Einstein wasn’t a “lone genius” after all

There were other, "lone-er" geniuses than Einstein such as Newton. As the centuries passed, the chance of finding like-minded individuals increased or decreased based on society, health, ... Ancient Greece had a set of philosophers and we only see a shadow of what they actually did. Rome, similarly, but it's been dependent on the amount of free time that's enabled thinking. And, of course, thinking has been more or less discouraged over the centuries.

And it seems like Europe is damned lucky to have had the work of the Greeks passed through Muslims both in Spain and the Middle East to fuel the Renaissance. This greatly augmented what was left from the Romans directly. Sad that the promise of these groups were ended by waves of conservatism and "them" (both externally and internally).

Check out Burke's The Day the Universe Changed #2.