Comments by "mpetersen6" (@mpetersen6) on "Ancient Life on the Great Plains" video.

  1. I have a theory as to the relative slow pace of innovation over the course of human history. I can't back it up but it makes sense to me. In any generation there are a relatively few numbers of innovators as a percentage. Way under 1%. This means when a new technique is developed coupled with limited communication that technique can die out or spread very slowly. As populations got larger the number innovators goes up. Increased communications help them spread. Even then new techniques or tools can get lost. Today the pace of innovation has increased expotentially. The same basic percentage of innovators are out there. But between population size and communications new techniques can spread rapidly. And these new techniques can inspire others. Consider the pace of technological change in the 19th century. Then compare it to the 20th century. What will it be in the 21st. Same percentage of innovators. Larger population with increased communications technology.
    1
  2. ​ @iivin4233  Just the leap to deciding which seeds to plant had to be a big leap. Especially with hybrids. Acouple of years ago my brother got some excellent squash at the farmers market. Saved the seeds. The next year all they got were gourds. Which are useful but taste like crap. There are some types of apples where you need say four yellowdelicious trees and one tree of a different kind in order to get the apples you want.
    1
  3. There is talk on YouTube by an archeologist from Texas. Dub Wilson iirc. He mentions one thing that hascommonly been found on n early sites has been tutles. He had a thought that if caught live they could just be set on there backs as a way of keeping fresh meat around. Early inhabitants of the Americas were likely opportunists as much as anything else. I think certain high risk game such as Mammoth and Giant Bison may have been hunted more for their uses as hides for clothing and shelters than their meat. What would a small extended family group do with a whole Mammoth(1). How large were groups of people 10k years ago on the Plains. 1) A Mammoth kill must have attracted scavengers from miles around the kill site.
    1