Sure, there are trade offs and risks to everything and everything new. Cars made us move faster, but can pollute and cause injury or death. But summing all of those things together, I would not pick any other time before now to live. And same with software development.
I'm sure factory owners said the same thing in England in the early 1800s.
It needs to be noted that the average person's lot didn't improve until 150 years later. There's no reason why technology can't be decided by democratic means rather than shoved in our faces by people that just want to accumulate wealth and power.
