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What was your 100th object?

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Paul Sargeant Paul Sargeant | 19:01 UK time, Wednesday, 13 October 2010

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People talking and browsing the web in a park

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Tomorrow we will find out what the British Museum has chosen for its 100th object. It will be one of the five contenders that have been announced over the course of the last week: a football shirt, a mobile phone, some Antarctic clothing, a solar-powered lamp and charger and a pestle & mortar.

However, while we’ve been waiting to find out what the British Museum’s 100th object is, we’ve been asking you what your 100th object would be.

We’ve had a great response, and people have been discussing the idea of an object that sums up life today across Ö÷²¥´óÐã radio; from Greg James’s listeners on Radio 1 to Collins and Herring’s Nerd Army on Six Music.

Broadcasting House kicked us off on Radio 4 on a Sunday with objects including an International Red Cross collection box, an iPad and a botox needle.

That seems like a pretty good summary of the fantastic suggestions that you’ve given us; from the thought-provoking, to the zeitgeist grabbing, to the satirical.

I wanted to give a flavour of what you’ve been sending in, so I thought I’d list a few of our favourite suggestions in similar sets of three. So here you go:

A sheet of foam rubber from a flip-flop factory in China (which is now part of a worker’s roof), a grain of genetically modified wheat and an empty purse.

A UN helmet, the large hadron collider and some Jedward merchandise.

An antibiotic pill, a memory stick and the cap on the BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

An AK-47 rifle, a cctv camera and a can of energy drink.

I think that gives a taste of the range of objects that you have nominated. However, there are a few that have clearly been more popular than others.

Plastic bags and bottles of mineral water were regularly suggested as examples of our wasteful lifestyles, and the wind turbine was a popular nomination as an object that could define our future.

But the two suggestions that have been made most frequently are a mobile phone - or smartphone - and a pc or laptop. And, as you may have guessed, the reasons given for these choices were mostly about connecting to the internet.

It’s easy to understand why. The internet is undoubtably one of the transformative technologies of our age. It’s already had a huge impact on our lives and yet we are really only just beginning to understand the effects that 24-hour access to unlimited information and a permenant record of our lives online may have over the coming decades.

We already see how it’s quickly become an important part of many people's daily life but we don’t yet know how important or where it will lead. Who knows what that smartphone or pc will enable us to do next year?

Tomorrow we find out what the British Museum’s choice of object is and there is a mobile phone among the five contenders. So maybe the power of the web even extends to predicting the future.

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  • The photo of people using their phones and laptops in a park is by and it's used .


What do you think? Add a comment

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 2.

    Why oh why oh why am I not allowed to alter the artwork to A History of the World in 100 Objects downloads? I want to paste the relevant pictures which you provide to each file so that it is displayed when listening.

  • Comment number 3.

    A History of the World in 100 Objects was a brilliant idea, stimulating and thought provoking.

    One object that was missing was a pay slip of a hedge fund trader from around 2008 showing the salary and the (million pound+) bonus.

    This would remind us how far our economy is being run by the greedy and the irresponsible, and how far we have come from the medieval idea of the just price.

  • Comment number 4.

    I was rather disappointed by the choice of the 100th Object. I'm sure a solar powered lamp is interesting but not perfect for the ultimate object. I think a telephone would be more relevant; first invented more than 100 years ago and only available to a rich minority to the mobile phone which is available to all. Perfect communication!

  • Comment number 5.

    Very disappointing, a solar powered lamp is hardly that significant when compared with the Internet or even the more humble but life changing mobile phone. A silly decision and missed opportunity from a series which was a great concept but ended up being rather drearily presented by Mr MacGregor

  • Comment number 6.

    Final object is disappointing. It should have been the silicon chip -this is key to all modern forms of communication -computer/mobile phone etc etc/

  • Comment number 7.

    The internal combustion engine revolutionised land, sea and air transport and enabled space travel. It therefore seems odd it hasn't appeared in the list.

  • Comment number 8.

    My 100th object would have been a transistor. This has enabled electronic equipment from the trannie radio of the 1960s, through early computers, to practically everything today from a mobile phone to an aeroplane, not forgetting the solar powered lamp itself, to be made cheap enough and convenient enough for the mass market. Unfortunately, I don't have one at hand to photograph, but any sufficiently old TV or radio would contain several, if not dozens of them.

    There are still 4 more to go before the 100th, however. Will it be one of them?

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