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The Signposts Timeline: 2001 AD-2002 AD In the aftermath of a stunning terrorist attack, a wide variety of opportunists exploit a panicked America Sponsor this page

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Before 2000 AD in Perspectives...

Signposts Timeline Prologue (2001 AD-2002 AD) Table of Contents

2000-2001: The Millennium fails to end the world, despite the predictions of religious zealots and others

1960-2001: The transformation from physical economies to information economies seems evident in the steadily declining gross physical weight of US GDP (Gross Domestic Product) relative to the rising value of same over the period-- from $two trillion to $ten trillion

2001: It is not illegal for the United States government to sell a dead person's personal identification information

2001: The National Security Agency of the USA has far more information flooding in than it can assimilate

2001: Scientists are experimenting in labs with tractor beams, stretchable ceramics, transparent electronics, inertial dampening systems, object replicators, synthetic wood manufacturing, Terminator-like materials which may shift from liquid to solid states and back again, and cleaner and more effective replacements for many modern chemical catalysts

2001: Software complexity is reaching crisis proportions for many users and developers

2001: The global internet now boasts 100 million hosts and over 350 million users; Significant rebellion against ICANN emerges; The US Congress largely ignores its email messages

"Money no longer buys goods or services -- it buys the chance to maybe possibly get a good or service." -- Ted Rall, Mother Jones magazine, 2001

2001: Public libraries in USAmerica are under seige as never before

2001: USAmerican power utilities are paying mid-western farmers $2000-$3000 per year per each wind-driven electricity generating turbine on their land.

2001: Medical research scientists are making progress towards growing mice with human brains

2001: Humanity as a whole's short attention span is costing it dearly

"We're in the worst possible time to have to rely on our government to do the right thing. Government has been captured..."
-- Lawrence Lessig, 2001

2001: Fullerene nanotubes cost roughly $230,000 per pound

2001: It appears that ancient DNA can survive in the ground no more than 100,000 years, barring extraordinary and/or highly unusual environmental conditions

2001: Though DVD is an important media standard in several types of consumer appliances now (for gaming consoles, digital TV recordings, etc.), the battle with CD for dominance of the PC/NC markets continues...

2001: Around 75% of worlds similar to Earth in the Universe have existed on average roughly one to three billion years longer than Earth

2001: USAmerican power sources circa early 2001: 39% petroleum; 25% coal; 22% natural gas; 6% nuclear power; and roughly 8% from a combination of geothermal, solar, wind, and biomass; Photovoltaic cells cost $2.20 per watt to manufacture.

"The privacy war is over--you lost"
-- Brock Meeks, MSNBC, 2001

September 11, 2001: Over 35,000 people die of starvation worldwide, most of them children under five years old; 578 entire species go extinct; on this same day almost 3,000 people die in a terrorist attack on US soil

America is Faced with a Crisis in Governance

2001: USAmerica is stunned by a successful terrorist strike on its World Trade Center and Pentagon

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." -- Conservative US columnist Ann Coulter, 2001

"I am worried about it -- I think we are getting an overreaction."
-- a senior U.S. official, 2001, speaking about certain troubling aspects of the newly passed U.S.A. Patriot Act

"Americans ... need to watch what they say..."
-- White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, 2001

"...freedom and human rights in America are doomed...the U.S. government will lead the American people in and the West in general into an unbearable hell and a choking life." -- terrorist Osama bin Laden, late 2001

"We have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules and preserve our open society as if there were no terrorists."
-- Thomas Friedman, 2001

2001: Perhaps the last significant governmental impediment to Microsoft's global monopolies in the computer and internet industries is cleared away-- maybe setting the stage for an eventual global economic depression ten years down the road

"...not even in their wildest dreams could the business elites have imagined that in 2001, the [US] AntiTrust department itself would be offering a convicted monopolist state protection..."
-- Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 2001, describing the US settlement with Microsoft

"...."Sellout" isn't too strong a word to describe the U.S. Justice Department's settlement [with Microsoft]....Neither is "dangerous"..."
-- Dan Gillmor, 2001

2001: Microsoft wants to keep private all information about newly found security problems with its software

"...the more private people are the more likely it is that they can represent a threat to our public safety..."
-- Richard Purcell Sr., Microsoft, 2001

2001: 56% of the Global 2500 IT companies are using open source software

$200 pseudo PCs/NCs

2002: Approximately $200 virtual PCs/NCs (or pseudo-PCs/Network Computers) are becoming available in a variety of ways now

"This century may be a defining moment for the cosmos. If humans do not destroy themselves they may spread beyond the earth into a universe that could last almost forever." -- Martin Rees, 2002

1998-2002: Online services, cable TV companies, telecommunications utilities, and PC/set top box makers appear to be converging in many instances...

"...the argument for national security should not serve as an excuse for obliterating the Constitution." -- U.S. District Court Judge Robert M. Takasugi, 2002

"I've been warning people that we are already moving toward a police state.....we're going in exactly the wrong direction." -- Ron Paul, 2002; Republican, and one of only five US Congressmen to vote against the USA Patriot Act

1977 AD- 2002 AD: The average cost of a US college education increases by 300%

2002: The world is awash in potential energy sources; Enormous (perhaps "inexhaustible") supplies of hydrogen gas (an almost ideal type of fuel) are discovered deep in the Earth's crust, even as simple biological sources of hydrogen are also isolated; Another immense pool of untapped energy reserves consists of gas hydrates in sea floors and permafrost around the world; Recent discoveries show that at least some old fashioned crude oil deposits are refilling themselves after depletion too, via unexpected natural means, possibly indicating estimates of world oil reserves are far too low

"We won't be putting money into a society which is not transparent and [is] corrupt, and I suspect other countries won't either." -- US President George W. Bush, 2002

"Fifty-one percent of 280 fund managers...said...that U.S. earnings are the worst in the world when it comes to predictability, volatility and transparency." -- Pierre Belec, Reuters; 2002

"...many of the professionals on whom we would like to rely for guidance are proving untrustworthy and even corrupt."
-- TIME magazine, 2002

2002: There is mounting evidence that certain American notions of economics and capitalism are not necessarily the best or most efficient

2002: The overwhelming majority (90%) of young white male employees in USAmerica are destined to experience a smaller rise in income over their lives than their father's generation did

2002: The world wide web is diverging into at least two distinctly different entities

2002: Mainstream internet news reports are fluid, often subject to on-going changes to respond to additional information received, editorial changes to the 'balance' in the story, and more; such changes are not always noted for the readers of the medium

2002: Regular jobs kill, injure, and sicken more people worldwide each year than war

2002: Possibly as much as 98% of the 'dot-com' companies existing in early 2000 may have failed or been bought out by early 2002

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(For more about this period check out Perspectives 1990 AD-2050 AD)

Beyond 2002 in the Timeline...

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