THE VIDEO SHELF · history of computing origins
James Burke Connections, Ep. 4 "Faith in Numbers"
Episode 4 of James Burke's Connections series, tracing how commercialism, climate change and the Black Death shaped the move to the Renaissance. It follows threads through waterpower, the printing press, the Jacquard loom and the Hollerith punch card toward modern computing.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN commenters strongly recommend it for its account of how the Jacquard loom and punch cards led to computers.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- DRS_Education
- Topic
- history of computing origins
- Format
- documentary
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 4
- HN mentions in dataset
- 6
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2020–2026
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
I completely agree. For those who haven't experienced Connections-style history, four episodes are on YouTube: [LINK] My favorite is this one about proto-computers that came about due to the Black Death: [VIDEO]
sxp on Hacker News · 2020-11
In We have no idea what happens nextEvery computer engineer, computer scientist and software developer should learn about the Jacquard loom and its predecessors and its significance as elegantly described by James Burke.[1] [1] [VIDEO]
Maursault on Hacker News · 2022-10
In Part of the long-lost star catalogue of Hipparchus found in medieval parchmentIf you want a more in depth view about this series of events, I suggest [VIDEO] which is an episode of the amazing documentary, Connections. (The show also has one of the best timed shots in history: [LINK] )
sxp on Hacker News · 2024-07
In How an 1803 Jacquard Loom Led to Computer Technology [video]
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.