You rather live in 1900? Or pay $100k for 8 kW of solar panels (1974 price) instead of $2k? Or pay orders of magnitude more money for slow computers?
You see, we are trading improvements in some aspects to that of another.
The thing is you cannot separate the benefits these technological advancements bring with the problems they create. The rate of technological change is much more rapid than our ability as a society to adapt to it. This is one of the source of friction as the negative effect become real only later.
There is no physical law that says technology has to improve - it is our quest, or drive to seek it, we choose it, every time. And I say this as someone who is part of this.