James Burke : Connections, Episode 1, "The Trigger Effect", 3 of 5 (CC)

[BugsWisely]

@khataroo

I misspelled hypocrisy... I musta been havin' a bad day. I liked Connections 3 episode 6 where he talks of Alfred Wallace being the true author of "Origin of Species."

[khataroo]

Every man for himself



[khataroo]

So the moral to the story is....watch out always for that "Technology Trap."

[thors45a]

Hell, farmers don't even plow anymore. Agriculture has totally changed since this was made.

[BugsWisely]

A new fundamental way of life. Hyper hypocracy.

[khataroo]

@BugsWisely Yep, hysteria breeds hysteria.

[sheriwhispers]

This guy gives me a headache...

[EJ160E]

keep a gun handy to kill all the looting monkey niggers!

[xxxandijjj]

without the power how we could see you and have the great idea from you jackass

[Rickyrab]

I'm not so suree it was the plow that started it all. Perhaps it was the spear. Perhaps it was man learning how to walk on two feet. But technology development started long before agriculture. Humankind had to learn how to hunt, how to fish, and how to herd animals, and farming probably came after that.

[Rickyrab]

This episode was partially filmed in the old World Trade Center. Which makes me wonder. Did anyone get trapped in an elevator on 9/11?

[tsunchoo]

this reminds me quite a lot of Threads (a BBC TV film) - the 'threads' in question being the fragile connections that hold our lives together and in that movie they are destroyed by nuclear war.

it's a very good film which basically takes James Burke's survival hypothesis and presents a very realistic and unsentimental view of how it might pan out.

it's very well-made and acted but harrowing and unremittingly bleak and something you might wish to 'unsee' - not unlike 'The Road'

[lazyfreedom98]

Scandinavia

F

L

I

G

H

T

911

Just a coincidence.

[Psy0psAgent]

@lazyfreedom98 at 2000 feet heading straight towards Manhattan. 

[AdeptPaladin]

Me? I'd flee to the country and beg my way onto a farm. Better to eat in slavery than to starve in freedom.

[netbanshee]

Burke is rocking a ghetto lighter. Even more props.

[dianac23]

wow scary... talking about technology traps... just take a look at modern America, with its 15 level 4 bio-weapons laboratories, not to mention all the genetic modification they are doing now. They are creating one giant trap that one day, everyone will walk right into!!

[JerryKitich]

Mennonites and Amish will rule the world; that's what they are secretly preparing for. :)

[soberek]

It's more than obvious that Burke was the reason, form ant method behind Dr Isaac Kleiner. (And the cake is a lie).

[ekpil2000]

1 part rational 1 part paranoid.

We are reliant on each other.

[ekpil2000]

1 part rational 1 part paranoid.

[ChorltonBrook]

I think I'd prefer to head to a yacht or something. The sea can be a good provider. Head to a smaller island and make friends with the locals hopefully.

[ChorltonBrook]

Thank God for smokers.

[monagugga]

I watched this series a few years ago and, though I forgot a lot of interesting facts he mentions in the show, I never forgot this particular bit because it is absolutely terrifying. TERRIFYING. Also it reminds me of Michael Haneke's Time of the Wolf, at least, the beginning part.

[albc1964]

To all viewers of this video >>> Does anyone know if this unique thought provoking video can be found on DVD series called The Day the Universe Changed with Mr James Burke as the narrator ? Thanks for your help !!

[monagugga]

@albc1964 It is on the Connections Series One DVD -- episode 1.

[terrywoodinc]

maybe i'm naive, but i believe most people would cooperate to get a better chance of survival, after all that's how we got to where we are. But yes, we needed the first rudimentary tools to evolve.

[DrDopehat]

@terrywoodinc

That has so many variables in it that can go wrong that I wouldn't bet on it.

You see while we are indeed a species that tend to band together, you have to remember most of our ways have been dulled by modern society, if not in some cases, completely ruined.

