How to Understand The Accelerating Pace Of Human Progress

We have been living on this planet for quite a while now. It took us a long, long time to invent basic technology like the wheel. But we invented the motor car significantly faster after we discovered the wheel.

This trend is the same in other technological areas as well. It took us literally tens of thousands of years to invent something so fundamental as language.

But we went from the telegraph to the telephone to the juggernaut that is the internet in less than 200 years.

But wait; there’s more! We don’t look like we are slowing down with our development either. What makes our sustained acceleration in technological progress possible?

I recently came across a fascinating Reddit discussion, which inspired me to scavenge information on this topic. In this essay, I will be presenting a theory that explains how and why we (humanity) are able accelerate our technological progress.

Please note that this is not my theory (strictly speaking). I am merely presenting the information that I have collected on this topic, which involves the work of many, many human beings. As for me, I just find this topic so fascinating, that I had to write about it.

I will be presenting this theory in ten epochs/stages, each being discrete stages of human technological progress. Let us begin.

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Stage 1: Language (50,000 to 150,000 Years Ago)

Not many people look at language as a technology. But in my opinion, it is absolutely a technology. Not only that, but it is also one of our strongest technologies.

Think about it. Many other species teach their offspring what they know about life like hunting, gathering, tooling, etc. But one of the fundamental factors that differentiates us from them is our language — it is simply much more advanced.

This enables us to transfer knowledge across generations more efficiently. The result is compounding knowledge and exponential growth.

You and I do not need to reinvent the wheel. The funny thing is that we don’t even understand the intricacies of the wheel. Here’s the thing: we don’t necessarily need to.

We only need to build on top of what our ancestors knew to keep the knowledge-base growing.

Stage 2: Agriculture (around 12,000 Years Ago)

We take our basic food sources for granted today. But our ancestors did not have it as easy. The literally had to invent agriculture. Here’s an interesting question:

Why did it take our ancestors so long to figure out how agriculture works?

Well, as far as I could tell, human beings knew how to plant seeds and consume plant-based food long before agriculture. But what seems to have played a key role is climate shift.

Yes, it is the same theme that scares us today that likely helped us invent agriculture in the past.

Global warming enabled large groups of human beings to settle down in resource-rich hotspots like coasts. This in turn, led to civilisations!

I don’t know where I read it, but there’s a saying that goes like this:

Human beings live a 100 lives in a small village; they live a thousand lives in a small town. But they live millions and millions of lives in a thriving city.

Having invented agriculture and established civilisation, not everyone needed to be good at everything.

People started focussing on specialisation. The ‘OG’ divide-and-conquer strategy enable human beings to gain expertise in various fields at an accelerated pace.

Stage 3: Writing (Around 6000 Years Ago)

This one really hits me hard. We invented language tens of thousands of years ago. Yet, it took us so long to establish written language.

From what I can tell, writing flourished at the same time in several civilisations. So, the key factor could have been the invention of civilisation.

All of a sudden, we could preserve and pass generational information much more efficiently.

This also enabled us to invent powerful technologies like the calendar (I bet most people do not consider this a technology as well).

Before we could use modern science to compute eclipses, our ancestors used historical records to compute and predict future ones. And they used written records to do so.

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Stage 4: The Printing Press (600 Years Ago)

Why did it take us thousands of years (yet again) to go from writing to printing?

This one also baffles me. But when we look at the components of the old printing press, things start to get clearer.

For us to invent the printing press, we had to invent many (relatively) smaller technologies in the mean time. These include the material science, manufacturing processes, the standardisation of the alphabet, the system of money, etc.

But once we had the printing press, our technological progress shifted in to hyper-gear!

Stage 5: Academic Science (roughly 400 Years Ago)

The printing press empowered knowledge-sharing, which led to more people becoming scholars. This eventually led to the invention of what we now know as the “scientific method”.

Smart human beings collided and figured out a standardised and universal way of using logic to propose, reason, test, and develop theories. Again, the idea of observing and recording was not new.

But the notion of standardising it and agreeing on how to prove and disprove knowledge turned out to be a game changer for our technological progress. We use this piece of technology until this very day (my own writing included).

Stage 6: Industrial Revolution (Around 150 Years Ago)

Not long after the printing press and the scientific method, the industrial revolution powered ground-breaking advances in all areas of science simultaneously.

Tools of science like measuring instruments (the microscope, for example) also started getting refined capabilities.

Technologies like the steam engine kicked off automation on a global scale. Again, the concept of automation was nothing new, but standardised automation that extended across the globe was.

If you are interested in reading more about the steam engine, I recommend my essay on Entropy And Heat: The Hidden Connection Behind Time Flow.

Sure, it also caused wars due to colonisation, etc., but it also meant that a mechanical gear manufactured in Britain could also be replaced by one that was manufactured in India.

Stage 7: Electronic Revolution (20th Century)

When I was a child, I learnt about the industrial revolution at school. But today, not many folks talk about the electronic revolution. This is because this revolution is so fresh in our history, that we have barely begun recording it.

Factor in scientific advancements like Claude Shannon’s master thesis, and our world went from analogue instruments to digital computers. This enabled an entirely new paradigm of precision and accuracy.

The invention of the transistor (Shannon’s colleagues at Bell Labs invented this at the same time) enabled us to establish computing and communication at a scale that we had never experienced before.

Stage 8: The Networking Revolution (Late 20th Century To The Present)

We had global communication before. But we kept inventing better ways of communicating. Technologies like Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) enabled various devices to communicate with each other.

Parallel advancements in satellite technology gave us gems like the Global Positioning System (GPS). Combine all of this, and we arrive at the world we live in today — smart phones, smart fridges, smart shoes, and whatnot.

We are just in Stage 8, and we are already at the present state of the art. What could Stage 9 and Stage 10 be? Well, it is just me speculating on our future. I will probably be wrong, but it is still worth it, provided that I cannot resist the opportunity.

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Stage 9: Artificial Intelligence (The Next 50 Years)

With advancements in machine learning and computing, we would be able to recreate our fundamental intelligence using these systems.

Even if these systems don’t surpass human intelligence at an individual level, they could be deployed via the internet on a global scale. This would enable further automation of higher-order technologies like the scientific method.

Imagine automated scientific discoveries, software development, etc. This might sound impossible or impractical (for now).

But if and when achieved, such advancements would enable us to focus on more important technologies that lie ahead of us. Right, what could such technologies be?

Stage 10: Energy and Sustained Survival

We are already making ground-breaking progress in nuclear fusion. If we keep at it, we would eventually be able to tap more and more “star power”.

This would, in turn, enable us to start colonising new planets. Theoretically, this should increase our chances of survival, given that our star (the sun) will eventually die.

Of course, the chances of human extinction are currently higher than our survival. But given our history of acceleration and our present form, we need to back ourselves here.

Conclusion — Understanding the Accelerating Pace of Human Progress

To sum up, this theory attributes the accelerating pace of human advancement to cumulatively smaller advancements working in tandem with compounded or exponential growth.

You and I did not invent the wheel. You and I are probably not going to solve nuclear fusion. But our work matters. We make progress not as individuals, but as a collective. There is no collective without individuals.

As we continue to push the boundaries of our knowledge and capabilities, let us recognise the interconnected nature of our achievements and the importance of collaboration in driving the innovations that will shape our future!

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Credit/Source: Reddit post that inspired me on this topic.

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Further reading that might interest you: 

• Barnum Statement: How To Really Debunk Astrology
• How To Hear Acceleration Without Modern Technology?
• Is Technology Dependency Really A Concern?

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