Spaceship Earth is a journey through the history (and prehistory) of human communication. It’s a Disney favorite, loaded with animatronic wonders and impressive Imagineering design. Perhaps most importantly, it’s housed in the amazing and iconic geodesic dome that represents Epcot to the world.
But as you climb aboard the time machine, it’s probably a good idea to warn your kids that the history they’re about to hear is only moderately accurate.
That’s because the script, as presented magnificently by Dame Judi Dench, skims and skips over an awful lot of actual historic fact. Yes, much of what’s said in the script is sort of true if you don’t dig too deeply – but if you scratch the surface you notice a few questionable statements.
Here are 7 points in the Spaceship Earth story that don’t quite fit the facts.
1. Humans went from basic communication to cave drawings in 15,000 years
Image: Disney
Here in this hostile world is where our story begins. We are alone, struggling to survive until we learn to communicate with one another. Now we can hunt as a team and survive together. It takes 15,000 years to come up with the next bright idea: recording our knowledge on cave walls. There is only one small problem, when we move, the recorded knowledge stayed behind.
We aren’t told when the story begins, so it’s hard to know which 15,000 years Dame Judi is talking about. But – assuming that we’re all good with the idea of human evolution–it’s really pretty unlikely that people went from basic communication and hunting in groups to cave painting in just 15,000 years.
Evidence suggests that early humans (not necessarily Homo sapiens) were sitting around campfires more than a million years ago – something that would be very tough to do without communication. According to the Smithsonian, there is even evidence that our human ancestors were butchering their meat and burying their dead more than 200,000 years ago. Clearly, our forebears were doing some pretty sophisticated thinking and communicating.
And it was 40,000 years ago (to our certain knowledge) people were painting on cave walls (on the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi). ) 40,000 years is a long way (chronologically speaking) from 200,000 years ago, or from our next stop in ancient Egypt – which was a world power just 5,000 years ago…
2. Egyptians invented paper which led to the “Dawn of Great Civilizations”
Now let’s move ahead to ancient Egypt, because something is about to happen here that will change the future forever. This unknown Egyptian pounding reeds flat is inventing papyrus, a sort of paper. Papyrus in turn creates better record keeping of plans, designs and unfortunately taxes. But it also brings with it the dawn of great civilizations.
This part of the script certainly seems to be suggesting that paper, along with record-keeping and great civilizations, was invented (or at least set in motion) by some unknown Egyptian.
Papyrus did come from Egypt, but paper as we know it (made from rag and fiber) was invented in China.
More significantly, however, neither the Egyptians nor the Chinese invented writing on objects other than cave walls. That was done much earlier by Sumerians who wrote in Cuneiform, a system of writing that used V-shaped images pressed into wet clay. While clay tablets weren’t as easy to carry or roll as papyrus or paper, they certainly provided major civilizations (which came before the Egyptian civilization) with the ability to record information.
3. The first basic alphabet was invented by the Phoenicians
Image: Ben Ostrowsky, Flickr (license)
At this point each civilization has its own form of writing which none of the others can understand. But the Phoenicians, who trade with all of them, have a solution. They create a simple common alphabet adaptable to most languages. Remember how easy it was to learn your ABC’s? Thank the Phoenicians, they invented them.
There’s a little truth and a little exaggeration in this bit of the script. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the very first real alphabet was the North Semitic alphabet, developed in Syria around the 11th century BC. It included 22 letters (all consonants) and, like our alphabet, was written from left to right. This was the forerunner of what is called the Phoenician alphabet.
Did the Phoenicians really invent an alphabet at all? Some historians say yes, while others disagree. What we do know is that the Phoenicians, who traded with civilizations all around the Mediterranean and beyond, were key to spreading the use of a common alphabet around the globe.
4. The Ancient Greeks invented mathematics and public schools
Image: Disney
The ancient Greeks were great inventors of the future. First they established public schools, and then begin teaching an intriguing new subject called mathematics. And with math comes mechanical technology and the birth of a high tech life we enjoy today.
Let’s explore this part of the script a little more closely.
Did the Greeks invent mathematics? No. Greeks did not invent math. What they did invent was the idea of mathematics as a discrete area of study, along with the NAME “mathematics.” And a many great mathematicians lived in ancient Greece.
But the basics of mathematics – including complex mathematical concepts such as geometry and quadratic equations – were invented long before the Greeks were a twinkle in history’s eye. The Babylonians, Egyptians, Sumerians, and Chinese were all calculating to beat the band a thousand years before Archimedes and Aristotle developed formal logic. The critical discovery (or invention) of the zero (without which modern math would be impossible) came, not from Greece, but from Egypt, in about 1740 BC.
Did the Greeks invent public schools? OK, if you feel that schools intended to serve about 7% of the population are “public schools,” then I suppose this is a reasonable claim. If, on the other hand, you feel that “public schools” are schools which serve the general public then… no.
5. Rome’s “World Wide Web” is leading us into the future
Rome built the first world wide web, and it’s leading us into the future.
This is a fun metaphor, but it seems to be implying that Rome’s amazing system of roads (many of which still exist, and which really did connect civilizations) is leading us into the future. Not quite sure what that’s about… unless the idea is that taking the Roman roads will lead you to cities in which people are working on new technologies which will shape the future? Hm. That’s a bit of a stretch!
6. The Home Brew Club and Apple Computers invented the first computer small enough for the home
What if everyone could have one of these amazing machines in their own house? There’s just one problem: They’re as big as a house. The solution comes in of all places, a garage in California. Young people with a passion for shaping the future put the power of the computer in everyone’s hands. Together we form a super network that goes with billions of interactions, and once again we stand on the brink of a new Renaissance.
The script seems to be telling us that Jobs and Wozniak were the first to create a computer smaller than those used to send a rocket to the moon. They were not. There were multiple small programmable computers invented before the Apple, including the Altair and the Cromenco (one of the first small computers with a screen). But those first small computers were sold in kits and built and used by enthusiasts and professionals.
What made the Apple special was the fact that it was really the first personal computer which could be plopped on a desk and used by the average person. What also made Apple special, of course, was Steve Jobs – whose ability to sell the concept of the home computer made the Apple corporation one of the most successful in the world.
Whether we’re on the brink of a new Renaissance is debatable – but things are certainly different as a result of the desktop (and laptop and handheld) computer!
7. The Internet has created a truly global community
After 30,000 years of time travel, here we are, a truly global community, poised to shape the future of this, our Spaceship Earth.
The 30,000 year mark is a tricky one; it’s not quite clear where that number comes from… but what the heck, it does take us from the time of the hunter-gatherers to the modern era. Just be sure your kids don’t zero in on 30,000 as a significant number.
Perhaps more importantly for homework purposes is the expression “a truly global community.” Are we a global community? On the one hand, most (though by no means all) of us are in fact connected through digital technology. On the other hand… well, we’re not exactly all on the same team, working together as a community toward common goals.
But Epcot, and Walt Disney World as a whole, are all about the idea of a positive future… and it sure would be great if we WERE a truly global community… And maybe saying it’s so is the first step in the right direction!
