Evaluate the role of technology in prolonging the First World War (IB History Exam Question)

The Examiner is looking for a nuanced but strong answer.
Technology's rapid development during WW1 gave rise to the belief that it would cut the war short. However, each technological innovation was quickly followed by a newly invented countermeasure. Pill Boxes neutralised Artillery and gas masks neutralised gas and so on. Technology did not prolong the war but rather failed to deliver on its initial promise to cut it shortMoreover, generals who had a life time of experience fighting cavalry heavy wars had a limited understanding of how to use it to peak efficiency. The historiography of the war illustrates this, in Britain there is great contention over whether or not their use of tanks was implemented skilfully or not and similarly in Germany it is widely acknowledged that the General Staff had deluded themselves as to the capabilities of submarines because of their lack of experience on the issue.
The issues that really prolonged the war were the scale and nature of the conflict. World War is not an exaggeration, this was a conflict fought on an unprecedented scale with millions of combatants and across multiple continents. The sheer amount of manpower reserves and the fact that there was fighting as far away as Africa and Asia meant that this was one of the first wars in which a decisive battle was no longer possible. Governments had adopted total war, the entire state was directed towards the war and yet there were no clear war aims on either side. There were multiple efforts to find a peace but this was not achievable because of the lack of initial war aims and the growing pressure that victory had to be won to justify the great blood shed.
One could argue that technology even helped cut the war short, that the huge industrial demands needed to supply the technological requirements of the German army helped cripple the German economy and that when Germany could no longer compete they succumbed on the battlefield.