While everyone goes all Atlantis and Ancient Aliens i ponder another concepts. First, perhaps humans prior to a certain time were just like the animals until one of two things happened: 1) They were given souls or 2) They discovered psychoactive drugs. Either of these two things would propel humans into a higher plane of thinking beyond “eat, sex, sleep”.

The second thing I think is relevant is how adoption curves look. Take the internet for example...its flat for a number of years and then goes parabolic. Who is today say our development of technology isnt the same on a larger scale. Especially since it takes technology to preserve technology.