Humanity in 64 Squares https://humanity64.com/ Sat, 09 Mar 2024 13:35:46 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 https://i0.wp.com/humanity64.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/LogoMakr-8CNIT5.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Humanity in 64 Squares https://humanity64.com/ 32 32 214652846 The virtues of humanity64 https://humanity64.com/2024/03/09/the-virtues-of-humanity64/ https://humanity64.com/2024/03/09/the-virtues-of-humanity64/#respond Sat, 09 Mar 2024 13:35:44 +0000 https://humanity64.com/?p=941 Like many religions and moral philosophies, Humanity64 subscribes to a set of virtues, all of which have deep historical and time-tested roots. The eight virtues of humanity64 are derived from Aristotle’s four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude), the three theological virtues (hope, faith, and charity), and include “humanity” as a catch-all virtue. Each …

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Like many religions and moral philosophies, Humanity64 subscribes to a set of virtues, all of which have deep historical and time-tested roots. The eight virtues of humanity64 are derived from Aristotle’s four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude), the three theological virtues (hope, faith, and charity), and include “humanity” as a catch-all virtue. Each virtue is 8 letters long and can thus be visualized and contemplated in terms of its assigned “rank” on the humanity64 grid of everything.

The virtues thus are:

Prudence: (φρόνησις, phrónēsis; Latin: prudentia; also Wisdom, sophia, sapientia), the ability to discern the appropriate course of action to be taken in a given situation at the appropriate time, with consideration of potential consequences; Cautiousness.

Fairness: (δικαιοσύνη, dikaiosýnē; Latin: iustitia): Justice, honesty, equity, righteousness

Moderacy (σωφροσύνη, sōphrosýnē; Latin: temperantia): also known as restraint, the practice of self-control, abstention, discretion, and moderation tempering the appetition. Plato considered sōphrosynē, which may also be translated as sound-mindedness, to be the most important virtue. σωφροσύνη was often used in reference to drinking and “knowing the right amount” to avoid belligerence.

Strength: Fortitude (Patience and perseverance), industriousness and the ability to confront fear, uncertainty, and intimidation. Other meanings: courage, bravery, boldness, valor, daring, spirit, heart, mettle, tenacity, gameness, resolution, hardihood, assertiveness, gravitas, determination”.

Fideleco (Esperanto for faithfulness) (Faith): “Faith” is the confidence that by practicing the principles of humanity64 the world becomes a better place. “Faithfulness” also encompasses loyalty and gratitude.

Optimism (Hope): Hope is optimism – that things will turn out for the best, and that there is no way to truly judge if an event is good or bad, since that will depend on what happens next, which is often just a matter of chance, combined with our own input. It’s a kind of acceptance.

Kindness (Charity): Generosity and friendliness to all, including strangers

Humanity — the catchall virtue, what is it like to embody all of the virtues. As Marc Antony put it, speaking of Brutus:

“His life was gentle; and the elements
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!”

I don’t have the heart to chain “him” to “them” or “man” to “human,” but apart from those sex-specific words, this sums up what “humanity” means.

PrudenceRabbit
FairnessDragon
ModeracySnake
StrengthHorse
FidelecoGoat
OptimismMonkey
KindnessRooster
HumanityDog
PRUDENCE
FAIRNESS
MODERACY
STRENGTH
FIDELECO
OPTIMISM
KINDNESS
HUMANITY
Grid of Virtues

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The Veneration Calendar (in progress) https://humanity64.com/2023/04/08/the-veneration-calendar-in-progress/ https://humanity64.com/2023/04/08/the-veneration-calendar-in-progress/#respond Sat, 08 Apr 2023 14:19:31 +0000 https://humanity64.com/?p=795 I should acknowledge that I’m slowly creating this from a direct copy of Professor C. Patrick Doncaster’s wonderful “timeline of the human condition,” for which I intend to thank him some day. It is apparent from his work that we think very much alike, so it seems unlikely that he will sue me for copyright …

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I should acknowledge that I’m slowly creating this from a direct copy of Professor C. Patrick Doncaster’s wonderful “timeline of the human condition,” for which I intend to thank him some day. It is apparent from his work that we think very much alike, so it seems unlikely that he will sue me for copyright infringement. But if he does, that’s fine too — it will only draw attention to our shared goal of helping humanity save itself. Again, this is a work in progress — I intend to modify and make selections for the timeline that will compress it into 365 (or 366) entires, corresponding to the days of the year.

