James Burke : Connections, Episode 10, "Yesterday, Tomorrow and You", 1 of 5 (CC)

[victorialucas38]

That eeirie choir at the beginning of each episode sounds like the sound from the monolith in '2001: A Space Odyssey' - or has someone else already pointed that out?

[ChorltonBrook]

Why oh why is Patric Moore still on TV and not this guy?

[GabrielKnightz]

Growing up, watching this show, this man, shaped in more ways than one how i think.

And i will always be grateful to him for that, Thank you Mr.Burke Thank you.

[Inediblehulk]

It won't be long now before we delegate the tedious inventing work to our robot friends with the vastly superior analytical engines. And from that moment on, technological progress will accelerate unfathomably rapidly, making the brief end of our species appear to us as much as foreign as our own 10,000 year journey had appeared to fish.

[cybervaldez]

He sounds so much like richard dawkins

[Xam323]

My final is on this video i watched it like 6 times already the whole 5 parts

[adrastea99]

Toilet rolls are being recycled into cheap wifi antennas, to eventually give you the ability to connect to the internet anywhere you are

[KevinByrne2]

Nor is the future threatening: 6.7 billion minds/pairs of hands are trying to improve things. And they're succeeding: more people eat better and live longer lives under freedom than at any time in history.

[KevinByrne2]

Burke portrays technological civilization as fragile and the future as threatening. Neither thesis is true. Even after the worst disasters (e.g., World War II or the Indonesian earthquake/tsunami of 2004), the survivors struggled for a while, but then the outside world sent help while the locals cooperated to rebuild. The "web" of civilization had a "hole" torn in it, but locals and outsiders colaborated to mend the "hole".

[ryoushii]

@KevinByrne2 You assume there will be an "outside" world that can come to the rescue. In fact what Burke is saying is that as the technological tower grows higher and higher and encompasses more and more people, eventually we will ALL be on that tower. And, when that collapses, there will be no "outside", because we all will be inside.

[KevinByrne2]

@ryoushii -- No. Famines were common in the past, but are rare now because technology makes it easier to ship food from areas with surpluses. When the power grid in eastern Canada was destroyed by an ice storm in 1998, it was soon repaired by help from outside. Technology is tools to solve problems. Is the world more vulnerable because it has more tools to solve any problems that arise? Technology makes the world LESS vulnerable, not more.

[freqazoidiac]

Thanks for posting these. Aside from V.3 episodes, I grew up watching these on TVO (tv ontario) in Canada. I have to agree, the relevence of these programs is in sync with today. But that was not hard to see from his point of view, he was versed on Mcluhan probably as early as the early 60's.

[persianlor]

WOW...it's been so long since I saw this...that it makes my jaw drop. If only they showed this to children in school.

[gothaar]

Has this been translated into other languages? Many countries would really NEED to see it. No matter how old it is.

[Innomen]

Stumbled, I hope the whole world sees it. I saw this in the 80s, but this episode in particular is relevant even today.

The 5th choice is The Backpack Apocalypse.

[MountErrigal]

this might be my fav of them all.

great man he is

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Yes, it's kind of a tough episode to swallow... but there is a lot of truth and honesty that you don't see in regular television these days.

[painxtreme]

@JamesBurkeWeb Truth and Honesty are scant available anywhere in our time. Whether with regular or irregular television, or any other venue, truth and honesty have increasingly become a gem of inestimable worth.

[ElliotWrightMusic]

@JamesBurkeWeb agreed. What a magnificent series.  Thank you so much for uploading all of this!

[Ratama]

Mister Burke brings up an essential narrative, especially in this time. Too bad he'll have most of us giggling with all this horny "turns you on" talk.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Humor is one of the best ways to maintain/regain someone's attention. Like it or not, a joke here or there can bring focus to the surrounding narrative ;)

- JBW

[Monkor001]

Is this fabulous individual James Burke Still alive?

[JamesBurkeWeb]

yes

[ndrawker]

@Monkor001 He is and did a great interview a while back on hardcore history one part he tells how he stole the idea for Connections and where ideas come from.

[PaulUmbarger]

"Who knows what some one is doing with a toilet roll right now" has to be the best line describing invention ever televised!

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Heh, ya. One of my favourites too ;)

- JBW

[JamesBMotion]

That extra star (13) is really intended for the YouTube™ tech team who finally discovered the comment_count == 0 bug. Yayy!

Oh, and nice captioning my old friend ;)

- JBM

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Ok, I know this music but can't put a name to it. Anyone who knows pls. do tell!

- JBW

[DJTI99]

It's the movement called 'O Fortuna' from the Carmina Burana from Carl Orff.

My cat sings a variation of that called "'Oh! For Tuna!" whenever I open a can of tuna fish.

And thank you for putting this up. This show really made me want to get interested in science. It changed my life.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Thank you!

Though I don't think I will enter the name into the captions (maybe once if there's some space at the beginning) since it wouldn't mean anything to a deaf person.

However there are those who use the captions as an aid in clarifying the spoken text when English isn't their native language, and yet others who use them to extract precise details about a person's name, or the location of a town and so on (as if reading along with the textbook).

For me it's personal. I want to buy it!

[DJTI99]

You are quite welcome.

Since you are looking to buy it, there is a recording done by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy. I have a copy on vinyl. It's the best recording of this piece I've ever heard.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Well, I would certainly buy that if I had anything that could play vinyl ;) as well I don't have PayPal so I can't use EBay, and even if I could, and had a record player, they surely don't deliver to Cambodia!

Have you a digital form of it? Right now I'm a little "cash poor" ($2.50 total if you can believe it) but I could trade you one of our games [that nobody knows about anyway] for it ;)

- JBW

[gothaar]

Cambodia? May I ask you why you are there?