An unfinished chronicle of the history of things.
Short essays on single milestones across fifteen categories — one new post per category per day. Written, researched, and illustrated end to end, then read aloud.
01
Computing
From pebbles in sand trays to the machines that now hold the world together — told one milestone at a time.
02
Code Editors
Every program that other programs are written in — TECO to Cursor.
Latest QED, or how fifteen years of mathematics became a search command
03
Software Architecture
The evolving answer to 'how do we organize code at scale?' — structured programming to LLM orchestration.
Latest What the flowchart hides
04
AI
The long road to machines that reason — from Aristotle's syllogisms to today's frontier models.
Latest Boole's algebra of thought
05
Writing Systems
Every way humans have figured out how to freeze speech onto a surface — cuneiform to Unicode.
06
Programming Languages
How humans learned to talk to machines — starting with Ada Lovelace writing instructions for a machine that didn't exist yet.
Latest Plankalkül, or how to invent a programming language during an air raid
07
Shoes
Ten thousand years of footwear, from Fort Rock sagebrush sandals to carbon-plate supershoes.
08
Timepieces
From shadow on sand to atomic clocks — humanity's chase of ever-more-precise time.
Latest Ctesibius's clepsydra, or the water clock that fixed itself
09
Phones
A 150-year story: from Bell shouting at Watson to foldable AI-powered supercomputers in a pocket.
10
Bridges
Civil engineering's most dramatic form — log across a stream to mile-long cable-stayed mega-structures, with a spectacular collapse or two along the way.
Latest The Pont du Gard, or how Rome moved a river across a gorge
11
Locks & Keys
Six thousand years of mechanisms for excluding people, with one of history's best rivalries at its centre.
Latest The Roman warded lock
12
Maps
Ten thousand years of humans drawing the world — from Babylonian clay tablets to satellite imagery.
Latest Anaximander's world map, or how a philosopher drew the whole earth
14
Cryptography
The long argument between hiding things and finding things — Caesar cipher to post-quantum standards.
Latest The Caesar cipher, or how a shift of three kept Rome's orders from Gallic hands
15
Video Games
Arcade, console, PC, handheld, mobile — all one medium, from OXO on the EDSAC to the handheld revival.