Agriculture, or the ability to produce food by growing it
instead of hunting it or gathering it, has probably been robbed
by the invention of fire of the title of most significant
development in human history The life of a human being before
agriculture was marked by the highest levels of "leisure time"
of any subsequent society, fewer pervasive psychological
disorders, equality among small social groups (including
equality between genders), freedom from institutional conflicts,
absence of "leaders" and "followers," as well as "property" and
"territory," and required less "work per calorie" than any other
method of organizing human endeavor ever invented since.
Organization was not unknown in this environment, but food
gathering consisted primarily of hunting animals and gathering
edible plants. There was a linear relationship between the
effort to obtain food and the amount of food obtained. Also, any
member of the society was capable of fending for themselves in
"the wild" - which was really more like a rea