Talk:21st century

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[edit] First Year

I'm sorry, but I really don't buy that 2001 was the first year of the 21st century, simply because that's not what people mean when they say 21st century - people celebrated the turn of the century on January 1st, 2000, and though that might not be entirely consistent, it's how it's used. It seems unnecessarily pedantic, and certainly counter to the most common use of the phrase, to claim that it started in 2001. BovineBeast 11:32, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

A century is 100 years. 20 centuries is 20 x 100 years = 2000 years. That last twentieth century 'included' the 2000th year. Thus the 20th century did not end and the 21st did not begin until we moved into the 2001st year of the calendar. For purposes of major socio-cultural-historical trends, one year doesn't really matter all that much. Ventifact63.226.230.76 (talk) 00:51, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Our calendar started at year 1 and not year zero. People celebrated the beginning of the 20th century on 1st Jan 1901! Why many people decided to celebrate the coming of the 21st century 1st Jan 2000 is beyond me! Do the maths. it is not pedantic to state the 21st century started in 2001, it is fact, people who don't realise this are plain ignorantDuarcain (talk) 10:44, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Since there's no year 0, let's just say that the 1st Century only had 99 years (1 CE - 99 CE) so that our belief is correct. The 3rd Millenium began in 2000, not 2001!!!!! --66.94.154.5 (talk) 00:33, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Does the 21st century exist in only the USA or what?

Honestly, the western bias in this article is making me choke. 24.149.197.53

Good point, 24.149.197.53. However, it is the English version of Wikipedia, so some bias or slant may be evident throughout, not just with this article. The emphasis on The West may not be so pronounced in the other-language versions of Wikipedia.Que-Can 03:43, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Itself

I think that under Science / Technology Wikipedia itself should be included. It is a new type of encyclopedia and I believe it to be one of mankind's greatest collective achievements of the 21st century. Cockers 14:32, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

You're probably right (wikipedia should be mentioned) but take a step back. "Mankind's greatest...achievements?" It's an innovative and incredibly usefull website, but you're just being silly now. --Stevekl 19:22, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Older comments

I'm going to add India to the countries affected by the tsunami. I'm surprised you ignored India, which more have died than in Thailand. I'll arrange it in this order: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and other countries. This is the order by largest number of deaths.

[1] explains how each millenium began in the "0" year "0, 1000, 2000..." rather than the "1" year (1, 1001, 2001...). Surely this means all the "Centuries" pages will need to be updated now a mathematical proof has been shown? --XinuX

I'm not sure if you are joking or not, but "Sorry, Sparky, but there are 11 patterns. You can't ignore the 0. It's always the first value in any number system. So a number system based on finger counting would be Base 11" is clearly wrong since 10 goes to the 2nd place. Therefore, everything he writes is of course, WRONG. Sorry couldn't resist. -Hmib 00:04, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
Sorry, Hmib, but you can create 11 symbols with your fingers. You have two symbols in base 2 (0-1), ten in base 10 (0-9), eleven in base 11 (0-10). Another way to look at it is that since by using your hands you can express the number ten with one show of hands, ten goes to the first place. I think you may have forgotten that "Everything You Know Is Wrong." 203.206.15.101 07:49, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
The problem with that website is that it is, to use a strictly technical term, bollocks. When the Christian calendar was created, 1 AD immediately followed 1 BC. There was no zero. And when counting was invented, it started with 1, and the concept of zero came along much later. Js farrar 22:49, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mass Killings

Should 9/11 really be listed as one of the mass killings? Honestly, it just pales in comparison to the others. Maybe list it in INFLUENTIAL EVENTS or something, but not mass killings, it puny. CJWilly

But it is one of the largest mass killings so far. The mass killings are ranked by total number of victims, 9/11 ranks 5th there. --Mixcoatl 13:44, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Would natural disasters go under biggest killings? i started a new stub section for natural disasters just in case not--Thewayforward 17:42, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Does anybody notice that we now seem to have six "mass killings" in the list of the five biggest mass killings? And does the tsunami/earthquake really count as a "mass killing" when it's a natural disaster? Dtobias 14:42, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)

