I see our world as a computer with 7.753 Billion "brain processing units". Until now, most processing units were using all their cycles and memory on { get food, don't die, maybe kill others }. As we evolve, and more humans have better lives, and more time/money, those shift towards better things { math, astrophysics, games, general fun and enjoyment }. I'm not saying humans never had fun or studied math until now. I'm saying that per capita, more math and fun is being done now than ever before in human history.

In short, we're maximizing the math/fun utilization per brain. This has all kinds of side effects, like galactic colonization.

For some amazing statistics on "what we're building towards" I recommend looking at Hans Rosling's TED talk, where he describes how civilization is becoming better (over time) by every single measurable metric.