Ideas
I've just finished watching the first series of a 1978 BBC programme - Connections, by James Burke. It's a fascinating tour through history linking one item or technology and culture to another - the plough to villages, to clay pots, to writing, to taxes and engineering and beyond. If you have some time, look it up (I found it on a torrent website, but I understand it's also been released on video)
The last of the first series is particularly thought provoking, and specifically does away with the idea that history happens in little chunks - like the idea of James Watt invented the steam engine. Watt just fixed something that didn't work so well, building on so much that came before, a vital idea, but just another piece.
Intelligent television like this is a wondrous thing to see - like "Britain From Above", and Space (aka Hyperspace). This isn't to say that it has to be high-brow to be smart TV that inspires ideas - who could say that Mythbusters didn't inspire someone - as well as being thoroughly entertaining!
What TV, books, or movies inspire you to think about the universe?
The last of the first series is particularly thought provoking, and specifically does away with the idea that history happens in little chunks - like the idea of James Watt invented the steam engine. Watt just fixed something that didn't work so well, building on so much that came before, a vital idea, but just another piece.
Intelligent television like this is a wondrous thing to see - like "Britain From Above", and Space (aka Hyperspace). This isn't to say that it has to be high-brow to be smart TV that inspires ideas - who could say that Mythbusters didn't inspire someone - as well as being thoroughly entertaining!
What TV, books, or movies inspire you to think about the universe?