Who ever watched the BBC Connections series and didn't become a fan? We have never stopped connecting? Now the BBC is a mere shadow of itself!

@chrismcmullen4313

6 ай бұрын

I watched connections all the way through...twice. James Burke is the only person I've ever seen say that romans calling other europeans barbarians was highly ironic. I think the reason it had the impact on me it did is because it was so contradictory to what i had otherwise been told. He explained it so clearly that you didnt doubt the truth of it. It changed my perspective on everything and bumped my brain over into a place where doing your own thinking was not only necessary...but by now i realise is actually contrary to what the narrative makers want from you. Things have changed unbelievable quickly since then. These days people are lauded for thier deceptions and people who tell the truth are marginalised. James Burke is a brand that isn't dying...its gone extinct. Even much of science has become a lie...

@garrysekelli6776

6 ай бұрын

Yeah f the pedo BBC. Buncha quntz. Jimmie Saville etc. .

@pressureworks

6 ай бұрын

Actually not the bbc's fault. People, especially the people who only watch tv unfortunately are, to be very blunt, quite stupid and the bbc along with other providers of television, have to cater for the majority of their audience. So at least Radio 4 and 4 Extra are convenient refuges.......for now.

@alanclark639

6 ай бұрын

@@chrismcmullen4313 I'd like to see you back those last statements with some Burkian facts!

@newforestpixie5297

5 ай бұрын

“BBC Local Radio in the South” is a conglomerate of generic neighbouring generic stations which cover County districts which by definition aren’t ‘Local’ in size nor their editorial remit to cover “how national & world events affect our listeners” - whilst their local affairs amount to repeating headlines of regional newsrooms usually consisting of 1 County Council decision & a crime - generally a stabbing committed by a working class or homeless young man plus endless updates on rush hour traffic & roadwork traffic controls which have failed 50 miles away from the listeners. Any space is filled with “ I’m still standing “ & “ when the going gets tough “ & an interview with a national tv celebrity. The ethos of national BBC Local Radio in Southern England at least with its ‘diversity’ of white 40 year old clone presenters called Matt or Katie is an expensive luxury that serves very few taxpayers.

"Persuasion is a lot harder when the audience is well informed."

Mr. Burke is an international treasure. Absolutely brilliant and inspirational.

@pierremainstone-mitchell8290

6 ай бұрын

I cannot agree more!

@clawsewitz4316

6 ай бұрын

He destroyed his own franchise along time ago by pandering to the environmental libtards. How many of his sweeping predictions came true? Zero

@ExiledGypsy

6 ай бұрын

The problem is loss on concesus.

@silentperson233

5 ай бұрын

anyone know what year this lecture was given? 2020?

@colinjames2469

4 ай бұрын

2003. @@silentperson233

James Burke: Time Lord.

@newforestpixie5297

5 ай бұрын

I was about to ask if he has a time machine ! 😁👍

I can listen to Burke 24/7. Never a boring moment. A real treasure. A true Brit sophisticate.

OMG 😱!! I just found James Burke again! 🤗👏👏👏👏

This guy is bloody brilliant. I think of Sagan, Asimov and Clarke watching him; the flawless delivery of an enlightened mind. So rare and so precious, this shit should be required viewing...

@Napthalicious

3 жыл бұрын

Ooh, yeah, Stephen J Gould, too...

@Napthalicious

3 жыл бұрын

And Daniel Boorstein.

@rosemarywessel1294

4 ай бұрын

His programs have ALWAYS been amazing. All three series of Connections are good, but I especially like the two-part "After the Warming" on climate change. Even now, about 30-35 years later, it's one of the best intros to global climate systems. It's set in 2050, looking back at what happened to Earth's systems. Part one reviews how climate affected what humans did up until the industrial revolution, then part two reviews how what humans since the industrial revolution did to the climate.

@krisclark8619

2 ай бұрын

Sagen was a fraud

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

I grew up watching Tomorrow's World, and this chap. Absolute legend. Fields ploughed, etc. 10 / 10.

We should have a building, school, plaza or planet or sun named after him. Pure genius. He talked about the end of the intermediaries to solve issues in 2001. And now in 2022 that is completely true.

I attended this lecture! So cool to hear it again, 18 years later and see how things have progressed. Major James Burke fan!!

@hauskalainen

3 жыл бұрын

so glad for this comment... he was joking about President Bush... he was talking about President George Bush the First, not George Bush II. We only got to laugh at George Bush II much later. Prescient or what?

@robertjennings397

3 жыл бұрын

Glad to know when this was produced. I was wondering what was causing the dolts to chuckle at every thought.

