A series presenting science as a detective story illustrating the connections between events of the past and inventions of the future. Part 1: Beginning in Egypt the program explains how plowing, building, writing, taxation, and astronomy began and how they became interdependent. Man's present dependence on complex technological networks is illustrated with a reconstruction of the New York City power blackout of 1965. The program ends in Kuwait, a nation which has moved from the technology of ancient Egypt to the modern world in a single generation. Part 2: Traces the connections between standardization of precious metals used in coins, the great commercial center and library built by Alexander the Great, development of the compass and creation of the atomic bomb.