How come in the past 2008 yrs we have advanced in technology&human rights than the past 4 000 000 yrs before?

Question

Within the past 2000 years we have advanced in human and women rights and technology (electricity, phones, cars). But humans apparently had about 4 000 000 yrs before the common era (these past 2008 yrs), so how come they didn't advance as fast in technology and so on and "we" have?

Answer 1

  Probably the most important advance was of movable type so books could be printed in mass.  Then they became affordable, and knowledge could be passed along easily, and travel around the world.  That caused a more rapid advance of technology and science, which fed trade and travel, which fed knowledge...reinforcing each other.

Answer 2

Civilization has a snowballing effect.  Humans are pack rats of knowledge and behavior and have learned to pass that trait on to their children by education.

Answer 3

Well, back then, people were more concerned about how they were going to get their 3 square meals, and surviving attacks from animals & surviving a harsh climate.

Then there was the fact that people didn't really settle down into agriculture for quite sometime didn't domesticate animals for even longer, and didn't start cultivating metals, etc. until much longer than that.

So until life was a right and not a privilidge, and until technology was born in the processing of metals, there couldn't be much headway for anything else to be done.

The struggles of the people 4,000,000 years ago, make us what we are today. Rome by the way, was quite advanced, and is like the US now. But, orgies, and the human appetite for bigger, better, and more more more, seemed to kill the Roman empire....and now the US is going down the same toilet b/c of the same perverted greed and lust.

It's only a matter of time until the Universe snaps back on itself, and we are starting all over from the beginning again.

Answer 4

Try for before and after 1945 - that's where the real growth spurt started.

It also happens to be my lifespan so I have observed the exponential growth of human progress, and yes it is, despite those who focus on the disadvantages.

To think about improving your life, you need food, shelter, health and some degree of personal security, which happened for what we call the developed nations only in my lifetime.The 20th century was the first time that massive changes actually emanated from the people whose lives they affected, in the 19th C revolutions etc started with the middle classes - who had all the above needs a lot earlier than the workers.

Education was the catalyst. In 1945 school leaving age in Australia and the UK was 14.As well as allowing children to grow up without backbreaking labor, raising the age to 16 and beyond means they matured earlier and that includes thought.

Allowing girls to grow up without too-early marriage and children enabled these girls to learn and develop work skills, which in turn gave them more leverage as valued members of public society, to fight for their needs through democratic process.

All of which is under threat at present as the ultra-conservatives fight back. I hope today's women show the determination their mothers did - from what I have seen in my daughter's group, they will.

Especially with their view that progress is also measured by how well we care for our planet.

Answer 5

It's exponential growth.  When it comes to technology, with each new break through (discovery/invention) it leads to a great many more new break throughs.  Without the mastery of fire, we could not have begun to mold and mix metals into something other than its rawest form.  Add to that war.  The sad truth about war is that without it, technology seems to stagnate.  A classic example is aviation and rocketry.  When you look at and compare what the Wrights did in 1909 to what was going on in Anthony Fokker's shop in 1917 and in Chance/Vought or Grumman in 1944, it's almost unimaginable.  It took war to motivate those with money to do the research and development to make things progress that rapidly.

As for human rights, in most places, we've a long way to go.