3 ms·
We would likely have gotten a lot farther, a lot sooner. It's not so much that the tech was advanced back then or directly transferable to what we have today,
by blihp 5y ago
We would likely have gotten a lot farther, a lot sooner. It's not so much that the tech was advanced back then or directly transferable to what we have today, it wasn't and isn't. But we spent decades with individuals and small companies basically operating in the wilderness due to lack of funding and demand to advance the state of the art faster. Had the funding existed back then it's entirely possible that there would have been developments in directions (out of necessity) that no one is even thinking about today.
- kryptiskt 5y agoSolar panels have had customers with deep pockets and need for good performance for space applications since the beginning. Of course, the deep pockets and low volumes meant that they wouldn't be optimized for cost.
- blihp 5y agoSure, but the orders of magnitude of investment and resulting rate of progress aren't comparable.[1] Understanding the world/existence can't compete with cat pictures and blowing stuff up in video games. The consumer market makes government spending look feeble and comical in comparison. While the industry has been more or less bounded by metrics like Moore's Law over the decades, exploding volumes dramatically altered the price/performance delivered. [1] I'm only talking about the raw price/performance of the capabilities delivered and not the societal value of the respective results.