It's hard to understate what a miracle it is. Kings could afford to eat meat more than once a day but couldn't get (say) blood pressure medication or antibiotics.

Most of us are a few generations from subsistence agriculture, but ecology tells us that if we don't solve all the problems in front of us [1] we are a few generations from a much smaller population that does subsistence agriculture at best.

[1] Ashby's law is the only law: https://medium.com/workmatters/complexity-ashbys-law-simplif...

This is insightful. Thank you for sharing it.