One of the greatest failures of the 20th century, along with the holocaust, the killing of about 100 million civilians in various world wars, and the commercial decline of Beech Nut gum, was the utterly unrealized potential of television. Here was a unique medium that could spread unprecedented amounts of information to people all around the planet, but instead of lectures and presentations and seminars and speeches, it became contaminated with Gilligan's Island, the Love Boat, and the Jenny Jones show.
(OK, maybe the Love Boat wasn't that bad, in a kitschy kind of way, except in large quantities.)
Lenny Susskind's lectures are the kind of thing that television should have been all along. Thank god for the Web. You can watch and almost feel that you're in the audience. An hour's investment gives you a definite return, unlike so much of television today. And it reminds you why you like learning in the first place. Check them out.
I really enjoy viewing his lectures and he clearly loves physics as I do. Unfortunately though with physics you need the tool of rather advanced mathematics in order to proceed and in this I'm lacking. Agree that it is a pity lectures such as this do not appear on television, instead we are subjected to mindless soaps and chat shows.
ReplyDelete