why did the stone age last so long?

dad · May 19, 2014

Freodin said:
Therefore, they spend a vast amount of time on perfecting methods to work stone, instead of replicating the technology they already had. Yes, that is a great explanation.

Not vast amounts of actual real time.

If stone was a better tool, and people had settled enough to use that rather than something they had used more for convenience, then why not start to use it? The only issue seems to be imaginary time...as always.

naveed · Jul 20, 2015

gattaca said:
why did the stone age last so long?

why did the stone age last so long?

3,800,000 years from the start of the stone age to the start of the bronze age.

only 6000 years from the start of the bronze age to the start of the space age.

yes why did the stone age last so long?

dad · Jul 20, 2015

naveed said:
yes why did the stone age last so long?

Because imaginary years always seem to come in large doses.

Jan Volkes · Jul 21, 2015

AV1611VET said:
Cavemen were mainly outcasts in the Bible.

They were the rebellious, the quarantined, the social misfits, the antiestablishment, even the adventurous.

Petra was a cave city.

The first part is complete gibberish.

Petra has mostly man made caves.

Catherineanne · Jul 21, 2015

gattaca said:
why did the stone age last so long?

why did the stone age last so long?

3,800,000 years from the start of the stone age to the start of the bronze age.

only 6000 years from the start of the bronze age to the start of the space age.

Yuri Gagarin

Simplest answer is language and ultimately literacy. When we can efficiently pass information down to subsequent generations it is far easier for mankind to achieve hugely more in a shorter time, and for learning to happen at an exponential rate; every generation builds on everything that has gone before.

Without language the amount of information that can be passed down is very limited; perhaps only at the level of making and using stone tools.

Armoured · Jul 21, 2015

Catherineanne said:
Simplest answer is language and ultimately literacy. When we can efficiently pass information down to subsequent generations it is far easier for mankind to achieve hugely more in a shorter time, and for learning to happen at an exponential rate; every generation builds on everything that has gone before.

Without language the amount of information that can be passed down is very limited; perhaps only at the level of making and using stone tools.

Also, agriculture, which gave people "off" time, which allowed them to pursue other interests, including technological development.

Shemjaza · Jul 21, 2015

Armoured said:
Also, agriculture, which gave people "off" time, which allowed them to pursue other interests, including technological development.

Plus it allowed for larger population density and specialists.

Armoured · Jul 21, 2015

Shemjaza said:
Plus it allowed for larger population density and specialists.

That too.

pat34lee · Jul 21, 2015

So, language and writing were key. How is it then, that rather than languages building slowly from one proto-language, we see the sudden appearance of dozens, if not hundreds of languages? There are no primitive early languages. If anything, they seem to degenerate over time, like everything else.

Loudmouth · Jul 22, 2015

pat34lee said:
So, language and writing were key. How is it then, that rather than languages building slowly from one proto-language, we see the sudden appearance of dozens, if not hundreds of languages? There are no primitive early languages. If anything, they seem to degenerate over time, like everything else.

How did you determine that there were no primitive early languages?

[serious] · Jul 22, 2015

juvenissun said:
...

Only 100 years from primitive airplane to satellite and space ship.

It seems the problem is wider than just the stone age.

dont forget moore's law...

justlookinla · Jul 22, 2015

naveed said:
yes why did the stone age last so long?

There were lots of stones.

[serious] · Jul 22, 2015

Are stone and bronze really equivalent? They represent 2 time periods, but there is no reason to assume tool material upgrades would be linear.

Consider:
Paleolithic: On the order of millions of years. Tools (one of the great inventions), fire, rafts, etc
mesolithic: 5000 years. agriculture, felt, bricks, spinning thread, the loom/weaving
neolithic: 5000 years. farming (one of the great inventions), animal domestication,
Copper age:2000 years. Smelting, mining.
Bronze age: 2000 years. Writing (one of the great inventions), seafaring, navigation, pavement, chariots
Iron age: 1000 years. Metalugry, gears/clockwork, the water wheel
Ancient history: 1000 years. Steam engines, Paper (one of the great inventions), concrete
Post classical: 1000 years. gunpowder, eyeglasses, the printing press (one of the great inventions)

At this point, development really takes off. Ina couple hundred years you have the telegraph, a few hundred years after that you have computers, a few decades after that the internet, and we are probably still acceleratign the pace of discovery.