I    

1a813,800,000,000Earliest anything: Big Bang singularity, cosmic inflation, creation of all particles of matter and counterpart antimatter, and the laws of physics governing their interactions; expansion and cooling of space → formation of the observable Universe, its galaxies, solar systems, stars, planets, moons, asteroids and comets.  Photon epoch starts 10 seconds after big bang.
2b813,700,621,000Earliest hydrogen: End of photon epoch, beginning of recombination (electrons and protons bind to form hydrogen and then helium), and the “dark ages” of the universe.  “Recombination” is a name that stuck; there’s no reason to believe that electrons and protons bound prior to 370Ka after Big Bang.
3c813,550,000,000Earliest galaxies: Dark ages end and cosmic dawn begins with ignition of hydrogen stars and the period of “reinionzation” begins.  First galaxies form (350-450 million years after the Big Bang).  Heavier elements helium and carbon are produced by nuclear fusion in stars (although as above, helium already existed during recombination).
4d813,000,000,000Beginning of Milky Way: Milky Way galaxy forms: now a warped disc of 100 billion stars, one of 2 trillion galaxies in the observable Universe
5e812,200,000,000Earliest water: First water forms as interstellar vapor., and repository for oxygen
6f811,000,000,000Event:  Beginning of post-collision Milky Way.  Gaia-Enceladus Galaxy Collides and merges with Milky Way (11B), Creates Thin Disk
7g88,170,000,000Event:  End of Milky Way formation: Milky Way stops  forming stars [but what about sun??]  and is now a thick, warped disk of 100 billion stars.  It’s one of 22 trillion galaxies in the universe.
8h84,570,000,000Beginning of Sun.  Sun forms over a period of 50 million years, along with solar system.  By now, the Milky Way is orbiting a supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, every 220 million years.  Solar system also begins to form with the start of the Hadean eon (4.567B, so named for hellish conditions on earth, lasts until 4B);
  4,540,000,000Beginning of Earth
9h74,510,000,000Beginning of Moon  Planet Theia collides with proto-Earth and forms the moon.
10g74,500,000,000Beginning of Earth as we know it:  Earth completes its formation, rotating eastward around a tilted axis that results in opposite seasons in North and South hemispheres.
11f74,400,000,000Beginning of oceans and moist atmposphere.  Oceans appear and moist atmosphere forms; molten iron core generates magnetosphere that shields earth from solar wind and cosmic rays
12e74,400,000,000Beginning of crust subduction: First subduction of Earth’s crust, culminating in formation of continental plate tectonics by 3 billion years ago, unique to Earth in the Solar System
13d74,300,000,000Earliest RNA: forms on basaltic lava glass (experiments verify that RNA forms on basaltic glass) and the pre-biotic RNA world begins.
14c74,000,000,000Beginning of Archean eon: Hadean eon ends as Archean eon begins with appearance of single-celled prokaryotic Archaea, having stable, inherited DNA with protein-encoding instructions for RNA that produce the proteins that perform cell functions in ribosomes
15b73,500,000,000Earliest photosynthesis; Photosynthesising single-celled bacteria appear, which convert sunlight into chemical energy to power the cell
16a73,400,000,000Earliest oxygen: Atmospheric oxygen appears at low levels
17a63,200,000,000Beginning of continents:  First continents emerge from the ocean, supporting microbial mats in Earth’s first land ecosystem
18b62,330,000,000Beginning of Proterozoic Eon with the Great Oxygenation Event – 1 -10 million years of rapidly accumulating photosynthesized atmospheric oxygen – ends the Archean Eon and ushers in the Proterozoic Eon)
19c62,100,000,000Earliest multicellular life:  prokaryotes with cell-to-cell signalling and coordinated responses → 37 trillion mutually-dependent cells in an adult human body
20d61,700,000,000Earliest eukaryotes: formed from the merger of an archaeon with a bacterium, sexual reproduction — meiosis and recombination of genetic material from two parents – begins
21e61,000,000,000Earliest fungi: shallow-water estuarine Ourasphaira giraldae
22f6890,000,000Earliest animals – Metazoa – appear in the form of sponges that descended from fungi prior to Snowball Earth episodes of worldwide glaciation
23g6700,000,000Event:  Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event begins 100 million years of rising photosynthesis, accompanied by lengthening days as Earth’s rotational speed slows; conditions for complex life improve as a result
24h6635,000,000Earliest sleep cycle:  Sleep cycle first appears in nervous system of stem Cnidaria, ancestor of jellyfish and immortal hydra without sleep we die
25h5550,000,000Earliest animals with left-right symmetry (bilaterians): appear as the Ediacaran Period begins,  Examples are burrowing Ikaria with mouth and gut for scavenging, segmented Yilingia with paired legs and musculature for roaming
26g5540,000,000Beginning of Cambrian explosion and Cambrian period; animals diversify rapidly over over 20 million years (earliest Cambrian Period); emergence of modern body plans, resolving to phyla over 40 million years
27f5535,000,000Earliest chordates:  Chordates appear with notochord and pharyngeal gill slits
28e5520,000,000Earliest eyes: appearing as compound stalked eyes of stem arthropods, leading to further diversification
29d5500,000,000Earliest land plants; plants begin to appear on land as algae, probably facilitated by fungi, create soil, rivers, and continental  greening.
  488,300,000Event:  Ordovician period begins at 488.3M
30c5480,000,000Earliest mineralized skeleton, armour, and scales in chordates
31 1/31b5445,000,000Event: Volcanic activity and/or glaciers likely cause mass extinction in two pulses across 1 million years, eliminating more than three-quarters of all species (Late Ordovician Period)
32a5420,000,000Earliest yawning: Capacity for yawning begins with jawed vertebrates  among fishes (Late Silurian Period) → diversification of feeding niches; capacity for yawning, omnipresent across disparate modern lineages
33a4407,000,000Earliest sound production:  Aquatic vertebrates develop sound production and hearing for signalling, displaying and surveillance (i.e. acoustic communication) (early Devonian).
34b4407,000,000Earliest woody stemmed plants: Driven by hydraulic constraints, vascular plants develop woody stems (Early Devonian Period), paving the way for taller plants
35c4394,000,000Earliest limbs:  Vertebrate tetrapods replace fins with limbs (Devonian Period) while remaining fully aquatic
36d4385,000,000Earliest forests:  Forests start to grow in New York State, North America (Devonian period), providing a three-dimensional terrestrial habitat for life; trees are connected by mycorrhizal fungi; atmospheric O₂ rises and CO₂ decreases.
37e4380,000,000Earliest multichambered heart:  Vertebrate placoderm fish develop first multi-chambered heart (Devonian Period)
38f4375,000,000Event:  Climatic cooling likely causes another mass extinction in a series of pulses over 20 million years, eliminating more than two-thirds of all species (Late Devonian Period)
39g4350,000,000Earliest amphibians reach land:  Semi-aquatic amphibian tetrapods reach land (Early Carboniferous Period)
40h4340,000,000Earliest fully terrestrial tetrapods, laying amniote eggs (Carboniferous Period)
41h3251,900,000Event:  hot and acidifying volcanic CO₂ emissions from the Siberian Traps cause Earth’s largest mass extinction, eliminating nine tenths of all species over 61 thousand years (Permian-Triassic transition).  But new species bounce back.
42g3233,000,000Event:  Modern age begins with more volcanic activity leading to rapid origination and development of conifers, insets, dinosaurs, reptiles, and stem mammals (Late Triassic Period)
43f3201,300,000Event:  Two-thirds of species wiped out in another mass extinction event, likely caused by volcanic CO2 emissions (Triassic-Jurassic transition).
44e3200,000,000Earliest warm-blooded stem mammals (Late Triassic):  they have faster metabolisms that enable them to survive in a cooler climate through endothermy
45d3178,000,000Earliest true mammals:  they have fur, endothermy, REM sleep, and a natural lifespan of 3,200 somatic mutations (modern humans average 47 annually) (Jurassic Period):
46c3135,000,000Earliest flowers:  Flowering plants (angiosperms) and their insect pollinators radiate widely in the Early Cretaceous Period and come to dominate plant life; Darwin called the rapid spread “an “abominable mystery”; current theory is that this was due to genome downsizing and thus cell size reduction and better energy use in the early Cretaceous
47b3101,500,000aerobic bacteria embed into oxic sediment of the South Pacific Gyre, reviving after 101.5 million years to grow into microbial communities  (worth keeping?)
48a390,000,000Earliest parasites (lice): including body-, pubic- and head-lice, bedbugs, screwworms and botflies, fleas, ticks, scabies and chiggers amongst the ectoparasites of modern humans, with 300 worm and 70 protozoan endoparasites (Cretaceous Period)
49a266,000,000Event:  Asteroid impact at Chicxulub, Mexico instantly wipes out -quarters of all species, including non-avian dinosaurs (Cretaceous-Paleogene transition).  This leads to rapid diversification of flowering plants and mammals
50b255,000,000Earliest primates: (Eocene Epoch), specializing in brachiation, i.e. swinging from one hold to the next in a tree.
51c244,000,000Event:  New world primates diverge from Old World (Eocene Epoch); old world primates go on to develop color vision, opposable thumbs, sociality; capacity to grieve and to recognize deceptions; extended sexuality]
52d230,000,000Event:  A virus embeds its DNA into a primate’s genome, evolving into an endogenous retrovirus → active in modern humans: domesticated and territorial, protecting the placenta
53e225,200,000Earliest Apes and dawn of speech: hominoids (apes) in Tanzania (Oligocene Epoch) are taller, have bigger brains, and have the ability to make contrasting vowel sounds (dawn of speech)  [fill in “greats” for all of these]
54f216,800,000Earliest great apes: emerge in Asia from hominoid gibbons as earliest homonids: they are larger, have more sexual dimorphism, make nests, play, show empathy; gesture, and communicate over long distances by drumming; capacity for self-medication, as in other animals
55g213,000,000Earliest hominids: Pierolapithecus catalaunicus and Nyanzapithecus alesi appear in Spain and Kenya, respectively.  These are possible ancestors of hominins and modern apes (also respectively); the former has an upright posture
56h27,000,000Earliest hominins:  Sahelanthropus, followed by Orrorin and Ardipithecus emerge in Africa as the first hominins.  They have reduced canines, arboreal habitat, and bipedal capability
57h14,200,000Earliest fully upright, bipedal hominin with free-striding gait: Australopithecus spp. replaces earlier hominins in Africa
58 2/27g13,300,000Earliest stone tool: Hominins in Kenya produce earliest knapped stone artefacts, including Lomekwian tools.  Paranthropus sp. using Oldowan tools by c. 2.8 million years ago
59 3/1f12,800,000Earliest human:  Homo sp., the earliest human, emerges among homins in Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia: they have rounded chin like Australopithecus afarensis, but smaller and slimmer molars like the later Homo habilis
60e12,700,000Delete?  Hominin genus Paranthropus ranges widely in East Africa, co-existing with humans
61d12,600,000Earliest eating of marrow:  Hominins in Africa begin eating and xx ?? xx and marrow in addition to everything else
62c12,600,000Earliest chopping tool:  Humans in Gona, Ethiopia use Oldowan tools for chopping through flesh, bone, and bark (earliest stone tools) (see above)
63b12,588,000Event:  Current geological period of Quaternary glaciation begins, possibly initiated by a supernova blast 150-300 light-years away, luminous as the full Moon
64a12,400,000Earliest cleaving tools:  Homo habilis in Africa uses stone tools for cleaving meat from bone [compare with Oldowan)
65a82,120,000Earliest hominins in China. Hominins in Shangchen, southern China, using tools; first evidence of human ancestors outside of Africa  [but does that make sense? Humans already existed in Africa.  Is the idea that other humans descended from THESE hominins?]
66b82,000,000Earliest homo erectus: direct ancestor of modern humans, emerges in coexistence with Australopithecus – soon extinct, and Paranthropus (South Africa): delayed maturity, enlarged brain and smaller teeth
67c81,800,000Earliest homo erectus in Eurasia (Georgia; to Lantian in northern China by 1.63 million years ago; to Java by 1.5 million years ago); ecological success underwritten by postmenopausal care of young? [query – did these give rise to homo sapiens, or did that start over in Africa?]
68d81,700,000Earliest stone handaxes: Humans in Tanzania use stone hand axes: Acheulean tools, standardized for butchering, cutting, stripping, hammering, drilling.  Tools facilitate enhanced mobility
69e81,500,000Earliest fire:  Homo erectus controls fire in Koobi Fora, Kenya: uniquely human capability → extending the day with firelight; improving nutrient uptake with cooked food by 780,000 years ago; widespread use of fire by 400,000 years ago
70f81,500,000Earliest alliances within social groups:  Males within Homo erectus social groups form alliances with each other (Ileret, Kenya): cooperative networks, perhaps including unrelated individuals
71g81,400,000Earliest organic tools: a hand axe made from hippopotamus bone (Ethiopia) → conscious symbolism?
72h81,400,000Event:  Homo erectus replaces Homo habilis in Africa
73h71,000,000Event:  Paranthropus, our last remaining sibling genus, goes extinct in South Africa
74g7900,000Event:  Close relative of common ancestor of Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern humans appears in Atapuerca, Spain [but didn’t homo sapiens evolve in Africa?!), uses
75f7900,000Earliest use of flint scrapers: Above antecessor used flint scrapers suitable for preparing animal hides – may have made and worn clothing.
76e7800,000Earliest cannibalism (keep?!): Homo antecessor in Gran Dolina, Spain is first human to practice cannibailism.
77d7700,000Event: Diminutive Homo floresiensis appears on the Indonesian island of Flores, probable descendent of Homo erectus
78c7700,000Earliest Homo heidelbergensis: possible ancestor of Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis, emerges in Africa and Europe, supplementing meat with starchy plants
79b7500,000Earliest abstract markings:  Homo erectus in Indonesia makes earliest abstract markings: a zigzag engraving on shell.  First evidence of abstraction
80a7500,000First stone-tipped spears:  Homo heidelbergensis (South Africa) pioneer stone-tipped spears for hunting large game
81a6450,000Earliest Neanderthals:  Homo neanderthalensis spreads across Europe: (bigger brains but fewer neurons than homo sapiens)
82b6430,000Event:  Denisovans diverge from Neanderthals in southern Siberia; they reach the Tibetan Plateau and Laos by 160,000 years ago; subsequent interbreeding, possibly also with Homo erectus
83c6400,000Event:  multiple hominin dispersals across Arabia (Nefud Desert), during windows of desert greening at four-, three-, two- and one-hundred thousand years ago (delete?)
84d6400,000Earliest food storage for later consumption:  (At the latest) Hominins conceive of and prepare for the future by storing food, including bone marrow, for later consumption (Qesem Cave, Israel)
85e6320,000Earliest long-distance trade(?): Hominins travel long distances for obsidian for fine blades and points, and ochre for pigments (Kenya), as transition to Middle Stone Age begins amidst intensifying climate swings
86f6315,000Earliest homo sapiens: Homo sapiens emerge (Jebel Irhoud, Morocco), having facial and dental structure similar to modern humans, but retaining archaic elongation of the braincase
87g6300,000Event?  Homo heidelbergensis use wooden spears and lances used  for hunting large herbivores (Schöningen, Germany)
88h6250,000Event:  Homo neanderthalensis replace Homo heidelbergensis in Europe; Homo sapiens replaces them in Africa over the next 100,000 years
89 3/31h5210,000Earliest homo sapiens in Eurasia:  Homo sapiens having globular braincase and descended larynx (facilitating speech) enter Eurasia (Greece), in the first of multiple dispersals out of Africa
90 4/1g5200,000Earliest adhesive: birch tar used by Neanderthals for hafting stone tools (Campitello, Italy) → pyrotechnology (?)
91f5176,000Earliest underground edifices:  Neanderthals build underground edifices from broken stalagmites by Neanderthals (Bruniquel Cave, France) (earliest constructions)
92e5171,000Earliest fire-making tool:  Neanderthals using fire via boxwood digging sticks with shafts worked smooth by controlled burning (Poggetti Vecchi, Italy)
93 4/4d5170,000Earliest use of clothing:  Humans’ use of clothing is widespread, evidenced in the divergence of clothing lice from head lice (Africa)
94 4/5c5160,000Earliest harvesting of coastal shellfish:   Homo sapiens harvest coastal shellfish in southern Africa, and Neanderthals harvest them in the Mediterranean.  Fatty acids may boost cognitive development
95 4/6  b5142,000Earliest worn symbolic ornaments: Humans in Morocco make marine-shell beads as symbolic ornaments and this spreads to the Levant.  Neanderthals in spain are wearing painted beads 115,000 years ago
96 4/7a5126,000Event?  Homo with mix of archaic-human and Neanderthal traits (Nesher Ramla, Israel): stone-tool industry, cooking meat; cultural exchange with humans?
97 4/8a4125,000Event:  prelude to Earth’s Last Glacial Period: global average temperature never again as high until CE 2021, during intensifying anthropogenic warming
98 4/9b4125,000Earliest living and working in large groups (Neanderthals):   (Neumark-Nord, Germany), evidenced by butchered 13-tonne elephants, each provisioning 100 people for a month
99c4120,000Earliest burial of the dead, by anatomically modern humans in Qafzeh Cave, Israel, and by Neanderthals in Tabun Cave, Israel: mortuary rituals, mourning the dead
100d4110,000Event: last appearance of Homo erectus (Ngandong, Java), 1.89 million years after its first appearance → the longest enduring species of human
101e4105,000Earliest hoarding of non-utilitarian objects by Homo sapiens: crystals and ostrich eggshell fragments (Kalahari, southern Africa)
102f4100,000Event: interbreeding of Homo sapiens with Homo neanderthalensis (Siberia) → accumulation of modern traits through gene flow
103g4100,000Earliest toolkit for mixing and storing pigments: ochre, charcoal, bone, hammerstones, grindstones and abalone-shell containers (Blombos Cave, South Africa) → complex human cognition
104h4100,000Earliest human etchings on rock: cross-hash decorations or symbols (Blombos Cave, South Africa) → conceptual imagination
105h390,000Earliest manufacture of bone harpoons, for hunting catfish (Semliki river, DR Congo)
106g390,000??  fisher-hunter-gatherer Neanderthals eating mussels, crab, eels, sea bream and shark, dolphins and seals, hoofed game and waterfowl; pine-nut economy (Figueira Brava, Portugal)
107f378,000Earliest symbolic human burial, a 3-year old Homo sapiens (Panga ya Saidi Cave, Kenya): funerary practices by our ancestors
108e377,000Earliest beds: construction of bedding from sedges, topped with aromatic leaves containing insecticidal and larvicidal chemicals (Sibudu rock shelter, South Africa)
109d375,000earliest jewellery fashions: shifts in styles of threaded shell beads (Blombos Cave, South Africa)
110c373,000earliest drawing by humans: criss-crossed lines on a grindstone drawn with red-ochre crayon (Blombos Cave, South Africa)
111b371,000earliest heat-treatment of bladelets, for atlatl darts or arrows (South Africa): communication of complex technology → emergence of the modern mind
112a370,000Earliest cooking of bitter and astringent tastes — cooking of crushed pulse seeds by Neanderthals (Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan): tolerance of bitter and astringent tastes → food culture
113a265,000Event: rapid colonisation of Australia by humans during 5,000 years (ancient Sahul): maritime exploration; transecting the continent along superhighways
114b264,800Earliest symbolic cave paintings by Neanderthals (La Pasiega Cave, Spain)?
115c261,700Earliest bow-and-arrow technology, with bone arrowhead (Sibudu Cave, South Africa); a sprung bow the earliest instrument to hold energy for controlled release
116d260,000Earliest notation, with notched-bone tally marks by Neanderthals (Les Pradelles, France) → uniquely human number culture, record keeping, seasonal calendars
117e260,000??? delete because have above for sapiens? Xx symbolic burial of dead by Neanderthals (La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France): funerary practices
118f260,000Event: range expansion of modern humans out of Africa into Eurasia, beginning 60,000 years ago and enduring 10,000 years
119g254,000Earliest homo sapiens in western Europe — modern humans, Homo sapiens, settling briefly in western Europe (Grotte Mandrin, France)? – preceded by and preceding Neanderthal settlements
120 May 1h251,000Earliest deer-bone art:  a giant deer’s phalanx bone becomes a Neanderthal artist’s canvas, prepared by scraping and boiling before etching (Harz Mountains, Germany)
 h150,000Earliest use of string: a cord of three-plied bark fibres (Abri du Maras, France) → clothing, mats, baskets, nets, rope, snares, fishing lines, watercraft
 g150,000Earliest eyed needle, made from bone by Denisovans (Denisova Cave, Siberia), suitable for tailoring garments
 f150,000Earliest advanced fire-lighting technology: Neanderthal fire-lighting technology (France): striking flint axes with mineral pyrite → wood the predominant fuel for cooking and heating until the CE 19ᵗʰ century
 e150,000Event: Eurasian Homo sapiens co-existing with Homo floresiensis (soon extinct) and Homo luzonensis, interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans
 d148,000Earliest drugs:  self-medication by Neanderthals, with pain-killing salicylic acid in poplar leaves, and antibiotic-producing Penicillium mould (El Sidrón, Spain)
 c146,000Event: anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, established in Europe (Bacho Kiro, Bulgaria), mating with Neanderthals, spreading eastwards.
 b146,000complex processing of food plants by anatomically modern humans (Niah Cave, Borneo): detoxifying yam, Dioscorea hispida
128a145,500earliest representational art, a red-ochre composition of Sulawesi warty pigs (Leang Tedongnge, Sulawesi): narrative scenes
 a845,000extinction of giant flightless mihirung thunder birds, hastened by human exploitation of their eggs (Australia)
 b844,000earliest figurative painting (Sulawesi Island, Indonesia), of therianthropes hunting anoa and pigs: mythological stories
 c842,000earliest musical instruments: bone and ivory flutes (Swabian Jura, Germany), stirring the emotions with harmony, melody, rhythm, timbre → no human society without music
 d842,000earliest record of fish-hooks, manufactured from broken shell (East Timor): deep-sea fishing for pelagic tuna and parrotfish, sharks and marine turtles
 e841,500most recent reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles, lasting 500 years, degrading stratospheric ozone, driving global climate shifts and extinction events
 f840,000anatomically modern humans replace Neanderthals, our last remaining sibling species
 g840,000earliest habitual use of solid footwear (Sunghir, Russia), opening permafrost regions to occupancy → hay socks by 5,000 years ago
 h840,000full development of language, facilitating efficient social bonding through gossip → now over 7,000 living languages, over 2,000 vanishing
 h740,000earliest figurative sculpture: an ivory figurine of a therianthrope with lion’s head and human torso (Hohlenstein, Germany)
 g740,000earliest image of human form: a hand stencil (Maros karsts, Sulawesi)
 f737,000earliest artistic representation of human form: engravings of vulvas (Abri Castanet, France): fertility symbol?
 e735,000earliest animation in cave art (Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, France): breaking down animal movement, prefiguring cinema; earliest proto-writing system
 d735,000earliest fully human sculpture and female imagery: a mammoth-ivory ‘Venus’ figurine (Hohle Fels, Germany): fertility totem?
 c735,000a giant virus freezes into Siberian permafrost, melting back to virulent activity 35,000 years later
 b732,600processing of heat-dried wild oats with grindstones (Grotta Paglicci, Italy; soon appearing across Europe, Australia), to make flour for storage and cooking
 a732,000fruits of the campion Silene stenophylla freeze in Siberian tundra, regenerating from cryobiosis 32,000 years later into fertile plants
 a632,000possible first human incursions into the Americas (Mexico), certainly within the next 11,000 years (New Mexico), migrating along the coast from Siberia?
 b631,000earliest surgical amputation, of a child’s lower leg (Borneo); the amputee surviving for 6 to 9 years, then burial
 c630,000earliest woven fabrics, made from dyed fibres of wild flax (Georgia) → baskets, textile clothing
 d629,500earliest stone statuette: ochre-tinted oolitic limestone Venus of Willendorf (Austria)
 e629,000earliest fishing-net sinkers (South Korea) → modern industrial fishing currently in 55% of ocean area, covering 4× agricultural area
 f625,000a coronavirus epidemic sweeps through East Asia, driving genetic adaptations still present in modern humans
 g624,000use of poison arrows, with wooden ricin applicator (Lebombo mountains, South Africa)
