There are finite resources on this planet with a finite amount of people. Not even considering technology and culture, there will always be a limit to how much material wealth we can produce.
In my opinion, there are two ways to "create" material wealth.
Destruction of the material wealth that currently exists, which is war.
Somehow discovering a new habitable planet which allows a much more organic expansion of the human population, at the same time, creating a whole new world of opportunities.
Since option 2 requires more brain power and most of the population's knowledge has degraded into garbage, we have resorted to option 1 for most of human history.
You're right, those are the only two options we have if we want create more material wealth.