Sure war is and has historically been a great source of invention. Because war provides us with the greatest itch of all – the need to survive, and thus we need to create better tools/weapons than our enemies.

It has always been this way and probably always will.

Let me pose you a question: If human happiness is the driving force behind scientific innovation, isn’t it ironic that we may well be inventing ourselves into extinction? (see: http://mindstalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html)

Is it inevitable that our scientific progress will bring to an end the human race AS WE KNOW IT? I see a few possible futures here:

1) We are well on our way to creating our own replacements (AI, cybernetics, etc.) – ie. our inventions outgrow us
2) We will destroy humankind with a global war – ie. our inventions destroy us
3) We will destroy our planet with our eco-unfriendly lifestyles (or perhaps with the Large Hadron Collider – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider) – ie. our inventions destroy our planet or our live-giving ecosystem

Of course we have many possible futures and many of them are not this grim!

Whatever happens though, we’ll not stop the inventors, the chemists, the philosphers… homosapiens natural curiosity will keep on driving us. We will always quest for more, that’s our nature.