A history of the world in 100 objects

Creative impulses

A new BBC radio series shows how the things that man made can be even more compelling witnesses to the past than the events he witnessed

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Readers' comments



"the ghostly magnetic pulse from a star that exploded in the summer of 1054, as recorded at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics"
Although M1, the supernova, was first observed (by Chinese astronomers, Irish monks, and Native Americans, not Jodrell Bank) on July 4, 1054 CE, of course, since the nebula and pulsar are some 6,300 light years away in the Milky Way, the explosion took place some millennia earlier and it is just that the light took some time to reach us on Earth after the explosion, which was not of course witnessed at that time by early man. What Jodrell Bank can see now or you when you look in the sky is of course the remnants of the explosion, still expanding.


As a final thought I note that even the basic living cell [membrane] may well represent a successful effort by DNA to control its local environment! So depending upon things one has built is more a characteristic of life than of man...


The transistor, surely? Or if that's too 20th century, a piece of hypertext (-is that an "object"? Could a physical object appropriately represent "now" in any case?). Hope against hope they don't pick some bloody i-gadget.


Long Live the BBC,

Long live the Economist online.

You are very powerful forces , Real creative impulses for the last century, this century and the next!


"Why does God in Judaism and Islam have no face while Buddha is a cross-legged man?"
Erm.... Buddha was Human. He had his own face. We have faces. Humans.

Mike Rudd

This is the sort of thing that the BBC does exremely well,and I will try to listen in when it is broadcast.
I also hope the BM has set up an area where this can be viewed, it has been about a year since my last visit to the BM but I will make the effort to go in the next couple of weeks.


Richard Arkwright's waterframe still remains the item of our time with nearly everything to follow a result of that creativity and the resulting Industrial Revolution.


This article and the originating programme sadly show two other human traits:-

- the deep belief that humans are fundamentally different from animals, as opposed to just very clever animals. This goes back to the opposition to Darwin and Galileo and is sadly itself a sign that man is still in large part an emotion-driven animal as well as a reason-driven person! (of course all animals have emotions - it is 'reason' that is so different in man).

- an obliviousness of common scientific facts so profound as allow them to make utterly preposterous statements (such as those about not building nests and the like noted by David C., the falsity of which should be obvious to any 5-year-old) without the brain ringing any alarms - just because they sound good!

There is a lot of this in politics but the Economist should be more intellectual and critical!

brian t. raven

BWWilds is correct that an electronic device is the best symbol for this era. The wireless telephone will be the best example in a few years. But for now it's the laptop or desktop that is the most efficient synapse connecting each human to the super-organism we're becoming - and whose evolution is central to our survival.

David C.

..."but man is the only one that depends for its very survival on the things he has made"
UH! What about birds and their nests, beavers with their dams and huts, numerous small animals and their holes or burrows?
These examples are the first that come to mind but there are probably a lot more.


One suggestion I would like to make is to consider placing Charkha ( the tool used by Mahatama Gandhi to make cloth) at the center of the exhibition. For without the idea of non-violence, we as a society, would have collapsed long ago.

Stephen Morris

I think commenter “epsic” has hit the nail on the head with the suggestion of a virtual object.

See this recent BBC article on the trade in virtual goods. It is claimed that virtual goods sales in Asia are already worth $5 billion (per annum?) and that the US market is growing rapidly.

Virtual goods are the ultimate symbol of globalisation. They mark the end of geographical barriers. A virtual good may be bought or sold anywhere in the world instantly.

So let the series end as it began . . . with a virtual handaxe.


I'm going to have to go with an electronic device. After considering many, from the fax machine, a personal desktop computer, and many different styles of televisions and video recorders, the wireless telephone with its large number of new features beats all.

Not only has the wireless telephone made the world much smaller it has changed how we communicate with others and the world in general. Excuse the pun but it is literally wired into the DNA of modern man.


I'm having a hard time attempting to pull the logic of this article together at least with the supporting facts presented.


I am very familiar with Chinese history. The author mentioned in this article that the collapse of chinese Ming dynasty was due to the lack of cions, which is totally wrong.

Brecon Clovis


This article is best read together with the obituary of Oral Roberts a few lines below in the index of articles.

Both are written in a very similar style.

Both are superficially unquestioning in regards to the validity of the information they are passing on.

Both whether intentionally or not show how religious belief or science so different and yet so very similar can so easily become sectarian in the hands of charasmatic presentors.

Particularly in regards to fund raising.

Happy New Year.



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