Nice article. Puts things in perspective.
Antibiotics and anesthetics surely make today's life a lot better than year 1900. All the machines we use today also help a lot: washing machine, dishwasher, snow cleaner, cars! Just having electricity is a luxury.
We sometimes spend several weeks in a mountain cabin, with the luxury of electricity, but without running water. Then I wash clothes by hand. That is a lot of work and a lot of water to carry. Washing up by hand every day also requires quite some time. That's OK when you are on holiday and have the time, but during a normal working day, this would be challenging. We have a refrigerator, but the freezer is broken. This is already quite inconvenient, even for a place where we don't stay for a long time when visiting.
I sometimes think about cancelling the electricity in our hut, because it costs a lot to have it, even if we use very little. But that means that all heating must come from the wood stove. Rooms like bathroom and lo would be very would. No electric vent on the dry toilet. Needing to lit a candle when getting up in the dark. No options to load our phones. No TV. Managing has bottles for stove and refrigerator.
We who lived for a few decades also notice the big difference between today and our childhood. Just the convenience of having a mobile phone, almost all information in the world available on the internet, and now even on that same phone. That is totally incredible, compared to even a few decades ago.