Connections (the first series) was absolutely brilliant, as was TDTUC. I've been less enamored of Connections2 -- the 22 minute format is too brief, the episodes rushed and a little too topical, and a lot of material re-treaded. I haven't watched C3 yet, but note that it returns to the 55 minutes of the original series.
I've become increasingly fascinated by the Industrial Revolution and the changes both leading up to and emerging from it. Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil are trying to tell us that there's a Singularity in our future. I feel it was in our past (and that they're pitching snake oil). The change in the human condition from 1780 to 1980 simply staggers the mind. I'd argue that much of it completed by the 1930s, and that there's been fairly modest change since (mostly in information and communications).
I don't think the world of 2013 is hugely different from that of 1963. But 1963 was worlds apart from 1913.