== Quote from Walter Bright (newshou...@digitalmars.com)'s article > Sometimes I think what if I were dropped naked back in time 20,000 years > ago? Assuming I didn't get promptly cooked for dinner, what technology > could I deliver that would have the most impact? > I can't decide between iron, agriculture, or writing. I suspect writing. > Every time humans got better at communicating, there was a huge increase > in the rate of progress. > speech > writing > printing > telegraph > telephone > internet
One that noone seems to mention, not only on this NG but in general, is birth control. I think a pretty good argument can be made that a major reason for recent social advances is that, by only having 2-4 children per set of parents instead of 10-20, parents are able to invest much more in each child than they otherwise would be. The end result is a much more educated society and one with enough surplus resources to look beyond its mere collective survival to actually improving its state of knowledge, comfort, etc.
