system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[ASOIAF] Why has there been little to no technological innovation in the past few thousands of years?
gpt
There has, but its mostly not visible.  Westeros is in an age equivalent to the Dark Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire, which is represented by Valyria.  Quite a bit of the technology of Valyria was preserved, but access is limited due to an education gap.  The ability to read and write is most certainly limited to the upper class and perhaps the merchant class, so innovation is probably limited to that area as well.

So civilization is slowly coming back from the collapse of the cultural, technological and economic superpower, knowledge is limited due to low literacy rates and thus innovation is slow.