Omnis was correct that it is not an exponential curve, but a wave. Nothing goes on forever. If you extended that exponential curve timeline further, it would go back down again eventually.

I'm not so sure about technologically advanced/industrialised societies existing before though. There has been some evidence such as

And some others I can't remember coz that one is the most significant. But I'm not sold on the "cultures as advanced as us, or more so, existing before us" theories.