What you are describing is an inherent flaw of Proof of Work. A lot of people are having the same concern as you, especially since the bitcoin network uses more electricity than some countries now, with most of that computation going to waste. In general, to combat this, research is looking at different ways to provide proof, and so far some interesting concepts have emerged, namely Proof of Stake, Proof of Time, Proof of Space, and probably a few more I'm not aware of. Explaining these is beyond the scope of this answer; you can google more information if you're curious