis to tabulate the logistics and operations of the death camps. A technology IBM was only too happy (and apparently quite aware of the nature of it's use) to supply. That may have been a "connection" with a bit too much baggage to use on the show. I'm sure though, that he's aware of it.

[ChorltonBrook]

New York's skyline looks like any other city now.

[Lortagreb]

I'm only 7 years old and I've been to new york but I don't recognize the two skyscrapers at 7:50 can someone tell me what they are?

[germaninsanity]

@Lortagreb Those were the World Trade Centers which were destroyed on September 11, 2001. What a terrifying day that was.

[Lortagreb]

@germaninsanity You idiot of course I'm not 7 years old dumbass :D

[dnightwalker]

Wow. Neve thought that the computer Im using to write this comment had a connection with the water wheel.

[TheWhisperingCactus]

Man, the intense foreshadowing at the end is unreal! "...without whose help the entire massive structure of the modern world would fall down." *silently pulls card away to reveal the massive structures of the World Trade Center

I know Thornfox pointed it out already, but it bears repeating. Holy cow!

[luridplanet]

I saw a film from the early 50s where the CEO of RCA said that one day everybody would get their mail, newspapers, etc transmitted wirelessly to the home.

[Pryderi]

One more thing: Hollerith has founded a company called International Business Machines - IBM.

[ballerkingofVA95]

Kind of SUPER sad to see the WTC on the Manhattan skyline in this video.

[Ashtonian54]

frilly knickers with reference to the linen segment in the closed captioning

[Bondianwolf]

Cnazca = you need to read the whole thread before asking questions.

[Monkor001]

Woah, that's creepy.

@ 7:47 when he lowers the card and the WTC are in the background after he just said "the entire massive structure of the modern world would fall down."

Always a trip when stuff like that happens.

[larryresick]

@Monkor001 Creepier still is when he says "What will it (the computer) do to us?" How do you think the terrorists plotted and communicated? THE INTERNET

[DForce0]

@Monkor001 That's exactly what struck me! Amazing.

[AClarke2007]

No. I think (if we put our minds together here) some of the deductions are more than just guesswork. Facts & figures pop out of knowhere!

[ing420021]

it would be interesting to see the show in which "E. G. Marshal and his guests [try to] grapple" the issue of "what will [the computer] bring us?" and see if they got anything right, or if they imagined that by 2009 we would all be slaves to robots controlled by a single massive supercomputer or some other sci-fi fantasy or if they just said: "huramph; computers are useless and they won't get us anywhere..."

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Really eh! It never even occurred to me. That would be fun to watch.

Of course it's never fair to pick on people in the past (even if they're dead!). The future is way too unpredictable.

- JBW

[jnm0319]

@JamesBurkeWeb and @ ing420021

Answering the question concerning "what will [the computer] bring us?" That's an easy question to answer. The answer is Ray Kurzweil's "Singularity."

[RevSyd]

@ing420021 I'd love to see the show too, 1980 was around the time the paradigm switched from central mainframes to household microcomputers. Before then they were so expensive that few people could foresee every home having dozens of tiny ones, instead of cities having 1 giant one.

[slack7639]

6:30 the corner of the card is cut - so you know it hasn't been accidentally flipped over, which would cause error in your tabulation?

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Yes I believe so. They probably won't fit, or slide down into the tabulator unless a certain corner is cut at a particular angle. You'll notice it's not a 45 degree cut meaning that there's only one orientation which will fit (you can't do flip and rotate by 270 because then the angle would be 60 instead of 30 say).

[tzone92]

I liked to learn something about the middle ages, in school all I ever heard about were the Black Plague, crusades, and that's all.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Yes, you should look more closely into these Cistercians and their movement. A lot more went on in the so-called middle and dark ages than people like to admit. But I guess you know about that by now.

- JBW

[midwife61]

That was creepy - I found this entire video unsettling, really good, but unsettling Burke: the modern day Nostradamus?

[JamesBurkeWeb]

No. Just simple deduction and educated guesswork.

[Thornfox]

I love how around the 7:50 he talks about how the US would fall down without punch cards, only to reveal the World Trade Center. Oh, irony.

[AgentJayZ]

Yes, that was a bit creepy, but it is even more eerily fascinating to watch for some very accurate predictions that JB makes throughout the series.

[eightyocho]

He's not predicting - it's a little known fact that JB is actually from the future.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Hush now. That's supposed to be a secret. Of course everyone in the year 2050 knows all about eightyocho who triggered a series of events that will eventually lead to the rise of some really evil guy called George W. Bush who will have been president of the United States for 2 terms, the country will be at war, and the economy in ruins. And then, hold your breath, the desperate US public elects an African American for president in 2009!

Nice eightyocho. You could've stayed quiet but NO!

- JBW

[Bondianwolf]

Wow JBW. I know you were going for humor. Amazing how you attribute 9-11 and its aftermath to Bush. You just undid much of the respect an objective person might have had for you. I guess the war against Al Queda is evil and the hijackers are victims of a guy in office only 18 months when they attacked. And when you bring up IRAQ, that country should've had its leaders removed in 1991 for what they did to their neighbor.

[Jcolinsol]

Very funny.

[Cnazca]

@Bondianwolf

What the hell are you talking about?

[Geoffr524]

@Thornfox - Yes, I was in shock at 7:50 , when he lowered the punch, to reveal those towers.

[thekaminante]

@Thornfox If you watch it from  7' 29 sounds like nostradarburkes? or Nostradarboos?