... it’s a solar-powered lamp and charger. Like many of you – I’m sure – I was eagerly awaiting the unveiling of the artefact that would tell the final chapter in our history of the world in 100 objects.
We did our best to build the tension by revealing a shortlist of contenders. Through them we offered what Neil MacGregor and the rest of the team have identified as some of the key issues of the times in which we live.
The final object in many ways combines some of those key ideas: it’s a mass-produced item you could buy across the world; it uses technology to potentially change lives in the developing world; and it can provide a clean, independent and ultimately free source of power to make such transformative tools as mobile phones work.
But this one goes further. This one tells us not only about the current chapter in human history but also about the next one.
Unveiling his choice, Neil MacGregor described how the first stone tools made two million years ago by our earliest ancestors allowed us to gain control of our lives and our environment. Fast forward – a lot – and in the twenty-first century, that’s what this impressive, but simple, piece of kit has the potential to do:
We felt that this was a kind of tool that – like the stone chopping tool – is really going to change lives, to change the way we think and the way we are.
And why? This clean source of renewable energy offers many parts of the developing world power – often for the first time:
You don’t need mains electricity. Everywhere that has sunshine has access to power. This means the poorest parts of the world now have a choice.
It can’t be cut off by local authorities. It allows a family to live in a certain way. The light doubles their day. It allows everyone to have the same access to light which until now has been available only to the urban elite.
That’s a powerful and transformative thing when you think about it. Being able to flick on a light means time to study, it means cooking without needing to use dangerous and expensive kerosene to light the kitchen.
Yet also by having the means to charge a mobile phone it connects you to the rest of the world. The potential for what that can do is enormous: connectivity through communication and access to knowledge on a previously unimaginable scale in many parts of the world.
That fact alone can change lives on a huge scale. It also, as Neil points out, connects us to our very oldest ancestors:
It’s of course about capturing the sun – that’s the oldest myth of every culture in the world. You can take the sun and use it whenever you want. The myths in Ancient Egypt, and every culture, are now reality.
This morning, looking back at the story he has been telling for the last 10 months, Neil recalled the words of Amartya Sen, professor of economics and philosophy, who spoke on the first programme in the series:
There is no sense in talking about world cultures or world histories. There is a world culture and a shared history. As we are going to have a shared future it’s worthwhile talking and thinking about that shared history.
For me, this object encapsulates much of what that statement is saying. It connects with our shared history, but also points to our future. And really, what better way is there to finish our story of humanity than that.