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The government funded a tremendous amount of innovation while there was a Cold War with the Soviet Union. When the Soviets launched a satellite before the US,
by davidf18 9y ago
The government funded a tremendous amount of innovation while there was a Cold War with the Soviet Union.
When the Soviets launched a satellite before the US, that launched "The Space Race" where the government put an enormous amount of money into NASA, semiconductor development (for satellites originally?), science education.
Also with the Cold War there was a tremendous amount of weapons development including nuclear weapons and ICBM systems. Supercomputers were needed for nuclear simulations and code breaking etc.
The Internet is an outgrowth of military (DARPA) funding.
Once the Berlin Wall fell in 1991, there was no longer the political push to fund science.
Israel is an example of a tremendous amount of innovation for a country about the size and population of New Jersey (8 million). They are surrounded by enemies and have been since even before the creation of the state.
They have many military advances for such a tiny country. 3 different antimissile systems (Iron Dome -- short range, David's Sling - Medium, Arrow long range) sometimes co-developed with American firms.
Israel was the beginning of the Drone industry and today is #2 after the US. Also #2 after US for cybersecurity. Your Intel processors are designed there and some are fabricated there (the 22nm node plant has been upgraded to 10 nm). Apple has a design group there that designs much of the ARM processors for the iPhone.
Besides military, Israel has since biblical days water shortages. They innovated so that up to 1/3 of their water needs can be satisfied by very large desalinization plants.
Unless the US wakes up about issues with China, we may not be investing as we should. Imagine if the US had the same motivation as Israel for development. For me, someone who is familiar both with Israeli and US innovation (per capita), it is very frustrating to see the government spend so very little on science compared with The Cold War/Space Race, especially today with advances in computing, biology, ....