It should be relabeled as "Mass Deaths" to include situations in which people died but were not killed. Lue3378 06:29, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Predictions

Does anyone mind if I remove Mr. Kurzweil's predictions? As someone who did AI-related research, I know his predictions in that area are totally bogus (as indeed any prediction for "real AI" arriving at any time more precise than "not soon, but beyond that no idea"), which doesn't give me any confidence in more of his prognostications. --Robert Merkel

I put them in as a curiosity, so that in the future we can check against his predictions. I hate it when people come up with all sorts of crappy predictions and later nobody takes them up on it. In fact, I would really like to add Moravecz's robot predictions as well (robots take over around 2050 if I remember correctly). Maybe we should somehow emphasize that they are just opinions, not generally shared. Other than random predictions, there's not much we can put into future timline articles anyway. AxelBoldt

Would it be better to start a page predictions for the 21st century? AxelBoldt

Yes, that would be an excellent idea. Sorry I didn't see this before. One thing that might be worth putting in is some of the climate change predictions, for instance. The more the merrier (provided they're from significant people or attract attention for some other reason). --Robert Merkel

I must say, the list of predictions is certainly interesting, and should be kept somewhere. -- Sam

Put your money where your mouth is. Visit longbets.org, a clever way to engage in futurism. Also useful for gathering controversial predictions for the 21st Century page. <>< tbc

I believe there should also be a page on fictional views of the 21st Century. The way the future used to be. How about 21st Century in fiction? --Lee M

There is Timeline of the future in forecasts. Welcome there, but please remember to tread lightly. Add the author, the year when the prediction was made and, if necessary, comment on the trustworthyness of the author. Paranoid 10:23, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Future events in fiction are not necessarily forecasts; I agree that an article like 21st Century in fiction should be made. Also, Lee M, did you mean could be for "The way the future used to be," as it has not yet happened? Lue3378 07:18, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Try timeline of fictional future events. 70.129.35.107 23:11, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

I object to Elizabeth II and Mahmoud Abbas being listed as "Influential people in politics" of the 21st century. Granted that this list is highly subjective, but still. Elizabeth II is the queen of a democratic, constitutional monarchy/monarchies, and as such does not exercise any political authority, being more of a symbolic head of state. While not only de jure heads of government are listed (Osama bin Laden), it contains mainly people whose political opinions has some sort of aspect of changing the world, for better or for worse. Elizabeth II does not fit into this. Crown Prince Abdullah does. As for Mr. Abbas, he was the prime minister for a little more than six months of the Palestinian authority, and resigned partly due to his lack of influence. In this case, Yassir Arafat is sufficient. I vote to remove these two. --Gabbe 13:01, May 28, 2004 (UTC)

I vote to remove Aznar. He didn't anything really influential, all he did was give some help to America. That doesn't make you influential, and he is irrelevent now. I don't think his term in office was that outstanding or influential. CJWilly

I don't think the predictions section belongs here at all, at least not in its current form. The predictions aren't sourced, and even if they were, unless they came from a particularly notable source (e.g. a UN commission studying the phenomenon in question) I don't see how they qualify as encyclopedic. --Soultaco 20:11, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Predictions for the 21st century as of 2003

Please note that these predictions are controversial, and disputed by many other observers: they are listed here to show some late 20th century futurists' predictions of the events of the 21st century so that they may be compared with real events as they happen.

[edit] Influential Scientists/Mathematicians?

