The 2,000-Generation Gap: Why Did Knowledge Take So Long to Explode?
I recently came across one of the most stunning archaeological finds of the decade: 60,000-year-old poisoned arrows discovered in South Africa. This isn't just a "cool artifact"—it’s proof that Middle Stone Age hunters were utilizing advanced chemical technology tens of thousands of years earlier than we thought.
It got me thinking: 60,000 years is a massive span of time. Based on the Indiana University study of human generation intervals, about 2,000 generations separate us from those Stone Age chemists. Why did humanity "stall" for so long? Why did we only see a drastic leap forward in the last 500 years?
I believe the bottleneck wasn't intelligence; it was knowledge sharing. For 1,980 of those generations, wisdom was shared only through oral tradition—from mouth to ear. If a lineage died out or a story was forgotten, that "technology" was lost. We spent millennia "reinventing the wheel" because we lacked a way to store our progress.
The Three Stages of the Knowledge Revolution:
- The Printing Press (Gutenberg): This was our first real "Save Button." By mass-producing books, Gutenberg ensured that ideas could no longer be forgotten. Science didn't just grow; it erupted. It allowed one generation to stand directly on the shoulders of the last.
- The Internet: This was the next leap—taking the world’s wisdom and making it accessible to everyone, everywhere, instantly. It removed the barrier of distance.
- Artificial Intelligence: Now, we have entered the third stage. If the Internet gave us the data, AI is giving us the ability to synthesize and apply it at speeds no human brain can match.
We are no longer just "sharing" knowledge; we are accelerating its creation.
It makes me wonder: Are we standing at the edge of something so big that it will transform us beyond recognition? Is it possible that the next 50 years will see more development than the last 500 years combined? We are no longer walking through history; we are being propelled by a technological engine that is just starting to roar.