Timeline of the Human Condition(southampton.ac.uk)
southampton.ac.uk
Timeline of the Human Condition
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/~cpd/history.html
120 comments
This was beautifully illustrated by Carl Sagan in Cosmos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln8UwPd1z20
And humans tame fire at 11:46pm on December 31st. Every 0.2 seconds is a human lifetime. And all recorded history is just a few seconds. That's every person you've ever heard of, in the last ten seconds. Truly humbling.
And humans tame fire at 11:46pm on December 31st. Every 0.2 seconds is a human lifetime. And all recorded history is just a few seconds. That's every person you've ever heard of, in the last ten seconds. Truly humbling.
Started reading Smil‘s „Energy and Civilization“ recently and the sense of acceleration as you enter the last two centuries is almost palpable, absolutely mind-boggling once you start noticing it.
As an aside, IIRC there‘s a „timeline of the universe“ on the outside of a spiral ramp at NYC‘s museum of natural history that does a similarly good job at driving this home.
As an aside, IIRC there‘s a „timeline of the universe“ on the outside of a spiral ramp at NYC‘s museum of natural history that does a similarly good job at driving this home.
"Timelapse of the Future: A Journey to the End of Time" is also quite mindblowing and impressive.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA
https://youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA
A very strong second on this recommendation.
Recognising the absolutely definitive role of energy on progress and history is a critically important advance in understanding mechanisms of history.
Recognising the absolutely definitive role of energy on progress and history is a critically important advance in understanding mechanisms of history.
Whoever made that NYC museum ramp really loved quasars. She probably wrote her doctorate thesis about quasars.
This will outlast us, beyond comprehension.
Proton decay, and the death of everything that we can know, is just the beginning.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA
Proton decay, and the death of everything that we can know, is just the beginning.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA
This is still very long compared to our size vs the size of the universe though.
There are an estimated hundreds of billions of galaxies with billions of stars, and they are all very spaced out too. Most stars are significantly bigger than our planet, and our planet can fit over 7.5 billion humans with a lot of extra space.
There are 8760 hours in a year, so according to the above humans have existed around 1/4380 of the time the universe has. Meanwhile idk the exact amount but we occupy less than 1/1,000,000,000,000 of the space of the universe.
There are an estimated hundreds of billions of galaxies with billions of stars, and they are all very spaced out too. Most stars are significantly bigger than our planet, and our planet can fit over 7.5 billion humans with a lot of extra space.
There are 8760 hours in a year, so according to the above humans have existed around 1/4380 of the time the universe has. Meanwhile idk the exact amount but we occupy less than 1/1,000,000,000,000 of the space of the universe.
I had a beautiful poster of this as a child.
On that scale HN has existed for about 30ms and us for a few times longer.
Maybe singularity type stuff will allow us to hang out a while longer. Physics type evolution of stars and plants -> biological evolution of lifeforms reproducing and dying -> AI evolution of our mind children as it were.
Maybe singularity type stuff will allow us to hang out a while longer. Physics type evolution of stars and plants -> biological evolution of lifeforms reproducing and dying -> AI evolution of our mind children as it were.
I wrote a shorter version and enlisted scientific illustrators to draw some pictures:
https://impacts.to/downloads/lowres/impacts.pdf
Here are the sources used to craft the book:
https://impacts.to/bibliography.pdf
https://impacts.to/downloads/lowres/impacts.pdf
Here are the sources used to craft the book:
https://impacts.to/bibliography.pdf
This is neat. Dig the illustrations. Would love to see a kid’s version of this.
> Choices Burning fossil fuels has put life on Earth in peril; our children face an immense carbon dioxide cleanup, devastating climate changes, or both. We can curtail the most catastrophic outcomes, but time to do so grows alarmingly brief. If we choose air conditioner and refrigerator coolants based on hydrocarbon refrigerants; if
we urge politicians to invest in on-shore wind turbines; if we reduce food waste; if we eat less meat; and if we support restoration of tropical forests... If we take these actions, there is hope.
You nicely avoided Nuclear Power which is the real game changer if you want to produce energy at scale with very little CO2.
You nicely avoided Nuclear Power which is the real game changer if you want to produce energy at scale with very little CO2.
Yup. Another issue is that there are still many things we cannot do with electricity alone, for example steel production, which accounts for 7-9% of CO2 emissions.
That's super nice! Quick question - what does the "13,813 ± 58 Ma" mean below every title? Is that some kind of time measurement from the Big Bang?
Ma means mega annum, or millions of years. That's roughly when the event took place, relative to today. The line is a timeline from the time the universe inflated until present day. The orange dot is a visual depiction of where the event occurred along the timeline.
Wow, the bibliography is 136 pages. Looks like a lot of work went into the book.
Thank you for sharing this. This reminded of an amazing exhibit I saw in Tokyo, at the National Museum of Nature and Science. I don't have much to add, I just wanted to thank you, it was a very enjoyable read.