Stephen Hawking and Brian Greene as influential scientists of the 21st century? Why don't we start by looking at some Nobel laureates before we randomly promote two physicists and science writers as extremely influential scientists? Compare these with the scientists listed in the 20th century. There we find Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Max Planck, Enrico Fermi, James Watson.... Does either Hawking or Greene even come remotely close to these people? I think no. I'll look into this further, but if someone else could, I'd appreciate it too. -SocratesJedi 07:56, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Indeed, it seems as though they've been included largely because they're bestselling authors and therefore prominent in the minds of whoever stuck them in. It'd be interesting to see some actual scientists' lists of influential scientists. Mr. Billion 08:45, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The lists of influential scientists and mathematicians are both extremely poor, but at the same time, it's difficult to simply pick off Nobel Prize winners. The Nobel is generally awarded when the person is quite old and is no longer really doing research; Ray Davis, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2002, for example, is retired and no longer really doing research. However, one could pick off Fields Medal winners, since they're generally quite young and still have many years of research left in them. That said, I think people like Edward Witten, Andrew Wiles, Nicholas Katz, Manjul Bhargava, Richard Taylor, Chandrasekhar Khare, Vladimir Voevodsky, Richard Borcherds, William Gowers, William Thurston, S-T Yau, Michael Freedman, Maxim Kontsevich, Curtis McMullen, etc, are worth considering for the mathematics list. (Witten for the science list as well.) nparikh

[edit] Influential people in politics as of 2005

Would Michael Moore warrant inclusion here? –– Constafrequent (talk page) 23:46, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I think that people are placing down whoever the heck they want to in this section, probably due to national pride. Though I don't doubt that the Finnish, Italian, and Maletese Prime Ministers and Presidents are important to the people of the said countries, they do NOT deserve to be listed with people like George W. Bush, Hu Jintao, Saddam Hussein and others whose impact and importance so far in this century is actually worth it. Wurkwurk - November 2

I agree with Wurkwurk above. Latvia's prime minister is simply not an influential figure in politics, and about half of the present list join him. That's my view. The trouble is, everyone has a different view. "Influential" is a relative term, and I would argue in favour of scrapping this section completely. How do we go about doing this? Mikedaventry - 17.44, 22 Jan 2006 (GMT)

[edit] Influential People in Technology

Is it fair to say that the Google guys, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, can be included on this list? Google has changed the face of the internet and the way that people access information (i.e. linking to Wikipedia). Riffsyphon1024 02:47, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Influential People in Entertainment

  • I think Britney Spears has been added and dropped more than once already. Is there any coherent criterion for who should be included or excluded other than people adding in whatever singers / actors / etc. they like and deleting the ones they don't?
  • The 'Boston Redsox'??? Who the hell put that there. Could someone please explain how some American baseball team has been influential to the world. --Jquarry 23:00, 11 May 2005 (UTC)
    • I saw that. I have to note that I am a huge Red Sox fan. When I saw it, I laughed and thought that someone probably wrote on the talk page that it didn't belong there. I was right, and I think that you're right. D. Wo. 06:20, 2005 Jun 15 (UTC)
  • Peterpan the Indonesian Musical Group has influenced who? Dorsh 06:49, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Triple Conjunctions

Are all of these triple conjunctions posted by 85.74.7.23 really necessary? I believe because they happen so frequently, that they are usually not regarded as major astronomical events. -- Riffsyphon1024 03:39, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Entertainment

I think we need to distinguish between influential and significant... Britney Spears and the Simpson girls may be significant in terms of sales and popularity, but I hardly think they (especially Ashlee Simpson) are influential... pomegranate 13:50, Feb 25, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)

Should he be considered for Influential People in Religion yet, or is it too early? -- Riffsyphon1024 19:02, Apr 19, 2005 (UTC)

I think it's too early. He hasn't accomplished anything yet other than don the papal crown. Mr. Billion 05:38, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Looks like somebody's stuck him in anyway. Are we going to include every pope this century? If so, he warrants inclusion here simply by virtue of being Pope. If not, he will only warrant inclusion if he does something outstanding.
I think that over time we're probably going to see a lot of non-influential people inserted here, simply because immediacy makes things seem more important. If somebody reads the current version of the article at the end of this century, they may not have ever even heard of pope Benedict XVI because his reign will likely be relatively short, and there isn't any reason to expect him to do anything particularly remarkable. Whoever replaces George W. Bush will also almost certainly be placed here by someone, regardless of how active a president his replacement actually is. Mr. Billion 23:24, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
I think it is appropriate to place Pope Adol... I mean Pope Benedict XVI here. He has already stirred up quite a buzz, his reign is likely to determine the future of Catholicism, so on. It is not fair to compare this page with the 20th century, since this century has had only 5 years and the last century 100. We can delete stuff as they become less important. -Hmib 23:56, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
If the Dalai Lama and Falung Gong's founder are included, I see no reason not to include Ratzinger. John Paul II was far more influential in the 20th Century, while his reign in the 21st was not only short but also less important, compared to what he did in the 1980s and 1990s. As for Ratzinger, I would think that he should be included simply by virtue of being pope. If in, say, 20 or so years, his papacy turns out to be rather unimportant, we can delete him. The "too early" argument applies to the whole article. saturnight 23:30, Jun 21, 2005 (UTC)
All right, then. I've got no more objections. Mr. Billion 17:32, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Science fiction set in the 21st century

