The past refers to the past, and any previous era refers to any era before Russell said this. This sentence means that science has made our times "unprecedented" different.
Humans rely on modern science and technology. In the one hundred years of the 20th century, mankind made many miraculous and unexpected discoveries and inventions by using modern science and technology. It is these discoveries and inventions that have greatly changed human life, exceeding the sum of millions of years in human history.
Extended data:
It's raining has five natural paragraphs and is divided into three parts.
In the first part (paragraph 1), the 20th century is a century for rain.
The second part (paragraphs 2-4) is about the significance of science and technology to human beings.
The third part (the fifth paragraph) points out the main idea of the article-science and technology have changed human life style and will make human life better.
Writing characteristics
In the third and fourth paragraphs, the author skillfully reveals the significance of science and technology to human life by comparing and enumerating concrete examples: without science and technology, human beings can only obey nature. People live in a "farming society" where the sunrise works and the sunset stops, and they can only "pin their good wishes" in mythology; But with science and technology, human beings can transform nature and change their lifestyles.
Heaven is no longer a myth on earth, just a little bit. Modern science and technology have condensed the vast earth into a small "global village". "Science is changing human spiritual and cultural life, and it is also changing human material life". It can be seen that technology plays a great role in changing human life.
In the fifth paragraph, the author quotes the famous words of Bertrand Russell, a British mathematician and philosopher, and points out the main idea of the article: science and technology have completely changed the way of human existence, and it will make human life better.