2007-02-13

Ascent of Man

Dr Jacob Bronowski's magnificent 1973 thirteen part BBC television series 'The Ascent of Man' traced our rise both as a species and as moulders of our own environment and future. It covers the history of science, but of science in the broadest terms. Invention from the flint tool to geometry, from the arch to the theory of relativity, are shown to be expressions of man's specific ability to understand nature, to control it, not to be controlled by it. Dr Bronowski's rare grasp not only of science, but also of its historical and social context, gave him great advantages as an historian of ideas. It is a series which gives us a new perspective not just on science, but on civilisation.

Available here on MVGroup or here on BitMeTV.

2 comments:

Kochevnik said...

I highly recommend this series, and since the copy that was given to me has been left in Central Asia, I need to acquire a new set, ideally one in which the codecs work on all the episodes (hint hint).

However, of the ones I was actually able to watch, I think the best was "Knowledge Versus Certainty", the idea being that true knowledge is knowing that no one has all the answers, and can never totally have all the answers (which is true science). This is opposed to the ideological fanatics that eschew this and claim to have all the answers for everything. While the direct reference was to the Nazis in Germany, I watched this episode before the 2004 elections, and let me just say that there are parallels in our own time.

Pace said...

Indeed Mark, the concentration camp speech at the end of 'Knowledge vs. Certainty' was by far the most powerful scene of the entire show. T

The BitMeTV episode should definitely solve your code issues especially if you download the latest VLC and codec packs from divx-digest.com