Which Modern Technologies, If Invented Sooner, May Have Led to Less Tyranny Through the Ages?

In otherwords, say flight.

Would the development in 1812 of early 20th Century aircraft led to a more inter-connected world?

Or merely enabled Napoleon to conquer Russia?

If steam-powered ships were invented two hundred years earlier, would there have been greater trade?

Or does the Spanish Armada simply crush the English Navy off the coast of Flanders?

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CarolineP · 70-79, F

It's always a fascinating "what if" game, and the answer is always "yes" to the question of "would it have changed history?" The real problem is "How"! The law of unintended consequences invariably kicks in. So it's fun to hypothesise, but we will never know.

I have a completely unprovable view that somehow, every technological invention arrives at approximately the right time. For example, suppose antibiotics had been developed 200 years earlier - a real possibility. Population would have boomed as it has in the last century, but the agricultural revolution was still 200 years away. So the benefits of antibiotics would have been wiped out by mass famines!

But antibiotics were not produced until mid 20th century - just as a revolution was taking place in agricultural methods.

Here's a good closer. The Chinese had "gun powder" for centuries but never invented guns! Suppose they had!