Die Geschichte der Modernen Zivilisation

I haven't read the book, and I found this series brilliant. Why? Because it shows connected thinking, which reflects the subtle and pervasive effect of social influence.

Steven Johnson brings to our attention a few specific people in their specific social contexts, bringing humanity to the challenge facing the inventor. Quite often, the invention is met with ridicule, e.g. Heddy Lammar's frequency jumping idea, before it is adopted, in this case to protect inter-ship communication. And then, Steven shows the influence.

Steven is interested in pervasive technology changes. Where one invention creates a platform of social change, e.g. the humble neon light and signage, and the corresponding business invention of the 'franchise'.

As a presenter, Steven keeps it light. He is dealing with world-changing inventions and some genius characters. He could easily be a nerd, but he is charming and self-effacing. For all his humour, notice how he ends most of his skits with an understated though defined moment of gravitas. Requires a keen listener, a sensitive viewer, which I believe the material deserves.

I haven't seen anything as intelligent as this on terrestrial TV. In the UK, it is on BBC 3, and I wouldn't be surprised if it reprises on the more mainstream channels.

I watched the episode on Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, inventor of the phonautograph. Fascinating topic.

I barely made it to the end. Between the host Steven Johnson's patronizing condescension as if his audience were three year olds, and the dreadfully slow pace at which information leaked out between all his cutesy stammers and stutters, not to mention the pauses to make room for yet another unneeded production gimmick, I found this program simply unbearable.

This was a wonderfully interesting subject. The first recordings of the human voice! Amazing.

But in some bizarre attempt to dumb it down to a 1st grade intellect, all the fascination was stripped away leaving a sickly sweet Leave it to Beaver meets Disney patina.

And most incredibly, the real gem of the show, the actual digitization of the original "phonoautographs" into renderable audio files, garnered a whopping 15 seconds of screen time.

One wonders if, perhaps, the producers were less enamored with personality and more on the actual subject matter, we may have been treated to a better treatment of it.

Even my 9 yr old found it slow and condescending. And when she realized that no further recording would be forthcoming, her exact words, unprovoked or influenced by me, were, "Aaaah. Bummer."

Overall: you should watch this; but with caution. Because it tells the story of diversified kinds of inventions in a comprehensive way, by showing a wider spectrum of events, often extended in history over decades and centuries. And that is an interesting approach; but unfortunately it is done in a kind of selective way

Also Steven Johnson simply falls short of being a TV host. He just does not fit this job. And what is more, a typical post-editing error is made over and over: every time a name or date is thrown at the viewer by the host, it is not repeated in a written form; but we are shown on the screen the quotes being read by the host from journals or documents shown at the same time. So why did they make an extra effort to do that (using CGI), but failed to deliver more basic and crucial information (spelling of the names)? A detail like that just shows that it is a more entertaining and less informative kind of program. And that kind of mediocrity of television should not be done on channels like PBS

As for the incorrect title, instead of "How We Got To Now" this series should be called "How USA Got To Now", because it is so much America centered. For example the viewer may think that the problem of unclean streets begun in 19th century in USA, because the show does not even mention medieval cities of Europe flooded with all kind of excrements, mud and garbage, as it also does not evoke sanitary systems of ancient Rome. When speaking about glasses, the show completely skips the early Arabian achievements in the field of optics. And when talking about printing books, it starts with the Gutenberg's movable type and not with what the Chinese did way before him. And as such, the title of this show is incorrect (and the show itself simply uses a false-ish narrative

For such interesting topics, I was really disappointed.

It was quite obvious that this production crew was more concerned with creative 'shots' and post production editing than actually making a useful documentary. It got to the point where I was actually laughing at how hard they were trying to be creative and original with the production shots.

There were also a ton of stock footage shots that had very little to do with the specific topic at hand. Like, footage of people walking around modern-day downtown Chicago.

The host was brand new to me, and, I couldn't stand him. Very condescending and somewhat annoying.

I love science and shows showcasing science, but this was just a show about how to have cool camera shots ruin a good show.

This series is about discovery, and the origination of what we take for granted. There is no in-depth treatise intended, but it reveals a path from the beginning of a technology, the advances along the way, and what we have now. Personally, even with my strong science background, it was fascinating. I wasn't expecting an entire episode of how modern water purification works. That it started with contaminated water in metro areas and developed into the safest time in world history to drink tap water is what makes this series compelling. Who knew the entire city of Chicago was raised to install a sewer system? How did that lead to subways? Beer is good to drink. Who created the modern time zones we use today? How was fiber optic technology developed? I only wish there were more episodes to watch.