These tables and charts are filled with events, but remember that for almost all of history, nothing happened. Billions of years and effectively nada. Even if you lived during the Cambrian Explosion, I doubt you would notice anything happening.
....
If you want an up-to-date, authoritative, useful guide to geological history, you want the International Chronostratigraphic Chart. I'm impressed that this is kept updated and is so well done.
https://stratigraphy.org/chart
....
If you want an up-to-date, authoritative, useful guide to geological history, you want the International Chronostratigraphic Chart. I'm impressed that this is kept updated and is so well done.
https://stratigraphy.org/chart
"but remember that for almost all of history, nothing happened"
This seems like a anthropocentric view of the world. Planets moved immense distances, there were generation after generation of bacteria, mountains rose up and crumbled, seas were made and disappeared again.
A lot happened before we showed up. A lot will happen after we're gone, also.
This seems like a anthropocentric view of the world. Planets moved immense distances, there were generation after generation of bacteria, mountains rose up and crumbled, seas were made and disappeared again.
A lot happened before we showed up. A lot will happen after we're gone, also.
"This seems like an anthropocentric view of the world." - What else would you suggest? The world itself, taken on its own terms, has no history, no memory of itself, no experience of time, or change, it simply is, and in that sense, simply is not. It only has a history to us.
So, history is an illusion. Fair enough.
History is a construct. It's a product of actual physical processes in the electrical and chemical networks of human minds resulting in the rearrangement of atoms elsewhere in the universe into patterns that self replicate, or spawn processes in other networks, using any interface available. History used the medium of vibrating air, then worked its way through different symbolic systems until we landed here, at the pinnacle of human achievement, arguing on the internet.
Humans are special because our constructs are orders of magnitude more complex than anything that came before. Opposable thumbs and large wrinkled brains and a lottery ticket combination of environmental factors allowed us to happen. We're a fundamentally different type of thing than anything that we know of that came before. It isn't an anthropomorphic conceit, it's a matter of physical evidence and computational theory. Nothing else does what human brains do. It's a little silly to dismiss it as somehow not real. It's as real as fusion producing light from the core of a sun, or pulsars blazing with energies that outshine entire galaxies.
Humans are special because our constructs are orders of magnitude more complex than anything that came before. Opposable thumbs and large wrinkled brains and a lottery ticket combination of environmental factors allowed us to happen. We're a fundamentally different type of thing than anything that we know of that came before. It isn't an anthropomorphic conceit, it's a matter of physical evidence and computational theory. Nothing else does what human brains do. It's a little silly to dismiss it as somehow not real. It's as real as fusion producing light from the core of a sun, or pulsars blazing with energies that outshine entire galaxies.
Do you take yourself to be an illusion?
We are talking about two different things. I don't mean that there weren't any football games and thus nothing interesting happened.
If you look at a timeline, you might see:
If you look at a timeline, you might see:
- 3.5 bya: First prokaryote
- 2.5 bya: FIrst eukaryote
- 0.6 bya: Cambrian explosion
- 0.44 bya: First terrestrial life
To me it comes across as hubris to claim 'nothing happened' for hundreds of millions of years just because we can't see any evidence for it. Looking into the fossil record tells us very little about what was going on hundreds of millions of years ago, despite it being the best tool we have for looking back at such long scales.
> To me it comes across as hubris to claim 'nothing happened' for hundreds of millions of years just because we can't see any evidence for it.
I think that's an important perspective, but I am not seeing how it applies in this case: We're talking mostly about evolutionary changes. For example, right now evolution is happening but it's unlikely that you or I will ever notice it in our relatively short lifespans. And the chance of an event as big as the first eukaryote or the K/T extinction event (the one that killed the dinosaurs) is very, very tiny.
For around the first billion years of earth's history, there was no life at all (as best we can tell right now) - nada, zilch, 'nothing' happening evolutionarily, for most intents and purposes (afaik).
I think that's an important perspective, but I am not seeing how it applies in this case: We're talking mostly about evolutionary changes. For example, right now evolution is happening but it's unlikely that you or I will ever notice it in our relatively short lifespans. And the chance of an event as big as the first eukaryote or the K/T extinction event (the one that killed the dinosaurs) is very, very tiny.
For around the first billion years of earth's history, there was no life at all (as best we can tell right now) - nada, zilch, 'nothing' happening evolutionarily, for most intents and purposes (afaik).
Recently I researched a dozen or two of the events on the table, and there is a lot of uncertainty of fact, issues of definition, and interpretation involved. That doesn't mean the author is wrong, but take each date as one interpretation of many.
For example, Ancient Greek, developed in ~8th or 10th century BCE (facts aren't 100% clear), is typically credited as the first phonetic alphabet, where characters represent sounds (and the only one - all others being derived from it). The OP says,
> 1850: earliest alphabetic script (Proto-Sinaitic, Sinai and Egypt)
They may mean something slightly different. Also an alphabet of sorts preceded Ancient Greek, maybe the one in the quote above, but lacked vowels among other things, so it depends on your definition of phonetic alphabet.
