Civilization

Foundations of Civilization

47 points from the earliest roots to the research frontier: 36 researched, 3 current research, 4 unsolved and 4 that become possible once they are solved. State of knowledge: October 2026.

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Prehistorybefore 3000 BC

• Stone Tools~3.3 million years agoResearchedKnapped stones as knives and scrapers: the first deliberately made tools opened up meat, marrow and plant foods.
• Mastering Fire~1.8 million-400,000 years agoResearchedControlled fire gives warmth, light, protection and cooked food: the first energy source humans learned to steer.
• Hunting Spears~300,000 years agoResearchedWooden throwing spears from Schöningen show planned, cooperative big-game hunting long before modern humans.
• Spoken Languageat least ~135,000 years ago?ResearchedSpoken language lets people pass on knowledge, plans and rules: the foundation of all cooperation and culture.
• Clothing & the Sewing Needle~120,000-40,000 years agoResearchedTanned hides and sewn clothing made cold regions habitable; the oldest known eyed needles are about 40,000 years old.
• Burial & Religion~100,000 years agoResearchedDeliberate graves and rituals show ideas about death and an afterlife: a root of religion and shared morality.
• Art & Symbols~73,000 years agoResearchedEngravings, jewelry and cave painting show people storing meaning outside the head: a precursor of writing and number.
• Bow and Arrow~60,000 years agoResearchedStone and bone arrow points from South Africa show hunters shooting from a distance by about 60,000 years ago.
• Cordage & Weaving~30,000 years agoResearchedTwisted plant fibre gives string, rope, nets and cloth: one of the most useful and least preserved inventions.
• Settlement & Cities~9000 BCResearchedWith farming people settle down: villages, food stores and finally cities such as Uruk (~3500 BC).

Antiquity3000 BC – 500 AD

• Writing~3200 BCResearchedWriting emerges in Uruk (Sumer) and Egypt around 3200 BC: knowledge, contracts and administration outlast individuals.
• Weights & Standard Measures~2500 BCResearchedStandard weights and lengths in the Indus Valley, Egypt and Mesopotamia make trade and taxes comparable.
• Alphabet~1800 BCResearchedA few dozen letters for single sounds replace hundreds of signs; the Phoenician and Greek alphabets make reading learnable in weeks.
• Sundial & Water Clock~1500 BCResearchedShadow clocks and water clocks divide the day into hours long before mechanical clocks exist.
• Libraries~650 BCResearchedCollections such as Nineveh and Alexandria gather the knowledge of the world in one place and make scholarship a profession.
• Philosophy~585 BCResearchedIn Greece, India and China people begin asking for reasons: nature and society are to be explained by thought instead of myth.
• Plato's Academy387 BCResearchedPlato founds a school near Athens that lasts for centuries and becomes the model for organised higher learning.
• Calendar3rd millennium BCResearchedObserving moon, sun and stars yields calendars: sowing, taxes and festivals can be planned.
• Paper~105 ADResearchedCheap, light paper from plant fibres replaces papyrus, silk and parchment and spreads from China across Asia to Europe.

Middle Ages & Renaissance500 – 1700

• Baghdad Translation Movement~800ResearchedAbbasid Baghdad translates Greek, Persian and Indian science into Arabic and builds on it, preserving and extending ancient knowledge.
• East Asian Printing868ResearchedWoodblock printing in Tang China gives the oldest dated printed book (868); movable type follows in Song China and Korea.
• Universities1088ResearchedBologna (1088), Paris and Oxford turn teaching and learning into lasting corporations: knowledge becomes institutional.
• Printing Press~1450ResearchedGutenberg's movable metal type cuts the price of books sharply and lets knowledge spread in weeks instead of years.
• Scientific Method~1600-1620ResearchedHypothesis, experiment, measurement, replication: knowledge is no longer believed but tested.
• Scientific Societies & Journals1665ResearchedThe Royal Society (1660) and the first scholarly journals (1665) make publishing results for everyone to check a routine of science.

Industrial Age1700 – 1900

• Enlightenment & Encyclopedia1715-1789ResearchedReason, criticism and free debate become guiding principles; the Encyclopédie collects the knowledge of the age for all readers.
• Compulsory Schooling & Literacy1763ResearchedCompulsory schooling (Prussia 1763) makes reading and arithmetic mass knowledge; global literacy rises from ~12% (c. 1820) to 88% (2024).
• Metric System1799ResearchedFrance defines the metre and the kilogram from nature with decimal multiples (1791-99); the SI grows from it into the common language of science and…
• Research University (Humboldt)1810ResearchedBerlin's university (1810) makes research part of teaching; Liebig's laboratory in Giessen trains chemists by practice.
• Industrial Research Laboratory1876ResearchedEdison's Menlo Park lab (1876) makes invention a team job with salaried staff, the model for corporate R&D and Bell Labs.
• Standard Time & Time Zones1883-1884ResearchedNorth American railways adopted standard time on 18 November 1883; in 1884 a Washington conference chose Greenwich as the prime meridian.

Atomic & Space Age1945 – 1990

• Peer Review & Research Bodies1945-1975ResearchedExpert review, public funding agencies (NSF 1950) and journals turn research into a planned, checked large-scale enterprise.
• International Standards (ISO)1947ResearchedISO, founded in 1947, agrees common sizes and test methods worldwide, from freight containers to paper formats.
• Citation Index (SCI)1964ResearchedGarfield's Science Citation Index (1964) maps which papers cite which, so links between papers become measurable.

Digital Age1990 – 2015

• arXiv Preprint Server1991ResearchedPaul Ginsparg's arXiv puts physics papers online before peer review; preprints become the first stop for research news.

Present2015 – Oct 2026

• Open Access & Open Science2018-2026Current researchAbout 68% of research works indexed for 2025 are open access; funders such as Plan S and the US NIH require it.
• SI Redefined by Constants2019ResearchedOn 20 May 2019 all SI base units are defined by fixed constants of nature; the kilogram no longer rests on a metal cylinder.
• Global Literacy at 88%2024Current research88% of adults and 93% of young people can read (2024), yet 739 million adults still lack basic literacy.
• AI as Research Partner2025-2026Current researchAI systems generate hypotheses, plan experiments and write papers; in 2026 Nature published studies on Google's Co-Scientist and the AI Scientist.

Research Frontier · Todayunsolved as of Oct 2026

• Quality Education for AllopenUnsolvedSchool access has grown, yet only 58% of primary pupils reach minimum reading proficiency: high-level education for everyone is unsolved.
• Replication CrisisopenUnsolvedMany published findings fail when others try to repeat them; the problem has been known since 2005 and is not solved.
• Research Funding & PaceopenUnsolvedEach new idea takes more researchers and money, while public funding swings politically: how much to fund, and how, stays open.
• Vetting the AI Paper FloodopenUnsolvedAI-written papers and reviews flood journals and conferences; human review cannot keep up.

If Solvedbecomes possible

• Personal Tutor for Everyone2030s?If solvedEvery learner gets an individual, patient tutor in their own language and at their own pace, delivered on a basic phone.
• Self-Running Research Labs2030s?If solvedRobot labs run experiments and their replication in continuous operation, steered by AI agents that check each other; humans set the goals.
• Verified Science2030s?If solvedFindings carry open data, preregistered methods and automatic replication checks; a claim counts as established only once reproduced.
• Accelerated Discovery Cycles2040s?If solvedFrom discovery to application takes years instead of decades, because funding, tools and verification support fast, stable research.