you're already cheating when you compare ancient vs modern methods of production.
technologies are basically extensions of human capabilities in reified form. so if you choose a method of production that relies heavily on advanced technologies, of course it's going to seem very impressive in comparison.
you personally might feel like a genius because you figured out how to piece together stackoverflow answers, bits of libraries, and algorithms that someone else wrote, but it doesn't actually mean that you're a genius. it just means that you have access to tools that augment your memory, your reasoning, and other abilities.
Those systems were all built by humans. Built by humans while other humans are relying on the vagaries of weather and chance for their long-term food supply. From 20K feet, that’s a huge gulf and 20K years from now, you’re liable to stumble across a CPU or phone vs a stone gristmill and get two very different views of what humans’ capability was.
I don’t think the point above was about individual heroism, but rather the spread of technological capabilities.
technologies are basically extensions of human capabilities in reified form. so if you choose a method of production that relies heavily on advanced technologies, of course it's going to seem very impressive in comparison.
you personally might feel like a genius because you figured out how to piece together stackoverflow answers, bits of libraries, and algorithms that someone else wrote, but it doesn't actually mean that you're a genius. it just means that you have access to tools that augment your memory, your reasoning, and other abilities.