[ExI] War drives innovation

[Dan]

On Thursday, October 6, 2011 2:16 PM Tara Maya tara at taramayastales.com wrote:
>> Good things that come from war are merely an example of the broken window fallacy.
>
> True, except insofar as it goes that the motivation not to be wiped out by a more
> advanced nation is still the bottom line reason not to simply walk away from
> technology altogether and join the Naavi.

It merely draws R&D down certain lines of work while consuming many resources in the process. In my opinion, better to avoid war all together than to arm for it or engage in it in hopes that it'll bring us tech goodies at some later date.
 
And this would still be a broken window fallacy: things would be better if the war didn't happen in the first place, just like the hypothetical baker in broken window fallacy hypothetical still must replace his store window. The community as a whole just isn't better off for him doing so.
 
Regards,
 
Dan