Don't forget medical progress. Things like CAT scans/MRI really revolutionized medicine.

My aforementioned grandmother died at 72 basically because of CAT scans/MRI not being available in 1980. And now, I just survived heavy shit because of these things, and more that didn't exist 50 years ago. They've been able to save preemies that wouldn't have lived when I was born (yes, the survival of younger and younger preemies even sparked a line of fucking toys back in the 90s.)

Airplanes being safer and transporting more humans everywhere. It's so normalized you don't even notice.

Drones opening up more secrets of the natural world. And affecting it.

If anything, technologies have become more efficient at what what they do, for better or for worse.