mjevans&#x27; view is also not supported by an objective look at the last 100 years.<p>Antibiotics?  Not dying is kind of a big deal.  It makes life &quot;markedly better&quot; when you are actually <i>alive</i>.<p>Cars?  Yeah, they had cars 100 years ago.  How fast could you drive?  How safe were the cars (and the roads)?  How often did the cars need maintenance?  How was the air conditioning in the cars 100 years ago?  How good was the radio?<p>Computers?  The internet?  The web?  Hacker News?  100 years ago, you could buy a newspaper, and do your math by hand (maybe with a slide rule and a book of tables).<p>Overall human knowledge?  Not remotely comparable.<p>Overall human life expectancy?  Much worse 100 years ago.<p>I don&#x27;t see any rational way to say that how good life is &quot;has largely flattened out within the last 100 years.&quot;  That&#x27;s not a defensible statement, not merely in terms of GDP, but also in terms of average peoples&#x27; experience of life.