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And it's really hard to look at the Shuttle program and say yes. How effective/efficient would a tax-payer supported version of Xerox PARC or the Golden Age Be
by jamesbritt 15y ago
And it's really hard to look at the Shuttle program and say yes.
How effective/efficient would a tax-payer supported version of Xerox PARC or the Golden Age Bell Labs be?
Something more pleasant than DARPA, for example.
- protomyth 15y agoWhat is your problem with DARPA?
- jamesbritt 15y agoIt has a military focus. I'd like to see devlopment with a broader scope. Like how to teach more people to read. Or farming.
- protomyth 15y agoIn the US, USDA funds a lot of farming research and DoE has its own labs for energy research. Military and Space seem to have a lot of civilian offshoots. Probably because of focus and demanding environments / specs.
- artmageddon 15y agoFair enough, but keep in mind that DARPA did bring us the internet...
- russell 15y agoFunny thing about that. Bob Taylor ran ARPA and then Xerox PARC. May be that he was his own golden age.
- maaku 15y agoNothing funny about it. The analogy is good. Garrett Reisman, astronaut, joins SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20110304 http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20110304 The time of NASA-monopoly (DARPA) is fading, and the time of commercial space (Xerox PARC/Bell Labs) is just beginning. But it really shouldn't be anything for anyone should get worked up over--Xerox PARC/Bell Labs ushered in golden age of innovation and wealth creation, and DARPA still exists and still does amazing things.
- ippisl 15y agoYou can't compare it this way. Xerox Parc and DARPA are research organizations. NASA is a research and development organization. they products that are used in real life. Usually development and deployment cost much more than pure research.