> Extreme poverty has halved or so in the last 30 years.

People love to bring this up, but always fail to mention the change is almost entirely in China and India. The US has completely stagnated and done pretty much nothing new in the past 30 years.

Rent-collection is the only imperative now.

Only a shock if you have a US-centric view of the world.

Smartphones also.

Smartphones. Holy crap. Remember arguing about some objective fact and having to "agree to disagree" at some point?

We lose those kinds of social events (I liked them), but I think we are far better off. All this knowledge instantly accessible.

Smallpox may have gone but I'm fairly sure that there was a vaccine for that a very long time ago. As regards extreme poverty, I don't know that the situation in sub-Saharan Africa has improved, it may even have become worse. But I'm not doubting that there have been massive improvements in a qualitative sense to such an extent that in some ways they are revolutionary.

The 50 or so years from about 1895 gave us powered flight, radio and television, the first antibiotics, nuclear energy, rockets capable of escaping earth orbit, the big bang understanding of the origins of the universe, motor cars and even car phones. They also gave us two world wars which may be significant. By comparison the last 50 years appears rather dull, from this layman's perspective.