>Wouldn’t direct investment in these areas more efficient? Often not, because you don't know what areas to choose. Having a big, hard goal to solve usually req

>Wouldn’t direct investment in these areas more efficient? Often not, because you don't know what areas to choose. Having a big, hard goal to solve usually requires building pieces to solve the problem, and these pieces end up being useful in themselves. Plus the big goal is often achieved. Mankind could have done a lot of the stuff discovered along the way to big goals, but didn't, until the big goals were attempted. Plus, it's often easier to get funding as a nation-state for big goals. Little side projects are often not individually worth chasing. The internet is a good example - it could have been done by industry before the govt decided to chase it as a piece of a big goal.