While this can certainly be read at face value as an anti-technology fable, I think it's deeper than that. Uncanny technological predictions for it's publication year.
An inventor thoughtlessly throws a box of futuristic toys back in time to 1942. I spent years as a child wishing I had these toys myself.
An intergalactic war with aliens stretches over eons and becomes itself alien. Call this a short novella based on the lenght.
A slick thief dodges robot police in a too-clean future.