There's not just evolution. A lot of our knowledge is built on the shoulders of those who came before. Libraries and books are very important. We build on the knowledge of previous generations.
It comes as a shock to us to hear that ancient Chinese or Egyptions knew about aerodynamics and other modern subjects before their time, because in out mind, it seems to break the gradual revelation.
We build on what came before. And interestingly, the internet is speeding this up and putting knowledge into the hands of people, I mean more than the internet revolution per se. It is causing a revolution of information in it's own right, of enormous proportions. An information revoilution of the information age.