Страх, как двигатель технологического и экономического прогресса

[oder_k]

Until 40 years ago, the threat of hot and cold wars forced countries to look for long-term advantages over potential enemies. At the risk of being simplistic, let me say this threat fed back into investment in science, which allowed the industrial revolution to continue. Today, the threat from global warming, overpopulation and scarce natural resources seems insufficiently scary.
...
But I have a dream. The industrial revolution and economic growth continue. This is because astrophysicists find a huge cosmic rock on course to hit Earth in 50 years. This should be scary enough.

В принципе, так и есть: только давлением на основные инстинкты и можно стимулировать всякие инвестиции в не сиюминутно важное. Но с другой стороны, не дискретитирует ли это саму идею такого прогресса?