History of Human Connectivity 2015 Edition

The history of human connectivity, from prehistory to the present day.
© 2015 Emergent Code Chronicles by Anne McCrossan. For more information visit www.emergentcodechronicles.com @emergecode @Annemcx @VisceralBiz

© 2015 Emergent Code Chronicles. Anne McCrossan. For more information visit www.emergentcodechronicles.com
Understanding our chronology as a path to change >>

Cave Paintings
Ancient humans first  
began to express
themselves, evidenced in
cave paintings.
c 40,0000 B.C.E.
State Formation
The Fertile Crescent
and its abundance of
resources led to the
earliest examples of
state formation.
c 3,500 B.C.E.
First Tablets
The Cuneiform, Dispilio
and the Tărtăria were
the first tablets and the
earliest forms of
recorded communication.
c 3,500 B.C.E.
World Map
The first world map
is recorded as
coming from the
Fertile Crescent
in Babylon.
c 600 B.C.E.
Postal Service
The Persian postal
service that used couriers
under the reign of Cyrus
the Great, was the first
information delivery
system recorded.
500 B.C.E.
In the beginning Early history
Our Digital Lineage

The Renaissance
The gates to the Italian
Renaissance opened up
and Masaccio depicted
human emotion in art.
c 1425 C.E.
The Printing Press
The invention of the
Gutenberg press
heralded information
for the masses and the
spread of ideas.
1450 C.E.
Power Protocols
Machiavelli’s ‘The
Prince’, was one of the
earliest and most
influential printed texts.  
It defined power
protocols for the next  
500 years.
1532 C.E.
 
Metaphysics
John Donne
introduced the idea of
virtual existences in
his poetry, creating the
beginnings of
metaphysics.
1609 C.E.
The Telegraph
The invention of the
telegraph meant
information could
be transmitted as
a signal.
1760 C.E.
The Renaissance
Our Digital Lineage

The Class System
Debrett’s ‘Peerage’
and Adam Smith’s
‘Wealth of Nations’
define an industrial
and social system.
c 1769-1776 C.E.
The Steam Engine
James Watt and
Matthew
Bolton develop the first
patents for the design of
a steam engine.
1775 C.E.
Rights of Man
Thomas Paine writes
‘The Rights of Man’ after
the French Revolution
and the American
Revolution, calling for
mass power.
1791 C.E.
 
Computing Power
Charles Babbage
invents the ‘Diﬀerence
Engine’ and writes ‘On
the Economy of
Machinery and
Manufactures’.
1832 C.E.
Photography
William Fox Talbot
develops the first
photographic
negative made
in a camera.
1835 C.E.
The Industrial Revolution
Our Digital Lineage

The Telephone
The telephone is
invented by Sir
Alexander Graham
Bell, the first person to
successfully transmit  
vocal sounds
electromagnetically.
1876 C.E.
Natural Sciences
Charles Darwin writes
‘The Origin of the
Species’ and proposes
a general theory of
evolution.
1859 C.E.
The Pneumatic Post
The pneumatic post was
the first method used
to carry information
from one place to
another remotely.
1861 C.E.
Psychology
The first faculty
studying human
behaviour is set up
at Leipzig University
by Wilhelm Wundt.
1879 C.E.
Cinema
Edwaerd Muybridge
presents his stop motion
studies at the Royal
Institution in London
in front of a sell-out
audience.
1882 C.E.
The Technical Revolution
Our Digital Lineage

Computing Code
Alan Turing develops
computing code with the
invention of the Enigma
machine at Bletchley
Park during WW2.
Radio
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
demonstrates the
transmission of
radio waves through
free space.
1887 C.E.
Model T Ford
Henry Ford invents
the production line
with the opening of
his first car factory.
1908 C.E.
Television
John Logie Baird
transmits a long-distance
television image over 705
km of telephone line
between London and
Glasgow.
1927 C.E.
1940 C.E.
Email
MIT’s Comparative
Time-Sharing
System (CTSS)
becomes the world’s first
e-mail system.
1965 C.E.
The Digital Revolution
Our Digital Lineage

Personal computing
Microsoft and Apple
launch within a year of
one another and are the
world’s first personal
computer businesses.
Arpanet
Arpanet is the first
operational packet
switching network to
implement
TCP/IP.
1969 C.E.
We go online
Compuserve, the
first major
commercial online
service, is created.
1969 C.E.
The real thing
Coca-Cola wants to
‘teach the world to sing’
and stages one of the first
ever global marketing
campaigns.
1971 C.E.
1975-6 C.E.
Test tube life
Louise Brown is born
in the UK. She is  
the first child to be
conceived through  
in-vitro fertilisation.
1978 C.E.
Early Computing
Our Digital Lineage

First networks
MUD and MUD 1 are the
first Multi-User Domains.
Usenet becomes the first
worldwide Internet
discussion Bulletin
Board System (BBS).
1978-9 C.E.
The first phase of sharing
The Well, the world’s first online
community begins in 1985,
ListServ, automated mailing list
management, is invented in 1986
and Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
in August 1988.
1985-1988 C.E.
Digital community
Geocities and Firefly are
two of the earliest
examples of social
networks, launched in
1994 & 1995.
1994-1995 C.E.
The Birth of the Web
E-commerce begins
Aol, Amazon, Ebay and
Yahoo are among the first
businesses to cross the
threshold from the Industrial
age to the Digital age.
1995 C.E.
Our Digital Lineage
Birth of the Web
Time Berners-Lee writes a
paper: ’Information
Management, A proposal’
about http protocols and
hyperlinks to create the World
Wide Web. It’s described as  
‘vague but exciting’.
1989 C.E.

