@Johnny_L.A (Johnny L.A.) posted a new topic, subject "Six Degrees Of Francis Bacon". It read:

   I caught _Six Degrees Of Francis Bacon_ on THC last night. It connected the wooly mammoth to the repair of the Hubble telescope. How?
    
    [ul][li]The wooly mammoth was a source of food for early humans. [/li][li]Humans invented harpoon-like weapons to kill it. [/li][li]Harpoons were used in the whaling industry. The whaling industry led to the use of whale oil for lighting. [/li][li]When whale oil became scarce and expensive (they mentioned $1.20/gallon) a better source of illumination was needed, and Thomas Edison invented the electric light. [/li][li]The electric light led to vacuum tubes. Litton Industries wanted to tweak their tubes without the glass on them, so they made a large vacuum chamber. They needed to invent a pressure suit so that they could send someone into the vacuum chamber to work on the tubes.[/li][li]The pressure suit led to space suits, which allowed astronauts to repair the Hubble.[/ul][/li]Um… Okay.
    
    I used to love watching _The Day The Universe Changed_ and _Connections_. James Burke did a wonderful job of linking things together. Those were great series! I think someone at THC must have thought: ‘Hey, let's copy Burke's shows – only lets play on “Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon”. Gods, this is _brilliant!_ ' Only it's not. Burke wasn't restricted to six steps, and he could go off on tangents after which he would tie everything together in a neat bundle at the end. THC's show is rather linear. Not only that, but any number of things could have been used as the ‘origin' of space telescope repair. It was just silly. It could be said that Burke could have used any number of links to come to his conclusions. But in his shows everything seemed much less farfetched. And he was _funny!_ His trips through history were hilarious romps. THC's host was all like, ‘Look how clever I am! If you've figured out the links already, then you're as smart as I am. But you haven't, and you aren't.' And Burke's shows were made for British TV. I saw them on PBS. No commercials! _Six Degrees Of Francis Bacon_ had several commercial breaks built in, leading to a recap after each one. _yawn_
    
    So open up your box of Crayolas and pull out the one called ‘Unimpressed'. _Six Degrees Of Francis Bacon_ is a pale imitation of two great series.
      *[{\color{blue}{(...)}}]: Edited by CMC

Then @CalMeacham (CalMeacham) said

    If you liked Burke's first two series, did you see **Connections 2** and **Connections 3** ? They ran on The Learning Channel and They're probably on DVD now. They had the same style as the first series. He also had a column in Scientific American that ran for about a year, also on the same “connections” style.  
    Burke came out with a couple of books after the series all ended. They're not exactly in the “Connections” style. He seems to be trying to write hyperlinked books in conventional print media. Have a look at **The Knowledge Web**
    
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684859351/qid=1143042587/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-0786995-7827951?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
    
    and **The Pinball Effect** :
    
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316116106/qid=1143042633/sr=1-7/ref=sr_1_7/104-0786995-7827951?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
      *[{\color{blue}{(...)}}]: Edited by CMC

Then @CalMeacham (CalMeacham) said

    I see that he also has **Circles: Fifty Roundtrips Through History** (which sounds very Connections-like) and **Twin Tracks** out as well, but I haven't read those.
      *[{\color{blue}{(...)}}]: Edited by CMC

To which @Exapno_Mapcase (Exapno Mapcase) replied

    Circles, like most of Burke's later projects, has the same problem as the show in the OP. When you define a “connection” loosely enough you can connect anything to anything.
    
    Burke has also fallen into the trap that the intellectual community of Western Europe (and later the United States) was a fairly small and homogeneous community, consisting mostly of the educated and well-to-do who knew one another (or certainly knew of one another). Finding personal connections among them is surprising only to later generations. For them it would be as surprising as finding personal connections among the active Dopers.
    
    While the original Connections was fascinating in that it reminded people of the whole “on the shoulders of giants” truism and overthrew the idiotic romantic myth of the lone inventor/discoverer, the concept only has so much life in it. Burke along with his imitators has pushed it way over the line into meaninglessness. His claims that he essentially invented hyperlinking is also overdone, but his rather pathetic attempts to set up a learning universe online where the only reason for its existence is to allow people to hyperlink themselves into exhaustion is a sad end to his career.
      *[{\color{blue}{(...)}}]: Edited by CMC

After which, @Podkayne (Podkayne) added

    I watched it almost purely on the strength of the title, which is brilliant. Also, I'm sick, and the part of my brain that demands a satisfying television-watching experience has gone dormant to save energy.
    
    Anyway, it ended up being more well-connected than I thought. I was all prepared for the last couple of degrees to be really lame, like it was going to turn out that transistors are necessary for building the computers on spacecraft! Whoop-de-do. But they weren't that bad. Nowhere near the brilliance of Connections, I agree. But I did learn a little bit from it, so that's always a nice bonus.
    
    It suffered from the usual faults of low-budget History / Discovery style programs that are actually trying to protray some kind a narrative. They assume you have the attention span of a gnat, or they assume that new audience is surfing in, or whatever, so they are constantly repeating themselves. It feels like they spend five minutes after coming back from a commercial recapping what they've said already, then (it feels like) two minutes of new material, and it's back to commercial.
    
    And they show the same short loops of stock footage over. and over. and over. and over. Cheaper than doing actual interviews or getting your own footage, easier than writing more material! By the end, every time I saw the blacksmith making the harpoon I wished I could throw myself on it. ARGGH!
    
    But if they make another one, I'll probably watch it.
      *[{\color{blue}{(...)}}]: Edited by CMC


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