54. “Overconfidence of the young professional”

Talented young men and women who are professionals in a certain area, especially a dangerous area like racecar driving or base jumping, eventually get to a level of skill where they may acquire a false sense of invulnerability and become overconfident. Due to this very human factor of overconfidence, they run into catastrophes. This model can be used to consider mankind as a whole in relation to super-technologies such as nuclear, biological, and nanotechnologies. We may get so drunk on our own technological mastery that we fail to take basic safeguards and annihilate ourselves through carelessness.