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The practical aspects of modern computing were to a large extent born from US defence funding. Starting from the theoretical roots: Von Neumann architecture [0]

by fsloth 8y ago

The practical aspects of modern computing were to a large extent born from US defence funding. Starting from the theoretical roots: Von Neumann architecture [0] and various defence projects including ARPA[1]. "But that doesn't necessarily and always mean that people couldn't have invented something without military funding and uses in mind." Sure, it doesn't. But funding and large number of end users combined with price-inelastic demand for your product enable product development and field testing like no other scenario does. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Draft_of_a_Report_on_the_EDVAC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Draft_of_a_Report_on_the... [1] https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Machine-Licklider-Revolution-Computing/dp/0670899763 https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Machine-Licklider-Revolution-Co...

ataturk 8y ago
All true, and we have to live with it. The idea that humanity has gained because of military needs is not outright unethical, but it's troubling. It means that everything we aspire to as a culture in the US relates to killing other people. I personally have a big issue with that. I'm not some drumming in the park lefty hippie, though. I have avoided working directly for MIC companies throughout my career, but I'm not exactly lily white when it comes to this matter. It is nearly impossible to separate yourself from the evils of militarism and big government in the US. Even the most benign looking company you might work for, when you peel back the veneer, is taking government money in some form. It's not always obvious how. I used to work for a company that made legal research software. Well, the US Government, including institutions like JAG, are big customers of it. Everything in the US, one way or another, is backstopped by taxpayer money. On a side note, I don't get all the adulation for the recently deceased John McCain. Mr. McCain was one of the biggest supports of the MIC and its warmongering ways the past 30 years. Here was a man like no other when it came to gilding the pockets of the militarist corporations. He's exactly what Eisenhower warned us about, and Smedly Butler a generation before that! We could, if we wanted to, disassemble this mess. It would not mean we would eliminate national defense. It would just meant we would cease the warmongering, the unnecessary spending on ridiculous boondoggles like the Littoral Combat Ship (while regular military people go on welfare), and basically move to more of a Swiss style approach to defense where regular people are involved back in the process again. Right now, it's all about billions of dollars funneling from you and me into the pockets of Lockheed Martin, L3 Systems, General Dynamics, and the like. It's time that it stopped. Despite what you think, this is what the new breed of Republicans is trying to accomplish--McCain was never a Constitutional conservative. Not for a single day. And his run for President was a stage-managed failure on purpose in order to promote the devious ends of his cohort. It's time to hit the brakes on all of it.

by fsloth 8y ago

ataturk 8y ago

All true, and we have to live with it. The idea that humanity has gained because of military needs is not outright unethical, but it's troubling. It means that everything we aspire to as a culture in the US relates to killing other people. I personally have a big issue with that. I'm not some drumming in the park lefty hippie, though. I have avoided working directly for MIC companies throughout my career, but I'm not exactly lily white when it comes to this matter. It is nearly impossible to separate yourself from the evils of militarism and big government in the US. Even the most benign looking company you might work for, when you peel back the veneer, is taking government money in some form. It's not always obvious how. I used to work for a company that made legal research software. Well, the US Government, including institutions like JAG, are big customers of it. Everything in the US, one way or another, is backstopped by taxpayer money. On a side note, I don't get all the adulation for the recently deceased John McCain. Mr. McCain was one of the biggest supports of the MIC and its warmongering ways the past 30 years. Here was a man like no other when it came to gilding the pockets of the militarist corporations. He's exactly what Eisenhower warned us about, and Smedly Butler a generation before that! We could, if we wanted to, disassemble this mess. It would not mean we would eliminate national defense. It would just meant we would cease the warmongering, the unnecessary spending on ridiculous boondoggles like the Littoral Combat Ship (while regular military people go on welfare), and basically move to more of a Swiss style approach to defense where regular people are involved back in the process again. Right now, it's all about billions of dollars funneling from you and me into the pockets of Lockheed Martin, L3 Systems, General Dynamics, and the like. It's time that it stopped. Despite what you think, this is what the new breed of Republicans is trying to accomplish--McCain was never a Constitutional conservative. Not for a single day. And his run for President was a stage-managed failure on purpose in order to promote the devious ends of his cohort. It's time to hit the brakes on all of it.