Earliest possible "modern day"

I really don't think such a societal change can hinge on one or two great men in any corner of the world. The historical industrial revolution did not hinge on Newton, Watts, Kay, or any of the others. All of the individual inventions that were components of the industrial revolution were effects before they were causes.

I highly recommend James Burke's 'Connections' series, which can be found on youtube quite easily (some of the details are out of date, but not by much). There's so many different variables that are not obvious in technological progress.
 
I mean, microbiology is just grinding lenses for microscopes and growing things in Petri dishes.

And also having a reason to grind those lenses in the first place. The microscope and microbiology arose because lenses were already being made for telescopes and eyepieces, to facilitate oceanic navigation.
 
To go really far back, is there any way to get out of the stone age faster?

I've wondered this before. From what I understand we reached our modern anatomical brain around 50,000 or so years ago but it was really under 10,000 years ago before any real signs of neolithic culture appeared.
 
The microscope and microbiology arose because lenses were already being made for telescopes and eyepieces, to facilitate oceanic navigation.
And war, of course. There are perhaps only a few (?) other things besides war that get as much interplay going between theory and practice.

And on the question of great individual vs. broad societal tends, I'll lean 70-30% in favor of broad societal trends.
 
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