Technological civilization is great for making keys to unlock doors to power.
Unfortunately, that's not the same thing as knowing what to do with that power. More power is on its way in the next several decades, as present scientific knowledge drives future technological capability. As someone fascinated, empowered, and immersed in technology, these questions came to me relatively late in life. When I started trying to educate myself, I found that the discourse about technology is harshly polarized between technophiles and neo-Luddites. Indeed, a little digging revealed that the original Luddites weren't specifically opposed to technology, but to the social changes that concentrations of capital, aided and abetted by the first steam-powered devices, were bringing to their lives.