Isaac Asimov, View from a Height (1963), p. 164. Also in Asimov on Physics (1976), p. 151; Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), p. 181

But of all environments, that produced by man’s complex technology is perhaps the most unstable and rickety. In its present form, our society is not two centuries old, and a few nuclear bombs will do it in. To be sure, evolution works over long periods of time and two centuries is far from sufficient to breed Homo technikos.... The destruction of our technological society in a fit of nuclear peevishness would become disastrous even if there were many millions of immediate survivors. The environment toward which they were fitted would be gone, and Darwin’s demon would wipe them out remorselessly and without a backward glance.

— Isaac Asimov on Nuclear war

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "But of all environments, that produced by man’s complex technology is perhaps the most unstable and rickety. In its present form, our society is not two centuries old, and a few nuclear bombs will do it in. To be sure, evolution works over long periods of time and two centuries is far from sufficient to breed Homo technikos.... The destruction of our technological society in a fit of nuclear peevishness would become disastrous even if there were many millions of immediate survivors. The environment toward which they were fitted would be gone, and Darwin’s demon would wipe them out remorselessly and without a backward glance." in the context of "Isaac Asimov, View from a Height (1963), p. 164. Also in Asimov on Physics (1976), p. 151; Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), p. 181" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Nuclear war" (Quotes, 1960s) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Isaac Asimov

About Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov (c. 2 January 1920 – 6 April 1992) was a Russian-born American biochemist who was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, his works include the Foundation series and I, Robot.