There's a problem to all of this, which isn't discussed often enough:
When we have electric cars, more nuclear reactors, more effecient ways of storing and creating energy, how do we as a society, keep those items with an extremely high potential energy, out of the hands of people who would do us harm?
How would the west build enough nuclear/hydrogen/SALT reactors to propel itself forward in terms of technology, stop, hinder or ban the use of the same technology in other countries? How could we build a vehicle that could travell 100's, if not 1000's of miles on a single 'charge' or hydrogen cartridge, while selling them to the public, but stop someone using that vehicle as a weapon?
we can't. That's why we are where we are. Until humanity either; locks large parts of the planet behind walls, learns to live in peace and harmony or is under a united, global authorotarian regime, we will never, ever, advance to the next stage of technology.