We've been burning hydrocarbons to keep warm and move around long before tech. But the future of energy (and thus of our civilization) will come from tech, not from looking back at burning wood and whale oil. See renewables, fusion and even nuclear.
Muricans are obsessed with being “happy” in a fake, saccharine way all the time. Philosophical babble does not wave off the reality all tech work has created a huge mess for all the benefits it also brings.
About a year ago I had an email thread going with sama, debating what intelligence even means, why copying the brain is the goal. Eventually it veered off topic, he agreed with my assessment many in tech are unimaginative self promoters not engaged net new output generation. That a whole lot of this is just “government jobs programs”, as I put it, wrapped in happy semantics and hype.
As far as you or I go specifically, reality does not need either of us to actually exist. Plenty of folks still around without the two of us.
For numerous health metrics a slower pre-internet life was healthier. All the technological churn has had long lived impact on environment that will make life worse in the future.
Keep cherry picking.