Not to mention, if we stop development today and focus on automating what we have, we: 1) Fall victim to the problems of our own creation- e.g. climate change

Not to mention, if we stop development today and focus on automating what we have, we: 1) Fall victim to the problems of our own creation- e.g. climate change 2) Never attain the further advancements around the corner Suppose, for example, we decided we had come "far enough" and halted technological advancement just before obtaining the vaccine, or the antibiotic, and never developed that technology. We might be able to automate construction, agriculture, manufacturing- but we are still a fair ways from automating science, research, and development.