The Day The Universe Changed (1985)

Episode 10. Worlds Without End: Changing Knowledge, Changing Reality (3/5)

The conclusion reviews the history of Western knowledge covered, and considers the impact of computer technology on the acquisition of information. Also: the Nepalese Buddhist method of explaining the universe. Host: James Burke. The final episode of the series provides a brief overview of the people and events that were featured in the previous nine episodes. James Burke explains that in every period of history, people have believed that their explanations and theories were correct and complete. Burke goes on to make predictions about how the computer will revolutionize the world once again. Points out that today's truth will be superseded as our scientific knowledge changes and questions whether moving from one stage of knowledge to another is really progress. Poses the questions: Is knowledge itself only what we make it? Should we find room for tolerance of other cultures' views of knowledge?

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