It may be, but there isn't a real good metric for societal improvement. And it seems like progress would always have ebbs and flows as different technologies have new opportunities that are squeezed -- and then other technologies look plumper, so they are squeezed, and so on.
And that's fine. I don't think anyone is complaining today about timepieces not keeping even more accurate time. Clocks today (in whatever device they are embedded in), while not 100% accurate are pretty good. The ROI in improving them further just isn't there -- in part because the good they'd serve humanity isn't there.
I think there are several quality metrics for gauging societal improvement:
- healthcare access and outcome statistics
- poverty & homelessness statistics
- education levels
- access to clean water in sufficient quantity
- access to healthful foods in sufficient quantity
- levels of environmental contaminants
- delta in income of top and bottom economic tiers
And so on. Toss in a few bullet points intended to flag totalitarian/authoritarian/fascist tendencies, worker exploitation, and the like and I think that while likely not a comprehensive blueprint that's more than enough to get started. Especially considering how poorly so many industrialized, first world, "democratic" countries in the world do on so many of these basics.
That said I agree there's no ROI on improving household items like clocks. The problem is there's also no obvious ROI on resolving homelessness.
And that's fine. I don't think anyone is complaining today about timepieces not keeping even more accurate time. Clocks today (in whatever device they are embedded in), while not 100% accurate are pretty good. The ROI in improving them further just isn't there -- in part because the good they'd serve humanity isn't there.