If birth control had been as widespread as it is among present-day non-religious WEIRD people, the time since ancient Egypt to today would have been more than enough.
Yes, it’s also interesting to look at the reasons why it wasn’t widespread for much of the time in question.
My guess is that memetic evolution suppresses birth control faster than genetic evolution can adept to it. Periodically we get outbreaks, like present-day non-religious WEIRD culture, where the suppressing memes collapse due to events in the larger memetic ecosystem.
If birth control had been as widespread as it is among present-day non-religious WEIRD people, the time since ancient Egypt to today would have been more than enough.
Yes, it’s also interesting to look at the reasons why it wasn’t widespread for much of the time in question.
My guess is that memetic evolution suppresses birth control faster than genetic evolution can adept to it. Periodically we get outbreaks, like present-day non-religious WEIRD culture, where the suppressing memes collapse due to events in the larger memetic ecosystem.