The phrase "last mile" reveals an interesting civilizational blindspot since the consumption locus is actually the middle of the journey of anything. The endpoint is landfill or recycling locus. If you set consumption locus =0, you get 1st and -1st miles...
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From what I've researched it seems (not 100% sure) like the term appeared first in discussions of transit ie. commutes between home & work, and then subsequently got applied to logistics/consumerism. There's probably some implicit associations to unpack within that evolution.
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Though the term does not appear in it, I trace the spirit of it to Herbert Spencer's Social Organism essay.
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Probably depends how broadly it's defined. In terms of movement of people the idea (under a different name) is probably at least as old as horse-drawn predecessors of urban commuter trains. From a quick search Wikipedia actually describes it as originating in telecommunications.
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