So far, it seems like the Industrial Revolution was the key accelerating factor for our civilization. Conditions for it were right (or very close) at the height of the Roman Empire. They were probably pretty close at the height of Chinese power, and the Islamic world before the Khans.
…but we’re still a young civilization, and are extrapolating from very little data. It could be that we’ve yet to encounter most of those inflection points. Maybe the next one is “the Singularity” - but beyond that we really have no idea.
All of this is consistent with humanity being very early on the timeline of the universe.
What I know is that technological progress was very slow, until suddenly there was a breakthrough and it rapidly accelerated. Now, we have enough of the fundamentals down that new technological breakthroughs are happening extremely rapidly. What a time to be alive, of course, but what suggests alien civilizations wouldn't follow the same trend of rapid acceleration rather than constant growth?
…but we’re still a young civilization, and are extrapolating from very little data. It could be that we’ve yet to encounter most of those inflection points. Maybe the next one is “the Singularity” - but beyond that we really have no idea.
All of this is consistent with humanity being very early on the timeline of the universe.