> Pretty much every initial technological advancement in human history was likely driven by an irrational thought completely unrelated to what would be achieved in the end before the scientific method was developed.
This strikes me as highly unlikely, considering how recently the scientific method was formalized.
It's hard to imagine, for example, that the Babylonians' or Egyptians' use of the Pythagorean theorem[1] was irrational, even though it undoubtedly had mystical and religious overtones to it. (The idea of separating science and religion as such is a relatively modern invention. The medievals called theology "queen of the sciences," for example,[2] perhaps due to their belief that rational study of the universe required a rational cause of the universe.)
This strikes me as highly unlikely, considering how recently the scientific method was formalized.
It's hard to imagine, for example, that the Babylonians' or Egyptians' use of the Pythagorean theorem[1] was irrational, even though it undoubtedly had mystical and religious overtones to it. (The idea of separating science and religion as such is a relatively modern invention. The medievals called theology "queen of the sciences," for example,[2] perhaps due to their belief that rational study of the universe required a rational cause of the universe.)
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem#History
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theology#As_an_academic_discip...