Secondly, we are a greedy lot..very greedy. We will kill each other over greed. More especially so, when it concerns food during needy times.

Thirdly, we become very primal under extreme pressure and lack of food..

[FakePlasticShrimp]

i wonder if this guysever played fallout 3...

[highart2003]

I would capture people and start harvesting their limbs for food... or just push a shopping cart around, not sure.

[inebriatedsaxophone]

Have we reached the point where one facet of civilization can upturn and destroy itself? He might be trying to say we need to diversify ourselves to counter a mono-culture.

If we all reacted the same way, we'd be predictable, and there's always more than one way to view a situation. What's true for the group is also true for the individual. It's simple: overspecialize, and you breed in weakness. It's slow death.

[inebriatedsaxophone]

@inebriatedsaxophone the last paragraph I meant to quote from Ghost in the Shell. it is taken out of context but I feel it applies nicely

[Thorpe741]

The plow..does'nt matter. What he is saying is that without something simple (ie: the wedge, the oldest tool known to man.) or in this case a switch, society/people would struggle and/or collapse. "Taking things for granted" can be disaterous. Even the simple things. I can surf the web, but not plow a furrow.

[1982CFD]

This guy's like a cross between Adam Curtis and Alan Partridge,

[diviz0r]

james burke rules

[matthewfieldhouse101]

This is assuming that in a time of crisis, everyone would just go on a rampage as opposed to looking after one another. 9/11 and the subway example in this very program has shown that humans pull together and do whatever we can to get through.

[oker59]

The plow didn't start agriculture; it just cemented it in some more; i mean do you know to hook it up to the animal? How to irrigate? How to see whether a given plot of land is worth trying to do agriculture? Do you know how to calculate the seasons to know when to plant and harvest? Do you know what seeds correspond to what plants? Do you know a million other things that experience gives on how to do farming?

[newguy33X]

We're reliant on the sun not flaring up too much too. Try getting ready for that.

[napalmcoffee]

than the C.H.U.D.S came

[rbrown6984]

This ought to be required viewing for all people everywhere.

[matatan69]

OMG! they put a scene with black people looting!!,, this video should be censored! (by the way , I am acting sarcastic to the way people react these days) 

[SniperWold4200]

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[dmp1ce]

Wow! Fear mongering to the extreme!

[WhoBoy93]

This is truely brilliant!

[TheLastBrainLeft]

One thing of note: the scenes of looting and arson were not from the 1965 blackout, which was remarkably crime-free. They were taken from the 1977 blackout, which was a disaster from which many neighborhoods in NYC didn't recover from for nearly a generation (Bed-Stuy and the South Bronx comes to mind). There was also very little looting/arson during the 2003 blackout, so I don't necessarily buy the idea that civilization would collapse immediately if the power goes out.

[PatsBlog]

@TheLastBrainLeft Sure, maybe not immediately. MAYBE. Remember the flooding of the Charles River in Boston last year? People were fighting over bottled water in convenience stores. We're not talking about complete societal collapse, we're talking about a few days of inconvenience! People fight like savages over Christmas presents at Wal-mart. So, whether it's a few days or weeks, eventually this will be the scene played out in ANY society guaranteed! Maybe you'll have a head start...

[abbesieyes]

Makes the Amish seem far less backward than popular culture assumes.

[michaelcarter28]

JamesBurkeWeb, I hate that youtube has no plans to permit full tv shows and movies. I need to to go to stream episodes (dot) net to watch tv episodes and movies instead when I rather watch all of it on youtube.

James Burke : Connections, Episode 1, "The Trigger Effect", 3 of 5 (CC)

[the82spartans]

If the sh*t does hit the fan...I'm going to be a pimp and my ho's will get me food for services rendered so I don't have to work a plow. I have allergies.

[Ms4Caro]

I was a little surprised he went for farming, rather than going even _further_ out and going the hunter-gatherer route (depending on where you live, it might be easier, no?)

