Yesterday

The section “Cybernetics yesterday” first describes all the important technical and device-oriented achievements that are a prerequisite for the above-mentioned goals.
Technological development was initially very slow. After the invention of stone tools, 1.6 million years passed before fire was mastered. In the following million years, there were only a dozen inventions. After that, the pace accelerated. With the introduction of AI, the speed will increase further. There are fears that we might lose control over future development. Then things happened in quick succession.
The breakthroughs in telecommunications and computer technology to the rise of the Internet and the introduction of artificial intelligence, had a significant impact on the way we live, work and interact with the environment.
The Cybernetics tomorrow website aims to utilize the SteinGraph network algorithm for the self-organization of drone swarms, as well as the SteinCrypt algorithm for a quantum-secure data encryption method.

Prehistory to Antiquity

• 2,600,000 BCE: Stone Tools

  The earliest hominids shaped stones into cutting edges. This foundational technology allowed early humans to hunt, butcher meat, process materials, and successfully adapt to diverse environments. It marked the definitive beginning of human technological evolution.

• 1,000,000 BCE: Control of Fire

  Harnessing fire provided warmth, protection from predators, and a way to cook food, which increased nutrient absorption and aided human brain evolution. It also extended the active hours of the day and became the basis for later metallurgical technologies.

• 40,000 BCE: Needle
  

  The invention of the bone needle allowed humans to sew close-fitting clothing from animal skins and furs. This crucial adaptation enabled migration into much colder regions of the planet and laid the foundation for textile manufacturing.

• 10,000 BCE: Domestication of Plants (Agriculture)
  The transition from foraging to farming allowed humans to settle permanently, grow surplus food, and sustain larger populations. It birthed the first permanent civilizations, specialized labor, and the structured societies we live in today.

• 9000 BCE: Pottery

  Fired clay vessels enabled the long-term storage of surplus food, seeds, and water, protecting them from pests and moisture. Pottery transformed cooking practices and dietary habits, while also serving as an early medium for human artistic expression.

• 4000 BCE: Invention of the Wheel

  Initially used for pottery and later attached to carts for transportation, the wheel revolutionized logistics, trad, and warfare by allowing the movement of heavy loads over long distances. It remains a core component of mechanical engineering.

• 3500 BCE: Writing System (Cuneiform/Hieroglyphs)

  Developed independently in Mesopotamia and Egypt, writing allowed the permanent recording of laws, transactions, and history. It decoupled knowledge from human memory, enabling the accumulation and transfer of information across generations.

• 3000 BCE: Bronze Metallurgy

  Smelting copper with tin created bronze, a metal far harder and more durable than stone or pure copper. This invention revolutionized toolmaking, agriculture, and warfare, defining an entire era of human development known as the Bronze Age.

• 3000 BCE: Sail

  Harnessing wind energy allowed humans to navigate rivers and oceans without relying solely on muscle power. The sail opened up long-distance maritime trade routes, connected isolated cultures, and accelerated global exploration.

• 1200 BCE: Iron Smelting

  Developing high-temperature furnaces to extract iron from ore led to tools and weapons that were stronger, cheaper, and more abundant than bronze. Iron tools dramatically improved agricultural efficiency by making clearing forests and plowing tough soils easier.

• 700 BCE: Coinage

  Standardized metal coins issued by states replaced the barter system and irregular bullion trading. This invention greatly simplified trade, established stable market economies, and allowed for more efficient tax collection and wealth storage.

• 300 BCE: Concrete

  Perfected by the Romans, concrete allowed the construction of massive, durable architectural wonders like aqueducts, bridges, and the Pantheon. Its ability to set underwater revolutionized maritime engineering and urban infrastructure.

• 200 BCE: Compass

  Invented in China during the Han Dynasty, the magnetic compass originally served for divination before becoming a navigational tool. It freed sailors from relying entirely on coastlines or clear skies, enabling open-ocean navigation.

The Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era

• 105 CE: Paper

  Ts’ai Lun in China standardized the papermaking process using mulberry bark, hemp, and rags. Paper offered a lightweight, cheap, and flexible alternative to parchment or papyrus, making the recording and dissemination of knowledge far more practical.

• 600 CE: Gunpowder

  Discovered by Chinese alchemists, gunpowder transformed global warfare by rendering medieval fortifications obsolete and shifting military power to infantry with firearms. It also found civilian use in mining and civil engineering projects.

• 700 CE: Mechanical Clock

  Emerging sequentially in China and medieval Europe, mechanical clocks substituted unreliable water and sun tracking. They standardized the measurement of time, which gradually reshaped economic life, scientific observation, and industrial scheduling.

• 1000 CE: Eyeglasses

  Developed in Italy and the Islamic world to correct vision, eyeglasses effectively doubled the productive working lifespan of scholars, craftsmen, and scribes. This invention showed that human physical limitations could be corrected through applied optics.

• 1440: Movable Type Printing Press

  Johannes Gutenberg combined movable metal type, oil-based ink, and a wooden press to mass-produce books. This sparked a media revolution that accelerated the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the democratization of knowledge.

• 1590: Microscope

  Zacharias Janssen and other Dutch lensmakers aligned multiple glass elements to magnify tiny structures. The microscope revealed an entirely invisible world of cells and microorganisms, fundamentally altering biology and medicine.

• 1608: Telescope

  Invented in the Netherlands and famously improved by Galileo Galilei, the telescope allowed humans to observe distant celestial bodies. It provided empirical proof for the heliocentric model, shattering ancient geocentric dogmas.

• 1643: Barometer

  Evangelista Torricelli invented the barometer to measure atmospheric pressure, proving that air has weight and that a vacuum can exist. This laid the foundations of meteorology and early thermodynamics.

• 1698: Steam Engine

  Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen built the first practical steam pumps, later perfected by James Watt. By converting heat into mechanical work, the steam engine ended humanity’s reliance on animal and muscle power, triggering the Industrial Revolution.

• 1796: Smallpox Vaccine

  Edward Jenner used cowpox material to create immunity against deadly smallpox, pioneering the science of immunology. This breakthrough established vaccination as humanity’s most effective tool for preventing infectious diseases and saving billions of lives.
  The 19th Century

• 1800: Electric Battery

  Alessandro Volta stacked alternating discs of zinc and copper separated by brine-soaked cardboard, creating the first source of continuous electric current. This transformed electricity from a laboratory curiosity into a manageable power source.

• 1804: Steam Locomotive

  Richard Trevithick built the first steam railway locomotive, which was later commercialized by George Stephenson. Railways knitted geographic regions together, dramatically lowered the cost of moving goods, and accelerated urbanization.

• 1826: Photography

  Joseph Nicéphore Niépce captured the first permanent photograph, a process refined by Louis Daguerre. Photography provided an objective way to document reality, changing art, journalism, historical preservation, and scientific documentation.

• 1831: Electric Generator / Transformer

  Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, demonstrating how moving a magnet through a wire loop generates electricity. This breakthrough made it possible to produce electricity mechanically and distribute it over long distances.

• 1837: Telegraph

  Developed by Samuel Morse and others, the electric telegraph allowed instant communication across continents using electrical pulses. It disconnected communication speed from physical transportation, birthing the modern telecommunications age.

• 1839: Vulcanized Rubber

  Charles Goodyear discovered that heating natural rubber with sulfur made it durable, elastic, and resistant to temperature shifts. Vulcanized rubber became critical for waterproof goods, machinery belts, and automotive tires.

• 1846: Anesthesia

  The public demonstration of ether by William Morton revolutionized surgery by rendering patients unconscious and pain-free. Anesthesia allowed surgeons to perform complex, life-saving internal operations that were previously impossible.

