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Connections with James Burke

6 episodes 95%4KCC

Ten hidden links reveal how yesterday's ideas shape tomorrow's world.

James Burke connects objects, inventions, and turning points across history to show how change unfolds in surprising chains of cause and effect. As each episode traces the path from past decisions to possible futures, the series turns big ideas into gripping discoveries. Sign up to see history, technology, and human choices click into a larger pattern.

Episode guide

6 episodes
1
1Seeing 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.
46 min
2
2The 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?
47 min
3
3In 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.
48 min
4
4None 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?
40 min
5
5Designer 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?
41 min
6
6Limitless 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?
42 min
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