There is an excellent hard science fiction book called permutation city that very related to this topic…it made me feel like i was in a dream when i read this post’s title
The scientific method wasn’t novel to the western world. It’s origins date back to when the Moors conquered the southern half of western europe - and by almost all historian accounts - modernized many institutions over the subsequent hundreds of years (eg, from cutlery to math and science).
I think the most relevant book on the west’s success is called complexity: a guided tour