Crowdsourced knowledge
Wikipedia launches in
January 2001. It becomes  
a publicly creditable and
globally crowdsourced
encyclopedia of knowledge.
1998 C.E.
Here come the platforms
Blogger, Napster, Stumble
Upon and Eopinions emerge
as early networks that enable
individuals to publish and
share content on the web.
1999 C.E.
The human genome
US President Bill Clinton
and UK Prime Minister
Tony Blair announce the
creation of the first map
of the human genome.
2000 C.E.
2001 C.E.
DNA mapping
The human genome
project, mapping the full
sequence of human
DNA, is completed.
2003 C.E.
Navigating the digital domain
Our Digital Lineage
Navigating the digital domain
MoveOn becomes the first
people powered digital
democracy platform.
Google develops search.  
It will become one of the key
ports of call on the internet.

Social networks
The first mass market  
social networks are born.  
Friendster is launched in
2002, followed by MySpace,
Second Life, LinkedIn, Flickr
and Delicious.
2002-4 C.E.
Network as a nation
Facebook launches in
February 2004.Ten years
later it’s the second most
populated territory on
the planet after China.
2004 C.E.
Online diversification
Digg, Ning and YouTube
arrive as more examples
of powerful networked
platforms.They focus for
sharing rich media and
online community.
2004-2005 C.E.
2005 C.E.
Cloud storage
Amazon introduces
AWS,the first storage
service in the cloud.
Twitter is launched too,
with the phrase ‘just
setting up my twttr’.
2006 C.E.
The Rise of The Network
Redefining power laws
Tony Benn overwrites
Machiavelli with his ‘5  
Questions of Power’  
for political relationships  
in a democratically 
networked age.
Our Digital Lineage

The iPhone
Apple create the iPhone.  
Nokia and Sony Ericsson  
had launched smartphones  
earlier, but the iPhone  
captured consumer  
imagination.
2007 C.E.
Virtual currency
Bitcoin becomes the
world’s first virtual
currency. It introduces
the Blockchain, digitally
distributed, encrypted
technology.
2009 C.E.
Maker culture
Minecraft, an online
open world game is
launched. People can
build their own
environments.
2010 C.E.
2010 C.E.
3D Printing
3D printing, originally
developed in 1984,  
comes of age and  
consumer devices are  
available for mainstream
adoption.
2010 C.E.
Smart information
© 2015 Emergent Code Chronicles. Anne McCrossan.
Online curation
Pinterest, Storify and
Quora all launch;  
Social networks
curating verbal and
visual knowledge  
and information.
Geolocation
Foursquare is
launched - the  
world’s first
geolocation-based
social network.
2009 C.E.
Our Digital Lineage

Infowar
Wikileaks release the
Afghan and Iraq war logs,
described
as ‘the beginning
of the information age
exploding upon itself ’.
2010 C.E.
Crowdfunding
Kickstarter launches as  
a crowdfunding
platform. Amanda Palmer
raises over $1million
through fan support.
2011 C.E.
2012 C.E.
One World Culture
© 2015 Emergent Code Chronicles. Anne McCrossan.
Artificial intelligence
Siri becomes the world’s
first mainstream
intelligent personal
assistant, available
through the iPhone.
2011 C.E.
Networked value
Google+ and Empire
Avenue launch.
Condensed content
Vine launches, to
shortening attention
spans around the world,
bringing with it the
emergence of a tl:dr
digital culture.
Universal language
Psy’s video for
‘Gangnam style’
becomes the first video
to reach over 1 billion
views on YouTube.
2012 C.E.
Our Digital Lineage

Augmented reality
Palmer Luckey invents
Oculus Rift, an
augmented reality
headset. It debuts on
Kickstarter in 2012,
receiving $2.4 million.
2012 C.E.
Wearable tech
Google introduces
Google Glass. Its
interoperability
with humans is modelled
by Robert Scoble in
the shower.
2013 C.E.
PRISM revelations
Edward Snowden makes
information available
about NSA surveillance
in the US and around
the world.
2013 C.E.
2014 C.E.
Drone delivery
Drones enable airborne
image taking and
dispatch.They are tested
for Amazon and go on
the Apple iStore.
As digital technology
wraps itself around us
and everything we do,
where do we go next as
digital humans?  
 
It’s up to us.
Augmented Humanity
The selfie
Ellen De Generes’
Oscars celebrity selfie
becomes the most
widely shared image
in the history of
online communication.
2014 C.E.
Our Digital Lineage

For more information about the Emergent Code project, please visit 
www.emergentcodechronicles.com and @emergecode

History of Human Connectivity 2015 Edition

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (19)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

History of Human Connectivity 2015 Edition