[fre3k9]

Farming allowed us to settle in places we may otherwise not have been able to sustain ourselves. Before we were limited to our environment providing us with food, be it in the form of foraged plants or hunted animals. These resources were sparse and required a nomadic way of life in many places to make use of them.

Farming allowed humans to dictate the location and means of their sustenance. It required much less work, and left our ancestors with lots of free time to invent technology.

[Ms4Caro]

Oh definitely, and it makes a much better lead-in for what he wants to talk about for the rest of the program :) . It's just that I don't see farming as necesarily being the most natural course of action in response to a society-destroying event for many people.

[kntzen]

Perfect. We need only YouTube to fix those too fast captions, super speed reading is not easy.

[doinktastic]

6:36 left4dead2

[astrogoat]

Even if you "take the farm by force" it is unlikely you will survive one winter. Few people understand modern farming let alone pre-1950 farming. Further, the soil on most farms is so warn out that you will not have the fertility you need to grow anything. Most farms do not have draft oxen, your average dairy cow hasn't worked a day in her life, you also will need seed and most is hybrid now. If surviving is your plan, then start now and spend 10 years leaning how to do it.

[ayndxo]

"Do you know when to sow whatever it is you think it is?" I had to pause the video after this because I couldn't stop laughing. Now my shoulders hurt! Great, great program!

[Bolrof]

i'll be honest here, through my own fault i have made my life dependant on technology, casting away something that still does it's job for somthing "better" that probably has a lot more that could go wrong with it.

from where i am sitting now in my life If such a situation ever happend, i would give up and die.

[Monkor001]

I'll take a farm by force and people to work it but I'll work it as well, people will need to work together and if you gotta use force to say were all gonna help or were all gonna die then that seems workable in an apocalypse

[JamesBurkeWeb]

What do you mean "by force"?

You, against over 100 fully-armed, well-fed rugged men that know the territory, know how to use firearms, know how to develop, hide, time or trigger powerful explosives; you will (after walking some 200 miles with barely a drop of water to drink) just take that farm "by force"?

Force of what?

You aren't a super commando or something are you? Or are you the leader of some kind of radical militant faction?

Please do tell. Sounds interesting!

[PatsBlog]

@JamesBurkeWeb I absolutely LOVE your replies!!!! These guys that talk about storming the farm, etc... they're great comedy relief. They don't have a CLUE!!!! I am behind my computer laughing out loud. I watched this series years ago. Just as interesting and relevant today. So glad I came across this site today. Guess what my family's getting for Christmas this year... :-)

[ryoushii]

@JamesBurkeWeb And what happens when you run out of shell encased bullets?

Can you use and maintain a black powder flintlock or matchlock? And what are you going to make explosives out of? Most explosives people "know" how to make require chemicals that are the product of an industrial society, nitrates, ammonia compounds, diesel, all need an industrial base.

[Maloney001]

@JamesBurkeWeb I am with BurkeWeb on this one. People who know the area are well more organised that some city folk thinking they can do things like this. The book Patriots was a fine example with why you do not fuck with people on their own land.

Its also why the Vietcong won your war.. 20 years in their country, 5000 in theirs. Do the math, You cant win.

[p717]

@Monkor001

Too many video games.

We didn't evolve to to this level (high tech = high cooperation = high voluntarism) by taking everything by force. If fact, we started becoming civilized when we began to occasionally cease building society by coercion. Cooperation increases survivability. Offense, on the other hand, creates defense, back and forth, and a perpetual dark age.

[tex1965able]

if you got the farm by the force there will be more like you,later you have to defend your self and work at the same time.need a tribe for defence ,production ,gathering food and goods

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Nothin' to it!

Well, unless you've ever had any experience running a community (like say, a child's birthday party) you will rapidly come to the realization that forming alliances and bringing everyone into agreement over some issue (ie. "who peed in the lemonade") will often evolve into a daunting if not life-threatening occupation.

