[Aganzir]

I agree with Might about technology not being bad in itself. Everything has two sides.

Let's consider the two wizards, for example: Gandalf's fireworks and the fire of Orthanc. Unless Gandalf had developed a completely new way to make fireworks, he needed gunpowder. I don't remember ever reading anything for certain about what the fire of Orthanc was, but I have always more or less assumed it's gunpowder. (And how did they get it, anyway? I'd been thinking I'd post a thread about this but it seems I can ask it here.)

But what is considered technology? Surely developing medicine has more positive than negative sides. And who invented the wheel? Very useful, true, but the road from horse carriages to modern cars is not that long.
The more technology develops in Middle-earth, the more it begins resemble our world, and it's a bit sad to think that the glimpse we get of it is only a transient moment. But, on the other hand, it's comforting to see how repulsively the hobbits reacted to their short industrialization.