@Valhalla.Studio

2 жыл бұрын

What year was this lecture?

@3vimages471

2 жыл бұрын

@@Valhalla.Studio 2002 .... ish.

@kiwitrainguy

Жыл бұрын

@@Valhalla.Studio October 5th, 2001

I just learned of James Burke from a recommended video by KZread. What an intelligent man and I’m so thankful that he created all of the series that he has. I’ve got hundreds of hours of his work to watch now. Thanks for the upload.

@kenchesnut4425

6 ай бұрын

Myself included....So easy to listen to..funny and so smart

The greatest communicator of how applied science leads to our modern world. With Carl Sagan and David Attenborough the people who have most influenced my interests and career,

@petercasey6938

6 ай бұрын

You can add Jacob Bronowski to that list

@njpaddler

6 ай бұрын

@@petercasey6938 yes, yes, yes !

@garrysekelli6776

6 ай бұрын

@@petercasey6938 who is that? Some polish bloke?

@Calligraphybooster

6 ай бұрын

And Richard Dawkins!

@juanferreira5931

6 ай бұрын

Oh yes, just so. This man is bloody brilliant.

This was 20 years ago and I can't believe how prescient it was, predicting things I can see coming down the pipeline even from today. Amazing.

@colinmalcolm2422

Жыл бұрын

40, not 20,.

@EthelredHardrede-nz8yv

6 ай бұрын

@@colinmalcolm2422 Nor 40 years for the talk. A bit less than 20.

@colinjames2469

4 ай бұрын

2003 @@colinmalcolm2422

I’ve been watching James since the early’ 70’s.A wonderful inspiring,incite full educator. He predicts all the internet issues correctly. Even ticking off the person sneezing!

I have been admirer of James Burke since his TV series , The Day the Universe Changed, which I watched almost all of them. I still have TAPES of some of them.... What a brilliant man with a pleasant way of stringing sentences like a fine jeweler creating a masterpiece befitting royalty. He does it for the masses..... Thanks for posting this video....

@Laceykat66

3 жыл бұрын

Agreed, though for me it was Connections & The Neuron Suite. The man could make bubblegum card collecting seem like the most fascinating subject ever.

@sutonchef

2 жыл бұрын

A one of kind individual

Some 22 years later, Burke's comments give context to and explain so much of what's going on today.

The incredible amount of information in this 90 minute lecture/question session---it's like the full 12 course first class meal on the Titanic. Compared to 95% of the other "informational" videos on KZread. Which are more like a McDonalds hamburger.

1:02:23 -- THIS on the other hand, absolutely happened. Online echo chambers, computers who know exactly what to sell you. "Will it be a world of home videos and illiterate scribblings?" Yes Mr. Burke, I'm afraid it is, but happily your lecture will also be here amongst the cat videos -- Chautauqua will coexist with Vaudeville, as it ever has.

Such a pleasure to let that perfect English just wash over you and soak it all in! Wonderful

"People are what they are because of what they don't know." James Burke

@ragereset2795

Жыл бұрын

Oh man, I’m hanging on to that one.

Burke is so polished, compelling story telling interspersed with crowd pleasing comic timing, with that reassured voice of authority. Like his audience, I’m held in the spell of his narrative. Only after the end do you wonder on the other multiple stories of intersecting technological innovations that led from flint to Facebook.

@jimmycricket7385

2 жыл бұрын

Facebook doesn't depend on technological innovation. It depends on common and crude prurience. After all, its original use was to rank how ''hot'' college students were.

His career is summed up as this . . . .'Just plain old good work'. Thanks from Philadelphia.

This talk was in Portland sometime in early 2000. He must like Portland I saw him there in the 1980's. One of my sons met him in an elevator a few years ago and he was delighted that he was remembered for his "Confections" and talks. If our schools taught History and Geography and social science using his videos and talks I know the subjects would be favorites instead of hated.

@michaeldriver127

Жыл бұрын

Oregon, right?

James Burke has a brilliant mind. Most of this is still relevant today (as are his various series' of "Connections"). He is an absolute legend and injects quite a bit of humour into the proceedings. He is up there with the late great Carl Sagan.

When I saw for first time Connections with the Trigger Effect it was a glorious night that introduced me to be more aware of the effects of Engineering and Society. The Trigger Effect still makes me resonate with curiosity about the ever changing world. James Burke is a social scientific genius. He opened the path for others after to create intelligent and entertaining scientific and engineering TV shows. Cosmos 1980 with Carl Sagan, Cosmos 2020 with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Congratulations 🎉

1:03:30 Spot on!!!! Predicted in 2001 exactly what's happening on the internet now. Amazing.

