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The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

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Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#201
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but the YouTube ed channels are such a treasure in and of itself. We had the “tech” to produce content like this for almost a century, but it took the Internet and democratization of content creation to come up with gems like smarter every day, veritasium, extra history, etc My fear is that this is also being reshaped with ai, mostly for good now but I feel like the personal touch and passion of these creators i…

The youtube channels are nowhere near the style and depth of documentaries like the ones above...

> The youtube channels are nowhere near the style and depth of documentaries like the ones above...

My friend, if you enjoy long format, deep diving documentaries written, produced and narrated without AI about Space, Physics, Human evolution or planet Earths history, then I insist you head over to the History of the Universe YouTube channel and start watching!

This specific video is probably my favorite (I'm a sucker for contemplating "time"and what it actually is) and was the one that got me hooked on their channel. They go way deeper into the details without becoming a formal lecture and it's genuinely captivating. https://youtu.be/ZSmNii0uOmw?si=3Jaty3XcMGlryhh2

https://youtube.com/@historyoftheuniverse https://youtube.com/@historyofhumankind https://youtube.com/@historyoftheearth

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#202
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but the YouTube ed channels are such a treasure in and of itself. We had the “tech” to produce content like this for almost a century, but it took the Internet and democratization of content creation to come up with gems like smarter every day, veritasium, extra history, etc My fear is that this is also being reshaped with ai, mostly for good now but I feel like the personal touch and passion of these creators i…

Any particular recommendations? I’ve been meaning to queue some up to have in the background playing when the kids are around hoping to stumble across something that that might pique their interests

Throwing out my recommendation for History of the Universe as well as its sibling channels. Honestly, the people behind these channels produce higher quality documentaries, both in substance and style, than 99% of the "professionally" created stuff I've watched in at least three last 5 years.

https://youtube.com/@historyoftheuniverse https://youtube.com/@historyofhumankind https://youtube.com/@historyoftheearth

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#203
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The youtube channels are nowhere near the style and depth of documentaries like the ones above...

Depends on what you follow. For example, look up The Great War. At least where I live, basically everything that's on discovery, national geographic and the history channel now is just "experts" talking (reading a script) about "hitler's secret sex life" or some such thing, interspersed with a re-enactment shot or one of the "experts" walking around a slightly relevant building.

That is fair, I have checked out some The Great War videos. Not to mention podcast stuff like Hardcore History. They are very good an in depth. There is also full MIT/Harvard courses on Youtube. So yes it is all about what one looks up.

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The youtube channels are nowhere near the style and depth of documentaries like the ones above...

Close to style, naturally styles are different Lack of depth? Wrong. Just go beyond the usual pop-sci stuff on YT. You can go as deep as you want. Surely it won't be "as fun" or "tiktok sized" but if you want depth it's there

That is fair, I have checked out some The Great War videos. Not to mention podcast stuff like Hardcore History. They are very good an in depth.

There is also full MIT/Harvard courses on Youtube.

So yes it is all about what one looks up.

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The youtube channels are nowhere near the style and depth of documentaries like the ones above...

Check out Technology Connections. This is way, way, way more in depth than anything one can find on TV.

Thinking about it I have to revise my statement somewhat. I have seen The Great War, Technology Connections etc and my Youtube algo is after 15 years very tuned to me.

The issue is somewhat that this stuff needs to be pushed more into peoples feeds and not pregnant spiderman videos.

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are 2 or 3 feature length documentaries you watched produced in the last 5 years? I’m curious what you’re watching and what made them so bad. I saw several excellent ones over the last few years. They’re out there and they’re not obscure IMO.

> What are 2 or 3 feature length documentaries you watched produced in the last 5 years? Since GP mentioned TV, I suspect the ones he's complaining about are the ones I complained about: one-hour TV documentary-style shows like BBC Horizon or PBS Nova. The ones I've seen from recent years contain interesting stuff, but the presentation is too rapid, to flashy, too repetitive yet not enough time to let things settle.…

>one-hour TV documentary-style shows like BBC Horizon or PBS Nova.

Yep, these must be them, but our Swedish state TV buys them and somewhat rebrands them, but the BBC logo is usually there at the end.

Yes they are much more flashy and "americanized" compared to 10-15 years ago. Sadly. I still appreciate them.

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#207
post #33

I wonder if this show is the ”Connections” in “Technology Connections” [1]. I can’t find a reference on it but I wouldn’t be surprised. [1] https://youtube.com/c/TechnologyConnections

I think at some point Alec did mention that was what he was going for. IIRC it was a mastodon or bluesky post.

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> " I love Connections but the basic thesis (there are hidden connections between disparate developments in science and technology)... " Good grief, no. The basic thesis of Connections 1 was that humanity has become fatally dependent on technology (the "technology trap" he speaks of), that that dependence continues getting deeper and deeper, and it's hard to predict what technologies will emerge or where technology w…

I just watched the first episode. The simulated nuclear attack did terrify me. That said, his commentary about telecommuting is spot-on. At 39:49 of https://archive.org/details/the-day-the-universe-changed-s01... . "The point about all this technological pizazz isn't the gee-whiz high-tech stuff. It's the secondary effects of using it. Take say what this chip could do to change the pattern of work. With this you coul…

Wow, I messed up there!

You were talking about Connections. I watched The Day The Universe Changed.

Just realized my mistake now, and watched Connections episode 1.

Yeah, totally about technology traps.

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#209
post #62
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats because we have a trove of in depth specialist and deep youtube content including all those old documentaries to mine through these days Youtube and the internet is a goldmine and way bigger than old 80s/90s content, im over 50 and remember the 80s well enough.. a few great well produced documentaries are not a comparable to gigabytes or petabytes of videos and podcasts we have today The cultural format of exch…

You watched all that content. Did you take action on it? What did you make or do as a result?

eh, sometimes its just passive consumption, I'm not claiming it makes me a better person..but it rattles around in my head and latter bubbles up as creative solutions I think.. I would be an information junkie in whatever world I was in regardless..
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