It's not about control of advanced technologies but rather making such technologies look more powerful by pointing out real or imagined destructive capabilities. If you want funding or "big up" a topic, claim it has the power to bring down the world (anyone remembering gray goo?).
> grey goo, a nightmarish scenario of nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating nanobots destroy the biosphere by endlessly producing replicas of themselves and feeding on materials necessary for life.
