Will Technology Eventually Wipe Out Poverty and Disease?

I'm an avid watcher of the Star Trek franchise, because I really like the message it sends. In the future (though after a cataclysmic war [it predicts]), all human miseries will be wiped out: poverty, hunger, [most] diseases, ignorance.



But that brings up an interesting question: Will this, and indeed, could this really happen some day? Does technology have the power to wipe out all/most of human miseries? Or is this just a 20th and 21st century pipe dream?



I remain hopeful for the latter. But I could be wrong. What do the rest of you think?



:)