Well, it's also possible that without the space program we never would have invented Tang at all. This scenario seems more realistic when you apply it to the In

Well, it's also possible that without the space program we never would have invented Tang at all. This scenario seems more realistic when you apply it to the Internet, the design parameters were pretty nuts -- they were trying to come up with a communications network which could survive a nuclear war. And no one was really saying that we needed the Internet until we already had it, but afterwards it was obvious how great it was. Without DARPA who knows if we would have gotten anything like the Internet we have today. Point is having lots of people out there doing very random and diverse research is a good thing. It may not be the most cost efficient path from A to B, but serendipity provides for some remarkable outcomes we might never have achieved otherwise. It can unearth "unknown unknowns" to borrow from Rumsfeld. Or "black swans" to steal from Taleb.