Technology builds on technology. The more we have, the faster we get new stuff. There is probably also an element of population here too.More people means more innovation, which means more people.

AV1611VET · Jul 23, 2015

gattaca said:
why did the stone age last so long?

Because Jesus is the Rock of Ages?

SteveB28 · Jul 24, 2015

Is the original question a seriously proposed one?

If we compare any eras in human history, we find that the progress in knowledge, technology, etc approximates an exponential relationship.

Interestingly, most of the occasions upon which this progress 'breaks' that pattern is usually when a religion of one stripe or another has applied a stranglehold on the accumulation of knowledge.

Phenotype · Jul 24, 2015

The neolithic period began about 13,000 years Before Common Era (BCE) in Mesopotamia with the end of the last Ice Age, with the building of compounds from mud or mud bricks mixed with straw, the beginning of settled civilization and intensification of arts, culture, cults and social ordering.

Development of this new technology was all made possible by the beginning of the technology of agriculture. The wild type seeds and grains native to the region the hunter-gatherer population had been sustainably harvesting since the emergence out of Africa 1.8 million years ago (Homo erectus and later Homo hiedelbergensis), were now deliberately sown in tilled ground. Farming couldn't develop sooner. Conditions had to become right and cognition to evolve for farming and building, by natural selection. The old diet and lifestyle was actually healthier. Our ancestors had to adapt. Natural selection again.

Animals also native to the region were later domesticated, animals which fortuitously could be domesticated, animals (and seeds) which Australia did not have for the isolated indigenous Australians to be able to discover domestication of, in their 60,000 years before Europeans invaded.

With settled civilization, the development of metal ore smelting and casting was enabled, in time, writing and everything else up to modernity.

The technology developed in Mesopotamia spread rather quickly as ideas and memes do, with trade of animals and seeds, to Europe, Asia, India. Rice cultivation was discovered with farming.

Catherineanne · Jul 24, 2015

pat34lee said:
So, language and writing were key. How is it then, that rather than languages building slowly from one proto-language, we see the sudden appearance of dozens, if not hundreds of languages? There are no primitive early languages. If anything, they seem to degenerate over time, like everything else.

There are proto languages, but they are not primitive. The primitive roots are far too ancient to leave any traces.

Proto Indo European (PIE) is a very important and very well attested ancient precursor of most European and Indian languages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_language

DogmaHunter · Jul 25, 2015

gattaca said:
why did the stone age last so long?

why did the stone age last so long?

3,800,000 years from the start of the stone age to the start of the bronze age.

only 6000 years from the start of the bronze age to the start of the space age.

Yuri Gagarin

Yes, the stone age lasted longer then the bronze age.

This really is just a question about the nature of exponential increase of knowledge.

Progress of acquiring knowledge went from very slow to very fast.
- in ancient times: passing on knowledge was dependend on orally transfering it to off spring. Humans lived in tribes that had little to no contact with eachother, wich also means very little exchange of knowledge between tribes.

- the discovery of agriculture makes humans abbandon nomadic life and start settling down, building communities, cities, etc. This results in more free time, which can now be used to get more creative in building things, which gives a big boost in knowledge in a short period

- the invention of writing: now, there is no longer any need to orally pass on knowledge to a small group of off spring or neighbours. Now, it can be written down and distributed. This also makes it a lot easier to exchange ideas with other tribes / cities. This again gives a massive boost in knowledge in a short period.

- the invention of printing: now, writing down knowledge no longer depends on plenty of people manually copying books. Now, books can be mass produced. In turn, this makes it even easier to spread information. Again a knowledge boost.

- the standardization of the scientific method: now, new discoveries and inventions start to really follow eachother very fast. Thanks to printed books, this information is also spread a lot faster. Meaning that more people can build upon this new information a lot faster and with many more people then before.

It's a pretty logical exponential curve.

Armoured · Jul 25, 2015

"why did the stone age last so long?"

Well, simply put, stone is durable and long lasting.

justlookinla · Jul 25, 2015

Armoured said:
"why did the stone age last so long?"

Well, simply put, stone is durable and long lasting.

And plentiful. Use one up and there's dozens of more lying around.

why did the stone age last so long?

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