History Series / Connections

* OminousLatinChanting: There is liberal use of O Fortuna from Music/CarminaBurana in the original series, most noticable during the last episode of the first season.

* AlternateHistory: Several times during the two later series Burke muses about how easily we could not have had, say, penicillin due to the unpredictable nature history connects.

* FailedFutureForecast: Although the history is sound, Burke spends the last episode of the original series lamenting the future. He predicts that the rise of computers will concentrate power in the hands of the few companies rich enough to own them. The concept of ubiquitous personal computers or the internet were not widely considered at the time (for good reason: the UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer[[note]]Earlier personal computers like the UsefulNotes/AppleI and UsefulNotes/AppleII (the latter of which would have been released during the series' production period), were seen as little more than hobbyist's toys; the IBM PC put the computer in the workplace, driving the expansion of the technology because there was now ''much'' more money in it.[[/note]] was still three years away, and even ''that'' still cost several months' good salary and had extremely limited capabilities, and the Internet itself was one of those "put two technologies--namely computing and telephony--together which nobody thought had anything to do with each other" brilliant moments--one that had arguably already happened when Burke made the series,[[note]]Computers were first linked to each other in the early 1960s, and internetworking--the concept of creating a "network of networks" that forms the backbone of what the Internet is today--dates from the early 1970s. On the other hand, the TCP/IP protocol system that really enabled things to take off came out in 1982.[[/note]] but so recently and obscurely that nobody could have foreseen the consequences) and the central thesis of the episode [[TimeMarchesOn seems quaint now]]. To his credit, Burke changed his tune ''very'' quickly, hinting at the modern Internet society in ''The Day the Universe Changed'' (in 1985, by which point personal computers were clearly a thing and TCP/IP had been written--and Burke was up enough on computers to put two and two together).

Well-regarded 1978 documentary series by British science and technology journalist and historian of science James Burke. Subtitled "An Alternative View of Change", ''Connections'' presented what would come to be known as the web theory of history, rejecting the straight-line notion of technological progress, instead presenting major aspects of the modern world as the end product of long [[WikiWalk strings of happy accidents]] where the historical context causes two otherwise unrelated tracks happen into each other (for example, he attributes rocketry in large part to the coincidence of a meat shortage in England with malaria in the Florida swamps). The series traced paths leading to radar, the atom bomb, the computer, television, plastic, the production line, and similar installments in the modern world.

Though not strictly a sequel, the 1985 series ''The Day The Universe Changed'', subtitled "A Personal View", used the same style and techniques, this time tracing paths not to specific inventions, but to aspects of modern society: modern medicine, credit, having a specific field of expertise rather than being a generic HollywoodGenius, the notion of "progress" and the like.

Well-regarded 1978 documentary series by British Science Historian James Burke. Subtitled "An Alternative View of Change", ''Connections'' presented what would come to be known as the web theory of history, rejecting the straight-line notion of technological progress, instead presenting major aspects of the modern world as the end product of long [[WikiWalk strings of happy accidents]] where the historical context causes two otherwise unrelated tracks happen into each other (for example, he attributes rocketry in large part to the coincidence of a meat shortage in England with malaria in the Florida swamps). The series traced paths leading to radar, the atom bomb, the computer, television, plastic, the production line, and similar installments in the modern world.

-->The question is in what way are the triggers around us likely to operate to cause things to change -- for better or worse. And, is there anything we can learn from the way that happened before, so we can teach ourselves to look for and recognize the signs of change? The trouble is, that's not easy when you have been taught as I was, for example, that things in the past happened in straight-forward lines

* FailedFutureForecast: Although the history is sound, Burke spends the last episode of the original series lamenting the future. He predicts that the rise of computers will concentrate power in the hands of the few companies rich enough to own them. The concept of ubiquitous personal computers or the internet were not widely considered at the time (for good reason: the UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer[[note]]Earlier PCs were seen as little more than hobbyist's toys; the IBM PC put the computer in the workplace, driving the expansion of the technology because there was now ''much'' more money in it.[[/note]] was still three years away, and even ''that'' still cost several months' good salary and had extremely limited capabilities, and the Internet itself was one of those "put two technologies--namely computing and telephony--together which nobody thought had anything to do with each other" brilliant moments--one that had arguably already happened when Burke made the series,[[note]]Computers were first linked to each other in the early 1960s, and internetworking--the concept of creating a "network of networks" that forms the backbone of what the Internet is today--dates from the early 1970s. On the other hand, the TCP/IP protocol system that really enabled things to take off came out in 1982.[[/note]] but so recently and obscurely that nobody could have foreseen the consequences) and the central thesis of the episode [[TimeMarchesOn seems quaint now]]. To his credit, Burke changed his tune ''very'' quickly, hinting at the modern Internet society in ''The Day the Universe Changed'' (in 1985, by which point personal computers were clearly a thing and TCP/IP had been written--and Burke was up enough on computers to put two and two together).

