It seems to me that we've probably only retained a small percentage of the useful ideas that humans have ever had. So many individuals have so many clever ideas (well, not everyone ;0) that nobody ever hears about.
The classic example is the Library of Alexandria and what was lost when it was destroyed with all its scrolls from the ages past. There are some theories out there that diminish the significance of the loss but I'd sure like a chance to read whatever was there!
Yeah totally agree.
Interestingly in regards to your point - there was an article - in the WSJ recently I think - about scientists who are using all sorts of advanced imaging technologies to try to recover old texts that were illegible or in some cases written on materials that would crumble if you tried to open them. So they do like 3D imaging with 12 different wavelengths and hope to be able to read some texts that were previously unreadable.
I remember when it first struck me for real (along these lines) that the trajectory of human progress is far from a straight line upwards. When you consider how advanced the classical world was and then realize it wasn’t until the renaissance - like 1000 years later - that mankind caught up and surpassed the ancients. That would be like islam taking over now and us not getting back to our present state of technology after the year 3000!
The unspoken assumption that progress is always being made, that we know more today than we did yesterday, is sometimes a correct one but sometimes not.