Connections with James Burke(2023)

7.8

1 Seasons

Documentary

Overview

Historian James Burke continues his journey through random historical connections that together have shaped our world and provide important clues to our future.

Created By: James Burke

Official Trailer

Episodes

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Ep 1

Seeing the Future

James connects the dots between Napoleon’s toothpick and the Nielsen TV ratings to see how scientists have built the quantum computer – a data-processing machine so powerful that it can predict the future.

09/11/202345 min

Ep 2

The End of Scarcity

James jumps in the sensory deprivation tank with a man who took LSD with dolphins to discover how syphilis in the French aristocracy kicked off a journey to the nanofabricator–a machine that can build anything you wish for, molecule by molecule, for free. What will that mean for the value of things?

09/11/202347 min

Ep 3

In the Net

James opens a cabinet of curiosities to discover how the French Revolution, wallpaper, and NORAD brought about the rise of big data – and a world where humans finally merge with the internet.

09/11/202347 min

Ep 4

None of This is Real

Dog pee, the Polaroid camera, and rocket fuel lead us to a future where AI is indistinguishable from human intelligence. If we can’t tell machines and people apart, what will that mean for humanity?

09/11/202340 min

Ep 5

Designer Genes

A cup of coffee in the 18th century takes James to the pioneering woman who discovered the structure of DNA, and a future with genetically engineered people. Will we want to be Super-Human?

09/11/202341 min

Ep 6

Limitless Energy

How did a journey that began thousands of years ago with the Inca and the potato, connect to a mad scientist in a castle, and German beer, then bring us to the brink of a future with clean, limitless energy? And what will that future mean for humanity?

09/11/202341 min