CHAPTER TWO
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOCIAL PHASE CHANGES
Why This Time Things Are Different
HUMAN PROGRESS is the product of a host of structural transformations that have culminated in a few big societal phase changes. Once set into motion, those societal phase changes are continual and overlapping. The Agricultural Revolution has been going on for twelve thousand years, the Industrial Revolution for more than two hundred. The Autonomous Revolution has only just begun.
This chapter will take a closer look at the dynamics of societal phase change, focusing especially on the onset of the Agricultural Revolution, the Renaissance, and three different epochs of the Industrial Revolution.
It is a mistake to assume that structural transformations are synonymous ...
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