Three stages of technological advancement

I have a theory about why our human race is doomed.

Basically there are 3 stages of human advancement, in ascending order: The first stage, we're too dumb to harness technology. The second stage, we're smart enough to harness technology, but not smart enough to deal with the harmful side effects. The third stage, we're smart enough to reap the benefits without the side effects.

At any point in time, no matter what kind of technology we have, there are those three stages, so this pattern is a pretty resilient and a naturally occuring one. Stages 1 and 3 are harmless. The most dangerous stage is stage 2, and unfortunately most of the time we're stuck at stage 2. Climate change is the most obvious example, we have progressed by pumping CO2 everywhere and we're screwing ourselves in the process. But it takes so much effort to pass through stage 2 to get to stage 3, and we've been sneering at the tree huggers for so many years, for way too long. It took us long enough to get over freons and solve the ozone layer problem. One day, we'll screw ourselves over when the technology is artificial intelligence.

We'll keep on doing stupid shit to screw ourselves over: turn the "fertile crescent" into desert. Drain the Aral sea completely. Screw up Easter Island. Swear in President Donald Trump.