London-based software engineer Gareth Lloyd and colleague Tom Martin created this wonderful video of the history of the world – well, of Wikipedia’s history of the world, at any rate.
It turns out that no less than 424,171 Wikipedia articles have geographical co-ordinates and dates associated with them. Cross-reference the two, and you can create a tiny blip of light on a map, one for every notable event in history.
Animate these blips, and a video like this is the result.
As any historian will tell you, this is of course just one viewpoint. This is how Wikipedia sees world history, and other sources might well produce very different timelines.
I love how the blips are concentrated on the Middle East, then Byzantium, then more and more appear in China and India, then Europe, then suddenly – BLAM! – America. It’s only 100 seconds, but it certainly gives the viewer pause for thought, and perspective, of sorts, on today’s global events.