That's just on example, know there are many ambiguities of definition, fact, and interpretation.
For example, Ancient Greek, developed in ~8th or 10th century BCE (facts aren't 100% clear), is typically credited as the first phonetic alphabet, where characters represent sounds (and the only one - all others being derived from it). The OP says,
> 1850: earliest alphabetic script (Proto-Sinaitic, Sinai and Egypt)
They may mean something slightly different. Also an alphabet of sorts preceded Ancient Greek, maybe the one in the quote above, but lacked vowels among other things, so it depends on your definition of phonetic alphabet.
That's just on example, know there are many ambiguities of definition, fact, and interpretation.
> as the first phonetic alphabet
I thought the Phoenician are credited for the alphabet. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_language
> The Phoenician alphabet was spread to Greece during this period, where it became the source of all modern European scripts.
I thought the Phoenician are credited for the alphabet. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_language
> The Phoenician alphabet was spread to Greece during this period, where it became the source of all modern European scripts.
That was the precursor without vowels, IIRC. In my very limited experience, more experts seem to say the Greek alphabet was the first that qualified as such. But really, 'who was first' is a matter of definition, of course.
[deleted]
Much of homo erectus is similarly debated but OP treats factually
Yeah, there is a strong cultural bias here. "Timeline of the Human Condition according to one Westerner's interpretation of a couple Western encyclopedias"
I wouldn't be surprised, but in what entries do you see the Western bias? I wonder what I might be getting wrong myself.
China has two (2) mentions within the last 900 years. The great famine and COVID-19.
A third one (BRI 2013) is buried under a mention of the original Silk Roads in 100 BCE.
People's Republic founding is omitted, despite being the first post-colonial/indigenous "superstate". It will certainly be at least as historically consequential as the founding of the USA. No mention of PRC eradicating extreme poverty nor surpassing the USA in GDP PPP.
Reading the timeline, you get the sense that all recent human progress is occurring in the West and the West alone is positioned to address global issues. Which is a very distorted view.
A third one (BRI 2013) is buried under a mention of the original Silk Roads in 100 BCE.
People's Republic founding is omitted, despite being the first post-colonial/indigenous "superstate". It will certainly be at least as historically consequential as the founding of the USA. No mention of PRC eradicating extreme poverty nor surpassing the USA in GDP PPP.
Reading the timeline, you get the sense that all recent human progress is occurring in the West and the West alone is positioned to address global issues. Which is a very distorted view.
> China has two (2) mentions within the last 900 years.
That is certainly absurd! I hadn't looked past about 5,000 yrs ago.
> the first post-colonial/indigenous "superstate"
I've read a good amount of Chinese history and other works, including by Chinese authors (translated), and I haven't heard that idea so I am interested in learning a bit:
Who uses the term? Historians? Political scientists? The CCP? Is it new?
What do you meant by "superstate"? A major power?
Post-colonial: The US, Canada, etc. are post-colonial, former British colonies. If you mean, after the West's period of colonization post-Industrial Revolution, what about India, which was founded a few years before? Japan, which was itself a colonial power (with some horrible consequences)? The post-WWI Middle East?
Finally, I'm not quite sure how 'indigenous' applies. China has been a collection of cultures, enough so that holding it together has always preoccupied whoever was in power. My impression is that it is more like Europe in that sense, including varying local languages, than the US (though different than both).
All those questions don't make it wrong; they are merely what I don't understand.
> It will certainly be at least as historically consequential as the founding of the USA. No mention of PRC eradicating extreme poverty nor surpassing the USA in GDP PPP.
> Reading the timeline, you get the sense that all recent human progress is occurring in the West and the West alone is positioned to address global issues. Which is a very distorted view.
Isn't this as Sino-centric as the timeline is Western-centric? If we know such approaches are factually distorting (you just made a good point about it), and we know also that nationalistic competition leads to catastrophe (WWII being a prominent example), why take them? Do you want to intentionally make the same mistakes as the timeline?
I hope the people of China do great things - not only for themselves, but for the world, and that they have freedom to live their lives as they choose, with health and prosperity. Do better than the colonial powers.
That is certainly absurd! I hadn't looked past about 5,000 yrs ago.
> the first post-colonial/indigenous "superstate"
I've read a good amount of Chinese history and other works, including by Chinese authors (translated), and I haven't heard that idea so I am interested in learning a bit:
Who uses the term? Historians? Political scientists? The CCP? Is it new?
What do you meant by "superstate"? A major power?
Post-colonial: The US, Canada, etc. are post-colonial, former British colonies. If you mean, after the West's period of colonization post-Industrial Revolution, what about India, which was founded a few years before? Japan, which was itself a colonial power (with some horrible consequences)? The post-WWI Middle East?
Finally, I'm not quite sure how 'indigenous' applies. China has been a collection of cultures, enough so that holding it together has always preoccupied whoever was in power. My impression is that it is more like Europe in that sense, including varying local languages, than the US (though different than both).
