|
Time
Before Present |
Time
to Next Event |
Event |
| 10000000000 |
6000000000 |
Milky
Way |
| 4000000000 |
2000000000 |
Life
on Earth |
| 2000000000 |
1000000000 |
First
eukaryotes |
| 1000000000 |
570000000 |
First
multicellular life |
| 430000000 |
220000000 |
Cambrian
explosion |
| 210000000 |
71000000 |
First
mammals |
| 139000000 |
84400000 |
First
flowering plants |
| 54600000 |
26100000 |
Asteroid
collision |
| 28500000 |
12000000 |
First
hominoids |
| 16500000 |
11400000 |
First
orangutan |
| 5100000 |
2900000 |
Chimpanzees
and humans diverge |
| 2200000 |
1645000 |
First
stone tools |
| 555000 |
230000 |
Emergence
of Homo sapiens |
| 325000 |
125000 |
Domestication
of fire |
| 200000 |
94300 |
Differentiation
of human DNA types |
| 105700 |
69900 |
Emergence
of modern humans |
| 35800 |
16600 |
Rock
art, protowriting |
| 19200 |
8200 |
Invention
of agriculture |
| 11000 |
6093 |
Techniques
for starting fire |
| 4907 |
2470 |
Development
of the wheel, writing |
| 2437 |
997 |
Democracy |
| 1440 |
901 |
Zero
and decimals invented |
| 539 |
314 |
Renaissance
(printing press) |
| 225 |
125 |
Industrial
Revolution (steam engine) |
| 100 |
50 |
Modern
physics |
| 50 |
45 |
DNA stru
cture, transistor, nuclear energy |
Chart Canonical
Milestones, Events expressed as Time before Present
(Years) on the X axis and Time to Next Event (Years) on
the Y axis, Logarithmic Plot, Page 20.
Source:
T. Modis, “The Limits of Complexity and Change,”
The Futurist [May–June 2003], http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/tmodis/Futurist.pdf.
|
