If we all worked on things as important as curing cancer, we could build god and live happily forever. Whichever generation manages this will 'win'.
(Or they build a paperclipper and ruin the lightcone.)
I see the world has not built god and lived happily, forever, after antibiotics were discovered and used. Something else that's horrible will come along and human tendencies will still prevail and exploit others.
Building god's just the end-example, even if you never get there you can keep making things better.
(I should say that by "build god" I just mean build a friendly AI, i.e. automate science. If that's impossible, just try and do what it would do.)
(Hard to enjoy your sex toys when you're coughing your lungs out!)