The Day The Universe Changed (1985)

Episode 1. The Way We Are: It Started with the Greeks (4/5)

The first episode of the series details how the rational thought and incessant questioning that typified Ancient Greek philosophers shaped the Western way of thinking, living and interacting with the world around us. Inherent in the Western way of life is constant change brought about by compounding knowledge and new discoveries, processes that stem from the Ancient Greek practice of endlessly questioning the world around them. Explains how the questioning, rational attitude of the ancient Greeks has continued through the centuries in the West and has led to constantly changing knowledge and discovery, thus creating conflict between these changes and inherently conservative institutions. Also discusses the thesis of the series that particularly important developments in the history of Western thought have produced corresponding changes in who we are.

1. Each people defends its version of the truth.
2. Some mysteries presented, how does something happing centuries ago fundamentally change our Universe.
3. Asking questions centuries ago results in changes to our Universe.
4. Ionians left Greece 3 millennia ago and decided to be practical.
5. Taysley was behind it.
6. Taking geometry from Egyptians, and applying the knowledge.
7. This resulted in a rationalism.
8. So, answers to questions asked in the past shape what we are today.
9. steam power
10. stellar cartography/coordinate systems
11. We institutionalize knowledge so it must change us.
12. We protect it with ritualism.
13. We go further and make it law and have public administration.
14. Buddism does the same thing with a roadblock to new knowledge.
15. We institutionalize the process of changing in research laboratories.
16. Think of the change a microchip can bring, such as,
17. telecommuting. But what of the economy based on commuting?

The Day the Universe Changed (subtitled "A Personal View by James Burke") is a British documentary television series produced by and starring science historian James Burke, originally broadcast in 1985. It was released in DVD form in 2009. A companion book of the same title, also written by Burke, was published the same year, presenting the same general premise of the television series in expanded detail. A revised edition subsequently appeared in 1995.

The series' primary focus is on the effect of advances in science and technology on western philosophy. The title comes from the philosophical idea that the universe essentially only exists as you perceive it through what you know; therefore, if you change your perception of the universe with new knowledge, you have essentially changed the universe itself.

To illustrate this concept, James Burke tells the various stories of important scientific discoveries and technological advances and how they fundamentally altered how western civilization perceives the world. The series runs in roughly chronological order, from around the beginning of the Middle Ages to the present.

Episodes

1. The Way We Are: It Started with the Greeks
2. In the Light of the Above: Medieval Conflict - Faith & Reason
3. Point of View: Scientific Imagination in the Renaissance
4. A Matter of Fact: Printing Transforms Knowledge
5. Infinitely Reasonable: Science Revises the Heavens
6. Credit Where It's Due: The Factory & Marketplace Revolution
7. What the Doctor Ordered: Social Impacts of New Medical Knowledge
8. Fit to Rule: Darwin's Revolution
9. Making Waves: The New Physics - Newton Revised
10. Worlds Without End: Changing Knowledge, Changing Reality

Source: Wikipedia