The cause is not technology, it's fossil fuels. The abundance of fossil fuels has made it possible to produce more and more. There are multiple counterparts: 1

The cause is not technology, it's fossil fuels. The abundance of fossil fuels has made it possible to produce more and more. There are multiple counterparts: 1. Global warming, which is a direct consequence of fossil fuels. This has an impact on happiness, given that kids today are likely to die because of it, and society is not remotely addressing the problem; we're making it worse every day. 2. Biodiversity loss. Our increased productivity means more pesticides, more artificialisation of soils, more deforestation, more tourism, more fishing. All that contributes to the mass extinction we're living now. We are living in a mass extinction that is orders of magnitude faster than the one of the dinosaurs. We've lost 80% of insects in 20 years. That has an impact on happiness. 3. Geopolitics. We all rely heavily on fossil fuels and globalisation (which requires fossil fuels), and fossil fuels are not unlimited. The world geopolitics will become more unstable every year. That has an impact on happiness. Look at the news: record fires every year, and we know that those are smaller than the ones that will come next year and the year after. To improve happiness, technology should be used to do the same with less and in many cases just do less with less. Instead we want to do more with more, and this is killing us.