Can ' t really blame a person for basing their view of reality solely on first hand experiences . Which is why I don ' t blame you for your shortsightedness or lack of perspective . Currently , at a grand total population of 7 . 5 billion souls on the planet , humans are more comfortable than they have ever been in recorded history . We have learned how to exploit resources that we never knew existed . Currently , we stand on the shore of wholesale direct exploitation of sunlight . Sunlight ! The most abundant form of energy imaginable . We can already harness the power of fissile atoms quite readily , but have been holding off on doing so for one reason or the other . The technology to recycle waste into usable products already exists , but is underutilized simply because it takes more power to do so than to take those products from where recycling wasn ' t required though for some substances , recycling is already cheaper . I say ad infinitum like it ' s trivial because I believe we are on the cusp of the technology to make such advances trivial . The technological singularity began some time ago , when our rate of advancement first started outpacing our growth . With the current track of technology , I rather expect that trend to continue for the foreseeable future .