Requirements..........................

     Once you invent science - which allows you to quickly invent many things - you have a grand lever that can propel you forward very quickly.  That's what happened in the West starting approximately in the 17th century.  Science catapulted society into a rapid learning.  By the 18th century, science had launched the Industrial Revolution, and progress was noticeable in the growing spread of cities, increasing longevity and literacy, and the acceleration of future discoveries.
     But there is a puzzle.  The necessary ingredients of the scientific method are conceptual and fairly low tech:  a way to record, catalog, and communicate written evidence and the time to experiment.  Why didn't the Greeks invent it?  Or the Egyptians?  A time traveler from today could journey back to that era and set up the scientific method in ancient Alexandria or Athens without much trouble.  But would it catch on?
     Maybe not.  Science is costly for the individual.  Sharing results is of marginal benefit if you are chiefly seeking a better tool for today.  Therefore, the benefits of science are neither apparent nor immediate for individuals.  Science requires a certain density of leisured population willing to share and support failures to thrive.  That leisure is generated by pre-science inventions such as the plow, grain mills, domesticated power animals, and other techniques that permit a steady surplus of food for large numbers of people.  In other words, science needs prosperity and populations.
-Kevin Kelly,  as excerpted from What Technology Wants