[throwaway189262]

We had writing, pack animals, various types of "primitive" technology for many thousands of gears. Then boom. Within 300 years we go from horses to leaving the planet. There's been more technological advancement in the last few hundred years than all of human existence.

We hit some kind of tipping point based on previous development, or some other trigger that hasn't been identified

[perl4ever]

Zooming in on an exponential curve doesn't change the shape, is the idea, I think. Nor does it show a discontinuity or inflection point.

I'm not saying I know for sure this is the right characterization of the history of human technology, but I think the typical alternative to your view is that it is.