Pandora's Box

Although it lacks the focused, in-depth reporting of his later work, and a more episodic form akin to television programming, the relationship between technological advancements and national economic pursuits is explored to a sufficient (and predictably disastrous) degree.

It's a lot more of a traditional documentary, but it's still more informative than most.

[Distant -as aired]

The first great documentary series by Adam Curtis, on the pharmacological (in Bernard Stiegler's special sense of this term) character of modern technoscience.

Politicians and businessmen looking at scientists and grinning: "We're gonna make 'em our bitches!". And they sure did! Remember kids, dogma is not only about religion.

The future can't be predicted or stabilized by a conceptual set of rules.

Somewhat more conventional in it's style than later Curtis docs, otherwise it's pretty remarkable how little his approach has changed in 20+ years, for better or worse. On one hand it's impressive how fully-formed his whole sensibility was right off the bat, on the other it gives this a somewhat redundant feel when he's been tackling more or less this exact same subject matter with greater finesse ever since. It's still quite good for what it is though.

6-part documentary series, each covering a different episode of the last century where a government or movement attempted to implement a scientific, economic or political theory wholesale - all to inevitably disastrous conclusions. Some tales are better than others but every one of them interesting, the message being that no matter how sound the concept is (rationalism, systems analysis, game theory, etc.), applying it in pure form without considering other factors will always lead to failure.

Multi-pronged criticism of the modern faith in grand technocratic solutions to broad, fundamental societal issues. A bit more straightforward and informational than his other work, without so much pop-culture montage. Curtis refrains from spending much time on big-picture conclusions, although they are implicit.