The article was on to something, that something only becomes viable when its stronger or faster then a human. Because human labor has always been cheap. I'm sur

The article was on to something, that something only becomes viable when its stronger or faster then a human. Because human labor has always been cheap. I'm sure engines and other things existed before, but they where only available for kings, or smart people with free time (money). What have been the single most important factor for our recent technology explosion is that human labor has become more expensive because of opportunity cost. People will not join the army if they can get better paid doing something else. So it's also solves wars and crisis. But it can only be achieved politically. If you where a king, there wouldn't really be any incentive to make other peoples life better, as you then would have to pay more for services, and the people might overthrow you if they think they can fare well on their own.