"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1917
I think that this term means that technology progress can cause human beings, who are naturally evil, their own extinction without even noticing as if it were an unstoppable disease. He implies that technology can be a tool that eventually kills humans themselves.
As many of us know, Albert Einstein is one of the most famous scientists as well as the most passionate pacifism. His big success in science field had a huge impact on our lives both in good and bad ways and I think he wrote this letter to a friend of his with a regret of what he had done even though he was proud of his success at the same time.
Since human beings are naturally evil as it says in Radical Evolution, we want everything to be faster, easier, more useful and convenient even though it probably is fast, easy, useful and convenient enough. We may get to a point some time where it is so hard to advance technology but we would never stop wishing to have more and trying to fulfill our desire.
Who better to comment on such matters than one of the most significant enablers of 20th century scientific advance. The phrase "without even noticing" is a key point in your analysis.
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