[vannevar]

>[Technological progress] has been the default for at least a century or so, and I think it's done us quite well.

Such progress has presented an existential threat only once previously in the past century, and that was the development of nuclear weapons. The jury is still out on whether that was the right decision. I don't think the argument that, "Well, nothing bad has happened yet!" is very persuasive in the face of possible extermination of the human race.