What’s with the massive boom of technology and invention over the last century and a half compared to the slow advancement of the many centuries before?

Question

What’s with the massive boom of technology and invention over the last century and a half compared to the slow advancement of the many centuries before?

In: 9

Answer 1

Generally speaking, the core issue was a lack of literacy, a lack access to previous historical research, and valuing rhetoric over experimentation.

In order to get consistent growth in science and technology, you need to have easy access to all of the work that has been previously done. If you don’t have have copies of the research and can’t read the copies you do have, you are kind-of stuck.

There is also the problem that a lot of early science was just philosophy. People would present arguments and whichever person was more convincing would have their theories and ideas become accepted. This mean that lots of ideas that sound right, but are just wrong got accepted and passed down, especially in medicine.