* FailedFutureForecast: Although the history is sound, Burke spends the last episode of the original series lamenting the future. He predicts that the rise of computers will concentrate power in the hands of the few companies rich enough to own them. The concept of ubiquitous personal computers or the internet were not widely considered at the time (for good reason: the UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer was still three years away, and even ''that'' still cost several months' good salary and had extremely limited capabilities, and the Internet itself was one of those "put two technologies--namely computing and telephony--together which nobody thought had anything to do with each other" brilliant moments--one that had arguably already happened when Burke made the series,[[note]]Computers were first linked to each other in the early 1960s, and internetworking--the concept of creating a "network of networks" that forms the backbone of what the Internet is today--dates from the early 1970s. On the other hand, the TCP/IP protocol system that really enabled things to take off came out in 1982.[[/note]] but so recently and obscurely that nobody could have foreseen the consequences) and the central thesis of the episode [[TimeMarchesOn seems quaint now]]. To his credit, Burke changed his tune ''very'' quickly, hinting at the modern Internet society in ''The Day the Universe Changed'' (in 1985, by which point personal computers were clearly a thing and TCP/IP had been written--and Burke was up enough on computers to put two and two together).

* FailedFutureForecast: Although the history is sound, Burke spends the last episode of the original series lamenting the future. He predicts that the rise of computers will concentrate power in the hands of the few companies rich enough to own them. The concept of ubiquitous personal computers or the internet were not widely considered at the time (for good reason: the UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer was still three years away, and even ''that'' still cost several months' good salary and had extremely limited capabilities) and the central thesis of the episode [[TimeMarchesOn seems quaint now]]. To his credit, Burke changed his tune ''very'' quickly, hinting at the modern Internet society in ''The Day the Universe Changed'' (in 1985).

Well-regarded 1978 documentary series by British Science Historian James Burke. Subtitled "An Alternative View of Change", ''Connections'' presented what would come to be known as the web theory of history, rejecting the straight-line notion of technological progress, instead presenting major aspects of the modern world as the end product of long [[WikiWalk strings of happy accidents]] where the historical context causes two otherwise unrelated tracks happen into each other (For example, he attributes rocketry to the coincident of a meat shortage in England with malaria in the Florida swamps). The series traced paths leading to radar, the atom bomb, the computer, television, plastic, the production line, and similar installments in the modern world.

Some element of the motivation behind ''Connections'' appears to be to point out the dangers of shutting down any particular line of scientific or technological progress as not worthwhile (A subject that would have hit close-to-home for Burke, as he was at the time best known in the UK for his coverage of the Apollo landings), since the ultimate benefits of any advance could be enormous and utterly unpredictable -- almost all of his paths through the knowledge web involve several innovations which were at the time considered failures or worthless.

* FailedFutureForecast: Although the history is sound, Burke spends the last episode of the original series lamenting the future. He predicts that the rise of computers will concentrate power in the hands of the few companies rich enough to own them. The concept of ubiquitous personal computers or the internet were not widely considered at the time (for good reason: the UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer was still three years away, and even ''that'' still cost several months' good salary and had extremely limited capabilities) and the central thesis of the episode [[TimeMarchesOn seems quaint now]]. To his credit, Burke had changed his tune ''very'' quickly, hinting at the modern Internet society in ''The Day the Universe Changed''.

* FailedFutureForecast: Although the history is sound, Burke spends the last episode of the original series lamenting the future. He predicts that the rise of computers will concentrate power in the hands of the few companies rich enough to own them. The concept of ubiquitous personal computers or the internet were not widely understood at the time and the central thesis of the episode [[TimeMarchesOn seems quaint now.]]

* Failed Future Forecast: Although the history is sound, Burke spends the last episode of the original series lamenting the future. He predicts that the rise of computers will concentrate power in the hands of the few companies rich enough to own them. The concept of ubiquitous personal computers or the internet were not widely understood at the time and the central thesis of the episode [[TimeMarchesOn seems quaint now.]]

''Connections'' is also perhaps the only documentary series to have spawned a licensed tie-in video game. ''Connections: It's a Mind Game'' is a ''{{Myst}}''-style AdventureGame based loosely on ''Connections 2''.

* AndManGrewProud: Burke is fond of warning against this. The fact that most of his shows were made during the ColdWar is a fairly obvious contributing factor.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it example: "Thunder in the Skies" in the 1978 series, which largely leads up to the invention of the automobile (followed by the aeroplane), begins with an aerial shot of UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} and its then-new Renaissance Center[[note]]Not yet GM's headquarters[[/note]] (where Burke began the episode).

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it example: "Thunder in the Skies" in the 1978 series, which largely leads up to the invention of the automobile (followed by the aeroplane) begins with a shot of UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} and its then-new Renaissance Center[[note]]Not yet GM's headquarters[[/note]] (where Burke began the episode).

* {{Oktoberfest}}: As a bit of a RunningGag, whenever the Germans come up in the original series or in ''The Day the Universe Changed'', they will inevitably be singing, playing music of questionable quality, and usually drinking. Particularly prominent in "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry," in which Germans' preference for lager over ale turns out to be extremely significant.

* {{Oktoberfest}}: As a bit of a RunningGag, whenever the Germans come up in the original series or in ''The Day the Universe Changed'', they will inevitably be playing music of questionable quality, and usually drinking. Particularly prominent in "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry," in which Germans' preference for lager over ale turns out to be extremely significant.

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[[redirect:{{Connections}}]]