How did the world become connected in space, time, and information? From Kant to Hegel, from global networks to emergence: how do we collectively shape a world that, in turn, shapes us? In our previous three articles, we took a rather long journey. First, we travelled around the world (quite a long journey in itself),…
From messengers and letters to the telegraph and the internet: how did information go from being tied to physical locations to flowing through planetary networks? In August 1858, Queen Victoria of Britain sent a message to US President James Buchanan. It was written in an extremely formal tone, which may well have been the equivalent…
Nearly 150 years ago, there was a day when noon came twice in several parts of North America. It was another step towards bringing the world’s timekeeping systems together. On November 18, 1883, at midday in New York, a railroad worker glanced at his watch to check the time. His watch was perfectly accurate, and…
Just a few hundred years ago, reaching any point on Earth was far from something we could take for granted. When did space become connected? When did the world come together?