• 1856: Bessemer Process

  Henry Bessemer invented the first inexpensive industrial method for mass-producing steel from molten pig iron. Steel’s high strength allowed the construction of skyscrapers, long-span bridges, large steamships, and reliable rail networks.

• 1867: Dynamite

  Alfred Nobel stabilized volatile nitroglycerin by mixing it with diatomaceous earth. Dynamite provided a safe, predictable explosive that expedited the construction of tunnels, canals, and railways, while also altering warfare.

• 1876: Telephone

  Alexander Graham Bell patented the device that converted human voice into electrical signals and back again. The telephone permitted real-time voice conversations across vast distances, fundamentally changing social interaction and business commerce.

• 1879: Incandescent Light Bulb

  Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan independently developed long-lasting incandescent light bulbs. Electric lighting freed society from the limitations of daylight and hazardous gas lamps, completely altering urban architecture and nightlife.

• 1885: Internal Combustion Automobile

  Karl Benz built the Motorwagen, powered by a lightweight petrol-burning engine. The automobile provided unprecedented individual mobility, decentralized cities, and reshaped global infrastructure around roads and highways.

• 1895 Wireless Radio Telegraphy

  The demonstration of Wireless Telegraphy in 1895 revolutionized long-distance communication.
  Marconi successfully transmitted the first wireless Morse code signals over a distance of about 1.5 miles on his family’s estate in Italy.

• 1895: X-Ray Imaging

  Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays, which could penetrate human soft tissue to reveal the skeletal structure beneath. This milestone allowed non-invasive internal medical diagnostics, radically improving how injuries and diseases are treated.

• 1898: First remote-controlled vehicle

  Nikola Tesla created the world’s first remote-controlled vehicle, which laid the foundational technology for unmanned systems. He built a four-foot-long iron-hulled boat powered by a battery and an electric motor and controlled it wirelessly using radio waves during an exhibition at Madison Square Garden in New York.
  The 20th Century to the Present

• 1903: Airplane

  Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the first sustained, controlled flight of a powered aircraft. Aviation shrank the globe, cutting travel times between continents from weeks to hours, and created an interconnected international economy.

• 1907: First Quadcopte

  The brothers Jacques and Louis Bréguet built the first quadcopter.

• 1908: Haber-Bosch Process

  Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch invented a method to synthesize ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen gas. Used to create synthetic fertilizers, this chemical process dramatically increased agricultural yields, sustaining billions of people.

• 1907: Plastics (Bakelite)

  Leo Baekeland created Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic that did not melt under heat. The rise of cheap, durable, and highly shapeable plastics revolutionized product design, packaging, electronics, and daily consumer life.

• 1928: Penicillin (Antibiotics)

  Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, which Ernst Chain and Howard Florey later mass-produced. The world’s first true antibiotic turned previously lethal bacterial infections like pneumonia into easily curable conditions.

• 1936: Programming a machine

  In 1936, Turing described his Turing machine. This idea played a crucial role in the development of computers. He also developed the concept of computer programming. He demonstrated that machines are capable of cognitive processes if these can be broken down into individual steps and expressed as an algorithm. In doing so, he laid the foundation for the development of artificial intelligence.

• 1940: Invention of Cybernetics

  The Invention of cybernetics by Norbert Wiener in the 1940s led to a new field of research that focused on the study of control systems, feedback and the control of machines and living organisms.
  Inspired by the proof that cognitive processes can be transferred to machines, Norbert Wiener developed cybernetics, which is based on feedback and control of all circuits. His invention was aimed at studying control systems and feedback, which focused on controlling machines and living organisms. He drew attention to swarm intelligence, which enables decision-making through collective learning in decentralized, self-organized systems. This phenomenon is well known in nature: flocks of birds and schools of fish act and react as groups, without instructions or leadership from a single leader. There are no practical applications yet for how to form machines, devices and computers into autonomous groups.
  Until then, we will be afraid that robots could take over the world.

