[graemep]

Most witch burnings happened in the last 600 years - there had been very few (at least in Europe) in the previous millennium and a half. I just pointed out in another comment that the first criminal blasphemy laws in England and Wales were also passed 600 years ago.

It is not easy to divide human progress into before and after. Technological progress very much depends on what has gone before. It accelerated when it reached a certain point of development.

I agree with you that patents are not a key cause of progress, and they often impede it by preventing people other than the patent holder further improving anything patented.

I also think they probably work pretty well for mechanical inventions, but they have been applied to everything - drugs, software, electronic devices, even business methods in some places.