Science evolves as humanity evolves. The scientific advances you recount are because the evolutionary power, Shakti, was dancing in Europe. Reason, democracy, science, art, empires were all happening there. Socrates and others were instruments, not the cause. The Shakti has now shifted to Asia with India as the centre, so you will see now that new instruments will arise here with new discoveries, before which the past discoveries will fade away.
Yes, evolution, whether in the individual or the collective, is a spiral process. The same is true of everything that is coming into being. The maker first makes a rough design, then returns and re-returns to the picture to fill in the details.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