There's got to be countless thousands of science fiction stories set in the 21st century. Maybe the section "Science fiction set in the 21st century" should instead be its own article or category? Either way, we'll eventually need some criteria for inclusion. Mr. Billion 05:57, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Current Issues

A. Overpopulation bias?

The list of issues and concerns seems to be NPOV except for the section on overpopulation. It seems that the issue is biased to the supposition that overpopulation is evil. I believe the contrary. Densly populated nations like Luxembourg and Switzerland have higer quality-of-life indicies than sparsely populated nations like Mongolia and Angola. D. Wo. 06:29, 2005 Jun 15 (UTC)

I tried to NPOV it. -- Beland 00:12, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Then again countries like India, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Indonesia and many others are overpopulated any paying the price. Canada has very very few people for its landmass - even its populated regions are not that dense - and its quality of life is very good. When it comes down to it, overpopulation is a threat that is harming the world and mankind itself. No benefit will come when all of nature is torn down for skyscrapers, that is self evident. Wurkwurk, November 2 I agree that concentrating on overpopulation not only is NPOV, but is also irrelevant for this timeframe. Overpopulation was an issue in the 1970s, and it lead to the instigation of birth control in the developing world. By all means, talk about food scarcity, environmental degradation or poverty, but other factors like civil disturbances and corruption are greater culprits than population size. If anything, ageing has emerged as a twentieth century issue as baby boom cohorts in rich countries begin to retire. Even in the developing world birth rates are falling.

B. Abortion is a major current issue

It is insufficient to list abortion merely as word in a one sentence blurb on morality, while "overpopulation alarms" (which promotes total access to abortion) gets a paragraph. To maintain balance here, it needs to be stated that millions of preborn babies are destroyed yearly in all major western countries, and many of these countries are pushing this upon third world countries as a solution to their problems of poverty. rjp2006 Jul 12

[edit] Large portions of the world have current population deficits..

Some areas have populations that are shrinking, not growing. Take Europe for example. If this trend has changed in the last 2-3 years, it hasn't changed much. The global population could easily double without becoming a major global problem.

Also, I always see some remark of "The War on Terror" on any political or social article even remotely related. I always see the criticisms of the 'war' but I never see the rebuttal as to why it might just be fighting the greater of two evils. Terrorist attacks involving islamic fundamentalists have been occuring since WW2. North Korea, for example, is an immediate threat to two U.S. allies, Japan and South Korea. Immediately after 9/11, the DOW industrial average dropped over 7% to around 8950, the largest decline ever in a single day. If you are referring to the Patriot Act, the slight majority think that the Patriot act doesn't go far enough. Note that only 13% know much about the Patriot Act. 60% know little or nothing about the Patriot act.

Just try to keep it objective for all readers. If you are going to start by listing criticisms, link the rebuttals as well. IMHO, McCarthyism and Nixon's strong arm tactics were more of a threat to civil liberties than the "War on Terror". Some would agree that the "War on Drugs" impedes on civil liberty more than the "War on Terror". Speaking of which, that page could use a Pro and Con list.

