As the saying went—comfort, curiosity, and copulation were the primary production forces of mankind.
If one were to look at things from the perspective of fire usage, fire-making technology was developed for survival by people of those times. That was the most basic human need which had to be solved.
From the perspective of food, the invention of various seasonings had resolved the human demand for delicious flavors.
Since manual work was inefficient and tiring, humans invented machinery as a substitute for using their hands, which not only greatly improved efficiency but also freed humans from a lot of predicaments.
Since human calculating efficiency was too low, mankind also invented computers to substitute for the human brain, which helped them complete many tedious tasks.
Therefore, on this grand occasion of wasteland shipbuilding, now that everyone had abandoned the need for 'comfort', the first wave of responses was hard to believe.