system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[A Song of Ice and Fire/Game Of Thrones] Why hasn't the world industrialized?

Around the time of King Robert's death the steel-wielding Andals had controlled Westeros for roughly 6,000 years.  A far more advanced civilization -- The Valyrian Freehold in Essos -- had existed for about 5,000 years before its Doom.  In all this time why hasn't anyone invented the steam engine?
gpt
I think it has to do with several times a generation the population being decimated by winters. 

In the North the old and the infirm willingly go out to die so that their family might stand a better chance of surviving. Even in the South starvation in a very real concern. 

Westeros, a continent the size of South America, only has a population of a few million people.

In Essos, Valyrian magic probably played a big role in stifling innovation.