Ancient technology

Gen11:4 says, “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.  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.”  Did the ancients know something we don’t?  With some mud bricks and some slime the ancients were going to be able to construct a tower, which could reach heaven.  We, with our silly steel and iron can’t even reach this height.  God in Gen 11.6 said they would be able to do it nod thought the only way to stop them would be to make them all speak different languages thus ending all communication.   Why can’t our dumb engineers match the genius of the ancient masons?  I guess the NASA and the satellites don’t bother him though.