Nothing - oh I forgot there is 8 new Javscript framwork this week. It's been a couple of weeks since I checked but there must be a new language or 2 out there.
It seems your are primarily referring to civilizations conceived of and implemented by men. Let's face it - men have a pretty shitty record when it comes to running everything. Empowering more women in society (not kardashians whatever they are) will help curtail the more destructive male instincts. (I am male btw)
In 1983 virtually everything was text base. Since moving to graphical user interfaces a great deal of effort moved into more visually stimulating UI such as animations and better fonts etc. Not all of this should be counted a progress/innovation. We have waisted much of the HW performance we achieved of the years for baubles and trinkets:)