If they want to jump off a bridge or seppuku because discoveries with the potential of improving lives in some way are accelerating... well let me say no more.
Technological advances have been militarily applied since wars were a thing. Many times it's the military application that drove the advancement; like GPS was originally for military navigation and targeting, computers advanced quickly for codebreaking, the internet itself began as ARPANET (defense networking project), jet engines for faster fighter planes, etc. And look at where those advancements stand today in our lives.
I'd say the jury is out on that. Most advancements aren't needed per se, but the majority of us take their existence for granted and life goes on. Penicillin though, that's one thing that having available absolutely put us in a better place, and it was also war that triggered a massive push in solving medicinal mass production, because infected wounds was a massive problem.