But ok. Form tribes, elect a security council, set up laws, taxation, division of labor etc. and yes, you *might not* get slain before the grain runs out.

- JBW

[Jcolinsol]

Have you read "Earth Abides" by George Stewart? It's a very interesting extrapolation of what might occur after a mass extinction of the human race. Particularly the second half of the book, where the few survivors are rebuilding society.

[PatsBlog]

@JamesBurkeWeb You are a genius!!!! (...who peed in the lemonade?") :-)

[PatsBlog]

@JamesBurkeWeb "...like say, a child's birthday party..." I am rolling. You are hilarious!!!! I just finished a debate with an anarchist and sent him to this video. Every day I think we're getting closer to some cataclysm that will send us back to the stone ages, or at least the 1790s... My friend got me the "US Army Field Manual" for my birthday last year. Lots of good survival info in there... :-)

[TheLastBrainLeft]

Nothing else made in 1978 was ever so relevant today than this is.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

I think you can expand that to: "made from 1978 to the present day".

- JBW

[EKon235]

@JamesBurkeWeb v

[EKon235]

@JamesBurkeWeb @JamesBurkeWeb This assertion is very false. You fail to mention that just two years later, in 1980, Carl Sagan released his stunning presentation of the present state of the world, the development of the human species, cosmology, biology, history, and the precarious nature of technology in the sense that technological societies tend to destroy their civilization rather fast after ...well, becoming technological (double edge sword). The title of the documentary was "COSMOS".

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Sure, you did exactly as those people did in the show. And those people were city dwellers making it even more uncommon.

So I'm not sure what your point is. You state the same thing that Mr. Burke states; that we expect *technology* to save us. And in the meantime "we cope".

The 2nd question (not addressed by either example) is:

"But what happens if the effects are widespread, irreversible, devastating and whatever resources existing in reserve to help us cope, give out?

What then?

- JBW

[mikeyman211]

That is one long flame.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Sorry? I'm not sure what you're referring to...

[mikeyman211]

On his lighter in the lift.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Oh, hehe... true! I always wondered why he carried a lighter... As far as I know he never smoked.

- JBW

[brainouty]

Oh I am SO grateful that your channel exists, JamesBurkeWeb! Connections and 'The Day The Universe Changed' are some of my all-time favorite thinkpieces! THANK YOU!

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Not at all. Enjoy the shows.

[shaktiIIIgta]

what an awesome channel.... for this kind of educational stuff i still watch youtube

[hultonclint]

Funny though, I wonder if his comments here would have more impact on viewers in the UK than those in North America. While certainly not in NYC, there are lots of "live off the land" types in America that I'd say are pretty well equipped to deal with life without electricity!

[JamesBurkeWeb]

I dunno... I've met lots of these people and even though they can live without *direct use* of electricity and gasoline or whatever, they are nonetheless, very much dependent on a support structure that requires it. When was the last time you saw someone with goiters for instance? Do they *know* how to acquire iodine? Or TB, or Polio, and what about what they plant? Where do the seeds and fertilizer come from? I'm doubtful of these claims as I've never seen a *true* example of self-reliance.

[Eldritchard]

Looks like the Amish will inherit the earth then ^_^

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Hmm, well they'd be the best prepared I suppose. But of course we'll just enslave them with our superior weaponry!

[Eldritchard]

I detect Burkeian Dark Humour ^_^

if electrics fail what superior weaponry?

The Amish didn't decide on biblical precepts not to have electricity, they actually sat down and thought what affect it would have on there society and rejected it.

They have no rules against machine guns,mortars bombs. Basicaly the only thing we'll have they wont have is the Nuke whos gonna use that with no planes or guidance systems or sattelites

'The fourth world war will be thought with swords and bows and arrows'

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Yes, I was joking! I wouldn't even know how to load, aim and fire a gun even if I had one!