 h624,000a bdelloid rotifer freezes into ice in the Alayeza river (Russian Arctic), reviving 24,000 years later to full vigour
 h523,000fisher-hunter-gatherer brush huts (Sea of Galilee, Israel): sealed floor, hearth, berry and seed stockpiles, grindstones, sleeping area with grass bedding
 g523,000first domestication: dogs from grey wolves Canis lupus (Siberia or Japan), for companionship, hunting technology, and pulling sledges → 700 million dogs by CE 21ˢᵗ century
 f520,000earliest pottery vessels (Xianrendong Cave, China): cooking food in pots during the Last Glacial Maximum → Early-Holocene cultural transmission across Northern Eurasia
 e520,000beginning of sea-level rise from deglaciation in a warming global climate; stabilising at today’s 120-m higher levels by c. 10,000 years ago
 d519,000replacement of early modern humans across Eurasia by the ancestors of today’s populations
 c515,000introgression of last remaining Denisovans into the modern human genome? Anatomically modern humans henceforth the only hominin
 b515,000colonisation and occupation of North America by humans, from northeastern Siberia over the Bering land bridge, bringing their dogs
 a515,000colonisation of South America (Huaca Prieta, Coastal Peru); humans henceforth occupying every continental landmass on Earth, except Antarctica
 a415,000semi-permanent forager settlements of Natufians (Levant), evidenced by presence of house mice
 b415,000earliest record of a string instrument: the musical bow (cave painting at Trois Frères, France) → music initiated outside the body
 c415,000earliest thaumatrope (Laugerie-Basse, France): an optical toy, creating movement by juxtaposition of images
 d414,400evidence of baking bread: unleavened flatbread from wild einkorn and club-rush tubers (Shubayqa, Jordan); caries from consumption of starchy foods
 e414,000earliest lime plaster, used as an adhesive for hafting (Kebaran, Levant) → mortar by 3,000 years ago
 f413,400earliest evidence of inter-communal violence on a large scale, with projectile impacts and blunt-force trauma (Jebel Sahaba, northern Sudan) → warfare and conflict driving human misery
 g412,800climate shift contributing to megafaunal extinctions and human cultural changes (Younger Dryas): triggered by a comet airburst over North America and Europe?
 h412,300earliest evidence of humans using tobacco (West Desert, North America)
 h312,000domestication of Cannabis (East Asia) → breeding for hemp-type and drug-type varieties by c. 3000 BCE
 g312,000extinction of megafauna including woolly mammoths from continental Eurasia and North America, caused by human hunting and climate change
 f311,700start of the Holocene Epoch within the Quaternary Period, characterised by warm and stable climate until the late CE 20ᵗʰ century
 e311,700in the North American Mojave desert, a seed germinates and grows into a deadly creosote bush, which segments to sprout new stems, sprouting and segmenting for 11,700 years
 d311,600earliest monumental ritual art (Shigir, Siberia): 5-m tall larchwood plank carved with human forms and signs → complex ideas expressed by hunter-gatherers
 c39500BC11,500cultivation of wild barley and oats around village settlements (Fertile Crescent) → dawn of farming on the Anatolian peninsula; storable grains sustaining population growth
 b3950011,500earliest monumental temple (Göbekli Tepe, Anatolia): carved stone stelae up to 4-m tall serving ritualistic purposes; associated skull cult; ceremonial porridge and beer
 a3950011,500earliest use of brick architecture: sun-dried mudbricks (Anatolia and the Levant, spreading to Mesopotamia) → fired bricks by 3000 BCE (China)
 a2900011,000earliest continuous settlements (southern Levant), including Jericho: stone and mudbrick architecture developing into a walled city of up to 3,000 people → modern cities of 30 million people
 b2900011,000earliest record of storytelling in an extended narrative scene (Sayburç, Turkey): the subject as the body of the work, the art as the spirit that animates it, sustaining its relevance through the ages
 c2900011,000earliest artistic representation of human sexual intercourse: 10-cm phallic sculpture of sensual and tender intimacy (Ain Sakhri, Levant)
 d2840010,400domestication of goats and sheep (Fertile Crescent and Turkey) → milk, meat, wool, hide and capital from 1.2 billion sheep and 1.1 billion goats by CE 2019, rising trend
 e2810010,100global population of humans passes 5 million; annual energy use per person averages 1,700 kWh, 2.4× the resting metabolism
 f2800010,000continental ice-sheets withdraw from Europe and North America
 g2800010,000domestication of cattle, from aurochs (Near East and Indus Valley) → haulage, milk, meat, hide and capital from 1.5 billion head of cattle by CE 2019, rising trend
 h2800010,000domestication of cats, from Near Eastern wildcats Felis silvestris lybica (Middle East) → 400 million domestic cats by CE 20ᵗʰ century, a substantial threat to wildlife
 h1800010,000domestication of wheat (Mesopotamia): hybrid vigour efficiently converting solar energy into food energy → 772 million tonnes per year by CE 2017, using 218 million ha of land: peak production?
 g1800010,000domestication of the bottle gourd Lagenaria siceraria, indigenous to Africa, in the Americas from Asian stock: global diffusion for containers, musical instruments, fishing floats
 f1800010,000earliest record of artistic expression through dance, as rite of passage (engravings in Addaura II Cave, Sicily): rhythms that elevate the spirit → collective desire for cosmic order
 e172009,200earliest large-scale representations of complete human forms: lime plaster statues 1-m tall (Ain Ghazal, Jordan)
 d170009,000big-game hunting practised by females and males (Wilamaya Patjxa, Andean highlands) → strong male bias across recent hunter-gatherer societies
 c170009,000domestication of the potato (Andes, southern Peru) → 370 million tonnes per year by CE 2019, using 17 million ha of land; a food-security crop worldwide, not a globally traded commodity
 b170009,000domestication of pigs (Anatolia and China) → meat, hide, bristles, medical research and capital from 1.0 billion pigs by CE 2015: peak production?
192a170009,000rise of Transeurasian languages, with the spread of millet farming from the Liao River Valley (north-eastern China) → 80 languages now spoken from Istanbul to Tokyo
 a865008,500earliest mining of metal: heating, hammering and grinding copper into projectile points (Great Lakes, North America)
 b865008,500earliest cattle dairying (north-western Anatolia), for milk and its products of cheese and ghee: protein and fat obtained without killing the capital asset
 c865008,500beginning of a wave of migrations from the Middle East northwest through Anatolia, spreading farming practices into Europe
 d860008,000domestication of rice (Asia) → 763 million tonnes per year by CE 2018, using 166 million ha of land, with potential to boost yield by more than a third through genetic modification
 e860008,000foraging for honey (Mesolithic painting in the Araña Caves, Spain) → 90 million beehives by CE 2019
 f859007,900earliest grape wine and viniculture (South Caucasus) → wine as a social lubricant, medicine and commodity throughout western civilisation
 g859007,900start of the Copper Age (Fertile Crescent), spread of copper smelting for weapons and tools
 h858007,800cultivation of cotton Gossypium barbadense (north Peru); G. arboreum cultivated in Pakistan by 5500 BCE → clothing, fishing nets, sheets, towels, rugs, wadding
 h756007,600cultivation of poppies for opium (western Mediterranean), widespread by 4500 BCE, domestication by 3100 BCE → psychoactive, medicinal and alimentary uses
 g755007,500flooding of the Black Sea from the Mediterranean Sea: perhaps the great flood of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the biblical flood of Noah’s Ark
 f755007,500earliest salt production, by evaporation of brine (Provadia-Solnitsata, Bulgaria): preserving food, enhancing flavour → high consumption in Western diet, with no evolutionary precedent
 e754807,500extraordinarily large influx of cosmic rays from an abnormal Sun, possibly caused by solar proton events → potential for DNA damage on a global scale
 d752007,200earliest use of bitumen, for waterproofing reed-bundle boats (As-Sabiyah, Kuwait) → 65 billion tons of asphalt in roads and pavements by CE 2020
 c752007,200earliest seaborne trading networks (Aegean for obsidian, Persian Gulf for Ubaid pottery), with mast and sail technology: the earliest harnessing of natural forces to replace human labour
 b751007,100ritual landscape of large-scale mustatil monuments (northern Saudi Arabia): entranceways to courtyards, chambers, orthostats; associated cattle cult
 a750507,100earliest burials by ritualistic mummification (Chinchorro, Atacama), some involving disassembly of the body
 a650007,000rise of languages with subject-verb-object syntax – as in English – from the root syntax of subject-object-verb (proto-Indo-European), and expansion westward; other combinations arise later
 b650007,000cultivation of sugarcane (Indo-China); spreading to Africa and the Americas, slave labour providing sugar to Europe and North America from the CE 16ᵗʰ century → most productive biofuel
 c650007,000domestication of bananas from Musa acuminata and subsequent hybridisations (Papua New Guinea) → 1 trillion bananas produced annually by 2020; rising trend, subject to disease risks
 d650007,000domestication of tobacco (Andean Highlands, South America), spreading to North America by 1520 BCE → smoking kills 100 million people worldwide in CE 20ᵗʰ century, the worst preventable killer
 e650007,000domestication of donkeys (East Africa), spreading rapidly throughout Eurasia → first land-based transport: pack animals for transporting materials and water, transforming society
 f648006,800earliest artistic representation of introspection: Thinker and Sitting Woman figurines (Hamangia culture, Cernavodă, Romania) → capacity for soul-searching and contemplation
 g642006,200earliest construction of wheels, by potters for crafting wheel-coiled bowls (southern Levant and northern Mesopotamia)
 h642006,200domestication of maize (Mexico) → 1.15 billion tonnes per year by CE 2019 using 197 million ha; with wheat and rice accounting for 43% of all human calorie supply, using 4% of global land area
 h540006,000domestication of chili pepper Capsicum (Tehuacán Valley, Mexico), spreading rapidly into South America; brought to Europe by Columbus CE 1492 → now used daily by a quarter of the global population
 g540006,000earliest use of indigo blue, from Indigofera species, for dyeing cotton fabric (Huaca Prieta, Peru); use in Egypt by 2400 BCE, China by 1000 BCE
 f540006,000earliest folk tale? A smith willingly trades his soul with the devil for skill to weld together any materials; his wish comes true, he welds the devil to a tree and keeps his soul (Indo-European)
 e540006,000earliest board games (Egypt), moving pieces on a track according to outcomes determined by a throw stick → computers outperform humans in all board games by CE 2016 and in strategy games by CE 2022
 d536005,500earliest engineering of water delivery and storage, for people, animals and irrigation (Jawa, Jordan) → landscape engineering of dams, levees, ditches in China by 3100 BCE
 c535005,500earliest ploughs for tilling soil (Italy): harnessing domestic animals for work; landscape engineering for crops
 b535005,500rising human fertility, enabled by earlier weaning of babies fed with milk of domestic ruminants (southern Britain)
 a535005,500domestication of horses (Central Asian steppes), revolutionising mobility, economy, warfare → transport, haulage, cavalry, meat and capital; 59 million horses by CE 2019
 a434005,400earliest wheeled wagons (Germany, Slovenia, Near East) → breakthrough in haulage and locomotion: mechanical advantage equalling ratio of wheel to axle radii, moderated by friction; nanoscale wheel and axle by CE 2007
 b433005,300start of the Bronze Age (Near East), bronze replacing copper for weapons, tools, nails, utensils; mixing of Eurasian peoples → rapid westward spread of farming, conversion of forest to dairy pasture
 c433005,300cultivation of cacao trees for chocolate (upper Amazon) → domestication in Mesoamerica by 1600 BCE, sacrificing productivity for stimulant and disease-resistance genes
 d433005,300earliest numeral systems: pictograms of economic units (Uruk, Mesopotamia) → cuneiform sexagesimals in Mesopotamia by c. 3200 BCE, and hieroglyph decimals in Egypt by 3100 BCE
 e432005,200full writing (cuneiform in Mesopotamia, hieroglyphics in Egypt) using the rebus principle → bookkeeping, instruction, commemoration, scripture, prayer, historical records
 f431505,150organic medicinal remedies from herbal wines (Egypt)
 g431005,100earliest evidence of the plague (Latvia), possibly driving 3ʳᵈ millenium BCE migrations across Europe and Asia; infectious diseases dominate Holocene causes of death, shaping the course of history
 h431005,100association of love-making with war-mongering (Inanna, Sumerian goddess of love and war, Uruk): human capacity to unite passion with lust, loyalty with brutality, conquests with casualties
 h331005,100development of governance systems with the rise of Uruk, city of 30,000 residents (Sumer civilisation, Mesopotamia), and cities of the Indus Valley → class divisions; living off the labour of others
 g330505,050earliest standard weights for balance scales, and cubit length (Mesopotamia and Egypt): objective frames of reference for valuing commodities → integration of markets across Western Eurasia within 2 millennia
 f330005,000emergence of herpes HSV-1 virus causing cold sores (Europe), passed from parent to child; later spread more rapidly by romantic kissing, originating on the Indian subcontinent c. 1500 BCE
 e330005,000cultivation of oil palm (west and central Africa) → 411 million tonnes of oil-palm fruit per year by CE 2019 using 28 million ha, largely converted tropical forest
 d330005,000global agricultural land use per person peaks at 2.72 ha → 0.66 ha by CE 2016 with improvements in yield
 c330005,000synthesis of glass (Phoenicia) for beads → vessels by 1500 BCE; lenses by 700 BCE; CE 1ˢᵗ century mirrors and window glass; 7ᵗʰ century stained-glass windows; 13ᵗʰ century eyeglasses; late-20ᵗʰ century float-glass skyscrapers
 b330005,000earliest metal swords, for combat and prestige (Arslantepe, Turkey) → essential battle weapons through nearly 5 millennia to CE 1918 and the end of World War I
 a330005,000earliest use of a Solar calendar year of 365 days, anchored by spring and autumn equinoxes (Egypt and old Sumer)
 a228004,800global population of humans passes 50 million; annual energy use per person averages 2,100 kWh, 3× the resting metabolism
 b227204,750in the North American White Mountains a seedling grows into a bristlecone pine tree, which sustains production of viable seeds over a lifespan extending beyond 4,700 years
 c226504,650earliest use of a lunar calendar year of 12 months, and each hour as one-twelfth part of the day or night (Shulgi, King of Ur, Mesopotamia)
 d226504,650magnetic compass, used to orient chariots (Emperor Hoang-Ti, China, recorded in the Zizhi Tongjian CE 1084, Thoung Kian Kang Mou edition) → navigation at sea by CE 300, Tsin dynasty, China
 e226504,650earliest management of wildlife exploitation: every fisher and hunter taxed one-tenth of their take (pharaoh Djoser, Egypt, recorded in the Famine Stela)
 f226504,650earliest massive stone monuments: step pyramid tomb of pharaoh Djoser in Saqqara, Egypt; contemporaneous pyramidal architecture in Caral-Supe, Peru; megalith at Stonehenge, Britain
 g225504,550earliest dictionary: cuneiform tablets translating between Sumerian and Eblaic (Ebla, Syria)
 h225504,550earliest writing on papyrus: Diary of Merer, documenting construction of the Great Pyramid (Wadi al-Jarf, Egypt) → parchment by 200 BCE, Greece; paper from pulp by 100 BCE, China
 h125504,550architectural precision: the Great Pyramid of Giza (Egypt), taller than any other building in the world for 3,800 years
 g125004,500earliest locks (Egypt): door bolts → emergence of private ownership and privacy; possessions under lock and key by 1500 BCE, for unguarded secrecy
 f125004,500earliest animal husbandry to produce a hybrid: the kunga, foal of a female domestic donkey and male wild ass (Umm el-Marra, Syria), used for diplomacy, ceremony, warfare
 e123504,350earliest government reforms, addressing taxes and corruption (Uru-KA-gina, King of Lagash and Girsu, Mesopotamia) → modern corruption suppressed by long exposure to democracy
 d123404,350first emperor of a state: Sargon the Great, Akkadian Empire (expanding across Mesopotamia, Levant, Anatolia) → beginnings of artistic emphasis on the person of the ruler as an individual
 c123004,300earliest mechanical pump: the shaduf, a counterpoise for lifting buckets of river water (Mesopotamia) → suction pump by CE 1206
 b123004,300earliest records of marriage (Akkad): an economic pact for child rearing, men tending to conceive later in age than women → a loving relationship particularly in Western nations; now declining globally
256a122004,200decline of Bronze-Age civilisations in Egypt, Greece and Mesopotamia, and terminal decline of Indus Valley civilisation, caused by centuries of drought beginning c. 2200 BCE
 a821004,100earliest code of law, applying general principles to particular cases (Code of Ur-Nammu, Sumerian King of Ur, Mesopotamia)
 b820304,050earliest recorded poetry (Nippur, Iraq): a Sumerian love poem of passionate ardour, expressing an emotional truth about the human spirit
 c820004,000extinction of last remnant population of woolly mammoths, on Wrangle Island, Arctic Sea
 d820004,000earliest use of coal as fuel (Inner Mongolia and Shanxi, China), for smelting copper, cooking, heating → peak global coal production of 8.2 billion tonnes/year in CE 2013?
 e820004,000earliest abacus, replacing tables of multiplication, reciprocals, powers (Old Babylonians, Mesopotamia c. 2000-1600 BCE) → nanoscale abacus storing numerical information in individual molecules by CE 1996
 f819003,900earliest map of a territory: 3-dimensional topography covering 30 km of the Odet river valley, sculpted to scale on a schist rock slab (Saint-Bélec, France)
 g819003,900establishment of a 7-day week (Assyria and Babylonia)
 h818503,850earliest alphabetic script (Proto-Sinaitic, Sinai and Egypt) → economy of signs
 h718503,850earliest architectural arch, a Canaanite gate (Ashkelon, Israel) → breakthrough in construction of gateways, vaults, doors, windows, bridges: converting tensile stress into compressive stress
 g718253,850earliest record of contraception: Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus, prescribing crocodile dung (Lehun, Egypt) → distinction of sexual intercourse from reproduction
 f718003,800beginnings of complex societies: Babylonian civilisation in Mesopotamia, 1800 BCE; Olmec civilisation in Mesoamerica, 1800 BCE; Shang dynasty in China, 1600 BCE; New Kingdom in Egypt, 1600 BCE
 e718003,800earliest extraction and working of iron (Anatolia) → alloying with carbon to make steel in Cyprus by 1100 BCE
 d718003,800earliest prose fiction: The Epic of Gilgamesh (in cuneiform on clay tablets, Ur, Mesopotamia), a heroic story of the tragicomedy of life, love won and lost, and inevitable death
 c717503,750earliest principles of property insurance, against faulty construction that results in loss or damage (Code of Hammurabi, Babylon): proportionate compensation
 b717503,750earliest cultivation of the tea plant Camellia sinensis (China, early 2ⁿᵈ millennium BCE) → now the most frequently consumed beverage worldwide, with many health benefits
 a716503,650domestication of chickens (Thailand) from red junglefowl → meat and eggs from 25.9 billion chickens by CE 2019 and rising, 5× the biomass of all wild birds
 a616503,650harvesting of latex from the Castilla elastica tree to make rubber for balls and figurines (Mexico): the first plastic polymer → unsurpassed sliding friction and durable elasticity
 b616503,650earliest team sport: rubber-ball game played in an architectural ballcourt (Paso de la Amada, Mexico) → social compacts; decapitation rituals by CE 500
 c616503,650earliest porcelaneous high-fired ceramics (Piaoshan kiln, China): fragile when whole, indestructible as broken shards → true porcelain by early CE, China
 d616503,650earliest stencils of archetypes, for hyperbolae, ellipses and spirals, used in the Gathering of Crocus wall painting (Thera, Aegean Sea): knowledge of the foundations of geometry
 e616303,650earliest planetary observations, of the motions of Venus (reign of Ammisaduqa, king of Babylon)
 f615503,550reckoning with fractions and geometry (Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, Egypt)
 g615203,550first accurate timepiece: an outflow water-clock (Amenemhet, court of Amenhotep I, Egypt) measuring night-time; shadow clocks and sundials regulating daytime worker shifts
 h615003,500earliest depiction of joyful and uninhibited celebration by ordinary people (Minoan Harvester Vase, Agia Triada, Crete); happiness sought and found in meeting a need
 h514003,400earliest colonisation of Remote Oceania (Mariana archipelago) → migrations to all Pacific archipelagos over the next 3 millennia; women settling, men dispersing
 g513303,350early depictions of mutual affection: Nefertiti holding the hand of her husband pharaoh Akhenaten, and gentleness: Ankhesenamun anointing her husband pharaoh Tutankhamun (Egypt); meaning in life found in engagement with others
 f513003,300earliest notated music: Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal (in cuneiform, Ugarit, Syria); the singing voice carrying further than the spoken voice, conveying feeling
 e512003,200sea-going trade in silver and dyes by Phoenicians, connecting the Levant with western Europe across the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean
 d511803,200beginning of 300 years of drought extending from Spain to India, contributing to the demise of the Mycenaean civilisation (Greece)
 c510503,050start of the Iron Age (Aegean; Britain by 800 BCE), iron replacing bronze for tools and weapons
 b510003,000use of hydraulic plaster, mixing lime with silicates (Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel) → concrete in Ancient Rome by CE 70, the dominant building material of modern times
 a510003,000earliest depiction of the cosmos: a bronze disc inlaid with gold symbols of the Sun, Moon, and stars including the Pleiades cluster (Nebra, Germany)
 a49502,950first Jewish temple (King Solomon, Jerusalem) → rise of Judaism for a chosen people
 b49002,900earliest centre of higher learning (Taxila University, India) → Plato’s Academy in Greece by 387 BCE; Taixue University in China by CE 3; Al-Karaouine University in Morocco by CE 859; European medieval universities
 c49002,900accurate prediction of lunar eclipses (Berlin Gold Hat, Germany)
 d49002,900standardization of value: adoption of cowrie shells as money (Middle Western Zhou period, China) → cowrie monetary systems in Asia and West Africa during 3 millennia
 e48202,840earliest professional army (Lacedaemonians of Sparta, Greece, described by Xenophon, 388 BCE), sustained by a social contract: duties rewarded with citizenship
 f47762,800first Olympic games (Olympia, Peloponnesus, 776 BCE): a 4-yearly truce bringing together athletes to compete for the symbolic reward of an olive wreath → revival in CE 1896
 g47002,700fraudulent impersonation, parodying kingship: a letter supposedly written by mythological King Gilgamesh some 2,000 years earlier (Sultantepe, Turkey)
 h47002,700first book of European literature: The Iliad (Homer, Greece), an epic poem on the pathos of loss and suffering caused by war
 h37002,700Archimedes’ Screw, used to irrigate Sennacherib’s elevated garden (river Tigris, Mesopotamia), described by Archimedes 4 centuries later
 g36502,650earliest collection of scholarly texts, on 32,000 cuneiform tablets: the Library of Ashurbanipal (Nineveh, Iraq)
 f36302,650earliest use of coinage (Ionia or Lydia, Anatolia): many denominations of stamped electrum, a gold-silver alloy → government-controlled economy of transaction costs
 e36002,600first circumnavigation of the African continent (Phoenicians from Arwād, reported by Herodotus in The Histories 430 BCE)
 d35502,550earliest cartography: a map of the known world, by Anaximander (Greece, c. 550 BCE, reported in Strabo’s Geographica 7 BCE)
 c35502,550first Persian Empire (Cyrus the Great, Persia), connecting the Mediterranean to the Indus Valley → code of just rule that respects others’ faiths
 b35502,550training in surgery and anatomy, described in the Susruta Samhita (northern India, 6ᵗʰ century BCE)
 a35502,550professional policing, investigating criminal cases, addressing injustices (the paqūdu of Babylonia c. 550 BCE)
 a25002,500height of Greek civilisation (Greece, 6ᵗʰ to 4ᵗʰ centuries BCE) → foundations of Western philosophy, ethics, poetry, drama; first democracy 508 BCE
 b25002,500construction of a navigable canal from the Nile to the Red Sea (Darius I of Persia) → Suez Canal by CE 1869, the shortest maritime route between Europe and Asia
 c25002,500earliest evidence of cannabis used as a psychoactive substance (Jirzankal Cemetery, China) → modern narco-trafficking spread by counter-drug interdiction
 d24502,450earliest cast iron artefacts (Jiangsu, China) → common era uses in manufacture of utensils, pipes, wheels, axle bearings, crankshafts, casings and liners, cannons, bridges, buildings
 e24502,450invention of a 360° zodiac (Babylonia) → longitudes of planets
