S03E21: Agricultural Technology in Context

Agriculture is the most essential and ancient activity that gave rise to modern-day human civilisation. There were modern humans before agriculture, but they were hunters and gatherers who didn't establish cities or empires. Many people think of agriculture as a conservative industry. However, it has been characterized by a rate of innovation that has been necessary to feed the population over time. And, of course, the population rate was statistically equal to the amount of calories that the level of technology at the time could generate. Because there would be starvation and death if there were more people but not enough calories. This is the type of cycle that occurs.