Life Expectancy and Knowledge

There is a lot of debate of whether technology and progress have made us more knowledgeable or whether they have improved anything. People often contend or wish they live 100 or 1000 years ago when things were simpler, but can’t it be argued that because we live longer our lives have improved. If our goal in life is survival and we are doing it better than we have ever done before, haven’t we gotten better? Isn’t life better now?

In some respects I would say so. Giving ourselves more ‘quality time’ has resulted in a sedentary lifestyle to an extent. Throungh new farming techniques people eat more (especially junk food) without worry of missing a meal. The ways those foods are processed affects our health. Diabetes, cholesterol, fat content and all-you-can-eat restaurants cause vascular problems and cancer. We are in need of little except doctors to correct what years of abuse to our bodies has wrought.

This question is very hard to be objective about. What was experience like for most people 100 years ago, for example. Perhaps, not overloaded by stimuli, they experienced life more intensely. Perhaps we are numbed out in ways that we would trade away from, even at the cost of a shorter life. How could we know?