All those questions don't make it wrong; they are merely what I don't understand.
> It will certainly be at least as historically consequential as the founding of the USA. No mention of PRC eradicating extreme poverty nor surpassing the USA in GDP PPP.
> Reading the timeline, you get the sense that all recent human progress is occurring in the West and the West alone is positioned to address global issues. Which is a very distorted view.
Isn't this as Sino-centric as the timeline is Western-centric? If we know such approaches are factually distorting (you just made a good point about it), and we know also that nationalistic competition leads to catastrophe (WWII being a prominent example), why take them? Do you want to intentionally make the same mistakes as the timeline?
I hope the people of China do great things - not only for themselves, but for the world, and that they have freedom to live their lives as they choose, with health and prosperity. Do better than the colonial powers.
> What do you meant by "superstate"? A major power?
I don't know. This is the term used by the OP, hence quotes. If USA is a "superstate" then PRC is one as well.
> Finally, I'm not quite sure how 'indigenous' applies.
China is primarily populated by the same peoples that have lived there for millennia. There was no mass ethnic cleansing as took place in the Americas/Australia/etc.
> Isn't this as Sino-centric as the timeline is Western-centric?
Is it Sino-centric to have a balanced view of human history?
I don't know. This is the term used by the OP, hence quotes. If USA is a "superstate" then PRC is one as well.
> Finally, I'm not quite sure how 'indigenous' applies.
China is primarily populated by the same peoples that have lived there for millennia. There was no mass ethnic cleansing as took place in the Americas/Australia/etc.
> Isn't this as Sino-centric as the timeline is Western-centric?
Is it Sino-centric to have a balanced view of human history?
I regret investing my time in trying to understand you when you don't even bother to know what you are saying. Apparently all you have to say is, 'China is better than the West'. Just post that; the rest is BS.
There's much more we can do in the world, but not through ignorance and outrage. You can see right here that we can learn nothing from it, gain no ground.
There's much more we can do in the world, but not through ignorance and outrage. You can see right here that we can learn nothing from it, gain no ground.
I have no idea what you are trying to argue at this point. It appears I succinctly addressed all your points and you have no rebuttle except ad hominem.
In an earlier discussion around early human technology and how we dismiss early human achievements, I pointed out that Australian Aborigines had advanced boats that enabled them to get to Australia 50,000 years ago. Yet, still, we see no mention of that here, and the technology achievements listed here for that period are needles and "advanced fire-making materials" (flints and special rocks). I'm not saying this timeline is wrong, but it does seem to adhere to a western-oriented view where there is a steady progression from primitive to modern, ignoring the many other societies who advanced in different ways.
Each item is 33px tall, which on my screen, and for the sake of easy math, is ~1cm.
If every year got 1 row, and we were on a linear instead of a logarithmic-ish timescale, the start of section 1 (4.1 billion years ago), would be about 41,000km tall, which is slightly bigger than the circumference of the eath.
13.813 billion years at this scale, at 138,130km, is just over a third of the way to the moon.
If every year got 1 row, and we were on a linear instead of a logarithmic-ish timescale, the start of section 1 (4.1 billion years ago), would be about 41,000km tall, which is slightly bigger than the circumference of the eath.
13.813 billion years at this scale, at 138,130km, is just over a third of the way to the moon.
This is excellent! I have been looking for a timeline like this for a while.
If I could submit a feature request, it would be to add some mechanism for generating more visual timelines for specific themes. For example, I wish I could create a timeline of diet-related events displayed horizontally, with the x-axis being time.
Regardless, excellent content, and thanks for sharing!
If I could submit a feature request, it would be to add some mechanism for generating more visual timelines for specific themes. For example, I wish I could create a timeline of diet-related events displayed horizontally, with the x-axis being time.
Regardless, excellent content, and thanks for sharing!
Visual timeline comming up:
https://xkcd.com/1732/
https://xkcd.com/1732/
For me at least, this xkcd graphic really made clear how anthropogenic climate change is truly unprecedented in the planet's history - it's the massive rate of change. And it's going to be impossible for the biosphere to adapt well to so sharp a spike.
Next time you/we/me face a problem, or think that something important is troubling, have a look at this page and you'll relaize that almost everything is pointless. Pair this timeline with the biggest photo of the milky way [0] and you can wash all your troubles away :-)
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26490579
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26490579
This Wikipedia page always gives me a similar feeling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future
And for what's to come:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future
That is an impressive list.
Nitpickery - I note no entry about sea level rise ca 20000 years ago, nor the end of the Younger Dryas.
Maudslay's thread cutting lathe of 1800 is also absent.
Nitpickery - I note no entry about sea level rise ca 20000 years ago, nor the end of the Younger Dryas.
Maudslay's thread cutting lathe of 1800 is also absent.
If you'd like a slightly more detailed, but still-manageable version of this, I strongly recommend David Christian's Big History. It's the story of history, from the Big Bang to the present.
