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Really hard engineering pushing the limits of physics and materials science is fun, killing people is not.

• minikites 7y ago
  Do you genuinely see the same virtue in the engineering of a bridge and the engineering of a cruise missile?
  • SEJeff 7y ago
    Do you not see that materials science from high performance cruise missiles might work its way through other uses of materials science such as structural engineering and bridges? Bridges can be used to hold tanks, does that mean all bridge engineers are bad?
    • minikites 7y ago
      There's no way other than weapons engineering to make those discoveries?
      • SEJeff 7y ago
        In the same vein, as an industry, pornography really improved computer storage density and video codecs whereas electronic trading really improved the tech to reduce networking latency. Virtually all engineering benefits from other engineering that came before it. There are plenty of other ways, but this is how it is. Most all of what NASA does or has ever done has directly benefited the Department of Defense. Does this mean we should shut down NASA because it helps the military make more efficient missiles or spy satellites? When does this silly argument end.
        • DuskStar 7y ago
          > Most all of what NASA does or has ever done has directly benefited the Department of Defense. Especially since a lot of the benefit has gone the opposite direction a lot of times - how many of our space telescopes started life as extra reconnaissance satellites?
          • SEJeff 7y ago
            This is precisely my point! As much as one might be morally against military research, it is well funded and bleeding edge. Case in point: I had to get a double bunionectomy when I was in the Army after spending a year in Iraq and got my feet wrecked. They surgically broke my big toe in 2 places and drilled 2 holes. They then put "pins" in each hole made of pig cartilage. This procedure allows the body to heal and then it absorbs these "pins" which prevents arthritis. At the time I got this surgery, in 2004, it was not available to the general civilian population. Now, it is. It was pioneered to help the military and now the entire populace can benefit from the exact same technology. Problem spaces that push boundaries of engineering ultimately result in better engineer for everyone.
        • darkpuma 7y ago
          > "Most all of what NASA does or has ever done has directly benefited the Department of Defense." People often overstate this. For instance, when pointing out that the Mercury and Gemini programs used ICBM boosters, people sometimes insinuate that NASA was in fact developing those rockets for the military and all the manned spaceflight stuff was just a nice cover story to make the rockets seem benign. In fact, the rockets were already in military use by the time NASA got their hands on them. Those IBCMs were not created using NASA as a PR cover-story. They were weapons from day one which were later repurposed for civilian use. Another big example is the Saturn V. Unlike it's predecessors, it was never an ICBM. NASA designed that one from the ground up for lifting people. Of course there are more military applications for rockets than implementing ICBMs. Satellites have obvious military applications, so any sort of space launch technology will have military applications and anybody who advances the state of the art for launching satellites will be, in that sense, contributing to the advance of military technology.
      • CapricornNoble 7y ago
        The survival instinct is the greatest motivator of human activity. Nothing provides an impetus for the mind to innovate quite like "figure this shit out or we're dead."
  • losteric 7y ago
    Virtue? For me, it's much more basal than that. Railguns, rockets, explosions, lasers... fast cars, fighter jets, massive supercomputers... all impressive engineering "magic" that spark some childish awe in a certain type of person. As an adult, I know the why behind the technology. That "awe" grows into "awesome" or "awful"... but it always starts awe.
    • SEJeff 7y ago
      Wonderful description.
    • TimTheTinker 7y ago
      There is something awe-inspiring about raw power in action -- whether it's a power that creates or a power that destroys.
  • NeedMoreTea 7y ago
    > see the same virtue in the engineering of Actually yes, but the application of on the other hand... Only a tiny few of the multiple conflicts since WW2 have been helpful or even justified. Many have been hugely counter-productive. Yet I can't deny that wars and military spending have given huge impetus to advance many capabilities. Capabilities that have ended up having huge applications in peacetime too. Whether rocketry or WW2's improvement of the cavity magnetron, or early computers. Who knows how many decades later some of the stuff we take for granted might have arrived, or sat on a dusty shelf as interesting but impractical or non-commercial? Even the humble tin can got its start supplying food to the navy, in the age of sail.
  • merpnderp 7y ago
    For all but the tiniest fraction of human history, nearly everyone alive was enslaved or forcefully controlled by the wicked and strong. If rail guns help maintain this tiny sliver of historic wonder, where people are freer every day, then yeah, they’re exciting.