A timeline of technology
What if the world as you know it has ceased to exist? Chaos reigns. Google doesn’t work! What do you do now? What do you know how to do? What do you need? How do you find it? And how do you make it into something useful?
Do you have the skills to be sustainably self-sufficient for a decade – maybe longer? Could you, without modern conveniences – or as they start to run out or perish – start a fire, make clothes, gather or hunt or preserve food, provide shelter, navigate an area, fix and maintain essentials, or apply rudimentary medical solutions?
Humanity has spent thousands of years developing and perfecting techniques to survive (and occasionally thrive) in all parts of the world. The bad news is that we’ve spent the last two generations erasing the most of those skills from our collective memories. It’s daunting to realise just how much knowledge, acquired over thousands of years has been lost to the unwashed masses in the last 50 years (in the name of progress, of course) and how much we rely on industry and agriculture to provide for us.
As you read this list ask yourself one simple question. Could I make that from scratch?
| Date | Technology | |
| (-ve = BC) | ||
| -240000 | Stone tools | |
| -140000 | Knife – stone tools | |
| -100000 | Controlled Fire | |
| -50000 | Clothing | |
| -43000 | Mining | |
| -28000 | Rope | |
| -18000 | Stone tools | |
| -12000 | Basket weaving | |
| -11000 | Domestication of dogs | |
| -10500 | First pottery | |
| -10000 | Bow and arrow | |
| -10000 | Alcohol | |
| -9000 | Farming begins | |
| -9000 | Metalworking | |
| -8000 | Copper | |
| -7000 | Domestication of goats | |
| -7000 | Domestication of rice | |
| -7000 | Dental drill | |
| -7000 | Flax cloth | |
| -6700 | Permanent Villages | |
| -6500 | First Metallurgy | |
| -6200 | Maps | |
| -6000 | Cattle domesticated | |
| -6000 | Chickens Domesticated | |
| -6000 | Wheel | |
| -6000 | Beer | |
| -6000 | Cities | |
| -5500 | First Pottery in China | |
| -5000 | Maize domesticated | |
| -5000 | Wet rice domestication | |
| -5000 | Bread | |
| -5000 | Axel | |
| -4000 | Bronze | |
| -4000 | Plough invented | |
| -4000 | Bronze used | |
| -3630 | Silk | |
| -3500 | Writing | |
| -3500 | Sail invented | |
| -3500 | Potters Wheel | |
| -3300 | Writing | |
| -3000 | Reservoir | |
| -3000 | Glass | |
| -2800 | Soap | |
| -2700 | Plumbing | |
| -2600 | Sewers | |
| -2000 | Money | |
| -2000 | Dagger | |
| -2000 | Alphabet | |
| -2000 | Candles | |
| -2000 | Ink | |
| -2000 | Iron | |
| -2000 | Perfume | |
| -2000 | Horses domesticated | |
| -1800 | Spoked wheel | |
| -1500 | Glass vessels | |
| -1300 | Zinc | |
| -1220 | Kites | |
| -1220 | Compass | |
| -1000 | Lens | |
| -1000 | Coins | |
| -1000 | Scissors | |
| -700 | Button | |
| -592 | Anchor | |
| -500 | Sugar | |
| -400 | Football | |
| -400 | Cast iron | |
| -400 | Pulley | |
| -300 | Horse collar | |
| -250 | Lever | |
| -200 | Horseshoe | |
| -150 | Clockwork | |
| -100 | Parchment | |
| -100 | Glass blown | |
| 1 | Rudder | |
| 105 | Paper | |
| 250 | Archimedes screw | |
| 300 | Toothpaste | |
| 400 | Cotton gin | |
| 589 | Toilet paper | |
| 618 | Porcelain | |
| 700 | Inocculation | |
| 721 | Coloured glass | |
| 794 | Purified water | |
| 800 | Deoderant | |
| 800 | Hurricane lamp | |
| 800 | Sundial | |
| 800 | Oil well | |
| 810 | Glasses | |
| 852 | Parachute | |
| 859 | University | |
| 865 | Antiseptic | |
| 900 | Gun | |
| 994 | Sextant | |
| 1088 | Magnetic compass | |
| 1094 | Coking coal | |
| 1297 | Buttonhole |
December 18, 2009 at 5:37 pm
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