Wikipedia overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_History
Book (one of many): https://www.worldcat.org/title/origin-story-a-big-history-of...
There was at one time a lecture series running about 30--40 episodes on YouTube, though I don't find that presently. There are still numerous matching hits on YouTube for "Big History" "David Christian", though I've not explored them for matches. Shorter overviews by Christian exist, including his TED Talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqc9zX04DXs
Several people have mentioned Vaclav Smil. His 1995 Energy in World History and 2017 Energy and Civilization cover the past 100,000 or 10,000 years of the history shown in TFA, largely looking at history through the lens of energy. It's a fascinating story.
https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-in-world-history/oclc/...
https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-and-civilization-a-his...
Wikipedia overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_History
Book (one of many): https://www.worldcat.org/title/origin-story-a-big-history-of...
There was at one time a lecture series running about 30--40 episodes on YouTube, though I don't find that presently. There are still numerous matching hits on YouTube for "Big History" "David Christian", though I've not explored them for matches. Shorter overviews by Christian exist, including his TED Talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqc9zX04DXs
Several people have mentioned Vaclav Smil. His 1995 Energy in World History and 2017 Energy and Civilization cover the past 100,000 or 10,000 years of the history shown in TFA, largely looking at history through the lens of energy. It's a fascinating story.
https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-in-world-history/oclc/...
https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-and-civilization-a-his...
I want to know when existential dread became a part of the human condition.
According to the table, it seems that happened ~2,800,000 years ago.
> “The story so far:
> In the beginning the Universe was created.
> This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
> In the beginning the Universe was created.
> This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
> 2006 | launch of microblogging service Twitter
Thousands of years ago at least, though mostly in a religious context (hells, millenarianism etc)
>
2019 first 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
I guess they were right about terminal boredom.
I guess they were right about terminal boredom.
100s of millions of years apart but 5 mass extinctions.
* 445,000,000 mass extinction in two pulses across 1 million years, eliminating more than three-quarters of all species (Late Ordovician), linked to volcanic activity
* 375,000,000 mass extinction in a series of pulses across 20 million years, eliminating more than two-thirds of all species (Late Devonian), linked to climatic cooling
* 251,900,000 Earth’s largest mass extinction, eliminating nine tenths of all species during 61 thousand years (Permian-Triassic transition), caused by hot and acidifying volcanic CO₂ emissions
* 201,300,000 mass extinction event, eliminating more than two-thirds of all species (Triassic-Jurassic transition), linked to volcanic CO₂ equivalent to projections for CE 21ˢᵗ century anthropogenic emissions
* 66,000,000 abrupt mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, along with three-quarters of all species, following a 9-km wide asteroid impact at Chicxulub, Mexico (Cretaceous-Paleogene transition) → rapid diversification of flowering plants and mammals
* 445,000,000 mass extinction in two pulses across 1 million years, eliminating more than three-quarters of all species (Late Ordovician), linked to volcanic activity
* 375,000,000 mass extinction in a series of pulses across 20 million years, eliminating more than two-thirds of all species (Late Devonian), linked to climatic cooling
* 251,900,000 Earth’s largest mass extinction, eliminating nine tenths of all species during 61 thousand years (Permian-Triassic transition), caused by hot and acidifying volcanic CO₂ emissions
* 201,300,000 mass extinction event, eliminating more than two-thirds of all species (Triassic-Jurassic transition), linked to volcanic CO₂ equivalent to projections for CE 21ˢᵗ century anthropogenic emissions
* 66,000,000 abrupt mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, along with three-quarters of all species, following a 9-km wide asteroid impact at Chicxulub, Mexico (Cretaceous-Paleogene transition) → rapid diversification of flowering plants and mammals
Civilization - a superorganism consisting of all of us - is growing by leaps and bounds.
Hopefully it eats the whole universe one day
Hopefully it eats the whole universe one day
>Hopefully it eats the whole universe one day
"I really hope it doesn't"
-- every individual of every non-human species everywhere else in the universe. Probably.
"I really hope it doesn't"
-- every individual of every non-human species everywhere else in the universe. Probably.
Civilization encompasses them too
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Such large timespans are better measured in galactic years [1] and Earth axial precession periods [2] which is 26,000 years or 1/10,000 of a galactic year.
With these measures, the Milky Way was "born" about 49 galactic years ago and will "die" in 49 galactic years, so we are almost precisely in the middle. It's an interesting coincidence, that on this scale, eukaryotes appeared 6.666 galactic years ago (from [1]).
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_year
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession
With these measures, the Milky Way was "born" about 49 galactic years ago and will "die" in 49 galactic years, so we are almost precisely in the middle. It's an interesting coincidence, that on this scale, eukaryotes appeared 6.666 galactic years ago (from [1]).
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_year
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession
I can heartily recommend the recent season of Tides of History podcast if early human history interests you.