 f24502,450collection of the sayings of Confucius (551-479 BCE, China) into the Analects, founding Confucianism, with a role for every person in society, and universal education
 g24502,450collection of the Torah and other scriptures into the Hebrew Bible → Christian Old Testament 500 years later, including the divine authority of the Ten Commandments
 h24002,400Siddhārtha Gautama (Buddha, c. 480-400 BCE, Ancient India) lays the foundations of Buddhism, with joy as a calling towards the path of nirvana; rebirth in hell for misconduct
 h14002,400earliest in-patient hospitals (King Paṇḍukābhaya, Sri Lanka) → professional care for the sick
 g14002,400Hippocratic Oath (ascribed to Hippocrates, c. 400 BCE), swearing to uphold medical standards → modern versions still a rite of passage and moral compass for clinicians
 f13752,400idea that justice and virtue are inherent qualities of inner harmony (Plato’s Republic, Greece): limits to the liability of external forces for conduct → moral conscience of Christianity
 e13752,400idea of enlightenment as the discomforting experience of layered reality (allegory of the cave, in Plato’s Republic, Greece): possibility of truth beyond intelligible reality
 d13642,400first sighting of another moon: Jupiter’s Ganymede, discovered with the naked eye (Gan De, China) → rediscovery by Galileo Galilei in CE 1610, using a 20× telescope
 c13502,350concept of time-velocity space (Babylonia): displacement of Jupiter calculated as the area under a graph of its velocity over time, foreshadowing integral calculus
 b13502,350development of formal systems of reasoning, by logical deduction from axioms and postulates (Aristotle, Greece) → scientific disciplines
320a13502,350understanding of the emotions as dimensions of feeling that affect judgement (Aristotle, Greece): anger, love, fear, shame, kindness, pity, envy, emulation
 a83502,350political theory of social welfare (Aristotle, Greece): a state tax on assets of affluent citizens for distribution amongst the poor
 b83202,350compilation of the Tao Te Ching (China) on peace and war, founding Taoism in ritual cultivation of life’s inherent natural and spiritual forces, benefitting all
 c83002,300mass persuasion, using silver coins stamped with the head of previous legendary ruler Alexander the Great (Lampsacus, Turkey): appropriating history to glorify the present
 d83002,300earliest economic exploitation of chicken outside East Asia (Southern Levant); now the world’s most ubiquitous species of livestock, a principle source of protein
 e83002,300postulation of Euclidean geometry of flat surfaces (Euclid of Alexandria, Greece) → first printed edition of Euclid’s Elements, CE 1482
 f82802,300first hypothesis that Earth revolves around the Sun (Aristarchus of Samos, Greece, reported in Archimedes’ The Sand Reckoner, c. 260 BCE)
 g82502,250first estimation of π within known limits (Archimedes, Greece), describing circles, discs, spheres, cones, orbits, loops, spirals, waves, using methods that anticipate CE 17ᵗʰ century calculus
 h82502,250earliest accurate estimates of the circumference, diameter and tilt of a spherical Earth (Eratosthenes, Greece, c. 250 BCE, reported by Pliny CE 77)
 h72502,250earliest watermills (Egypt; Anatolia by 50 BCE, reported in Strabo’s Geographica 7 BCE), milling grain, processing ore; the first machines to harness a natural force for mechanical work
 g72202,250construction of the Great Wall, stretching 1,900 km (Emperor Qin Shi Huang, China) → 21,196 km in total length by the Ming dynasty to CE 1644
 f72002,200fusion of Indian cultures and traditions into Hinduism, with worship posthumously rewarded by favourable rebirth; torment in hell for sinners → currently the third most populous religion, after Christianity and Islam
 e72002,200widespread adoption of seed drills (Han dynasty, northern China); reinvention by Jethro Tull in CE 1701, Britain → production efficiency heralding the dawn of modern agriculture
 d71302,150earliest attempt to map the night sky (Hipparchus’ Star Catalogue c. 130 BCE, Rhodes), accurate to within 1° → astronomy as predictive science
 c71002,100first analogue computer: Antikythera Mechanism of bronze gears, mechanising solar and lunar epicycles and eclipses, and motions of the planets in the known cosmos (Antikythera, Greece); unsurpassed for 1,400 years
 b71002,100earliest positional system of decimal fractions, for algorithmic calculations with positive and negative numbers using counting rods (China)
 a71002,100establishment of the Silk Roads, for overland trade between East Asia and southern Europe → China’s CE 2013 Belt and Road Initiative, opening routes to trade and investment in 70 economies
 a650BC2,050rise of the Roman Empire (Europe), enduring c. 600 years → infrastructure of roads, using designs that still prevail, and aqueducts; self-strengthening concrete, lead-pipe plumbing and sanitation; leap years
 b650AD1,950death of Jesus of Nazareth and transcribing of his life in the New Testament → rise of Christianity, with salvation for the righteous and heaven as reward; sinners fear hell
 c6771,950earliest encyclopaedia (Pliny the Elder, Italy, Naturalis Historia books 1-5, 6-10, 11-17, 18-23, 24-31, 32-37 CE 77)
 d61001,900maritime trade routes between Africa, India, China, for spices, medicines, fabrics; connecting to Ancient Rome through Alexandria
 e61001,900use of paper for writing and painting begins to supplant bamboo and silk in China (Emperor He, Eastern Han dynasty, c. 100)
 f61001,900in the North American Blue Mountains, a colony of the fungus Armillaria ostoyae extends its network of branching hyphae during 1,900 years to cover 9.6 km² with a c. 10,000-tonne subterranean mycelium
 g61321,900invention of the seismoscope (Zhang Heng, China, 132), detecting earthquakes 600 km away; the first device to enhance the reach of sensory perception since the orb-weaving spider first outsourced hearing to its web
 h61501,850development of the astrolabe from celestial globes, locating Sun and stars in relation to the equator (Ptolemy, Alexandria, c. 150) → determination of latitude
 h51501,850earliest industrial complex: watermills of Barbegal (France, 2ⁿᵈ century), producing 25 tons/day of hardtack biscuits for local harbours
 g52901,750firing of natural gas in southwest China, to boil brine for salt (Bowu zhi c. 290), and to pipe into homes for lighting (Huayang Guo Zhi c. 340) → 3.9 trillion m³/year of global gas extraction by 2018 and rising
 f52901,750use of mineral oil in central China, to lubricate axles and to seal water tanks (Bowu zhi c. 290, reported in Shui Jing Zhu c. 500) → 5.0 billion tonnes/year of global oil extraction by 2018: peak production?
 e53001,700beginning of central Europe’s 300-year Migration Period: cultural and socioeconomic turmoil coinciding with climatic variability; Mongolian Avar warriors overwhelming the eastern Roman Empire
 d53571,650earliest explicit use of zero, in the Maya Classic Period (Uaxactun, Guatemala, 357)
 c54001,600spread of urbanisation, with cities of over 100,000 people in Roman, Chinese and Mesoamerican empires (Teotihuacan, Mexico, covering 18 km² c. 400) → specialisation of trades and occupations
 b54301,600human desire for personal relations with god, communicated to the masses as a king’s privilege (India): Hindu ruler Kumaragupta I depicted on coins feeding a sacred peacock
 a55171,500observation that free-falling bodies accelerate independently of their weights (John Philoponus, Alexandria, On Aristotle’s Physics 517) → proved in 1687 for gravitational pull on bodies in a void; confirmed in space by 2022
 a45321,500invention of anno Domini, or AD (Dionysius Exiguus, Romania, 532); called anno aerae nostrae vulgaris by Johannes Kepler in 1615, now Common Era, or CE → no calendar year zero
 b45361,500crop failures across the northern hemisphere caused by volcanic eruptions in Iceland; then bubonic plague (536-547) → century of economic stagnation
 c45501,450earliest block printing on paper (China, c. 550) → widespread use of printed books in 11ᵗʰ century Song dynasty China
 d46201,400discovery of Antarctica by Polynesian Māoris (Hui Te Rangiora on the vessel Te Ivi o Atea, from New Zealand, early 7ᵗʰ century) → numerous visits over subsequent centuries
 e46281,400introduction of rules governing the use of zero in number systems (Brahmagupta, India, Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta 628)
 f46501,350death of the prophet Muhammad (Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 632) and transcribing of his revelations in the Qur’an → rise of Islam, with prayer guiding righteous deeds and paradise as reward; hell for disbelievers
 g47001,300over 700 European cities exceed 1,000 inhabitants in CE 700, of which only Constantinople exceeds 100,000 → 22 such cities by 1800, thereafter rising exponentially to 665 by 2000
 h47541,250establishment of the Papal States (Pope Stephen II, central Italy, 754) → global reach of the Catholic Church headed by a pope; 900 years of European art and architecture subjugated to Christianity
 h37901,250Islamic Golden Age, from late-8ᵗʰ to mid-13ᵗʰ centuries: flourishing art, design, architecture, and scientific innovation
 g38411,200earliest use of statistical inference (Abū Yūsuf Ya’qūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī, Iraq, Risalah fi Istikhraj al-Mu’amma 841), for cryptography → analysis of distributed variables
 f38741,150Norse colonisation of Iceland, 874, from Norway in the Viking Age; deforestation and sheep grazing erode soils, driving down the island’s vegetation irretrievably to a half, and forests to 4%, of original extent
 e39001,100earliest windmills (Khorasan, Iran-Afghanistan, c. 900, recorded by Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad Iṣṭakhrī)
 d39851,050Norse colonisation of Greenland by Viking Erik Thorvaldsson, 985; Newfoundland by his son Leif, at least by 1021: human migrations henceforth encircling the globe → a century of harvesting North American stockfish and eiderdown
 c310001,020sexagesimal subdivision of the hour into 60 minutes, and the minute into 60 seconds (Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni, Iran, c. 1000)
 b310211,002invention of the camera obscura (Ibn al-Haytham, Iraq, Book of Optics1011-1021), projecting images through a pinhole to prove the independence of light from vision: birth of evidence-based science
 a31044979formula for gunpowder, used for fire arrows, incendiary projectiles, smoke bombs (Northern Song dynasty, China, Wujing Zongyao 1044) → cannons by 1128, guns by c. 1270, rockets by 1272
 a21055968first hospice (Jerusalem, c. 1055) → professional palliative care for the dying
 b21060963beginning of 300 years of warring Crusades in the name of the Latin Church, against Islamic rule in the biblical Land of Israel and Palestine
 c21120900first government-issued paper money (Song dynasty, China) → a trusted IOU bundling Aristotle’s functions of money, as medium of exchange, mode of payment, unit of account, store of value
 d21150870eastward migrating Asian Polynesians meet westward migrating South Americans (southern Pacific Marquesas Islands, c. 1150) → admixture on Easter Island by 1380, construction of monumental stone statues
 e21206817rise of the Mongol Empire connecting the Pacific to the Mediterranean, founded by Genghis Khan; recounted by Marco Polo c. 1300 → 35 million male-line descendants of Genghis Khan across modern Asia
 f21215808first declaration of human rights: Magna Carta (King John of England, 15/6/1215) → the first and now oldest national constitution; Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
 g21283740first mechanical clock with an escapement mechanism (Dunstable Priory, Britain, 1283), regulating clock speed
 h21286737discovery of the art of making eyeglasses (anon., Italy, 1286), “one of the best and most necessary arts that the world has” – Friar Giordano da Rivalto, 23/2/1305 → 2.5 billion people needing yet not having glasses in 2016
 h11300720start of the northern hemisphere Little Ice Age (1300-1850) → crop failures, social upheaval; perhaps curbed and curtailed by greenhouse-gas emissions during 8,000 years of forest clearance for agriculture
 g11337686accretion of personal wealth from gold by Mansa Musa I (c. 1280-1337), Emperor of Mali and richest person in history: peak of inequality amongst individuals → gold still a safe haven in money markets
 f11346677bubonic plague caused by the Black Death bacillus Yersinia pestis kills a third of the human population across much of Europe, 1346-53; originating in Kyrgyzstan or the Himalayas, transmitted by rats and their fleas
 e11350670earliest cultivation of Coffea arabica for coffee (Yemen, using Ethiopian seeds, 14ᵗʰ century) → 100 million coffee farmers supplying 2 billion cups per day; extinction threats to most wild coffee species
 d11397626earliest banking (Medici Bank, Italy, 1397) → modern function as intermediary between savers and borrowers; inherently vulnerable to liquidity shocks, with bank runs driving economic downturns
 c11400620birth of the European Renaissance (Italy), rise of individuality, imagination, innovation, capitalism
 b11418605accurate geometrical perspective in painting (Filippo Brunelleschi, Italy, c. 1418; codified by Leon Battista Alberti, Italy, De Pictura 1436)
384a11438585Inca expansion, becoming the world’s largest empire by 1500, ruling 12 million people over 5,000 km of Andes; altiplano labour economy powered by llamas for transport
  1440583first mechanical printing press with movable type (Johannes Gutenberg, Germany, 1440) → mass production, dissemination and survival of journals, pamphlets and books, of theology, governance, history, criticism, science, fiction, forbidden texts
  1492531European mariners reach the Americas (Christopher Columbus from Spain, 1492) → colonial settlements; 16ᵗʰ century Columbian Exchange of cultural infrastructure between New and Old Worlds, and Great Dying of 56 million indigenous peoples of the Americas
  1498525European mariners reach India (Vasco da Gama from Portugal, 1498), connecting the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean → colonial empires in Africa and Asia; Indian Ocean trade; global multiculturalism
  1500520foundations of Western art laid by Leonardo da Vinci (Italy, 1452-1519) and Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (Italy, 1475-1564), in humanist sculpture, drawing, portraiture and frescos
  1510510technical drawing of anatomical features, mechanisms and engineering designs (Leonardo da Vinci, Italy, c. 1510)
  1516507concept of utopia, imagined as an island society in the New World that implausibly meets all human desires (Thomas More, Britain, Utopia 1516) → political ideal theory
  1517506Reformation, splitting the universal Christian world into sects (Martin Luther, Germany, 1517)
  1522501first circumnavigation of the globe (Ferdinand Magellan from Spain to Philippines, Juan Sebastián Elcano return to Spain, 1519-22) → globalisation of sea trade
  1526497beginning of the Atlantic slave trade by Europeans (1526) → 12 million slaves exported from Africa to the Americas up to 1900, for labour on plantations
  1542481global population of humans passes 500 million; annual energy use per person averages 9,800 kWh, 14× the resting metabolism
  1543480theory of Earth and the planets revolving around the Sun (Nicolaus Copernicus, Poland, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium 1543) → pursuit of supporting evidence
  1582441introduction of the Gregorian calendar (Pope Gregory XIII, Italy, 1582) → de facto international standard for civil calendars
  1582441first entrepreneurial newspaper publishers (Ming Dynasty Beijing, China, 1582) → independent reporting that witnesses torment, investigates oppression, safeguards freedom of expression
  1605418first modern novel (Miguel de Cervantes, Spain, Don Quixote 1605 and 1615): an unreliable narrator describes the mercifully funny consequences of free will colliding with fate
  1608415invention of the refracting telescope (Hans Lipperhey, Netherlands, 1608), enhancing the reach of visual perception by 3×
  1609414inversion of the refracting telescope to create a compound microscope (Galileo Galilei, Italy, described in Il Saggiatore 1623) → cryo-electron microscopy imaging atoms in molecules by 2020
  1610413observations of the orbits of Jupiter’s moons (Galileo Galilei, Italy, Sidereus Nuncius 1610), falsifying church doctrine of Earth as the only centre of movement in the Universe → authority of evidence-based science
  1612411concept of a universal clock, calibrated on orbital periods of Jupiter’s moons (Galileo Galilei, Italy, 1612) → accurate estimation of longitude for navigation, given a stable observation platform
  1619404distances of planets from the Sun measured relative to Earth’s distance of 1 astronomical unit (Johannes Kepler, Germany, Harmonices Mundi 1619)
  1621402first medical treatise on mental welfare (Robert Burton, Britain, The Anatomy of Melancholy 1621), the author confiding in his reader → association with nature, physical health and exercise, social stability and inclusion
  1628395first graph of distributed observations (Michael Florent van Langren, Netherlands, 1628); line graphs and bar charts by 1786 → data visualisation that saves lives
  1632391basic principle of relativity: the laws of nature apply equally to any frame of reference in constant linear motion, regardless of its speed (Galileo Galilei, Italy, Dialogo 1632)
  1637386idea that truth is the product of autonomous reason (René Descartes, France, Discours de la Méthode 1637; Méditations 1641) → emancipation from revelational truth and religious doctrine; distinction of mind from matter
  1642381earliest functioning mechanical calculator, for addition and subtraction: the Pascaline (Blaise Pascal, France, 1642)
  1650373relatedness of married couples averages about fourth cousin in 1650 for Europe and North America → decreasing only from 1870 onwards with cousin marriage prohibitions
  1656367first pendulum clock (Christiaan Huygens, Netherlands, 25/12/1656), developing on ideas by Galileo Galilei → unsurpassed accuracy on land for 275 years
  1661362first experiments with desalination by freezing (Thomas Bartholin, Denmark, 1661) → potential for passive freezing of seawater to provide 21ˢᵗ century water security
  1665358identification of organismal cells (Robert Hooke, Britain, Micrographia 1665), the smallest unit of structure and function for all life forms
  1665358notion of gravitation as a universal force, occasioned to Isaac Newton by the fall of an apple (Britain, as recounted to William Stukeley in 1726) → four fundamental interactions: gravitational, electromagnetic, strong and weak nuclear forces
  1665358concept and measure of Gross Domestic Product: GDP (William Petty, Britain, 1665) → a globally favoured index of national prosperity from 1953, conflating growth in productivity with drawdown of capital; sustainability benefits of degrowth
  1669354artistic rendering of unconditional forgiveness, in Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son (Netherlands, 1669) → limits to the conditionality of transactions
  1676347discovery of single-celled organisms (Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Netherlands, 1676) → science of microbiology
  1676347first determination of the speed of light (Ole Rømer, Denmark, 1676): 299,792 km per second; 9.46 trillion km per year → light-year measure of distance
  1687336formulation of laws of motion and universal gravitation, applicable to all the phenomena of the cosmos (Isaac Newton, Britain, Principia 1687): foundation of classical mechanics → European Age of Enlightenment
  1690333extinction of the dodo (Mauritius, c. 1690) → symbol of stupidity: the pigeon that couldn’t fly; later symbolic of human wreckage across three-quarters of Earth’s land and two-thirds of oceans
  1700320rapid colonisation of Americas, India and Australia by Europeans from the early 1700s → dominion of India by the British East India Company from 1760s; British rule 1858-1947
  1700320modest improvements in global GDP per capita since CE 1 henceforth begin accelerating in western Europe and North America → acceleration in Latin America and Asia from 1950, Africa from 2000
  1735288cataloguing of organisms by genera and species (Carl Linnaeus, Sweden, Systema Naturae 1735-1768) → modern classification of 2 million from an estimated 8 million eukaryote species, possibly 1 trillion microbes
  1759264first accurate sea clock: H4 (John Harrison, Britain, 1759), a pocket watch with high-frequency balance wheel, solving the problem of longitude for marine navigation
  1761262first observed transit of Venus across the Sun (6/6/1761) → 1 astronomical unit of distance from Earth to Sun equal to 149,597,870.691 km
  1769254invention of the first cost-effective steam engine (James Watt, Britain, 1769) → powered machinery, Industrial Revolution
  1770253invention of the spinning jenny (James Hargreaves, Britain, 1770), mechanising the spinning of cotton → cloth weaving factories by 1771
  1773250establishment of the law of conservation of mass (Antoine Lavoisier, France, 1773): the amount of matter cannot change
  1774249vaccination with an attenuated pathogen: cowpox to treat smallpox (Benjamin Jesty, Britain, 1774; Edward Jenner, Britain, 1798) → artificial attenuation by 1881; vaccination programmes save more lives than any other medical intervention in history
  1776247declaration of independence of the United States of America from colonial rule, and of the unalienable rights of all humanity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (4/7/1776) → economic superstate of the USA
  1776247idea that pursuit of self-interest leads to the common good (Adam Smith, Britain, The Wealth of Nations 1776) → free markets, producing unequal opportunity unless government regulates trade
  1778245first national nature reserve (Bogd Khan Uul, Mongolia, 1778) → global protected areas cover 15% of land and 11% of ocean by 2018
  1780243mass production of spun textiles, mechanised by water power; coal-fired and steam-powered production of iron and steel (beginning Britain, c. 1780) → economies of scale, rising polarisation of rich and poor nations, dominance of fossil fuels
  1781242inherent limits to the powers of reason (Immanuel Kant, Germany, Critique of Pure Reason 1781): knowledge springs from understanding the objects of experience; pure reason is properly directed only to moral imperatives
  1783240invention of aviation: first piloted free flight by humans, in a hot-air balloon constructed by Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (France, 21/11/1783)
  1784239first postulation of black holes (John Michell, Britain, 1784), later predicted by general relativity as singularities in spacetime, their gravitational fields pulling in all matter, and all electromagnetic radiation including light
  1789234spread of Republicanism (French Revolution, 1789-1799) → radical socio-political transformation in western Europe; building of nation states; metric system of weights and measures by 1792
  1792231indictment of double standards in the treatment of women by men (Mary Wollstonecraft, Britain, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 1792) → slow progress towards gender equality
  1798225calculation of Earth’s density, using a torsion balance (Henry Cavendish, Britain, 1798) → Newton’s gravitational constant G determining the gravitational force between two masses
  1798225observation that population growth capacity always outpaces improvements in resources (Thomas Malthus, Britain, 1798) → the struggle for existence facing all organisms; the challenge to human wellbeing, until the advent of oil-based economies
  1799224first electrochemical battery (Alessandro Volta, Italy, 1799), sandwiching electrolyte-soaked pasteboard between two dissimilar metals to create a steady voltage → mobile energy storage
  1807216concept of the mutual dependence of physical, climatological and organic phenomena (Alexander von Humboldt, Prussia, 1807) → science of biogeography
  1808215discovery of atoms, uniquely defining each chemical element of ordinary matter (John Dalton, UK, 1808) → atomic masses of Earth’s 94 elements; hydrogen accounting for nine tenths of all atoms in the Universe
  1817206invention of the bicycle (Karl von Drais, Germany, 1817); pedals by 1853, chain by 1886, derailleur by 1895 → the most efficient human-powered land vehicle
  1821202first demonstration of an electromagnetic rotary device (Michael Faraday, UK, 1821) → dynamos to generate electricity; electric motors to convert electricity into mechanical energy
  1822201first prediction of Earth’s greenhouse effect (Joseph Fourier, France, 1822; tested empirically by Eunice Foote, USA, 1856, John Tyndall, Ireland, 1859) → CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels cause global climate warming
  1825198first public railway for steam locomotives (George Stephenson, UK, 1825), outpacing carriage horses, previously the fastest land transport during 5,300 years of human history
  1826197publication of String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor Op. 131 by Ludwig van Beethoven (Germany, 1826): “hear only the direct revelation from another world” – Richard Wagner, 1870
  1827197first permanent photograph taken by a camera (Nicéphore Niépce, France, 1827) → first image of a person, 1838: Louis Daguerre seizing the light, arresting its flight on silvered plate, preserving a moment in history
  1834189invention of the Analytical Engine (Charles Babbage, UK, 1834), an unbuilt functional computer → first computer programs by Babbage and Ada Lovelace; programmable computers by 1940s
