There's a lot of interest in this subject but most answers and books fall far short. For example, no one talks about it but all our existing level of technolog

There's a lot of interest in this subject but most answers and books fall far short. For example, no one talks about it but all our existing level of technology relies heavily on machines we've already built, without those machines we've got to resolve the chicken and egg problem. Most technologies rely in some part on chemistry being understood at an advanced level as well. The last 50 years have seen chemistry fall out of the limelight because job growth has been largely non-existent, and introduction to chemistry is dangerous. If you do any kind of research on this subject you'll eventually wind up being held back by the Malthusian trap until you have enough people producing a wide variety of resources. You can only have a modern society after you've reached a critical point in development, prior to that its a struggle to survive and you need lots of people to do it, and people require food. As for historical mistakes, that's impossible. History is constantly re-written for the powers of the day, and everyone has their own opinions. The only way to avoid historical mistakes is to have some technology that can transfer/implant memories from previous generations. The historical context simply cannot be reliably transferred to future generations. Without something like that, you end up having situations where a generation that didn't know the horror of war and the people in power brings the world to the brink of annihilation yet again within a generation or two all because no one remembers the important details, or lead up from the last Great War; only what is taught which has been revised multiple times to the point of being useless.