[gnode]

I don't think the concern here is the abuses of companies, or technologies like mobile phones. The concern is technologies like thermonuclear weapons (much worse than even nuclear weapons used against Japan), which we are just very lucky have so far not been used in earnest. I think it is a commonly-understood truth that those technologies present an existential threat to society, if not all humanity.

Artificial intelligence is assumed by many to present such a threat (i.e. Terminator-style intelligence singularity scenario). Many speculate that applications enabled by quantum computing could also be similarly dangerous.

[chr1 → gnode]

There is also an argument that nuclear weapons were actually a greatest good for humanity, as they prevented wars between countries that have them.

[onepointsixC → gnode]

Yet those thermonuclear weapons have been largely responsible for the long peace.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Peace