James Burke – Internet Knowledge

jams curke fint chipping to now says it all thanks

"Television is dead and doesn't know it"😮

Man nailed it

"We put a crown on tradition and live off the tourist revenue" The brisish royalty are there to ensure we are not dictated to by "foriegn prelate". That is still highly relavent today, if you check. That is why we have a church of england instead of living under the rule of the holy roman empire.

Try using
Vacuum carpet cleaner to clear the slurr???

He is the absolute best ever . Brings back great memories. There was a lot of programs he presented , brilliant

I appreciate your series "The Day the Universe Changed" and "Connections," and yourself in general. However - there is always a but - we did send millions of our young boys and girls into Britain/Europe/Great Britain throughout the twentieth century and beyond, to protect all of our borders, interests, and people. Many of them died, and are laid in rest there. (And yes, there was French money - as well as Dutch. Suck it up. You created a political/economic child far larger than your English self. Other than the one scratch during the 1770s-1780s, we have not bitten the hand that fed us. Worse, we are often enameled by the royals, which is contrary to any sort of common sense we should have learned from the English, unless they/you are tired of it yourselves.)

Right. We asked too. Looks like this was broadcast October 5, 2001 on PBS/BBC. Someone mentioned the location was Oregon - thanks. Can someone explain why where and when does NOT MATTER?

It is easier to erase the past with the internet.

Home movies and illiterate scribblings pretty well describes all the social media and their comments.
James Burke at 87 is still active, commenting on AI, space travel, the human condition, and Connections in general.

Language came from having to describe poisionous plants. We were eating plants way before undulates with axes.

LOVE James Burke, he one of my heros. one thing, the "high rates of innovation today" are nothing more than subtle changes example: Sonet and Eithernet, combustion engine vs electric, how many pixels you can fit is just and expansion of an existing science. our rate of expansion has be more like refinement - not expansion. example analog data transfer, now is fiber optic, it works on the same principal, one was sound frequencies (analog) the other is light frequencies (fiber optic) - the principal is the same.

2024 and the landscape is alive with the tangible effects of technological innovation, though perhaps not at the breakneck pace some anticipated. Today established institutions, deeply rooted like mushrooms, predictably resist the tide of change, while many individuals cling to the familiar Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Yet, amidst this resistance, change persists and gains momentum. AI stands at the forefront of innovation, but it merely scratches the surface of a vast iceberg of transformative advancements. Ahead lie uncharted waters, teeming with possibilities and opportunities .

Why no knighthood?

As a amateur historian, James Burke changed my way of research! He opened many doors, to be sure!!

I love James Burke. He's an inspiration who I rely on when I lose faith in human beings. I would love to share a few pints with him.

Simply great

Decentralisation

Watching this now in 2023 James really picked up the early challenges of the internet when this was recorded 20 years early... Reductionism has indeed entered our democracies Just look at how our Leaders across the globe are now elected on nuance and not facts... and are we living in algorithm created echo chambers that can even do our thinking for us and we don't even realise it....

"Television is dead and doesn't know it". TV has been dead to me for twenty years.

Huxley said that Orwell was wrong that we'd end up starved for information, that instead we'd be so positively awash with it, we'd virtually drown in it. In 2024, this avalanche of information has split us into hopelessly irreconcilable groups and still, the information keeps washing over us. Our brains have collectively turned into porridge after all.

Always loved watching the old series with him. I learned so much.

That guy talks way too fast..............

James Burke refers to the "culture of scarcity." Scarcity today is artificial, caused by the existence of monopoly privilege. We are fully capable of producing all of what philosopher Mortimer J. Adler described as "the goods required for a decent human existence." Scarcity results from a redistribution of wealth from its producers to a non-producing "rentier" elite, referred to by some economists as "free riders."

As a young person moving from high school to college I completed two courses in economics. Only some years later did I realize that economics was the simplified (i.e., reductionist) sub-discipline of political economy, which was also a sub-discipline of moral philosophy. Any understanding of how human societies are organized and function starts with moral philosophy. Yet, we humans cannot agree on the moral principles required for the establishment of just societies.

James Burke is a legendary science communicator. His work for the BBC during the Apollo missions was fantastic and the I vividly remember the Apollo 11 - 17 live broadcasts and filmed inserts, (the BBC in its wisdom and cost saving reused / wiped most of the actual Apollo 11 landing coverage.). His Connections series were just incredible.

I’m not 100% certain but I think this lecture must date from around 2001- 2 and his predictions of the social impact of the internet, the impact on education and how we might all have our own information bubbles, was extraordinary prescient.

And he even talked about the impact of bots and neural networks briefly. Quite amazing. Thanks James for helping me to have a curious mind and love of science.

None of the MSM scientists will ever be able to provide a coherent and plausible explanation as to why the world wore masks and was vaccinated.

I just realized that there's a connection between Hans Christian Andersen and me. Hans Christian Andersen wrote letters to Jenny Lind. There's a polka named after Jenny Lind. There's a polka named after Pennsylvania. I was born in Pennsylvania.

Forget the cat crossing your path. The one in the box with you can have fatal consequences for the both of you.

fun fact, 'the dutch' in the time of which he tells the story, did not exist then. So boohoo hoo.

Explains why experts no very little

James Burke really said it all during the after dinner Q&A on the subject of 9-11 at the end of the video. If only the US politicians had heeded his advice. If instead of squandering trillions of dollars and millions of lives fighting Muslims the US had donated that money to the same people the world would be a very different place and America would be the most lauded country in history.
Unfortunately, the US's murderous, vengeful and murderously obscene approach has alienated itself worldwide and people now look forward to its spectacular demise - more so now in the wake of backing its Israeli protégé's genocide in Gaza.

The show Connections was good

This is congruent with JBP’s story of cultural dynamism.

The internet, instead of being a universal font of knowledge for everyone, is now being used by vast numbers of people to stupefy themselves. Witness the rise of flat earth fanatics, moon landing deniers, religious crackpots, Trump supporters etc. Before the internet these people would have been held in check by their peers ridiculing them and shunning them for their stupid ideas. Now? Every moron gets a voice as loud as every sane person. And instead of suffering deserved ridicule they band together behind their keyboards and stroke each other's egos and butts. I can't wait for a real zombie apocalypse...

Television was invented so that James Burke could appear on it and enlighten us plebs :)

The problem with wikipedia, turns out, is not that it can contain random junk information, but that it was captured and corrupted by certain government agencies and interests, pushing certain agendas and censoring others.

I discovered James Burke in the mid 1980's with "The Day the Universe Changed". I have made all of his series required viewing by all of my children. He is one of the most brilliant minds of my lifetime. His shows should be required classes in every educational facility worldwide.

I've admired him since my childhood. But why in the world is there a roll of toilet paper on the lectern?

A boy in the 60's I grew up following James covering the space programme and all things "scientific". His delivery hasn't changed. This lecture would have benefitted enormously from slide show images to augment the narrative.

Niles did a Yogi Berra.

Bill Gates anecdote? 1,000,000% truism. To the max... 😆

Thanks for your

humour so much more fun than Chomsky