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James Burke Legend Connections 1 The Trigger Effect

Tim Callinan

33K subscribers • 1 video on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 4 people: 4 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2022 to 2026.
  • Presented by James Burke, science historian and television host

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

389K views4 years ago4 recommendations

History and cultureSystems programmingHistory of computingThe tech industry

James Burke explores how modern society depends on interconnected technological systems and how quickly they can fail.

This guy is an absolute legend. Do yourself a favor and watch these masterpieces of documentaries.

Why it's here

4 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a classic and highly relevant documentary on the fragility of interconnected technological systems.

HocusLocuson Hacker News • Recommends

On “The Greatest Shot in Television: James Burke Had One Chance to Nail This Scene”

The "Trigger Effect" episode ( link to this video ) that set off Connections:I was one of the finest hours ever produced for television. It influenced my family and I in the years to come. Hope for the best, while preparing for the worst. It begins at South Tower of the World Trade Center, and as Burke enters an express elevator (Car 6 or 7 if you must know) he says in effect, "Do I worry about ascending to the top in a steel box? Of course I don't! We take going up in the world like that for granted." When the elevator goes dark he says. "We expect this to happen sometimes so what do we do? We strike a light and look around in the dark for an emergency button to push and is we find one, we press it."…

aequitason Hacker News • Recommends

On “How long would society last during a total grid collapse?”

This resonates very much with the Connections0 series by James Burke. It's an old series, but well worth the watch. Back then it already discussed what would happen if the grid would collapse, and how everything is interconnected. Now with the internet it has gotten even worse. I think the questions asked back then in the series are still very relevant and maybe even more so nowadays. 0 link to this video

bamflyon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Cold restart whole system after total outage”

You may enjoy the first episode of James Burke's Connections ("The Trigger Effect"), if you've not seen it. link to this video

01100011on Hacker News • Recommends

On “CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops”

This might be a good time for folks to go back and watch the first episode of James Burke's Connections: The Trigger Effect link to this video Interconnected systems can fail spectacularly in unforeseen ways. Strange that something so obvious is so often dismissed or overlooked.

yamtaddleon Hacker News • Mentions

On “The Geomagnetic Storm Continues”

link to this video Connections , episode 1, "The Trigger Effect". TL;DW shit gets very, very dicey in a matter of days if the power goes out—and most of our ways of recovering with any speed rely on power so if it goes out for most or all of the world at once, that's extremely bad . If it hit the wrong time of year, I could easily see a global power outage killing millions in the very first day. Loss of air conditioning and heating could push it into the millions all on their own.