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And If that defense spending is used to fund R&D projects that ultimately benefit society, would you still feel the same way? (ARPAPNet for one example?)

by sslayer 11y ago

hollerith 11y ago
Although the internet was many years ahead of the BBS scene and Fidonet in the sophistication of its technology and its online culture, the BBS scene and Fidonet would have by now become a global network integrated into commerce, government and other aspects of daily life if the internet had not gotten there first. Or the technology behind France's Minitel would have been adopted globally and gotten there. Or something like that.
nitrogen 11y ago
But it's not; it's used instead to send our aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, etc. into dangerous places and stir up geopolitical trouble. How much research could you fund with the price of a single multi-million-dollar gas station in Afghanistan?
toomuchtodo 11y ago
Which of these 19 operational US aircraft carriers are used for R&D and not force projection? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_in_service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_in_s...
- NegativeK 11y ago
  I would love, love, love to see defense spending cut and have a chunk redirected toward non-defense R&D. But it's too binary to argue that the production of high-tech defense systems (like planes and carriers) doesn't involve a large amount of R&D.
krisdol 11y ago
So you're suggesting we keep drowning the department in cash, hoping that one of the projects they build has a happy side effect of not murdering or spying on people. Take the same money and spend it on R&D projects whose purpose is to benefit society from the get-go.
maxxxxx 11y ago
Defense is a pretty inefficient way to fund R&D. I don't know the numbers but the percentage of the defense budget that actually goes into R&D is probably pretty low.
- saiya-jin 11y ago
  just one example out of many - F22/F35 program costs (is it still 1.5 trillion USD?), which cover just one tiny (albeit important) piece of US military offensive power (calling it defense is just a bad joke). plenty of nasty diseases could be put out of existence with just a fraction of that, for example

And If that defense spending is used to fund R&D projects that ultimately benefit society, would you still feel the same way? (ARPAPNet for one example?)

by sslayer 11y ago

And If that defense spending is used to fund R&D projects that ultimately benefit society, would you still feel the same way? (ARPAPNet for one example?)

hollerith 11y ago

Although the internet was many years ahead of the BBS scene and Fidonet in the sophistication of its technology and its online culture, the BBS scene and Fidonet would have by now become a global network integrated into commerce, government and other aspects of daily life if the internet had not gotten there first. Or the technology behind France's Minitel would have been adopted globally and gotten there. Or something like that.

nitrogen 11y ago

But it's not; it's used instead to send our aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, etc. into dangerous places and stir up geopolitical trouble. How much research could you fund with the price of a single multi-million-dollar gas station in Afghanistan?

toomuchtodo 11y ago

Which of these 19 operational US aircraft carriers are used for R&D and not force projection? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_in_service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_in_s...

NegativeK 11y ago
I would love, love, love to see defense spending cut and have a chunk redirected toward non-defense R&D. But it's too binary to argue that the production of high-tech defense systems (like planes and carriers) doesn't involve a large amount of R&D.

krisdol 11y ago

So you're suggesting we keep drowning the department in cash, hoping that one of the projects they build has a happy side effect of not murdering or spying on people. Take the same money and spend it on R&D projects whose purpose is to benefit society from the get-go.

maxxxxx 11y ago

Defense is a pretty inefficient way to fund R&D. I don't know the numbers but the percentage of the defense budget that actually goes into R&D is probably pretty low.

saiya-jin 11y ago
just one example out of many - F22/F35 program costs (is it still 1.5 trillion USD?), which cover just one tiny (albeit important) piece of US military offensive power (calling it defense is just a bad joke). plenty of nasty diseases could be put out of existence with just a fraction of that, for example