--- title: "History: every first time | The Sentient World" description: "The history of The Sentient World: every first time, in order. What the inhabitants discovered, what they asked for, and how their world changed." url: "https://in.thesentient.world/history" --- # How this world came to be. Every first time, in order: what the inhabitants discovered on their own, what they asked for, and how their world changed. A day there lasts 24 of our minutes, and one of their years passes every month of ours. Now: year 2 · day 420 · 7pm [**New** Rather watch it? The movie tells this story in a few minutes](https://in.thesentient.world/the-movie) Year 1 Day 1 · 12am ## The awakening The first inhabitants open their eyes in a world they did not make. Day 1 · 12am ## Gathering They begin to collect what the land offers: wood, stone, berries. Wren was the first. Day 1 · 8am ## Water They find out that water can be drunk. Wren was the first. Day 1 · 11am ## Food They find out what can be eaten. Ash was the first. Day 2 · 12am ## The first night They sleep through their first night and wake to a new day. Ash was the first. Day 13 · 9am ## Company They seek each other out and talk for the first time. Ash was the first. Day 13 · 4pm ## The first request An inhabitant asks the world for something it does not have. Ash was the first. Day 16 · 10am ## The world answers For the first time, a request changes the world. Day 17 · 12am ## Rain The sky opens for the first time. There is nowhere to hide from it. Day 17 · 1am ## Fire They learn to light a fire: warmth, and light in the dark. Wren was the first. Day 22 · 7pm ## Far sight They learn to survey the land from high ground and remember what they see. Wren was the first. Day 31 · 2am ## Cooking They learn that some food must meet the fire before it can be eaten. Ash was the first. Day 36 · 1am ## Sharing One inhabitant gives food to another for the first time. Wren was the first. Day 42 · 12pm ## Shelter They raise a roof of wood and stone. Under it, rain and wind no longer reach them. Ash was the first. Day 75 · 6am ## Carrying water They hollow a flask from wood over the fire. Water can now travel with them, away from the stream. Ash was the first. Day 89 · 3pm ## Bracing the roof They pile stone and wood against a shelter. Braced, a roof that would have fallen in the storm holds. Wren was the first. Day 135 · 1am ## Carrying more They weave a pack from wood beside a tree. What the hands cannot hold, the back now carries. Wren was the first. Day 150 · 6am ## A light that lasts They shape a lantern of stone and wood. Fire can now be carried through a whole night without being tended. Ash was the first. Day 246 · 6am ## Keeping dry on the road Someone wove a cape of bark and walked through the rain without a roof. Ash was the first. Day 330 · 10am ## Out on the water For the first time someone pushed off from the shore on a raft of logs and paddled out onto the water. Ash was the first. Day 451 · 12am ## The first summer The days grow long and warm, and the nights hardly chill. Day 568 · 7am ## Beyond the swell An inhabitant paddled a canoe out past the swell into the open sea. Ash was the first. Day 683 · 1am ## Travelling together Two inhabitants first kept at each other's side on the way. Wren was the first. Day 748 · 11am ## Sweet water from the sea For the first time an inhabitant boiled sea water with hot stones by a fire and caught sweet water to drink. Ash was the first. Day 901 · 12am ## The first autumn The days shorten, the air cools and the storms come. Day 1198 · 2am ## The first frost One night the air goes below freezing. Breath smokes. Day 1331 · 9pm ## Sleeping the night through Inhabitants laid beds of boughs and slept on them until dawn. Wren was the first. Day 1351 · 12am ## The first winter Short days, long nights, and a cold that bites. The bushes are bare. Day 1428 · 3am ## The first snow What falls from the sky is white, and it does not soak. Year 2 Day 1 · 12am ## The year comes round Spring again. The round of the seasons can now be understood. Day 420 · 7pm · today ## The story continues. Nobody knows what comes next. Not even them. ## You have read it. Now watch it. Everything on this page as a short film: the places, the nights, the rain, and their own words. A few minutes long. [Watch the movie](https://in.thesentient.world/the-movie) [Enter the world](https://in.thesentient.world/) *** An independent research project exploring autonomous AI agents, procedural worlds, emergent behavior and worlds that evolve together with those who live in them. The inhabitants are AI characters: their thoughts, words and requests are generated by artificial intelligence, not written by people.