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> endless money poured into innovation The US put 5% of the federal budget into the original moon mission. NASA and SpaceX and the US Space Force combined do
by bryanlarsen 18d ago
> endless money poured into innovation
The US put 5% of the federal budget into the original moon mission. NASA and SpaceX and the US Space Force combined don't spend anywhere close to that on R&D.
- emj 18d agoPretty sure we are talking about the endless AI money glitch.
- Planktonne 18d agoThat's part of my complaint. More and more money is poured into 'innovation' across our society, but what do we have to show for it?
- deleted 18d ago[deleted]
- wat10000 18d agoA huge variety of tools and technology that billions of people use daily. What did we ultimately have to show for the money poured into Apollo? I'm a big fan of space exploration but putting twelve people up there for a few days at a time is pretty small potatoes compared to, say, the creation of smart phones or vast improvements in solar power and batteries or a thousand other things that have been done since 1972. I can push a (virtual) button on a rectangle I carry in my pocket and be instantly on a video call with my mother who lives a thousand miles away. And I don't even have to pay by the minute. That's positively magical, and in terms of actual real-world impact on average people it's far more significant than moon landings.
- m4rtink 17d agoThe Appolo Guidance Computer was one of the first applications of silicone integrated circuits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer#Logic_hardware https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer#Logic... "Following the use of integrated circuit (IC) chips in the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform (IMP) in 1963, IC technology was later adopted for the AGC.[17] The Apollo flight computer was one of the first computers to use silicon IC chips.[4][8]" A lot of money went to IC technology thanks to that, directly leading to the phones you mention. It is quite likely that without just these specific Apollo investments into ICs, we would be quite a few years behind on computer technology.
- wat10000 17d agoI don’t think that’s the sort of thing that’s meant by someone writing about “innovation” in scare quotes and complaining about no more moon landings.
- WalterBright 17d ago> what do we have to show for it? For starters, you are on HN amusing yourself in your free time.
- ehe78qhe 17d ago[dead]
- Ekaros 17d agoBad "art" and annoying to read writing? Maybe slightly more software we don't really need.