In fact, to the 19th-century mind it would have seemed an impossibility. Prior to the modern era war had always been, by comparison, a series of small skirmishes contained in a relatively local area. But the technological advances of the 20th century have made worldwide war a reality. While technology itself became an evil to be feared in the minds of futurist writers, they often failed to identify the real problem for the future of mankind. It was not only the technology but also, and more significantly, human nature that needed to be controlled.
Technology can get out of hand, but humans use it.
American financier, economist and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch warned the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission in 1946 that mankind had a choice. Technology is not what we should fear most about the future. More frightening is what mankind can do with that technology, for it has been only in this century that we have acquired the capability to eradicate human life from the planet. Mankind has made staggering progress in the scientific realm. Yet what humanity needs most is the understanding of how to restrain its own nature.