0.725
Based on primary energy power · Type I = 1

AccelerationFour-dimensional view11 years ago
Deep networks are combined with reinforcement learning, and AlphaGo defeats Lee Sedol at Go, bringing machines' ability to learn strategy into public view.
Art style · Contemporary realistic technology illustration
Each sparkline shows the documented history of a metric on a logarithmic time axis. The dot marks the selected moment.
0.725
Based on primary energy power · Type I = 1
7.55Bpeople
1/1 of today
1.8×10¹³W
1/1 of today
1.5×10¹⁰floating-point operations per second per dollar (FLOP/s per $, nominal dollars)
1/6 of today
0.03 seconds
Comparable to today
39,897km/h
Comparable to today
The eight closest milestones. Select a title to jump there.
LIGO makes the first direct detection of gravitational waves, produced by a binary black hole merger. Source

Residual connections make very deep neural networks easier to train; a 152-layer model achieves leading results on ImageNet. Source

A Falcon 9 first stage lands vertically after an orbital launch, making reusable rockets a reality. Source
AlphaGo defeats one of the world's top Go players 4–1. Source
Mobike launches in Shanghai: scan a code to unlock and return a bike, no docking station needed. Source
The world's first quantum science satellite launches and achieves satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution. Source
A short-video app lets ordinary people shoot, share and scroll through videos. Source
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope is completed, the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. Source
Acquired88 / 121 items
Each era illustrated in its own style.
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.