This is a very interesting theory that the cause of the industrial revolution was the evolution of the values of the people of the world.  Gregory Clark has data showing that wealthier people had more children than the poor leading up to the industrial revolution.  Because of this disparity, some of the children of these wealthy families were forced downward economically and spread throughout society.  Their values of saving, hard work, non-violence and literacy spread throughout the population until they reached a sort of tipping point where the industrial revolution hit and the economy exploded.  Basically his suggestion is that natural selection worked over this short period of time from 1200 to 1800 and resulted in a population of people with a different set of values that led directly to the industrial revolution.  The idea of evolution working this way so recently and in such a short period of time (from 1200 to 1800) is pretty cool.  I wonder what the current societal forces might be selecting for currently…