# All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace by Adam Curtis

10 Hacker News commenters recommended All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace by Adam Curtis and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A distinctive, wide-ranging documentary series on the history of computing, cybernetics and Silicon Valley, recommended for its engaging storytelling and fascinating look at ideas.

## Why people recommend it

- Distinctive, engaging storytelling style (2 comments): "Adam Curtis has a quite distinctive style of story telling - to me the weaving of a sense of sublime via intensity and associativity offers quite a fascinating way to look into things." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48870143)) "Curtis's stuff is all good fun but I'm skeptical" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49982195))
- Wide-ranging history of computing (3 comments): "extremely good multipart documentary and wide ranging if slightly silly look at the nexus of Greenspan, Ayn Rand, Silicon Valley" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48632742)) "There is a good documentary called "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" which documents how computing started" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50243386)) "on Cybernetics and the 20th century "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" by Adam Curtis" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46623359))
- Well presented and fascinating (2 comments): "is worth watching, but it's well presented" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46194202)) "This was a fascinating read" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48883461))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Connections by James Burke](https://hackerapproved.com/p/connections.md): 33 recommend
- [Triumph of the Nerds](https://hackerapproved.com/p/triumph-of-the-nerds.md): 31 recommend
- [The Century of Self by Adam Curtis](https://hackerapproved.com/p/century-of-self.md): 10 recommend
- [The Secret Life of Machines](https://hackerapproved.com/p/secret-life-of-machines.md): 8 recommend
- [Texico](https://hackerapproved.com/p/texico.md): 8 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace by Adam Curtis", https://hackerapproved.com/p/all-watched-over/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).