Evolutionary Milestones

= also called: "phase transitions / “biospheric revolutions” / “canonical milestones” / “evolutionary turning points” / “complexity jumps”.

Typology

Andrey Korotayev:

Modis

"Modis “milestones” from his 2002 article in the Technological Forecasting & Social Change:

(1) Origin of Milky Way, first stars – 10 billion years ago

(2) Origin of life on Earth, formation of thesolar system and the Earth, oldest rocks – 4 billion years ago

(3) First eukaryotes, invention of sex (by microorganisms), atmospheric oxygen, oldest photosynthetic plants, plate tectonicsestablished – 2 billion years ago

(4) First multicellular life (sponges, seaweeds, protozoans) – 1 billion years ago

(5) Cambrian explosion/invertebrates/vertebrates, plants colonize land, first trees, reptiles, insects, amphibians – 430 million years ago

(6) First mammals, first birds, first dinosaurs – 210 million years ago

(7) First flowering plants, oldest angiosperm fossil – 139 million years ago

(8) First primates/asteroid collision/mass extinction (including dinosaurs) – 54.6million years ago

(9) First hominids, first humanoids – 28. 5million years ago

(10) First orangutan, origin of proconsul – 16.5 million years ago

(11) Chimpanzees and humans diverge, earliest hominid bipedalism –5.1 million years ago

(12) First stone tools, first humans, Homoerectus – 2.2 million years ago

(13) Emergence of Homo sapiens – 555,000 years ago

(14) Domestication of re/ Homo heidelbergensis – 325,000 years ago

(15) Differentiation of human DNA types – 200,000 years ago

(16) Emergence of ‘‘modern humans’’/ earliest burial of the dead – 105,700 years ago

(17) Rock art/protowriting – 35,800 yearsago

(18) Techniques for starting re – 19,200 years ago

(19) Invention of agriculture – 11,000 yearsago

(20) Discovery of the wheel/writing/archaic empires/large civilizations/Egypt/ Mesopotamia – 4,907 years ago

(21) Democracy/city states/Greeks/Buddha [≈ Axial Age] – 2,437 years ago

(22) Zero and decimals invented, Rome falls, Moslem conquest – 1,440 years ago

(23) Renaissance (printing press)/discovery of New World/the scientic method – 539 years ago

(24) Industrial revolution (steam engine)/

political revolutions (French, USA) – 225 years ago

(25) Modern physics/radio/electricity/automobile/airplane – 100 years ago

(26) DNA structure described/transistor invented/nuclear energy/WWII/Cold War/ Sputnik – 50 years ago

(27) Internet/human genome sequenced – 5 years ago

Panov

Panov’s list of phase transitions:

“0. The origin of life – 4 · 10 9 years ago. The biosphereafter its appearance was represented by nucleusless procaryotes and existed the rst 2–2.5 billion years without any great shocks.

1. Neoproterozoic revolution (Oxygen crisis) – 1.5 10 9 years ago. Cyanobacteria had enriched theatmosphere by oxygen that was a strong poisonfor anaerobic procaryotes. Anaerobic procaryotesstarted to die out and anaerobic procaryotefauna was changed by an aerobic eucaryote andmulticellular one.

2. Cambrian explosion (The beginning of Paleozoic era) – 590–510 · 10 6 years ago 18. All the modern phyla of metazoa (including vertebrates) appeared during afew of tens of million years. During the Paleozoicera the terra rma was populated by life.

3. Reptiles revolution (The beginning of Mesozoic era) – 235 · 10 6 years ago. Almost all paleozoic Amphibia died out. Reptiles became the leader of the evolution on the terra rma.

4. Mammalia revolution (The beginning of the Cenozoic era) – 66· 10 6 years ago. Dinosaurs died out. Mammalia animals became the leader of the evolution on the terra firma.