[edit] Influential people in Religion

I've removed Joel Osteen and Billy Graham, since their fame in the USA does not mean very much in the rest of the world. I've thought a bit about who should be included in this list, and I think it should suffice to list leaders of or very influential people in the largest world religions. Khamenei, Benedict XVI and the Dalai Lama should definitely be included. Now, I don't live in America so I don't know who are the main leaders in American Protestantism (maybe Graham should be included after all). I don't know much about Hinduism either. Can somebody help me here? --saturnight 12:18, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Issues and concerns

Should there be an item added about morality (sexuality, media content, etc.)? Religion (clashes of civilizations, cultural integration, adapting to the 21st Century, secularity, recruitment, etc.)? Democracy? Human rights? Anything else of major global importance? -- Beland 01:21, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Technology Missing?

The article reads as if technological progress comes to an end, frozen in time, since 2005, for the remainder of the century.

It is extremely likely that we will have the technology to:

  • record and communicate everything that we see and hear
  • live our life in virtual reality, rending physical transportation near pointless
  • augmented reality
  • read the spoken voices of the people around us
  • speak electronically without moving our mouths
  • construct visual maps of knowledge, making it possible to learn much faster than today

It is possible (likely?) that we will see:

  • human-level AI, and then post-human AI
  • nanotech assemblers
  • life extended to 150 (by isolating brain from body,) and then (within a few extra decades?) beyond (by siliconizing the brain)

I work on TaoRiver and WikiCities futures wiki.

LionKimbro

[edit] Alphabetical Order

In the Influential people in politics as of 2005 section, a note says the names are in alphabetical order. They are not. For instance, George Bush is right above Vladimir Putin while Jean Chretien is somewhere below both of them. It is probably easier to remove the note than to reorder them all.

[edit] Removed Outer Space

Outer space uninhabited for the last time (this moment may have already passed) Since the above makes no sense, I removed it. .

[edit] The 21st Century began in the 1990s?

Who keeps sticking this in here? It doesn't make sense. If the 21st century began in 1991, then "century" doesn't mean anything. It's an issue of semantics: To accept this, you'd have to redefine "century" to replace "100-year timespan" with something fuzzy like "social era" or "zeitgeist." You could certainly argue that "the modern age" began in 1991, but it does not make sense to twist the calendar for this purpose.

The "some historians" who supposedly think that the 21st century began in 1991 aren't referenced, and I've never heard of them except from the anonymous user who keeps sticking this in. Wikipedia shouldn't give undue space to fringe views, and this sounds particularly fringe and nonsensical. It's somebody's arbitrary division and personal terminology. --Mr. Billion 18:34, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

REPLY:

That would be me. True that, being I was born in 1990 I like to think of the '90s as part of the 20th Century, but they seem so 21st to me. I wrote instead that "many 21st Century trends began in the 1990s and one may say the 1990s are in the same social era as the 2000s and a different one from the 1980s and earlier decades". Many, if not most people would agree with that.

That's a bit POV, isn't it? ;) But I agree, the first decade of a certain century is always affected by the last decade of the preceding century. --TonyM ｷﾀ━( °∀° )━ｯ!! 18:59, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Facts about the 21st century?

Unsubstantiated content removed:

"The 21st Century is probably the last century without space travel being available to the masses"
"First century wherein the Internet has been essential"
"Increased technologies may eventually affect freedom and privacy"
"First century completely into the Digital Age"

None of these "facts" seem encyclopedic. Dev1n 20:58, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

I agree. I saw that added and intended to remove it, but got sidetracked by other tasks. Thanks. --Mr. Billion 00:55, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Deaths in War (iraq)

Should we really have that Lancet study in there? Although it was definetely widely disseminated and is notable for maybe affecting people's views on the war, it's margin of error is absolutely enormous. Although the mean amount of deaths they predicted was 102,000, the 95% confidence interval is plus or minus 94,000. The study really isn't worth that much. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 209.50.91.70 (talk • contribs) 18:31, 11 January 2006.

[edit] Science and technology

This section is terribly overrepresented by space missions. Surely there must be other major discoveries on other scientific disciplines too!--Jyril 19:35, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A Common Misconception

The link to the year 2091, doesn't work and instead re-directs you to the main article, the 21st century....

shouldn't the twenty-first century be from 2000-2099 after all the first two digits should never match the century their in. Tell me what year was it 2,006 years before the year 2006.