  1838185first scheduled trans-Atlantic steamer: coal-fired Great Western (Isambard Kingdom Brunel, UK, 1838) → globalisation of economies
  1846177first use of quinine, from Andean cinchona trees, as a malaria prophylaxis (Thomas Thomson, UK, 1846), enabling European colonisation of tropical Africa and Asia; malaria vaccine by 2021
  1848175scale of absolute temperature (Lord Kelvin, UK, 1848) → fundamental limit to degree of coldness at 0 Kelvin = −273.15°C; quantum gases forced lower get hotter
  1850173principles of conservation of energy and gain of entropy (Rudolf Clausius, Germany, and Lord Kelvin, UK, 1850) → laws of thermodynamics: heat flows from a warmer to a colder body – unless reversed by inertia
  1850173industrial processing of flour and sugar; fattening of cattle in feedlots (Europe and USA, beginning c. 1850) → biggest dietary shift since the beginning of agriculture
  1856167first practical compression refrigerator (James Harrison, Australia, 1856), for storing perishable foods → globalisation of trade in fresh and frozen meat, seafood, fruit and vegetables
  1859164invention of the lead-acid cell (Gaston Planté, France, 1859), the first rechargeable battery → practical electric vehicles by the 1880s
  1859164theory of evolution by natural selection (Charles Darwin, UK, On the Origin of Species 1859), a law unique to biological systems → heritable adaptations of individuals to their environment, speciation of populations through time, the diversity of life
  1859164first training manual for care of the sick regardless of their means (Florence Nightingale, UK, Notes on Nursing 1859) → professional nursing, health benefits of fresh air and personal cleanliness
  1860163factory production of internal-combustion engines (Jean Lenoir, Belgium, 1860; user manual 1864) → electricity generators, motorised transport
  1860163development of Western modern art, during 100 years from c. 1860, depicting impressions of light and movement, expressive colours and forms, solitary and collective struggles, decisive moments and formative experience
  1865158theory that electricity, magnetism and light are all manifestations of electromagnetic radiation (James Maxwell, UK, 1865) → foundations of quantum physics
  1866157discovery of the unitary character of heritable traits, and the independent assortment of their alternative forms (Gregor Mendel, Austria, 1866) → the gene as unit of heredity, contained in chromosomes – but not for Borgs
  1867156theory that capitalism exploits labour, with the objectionable consequence of empowering the rich by disadvantaging the poor (Carl Marx, Germany, Das Kapital 1867, 1885, 1894) → Marxism, socialism, Stalinism
  1874149discovery of unequal infinities: the infinite continuum of all real numbers exceeds in size any infinite set of natural numbers (Georg Cantor, Germany, 1874) → three sizes of infinity?
  1876147invention of the telephone (Alexander Bell, USA, 1876), permitting conversation between distant voices → telecommunications
  1877146invention of the phonograph (Thomas Edison, USA, 1877): first practical sound recording → gramophone, mass production of records by 1890s, popularisation of individual artists
  1879144invention of the electric light bulb (Thomas Edison, USA, 1879), providing cheap and safe illumination → organic light-emitting diodes by the 21ˢᵗ century
  1880143invention of the photophone (Alexander Bell and Sumner Tainter, USA, 1880), transmitting sound on a beam of light → fibre-optic data transmission by 1966
  1880143adult literacy reaches 20% of the global population by 1880 → 85% by 2010
  1882141first commercially viable power stations, coal-fired (London and New York, 1882) → electrical grid; fossil fuels providing 63% of global electricity generation by 2019
  1882141first hydroelectric power station (Jacob Schoellkopf, USA, 1882) → megadams replumbing the world’s major rivers from the 1950s; 16% of global (and 98% of Norway’s) electricity generation by 2019
  1884139first rooftop photovoltaic solar array (Charles Fritts, USA, 1884) → rising to 3% of global electricity generation by 2019
  1884139beginning of the Scramble for Africa by European powers (1884), occupying nine tenths by 1914 → ethnic partitioning through official colonial rule through to c. 1960
  1886137first car with gasoline-powered internal combustion engine (Karl Benz, Germany, 1886) → 97 million motor vehicles produced globally per year by 2017: peak production?
  1887136speed of light is invariant to source and observer motion (Albert Michelson and Edward Morley, USA, 1887) → upper limit to speed of matter and information, except for celestial objects separated by expanding space
  1887136first wind-powered turbine for production of electricity (James Blyth, UK, 1887) → rising to 5% of global electricity generation by 2019
  1890133centralised sewerage treatment plants (UK, USA, Australia, 1890s), preventing spread of diseases → urine diversion and recycling as fertiliser by 2022
  1893130first self-governing democracy to grant women the vote (New Zealand, 1893) → rising women’s employment, diminishing yet ever-present gender inequality and bias
  1895128first wireless transmission of telegraph signals by radio waves (Guglielmo Marconi, Italy, 1895), global radio communication by 1901 → radio broadcasts by 1920s; radar by 1930s
  1895128first commercial screening of motion-picture films (Auguste and Louis Lumière, France, 1895) → birth of cinema, entrancing audiences with captured events and experience
  1895128discovery of X-rays and production of X-ray images (Wilhelm Röntgen, Germany, 1895) → radiography
  1896127discovery of natural radioactivity (Henri Becquerel, France, 1896) → radioisotopic labelling and dating, medical treatment of tumours
  1897126first detection of a fundamental, subatomic and indivisible particle: the electron (Joseph Thomson, UK, 1897) → one of 17 kinds of elementary particle constituting matter and radiation
  1899124Planck units: natural units for length, time, mass and temperature (Max Planck, Germany, 1899) → fundamental limit to the degree of heat = 1.42 × 10³² K
  1900123theory of the unconscious mind and emotions motivating and guiding human behaviour (Sigmund Freud, Austria, The Interpretation of Dreams 1900) → limits to the rationality of behaviour; foundation of psychoanalysis
  1900123Planck’s law: every physical body emits electromagnetic radiation (Max Planck, Germany, 1900) → quantum mechanics, explaining the subatomic workings of the Universe
  1900123theory of energy quanta (Max Planck, Germany, 1900, Albert Einstein, Switzerland, 1905), including the photon, a massless elementary particle and quantum of electromagnetic radiation
  1900123two-thirds of the global population living in extreme poverty by 1900, declining amid rising geopolitical inequality until 1950 → one-third by 1995, down to one-tenth by 2017
  1900123global average life expectancy equals 32 years by 1900 → doubling over the next 75 years, exposing diseases of ageing
  1903120first powered, controlled flight by a heavier-than-air aircraft (Orville and Wilbur Wright, USA, 17/12/1903) → 4.6 billion airline passengers per year by 2019: peak volume?
  1904119first quantification of dark matter (Lord Kelvin, UK, 1904), with gravitational influence yet no electromagnetic or strong interactions: 85% of matter in the Universe, concentrated amongst clustered galaxies
  1905118theory of special relativity (Albert Einstein, Switzerland, 1905): energy-mass equivalence; length-contraction of moving objects and time-dilation of moving clocks relative to an observer → nuclear physics
  1905118earliest chainsaw for cutting wood (Samuel Bens, USA, 1905), portable by 1918 → 2 billion m³ of wood processed globally by 2018, for construction, packaging, paper, pulp, fuel
  1907116earliest organoids (Henry Wilson, USA, 1907): organ-like structures growing in a Petri dish → integration of human brain organoids with mouse brains by 2018; in vitro human neurons master Pong by 2022
  1907116first organic polymer made from synthetic components: Bakelite plastic (Leo Baekeland, USA, 1907) → large-scale production of plastics from 1950, dominated by polythene
  1908115industrial-scale synthesis of ammonia from ambient nitrogen (BASF, Germany, 1908) using the Haber-Bosch process → chemical fertilisers release crops from nitrogen limitation, fuelling the human population explosion
  1908115unification of 3D space and 1D unidirectional time into absolute spacetime (Hermann Minkowski, Germany, 1908): deceleration through time accompanies acceleration through space, and vice versa
  1909114first people to set foot on Earth’s poles (North Pole: Robert Peary and Matthew Henson, USA, 1909; South Pole: Roald Amundsen, Norway, 1911)
  1911112discovery of the nuclear centre of atoms (Ernest Rutherford, UK, 1911); fission of the nitrogen nucleus to isolate subatomic protons by 1919
  1912111idea of inwardness of feeling, in other ages directed at divinities, belonging to suffering, pain, love, joy (Rainer Maria Rilke, Germany, Duino Elegies 1912): inner commitment as life’s purpose
  1913110introduction of factory assembly lines for mass production of cars (Ford Model T, USA, 1913), dedicating one worker to each step → dehumanising labour; affordable cars for labourers
  1914109World War I (1914-18): 32 nations participate, 20 million killed; declared “the war to end war”
  1914109opening of the Panama Canal (15/8/1914), shortening the route for shipping cargo between Atlantic and Pacific oceans
  1915108mass deployment of X-ray units (Marie Curie, France, 1915) for treatment of over 1 million wounded soldiers
  1915108theory of general relativity (Albert Einstein, Germany, 1915): equivalent effects of gravity and acceleration; gravity as a distortion of spacetime by massive objects → unresolved incompatibility with quantum mechanics
  1917106Russian Revolution (Russia, 1917) → first communist state: USSR, 1922-1991
  1917106a urinal made by a plumber becomes a sculpture made by the force of an imagination (Marcel Duchamp, France, Fountain 1917): reorientation of art away from craft, onto interpretation
  1918105Spanish flu pandemic (1918-20): H1N1 influenza virus infects a third of the global population and kills 50-100 million, mostly in the 2ⁿᵈ wave; early interventions reduce mortality; long-range effects for survivors
  1918105first modern refugee crisis (1918-1922): collapsing Russian and Ottoman Empires displacing 1-2 million Russians and hundreds of thousands of Armenians → Nansen Passports for stateless citizens
  1919104demonstration of nervous mechanisms in plants, paralleling those in animals (Jagadish Chandra Bose, Bengal, 1919)
  1919104observations of starlight deflection during a Solar eclipse, confirming the gravitational lensing prediction of general relativity (Arthur Eddington, UK, 1919)
  1919104first commercial radio broadcasts (PCGG, Netherlands, 1919); global uptake during 1920s → dissemination of time signals, news, propaganda, education, entertainment; storytelling for the complicit listener
  1921102discovery of insulin (Frederick Banting and Charles Best, Canada, 1921) → treatment of diabetes, now afflicting 1 in 10 of the global population, particularly in high-income and urban areas
  1922101invention of leaded petrol (General Motors, USA, 1922), improving engine performance, causing epidemics of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and developmental delays in children → global elimination by 2021
  1922101prediction of an expanding Universe (Alexander Friedmann, Russia, 1922) → dark energy accelerating the expansion of a flat or possibly closed, cyclic or hologram Universe, perhaps one in a multiverse
  1923100concept of every quantum entity having dual nature, as both wave and particle (Louis de Broglie, France, 1923, Niels Bohr, Denmark, 1928) → no independent physical reality of atomic phenomena
  192499first aerial circumnavigation of the world (US Army Air Service, 1924) → globalisation of human mobility
  192697first working television system (John Logie Baird, UK, 1926) → nationwide television broadcasting by 1929, bringing rulers to their subjects, entertainers to viewers, inspiring awe
  192697Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery (League of Nations, 1926) → commitment by 99 of 195 countries since 2008; still 168 million child labourers and 21 million forced labourers
  192796a car outpaces a racehorse (La Chapelle, France, 1927) → dominion of the automobile for land transport and haulage
  192796uncertainty principle, that every particle has a constant product of its variances in position and momentum (Werner Heisenberg, Germany, 1927) → no precisely determinable Universe
  192895prediction of positron particles, the antimatter counterpart of electrons (Paul Dirac, UK, 1928) → abundant antimatter at the birth of the Universe; cosmic rays, positron emission tomography
  192895identification of plasma, the fourth fundamental state of matter after solids, liquids and gases (Irving Langmuir, USA, 1928)
  192895first experimental isolation of an antibiotic: penicillin (Alexander Fleming, UK, 1928) → healthcare revolution; overuse of antibiotics driving resistance in bacteria, causing 1.2 million deaths in 2019
  192994Great Depression, symbolised by the Wall Street Crash of 29/10/1929 and the North American Dust Bowl of the 1930s → 22% drop in worldwide GDP
  193093postulation of neutrinos (Wolfgang Pauli, Austria, 1930), the smallest elementary particle and one of the most abundant in the Universe, rarely interacting with other matter
  193093idea that all roads to the mind start from the soul, yet none leads back again (The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil, Austria, 1930): the human soul as mediator of experience, spirit firing the imagination
  193192proof that no set of consistent axioms can suffice to derive all mathematical truths, to leave none undecidable (Kurt Gödel, Germany, 1931) → incomplete reality
  193291discovery of neutrons (James Chadwick, UK, 1932), with protons constituting the nuclei of atoms → nuclear fission of uranium by 1938; nuclear chain reactions; atomic bombs and nuclear energy
  193390theory that government spending can stabilise the market economy (John Maynard Keynes, UK, 1933, 1936) → borrowing to boost consumption, at the expense of investment to sustain capital assets
  193489first radio detection and ranging: radar (Navel Research Laboratory, USA, 1934), concurrently developed in UK, Germany and other countries, targeting aircraft, ships, submarines and weather
  193588concept of the ecosystem (Arthur Tansley, UK, 1935), a complex association of organisms with their environment → value of nature to humans from provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting ecosystem services
  193885invention of nylon (Wallace Carothers, DuPont, USA, 1938), the first synthetic textile fibre → filaments, films, bristles, cords, washers, sacking, fabrics, hosiery and clothing, spacesuits, parachutes, fishing nets and longlines
  193984first turbojet powered aircraft (Heinkel He 178, Germany, 1939) → jet planes
  193984World War II (1939-45): 184 nations participate, 60 million killed, including genocide of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust 1941-45 – the greatest crime of the 20ᵗʰ century
  194182development of frequency-hopping radio communication (Hedy Markey [Hedy Lamarr] and George Antheil, USA, 1941) → Bluetooth and Wi-Fi by 1990s
  194182first binary-logic digital programmable computer: Z3 (Konrad Zuse, Germany, 1941)
  194282discovery of insecticidal action of DDT (Paul Müller, Switzerland, 1942), the most successful chemical ever synthesised to control malaria → toxicity in food chains exposed in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring 1962; worldwide ban 2004
  194479first electronic digital programmable computer: Colossus (Tommy Flowers, UK, 1944) → code-breaking that hastened the end of World War II
  194578atomic bombs dropped by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Japan, 6, 9/8/1945), the blasts and subsequent cancers killing over 250,000 people, mostly civilians; to date the only nuclear weapons used in combat
  194578establishment of the United Nations (UN, 1945), with a mission to maintain international peace, security and cooperation, amongst societies with customs and tolerances adapted to distal ecological and historical contexts
  194578first proposed electronic calculator (Alan Turing, UK, 1945) → modern stored-program computers
  194776first supersonic flight, in a rocket-powered aircraft (Chuck Yeager in Bell X-1, USA, 14/10/1947) → space exploration
  194875invention of the transistor (Bell Labs, USA, 1948) → transistor radios by 1950s; integrated circuits by 1959; microprocessors by 1970; consumer electronics
  194875Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN, 10/12/1948): all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights; everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person
  194974invention of the barcode (Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver, USA, 1949) → automation of product tracking
  195073proof that smoking causes lung cancer (Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill, UK, 1950): tipping point to ultimate elimination of smoking sometime over 70 years later, delayed by lobbying
  195073start of the Anthropocene Epoch, humans using 22×10²¹ joules of energy over the next 70 years, 1.5× more than all energy use during the previous 11,700 years: accelerating combustion of fossil fuels, their greenhouse gases trapping a further 10× more solar energy in the oceans
  195073global GDP per capita having tripled over 130 years to 1950, tripling again over the next 50 years; North Americans and western Europeans earning over 3× the global average wage: the Great Acceleration in technology, interdependence, and dominance over planetary cycles
  195073beginning of a rapid acceleration in global crop yields through innovations in seed varieties, agrochemicals, irrigation, mechanisation → Green Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s, global cereal yield tripling over 60 years from 1960, provisioning feedlots of up to 100,000 cattle
  195172genocide becomes a crime under international law (UN, 1951); genocide events over the next 50 years kill more than 12 million civilians
  195172over 500 above-ground tests of nuclear weapons through to 1980 release 6 tonnes of plutonium and other radionuclides, detectable globally in sediments, soils and organismal tissues for 100,000 years into the future
  195271half the world adult population has at least basic education by 1952 → three-quarters by 1990
  195370molecular structure of DNA (Rosalind Franklin, James Watson and Francis Crick, UK, 1953) → access to the genetic code of relatedness, form and function for all living organisms, in the environment and through evolutionary time as far back as 2 million years
  195370ascent to the highest point on Earth: Mount Everest at 8,848 m (Tenzing Norgay, Nepal, and Edmund Hillary, New Zealand, 29/5/1953)
  195469first nuclear power plant (Obninsk, USSR, 1954) → advent of clean energy: 10% of global electricity generation in 2019; radioactive waste; nuclear catastrophes, including Chernobyl, Ukraine, 26/4/1986
  195568first accurate atomic clock (Louis Essen and Jack Parry, UK, 1955), the first quantum technology: time as atomic oscillations → atomic standard of time interval; Coordinated Universal Time: UTC, starting 1/1/1960
  195667first shipment of freight in standardized intermodal containers (Malcom McLean, USA, 1956) → globalisation of commerce
  195667emergence of pop art (Richard Hamilton, UK, 1956; Andy Warhol, USA, 1962), its impersonal style anticipating a commodified and media-saturated world of illusory promise, desire and consumerism
  195766first orbiting space satellite (Sputnik 1, USSR, 4/10/1957) → intelligence gathering by 1960; Global Positioning System: GPS, and Earth observation, by 1973; global telecommunications and infrastructure interdependency
  195766first living being to depart Earth for outer space: stray mongrel dog Laika in Sputnik II (USSR, 3/11/1957), deceased in passage
  195964the Great Chinese Famine 1959-1961, the worst famine in history: Chairman Mao’s ‘Great Leap Forward’ policy colliding with drought to cause 15-45 million deaths
  195964Antarctic Treaty (1/12/1959), designating use of the continent of Antarctica solely for peaceful purposes and scientific investigation, and prohibiting nuclear activity → need for Māori insight
  196063descent to the deepest point in the oceans: Mariana Trench at 10,911 m (Jacques Piccard, Switzerland, and Don Walsh, USA, in the bathyscaphe Trieste, 23/1/1960), the last frontier of Earth exploration
  196063first female head of a democratic government: Sirimavo Bandaranaike, serving three terms as prime minister of Ceylon then Sri Lanka between 1960 and 2000
  196063first laser beam (Theodore Maiman, USA, 1960) → LiDAR mapping; cutting, welding, printing, precision surgery; reading/writing data; trapping atoms; 21ˢᵗ century interferometry
  196063first government-approval of oral contraceptives for use by the public (US FDA, 1960) → women taking control over their fertility, liberating them to develop professional careers
  196063formation of The Beatles rock band (UK, 1960) → globalisation of musical influence in the 1960s
  196162first astronaut in outer space (Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1, USSR, 12/4/1961), completing one Earth orbit during a 108-minute flight → the Space Age
  196162earliest industrial use of a flexibly programmable robot (‘Unimate’, George Devol, USA, 1961) → automation substituting for labour on codifiable tasks, complementing problem-solving skills
  196459origin of mass explained by interactions with Higgs quantum field (Peter Higgs, UK, and others, 1964) → Standard Model of particle physics
  196558International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (UN, 1965) → commitments from 182 countries since 2019; race still defining exposure to violence
  196756postulation of imperfect symmetry between matter and antimatter (Andrei Sakharov, USSR, 1967) → surplus of matter over antimatter since the early Universe
  196756Outer Space Treaty (UN, 1967), the basis of international space law → freedom for all to explore space, and prohibition of weapons of mass destruction in Earth orbit
  196855peak growth rate of 2.07% in the world human population (1968), averaging 3.7 offspring per female → growth rate halved by 2020, with populations ageing globally and crashing in the richest countries
  196954first astronaut on the Moon (Neil Armstrong, USA, 20/7/1969), delivered by a 160-million horsepower Saturn V rocket; the Apollo 11 Command Module returning to Earth 4 days later
  196954first host-to-host computer connection (ARPANET, USA, 29/10/1969): “lo” sent across 500 km → flourishing Internet by the 1980s; first quantum network by 2017
  197053proof of the birth of the Universe in a spacetime singularity (Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, UK, 1970)
  197053first optical disc encoding binary data (James Russell, USA, 1970) → digitisation of data storage, sound recording and playback
  197053Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (UN, 1970) → commitment by 191 states, not the nuclear states of India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea; a nuclear detonation affects everyone
  197053first probe to land on another planet and transmit data: surface temperature of Venus (Venera 7, USSR, 15/12/1970); images by 1975 → images from the surface of Mars by 1976
  197251recognition by governments worldwide that fossil-fuel combustion threatens Earth’s atmosphere (UN Conference on the Human Environment 1972), understood by the growing environmental movement as a crisis rooted in Western worldviews of nature as commodity
  197251atomic clocks flown east around the world lose time to clocks flown west, confirming the time-dilation predicted by special relativity (Joseph Hafele and Richard Keating, USA, 1972)
  197251creation of first recombinant DNA, from a polyomavirus and a bacteriophage (Paul Berg, USA, 1972) → first transgenic mammal by 1974: a mouse; cloned synthetic genes for human insulin by 1979
  197350concept of natural capital: the stock of natural resources (Ernst Schumacher, UK, Small is Beautiful 1973) → an asset that underpins human, social, manufactured and financial capitals, its qualities of mobility, silence and invisibility defying economic measurement, exposing it to unregulated human activities
  197350global average life expectancy exceeds 60 years by 1973 → 70 years by 2008 and rising for all countries; strengthening link to affluence, which drives down natural capital
  197548fraction of world adult population overweight or obese (BMI > 25 kg/m²) rises above 20% by 1975 → 39% by 2016, rising fastest in the young
  197548first personal computer: Altair 8800 (John Blankenbaker, USA, 1975), word processing software by 1976, spreadsheets by 1979 → digital media beginning to replace paper and celluloid by the end of the 20ᵗʰ century
  197548first global commitment to cross-border environmental protection: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES, 1975) → illegal trade still threatening wildlife and human health
  197746indigenous Green Belt Movement (Wangari Maathai, Kenya, 1977), combatting poverty with environmental conservation → Great Green Wall movement by 2007, set to become the largest living structure on the planet
  197845first human born on the Antarctic mainland (Esperanza Base, Argentina, 7/1/1978) → continuous human settlement of every continent on Earth
