In a timeline where the US war machine, among others, continues to function exactly like an infinite money glitch; we get to experience the privilege of watching an ever accelerating boom of brilliant innovations, all with the shared purpose of continuing to drive humanity backwards.
I was gonna include the internet, but it’s a weird instance of ARPANET being different enough from the world wide web that each is credited to different creators, as opposed to GPS which was simply made available to civilians.
Yeah, people say that a lot. Then again, nobody knows the “what if” to compare it to. Like, how many brillant inventors were slaughtered in the trenches? What could’ve universities researched were they not bombed or shut down? I feel like we would’ve had crazy more cool inventions already ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
War is generally terrible for the advancement of theoretical science (because researchers get drafted & murdered, “pure” research budgets are diverted to the military) but great for the development of pre-existing theoretical science into new technology
I read an interesting article that said our current scifi dystopia trajectory is more along the lines of Philip K. Dick than Asimov or Huxley. If you haven’t seen screamers you might want to check it out. Basically there’s a war between a megacorporation and a union of scientists, so the scientists invent autonomous drones that kill everything with a heart beat and of course the drones become sentient.
In a timeline where the US war machine, among others, continues to function exactly like an infinite money glitch; we get to experience the privilege of watching an ever accelerating boom of brilliant innovations, all with the shared purpose of continuing to drive humanity backwards.
As it has ever been. Radar. GPS. Digital imagery. Friggin microwave ovens. All military-first inventions.
The internet
Al gore wasn’t in the military!
/s
I was gonna include the internet, but it’s a weird instance of ARPANET being different enough from the world wide web that each is credited to different creators, as opposed to GPS which was simply made available to civilians.
Digital imagery actually goes to NIST and I would consider it not military-first - https://www.nist.gov/mathematics-statistics/first-digital-image
I would say that NASA/space also brought about a lot of inventions, but space and military have tended to go hand in hand.
Yeah, people say that a lot. Then again, nobody knows the “what if” to compare it to. Like, how many brillant inventors were slaughtered in the trenches? What could’ve universities researched were they not bombed or shut down? I feel like we would’ve had crazy more cool inventions already ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
War is generally terrible for the advancement of theoretical science (because researchers get drafted & murdered, “pure” research budgets are diverted to the military) but great for the development of pre-existing theoretical science into new technology
I read an interesting article that said our current scifi dystopia trajectory is more along the lines of Philip K. Dick than Asimov or Huxley. If you haven’t seen screamers you might want to check it out. Basically there’s a war between a megacorporation and a union of scientists, so the scientists invent autonomous drones that kill everything with a heart beat and of course the drones become sentient.