As J. C. R. Licklider put it: "If it is (or were) true that hardware economics double every two years, and if it's true that it takes eight or ten years to get

As J. C. R. Licklider put it: "If it is (or were) true that hardware economics double every two years, and if it's true that it takes eight or ten years to get something from the idea stage out into use, it says the researcher who begins working on something has got to be a factor of 16 or 32 ahead of the time in his lavish expenditure of computer resources to do his work, and it takes really enlightened sponsors and supporters to make that possible. And usually it isn't."