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James Burke Connections, Ep. 4 "Faith in Numbers"

DRS_Education · documentary · Watch on YouTube

History of computingWorld historyDocumentaries & storytelling

What it is

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 Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters strongly recommend it for its account of how the Jacquard loom and punch cards led to computers.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 5 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2020, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “My favorite is this one about proto-computers that came about due to the Black Death”

    Connections episode on proto-computers arising from the Black Death.

    sxp, 2020-11 · Strong recommendation · in “We have no idea what happens next”

  2. “Every computer engineer, computer scientist and software developer should learn about the Jacquard loom”

    James Burke's elegant account of the Jacquard loom's significance.

    Maursault, 2022-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Part of the long-lost star catalogue of Hipparchus found in medieval parchment”

  3. “though the entire series is worth watching all the same”

    Connections episode featuring Robert Hooke.

    aspenmayer, 2025-11 · Strong recommendation · in “Robert Hooke's "Cyberpunk” Letter to Gottfried Leibniz”

  4. “the whole video is worth watching”

    Summary of progression from Jacquard loom to census tabulator to computer.

    ssalazar, 2025-07 · Recommendation · in “Phrase origin: Why do we "call" functions?”

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, jacquard loom, punch cards, history of technology

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