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?
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None of the answers offered before this one is really correct. The real answer to your question is energy, specifically coal. You need to put some energy in to get some energy out. In the case of human labor, this means how much work you can get from the food a person eats. For animals this is higher, but still not much. Burning coal however, producing steam to run machines (and later turbines to produce electricity), provides vast amounts of energy compared to the work needed to mine and burn it. The oil ratio is even better. It’s all this “surplus” energy that allows technology to advance. If you look at the history of coal usage, it tracks quite closely with the boom of technology.
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