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Connections by James Burke (1978)

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Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)

#81

Post by mymythisisthis »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #49
djmips wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless you think our civilization is unique among all the others. I don't think there is even a question that it's unique considering how far it's come in understanding physics math and engineering. To lose all of that would be a great disaster.

Why do you believe it would be lost? Did we lose a substantial amount of previously developed knowledge when the Greek or Roman civilizations collapsed? I humbly suggest that we did not ....

When Copernicus was working out the solar centric system, he was using 1000 year old star charts dating to Ptolmey. They were the best Europe had at the time. The Alfonsine tables were just being compiled and printed as Copernicus was working.

Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)

#82

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

bsder wrote: post #77
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you believe it would be lost? Did we lose a substantial amount of previously developed knowledge when the Greek or Roman civilizations collapsed? I humbly suggest that we did not ....

> Did we lose a substantial amount of previously developed knowledge when the Greek or Roman civilizations collapsed? We lost an enormous amount of knowledge in those time frames. It took six hundred years for the Romans to reach the same technical level as the Athenians. It then took almost one thousand years for the Italians to again reach the same level as the Romans (this time being greatly increased by the shena…

I think we need to differentiate between several different things:

  * the social organization and structures required for technologically complex societies
  * the knowledge required for certain technologies
  * the loss (or otherwise) of knowledge by humanity, as opposed to local loss of knowledge

Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)

#83

Post by shostack »

jeremymcanally wrote: post #9

Full seasons of this show are available on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke/ I've been meaning to watch more of them...maybe I'll get around to it over the holiday weekend. :)

How is the resolution of these versions? Watching on YT has been painful.

Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)

#84

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

bsder wrote: post #77
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you believe it would be lost? Did we lose a substantial amount of previously developed knowledge when the Greek or Roman civilizations collapsed? I humbly suggest that we did not ....

> Did we lose a substantial amount of previously developed knowledge when the Greek or Roman civilizations collapsed? We lost an enormous amount of knowledge in those time frames. It took six hundred years for the Romans to reach the same technical level as the Athenians. It then took almost one thousand years for the Italians to again reach the same level as the Romans (this time being greatly increased by the shena…

> It took six hundred years for the Romans to reach the same technical level as the Athenians.

When we speak of Ancient Greek technical innovations, we're usually talking about the Hellenism era. That was after Athens had begun to wane as a major intellectual center, and much closer in time to the Romans' ascent in the Mediterranean.

Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)

#85

Post by bordercases »

wegs wrote: post #46
bordercases wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In 1978, he didn't have the Internet. Research is much easier today. Lowering the barrier to entry to anything just makes it easier to create crap. Even when not taken on its own terms, Connections is still a massive achievement given this lack of ease. If you look at the book supplement to the series you can see the depth of research that went into the show. The Internet making research "easier" is false economy s…

With millions of videos on Youtube, it's sometimes hard to find the top 99.99th percentile, but it's there. I've posted references in other posts.

The better question is if the 99.99th percentile on Youtube maps over, in quantity or quality, the 99.99th percentile of old TV documentaries.
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