The more simple the society, the more leisured its way of life. - Peter Farb

The environment does not determine the character of human culture; it merely sets the outer limits.

In 1680 the Pueblo Indians, led by a prophet named Popé who had been living in Taos, expelled the Spaniards. ..The god of the Spaniards was declared dead, and the religious ways came out into the open again. ...But when Popé attempted to become the unchallenged leader of all the Pueblo Indians, the movement collapsed. ...The Pueblo confederation soon broke apart and the people warred among themselves. In 1692 the Spaniards marched back to victory.

To say that the invention "was in the air" or "the times were ripe for it" are just other ways of stating that the inventors did not do the inventing, but that the cultures did.