• 1941: programmable digital computer

  Konrad Zuse developed the Z3, the world’s first fully functional, freely programmable computer, followed by the US computer ENIAC, which could be programmed electronically. They performed complex calculations at unprecedented speeds, laying the groundwork for modern computing.

• 1945: Nuclear Fission (Atomic Bomb / Nuclear Energy)

  The Manhattan Project unlocked energy stored within the atomic nucleus. This technology created weapons capable of global destruction, but also led to nuclear power plants that provide huge amounts of low-carbon electricity.

• 1947: Transistor

  John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley invented the solid-state transistor to control electrical signals. Replacing bulky, fragile vacuum tubes, the transistor is the foundational building block of all modern electronics and computers.

• 1953: DNA Sequencing / Double Helix Discovery

  James Watson, Francis Crick, and Rosalind Franklin mapped the structure of DNA. Understanding the genetic code laid the groundwork for modern biotechnology, gene editing, forensic science, and targeted medical therapies.

• 1957: Artificial Satellites (Sputnik)

  The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 into Earth’s orbit, inaugurating the Space Age. Satellites became indispensable tools for global telecommunications, weather forecasting, environmental monitoring, and GPS navigation systems.

• 1961: First portable Computer on the moon

  The first programmable, portable computers hit the market in 1961. NASA chose the „Programma 101,“ developed by Olivetti, to calculate the trajectory of Apollo 11 to the Moon. This computer was a precursor to the PC.

• 1969: Internet (ARPANET)

  Developed by the US Department of Defense and later expanded via the World Wide Web, the internet linked global computers into a unified network. This global network has become an integral part of daily life. It digitized human commerce, entertainment, communication, and information access.

• 1970s: First Microprocessor and PCs

  Engineers at Intel placed an entire central processing unit (CPU) onto a single silicon microchip. The microprocessor shrunk computers down from room-sized mainframes to personal devices, powering everything from laptops to appliances.
  PCs revolutionized how people work, learn, and entertain themselves.

• 1979 First Relational Database

  In 1979, Oracle launched the first relational system—systems that enable the efficient storage, querying, and processing of big data and became the backbone of modern information systems.

• 1980s Commercialization of Mobile Phones

  The commercialization of mobile phones in the 1980s have dramatically changed the way we access information. Mobile phones have become ubiquitous tools for communication, entertainment, and productivity.

• 1980s: Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

  Kary Mullis invented PCR, a technique used to rapidly amplify specific segments of DNA into millions of copies. This tool transformed molecular biology, allowing rapid disease diagnostics, genetic testing, and deep evolutionary research.

• 1985 Introduction of spreadsheet software

  The introduction of spreadsheet software in 1985 revolutionized data analysis and business management. These programs made complex calculations and data visualization accessible to a broad audience.

• 2005? First unmanned Military Drones

  First Advanced military drones like the U.S. MQ-1 Predator were actively flying and launching strikes well before 2006.

• 2006: First unmanned Drone surveillance

  In 2006, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began actively using small unmanned aircraft for domestic monitoring and investigations.
  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued its first commercial drone permits and certificates of authorization in 2006 for disaster response and wildlife monitoring.
  Major drone manufacturer DJI was founded in 2006, though affordable multirotor consumer quadcopters did not hit the mainstream market until the early 2010s

• 2012: CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing

  Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier adapted a bacterial defense mechanism into a precise tool for editing genomes. CRISPR allows scientists to alter DNA sequences with extreme accuracy, opening pathways to cure genetic diseases.

• 2010s–2020s: Generative Artificial Intelligence

  Building on neural networks and the Transformer architecture (introduced in 2017), generative AI systems can comprehend and generate human-like language, code, and art. This represents a paradigm shift in how humanity processes knowledge and automates cognitive tasks.

• 2026: Slowing Down AI Development?

  Dario Amodei (CEO of Anthropic), Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), and Elon Musk have publicly called for a deceleration in the rapid training of frontier AI models to give safety measures time to catch up. [1, 2]