I think the text makes it pretty clear...
I saw it as a pre-warp society playing with technology and they are no where near fully understanding, like a baby playing with a nuclear weapon.
"technology they were nowhere near understanding"? They were constructing a
building. It was the
Tower of Babel... not the
Starship of Babel...
Besides, read the text itself:
Genesis 11:6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Sounds like fear to me...
The only thing that stopped them last time was God... why would He stop it a second time?
He's not afraid, is He?
Imagine how many of those issues we'd have resolved by now if we hadn't been hamstringed... God wasn't afraid of our failures, He was afraid of our
success...
Meanwhile, for thousands of years, we slaughtered each other over over far more pressing matters over whose god was the right one...
And interestingly enough, it was our knowledge of how to separate atoms which has
prevented large-scale wars... MAD, don't you know.
Sure, we still have war, but we've learned restraint by necessity.
And someday we'll have the details worked out -- assuming God doesn't sabotage us again.
Sounds like God's got a vested interest in keeping us perpetually weak and dependent... on Him, of course.
Those who have power and control often fear losing them.
Well, it wasn't you who got quoted in Genesis 11:6.
And that knowledge, rudimentary as it is, has kept our cold war from turning hot.
Well, that's certainly your opinion, but you can't stop curiosity, and you no matter how much you try to hinder the pursuit of knowledge (something religion has attempted for centuries), you will inevitably fail.