South African mad genius and Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk desperately wants to colonize Mars. But, according to him, there’s one thing that could soon stand in his way.

World War III.

As in, the sequel to World War II (otherwise known as the Second World War).

The inventor billionaire says he worries about technological progress being stopped dead in its tracks and possibly even reversed when empires fall, new regimes take the reins, and history repeats itself (he cites both Ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire).

He admitted as much in a new interview with the American magazine GQ.

Here’s a snippet from the piece where he explains his alarming doomsday angst:

I don’t think we can discount the possibility of a third World War. You know, in 1912 they were proclaiming a new age of peace and prosperity, saying that it was a golden age, war was over. And then you had World War I followed by World War II followed by the Cold War. So I think we need to acknowledge that there’s certainly a possibility of a third World War, and if that does occur it could be far worse than anything that’s happened before. Let’s say nuclear weapons are used. I mean, there could be a very powerful social movement that’s anti-technology.

Who would’ve thunk it? The tech seer that is Musk, inferring that the Amish (i.e. the Pennsylvania Dutch) in many ways, are ahead of their time.

CNET