  197845first human born from in vitro fertilisation (IVF, UK, 1978) → ethical issues of selecting amongst genome-sequenced embryos
  197944completion of the Standard Model (1979), combining quantum mechanics with special relativity to explain how elementary particles determine the composition of all matter and all its governing forces except gravitation
  198043global eradication of smallpox (WHO, 1980), after it kills 300 million people and one-third of those infected during the 20ᵗʰ century, the only infectious disease of humans to have been eradicated by vaccination
  198142first diagnosis of AIDS (USA, 1981) → identification of causal HIV by Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, France, 1983; global epidemic killing 36 million by 2021; continuing health risk
  198241international moratorium on commercial whaling (IWC, agreed 1982, enforced 1986): power of people, unified by non-governmental organisations, to drive worldwide change
  198241adoption of the World Charter for Nature (UN, 1982, only USA voting against) recognising nature’s intrinsic value, establishing the imperative of keeping human activities within Earth’s limits
  198340activation of standardized Internet Protocol (USA, 1983) → proliferation of email, file transfer, Internet forums, information sharing
  198340genetic engineering enters mainstream agriculture, then medicine, with patents for genetically modified crop plants (International Plant Research Institute, 1983), and transgenic animals (Harvard College, USA, OncoMouse 1988)
  198439first untethered spacewalk (Bruce McCandless, Challenger Space Shuttle 41-B, USA, 7/2/1984)
  198538discovery of a human-induced hole in the stratospheric ozone layer (1985) → increase in UV-B radiation at Earth’s surface, changing climate, causing DNA damage to phytoplankton and plants; potential forest sterility and skin cancers
  198538first aircraft to fly on another planet: VeGa balloons in the cloud system of Venus (USSR + 8 European countries, 1985) → Earth’s evil twin, yet potential for life in the clouds?
  198538discovery of the enzyme telomerase controlling cellular ageing (Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider, USA, 1985) → eternal lifespan of cancer cells
  198637beginnings of continuous colonisation of space, in low Earth orbit (Mir Space Station, USSR, 20/2/1986) → International Space Station from 2/11/2000
  198637global population of humans passes 5 billion; annual energy use per person averages 18,300 kWh, 26× the resting metabolism
  198736global agreement to ban hydrochlorofluorocarbons and other ozone depleting substances (Montreal Protocol, 1987), the only UN protocol to be ratified by every country on Earth → punctuated recovery of stratospheric ozone, slowing Earth’s warming
  198736sustainable development enters economics, as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Report 1987) → ecosystems as capital assets, economies as systems embedded within nature
  198835first assessment that global climate warming has begun (James Hansen, Senate testimony to US Congress, 23/6/1988) → creation of the IPCC: “The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate” by 1995
  198934invention of the World Wide Web information system (Tim Berners-Lee, UK, 1989) → birth of the Information Age
  199033spacecraft Voyager 1 photographs the sunlit Earth from a distance of 6 billion km (NASA, 14/2/1990): this Pale Blue Dot, our place in the cosmos
  199033launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (NASA with ESA, 1990) → observing the birth of stars, growth of galaxies, prevalence of black holes, atmospheres of exoplanets
  199231first detection of exoplanets, orbiting a neutron star 2,300 light-years from Earth (Arecibo Observatory and NRAO, USA, 1992) → possibility of extra-terrestrial life on temperate and moist planets, perhaps feeding off radiolytic H₂; beings for whom we are aliens
  199231the Rio Earth Summit, Brazil, hosts the largest gathering of world leaders as of 1992, for intergovernmental collaboration on the environment, climate change, desertification
  199231global commitment by nation states to conservation of biodiversity, and sustainable use and equitable sharing of its benefits (UN Convention on Biological Diversity: CBD, 1992) → ratified by every country except the USA
  199231first Internet server for streaming media (StarWorks, 1992) → rise of live and on-demand video and audio streaming during the 2000s; personalisation of entertainment and nostalgia
  199330tuning of enzyme functions by directed evolution (Frances Arnold, USA, 1993) → environmentally friendly production of pharmaceuticals and renewable fuels
  199429launch of online marketplace Amazon.com (Jeff Bezos, USA, 1994) → world’s largest cloud-computing platform
  199528observation of Bose-Einstein condensate (NIST, USA, 1995), a fifth state of matter with properties unlike solids, liquids, gases, plasmas → quantum mechanical description of gravity?
  199528peak of global marine fishery catch, at 130 million tonnes during 1995 → thereafter diminishing returns for a still expanding global fishery; need for an equitable ocean commons
  199627first cloned mammal (Dolly the sheep, Roslin Institute, UK, 1996) → cloning of human stem cells from embryos by 2013 in pursuit of novel therapies; moral, ethical, and social dilemmas
  199627first practical solar-powered aircraft (Icaré 2, Germany, 1996) → race for clean-energy applications; gradually emerging political vision for weaning off fossil fuels
  199726first robotic rover lands on Mars and measures surface composition (NASA’s Sojourner, 4/7/1997) → Mars Express spacecraft finds liquid water in 2018, conducive to life and to human colonisation
  199726first experimental demonstration of quantum teleportation (Institut für Experimentalphysik, Austria, 1997), over any distance → holographic wormhole by 2022
  199726adoption of the Kyoto Protocol by 192 countries (UNFCC, 1997), binding 37 industrialised and industrialising countries plus the EU to targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions → still rising by 2021
  199825creation of Google search technology, as a student project (Larry Page and Sergey Brin, USA, 1998) → free to use, efficient knowledge-search engine; profit from mining personal data; pay-per-click business model
  200023ongoing and accelerating rise in global mean sea level exceeds 3 mm/year by 2000, regulated by thermal expansion, ice-mass loss and large-scale dams → no scenario that stops sea-level rise this century
  200023first legal recognition of same-sex marriage (The Netherlands, 2000) → legal in 32 countries by 2022
  200122calory deficit afflicts 13% of the global population in the year 2001 → 9% by 2019; climate change exacerbating undernourishment and obesity
  200122launch of Wikipedia (Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, USA, 15/1/2001), collating knowledge as a common good → world’s largest work of general reference, open to editing by registered users
  200122first draft sequence of the human genome: c. 25,000 genes in 3 billion base pairs (Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, USA, + 23 institutes, 2001), completed 2003 → Human Cell Atlas; gene therapy
  200122first space tourist (Dennis Tito, USA, with the Russian space programme to the International Space Station, 2001) → race to commercialise space travel by 2021
  200122terrorist attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon (USA, 11/9/2001) → accelerating globalisation of jihadi networks instigated in the 1980s, and counter-terrorism strategies
  200320a heatwave across Europe causes 70,000 additional deaths in summer 2003, then with a return time of thousands of years → 100 years by 2015; rising frequency of record-shattering climate extremes, including marine heatwaves
  200320globally agreed enforcement of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CBD, 2003), governing translocation of living genetically modified organisms that threaten biodiversity
  200419launch of online social networking service Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg, USA, 2004) → 2 billion users by 2017; rise in conspiracy theories with reorientation of online exchanges from information to values
  200617launch of microblogging service Twitter (Jack Dorsey, USA, 2006) → 500 million tweets per day by 2013; one-to-many echo chambers; rise of free-to-use platforms monetising personal data through advertising
  200716human urban population exceeds half the global population for the first time in history → urban wealth sustained by international trade that drives rural impoverishment; strengthening relation of fertility to poverty
  200716worldwide adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN, 2007) to be free and equal to all other peoples, supported by 182 nation states
  200716Great Recession (2007-9), free-fall of developed economies synchronised by global integration of markets
  200815first smartphone apps (iPhone App Store, 10/7/2008) → establishment of social media; 100 billion app downloads by 2015, 100 billion per year by 2020; no stewardship of global collective behaviour
  200815first national constitution to recognise rights of nature (Ecuador, 2008); first statutory law granting rights to nature, Bolivia 2010 → departure from nature as property
  200815first country to adopt circular-economy legislation (China, 2008): reduce, reuse, recycle → national roadmaps by 2016; need for global initiatives
  200914launch of first cryptocurrency: Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer medium of exchange by blockchain (Satoshi Nakamoto, 2009) → expanding carbon footprint from computationally intensive mining of digital coins
  200914humanity is overstepping three planetary boundaries to a safe operating space: climate change, biodiversity loss, nitrogen cycle → risk of abrupt ecological disruption, biosphere tipping points, and hothouse Earth; need for planetary stewardship
  200914nations that grew rich on fossil fuels commit climate finance to poorer nations (UN FCCC, 2009), worth one-tenth of annual oil and gas industry royalties by 2020 → inadequate and unmet; repurposed for loss and damage in 2022
  201013creation of first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell (J. Craig Venter Institute, USA, 2010) → xenobots for intravenous drug delivery by 2020, self-replicating by 2021
  201013global agreement to implement 20 biodiversity targets by 2020 (CBD, 2010), to address causes of biodiversity loss, reduce pressures on biodiversity, safeguard ecosystems and their services → failure completely on 14, partially on 6
  201112international resolution against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (UN, 2011) → homosexuality legal in 133 of 195 countries by 2019, rising trend; recognition of a sex spectrum
  201112number of liberal and elected democracies in the world peaks at 101 in 2011, encompassing 55% of the global population
  201112two-thirds of the global population in 2011 have access to safe drinking water, a necessary condition for wellbeing; rising to almost three-quarters by 2020
  201211observation of Higgs boson: a fundamental force-carrier particle (CERN Large Hadron Collider, 4/7/2012) → validation of the Standard Model of particle physics
  201211more than half the world’s population tunes in to television coverage of the London Summer Olympics (2012)
  201211invention of CRISPR-Cas9 technology (Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, USA, 2012) → accurate, fast and cheap editing of genes and gene mutations in any organism, including – unethically – viable human embryos
  201211first human-made object escapes our Solar System and enters interstellar space, 18 billion km from the Sun (Voyager 1, 25/8/2012)
  201310atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ exceed 400 ppm for the first time in at least 3 million years, an accelerating rise (NOAA, Hawaii, 5/2013) → race for technologies to capture and use CO₂
  20149globally agreed enforcement of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (CBD, 2014), a legal framework for informed consent and benefit-sharing
  20158invention of the optical lattice clock (Hidetoshi Katori, Japan, 2015) → accuracy of 1 second in 15 billion years; ticking detectably faster with each centimetre of altitude, as predicted by general relativity
  20158a fishing boat sinks off the Mediterranean coast of Libya with the loss of 1,050 lives (18/4/2015), amongst 65 million people forcibly displaced worldwide in 2015
  20158tipping point in industry-wide momentum towards electric vehicles during mid-2010s, when still comprising 2% of market share, spread by investor confidence under strengthening regulation of fossil fuels
  20158three trillion trees on Earth (2015, cf. 6.6 trillion at the start of human civilisation), 15 billion culled annually → forest covering a quarter of global land area, declining in extent and diversity, driven down by commodity production, wildfires, urbanisation
  20158UN General Assembly of 194 countries adopts 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, to end poverty and other deprivations by improving health and education, reducing inequalities, addressing climate change and halting biodiversity loss (25/9/2015)
  20158UN Paris Agreement on Climate Change adopted by 196 nation states, resolving to keep global average temperature to well below 2°C in excess of pre-industrial levels, and striving to limit the increase to 1.5°C (12/12/2015) → benefits outweigh costs; by 2022, no credible pathway to 1.5°C
  20158human land use, rising exponentially up to 1960, still rising in 2015 for livestock grazing (27% of global land area), crops (7%), buildings, towns and cities (1%); industrial fishing in 55% of ocean area by 2015
  20167detection of gravitational waves (LIGO and Virgo interferometers, 11/2/2016): ripples in spacetime generated by accelerating bodies, predicted by the theory of general relativity
  20167coldest ground surface temperature on Earth: −110.9°C (central-eastern Antarctica, 2016); once temperate rainforests, now dry and salty antarctic soils uninhabitable even to microbes
  20167destruction of more than 6 million ha (60,000 km²) of tropical primary forest during 2016, an unprecedented peak in a rising trend → quick profit from drawing down natural capital, a down payment on future economic failure
  20167global land and ocean surface temperature for 2016 reaches 0.99°C above the 1951-1980 mean, Earth’s warmest year on record to date → roadmap for decarbonisation, implicating lifestyle choices
  20176first national legislation for a mid-century target of net-zero emissions (Sweden, 2017) → Suriname and Bhutan CO₂-negative by 2019; net-zero pledges by governments and companies cover 90% of the global economy by 2021, with big emitters yet to peak
  20176accumulation since 1957 of 23,000 space objects bigger than an apple, travelling at up to 28,000 km/hr in Earth orbit → debris risk to satellites and space stations, a problem for government space agencies of their own making
  20176accumulation of plastic waste since 1950 exceeds 5 billion tonnes in landfills and the natural environment by 2017, more than 12× global human biomass → pervasive microplastics across the globe; paucity of options for mitigating harm
  20185sixfold increase in annual ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland over 25 years to 2018 → sea-levels to rise 40-80 cm by 2100 under scenarios of low-high greenhouse-gas emissions, displacing 190-630 million people
  20185slowing Atlantic circulation over the last 60 years, consistent with rising CO₂, enhancing global surface warming
  20185hottest ground surface temperature on Earth: 80.8°C (Lut Desert, Iran, 2018; Sonoran Desert, Mexico, 2019), too hostile for plant life
  20185human activities have modified three-quarters of ice-free land and almost nine-tenths of the ocean by 2018; Earth’s remaining wildernesses become increasingly vital buffers against climate change
  20185first commercial taxi service of fully self-driving cars (Google-Waymo, USA, 5/12/2018) → reducing traffic accidents, raising social dilemmas
  20185half the global population using the Internet by 2018 → escape from state-controlled media; expansion of denial, fake news, falsehoods, lies and misinformation
  20194first image of a black hole (Event Horizon Telescope, 10/4/2019), 55 million light-years from Earth, 6.5 billion times the mass of the Sun, with spiralling magnetic fields, expelling jets of matter
  20194first global assessment of biodiversity finds 1 million of Earth’s 8 million species threatened by accelerating extinction rates (IPBES, 2019): Earth’s sixth mass extinction imperils humanity’s life support systems, calling for transformative change in human activities
  20194Britain generates more electricity from zero-carbon sources than from fossil fuels for the first time since the Industrial Revolution (UK National Grid, 6/2019); fossil fuels still provide 84% of global primary energy
  20194energy use per person during 2019 exceeds the resting metabolism by 30× globally, and by 114× for citizens of the USA (cf. 15× for an elite athlete running a marathon)
  20194acidification of almost all open-ocean surface by absorption of anthropogenic CO₂, losing 0.02 pH units per decade since 1990, harming shell-forming species; ocean liming a potential geoengineering solution
  20194first global climate strike (20/9/2019), led by school children and joined by millions of people with justified concerns → world scientists warn of a climate emergency
  20194first demonstration of quantum supremacy over conventional computers (Google AI Quantum, USA, 2019) → double-exponential growth rate in computing power
  20194first case of COVID-19 (Wuhan wildlife market, China, 1/12/2019), caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 → pandemic triggering unprecedented lockdown of nations and societies worldwide, shrinking the global economy, deepening inequalities; largest vaccination programme in history begins 8/12/2020 after 5.7 million excess deaths
  20194inauguration of US Space Force (20/12/2019), formalising competition for military dominance in space; UK follows in 2021 → surveillance extending to stewardship and warfare capabilities
  20194rising frequency of weather-related disasters multiplies global economic losses 7.8× from the 1970s to the 2010s, disproportionately impoverishing the poor; early-warning systems reduce deaths by two-thirds
  20203One Trillion Trees Initiative (World Economic Forum, 2020), planting trees in support of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2020-2030 → nature-based climate solutions
  20203first combat deployment of lethal drones with fully autonomous decision-making (Libyan Government, 2020) → need for a ban on all slaughterbots: robots that select and kill without human supervision
  20203launch of first commercial space taxi (SpaceX, 30/5/2020), taking NASA astronauts to the International Space Station
  20203highest recorded air temperature on Earth: 54.4°C in Death Valley (California, USA, 16/8/2020); emergence of intolerable heat, particularly for urban populations, exacerbated by air conditioning, mitigated by greenery
  20203leaders of 93 countries and the EU pledge to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 (Leaders Pledge for Nature, 2020): commitment to nature positive government, business and civil society
  20203protein structures accurately predicted by an artificial intelligence network: AlphaFold (DeepMind, USA, 2020) → accelerated understanding of protein functions; rapid advances in drug design
  20203human-made materials surpass Earth’s total living biomass, predominantly as concrete infrastructure, doubling in mass every 20 years since 1900 → our material contribution to the Anthropocene Epoch
  20203global land and ocean surface temperature for 2020 exceeds 1°C above the 1951-1980 mean for the first time, 1.2°C above the pre-industrial 1850-1900 baseline, with 2011-2020 the 4ᵗʰ decade in succession to claim warmest average temperature
  20203ambient temperature in the Arctic exceeds the 1981-2010 average by 2.1°C in 2020, warming 4× faster than the rest of the world; permafrost thawing self-amplifies to the point of no return; Arctic zombie fires release 4× the CO₂ emissions of global volcanic activity
  20212first powered, controlled flight on another planet: Ingenuity Helicopter drone on Mars (NASA, 19/4/2021), hovering 3 m above the Jezero Crater
  20212spacecraft Parker Solar Probe touches the Sun’s corona (NASA, 28/4/2021): sampling its outer atmosphere
  20212worldwide acceleration of glacier melt, now at twice the speed of 20 years ago → explaining one-fifth of the rate and acceleration in sea-level rise during the 21ˢᵗ century
  20212tropical forests in south-eastern Amazonia switch from CO₂ sink to source by 2021, linked to intensifying dry seasons, deforestation and rising frequency of fires
  20212Earth’s hottest month on record (NOAA, July 2021): rising frequency of climate anomalies → need for actions to trigger positive tipping towards global sustainability through self-reinforcing shifts in behaviour
  20212human activities have unequivocally warmed atmosphere, ocean and land, intensifying heatwaves, droughts and floods; global warming will exceed 2°C without immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions (IPCC, 2021): a reality check for policy makers
  20212pledge to end deforestation by 2030, signed by 141 countries, covering 90% of Earth’s forests (UN COP 26 Climate Conference, 2/11/2021) → uneven progress; need for enforcement mechanisms
  20212commitment by 103 countries to curb emissions of methane (Global Methane Pledge, 2/11/2021): a potent greenhouse gas approaching triple preindustrial levels; emissions catalysed by global warming?
  20212global agreement to nearly halve CO₂ emissions by 2030 relative to 2010, and to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century (UN COP 26 Glasgow Climate Pact, 13/11/2021) → need for policies to match the science
  20212the world ocean reaches its hottest ever recorded in 2021, for the third year and seventh decade in a row, contributing to coral bleaching and sea-level rise; fuelling marine heatwaves, cyclones and hurricanes
  20212clean power accounts for more than one-third of global electricity supply in 2021, with wind and solar sources alone contributing one-tenth
  20212launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (NASA, ESA, CSA, 2021) → exploring the early Universe, star births and deaths and galactic evolution, analysing exoplanet atmospheres for signs of life
  20221global cost-of-living crisis initiated by demand exceeding supply for resources, intensified by Russia invading Ukraine (24/2/2022), threatening worldwide food and energy security
  20221human and natural populations are reaching limits to climate adaptation, from poles to equator (IPCC, 2022): diminishing opportunities to secure a liveable future for all by strengthening nature
  20221time has almost run out for averting global climate catastrophe (IPCC, 2022): mitigation still cheaper than adaptation, by switching immediately and comprehensively to carbon-free energy and extracting atmospheric carbon
  20221the number of people forcibly displaced reaches 100 million worldwide (UNHCR, 2022), of which c. 40 million refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons are displaced by conflict and violence
  20221one-fifth of the global population depends directly on one or more of fifty thousand wild species for food or livelihood (IPBES, 2022): sustainable use must confront the globally accelerating loss of biodiversity
  20221fifty ways to value nature, in diverse opportunities for living from, with, in, and as nature (IPBES, 2022); a narrow focus of policy-makers on value to economic growth drives down biodiversity
  20221unprecedented successive years with declining global value of Human Development Index (UN-DP, 2022): climate change and Covid-19 impacting education, income, life expectancy
  20221record-breaking heatwaves, heralding extreme droughts in China and western Europe, and flooding in Pakistan that displaces 33 million people
  20221tumbling costs of green energy reach parity with fossil fuels by 2022 → economic motivation for shifting faster to renewable energy, with net-zero CO₂ emissions feasible within 10-20 years
  20221a spacecraft alters the course of an asteroid (NASA, 2022), demonstrating potential to save Earth from an asteroid hit
  20221first publicly accessible dialogue bot: ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2022): an AI language model, not an oracle; problem of distinguishing its articulation of trawled content from reasoned argument, with implications for scholarship and creativity
  20221achievement of fusion ignition (National Ignition Facility, USA, 2022): proof of concept for limitless fusion energy
  20221global agreement to protect biodiversity for 30% of Earth’s land and sea by 2030, and to reduce extinction rate and risk tenfold for all species by 2050 (CBD, 2022) → need for adequate funding
  20230humans and our livestock achieve respectively 20× and 30× the biomass of all terrestrial wild mammals by 2023 → imperative of shifting towards plant-based diets, co-benefitting forests, climate change and health
  20230global agreement on the High Seas Treaty (UN, 2023), enforcing protection of 30% of the world’s seas by 2030 with restrictions on fishing, deep-sea mining and shipping lanes
  20230publication of a survival guide for climate-resilient development (IPCC, 2023) in the face of temperature and flood extremes, jeopardising biodiversity and food-, water- and energy-security