5. Hominoid revolution (The beginning of the Neogene period) – 25–20 · 10 6 years ago 19 . A big evolution explosion of Hominoidae (apes). There were 14 genera of hominoidae between 22 and 17 millions years ago – much more than now. The ora and fauna became contemporary. 6. The beginning of Quaternary period (Anthropogene)

–

4.4 · 10 6

years ago

20 . The rst primitive Homo genus (hominidae) separated from hominoidae.7. Palaeolithic revolution – 2.0–1.6 · 10 6

years ago

21 .

Homohabilis

, the rst stone implements.8. The beginning of Chelles period – 0.7–0.6 · 10 6

yearsago

22 . Fire,

Homo erectus

. 9. The beginning of Acheulean period

–

0.4 · 10 6

yearsago

. Standardized symmetric stone implements. 10. The culture revolution of neanderthaler (Mustierculture) – 150–100 · 10 3

years ago

.

Homo sapiensneandertalensis

. Fine stone implements, burial ofdeadmen (a sign of primitive religions).11. The Upper Palaeolithic revolution – 40 · 10 3

yearsago

.

Homo sapiens sapiens
became the leader

of cultural evolution. Development of advancedhunter instruments – spears, snares. Imitative art iswidespread.12. Neolithic revolution – 12–9 · 10 3

years ago

. Appropriative economy [foraging] had beenreplaced by productive economy [food production]. 13. Urban revolution (the beginning of the Ancient world) – 4000–3000 B.C.

Appearance of state formations,

written language and the rst legal documents.14. Imperial antiquity, Iron age, the revolution of the Axial time – 800–500 B.C. 23 . The appearance ofa new type of state formations – empires, and aculture revolution. New kinds of thinkers such asZaratushtra, Socrates, Budda, and others.15. The beginning of the Middle Ages – 400–630 CE. 24

Disintegration of Western Roman Empire,widespread Christianity and Islam, domination offeudal economy.

16. The beginning of the New Time [Modern Period],the rst industrial revolution – 1450–1550 CE 25

Appearing of manufacture, printing of books, the New time culture revolution etc.17. The second industrial revolution (steam and electricity) –

1830–1840 26 . Appearance of mechanized industry,the beginning of globalization in the informationeld (telegraph was invented in 1831), etc.18. Information revolution, the beginning of the

postindustrial epoch –

1950 . The main part of

population of industrial countries work in the eldof information production and utilization or in theservice eld, not in the material production”

Comparison

Panov’s list of “biospheric revolutions” diers from the Modis – Kurzweil seriesof “canonical milestones” in many rather signicantways:1) Modis – Kurzweil list contains 27 “canonical milestones”, whereas Panov’s series onlyincludes 20 “biospheric revolutions”. Thus, at least 7 Modis – Kurzweil milestones have no

parallels in the Panov series.2) There is just one “milestone” for which both Modisand Panov have more or less exactly the same

name and date (Modis – Kurzweil 2 = Panov 0). There is also one milestone (Modis – Kurzweil 26 = Panov 18), to which Modis and Panov give the same date, while giving to it totally dierent names. 3) There are a few milestones to which Modis andPanov give distantly similar names and roughly(but not exactly) similar dates (for example, Modis – Kurzweil 23 ≈ Panov 16; Modis –Kurzweil 19 ≈ Panov 12; Modis – Kurzweil 17≈ Panov 11; Modis – Kurzweil 9 ≈ Panov 5). In one case Modis and Panov give to the same milestone (Modis – Kurzweil 5 ~ Panov 2) thesame name, but rather dierent dates.4) However, for very substantial parts of those series the correlation beween them looks very distantindeed.

Source

* Article: Korotayev, Andrey (2018) The 21st Century Singularity and its Big History Implications: A re-analysis. Journal of Big History, II(3); 71 - 118 doi

URL = https://www.academia.edu/36810724/The_21st_Century_Singularity_and_its_Big_History_Implications_A_re-analysis