Remember that great old game, Sim Earth, where you created a planet, then populated it with evolving creatures of your choice?
The idea was that your well-intentioned Godhood would create a race of intelligent beings (we always made ours dinosaurs or dolphins) whose civilization eventually reached the stage where it left earth and headed for the stars.
One of the saddest things about the game was that the best way to prod your population into the future was by making it miserable. But, fascinatingly (and, we think, truly) the greatest misery was caused when you stopped your civilization from creating art.