How did humans be around for 200,000 years and only got technology recently?

[superpunch]

This is mind blowing to me. So supposedly we were around for 200,000 years and the most advanced stuff we invented was farming, bows and arrows, a wheel, swords, and shields?

 

[Headkicktoleg]

Do you know how to build an engine?

 

[LEGS MAHONEY]

Aliens

 

[RayA]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it? Things like innovation and discovery come last when it's a daily struggle to amass the basics like a food.

 

[essie]

This is mind blowing to me. So supposedly we were around for 200,000 years and the most advanced stuff we invented was farming, bows and arrows, a wheel, swords, and shields?

 

[essie]

We haven't been white for 200,000 years.

 

[Rex Kwon Do]

 

[gspieler]

Progress isn't linear
For the vast majority of that time, groups were isolated from each other
Hard to build an airplane when you're being chased by a tiger
Earth is only 6k years old

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

Its like wealth -- takes a bit to build a decent base but when you do, its much easier to make it go at an increased rate

 

[MadSquabbles500]

This is mind blowing to me. So supposedly we were around for 200,000 years and the most advanced stuff we invented was farming, bows and arrows, a wheel, swords, and shields?

Our ancestor were still pretty darn smart. They came up with lots of brilliant ideas despite starting out with so little. The thinkers of today get to stand of the shoulders of those giants from the past.

Good examples

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno's_paradoxes

In a way, our ancestors are smarter than we are. Today we have all these books to read, calculators, and references. Our ancestors had to bootleg everything.

 

[gspieler]

The more I think about, the more impressive it is. 200k years is next to nothing on an evolutionary scale.

 

[Midnighter]

Perfect

 

[MadSquabbles500]

Progress isn't linear
For the vast majority of that time, groups were isolated from each other
Hard to build an airplane when you're being chased by a tiger
Earth is only 6k years old

People understood the principles of aerodynamics though. Like kites, gliders, arrows, throwing axes. Their problem was finding a power sources that can be transported along with the flying medium to sustain the flight. Well, the chinese did eventually discover gun powder. From that point on, Humans just needed even more trial and error experiments to break down all the matter into its base chemicals, and then recombine them to find the desired effects.

 

[bad seed]

this should explain it to you.

Basically, it took all that time to develop stable population densities so that we could focus on the exchange of ideas rather than mere survival from hunger, disease and predators. And it continues to accelerate.

 

[dudeguyman]

This is mind blowing to me. So supposedly we were around for 200,000 years and the most advanced stuff we invented was farming, bows and arrows, a wheel, swords, and shields?

Human progress is mostly a exponential thing.

 

[Curmudgeon]

Mind fuck to someone 40 years ago..."I have a device, thinner than a cigarette, no bigger than a playing card in my pocket, that has the entirety of information known to mankind. I use it to look at pictures of cats and argue with strangers".

 

[MusterX]

This is mind blowing to me. So supposedly we were around for 200,000 years and the most advanced stuff we invented was farming, bows and arrows, a wheel, swords, and shields?

It doesn't make sense to me either. Anatomically modern humans have been around for about 200,000 years which means at least in the last 50 or 100k years the people living has been as smart as you or I. The only thing that makes sense to me is that periodically, maybe every 10 or 20 thousand years, a natural disaster like an asteroid or an ice age wipes out and resets civilization. These would be civilizations lost to time. There is some good evidence that the last time this happened was around 12,000 years ago which is why its been taught in schools that the Sumerians where the first real civilization. Maybe they wern't. Maybe we just don't remember what happened.

 

[dudeguyman]

It doesn't make sense to me either. Anatomically modern humans have been around for about 200,000 years which means at least in the last 50 or 100k years the people living has been as smart as you or I. The only thing that makes sense to me is that periodically, maybe every 10 or 20 thousand years, a natural disaster like an asteroid or an ice age wipes out and resets civilization. These would be civilizations lost to time. There is some good evidence that the last time this happened was around 12,000 years ago which is why its been taught in schools that the Sumerians where the first real civilization. Maybe they wern't. Maybe we just don't remember what happened.

 

[Cheese]

When did Moore's Law start?

 

[Bob Gray]

Culture was the seed of proliferation, but its gotten melded. Into an inharmornic hole.