Wi-Fi Standard Established（Y2K translucent candy colours）

27 years agoThe Internet

1999-09

Wi-Fi Standard Established

IEEE 802.11b is approved, and wireless LANs begin to enter homes and offices.

Art style · Y2K translucent candy colours

World population

6.14Bpeople

Primary energy power

1.3×10¹³W

London → New York message

0.03 seconds

Civilization metrics

Each sparkline shows the documented history of a metric on a logarithmic time axis. The dot marks the selected moment.

Kardashev index

0.713

Based on primary energy power · Type I = 1

World population

6.14Bpeople

1/1 of today

Total human primary energy power

1.3×10¹³W

1/2 of today

Compute per dollar

5.4×10⁵floating-point operations per second per dollar (FLOP/s per $, nominal dollars)

1/150K of today

Fastest delivery time for a message from London to New York

0.03 seconds

1 times faster than today

Fastest speed reached by humans

39,897km/h

Comparable to today

Near this moment

The eight closest milestones. Select a title to jump there.

1997-05Intelligence
IBM's Deep Blue defeats the world chess champion in a regulation match. Source
1997-12Energy
Toyota launches the first mass-produced hybrid car in Japan, sharply cutting fuel consumption. Source
1998Computing
The PageRank algorithm makes the vast web efficiently searchable. Source
1999-02-10Culture
Tencent releases its instant messenger (later renamed QQ), giving Chinese internet users an online chat tool. Source
1999-09Computing
IEEE 802.11b is approved, and wireless LANs begin to enter homes and offices. Source
2000-05-02Computing
The US turns off Selective Availability, improving civilian positioning accuracy to about ten meters. Source
2000-11-02Universe
The first crew moves into the International Space Station; humans have been continuously present in low Earth orbit ever since. Source
2001-01-15Culture
An encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Source

Capabilities

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The Internet

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The World Wide Web and search engines connect the world's information, and the cost of accessing knowledge plummets.

Playable workshops

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Every timeline entry cites its source. Metrics interpolate logarithmically between sourced data points. Forecasts include institutional and community views, and attributed site scenarios; years are not guaranteed realization dates. Illustrations are AI-generated in each era's style.

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