i'm not disagreeing that we have more knowledge, we learn it all
but this is what i meant (i'm referring to anyone in the past here, not specifically like caveman or something)
we know whats going on worldwide because of TV and the internet. Did you invent either? No, people before us did. They made it out of nothing but knowledge they had been taught. No one just sat down one day with a bunch of wires, a knob, and a plastic box and made a TV. They used knowledge that had already been discovered and was taught to them.
Math itself is ancient. And math hasn't changed all that much ever because of what it is. Math basically cannot change without some huge radical error discovered that alters human thought, but thats getting way beyond math anyways.
Basically what i mean to say is we know a lot, but we know a lot because those before us knew less, and wanted to know more. Discovery, learning, and putting into practice is, in my opinion the essence of humanity. It's everything we know. Even in skiing for example, you see a trick, you want to learn that trick, and once you do, you keep using it.
And i'm a bit confused by the language part/history. French has been spoken for a long time, its roots are in Latin. More people know it now in part due to population rises. (more french people=more french speakers) and the vast colonial empire the French built. And history has always been known, though not as formal and detailed as it is to us. But once again, both of these (expanding language, history) come from the need to discover more.
As for where language itself starts...well...who knows? I'll give you that one, the ability to communicate definitely makes us smarter.