I find it particularly fascinating how we’ve already evolved biologically due to one of our inventions (fire control)
I find it particularly fascinating how we’ve already evolved biologically due to one of our inventions (fire control)
The realization of time and the capacity of visualization —
There is a wonderful book showcasing an exhibit at the Montreal Museum of art.
I guess you could say this exhibit’s thesis is to talk about the effect of photography in culture to take what is numinous about nature (vast beyond measure) and to make it concrete and visible.
Similarly the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment changed culture. As I recall it was Keates who lamented Newton for ruining poetry.
Cosmos : From Romanticism to Avant-Garde, 1801-2001 By Clair, Jean (Editor) ISBN 10: 3791320890
There is a wonderful book showcasing an exhibit at the Montreal Museum of art.
I guess you could say this exhibit’s thesis is to talk about the effect of photography in culture to take what is numinous about nature (vast beyond measure) and to make it concrete and visible.
Similarly the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment changed culture. As I recall it was Keates who lamented Newton for ruining poetry.
Cosmos : From Romanticism to Avant-Garde, 1801-2001 By Clair, Jean (Editor) ISBN 10: 3791320890
Atmospheric CO2 has increased by almost a third since I was born. I can't imagine what my children and grandchildren will experience at this rate of destruction.
"Agent Smith: Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment; but you humans do not. Instead you multiply, and multiply, until every resource is consumed. The only way for you to survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern... a virus."
"Agent Smith: Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment; but you humans do not. Instead you multiply, and multiply, until every resource is consumed. The only way for you to survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern... a virus."
Yeah, and most plants and bacteria and any life that is capable really.
Adaption is not uniquely human, we are simply the first to accomplish it without speciation
Adaption is not uniquely human, we are simply the first to accomplish it without speciation
This basically just a page full of spoilers for the game civilization
This is possibly the most interesting thing I've ever read. The links littered around the page make it a near endless source of interesting ideas to read and reflect upon
Thank you for sharing it
Thank you for sharing it
Thank you, ancestors, for accomplishing all that you did. My life is so much easier due to your striving and sacrifices. Rest easy dear ones.
Interestingly, accounting the duration and density of events:
Empires and conquests - 3000 years, Industrial Revolution - 300, Scientific Revolution - 200, Technological Revolution - 50
Every year we go through as much as 4x events than in 1945, and as much as 60 medieval years (!) squished in one year.
Empires and conquests - 3000 years, Industrial Revolution - 300, Scientific Revolution - 200, Technological Revolution - 50
Every year we go through as much as 4x events than in 1945, and as much as 60 medieval years (!) squished in one year.
What do people think the last thing on this would be (for human condition, but not for Earth)?
Replacement by AI or aliens
Aliens wouldn't be interested in an already populated, resource depleted, polluted planet. Better choices available for those who can traverse space.
It is silly to have any degree of confidence in what advanced aliens would want.
Human-caused climate change creates feedback loops leading to mass extinction events, eventually making the planet unsuitable for complex life.
I think humans would evolve in a variety of ways to transcend humanity.
That’s awfully optimistic. Humans evolved out of nature and into culture— and culture is only a millisecond old on the evolutionary timeline. All evidence points against a Star Trek future and instead a future of perpetual dismal decline. As climate change shows, humans may be clever as individuals but they can’t even compare to ants as an intelligent collective species
That's awfully inaccurate. Some part of human culture has increased quality of life. If you think the opposite, I will provide a list of places and lifestyles that are free of said cultural bits for you to go and experience.
With that said, no, progress is not a given, and we have one million and one ways to shoot ourselves in the feet. Both climate change and getting depressed and suicidal about climate change count, though the later is worse, because it affects our collective self-esteem and our capacity to work for a better future.
With that said, no, progress is not a given, and we have one million and one ways to shoot ourselves in the feet. Both climate change and getting depressed and suicidal about climate change count, though the later is worse, because it affects our collective self-esteem and our capacity to work for a better future.
Never did I say anything about culture and quality of life. Don’t make an argument from a false claim. I said nature is highly evolved, but human culture is young and untested, with little evidence for optimism, climate talks one example
Maybe the memetics of human infrastructure permeate future generations of the cockroach enlightenment??
No mention of Louis Pasteur ? Odd.
These timelines are always amusing since there's a lot more entries in recent years than older periods. As if we knew what is going to be significant 1000 years from now. Hubris.
There is a recency bias.
But there's also an absolutely undeniable acceleration in physical and other quantifiable bases (knowledge, understanding, population, global impacts, energy utilisation, raw materials consumption, pollution) through time.
For Earth, the very rapid emergence of life (within the first few hundred million years), and then the lack of extensive complexity emerging for another 3 billion years, until the Cambrian explosion, is especially notable.
Looking from the present backwards, what strikes me isn't that "the singularity" hasn't happened, but that we've seen multiple singularities, building on one another (with occasional back-tracking).
But there's also an absolutely undeniable acceleration in physical and other quantifiable bases (knowledge, understanding, population, global impacts, energy utilisation, raw materials consumption, pollution) through time.
