![]() ![]() One outstanding quality of this remarkable series is that he speaks to the viewer directly and very personally through the lens of the camera the book of the same name is a virtual transcript of his remarks. ![]() Bronowski stops to examine some of humanity's greatest accomplishments - and lowest depths. Presented here is a veritable smörgåsbord of human history cast against scientific advancements and technological innovations that take the viewer around the world, from the dawn of Man to the then-present of 1972. Jacob Bronowski was one of the last true Renaissance men. A mathematician whose professional journey included work on the Manhattan Project, later at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, as well as an editor and scholar of the works of William Blake, Dr. They are the marks of unity in variety and in the instant when the mind seizes this for itself, in art or in science, the heart misses a beat.This extraordinary series, thirteen fifty-minute episodes, is one of television's highest achievements nearly forty years after its completion, it has lost little of its luster. And the great poem and the deep theorem are new to every reader, and yet are his own experiences, because he himself re-creates them. We re-make nature by the act of discovery, in the poem or in the theorem. Reality is not an exhibit for man's inspection, labeled: "Do not touch." There are no appearances to be photographed, no experiences to be copied, in which we do not take part. We re-enact the creative act, and we ourselves make the discovery again. When a simile takes us aback and persuades us together, when we find a juxtaposition in a picture both odd and intriguing, when a theory is at once fresh and convincing, we do not merely nod over someone else's work. In the moment of appreciation we live again the moment when the creator saw and held the hidden likeness. “The poem or the discovery exists in two moments of vision: the moment of appreciation as much as that of creation for the appreciator must see the movement, wake to the echo which was started in the creation of the work. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. I owe it as a scientist to my friend Leo Szilard, I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died here, to stand here as a survivor and a witness. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ: Think it possible you may be mistaken." ![]() Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. We are always at the brink of the known we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Science is a very human form of knowledge. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. It was done by arrogance, it was done by dogma, it was done by ignorance. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. This is where people were turned into numbers. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. “It's said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. ![]()
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