If so, do you feel that you are able to actually help improve humanity or reduce threats to humanity and the planet we depend on?
And if so, would you encourage anyone else to apply?
I think working for intelligence agencies, especially taking technical work (think sigint, encryption/descryption, malware/malware defense, etc.) is very, very interesting, but improving humanity is a huge burden that no agency can shoulder.
On the other side, I think someone mentioned that the work of the intelligence agencies is not to prevent wars, but to prevent world wars (not exactly what he said but I believe it is what he meant). From that perspective, they are "helping" humanity.
There’s your answer.