Agriculture started roughly 15,000 to 10,000 years ago. But until about 1500, the life of the majority of people, being mostly farmers or craftsmen, did not change very much. They toiled in hard physical labor, there were animals but there was not much machinery driven by either wind or water. Farmer worked during daylight hours, after that they were exhausted and needed the hours of darkness to recover.
Except the idle minority of the powerful class, people's entire time was consumed by survival activities.
But in only about four centuries from about 1500 until 1900, the combination of mainly three factors started the development, that lead to today's level of technology.
- Printed books made more knowledge available to more people.
- First bright oil and gas lamps and later electricity replaced fire and candle as brighter light to spend more hours reading the books.
- Mass importation of coffee and tea enabled people to keep longer hours fully awake.
This created a surplus of time for people to learn, get trained and focus on reading, abstract thinking, scientific and technological inventions.
This also gave more people a chance to make use of their talents and skills.
It reduced the power of beliefs over people's thinking.
The resulting inventions enhanced overall productivity, which led as a result to even more surplus time.
It reduced the power of beliefs over people's thinking.
The resulting inventions enhanced overall productivity, which led as a result to even more surplus time.
Of course, this is a very simplified look at history.....