For Earth, the very rapid emergence of life (within the first few hundred million years), and then the lack of extensive complexity emerging for another 3 billion years, until the Cambrian explosion, is especially notable.
Looking from the present backwards, what strikes me isn't that "the singularity" hasn't happened, but that we've seen multiple singularities, building on one another (with occasional back-tracking).
When I read about the history of science I get the impression that almost everything of interest happened between about 1860 and about 1960. Since then there has been continuous quantitive progress in some areas, such as "Moore's Law", but qualitatively nothing to compare with what happened in the period 1860-1960.
It's subjective, of course. Maybe I'm just old and nostalgic.
It's subjective, of course. Maybe I'm just old and nostalgic.
There's some truth to that, though I'd push the date back a bit, perhaps to Newton or Kepler, when the logjam of appealing to the authority of the ancients (generally Aristotle) was finally and decisively broken.
Vaclav Smil (already mentioned several times in this thread) points to the half-century from 1875--1925 as the peak of invention, and more specifically, the decade of the 1880s. This was the time when discoveries based on electricity, coal-tar chemistry, petroleum, some bits of genetics, and others were coming into the fore. There are very few modern inventions which cannot be traced to this period. (Radio, TV, lasers, microwaves, and genetic engineering are the main exceptions). I see this as a landmark breakthrough in both knowledge and means, the latter largely supplied through the vast untapped energy of fossil fuels.
(Aknowledging their impact and declaring them an unqualified good are two entirely different matters. Yes, they changed our world and made modernity possible. Yes, they will destory that as well if we keep using them, and even if we want to, they will ultimately be exhausted.)
There are a few laws of progress. Moore's refers specifically to network and size effects, and has some foundation in business practices and goals (that is, what we see as "Moore's law" phenomenon is in part driven by the performance and product targets and timelines of firms in the sector). There's also Wright's Law, which refers to the level of improvement seen with additional experience. If memory serves, about a 20% efficiency gain with each doubling of output. (This was noted especially in the US with military output during WWII, especially in the rate of aircraft and ship manufacture.)
There are also scaling laws which refer to the reduction of defects, increases in precision or accuracy, and reduction of downtime. Here, each additional "nine" of performance tends to cost 10x the previous --- a case of rapidly diminishing returns.
On the progress of science, I've only looked into this casually and haven't found a good or suitable measure (itself a fairly deep question --- typical metrics such as patents filed have ... ginormous fucking issues, as a term of art...). But looking at Nobel Prize awards in Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine, what we tend to see is highly foundational discoveries prior to about 1960, and remarkably less so afterwards. In all three cases, I also note a strong presence of detection and measurement discoveries in the post-1960 era, which is to say, discoveries that increase our ability to detect various phenomena, as in remote astronomical measurements, chemical detection, or looking at body or cellular processes. Physics seems especially notable, with the pre-1960 period seeing numerous particles, forces, and principles (quantum mechanics, relativistic effects (but not the Theory of Relativity itself), and basic phenomena such as radiation).
I've got thoughts on that, you might try looking up my past threads on "ontology of technology" --- these are informational mechanisms.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
Vaclav Smil (already mentioned several times in this thread) points to the half-century from 1875--1925 as the peak of invention, and more specifically, the decade of the 1880s. This was the time when discoveries based on electricity, coal-tar chemistry, petroleum, some bits of genetics, and others were coming into the fore. There are very few modern inventions which cannot be traced to this period. (Radio, TV, lasers, microwaves, and genetic engineering are the main exceptions). I see this as a landmark breakthrough in both knowledge and means, the latter largely supplied through the vast untapped energy of fossil fuels.
(Aknowledging their impact and declaring them an unqualified good are two entirely different matters. Yes, they changed our world and made modernity possible. Yes, they will destory that as well if we keep using them, and even if we want to, they will ultimately be exhausted.)
There are a few laws of progress. Moore's refers specifically to network and size effects, and has some foundation in business practices and goals (that is, what we see as "Moore's law" phenomenon is in part driven by the performance and product targets and timelines of firms in the sector). There's also Wright's Law, which refers to the level of improvement seen with additional experience. If memory serves, about a 20% efficiency gain with each doubling of output. (This was noted especially in the US with military output during WWII, especially in the rate of aircraft and ship manufacture.)
There are also scaling laws which refer to the reduction of defects, increases in precision or accuracy, and reduction of downtime. Here, each additional "nine" of performance tends to cost 10x the previous --- a case of rapidly diminishing returns.
On the progress of science, I've only looked into this casually and haven't found a good or suitable measure (itself a fairly deep question --- typical metrics such as patents filed have ... ginormous fucking issues, as a term of art...). But looking at Nobel Prize awards in Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine, what we tend to see is highly foundational discoveries prior to about 1960, and remarkably less so afterwards. In all three cases, I also note a strong presence of detection and measurement discoveries in the post-1960 era, which is to say, discoveries that increase our ability to detect various phenomena, as in remote astronomical measurements, chemical detection, or looking at body or cellular processes. Physics seems especially notable, with the pre-1960 period seeing numerous particles, forces, and principles (quantum mechanics, relativistic effects (but not the Theory of Relativity itself), and basic phenomena such as radiation).
