Skip to content
quotesby

Man's greatest advances these last few generations have been made by the application of human intelligence to the management of matter. Now we are confronted by a more difficult problem, the application of intelligence to the management of human relations. Unless we can advance in that field also, the very instruments that man's intelligence has created may be the instruments of his destruction.

Norman Angell#39

ProgressFutureIntelligenceRiskTechnology

About this quote

What does it mean?
Human intelligence mastered matter but now faces the harder task of managing human relations; failure here risks destruction by our own inventions.
In plain terms
We learned to control matter but must learn to control how people relate or we destroy ourselves.
What can you take from it?
Apply intelligence to human relations to prevent self-destruction.

Where it applies

  • policy making
  • conflict resolution
  • tech ethics

Putting it to work

  • regulate AI
  • teach diplomacy
  • design ethical systems

Questions to consider

  • Can we manage what we create?
  • Is progress worth the risk?

Another view

It assumes intelligence alone can solve deep-rooted human conflicts.

More from Norman Angell

  1. Not more knowledge but better use of the knowledge which we now have, is perhaps the main educational need and the main educational problem which confronts us.

    Permalink to quote #38
  2. The obstacles to peace are not obstacles in matter, in inanimate nature, in the mountains which we pierce, in the seas across which we fly. The obstacles to pe…

    Permalink to quote #40
  3. I would not hesitate to say that nine out of ten of the critics of the peace movement get the argument turned upside down. 'You cannot change human nature' has…

    Permalink to quote #37

Related quotes

  1. Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd steam! afar Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car; Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear The flying chariot through the f…

    Erasmus DarwinErasmus Darwin quote #2
  2. My faith in the future rests squarely on the belief that man, if he doesn't first destroy himself, will find new answers in the universe, new technologies, new…

    Barry GoldwaterBarry Goldwater quote #4
  3. I, for one, bet on science as helping us. I have yet to see how it fundamentally endangers us, even with the H-bomb lurking about. Science has given us more li…

    Philip Kindred DickPhilip Kindred Dick quote #6