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

While I think the general answer of ‘technology begets technology’ is the core reason, it is also important to acknowledge that the relative levels of worldwide peace and political stability from the last century were critically important to the advancement of civil technologies. This is for a couple reasons.

1. Fewer people in militaries means more people (and government budgets) can freed up to focus on other activities, including technological advancement.
2. Conflict stalls advancement by disrupting peoples lives and leads to small and large migrations as well as the destruction of critical infrastructure. In recent memory, consider how the events in Ukraine are disrupting their technological development e.g.
3. War prevents collaborations and the sharing of information between technological innovators as governments seek to prevent information leaking to their enemies.