@JohnMiller-mmuldoor

2 жыл бұрын

Damn

@Drgonzosfaves

Жыл бұрын

When you see and understand the history of connections, future predictions can be far more accurate. "I am Criswell, I know all." (Psst, no he didn't.)

James Burke made something completely incomprehensible comprehensible. Truly brilliant TV presenter and serie(s)

@graemewilson7975

6 ай бұрын

Although he couldn't make the Tories comprehensible or pleasant...

It’s very clever, like 6° of separation somebody knows somebody who knows somebody and that somebody get stuff done!

I love how the toilet paper remains front and center for the whole thing.

James Burke is such a great science historian, philosopher, intellectual and if these don't work out for him, a stand up comedian

For reference, this lecture took place October 5th, 2001 in Oregon. Less than a month after the September 11th terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

How can this only have 166k views? James Burke is an absolute treasure.

@krisclark8619

2 ай бұрын

Because change has happened to attention span and nobody has the time to watch a video over an hour.

What can one say about James Burke? Two phrases: (1) Unbelievably brilliant; and (2) Next time you (or I) think that we're smart, bright, intelligent etc. let's BE HUMBLE and add, "of course, I am not________ in comparison to James Burke. Almost nobody is." This was truly brain achingly MAGNIFICENT! Thanks again & again.

@Drgonzosfaves

Жыл бұрын

The wise man listens, while the fool chatters.

At the one hour point of the lecture, Burke rattles me with the questions that haunt me from my own reductionist box (as it were). What will happen...as he is speaking circa 2000...when we all star in our virtual reality paradises? When we all read and listen to only that which we want to see and hear? What happens to our culture when we all mix and mingle "distant learning" style? I realize these are somewhat common questions we grapple with, but Burke has carried us along in this lecture to this very point and left us both excited for and afraid of the future...and in some ways his lecture's future is now.

@Achrononmaster

3 жыл бұрын

You are inventing fictional problems. If humans like digital isolation, then such advances enabling digital isolation will be terrific, for those folks. If people do not like being more & more digital, then provided governments do not force us to be isolated individual islands we will not ever need or organize ourselves to be isolated and digital. There will always be isolationist libertarians, but many more collectivist socially minded folks, and there need be no competition for cultural supremacy between us, civilization has shown a capacity to tolerate diversity. If virtual reality really is a paradise, then getting VR will be heaven for those who want it. But if you ignore the social dimension you will not have it for long, some other poor sod has to still run the factories to make the computer chips and whathaveyou, to run your VR servers, at least until all _that_ can also be machine automated. When all the drudgery is automatized then it will still be a society. You cannot easily breed out the desire of most for human contact. All you do is free up people to do much more creative things. There is no downside to that. If you can breed out us all the desire for human contact, then fine, no need for human contact, but then you are so far ahead in the future you are in fantasy land.

@Bacpakin

3 жыл бұрын

Read ' Ferinheit 451 ' by Roddenberry to get a clue.

@Bacpakin

3 жыл бұрын

Read 'Alone Together'. Yes, we are all very much "digitally typical". Not a choice anymore.

@commentingisawasteoftime7195

3 жыл бұрын

@@Bacpakin Fahrenheit 451 by *Ray Bradbury

@matthewscott7198

3 жыл бұрын

Just as his original "Connections" series asked the question "what will happen when being in debt, all the time, is the normal way to live?" In the 70's, when that aired, the concept of students graduating with $100k or more in debt, or of insured people going bankrupt from medical debt in a country that considers itself the global leader in everything, was beyond comprehension. Yet, here we are.

From 1993? James now 84..great presenter.Connections was inspirational.

James Burke I remember his programmes from the 70s. A time when folks expressed themselves fully, without self imposed stupidity, and insincere rules. James is a living example of excellence of those times. One thing he has wrong is folks ARE dumbed down

I admire James. There aren't many people like him around anymore.

@DasypusN

10 ай бұрын

There was never many like him.

👍😊 The inimitable James Burke at his best. Most enjoyable. .

Не потеряло актуальность даже сейчас!! Отличный спикер!! Благодарю за это видео!! =))

@carlvickoren6996

Жыл бұрын

I was a fan of connections even before I lived In England! Oh yes the BBC is indeed a meer shadow of itself! The news is the prime example!

Amazing...as we always expect from James Burke!

