We also let a series of diseases go from "essentially eradicated" to "resurgent threat." Used mass media to foment genocide, civil unrest, and terrorism. Jet tr

We also let a series of diseases go from "essentially eradicated" to "resurgent threat." Used mass media to foment genocide, civil unrest, and terrorism. Jet travel benefits very few people overall but is a significant contributor to climate change, and airports are a major localized source of air, water, and noise pollution concentrated on the populations that benefit least from air travel. We predict the weather but refuse to act on that knowledge to prevent wide-scale misery and death. These things are all amazing technological accomplishments but it's not actually clear yet if most of them are overall improvements for the quality of life of most people, if you extend your "we" out to the entire world rather than just the most affluent quartile of the wealthiest nations. I'm not trying to completely dismiss these things either, or say they don't or can't ever have positive effects. But just because they're impressive accomplishments doesn't mean they represent progress for the species per se.