While we've developed better TVs, faster cars, and life-saving medical advancements, these achievements haven't solved core existential problems like suffering, mortality, or inequality. We're still subject to the same biological drives, emotions, and limitations that humans had thousands of years ago. The tools have changed, but the human condition remains fundamentally the same.
But technological progress doesn't necessarily translate into personal or existential progress, which might be why it feels hollow when you're stuck in the cycles of human existence. A better TV doesn't free us from the biological or emotional constraints of being human—it might just distract us from them for a while.
It's almost like the progress of the external world keeps racing ahead, while our internal worlds—the ones bound by eating, sleeping, aging, and dying—stay just as limited as they were 100,000 years ago. That's a frustrating divide. It can feel like all the innovation in the world doesn't change the core reality of being human.
Even the greatest advancements are temporary. Civilizations rise and fall, technologies become obsolete, and all things decay over time. The universe itself will one day fade into heat death. In this context, progress is fleeting and ultimately inconsequential.
Despite all advancements, we still face the inevitability of death. The ultimate problem of existence—our transient nature—remains unsolved. No amount of innovation has freed us from this fundamental reality.