Humanity spent its first hundred thousand years eking out a bare existence in a hostile and unforgiving environment. Thousands of generations led the same nasty, brutish and short lives. Although inventing agriculture was a major game changer, a farmer from 4000 BC Mesopotamia would still easily recognize his 1500 AD peer as equal in most ways. Then around 300 years ago something happened that opened the lid on human creativity, which unleashed a might-bending wave of progress, unbroken and accelerating ever since. The turning point is known as the Enlightenment.