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the urgent need for humanity64 https://humanity64.com/2023/04/08/the-urgent-need-for-humanity64/ https://humanity64.com/2023/04/08/the-urgent-need-for-humanity64/#respond Sat, 08 Apr 2023 03:44:59 +0000 https://humanity64.com/?p=780 Unless you have been living under a rock, you are aware that something big has happened in the world of Artificial Intelligence, just in the last month. I’m speaking of the release of ChatGPT4, which now can pass any bar exam, an engineering job interview, and complex math tests. It also can “get” jokes and …

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Unless you have been living under a rock, you are aware that something big has happened in the world of Artificial Intelligence, just in the last month. I’m speaking of the release of ChatGPT4, which now can pass any bar exam, an engineering job interview, and complex math tests. It also can “get” jokes and has some insight into others’ “state of mind.” It passes the Turing Test hands down. As a result, at least one Paper has asserted that it shows “sparks” of General Artificial Intelligence, and people are making predictions that we’ll have GAI in as little as one year from now, and that this could lead to the “singularity,” where artificial intelligence uses its own intelligence to boost its intelligence, then uses its boosted intelligence to boost itself some more, ad infinitum until it is infinitely smarter than we are. Some say that we are already “in” the singularity, since AI researchers are using AI to improve AI, but I don’t think that’s quite right as a matter of terminology. For me, the singuarlity is when runaway improvement happens, and happens essentially in the blink of an eye. But what do I know?

