When I was young I only saw the first half. Decades later I got to finish it ... what a letdown after all this time.
In around 1976, when I was five, I followed a smaller design: mine fit entirely inside an egg carton, with the tops painted various colors representing buttons. I had a roll of punched paper tape as a souvenir from my aunt, who worked in accounting for textile company. I fed that tape into the egg carton as input.
And so here we are ...
I probably should have been explicit that I don't think technology has no downsides--it most certainly does. It's just, IMHO, the benefits outweigh the risks. And, over time, we figure out how to ameliorate the downsides.
You're falling into the trap of saying I could've only been happy if I did X. But humans aren't like that - even garbagemen find happiness in their work. The brain adapts to baseline no matter the field.
The second trap you're falling into is saying look how abundant things are compared to 1892. We have every statistic proven and locked down that abundance does not equal happiness.
Do you believe that, on balance, the world is no better today than in 1892? If so, that's where we disagree.
I think that the floor has been raised and the ceiling has been lowered for the typical person. There's far less suffering, but absence of suffering is not the same as happiness. In that respect I think a random 1892 person may have actually been happier. South Korea has 30x more suicides than Syria.
Citation definitely needed.
The ones I know find happiness in their relatively high pay for an 8hr/day, no GED-required job, with the job security that the first few days are blindingly difficult for anyone to adapt to, even highly fit college athletes (source: 40+ garbageman whose son couldn't hack two days of it).