ABSTRACT
Reliance on technological superiority has been a keystone of US defense posture. Several threats to science and technology in the United States may adversely affect the nation's security and prosperity. One type of modern neo-Luddite wants to return to simpler, supposedly happier times by rejecting the consequences of technological progress. There are two generic solutions to the threat posed by war in the technological age: to control or eliminate the causes of war and to limit the effects of war should it occur. The threat posed by the application of science to the art of war was recognized by the founders of modern experimental science, but they believed that the scientific enterprise also contained the solution to the problem it created. Technological advances may also permit development of viable strategic defenses, perhaps for a time shifting the military advantage from the offense to the defense. Advances in military technology have clearly been an important stimulus to the arms race.
