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The Staircase to Today
A simple map of how we arrived here
We did not arrive in the modern world overnight.
We climbed here — step by step — through changes in food, technology, work, money, and power.
Each step carried consequences forward.
You don’t need to read everything at once.
You can return to this page whenever you feel lost or overwhelmed.
This is the map.
1️⃣ The Master Timeline
(One-page chronological overview)
2️⃣ The System Diagram
(How resources, technology, wealth, and power interact over time)
3️⃣ How to Use This Map
(A guide to navigating this page without overwhelm)
How the system works
Throughout history, the same pattern repeats — even though the details change.
Resources are discovered or controlled.
Technology amplifies them.
Productivity increases.
Wealth accumulates.
Power reorganises.
Everyday life changes.
When systems move faster than people can adapt, tension builds.
That tension forces change — and the cycle begins again.
The steps we climbed
Below is a simplified staircase — not a full history lesson, but a way to orient yourself.
You don’t need to memorise it.
You only need to recognise the direction of travel.
1. Survival and cooperation
Humans organised life around food, shelter, and safety. Farming created surplus — and with it, ownership, hierarchy, and power.
2. Organisation and control
Cities, laws, money, and taxation emerged to manage surplus and populations. States were born.
3. Empires and extraction
Large powers expanded through land, labour, and resources. Inequality became systemic.
4. Global trade and colonisation
Trade connected continents. Wealth flowed upward. Global inequality was locked in.
5. Machines and industrialisation
Technology replaced muscle. Productivity exploded. Work, time, and cities were transformed.
6. Mass politics and modern states
People demanded rights, education, and representation. Governments expanded their role.
7. Total war and economic reset
World wars reshaped power, economies, and social contracts.
8. Globalisation and finance
Production went global. Money moved faster than labour. Job security declined.
9. Digital acceleration
Technology reshaped attention, work, and daily life. Change sped up dramatically.
10. Crisis and strain
Rising costs, uncertainty, and exhaustion signal a system under pressure.
How to use this map
You can return to this page whenever something in the world feels confusing or overwhelming.
Each chapter of How We Got Here explores one step of this staircase — not to judge the past, but to understand the present.
Understanding where you stand is the first step toward agency.
→ You can begin with Chapter 1: Living Through Change