Abstract :
"Look what powerful tools we have! See how they grow and what they can do! Isn\´t it clear that these tools will permit us to build any kind of world we want?" Is not this thought, however it may be expressed, the theme for many engineering conferences and seminars today? I see in this enthusiastic and widely held attitude a not-so-magnificent obsession, even a conspiracy of forces that threatens to unbalance our humanity. It is a conspiracy of intellectual pride and prejudice, married to the technological tools of power. Excessive pride of the rational process leads to supreme arrogance, just as excessive concern for the nonrational process leads to witchcraft and demonic perversions.