I've got thoughts on that, you might try looking up my past threads on "ontology of technology" --- these are informational mechanisms.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
> 25000 bce: a coronavirus epidemic sweeps through East Asia, driving genetic adaptations still present in modern humans
Ah! Really interesting!
Ah! Really interesting!
Yes well there have been many modern coronaviruses as well. The naming of nCov19 is intended to communicate thats this is a recent novel coronavirus first seen in 2019
This is basically a "stack-trace" of the matrix-program we call the world/universe/home :P
Anyone knows how exactly scientists calculate the first number for example? What does a year mean at that point?
600 million years of archea bouncing around. Would have loved to be a fly on the wall during that time.
I wonder how human history changes if you change the order of discovery of inventions
> 2900 accurate prediction of lunar eclipses (Germany)
There was a Germany 2900 years ago?
There was a Germany 2900 years ago?
They've got to call the place something. What name do you suggest? Germania is attested no later than 98 AD (in Tacitus's book of the same name).
They could have gone with central Europe, I guess, but that's vaguer and still arguably anachronistic, as its use as a geographical term (as opposed to the mythological princess) isn't recorded until c. 500 BC.
They could have gone with central Europe, I guess, but that's vaguer and still arguably anachronistic, as its use as a geographical term (as opposed to the mythological princess) isn't recorded until c. 500 BC.
I just think it’s confusing to relate it to the country of Germany or its people when in fact it has nothing to do with it. Whereas if you call something India from 500 BC it very much has to do with modern India and its people.
what sustainability revolution?
if anything unsustainability is spiraling
if anything unsustainability is spiraling
big bang at 13 billion years ago and life on earth started 4 billion years ago. We can't honestly believe earth the only life planet.
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This is awesome. I've been wanting to make an illustrated all-time timeline infographic that doesn't use AD/BC nonsense. I think I'll use this as a starting point!
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What would you use instead?
Doesn't say anything about my birth :)
Hopefully that Carbon Dating is accurate. A minor flaw would turn the entire timeline upside-down.
The older stuff largely isn’t carbon dating; other isotopes are lower resolution but more useful in very long timescales.
This kind of thing triggers me to play Civ...
wrt climate, this is a bit more pop science but illustrates something similar for the recent centuries.
https://xkcd.com/1732/
wrt climate, this is a bit more pop science but illustrates something similar for the recent centuries.
https://xkcd.com/1732/
I.e. a tragedy.
'A comedy for those that think, a tragedy for those that feel.'
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Well done, but politically charged. For example, why don't we see an item like "Human activity causes general climate warming trend but all-cause climate-related deaths (flood, drought, extreme temperatures) continue massive trend downward"?
https://ourworldindata.org/ofdacred-international-disaster-d... https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150520193831.h... https://news.emory.edu/stories/2021/07/climate_change_heat_r...
edit: fixed link
https://ourworldindata.org/ofdacred-international-disaster-d... https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150520193831.h... https://news.emory.edu/stories/2021/07/climate_change_heat_r...
edit: fixed link
Not just politically charged, ideologically charged.
Reference to US declaration of independence leading to US superstate, but no mention of it's role in spreading the concept of individual rights worldwide. Reference to "the Wealth of Nations" in negative context, whereas Emmanuel Kant in positive context and in particular, Malthus with his since-demonstrated-to-be-glaring-absurdity in a positive light, complete with an excuse as to why it is still not invalid.
It's an interesting thing, but it would be better if that sort of personal bias were left out of something attempting to be a canonical summary of the history of humankind.
Reference to US declaration of independence leading to US superstate, but no mention of it's role in spreading the concept of individual rights worldwide. Reference to "the Wealth of Nations" in negative context, whereas Emmanuel Kant in positive context and in particular, Malthus with his since-demonstrated-to-be-glaring-absurdity in a positive light, complete with an excuse as to why it is still not invalid.
It's an interesting thing, but it would be better if that sort of personal bias were left out of something attempting to be a canonical summary of the history of humankind.
Potentially causing massive new crises is different to technologically progressing beyond existing ones is apples to oranges imo
> Rescaled to a calendar year, starting with the big bang at 00:00:00 on 1 January ( ), the Sun forms on 1 September ( ), the Earth on 2 September ( ), earliest signs of life appear on 13 September ( ), earliest true mammals on 26 December ( ), and humans just 2 hours before year’s end ( ).
> For a year that starts with the earliest true mammals ( ), the dinosaurs go extinct on 17 August ( ), earliest primates appear on 9 September ( ), and humans at dawn of 25 December ( ).
> For a year that starts with the earliest humans ( ), our own species appears on 19 November ( ), the first built constructions on 8 December ( ), and agricultural farming begins at midday on 29 December ( ).