1 BC. bob rulz 09:08, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
(There was no year 0, hence the first century goes to Dec. 31 1000 (et.c)) MotherFunctor 04:27, 30 April 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Archbishop of Canterbury?

Should he be under 'influential people in relgiion'? He is the head of the Anglican Church, and his opinions are considered important when it comes to international events...

[edit] Neuromancer

Why is Neuromancer by William Gibson listed under Television and film when it's a novel? And I don't think any date was given in the book.

I'm deleting it.

[edit] Astronomical Events: Eclipses?

Should we include eclipses in the Astronomical Events section or would that be too excessive? Valley2city 22:23, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Fred Espenak at NASA predicts the longest solar eclipse of this century in 2009. Could this be added? Eclipse predictions exist in the wiki article '22nd_century' so why not? Longest Total Solar Eclipse: 2009 Jul 22 Duration = 06m39s Reference: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEcat/SE2001-2100.html hrf 22:41, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Update on Saddam Hussein

It says Saddam Hussein is "currently held by US forces," when he was recently executed. 68.227.203.150 01:30, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Problem with "Gregorian calendar"

At the very beginning of this article where it is stated that the 21st century is the current century of the "Gregorian calendar", this is somewhat incorrect or misleading. Since the Julian calendar was used right up until the 16th century reformation by Pope Gregory, the 21st century can also be applied to this calendar. But it would be much easier to make reference to the Anno Domini (AD) era, since this is the abbreviation applied to all years post-1 BC. Would anyone disagree with this? If so, what would be better?. — RunningAway 21:29, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sports re: TdF & Floyd Landis

NPOV issue? "2006- Floyd Landis wins the Tour De France, but later, it would be known that he was indeed doped. Óscar Pereiro Sio is not yet, but will be crowned as Tour De France champion, later this year." As of today 20070103, Floyd Landis' victory has not yet been stripped, as the court case is still on going, it is too early to say that Oscar Pereiro will be awarded the win, as Floyd could be acquited or the case could be dropped. more info: cyclingnews.com coverage --Skyleth 22:04, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New, encyclopedic & cited "pronunciation" section

I have added a new (rather lengthy) section on the pronunciation issues with 21st century years to this article, and would appreciate comments on it here. Any fixes you feel are needed, feel free to change them in the article. But please, do join me in conversation here prior to fully reverting. Thank you for co-operation. -- Sarcha 45 19:35, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

  • just one comment ... surely the reason people are using the two-thousand-and-'n' system is because you HAD to say 'year 2000'... 'twenty-hundred' just sounds daft. Once it started, enertia set in & we just got used to saying two-thousand. (There was also all that silly talk about what to call the first decade, e.g., "the noughties". What was that all about?) Back to the point, aren't the BBC officially using the twenty-oh system now? I'll try and find out & report back. Aelfgifu 16:45, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
Language should by definition be efficient, yet complete. Calling it "twenty oh five" because we called 1905 "nineteen oh five" is utterly ridiculous. They called it "nineteen oh five" because that is shorter and more efficient than the alternative "nineteen hundred five." Along the same vein, "two-thousand five" is shorter and therefore more efficient than "twenty oh five." I don't know why newsreaders have to make it overly complicated. 71.113.148.6 03:03, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
Bullspit. They called 1905 "nineteen hundred and five" during the actual time period, and we've come to call it "nineteen oh five" today. Just like people in the future will refer to the "September eleven, twenty oh one attacks".—142.176.111.5 (talk) 17:52, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Resource Depletion

By the 2040s or 2050s, oil and natural gas reserves from underground will run out. This means none left. So shouldn't we humans think of ways of using renewable resources instead? This may take a few years but I don't think this should take centuries. If we do this, we will make our Earth cleaner. But if we don't find ways of using renewable resources, what will become of us when oil and natural gas run out? 67.126.77.166, 05:00 15 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Anna Nicole Smith

