James Burke Interview [video] | Hacker News Reader

James Burke Interview [video]

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For the uninitiated, Connections is a documentary series from the seventies exploring the interconnectedness of technology. In the first episode, titled "The Trigger Effect" [0], Burke shows that if electricity were taken away from us, we'd be sent back to the plow. It's a little dated (1978), but it's an excellent watch even today.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ

I hope everyone here has seen the complete "Connections" (the original ten episodes). Almost certainly the inspiration for Sagan's "Cosmos".

In addition to each episode being fascinating, he ties it all up with a bow in a fascinating final episode.

Some of the Cold War, super-power paranoia might seem a little dated, but the "Future Shock" stuff seems just as relevant today, 40+ years later.

I have a strong recollection of the first episode, where he just walks you through the first few days / weeks of a technological breakdown. At one point, you fled the city to a farm, you are looking for food - would you kill the owners to take over the farm? Would you be able to? If you killed them, would you know how to milk a cow? How to run an actual farm? If you look at the barn, there will be machines that need electric power and gas, what do you do if you run out of gas? Does the farm still have old equipment from the 19th century that doesn't need gas? Does the farm still have animals to pull that euqipment? Do you know how to sow? When to sow? Where to get seeds? Even if you managed to do all that, at one point other people will come by, who might also try to take over the farm, or even just steal from you. Would you be able to defend yourself?

As a viewer, you quickly get the impression that you would most likely be dead after 2-3 months.

This episode was also the inspiration for a 1996 drama called "The Trigger Effect"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117965/

Dated, but also in itself a powerful example of “The Day the Universe Changed” effects that Burke has so powerfully illuminated.

Don't forget Connections^2

The book version of Connections is also very good.

The first Connections series (and the book), and The Day the Universe Changed, are both excellent.

Connections2 and Connections3 flag somewhat. Both were produced for TLC, at a point before its Honey Boo Boo slide, though off its peak. One ran shorter (~25 minute) episodes, which is unfortunate, and there was an excessive fascination with early-1990s CGI effects. Still a net positive.

The series is often findable on YouTube.

A notable omission from all four series is much reference to Chinese science and technology, or any reference to Burke's compatriot Joseph Needham, who compiled the definitive study of these topics, Science and Civilisation in China, a monumental work I've only learned of in the past five years or so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_Civilisation_in_Ch...

You've got me interested--I've been trying to find a good way to release myself from the eurocentric view of history, particularly as it concerns science/technology/mathematics. Do you know of any good resources in addition to Needham's work that might be helpful?

Good question. I've scratched a bit of this, I'm not expert.

Needham alone is huge, and Chinese technology vast. If you can find a copy (a decent college/uni library should have a set), it's fascinating to leaf through.

There are several digests, one a single volume, another a mere ten (!), rather than the 30 or so of the full work.

Simon Winchester has written a biography, The Man Who Loved China.

Philosphy covers a fair bit of general knowledge development, and Peter Adamson's series in his History of Philosophy project includes Western, Arabic/Islamic, Indian, Africana, and eventually Chinese philosophy. Science and technology make apprearances, along with ... a lot ... of religion, ethics, aesthetcss, logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and more.

I'm very weak on anything Africa. The UNESCO series A General History of Africa, 11 volumes, (1964-) is the most comprehensive of which I'm aware, which isn't saying much. It includes technology, though not as a principle focus:

https://en.unesco.org/general-history-africa#collection

For the Americas and Oceania, you'll likely need to look into anthropological studies rather than history per se. Charles C. Mann's 1491 may be a good introduction to the Americas.

https://www.worldcat.org/title/1491-new-revelations-of-the-a...

Vaclav Smil's Energy in World History, the precursor to his more recent Energy and Civilization, is history told through the lens of energy and energy-related technologies (which ... happens to be many of them).

https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-in-world-history/oclc/...

There are numerous recent books on the history of technology, and an increasing number of works looking at economic aand technological histories of regions, cultures, and eras, particularly of Greece and Rome (obviously Western tradition), though all but certainly others.

Jared Diamond's Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel cover some of this, but are also exquisitely researched. The real value for you may be in their bibliographies.

The New Books Network podcast surveys recent academic publications in numerous areas, with author interviews, and should be useful mining, notably:

Science, Technology, and Society https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/science-technology/scie...

Intellectual History https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/politics-society/intell...

History https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/politics-society/histor...

26min and 6 seconds is the line that stays with me n decades after I first watched it as a kid on the BBC. Chilling

One look at your comment and I knew the line. There are a few of those moments, in that series. (The Wheel of Fortune's end, in particular, does it for me.)

Connections really changed how I viewed history and how progress works and etc.

It's amazing how the pieces of new tech and new ideas are all around us and to some extent readily available for a long long time and often it just takes someone to put them together and how happenstance and etc play a part.

It's not 'make a gun' or 'make a thing' it is the culmination of so many things (even completely non 'invention' related) that add up to the key piece(s) that someone puts together.

Things I think of as obvious progress over time sometimes sat on the shelf available for ages and only came together because of a misc invention or some failures of someone else, etc.

James Burke's fascinating After the Warming predates Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth by almost 2 decades![0]

[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=451xJqNGFqU

I’m so glad to read the other comments here - some new reading and watching material. The best part of this story for me is that I had watched Connections with my brother so long ago, I simply assumed James Burke was dead for a while now. I’m really pleasantly surprised he’s still kicking around!

If you've ever played the video game The Witness there's a clip from Burke's The Day The Universe Changed in the game. I was gobsmacked when I saw it, but after playing the entire game, it makes complete sense!

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