>In light of this, I think the deepest explanation is in general economic and cultural factors. Indeed, with enough people with enough spare wealth, you can ha

>In light of this, I think the deepest explanation is in general economic and cultural factors. Indeed, with enough people with enough spare wealth, you can have significant progress even when technology remains flat. There is an immense difference between the Greek dark age and classical Athens, but not technologically. And intellectually curious people can figure out how to fly just using paper.[1] Apparently, the first iteration of the bike in the early 1800s was a briefly popular toy: the very epitome of unguided discovery is play. Only later was it made practical by inventors working from that exiting idea. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgolfier_brothers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgolfier_brothers