This is clearly a discussion between/among man children: it's all about historical advances = better weapons. Seriously?

Real "progress" or "advance" in human society is founded on things like FARMING, weaving, better medicine, etc. Yes, we've found "better ways to off ourselves", but that is too narrow a focus. We've also found better ways to feed, clothe, and heal ourselves. In fact, we're better at doing that than we are at killing ourselves, or there wouldn't be nine billion of us on the planet, would there?

The ultimate culmination of our progress may, in fact, be peace. What's holding us back is the unequal social constructs among us, which hold some of us in tyranny and poverty, and others in relative freedom and prosperity. This leads to conflict on every level, now made more urgent by climate change, which is going to force migrations on a level that will dwarf the Gold Rush. If we face a dark future, as Bruce believes, it is because we still cling to the delusion that life is a zero-sum game, requiring one group to wrest resources from the other. I believe that eventually we will learn better. Maybe not in this generation or the next, but eventually.

I don't know how or when this alignment of values will take place, which makes it a mystery, right?

Which rhymes with history.