The catastrophe (of the main storyline universe) was unequivocally caused by science. If I recall correctly, it was implicitly three orders of magnitude worse

The catastrophe (of the main storyline universe) was unequivocally caused by science. If I recall correctly, it was implicitly three orders of magnitude worse than the technological super-weapons of our own World War 2. Metaphorically, the scientists were then treated like the plutonium pits of nuclear weapons--well isolated, so that they could not form a critical mass and start a runaway chain reaction, and arms-controlled, so that none of them could be exploited by politics. When the world needed a lot of brainpower, fast, the scientists were taken out of their safe storage and connected to each other using the separate monastic order of technicians, to intentionally cause a runaway chain reaction. Basically, the whole world was already pretty much boned, so the political leaders might as well set off their doomsday device--which was nothing more than to allow the smartest people on their planet to collaborate in real-time. That was the same thing that had previously (nearly) destroyed their civilization. "Just because we checked our guns at the door doesn't mean our brains will change from hand grenades."