Produced for WGBH and the BBC in 1992, this 5-hour history of computers is watchable online. It covers the birth of computing in Babbage’s difference engine, all the way through the growth of artificial intelligence and global networks.

Video and comments within the video from popular blog Waxy.org. It was originally broadcast on PBS. The links to each chapter below go to Waxy, where they’ve compiled lists of interviewees and more for each segment.

Part 1, Great Brains (the early history of computing)

Part 2, Inventing the Future (the birth of the supercomputer, 1950-1969)


Part 3, The Paperback Computer (on the rise of the personal computer)

Part 4, The Thinking Machine (on the development of artificial intelligence)


Part 5, The World At Your Fingertips (on the creation of global computer networks)