FYI there have been many perfectly legitimate ages in history where the progress made was 10x less useful than progress lost.

I do not think the earth is healthier than now after 100 years.

You mean things are only to get better from here onwards? Amen to that!

Nah - an argument can be made that its been going downhill already.

how would you describe an intellectual life well lived, a journey well traveled?

It depends, I'd inequality keeps growing as it has since 1950 in America. We might actually end up in a distopian world where power and resources are grossly concentrated.

People seem to chose to make their lives miserable though. Pay too much for a house miles from where they work & buy a car they can't afford to sit for hours stuck in traffic travelling to work.

Absolutely. And they will also hold our decision making in contempt. amazon.com/Superforecasting-… makes the point that we select for (follow and put on TV) "experts" who make us feel good and actually predict the future worse than monkeys with darts. We can and should do better.

They will also be shocked at the nature of work humans were willing to do for money