The sky is blue, grass is green and Star Wars is influential. Three totally undeniable statements of fact. And while you need science to figure out exactly why the sky is blue or grass is green, to figure out why Star Wars is influential you can now simply look at this chart. Made back in 2005, Wired writer Michelle Devereaux created a highly detailed graphic showing how almost every single of Star Wars, from its technical advances, story points and even alumni, affected the world after it. So while we all know that Star Wars was influential, now we can trace those influences step by step.

Though this was designed by Michelle Devereaux in 2005 for Wired, we were alerted to it by the website Bit Rebels. Thanks to them both for creating and alerting us to this awesomeness. It’s important to realize though that, because this image is six years old, it’s already kind of dated. But we can kind of fill in the blanks after what’s on here. Check it out.

For me, the things that I knew about – but still blow my mind – are the computer applications. John Knoll created Photoshop, Editdroid spawned Avid and ILM birthed Pixar which was bought by Steve Jobs, who created Apple. To think that if George Lucas hadn’t created Star Wars, we wouldn’t have iPad, iPhones or iPods is an almost preposterous leap to make – but – there’s most certainly a small link. Then again, this chart also simplifies things to their most common denominator so other, non-Star Wars influences are missing. But still, it’s pretty impressive.

Is there anything on this graphic that surprised you? What’s your favorite connection? And can you think of any other films that might have had just a hint of this kind of long lasting legacy?