We saw very rapid development in technologies in the 20th century. In the 21st century tech is still rapidly developing but far far less impactful. It seems the only areas we've really made large progress in is Entertainment and medical capabilities. If you look at US GDP growth per capita for the last 20 years, we're down to about 1%, far slower than the preceding 100 years.

People kind of assume that tech development will always be there and even increase but I don't think that's an assumption we can make.

To be truely impactful, the development needs to be in areas that are important to humanity. Where are those areas? it's all in Maslow's heirarchy of needs. Most human beings (99% ~ even those in supposedly 1st world countries) are at the bottom-most level: Shelter, Food. In this modern world, you need 3 other things as well: Transportation to go to the job, education to get the job, and medical insurance to keep the money you earn. to be truely impactful, innovation needs to happen in one of those 5 major areas: shelter, food, transporation, education or medical.