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James Burke Legend Connections 1 The Trigger Effect

Tim Callinan · documentary · Watch on YouTube

History of computingDocumentaries & storytellingPower grid, heating & buildings

What it is

The first episode of James Burke's Connections series, 'The Trigger Effect', explores how modern society depends on interlinked technological systems and how quickly it breaks down when they fail, starting with a power blackout.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Recommended whenever outages and cascading failures come up, as a classic on interdependent systems.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2022, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “I was one of the finest hours ever produced for television.”

    Classic Burke episode opening in the World Trade Center elevator

    HocusLocus, 2026-05 · Strong recommendation · in “The Greatest Shot in Television: James Burke Had One Chance to Nail This Scene”

  2. “It's an old series, but well worth the watch.”

    Burke series on grid collapse and interconnected systems

    aequitas, 2022-11 · Recommendation · in “How long would society last during a total grid collapse?”

  3. “You may enjoy the first episode of James Burke's Connections ("The Trigger Effect"), if you've not seen it.”

    Connections episode on system dependence

    bamfly, 2023-07 · Recommendation · in “Cold restart whole system after total outage”

  4. “This might be a good time for folks to go back and watch the first episode of James Burke's Connections”

    Interconnected systems can fail spectacularly

    01100011, 2024-07 · Recommendation · in “CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: james burke, connections, history of technology, power grid, systems failure

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