The reason it feels depressing is that if recent history is any guide, 0.0001% of the human race will receive almost all the benefit. A tiny number of richer-than-rich will get even richer and everyone else will stay the same or get poorer.
Wrong, It’s the most important prior.
Technology is vastly different now since your supposed “last time”, to the point where it’s an entirely different landscape for events to unfold.
Look at the state of mass apathy and lack of accountability we have in society now. That tiny group has never been more unaccountable.
To be fair I think there's a lot of truth in your statement in the short term (and arguably in the long). But in the 'long' term , it sure does look like revolutionary technology makes everyday peoples life better (I didn't even go into transportation or health care/life expectency)
Sure everybody can be addicted to some crappy social service on their phones, but that's not a mark of progress in 2025 nor definition of life fulfillment/happiness, some would say in contrary. Obesity was also for a long time mark of wealth (and in some 3rd world countries it still is), and now its a sign of low social status and failure for various reasons.
Btw life expectancy i starting to decline again in developed countries, its just 3rd world that has so much gap to cross that they still go up.
Of course historically this does seem to be a cycle. Usually it goes gilded age, revolution, broad-based growth, emergence of a new elite, repeat cycle. Unfortunately the revolution period is often very chaotic and destructive.
The nice things from (A) don't necessarily require what co-occurred with (B). There is nothing in the physics or materials of a refrigerator which requires the assembler to have been paid less than the CEO.
However, that's cyclical and we're in a really crappy local minima for affordability due to a rapid increase in interest rates.
AI and other automation allows more to be done with less labor which increases corporate profits, and all that is pocketed by a very small number of people. Meanwhile everyone else is unemployed. There is no mechanism to distribute these benefits to anyone.
The money goes to inflate stock and other financial bubbles and asset prices, including housing, which makes living even more unaffordable.
Long term this eventually collapses since the economy doesn’t work with no customers.