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While "we" had the capability of a high-tech, leisure society in the 1970s, "we" probably refers to a minority of people in developed countries at the time, so

While "we" had the capability of a high-tech, leisure society in the 1970s, "we" probably refers to a minority of people in developed countries at the time, so maybe 1-2% of people on the planet. Indeed since the 1970s the great economic story has been the spread of this way of life to others rather than an acceleration of technology to greater heights. Although the latter has happened, most effort has been focused on spreading existing technology. We're just now seriously thinking about returning to the moon after a fifty year absence. However during those fifty years about two billion people were lifted out of crushing poverty.

carapace 6y ago
Well, FWIW, Bucky considered himself to be working on behalf of all humanity. As an engineer he saw that working at the larger scale gave him the greater efficiency. (I.e. instead of heating and cooling individual buildings he proposed putting domes over entire cities!) In his lifetime he traveled the globe (~80 times around!) and was one of the most famous Americans in the world, in part because he was working on everyone's behalf. - - - - Anyway, you're right that standards of living have been going up globally, often with environmental degradation, but not always. For example, the revival of the Loess Plateu: > the Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project was launched in 1994[7] to rehabilitate the land and improve the people's livelihoods. The project guided the people living on the plateau to change animal husbandry practices; encouraged natural regeneration of grasslands, tree and shrub cover on slope-lands previously used for farming; and land restoration through terracing and replanting. These efforts allowed the perennial vegetation cover to increase from 17 to 34 percent, and "[e]ven in the lifetime of the project, the ecological balance was restored in a vast area considered by many to be beyond help"; in addition, more than 2.5 million people were lifted out of poverty by doubled incomes.[6] > Restoration has occurred over an area of about 35,000 square kilometers (about 5% of the plateau's total area).[8] Results have reduced the massive silt loads to the Yellow River by about one percent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loess_Plateau#Agriculture_and_environment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loess_Plateau#Agriculture_and_...

carapace 6y ago

Well, FWIW, Bucky considered himself to be working on behalf of all humanity. As an engineer he saw that working at the larger scale gave him the greater efficiency. (I.e. instead of heating and cooling individual buildings he proposed putting domes over entire cities!) In his lifetime he traveled the globe (~80 times around!) and was one of the most famous Americans in the world, in part because he was working on everyone's behalf. - - - - Anyway, you're right that standards of living have been going up globally, often with environmental degradation, but not always. For example, the revival of the Loess Plateu: > the Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project was launched in 1994[7] to rehabilitate the land and improve the people's livelihoods. The project guided the people living on the plateau to change animal husbandry practices; encouraged natural regeneration of grasslands, tree and shrub cover on slope-lands previously used for farming; and land restoration through terracing and replanting. These efforts allowed the perennial vegetation cover to increase from 17 to 34 percent, and "[e]ven in the lifetime of the project, the ecological balance was restored in a vast area considered by many to be beyond help"; in addition, more than 2.5 million people were lifted out of poverty by doubled incomes.[6] > Restoration has occurred over an area of about 35,000 square kilometers (about 5% of the plateau's total area).[8] Results have reduced the massive silt loads to the Yellow River by about one percent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loess_Plateau#Agriculture_and_environment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loess_Plateau#Agriculture_and_...