Time
Every Earth Log places its topic in three time systems: Years Ago (counted from the year 2000 CE), Cosmic Time (counted from the origin of the universe), and the Gregorian Date. The tables below are the reference scaffolding the corpus uses to position any topic in time.
| Event | Years Ago | Cosmic Time |
|---|---|---|
| Big Bang | 13,800,000,000 | 0 |
| Recombination / CMB | 13,799,620,000 | 380,000 |
| First Stars | 13,600,000,000 | 200,000,000 |
| First Galaxies | 13,500,000,000 | 300,000,000 |
| Milky Way Formation | 13,300,000,000 | 500,000,000 |
| Solar System Formation | 4,570,000,000 | 9,230,000,000 |
| Formation of Earth | 4,540,000,000 | 9,260,000,000 |
| Formation of Moon | 4,510,000,000 | 9,290,000,000 |
| First Oceans | 4,300,000,000 | 9,500,000,000 |
| Origin of Life | 3,800,000,000 | 10,000,000,000 |
| Photosynthesis Begins | 3,500,000,000 | 10,300,000,000 |
| Great Oxygenation Event | 2,400,000,000 | 11,400,000,000 |
| First Eukaryotic Cells | 2,000,000,000 | 11,800,000,000 |
| Multicellular Life | 1,200,000,000 | 12,600,000,000 |
| Snowball Earth | 700,000,000 | 13,100,000,000 |
| Cambrian Explosion | 541,000,000 | 13,259,000,000 |
| First Land Plants | 470,000,000 | 13,330,000,000 |
| First Amphibians | 370,000,000 | 13,430,000,000 |
| Permian Mass Extinction | 252,000,000 | 13,548,000,000 |
| First Dinosaurs | 230,000,000 | 13,570,000,000 |
| First Mammals | 220,000,000 | 13,580,000,000 |
| First Birds | 150,000,000 | 13,650,000,000 |
| Dinosaur Extinction | 66,000,000 | 13,734,000,000 |
| Earliest Primates | 55,000,000 | 13,745,000,000 |
| First Hominins | 7,000,000 | 13,793,000,000 |
| Genus Homo | 2,800,000 | 13,797,200,000 |
| Homo sapiens | 300,000 | 13,799,700,000 |
| Agriculture Begins | 10,000 | 13,799,990,000 |
| Industrial Revolution | 250 | 13,799,999,750 |
| Digital Age | 50 | 13,799,999,950 |
| Present Day | 0 | 13,800,000,000 |
| Time Marker / Event | Years Ago | Cosmic Time | Gregorian |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modern physics era | 100 | 13,799,999,900 | 1900 CE |
| Einstein special relativity | 95 | 13,799,999,905 | 1905 CE |
| World War I | 86 – 82 | 13,799,999,914 – 13,799,999,918 | 1914 – 1918 CE |
| Quantum mechanics foundations | 75 | 13,799,999,925 | 1925 CE |
| Penicillin discovered | 72 | 13,799,999,928 | 1928 CE |
| Great Depression | 71 | 13,799,999,929 | 1929 CE |
| Nuclear fission discovered | 62 | 13,799,999,938 | 1938 CE |
| World War II | 61 – 55 | 13,799,999,939 – 13,799,999,945 | 1939 – 1945 CE |
| United Nations founded | 55 | 13,799,999,945 | 1945 CE |
| Cold War begins | 54 | 13,799,999,946 | 1946 CE |
| Transistor invented | 53 | 13,799,999,947 | 1947 CE |
| DNA double helix discovered | 47 | 13,799,999,953 | 1953 CE |
| Space Age begins | 43 | 13,799,999,957 | 1957 CE |
| First human in space | 39 | 13,799,999,961 | 1961 CE |
| Moon landing | 31 | 13,799,999,969 | 1969 CE |
| ARPANET (early internet) | 31 | 13,799,999,969 | 1969 CE |
| Microprocessor invented | 29 | 13,799,999,971 | 1971 CE |
| Personal computer era begins | 25 | 13,799,999,975 | 1975 CE |
| World Wide Web invented | 9 | 13,799,999,991 | 1991 CE |
| Human genome project begins | 0 | 13,800,000,000 | 2000 CE |
| Social media era begins | −4 | 13,800,000,004 | 2004 CE |
| Smartphone era begins | −7 | 13,800,000,007 | 2007 CE |
| Bitcoin whitepaper published | −8 | 13,800,000,008 | 2008 CE |
| Blockchain era begins | −9 | 13,800,000,009 | 2009 CE |
| AI deep learning breakthrough | −12 | 13,800,000,012 | 2012 CE |
| CRISPR gene editing | −12 | 13,800,000,012 | 2012 CE |
| Gravitational waves detected | −16 | 13,800,000,016 | 2016 CE |
| COVID-19 pandemic | −20 | 13,800,000,020 | 2020 CE |
| mRNA vaccines | −21 | 13,800,000,021 | 2021 CE |
| AI large language models | −22 | 13,800,000,022 | 2022 CE |
| Present day | −26 | 13,800,000,026 | 2026 CE |
These tables draw on the project's working time taxonomy. Cosmic Time figures assume a universe age of 13.8 billion years; minor revisions to that estimate would shift the cosmic-time column slightly without changing the relative spacing of events.