The Year of Work — A Mangrove Almanac
12,000 years compressed into a single calendar year. A design experiment in Human General Intelligence — how humans and AI think, imagine, and build together.
How to read this: Each month represents 1,000 years. We end at midnight, 31 Dec 2025 → 1 Jan 2026. December spans 1026–2025 CE (~32 years/day, ~1.3 years/hour). Zoom: full year → December → last week → last day → last hour.
1) The full year (12,000 → 1)
Spring (Mar–May): settlements → proto-cities
Summer (Jun–Aug): writing, cities, empires, pyramids
Autumn (Sep–Nov): iron, philosophy, paper, navigation
Winter (Dec): print → science → industry → computing → AI
H1 · Jan–Jun
Jan9975–8976 BCEfarming begins
Feb8975–7976 BCEpottery & storage
Mar7975–6976 BCEproto-cities
Apr6975–5976 BCEirrigation & metallurgy
May5975–4976 BCEcomplex politics
Jun4975–3976 BCEwriting & cities
H2 · Jul–Dec
Jul3975–2976 BCEearly empires
Aug2975–1976 BCEpyramids & trade
Sep1975–976 BCEiron & coinage
Oct975 BCE–25 CEclassical world
Nov26–1025 CEpaper, compass, clocks
Dec1026–2025 CEprint → AI
2) Zoom: December (1026–2025 CE)
| Date in Dec | ≈ Year | Milestones |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 10 | ~1410–1442 | Printing press emerges |
| Dec 15 | ~1571–1603 | Global voyages (Columbus/da Gama) |
| Dec 16–18 | ~1603–1668 | Scientific Revolution |
| Dec 23–24 | ~1757–1790 | Industrial Revolution; Watt’s condenser |
| Dec 28–29 | ~1890–1955 | Electricity, telecoms, early computers |
| Dec 30 | ~1961–1993 | ARPANET → Web; early mobile |
| Dec 31 | ~1993–2025 | Smartphones, cloud, deep learning, AI |
Each December day ≈ 32.26 years. 31 Dec = 1993–2025.
3) The last week (24–31 Dec → 1757–2025 CE)
| Date | ≈ Years | Shift in work |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 24 | 1767–1799 | Steam & factories |
| Dec 25 | 1799–1831 | Railways, telegraph |
| Dec 26 | 1831–1863 | Mechanisation, photography |
| Dec 27 | 1863–1896 | Electric grids, telephone |
| Dec 28 | 1896–1928 | Mass production |
| Dec 29 | 1928–1961 | Offices, ENIAC |
| Dec 30 | 1961–1993 | Networks & PCs |
| Dec 31 | 1993–2025 | Smartphones & AI |
4) The last day (31 Dec → 1993–2025)
00:00
1993
Web 1.0; email era
1993
Web 1.0; email era
04:28
1999
Dot-com boom
1999
Dot-com boom
06:42
2002
Search + e-commerce
2002
Search + e-commerce
10:25
2007
iPhone launches
2007
iPhone launches
14:08
2012
Deep learning
2012
Deep learning
16:22
2015
Cloud as default
2015
Cloud as default
17:51
2017
Transformers
2017
Transformers
19:21
2019
Large-scale LMs
2019
Large-scale LMs
21:35
2022
ChatGPT
2022
ChatGPT
22:19
2023
Multimodal & agents
2023
Multimodal & agents
23:48
2025
Ambient AI
2025
Ambient AI
00:00
2026
Midnight — New Year
2026
Midnight — New Year
1 hour ≈ 1.34 years · 1 minute ≈ 8.2 days
5) The last hour (23:00–24:00 · 31 Dec 2025)
| Clock | ≈ Date | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 23:00 | Oct 2024 | Frontier models, policy |
| 23:30 | Jun 2025 | Agentic AI at work |
| 23:45 | Sep 2025 | AI-assisted creativity |
| 23:59 | 31 Dec 2025 | Ambient AI |
| 00:00 | 1 Jan 2026 | New Season Begins |