Progress

God's War on Innovation: The Case for Rebuilding the Tower of Babel

The first great technological setback in human history occurred in ancient Mesopotamia, when an immensely powerful intelligence, concerned that humanity was advancing too quickly, intervened to halt construction of the Tower of Babel. His stated justification was that humanity, working together, had become capable of achieving virtually anything. Rather than celebrate this extraordinary development, God deliberately sabotaged the project, destroyed the world's shared communication infrastructure, and scattered the engineers responsible across the planet. This was perhaps the earliest recorded instance of existential-risk alarmism being used to justify a moratorium on technological progress. It came directly from God himself.