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There's many forms of strength. Pressure, competition and necessity makes one (people and systems alike) stronger in the domain in which it matters. At first, physical power was important. Then intellectual power was important. Today, soft power is important. Big muscles won't get you far in life if you have an IQ of 80, and an IQ of 140 won't get you far in life if you can't make friends. If ones goal is to defeat enemies, one should optimize for that. The Buddha was a great person in some ways, but I could probably beat him in a boxing match. If the Japanese had focused more on technology than on self-improvement, they could have won. Japan optimized for a local fitness, America for a more global fitness.
From what I see, your conversation could be titled "was Nietzsche correct or not?". He was right about great people in a biological as well as aesthetic sense. However, the inhuman is stronger than the human, by far. The strongest technology wins. Morality, taste, wisdom, spirituality, resiliance, etc. can influence the strength of humans as a multiplier, but the strength of people barely matters any. A gun is worth more than 20 years of martial arts training.
You're correct because the utility of technology is exponential, and because of something which has to do with statistical laws, asymptotic limits, and game theory. Suffering is important for greatness when only humanity matters. Spoiler: The ultimate victor will be some kind of grey goo, and the particulars of that grey goo won't matter.
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