Kudos to the BBC for hiring these guys and then allow them to go out there and inform us brilliantly for decades👍🏼 Well done 🏆!

The problem with "internet knowledge" is that there is no quality control. Any piece of garbage can be presented as well-wrought fact, and, good research can be demonized into obscurity (if even being allowed to be seen..... there are, after all, community standards..

@MaconMedia

3 жыл бұрын

This is where Critical Thinking Skills come in handy. Of course, I fully realize that probably 19 out of 20 internet users do not possess these skills. (ΘεΘ;)

@steviebudden3397

3 жыл бұрын

@Jeffery Amherst : I would suggest that it's showing up in this very video.

@StefanTravis

3 жыл бұрын

All forms of communication have exactly the same problem. One half of the solution is therefore exactly the same: Call it critical thinking, skepticism, bullshit detection or whatever. The other half doesn't quite exist yet: The automation of critical thinking, fact checking, intellectual caution etc. That would be _real_ artificial intelligence.

@prebenso

3 жыл бұрын

Quality control is where you come in - you measure everything in relation to your own prejudices. Facebooks and googles attempt to qualify what they will allow on their platforms will end in their biasses as a filter of truth where your experiences tells you something else and so on and so on.

@steviebudden3397

3 жыл бұрын

@@StefanTravis: Artificial wisdom perhaps? :)

James Burke has always been amazing. All three series of Connections are good, but I especially like the two-part "After the Warming" on climate change. Even now, about 30-35 years later, it's one of the best intros to global climate systems. It's set in 2050, looking back at what happened to Earth's systems. Part one reviews how climate affected what humans did up until the industrial revolution, then part two reviews how what humans since the industrial revolution did to the climate.

Thrilling, as usual, thank you, Dr Burke. My concern: a possible lack of a desire for excellence. Some words of de Tocqueville about democracy ring frequently in my mind, and can be more broadly applied; to paraphrase, 'it will work only if the participant is well informed.'

03:21 - In the real world, the right thing never happens in the right place at the right time. It is the task of journalists & historians to rectify this error. -- Mark Twain

@stevealexander8010

3 жыл бұрын

"Many internet quotes are fallacious" - Abraham Lincoln. Twain/Clemens NEVER said that.

@j.vonhogen9650

Жыл бұрын

@@stevealexander8010- James Burke was just joking. Of course Mark Twain never said that.

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

He really nailed it. Great lecture.

This smart man was a presenter on the TV programme Tomorrows World in the 1970s. He’s come so far today, a great speaker and raconteur and historian.

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.

@jesusisunstoppable4438

4 күн бұрын

James Burke would say that you're a Low IQ knob for having faith in humanity.

Always a pleasure to hear James Burke explain how we got to where we are today.

Excellent and thought provoking as usual for Mr Burke

I always loved his Connections series, and his witty sense of humor. Still timeless. Unfortunately, today's internet/smartphone dummies probably won't understand Burke...

Such a delight, fun to relive his perspective.

A guy once said to me, “well, things are looking up.” I look at him in shock and replied, “why!What’s falling on them?!”

James Burke has three brains in his head.

Interesting how he is referring to subjects he covered in his Connections series. And having seen those programs, makes the understanding of this lecture easier.

James Burke and David Attenborough enthralled me as a boy.❤

Intellectual caviar. Or intellectual smoked salmon. both wonderful. Thank you James Burke.

@kayharker712

3 жыл бұрын

All his programs are here archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke

Burke wouldn't get a look in on the BBC these days- he ticks no boxes, is well educated , highly knowledgeable and thought provoking, none of which sit well with the Beeb's current obsessive drive towards dumbed down 'inclusivity' and woke 'journalism'

@Tsar_NicholasIII

3 жыл бұрын

He worked for them last year.

@kenhymes4900

3 жыл бұрын

What the reply below said, plus: you mean the BBC that has a mandate in place, most recently applied in a warning to Nish Kumar, to repress left speech by invoking "balance"? To which Kumar said something like, "Boris is smart and diseases are good. Happy?" Look, I'm a big fan of Burke within his limits. And it serves no one including him to place him at one end of a hyped up culture war, a war that is always so much less what the powerful have on their minds than the class war. Burke became a sort of postmodernist, a gentler, more humanist version than those i ran into in sociology. He is neither narrow nor a points scorer. I suggest following his example.

@donnaezrol4777

3 жыл бұрын

That's why we have to make him a part of an interdisciplinary approach to education. If you're an educator, introduce him or his books in your plans or courses.

