Billions of people over thousands of years, some of them are bound to stumble upon the basic principles that run the universe. The key is that a lot of these ancient discoveries don't stick; their value is not realized, the infrastructure does not exist for mass-production, or there are sociopolitical boundaries to realizing them. Some brilliant concepts from long ago never caught on by chance, but enough of them caught on to create technological progress, which becomes self-reinforcing: now it's hard for a good idea to go by unnoticed, and other technical discoveries make it easier to disseminate and distribute a brilliant idea. It was easier to mass-produce and sell batteries in the late 19th century than in 2000 or so BC, though the knowledge behind it is still relatively straightforward.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