And ChatGPT5 is set to come out next December.

Remember, ChatGPT is just one kind of artificial intelligence — it’s called generative AI because it uses large language models to generate text that comes out coherent and generally — although far from always — accurate. Another kind of AI is Alphafold, which basically can predict the folding of any protein that you throw at it — a feat that has taken humans several years per protein until now. This will obviously revolutionize biological research and developemt. Alphafolds forbears are also impressive — AlphaGo trounced the greatest human Go player, and AlphaZero trounced Stockfish, an AI that was previously the word’s greatest chess player.

And then there’s the AI that discovered Halosin, an antibiotic that works against a specific kind of bacteria. The scientists running it have no idea how AI knew that Halosin would work, but it did.

In other words, even apart from ChatGPT, AI outperforms humans at tasks that had once been thought to be uniquely human. It is more creative than humans in chess, and go and it sees connections in other areas that humans wimply can’t see.

And then there is AI-generated art, which can be quite beautiful.

So things are going to be changing real fast in the coming years, and it’s pretty clear that while some segments of humanity will likely do just fine, others are going to take a pretty big hit.

So there are at least five things we’re going to have to watch out for with AI. First, even seemingly benign uses will have built in biases that will result in unfairness. Second, corporations are going to use it in less-than-benign ways to make money off it. Third, bad actors are going to use it in positively malignant ways, which could spread large-scale chaos and destruction. Fourth, countries will use if for miltary purposes, likewise causing havoc. And fifth, there is definitely a non-zero chance that when AI becomes super-intelligent, it will enslave us or kill us.

Which is why we need a religion that focuses on our common humanity, is not particular to one racial group, and is based only on scientifically verifiable facts, where those facts are actually more miraculous than the greatest miracles in the rest of the world’s religions. Unless we develop and spread such a religion — whose ultimate goal is to venerate and preserve the human race — we may not survive the rise of the machines.

….to be continued

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