But this is a bit of a misconception. Humanity has never stood still. The ancient Egyptians built enormous structures, the Greeks developed mathematics and philosophy, Rome created complex infrastructure, and China and the Islamic world experienced significant scientific and technological changes. Even the Middle Ages weren't nearly as "dark" as they are sometimes portrayed.

So what changed?

One of the major turning points was the Renaissance and the spread of the printing press. After the advent of printing, knowledge ceased to exist in just a few manuscripts. Scientists' ideas could spread quickly, and different researchers could read each other's work and correct errors. By 1600, hundreds of millions of books were already in print in Europe.

Then came the Scientific Revolution, and later the Industrial Revolution. Machines began to replace human labor, production became mass-produced, and energy no longer relied solely on the muscles of humans and animals. It was after the Industrial Revolution that the rate of productivity growth changed dramatically.

The result is a remarkable chain: books - education - science - technology - machines - new technology.

Each generation began to inherit not only the knowledge of the previous one, but also a vast system of tools for creating new knowledge.

And perhaps that's why the last 500 years seem like such an incredible leap. Humanity didn't suddenly become smarter. It learned to transmit knowledge more quickly, test it, and turn ideas into working technologies.

Now what’s interesting is something else: if such a leap has occurred over the last 500 years, what will happen in the next 500?