Important developments, events, achievements - Other - Anna Nicole Smith dies, and that's important news?! Out of all the people who have DIED in the 21st century, she's the one you'd put in wikipedia as influential death?. Dale Earnhardt was a sports hero to millions, I could MAYBE see why that made it, but her death was huge media circus, and end to a tragically comic life that makes the real world really seem like fiction. I deleted it. Cryptik 05:59, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Solar Eclipse

I don't wish to sound anti-American here or anything, but why does America's first total solar eclipse of the 21st century count as being more important than any other country's? China, Japan, Australia, Southern Africa, Brazil, Russia, Spain, etc. have all had or will have their "first total solar eclipse", as will many other countries. Is the USA really this much more important? --El Pollo Diablo (Talk) 10:16, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Page needs trimming

This page needs to have 30% of it pruned. The speculation of 20-11 for example. Who won what cup when for example. A lot of the entertainers. This is the 21st century remember, and it is going to be 100 years. No point in putting in everyone who was notable in the first seven years, and not leaving room for the remaining 93. Will anyone remember Britney Spears in 80 years? Not likely. Get the page down to 32K and keep it there. 199.125.109.82 13:47, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] This may be nit-picking, but...

The article says, It began on January 1, 2001 and will end December 31, 2100. Technically, it won't end on December 31 2100, but at 12:00:00 AM January 1, 2101. As long as it's still December 31, it's still the 21st century. It won't not be the 21st century until it's January 1, 2101. Blackworm (talk) 06:54, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, that would be an "exclusive" end, but for an "inclusive" end, the article is correct. Groupthink (talk) 22:14, 25 January 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Locking article?

This might seem stupid, but this article is like a warzone. Some put the Finnish head of State, while others remove it. And its never really ending. So a lock might be plausible until the article is 100 % trimmed and such. 193.183.253.33 (talk) 10:19, 8 February 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Dominant themes?

2nd paragraph: While the 20th century was marked by the rapid development of travel fueled mostly by petroleum, the 21st century is marked by concern over how to cope with consequences of pollution and resource depletion.

erhaps it's a bit early in the 21st century to write about what it's 'marked' by? We're not even 10% through it yet . . Maybe this just needs to be reworded.

Also, after reading the previous entries on this talk page, I propose that we form a mob and tar & feather Kurzweil, hog tie him, and throw him on a barge bound for Shanghi —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.77.128.175 (talk) 06:18, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Significant people section

Folx, I don't know about you, but I'm tired of the constant adds and deletes to the various subsects of this sect. Frankly, this sect seems silly, arbitrary, and blatantly in violation of WP:NPOV. We the editors are NOT supposed to be determining who is and is not significant: Verifiable sources are. Now I know that a counter-argument could be made along the lines of "US President G.W. Bush is obviously a significant 21st century figure" but on WP, even "obvious" content is supposed to be backed by citations of reliable sources.

So forgive me if I do offend, but I'm being bold and removing the whole danged section. Groupthink (talk) 08:04, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

This is a tad irrelevant but i think we should wait some more years to accuratly determined who is significant to be part into the article. Pathfinder2006 (talk) 10:40, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
As you can see from my restoration of the section, I think there's some people we can immediately say are significant: Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winners. To that list one might add winners of awards such as the Turing Prize, the Von Neumann medal, the Kennedy Center Honors, various sports' Halls of Fame, the Oscars, the Grammys, the Tonys, and the Emmys, et al. Groupthink (talk) 19:55, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

if you are going to include al gore you should defnatly include obama and mccain —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.32.159.25 (talk) 01:44, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

The difference is that Vice-President Gore won a Nobel Prize. Notice that President Bush is in the list for being named Time's Person-of-the-Year. Groupthink (talk) 13:03, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
Oh, and would you PLEASE quit adding Richard Stallman to the list without a source indicating that he is a significant person for the entire 21st century? I love the guy, too, but we're trying to be objective here. Groupthink (talk) 13:06, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Other

can someone add the year of discovery for this sentence, "Discovery of four chemical elements, of atomic number 113, 115, 116 and 118." Pathfinder2006 (talk) 10:45, 3 March 2008 (UTC)