The most profound technological changes, those that have modified the human being, society and the planet, have been born from the talent of a few geniuses and not from social progress: the accelerated technological progress experienced in the last 500,000 years would have its origin in the individual creative genius.
According to a paleontologist from the University of Bath postulates in an article published in The Conversation, the great technological changes that marked a before and after in human history, from the use of fire and stone tools to electricity and current devices electronic, began in the minds of a handful of "creative geniuses" and then expanded: they were not the work of group advances, but of individual creative impulse and its subsequent collective use.
For Nicholas Longrich, Professor of Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology at the British university, various scientific studies show that humanity's great inventions were not developed by different people independently, but rather came to light on a first occasion and then spread. they shared. In other words, this means that they were unique and unrepeatable creations at the time of their appearance: a few people noted for their intelligence and creativity were responsible for the great inventions in history.
An accelerated evolution
While in the first million years of human evolution technologies changed slowly, in the last 500,000 years this progress accelerated remarkably, coinciding with the period in which the brain size of ancient humans began to overlap with that of modern day humans. Three million years ago, our ancestors made rudimentary stone elements. A million years later hatchets appeared, while a million years ago fire began to be used, albeit in a very precarious way.
However, something caused these great changes to multiply and accelerate in the last 500,000 years: the spearheads, the sublime mastery of fire or the bows changed societies and took them a step forward. Beyond the importance of the invention itself or the use to which it has been put, the innovations generated cultural, social and economic advances of resounding significance .
Great prehistoric geniuses?
Apparently, they would be the work of a few "prehistoric geniuses": this would allow us to understand why the technological revolution was not the work of a single people. Innovations arose in different groups, such as modern and primitive Homo sapiens or even Neanderthals, and then spread.
A first individual invention caused it to be shared on a social level, as a "flash" of talent from a member endowed with greater intelligence and creativity. In this way, we might think that there were no superior groups or peoples, at least in the same historical period: it is from within these societies that people emerged destined to give the initial impetus to great changes.
Also in modern times
The prehistoric pattern observed in the technologies developed at that time is similar to that seen in earlier times. On the one hand, some innovations developed repeatedly, such as agriculture, mathematics, or writing , which were invented independently throughout the world. By contrast, fundamental developments such as the wheel, gunpowder, or the printing press seem to have been invented only once in the form of unique creations, before later becoming widespread.
Lastly, the author points out that the last great advances of humanity, such as electricity, the airplane or digital technologies , have also emerged from individual "geniuses" such as Thomas Alva Edison, the Wright brothers, the Curies or Steve Jobs, to mention a few examples. It could be concluded, then, that the patterns that mark the great human advances are similar in the different historical periods, coexisting with a more collective or generalized development with some sudden individual creative outbursts, which change societies forever.
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