I was just recalling, as I typed that in, "The Planet Of The Apes", where (I think it must be part 4... just after the nuclear holocaust) "good" humans (ie. Amish) & apes live a rustic existence outside as opposed to bad "urbans".

At some point the bad guys try to make use of their technological advantage! to steal plentiful food from the good guys (Amish) 'course the "schoolbus assault" fails miserably.

[hwoods01]

Amish == meek

"... the meek shall inherit the earth"

[midwife61]

Um..... does anyone know of any Amish farming lessons on youtube???

[JamesBurkeWeb]

LOL

[dreasim]

@midwife61 farm? most cant start a fire.

[vinha1006]

@midwife61 No- But I live within an Amish settlement, and we HAVE made plans on emergency planning for survival. To the ones that think that they will "take it by force"- your sense of humor is showing, or you're just plain stupid. We will be waiting for you to arrive. We can use another pair of hands to work. If you have anything else in mind; well- let us just say that not all the Amish are pacifists and lleave it at that- except to say that theyare excellent hunters. Come on down!

[hwoods01]

the ORIGINAL connections was the best of them all..

[AgentJayZ]

James Burke is so great!!

Thanks for uploading this.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Isn't he though? Too bad he seems to have gone into seclusion lately; haven't heard a thing about any up coming public interviews or new projects, book signings or whatever. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. Could always be that ;)

If anyone hears of anything coming up, please let me know. Maybe a few of us around here can get a question or 2 in in an interview (*if* we knew where and when!)

- JBW

[motonegros]

Why didn't they call for help on their cellphones?

[JamesBurkeWeb]

I think I'll leave it to the general community here to provide an answer to that question ;)

- JBW

[Flash1015]

This is 1965 Cellphones didn't exist, the closest thing to a cell phone is a mobile radio that the military used. And civilians didn't lug those around during their work day.

[Rhubba]

It's part 3 and we get our first sighting of the famous cream leisure suit.

I still have the book of the series, right next to Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" as the first grown up documentaries I ever watched.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Haha... the old leisure suit. Not sure why he felt he had to burn the thing but I guess it's his suit so he can do whatever he wants with it! ...

unless, of course, it belongs to the BBC? Given 7% interest compounded monthly... oh dear.

- JBW

[malcr001]

Great I shall be a farmer instead lol

[LibBiblio]

this must be where my obsession with the postapocalyptic future originated.I saw this series when I was 10 and must have rewatched it a half dozen times.I'm pretty sure this series is also responsible for my love of the history of science. When I became a middle school history teacher,I totally taught my students about what a big deal the plow was and emphasized the cause and effect/connectedness of history rather than just dates and famous people.Thanks James Burke, I guess you changed my life!

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Mine too!

Hey, could you (or anyone) do us all a favor, that is, those of us who use captions, see if the video runs properly with captions turned on? If not then could you post a bug report to YouTube? With enough bug reports perhaps they'll fix this latest problem and I can get on with captioning more episodes.

Thanks in advance,

- JBW

[moonrules]

If i woke up and thee was candles around me and a priest I'd be out of my mind!

[JamesBurkeWeb]

And apparently so was she!

[bearsagainstevil]

my parents stopped us using electricity for years and we grew all our own food at the time it seemed a bit crazy, this was in the 1970s .

but yes I know how to plough and I have a plough and the house I'm in now I could live without electricity .

my father was a engineer in saudi and he believed in peak oil well you cant not believe in it because thats what oil fields do , and the world will do , and I think he wanted us to grow up not dependant on something with no future great series

[JamesBurkeWeb]

But this has nothing to do with energy supply, or fuel running out, or no electricity. It's about the entire technological "womb" that we're dependent on, any part of which could fail and bring it all down. And that's true Even if we had a limitless supply of energy (which we do actually - it's called the sun).

I see the point in learning how to survive on your own, but I think you may be missing the point here by linking this together with particulars like "peak oil".

- JBW

[typeclash]

What a lovely show. I often think about things like this.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

It can be a little bit scary too!

- JBW