[extropy-chat] My Dilemma

[BillK]

On 7/7/06, Eugen Leitl wrote:
>
> So you're agreeing that ROI on war is horribly low,
> and you'd get two or three orders of magnitude of
> better return on investment, if you'd avoid a war,
> and invest directly into R&D instead?
>

Correct. But it never happens that way in practice.

Without a war all the wartime government/military funding of R&D
virtually disappears. There is little pressure to produce stuff like
when your life might be at risk. Nations revert to easy-going
peacetime attitudes. Academics worry about tenure, business paints
their widgets a different color and calls it progress.  New stuff
still happens, but on a 'Mañana' basis.


Wartime is like a pressure cooker. 'We need this stuff NOW!'
And, of course, the military funding also changes the direction of
research. So you lots of stuff quicker, but it tends to be stuff which
can be used to help kill people.
Jet planes were invented to deliver bombs, troops and bullets quicker.
It was only after the war that people used these cool new jet planes
for going on holidays.
OR was invented to better manage wartime production of weaponry.
After the war all businesses seized on the new OR techniques to
improve profitability.

For example:
Have you seen that new 'Babelfish' translator gadget the army is
trying in Iraq? That could be a cool universal translator for everyone
in a few years time.


BillK