Over historical times, human technological development has acted something like an exponential function. For much of human history, it was achingly slow. People died in approximately the same world they had been born into. No wonder the Book of Ecclesiastes asks who has ever seen a new thing! True novelty was very rare before, say, the Renaissance. The pace of innovation was halting through the Middle Ages, increased in the Rennaissance, climbed sharply through the Industrial Revolution, and has soared in the hi-tech present.
That's historical times. Pre-history figures to offer a near flat-line graph. Anything else would be a stunner.
Long time no argue bud. I hope all is well on your end.
That's historical times. Pre-history figures to offer a near flat-line graph. Anything else would be a stunner.
It IS a stunner. There was an explosion of art, religion, and creativity in tool use that occurs in conventional dating around 40K ago. The reason it seems flatline is that the non-human hominids did have a nearly flat line for a long time prior to that, before they all (except neadertals) go extinct around 70-80K ago. When true humans arrive, there is a "BIG BANG" of creativity. The earliest art we find is just as advanced as a college freshman art major, given the same materials, could do today.
I should save my articles documenting this to hard drive. All I did was add a bookmark, and those stories have been moved.