I resemble that remark!
In descending order of likelihood that non-academics might be able top pull out at a dinner party
Wright Brothers, Kitty Hawk, Moon Landing, Armstrong, Hitler, Sputnik, A-bomb, Invention of the Computer, Discovery of DNA
Less likely - but possibly:
The birth of the EU & UN which was the start of our World Government :eek:
The birth of awareness of Global Climate Change
Maybe not - long shots
The Death of Colonialism
The unacceptability of Racism
Birth of a Global Communication structure/Community/culture
“…in that the numerous mistakes of the Bush Administration clearly highlighted the inherent flaws of conservatism, which led to a social shift away from the selfish and regressive belief. By the end of the second century, conservatism was embraced only by a few scattered holdouts among religious fundamentalists, while the rest of the world moved forward to a new era of mutual love and understanding.”
All together now:
“Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They’re too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I’m so glad I’m a Beta.”
“The 20th century ? Why, we know almost nothing about them. They recorded almost everything on materials and in formats that became obsolete or decayed quite rapidly; we know less about them than we know about ancient Rome.” - stolen from some author or other.
They still used ballistic weaponry. The United Nations was started, but didn’t include other planets, or the moon. They made it to the moon, then began 400 years of planetary isolation. They used up almost all the fossil fuels until there was a method developed to mine in deep ocean trenches. The population was only about 6 Billion people, small compared to today. There was almost 200 nations! Far more than the consolidated blocs of today.
To put it in a little perspective, Wikipedia lists these people as the most significant figures of the 10th century:
Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl, semi-legendaric Toltec ruler
Abd-ar-rahman III of Cordoba
Nicephorus II, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire
Otto I the Great, Holy Roman Emperor
King Edmund I of England
John I Tzimisces, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire
Hugh Capet, first Capetian King of France
Géza of Hungary, ruler of the Magyars
Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor
Theophanu, wife of Otto II, mother and Regent of Otto III
Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria
Vladimir I, Prince of Kievan Rus
Basil II, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire
Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdowsi, Persian poet
Erik the Red, Viking Explorer, founded Greenland
Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah, founder of the Fatamid dynasty
A thousand years from now, will people look at this list of names with the same lack of knowledge?
Neil Armstrong
Winston Churchill
Albert Einstein
Queen Elizabeth II
Mahatma Gandhi
Adolf Hitler
Pope John Paul II
V.I. Lenin
Mao Zedong
Franklin Roosevelt
Josef Stalin
Well as far as records show the planet was ruled by a Cecil Adams and his followers, known as SDMBers.
Unfortunately this quasi religious sect disappeared after Unca Cec, as he was fondly known, died aged 297.
Yo see people didn’t live half as long as we do today kiddies
It’s impossible to say, because what they’ll know or not know has nothing to do with what we think is important now, but what they’ll think is important then. And what they think is important then depends on the way they and their culture will be.
So without knowing what they’re like, there’s no way to tell what they’ll think about us.
But you guys are all assuming that the human race won’t be extinct by the year 3000.
“Dum la 20-a jarcento, homoj batalis multe perforte. Ekzistis multaj religioj, kies sekvantoj, pelitaj per honto kaj angoro, rigardis siajn najbarojn nur kiel abomenoj…”
After the Martian invasions of 2820, no-one spoke English.
Stanislaw Lem, Memoirs from a Bathtub.
Yinz really think there’s going to be a human civilization in 3000? Optimists.
In this vein, I’ve noticed recently that History Channel type documentaries will often discuss a time, such as the Civil War era, and use old films for illustrative purposes. I’m sure that, as a result of this, there are now a significant number of people who believe that motion pictures were invented before 1860. In the same way, our recent history has become so well documented on the Web that in the far future they’ll think the Internet began in 1900, if not earlier.
I would frankly be surprised if there’s a human civilisation in 2100, let alone 3000. Our technological and ideological capacity for destruction is advancing at a far higher rate than our capacity for coexisting on the planet.
“As hard as it is to believe today, there was actually argument about whether the soul survived the death of the body, whether any people became ghosts or were reincarnated. It wasn’t until 2627 that Linus Dagoberto pulled back the veil and revealed that…”
“What really amazes me is that people of the day, and centuries after, argued about such things as who killed John F. Kennedy and what happened to Amelia Earhart. But you have to remember that folks back then couldn’t just hop into their handy personal time machines and go back to Dealey Plaza as it was in November 1963 or the Howland Island of 1937. Now, of course, we have the exhaustive audio and video evidence of just what happened…”
Of course, I don’t know what the revelations will be, so I’ll refrain from posting my conjecture, lest this thread end up in GD or the Pit. 
Good post.
I have the the barest outline of knowledge of Erik the Red’s and Leif Erikson’s story in Vinland. A passing knowledge of the Norman Conquest of England and most of the most major players there.
I would add that centruy also had:
Pope Gregory VII 1073 and the Penance of Henry IV at Canossa 1077
St. Bernard of Clairvaux 1090
1095-1099 First Crusade 1095
c.1095 Song of Roland
That is about it off hand.
I wouldn’t be surprised if because of our mass media and storage devices 3000 seems closer than 1000 does to us.
I think the “20th Century” will be remembered as when we started to have crude audio and video records instead of paintings.
Put me down as one of the ones who is doubtful about the existence of the human race circa 3000. Either we’ll wipe ourselves out or invent aritificial intelligences far superior to ours and beomce something a lot smarter than us. But the next hundred to two hundred years are gonna be hell in some places, maybe a lot of places.
Three possibilities, barring extinction:
First, technological progress continues at it’s present rate. Perhaps it decelerates, but it continues increasing rapidly. In that case, as Struan notes, the humans, or post-humans, or A.I. of 3000 will be as far from us as we are from the stone age. They/it will regard this period as the point where it all took off–aviation, space flight, computers–and may have a certain interest in it, if such beings have any interest in history at all. However, the petty politics of our day–World war two, the cold war, The rise and fall of the U.S.A.—will be completely uninteresting to any but a few specialist historians.
Second, one of many conceivable disasters occurs. The savages of 3000 AD have legends of this time when men were like gods.
Third, the pace of technological development slows or stops. Then our human descendants may have some decent awareness of this time. However, as Little Nemo’s list makes clear, a lot of stuff we consider very important may be unknown to most people.
The twenty-first century will be known as the last era before the advent of the Singularity and as such will be well known and studied as a contrast to post-human society. If you would like you could even spend some time in a reasonably accurate virtual approximation of it but you’d probably get bored and want to do something else after a few seconds.