@donnaezrol4777

3 жыл бұрын

It's a way of learning. Not so much the content, but a different way of thinking. In the way he explained the way Bartolli , Copernicus and Galileo sheshow gravity would have made my understanding of algebra much better especially if they included Kepler!

@otsoko66

3 жыл бұрын

@@Tsar_NicholasIII Nick: You can convince those on the right with stuff like truth. Their first principle is that their feelings matter more than any pesky facts.

I so longed for James Burke's take on the Coming Wave. Connections, indeed.

Burke’s speech at 33:00 is prescient of Large Language Models like ChatGPT

If we've accomplished this much with obviously minimal Divine involvement, no wonder the Bible declares that the heart of man cannot conceive what God has in store for those that love Him. All life directed by DIVINITY, the way it was designed to be!

Loved watching this again. Never ages!

The punchline around 1:06:00 "Kick with lunar boot" is (seriously) a classic Aussie repair technique.

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.

I remember watching this episode long ago and wondered how old it was since Burke showcased rotary dial telephones as modern technology.

Been watching this guys documentaries since the 80's. He makes things so clear and easy to understand that even the phylum Cnidaria among us could understand him.

Logic connection is everywhere . And he can prove it.

I wanted to hear the end of his last answer... and everything else he says too. I saw him once in a London street. I was in awe, I could say nothing. Now I'm a teacher and podcaster - and Green politician ( in waiting ) - still in awe. All he says in this video is true today.

I wish these lecture videos gave us the dates when they were recorded. It's difficult to put a person's thoughts in context if you don't know what year they spoke them.

@pierrepa8372

3 жыл бұрын

it a month after 9/11 I found it their website

@pierrepa8372

3 жыл бұрын

October 5th, 2001

Most excellent.

The only constant in the universe is change.

That was amazing. I loved the after dinner questions.

Superb and so prescient .

What a beautiful man. He is what I thought ALL Britishmen were like.

His documentaries have set me on an irreversible path of never thinking in a straight line when it comes to considering something. It hurts the brain, but when taken in the shape of a story, surprisingly entertaining.

Schools should teach history as James burke dose. You can't separate history and science.

James Burkes head and works must preserved for future generations to study and marvel at. . . . . . .obviously preserving his head can wait until he is no longer using it . . . . . . . I miss tv like Connections . . . . .remember when science channels werent full of dumbass "it was aliens" shows . . . .good times.

This lecture was delivered October 5, 2001.

Loved his show “Connections” !

His cross-disciplinary and non-linear approach to history and technology opens up so many different avenues and ideas, that it's hard to know what to specifically focus and comment on. But I'll have to remember that Baskin-Robbins comment! I also looked it up: James Burke is still alive today, at 87 years of age.

Great lecture. Would've been nice if the poster told us when and where it took place.

@CarRepairScams

3 ай бұрын

James Burke 20011005 Is the Internet Redefining Knowledge

Well put in that way, very intelligent James Burke, the late Albert Einstein, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Sabine Hossenfelder, David Attenborough, the late Spike Milligan, Greta Thunberg, the late Benny Hill, and the late Carl Sagan.

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?

Simply great

IMO: Interesting to hear a view from 2002. Who would have thought at the time that the internet would be commercially, and cynically, driven to corrode the very idea of agreed knowledge or truth? Eg. You Tube changing from a star-based rating system to a like-unlike rating system because conflict generates clicks; generates income...for a few...at a terrible cost.

Burke was hoarding toilet paper twenty years ago! He really could see the future...

Hadn't all wished that they would loved to have him as a history prof in college ?

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

Amazing

Beautiful.

James Burke in the top 1% for me ,

@DrMukeshChauhan

3 ай бұрын

Agree with you

When did he do this lecture? It would have been nice if that were part of the description.

@demoscratosbrexitnow2545

3 жыл бұрын

5th Oct 2001

LIFE is a boundless mind working through the clauses that prohibit the conscious communication with ours. One day the veil will fall. Thy Kingdom come!

What a privilege to listen to this man. I recall watching much of his tv work as a child and young adult and was enthralled . Nigh on 20 years ago he predicted so much. I have had no TV for two years and have spent my time learning QED to Jung's synchronisty to Dr Peterson's psychology and so much more. Brilliant visionary man, how many more will his foresight reveal to us!

Brilliant Man

My dad was at school with this amazing human

Connections is both smart and silly. So many of the connections are partial or skewed... but it informed my youth and helped me to think in a similar method of pattern and connections

@Drgonzosfaves

Жыл бұрын

It's difficult to cram that much information into 56 minutes, but he does it nicely.

I love James Burke!