Holy hell please knock on wood, this is the kinda comment that gets put in a museum in 10,000 years on The Beginning of the End of The Age of Hubris. We've avoided side effects from our new weapons for 80 years -- that does not exactly make me super confident it won't happen again!
In general, I think drawing conclusions about "history" from the past couple hundred years is tough. And unless you take a VERY long view, I don't see how one could describe the vast majority of the past as a win for the optimists. I guess suffering is relative, but good god was there a lot of suffering before modern medicine.
If anyone's feeling like we've made it through to the other side of the nuclear threat, "Mission Accomplished"-style, I highly recommend A Canticle for Lebowitz. It won a hugo award, and it's a short read best done with little research beforehand.
In general, I think drawing conclusions about "history" from the past couple hundred years is tough. And unless you take a VERY long view, I don't see how one could describe the vast majority of the past as a win for the optimists. I guess suffering is relative, but good god was there a lot of suffering before modern medicine.
If anyone's feeling like we've made it through to the other side of the nuclear threat, "Mission Accomplished"-style, I highly recommend A Canticle for Lebowitz. It won a hugo award, and it's a short read best done with little research beforehand.