The last two episodes have chronicled a rather important phenomenon in the history of technology, in the annals of human progress, in the story of how we got to where we are: domestication. The first of the two, agriculture, is however less seen as domestication, though that’s what it is, perhaps because the next one from there, taming animals, is easier to relate to, and certainly more challenging than the relatively lower life forms of plants. Now, let’s get to the very pinnacle of domestication: the horse!

We have already come to appreciate the process of...

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What if the most transformative partnership in human progress began with someone staring at an insurmountable problem?

We all face limitations. Physical boundaries that seem impossible to cross. Distances too far to travel. Burdens too heavy to carry. Challenges that dwarf our natural capabilities. Most of the time, we accept these constraints as simply the way things are.

But occasionally, someone refuses to accept those limits. They look at a problem that seems impossibly large, impossibly complex, impossibly beyond human scale, and they ask a different question. Not "how do we work around this limitation?" but "how do we transcend it entirely?"

Picture someone facing exactly that kind of challenge. The gap between what they need to achieve and what they're capable of achieving seems unbridgeable. And then they encounter something that could change everything. Something with capabilities they lack. Something that could multiply their reach, their speed, their power.

But here's the crucial part. This wasn't about finding a tool to use. It was about forging a relationship that would transform both sides. About creating something entirely new - a collaboration that would shatter every assumption about what was possible.

The breakthrough wasn't in the partnership itself, extraordinary as that turned out to be! It was in recognizing that some limitations aren't meant to be endured - they're meant to be transcended through alliance.

The question isn't what this breakthrough involved. The question is how anyone recognized that such transcendence was even possible. And what it teaches us about overcoming the seemingly insurmountable.

Join Ash Stuart as he reveals the story of humanity's most boundary-breaking alliance.

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So far in this series, we have looked at some of the earliest human innovations, our deviations from the pristine state of affairs found in nature, as part of understanding what makes us, humans as a species, different. But this story cannot be told without talking about our non-human friends, because they too are an integral part of the human story.

When we normally use the term...

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What if the most remarkable innovations in human progress weren't made from stone, metal, or any material at all?

Most of the time, when we think about breakthroughs, we imagine crafting tools, shaping materials, building devices, creating solutions and establishing institutions. We think about taking raw resources and transforming them into something useful. But there's another kind of innovation entirely. One that doesn't involve making anything new, but rather forming relationships with something that already exists.

Picture a moment when two completely different kinds of entities encounter each other. Both wary. Both uncertain. Both following their own intrinsic encoding for self-preservation. And then something extraordinary happens. Instead of the usual patterns of suspicious reaction, something entirely new emerges.

This wasn't about one side overpowering the other. It wasn't about force or control or simple utility. It was about something far more subtle. Something that required a completely different kind of intelligence. Not just problem-solving, but something else entirely.

But here's what makes this innovation so fascinating. It didn't happen overnight. It took patience. It took trust. It took both sides changing in ways that had never happened before.

The question isn't what this breakthrough involved. The question is how anyone figured out that such partnerships were even possible. And why this pattern of innovation might be more important than we realize.

Join Ash Stuart as he reveals the story of humanity's most collaborative breakthrough.

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One reason I’m calling this series and my approach ‘technocentric’ is that this is focused on exploring and understanding the role of intelligence in human-driven progress. And on this journey thereof, we’ve barely scratched the surface. Let’s next focus on another huge change in the story of human progress that would in many ways change things forever. It should give us food for thought!

When it comes to the application of intelligence as mentioned above, another key factor is the...

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What if the greatest leap in human progress required something that goes against every natural instinct we possess?

Most innovations build on what came before. They're improvements, refinements, logical next steps. But occasionally, something comes along that demands a completely different way of thinking. Something that asks people to abandon everything they know works, and bet their survival on something that might not work at all.

Picture a group of people who have found a way to live that works. It's not easy, but it's reliable. It's not comfortable, but it's sustainable. They know how to get what they need when they need it. They've mastered the art of immediate results.

And then someone suggests they try something radical. Something that requires them to give up the certainty of today for the promise of tomorrow. Something that demands they sacrifice what they have for what they might get. Something that could fail completely, leaving them worse off than before.

But here's where it gets really interesting. This wasn't just about changing what people did. It was about changing how they thought. About time. About ownership. About the future itself. It required inventing entirely new ways of organizing society, new rules about who could claim what, new systems of trust and cooperation.

The physical breakthrough was remarkable enough. But the mental breakthrough? The willingness to delay gratification for months, to invest in uncertainty, to create something that had never existed before? That was revolutionary.

The question isn't what this breakthrough was. The question is why anyone was willing to try it. And what it teaches us about the kind of thinking that drives the most transformative innovations.

Join Ash Stuart as he uncovers the mystery behind humanity's most counterintuitive leap forward.

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If you haven’t read the last 8 articles that lead up to this one, of course I’d exhort you to do so, for therein lies the path to the greatest enjoyment of this series; at the very least, it might help to take a quick glance at the last one to get a sense of where we are. In any case, I intend to ensure each article can be savored on its own without necessarily hopping to other ones, and so be it known that this episode marks the beginning of the real technocentric journey.

Hop on board as we’re gonna get cracking right away!

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The last 4 episodes have had the intention of setting the stage for what I am talking about in this series. Let’s take stock, let’s briefly recap what I’ve said so I can now present my plan for what’s to come next on here over the next few months.

This journey is fundamentally about....

So, next begins the real part of the journey! In so far as this is a historical outline of human progress, I have found it convenient to divide this into 5 stages or sections:

* Pre-Modern [PM]

* Renaissance & Enlightenment [RE]

* Industrial Revolution [IR]

* Information Age [IA]

* AI Age [AI]

Having decided on this, the...Visit Ash's substack to read the full article.

What if one of the most important breakthroughs in the story of human progress happened not in a flash of genius, but through an act of genuine courage?

Most people believe innovation works like lightning strikes. Sudden. Brilliant. Instantaneous. But that's what we might call the eureka fallacy. The real story of transformative breakthroughs is far more fascinating, far more human, and far more relevant to understanding how progress actually works.

Picture the moment when everything changed. When someone faced something that filled them with terror. Something wild, dangerous, completely unpredictable. Something that made every instinct scream run away. And yet, instead of fleeing, they chose to stay. They chose to experiment. They chose to do something that had never been done before.

This wasn't about discovery. Discovery is stumbling upon something that already exists. This was about something far more profound. This was about taking what nature meant to be wild and making it... something else entirely.

But here's the crucial part that most people miss. The breakthrough itself wasn't what mattered most. It was what came after. The learning. The control. The taming of something that was never meant to be tamed.

The question isn't what this breakthrough was. The question is how the innovation happened. How someone found the courage to try. And why understanding this pattern matters more than ever as we face the next great leaps in human progress.

Join Ash Stuart as he reveals the untold story of humanity's most transformative moment.

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In the previous episode, we looked at the birth of industry - large-scale mechanized production, as part of the story of the Industrial Revolution that began in Britain in the late 1700s. Towards the latter part of the Industrial Revolution, some erudite and expansive mind surveying and chronicling the breadth and scale of change and progress this movement had wrought could be forgiven for proclaiming that ‘all technological progress as might be conceived by the wit of man has already so been definitively implemented by his ken. We are the peak of civilization!’

But of course, those words would turn out to be rather vain, even look foolish in time. Let’s explore why.

Imagine a time-travel scene in which somehow Charles Babbage is transported, perhaps along with the admirable Ada Lovelace, a hundred years in time, to meet fellow-Briton Alan Turing.

Turing, with great flourish...

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