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A bunch of you have sent me this list. It comes from Drew Breunig, a New Yorker who apparently works in the computer business, in advertising.
It's a short history of "Frontiers" — territories that he says have challenged humans over the centuries, arranged in roughly chronological order. Drew calls it "Frontiers Through The Ages."
- Water, 1400
- Land, 1840
- Gold, 1850
- Wire, 1880
- Air, 1900
- Celluloid, 1920
- Plastic, 1950
- Space, 1960
- Silicon, 1980
- Networks, 1990
- Data, 2000
Suppose I wanted to think about power, how sources of power have multiplied over time. I could write a list like this:
- gravity
- muscle
- horses
- wind
- steam
- internal combustion
- oil
- gas
- nuclear
There are some lists I can imagine that don't flatter us at all. My friend the mathematician Steven Strogatz, a music lover, sent me this: it's a small idea, but faithfully chronological...
- vinyl
- 8-track
- cassette
- CD
- iTunes
"Pretty uneven progress there!" he says.
There's more! Don't forget to forget to read the additional comments too, good ones!
