@cicerone imposter,
True. The 20th century has represented a boost of growth, and hopefully the 21st will only mean an absolutely exponential upsurge in progress.
I do however feel true sadness and frustration that reality today is what it was 1,000 years ago; technology may not have existed as it does, but people would've have had all of the discussions that are had on the internet (not literally all, but enough to be shocking).
A perspective is this: the Vietnam and Gulf War happened in the latter parts of the 20th century, yet 1,000 years ago people would've discussed questions identical to those posted on this site (the nature of God, consciousness, favourite art, life on other planets, how the brain works) raising the question of what the true value of intelligence is.