−3500
Potter's wheel
First continuous rotation tool.
Module · 3
Seven chains. Every world we know.
Each chain is a sequence of ideas where each step required the previous. Read across to feel how slow most progress is. Read backwards to see what each step would have looked like without its predecessors.
01
From wheel to autonomous vehicle
→
−3200
Wheeled cart
Wheel + axle = transport.
→
1817
Bicycle
Wheel + frame + balance.
→
1886
Automobile
Bicycle + internal combustion.
→
1958
Cruise control
First automated control loop.
→
2010s
Self-driving prototypes
Sensors + ML + GPU.
→
Now
Robotaxis at scale
All previous steps required.
02
From clay tablet to ChatGPT
−3200
Cuneiform on clay
Persistent symbolic record.
→
1440
Movable type
Mass replication of text.
→
1837
Telegraph
Text at the speed of electricity.
→
1969
ARPANET
Text routed across machines.
→
1991
World Wide Web
Text as a graph.
→
2017
The Transformer
Text as attention over context.
→
2022
ChatGPT
Text generates text generates text.
03
From Greek atom to LLM
−400
Atomism (Democritus)
Reality as discrete units.
→
1854
Boolean logic
Reasoning as discrete operations.
→
1936
Turing machine
Computation as discrete state.
→
1958
Perceptron
Learning from examples.
→
2012
AlexNet
Deep learning + GPU + data.
→
2022
Frontier LLMs
Universal-ish function approximator.
04
From barter to programmable money
−10000
Barter
Direct exchange, double coincidence required.
→
−600
Coinage
Standardized unit, durable, divisible.
→
1300s
Banks of Italy
Credit, ledgers, double-entry.
→
1971
Fiat unmoored
Money is consensus, not gold.
→
2009
Bitcoin
Trustless ledger.
→
2015+
Smart contracts
Money runs code.
05
From mortar and pestle to mRNA vaccines
−1500
Herbalism
Empirical compounds.
→
1796
Smallpox vaccine
Trained immunity.
→
1953
DNA structure
Biology has source code.
→
1980s
Recombinant DNA
Source code is editable.
→
1990s
mRNA platform research
Software-like delivery.
→
2020
COVID mRNA vaccines
12 months from sequence to shot.
06
From cave painting to TikTok
−40000
Cave painting
Static, place-bound image.
→
1500
Oil painting
Portable static image.
→
1839
Photography
Captured in seconds, infinitely reproducible.
→
1895
Motion picture
Image plus time.
→
1990s
Camcorder
Anyone can record.
→
2010
Smartphone video
Camera is in every pocket.
→
2018
Algorithmic short video
The feed picks for you.
07
From compass to GPS
200
Magnetic compass
Direction without sky.
→
1730
Sextant
Latitude from sun and stars.
→
1761
Marine chronometer
Longitude finally solvable.
→
1915
Radio direction finding
Position from signals.
→
1978
First GPS satellite
Position from synchronized atomic clocks in orbit.
→
Now
Sub-meter civilian GPS
Every phone knows where it is.