That makes me cry.

Not to mention the "Dark Ages" (yes I know they don't call them that anymore, but I do). If we weren't always fighting the church, we probably would be a freakin' Star Trek society by now.

Very true indeed

I look at this destruction of progress from a rather unique perspective.

Our current technology allows us to mine fossil resources to artificially sustain a system that has exceeded natural carrying capacity. For example: (fossil Water [washingtonpost.com], Oil, Coal) etc are,being quickly exploited and depleted causing dire impacts for tomorrow's generation. If we (mankind) had our current technology a thousand years ago, where would we be now? Would we have depleted fossil resources, destroyed our ecosystem with Co2 levels causing catastrophic global warming? Would our technology enabled health reached it's zenith hundreds of years ago leaving only ash and embers for the few able to survive in what remains of our once healthy planet no longer generally supportive for human life?