A COMPANION TIMELINE · 3400 BCE — 2026 CE
Five thousand years of invention, labor, communication, surveillance —
and the laws that answered them. Explore each moment in history where technology reshaped the relationship between governments, employers, and ordinary people.
Follow the golden thread.
This timeline is a companion to "Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness in the Age of AI" - a book in progress by C. Raynor. It is part of a larger effort to understand the impact of technology on society.
YOU HAVE REACHED THE PRESENT
This timeline concludes a journey mapping the connections between early technology and its relationship to power, and the regulations that followed to influence the daily lives of people. From the clay tablet to the algorithm, each new tool reshaped what governments could see, what employers could demand, and what ordinary people could push back against.
Where we go from here depends on a new era that is being challenged by the introduction of artificial intelligence — a technology operating at a scale, speed, and opacity unlike anything that came before it, and one that will affect how we live and work. It is currently being controlled and moderated not by the people, and in many cases not even by governments, but by the companies that own it. The question is what regulations and changes will arise to limit the scope of AI on the lives of citizens — and what role we play in shaping future events.