Note: There are (at least) 2 variants of this timeline. A table version titled The Instrumentality of Mankind appears in the original July 1975 Nelson Doubleday hardcover. A reformatted graphical version titled Timeline from THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF MANKIND appears in both the September 1975 Ballantine paperback and the 1988 Gollancz hardcover. Both variants list the "Stories" and "Surrounding Events" for each millennium from 2,000 A.D. to 16,000 A.D. However, the later graphical version has several differences in events and story order, which may be corrections to the original Nelson Doubleday table version.