The beauty of the universe and the beauty of what we can accomplish within it are two related but separate things, and the separation matters.

Ther is no tool that is not also a weapon; and no human that would wield it as one.

It's not right to make fun of Melville's comically absurd inability to take decent pictures.
She's a hyper-advanced humanoid machine, not a photographer.

God appears, and God is light,
to those poor souls who well in night,
but does a human form display,
to those who dwell in realms of day.

Is it possible that on some level, people want to believe that everything's going to get worse? That it's comforting to think that humanity is bad and every solution will just go wrong? Because that way, you're never responsible. You never have to take on responsibility for anything outside yourself and never have to grow up.