Get Em While You Can
Dr Mercury of Maggie’s Farm fame has made all of the episodes of James Burke’s The Day the Universe Changed for download. They’re wmv files. I downloaded them and used Nero to transcode them onto DVD; we’re watching the first episode on TV now. You could just as easily watch the wmv files on your computer, of course. Dr Mercury has instructions posted.
James Burke is, of course, the creator and narrator of Connections, one of the most fascinating educational series to be televised. Burke’s Knowledge Web is a valuable resource of technological development and how technology molds us.
Burke is a science historian who takes a unique and fascinating approach to his topic. His approach to history is the world wide web to the encyclopedia. He sees history not so much as a chronological step-by-step development, but as interconnected seemingly unrelated developments that spur yet other seemingly unrelated developments. For example, how was Napoleon important to the development of the modern computer?
Napoleon’s troops in Egypt buy shawls and start a fashion craze.
In Europe the shawls get made on automated, perforated-paper control looms.
This gives an American engineer Herman Hollerith the idea to automate calculation using punch cards.
Which get used to control ENIAC, the first electronic computer.
Get em while you can. They won’t be online forever. Most of the episodes of Connections, by the way, are on youtube. Just search on connections and burke.
Darren:
I *love* The Day The Universe Changed. I bought the “companion book” back in the 90s. Thanks for the information about the downloads.
May 11, 2008, 2:18 pm