How Far We've Come

So in yesterday's HCJ lecture we had a brief run over the history of human development, beginning around 8000 BC with the earliest known civilisations and ending with the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. What strikes me most, going over my notes, is seeing half a page's worth of my timeline dating between 8000 BC and 1400 AD, and only two pages detailing the time from 1440 (the Gutenberg press) to 1815. It never ceases to amaze me just how radically we've progressed - I find it difficult to process just how much the world has changed. A thousand years ago, the average man would have been lucky to live past 40; they'd be uneducated, illiterate and knowledge was passed via word of mouth. You would be living a life little different from the life your ancestors led a thousand years ago. Today? Today, a man can anonymously ask the entire world for help whilst trapped in a toilet after crapping himself at work.

...We've come a long way.