Both the required resources and lots of freedom does seem like a good recipe for innovation. Your historical examples make sense and I can think of many more. H

Both the required resources and lots of freedom does seem like a good recipe for innovation. Your historical examples make sense and I can think of many more. However when it comes to government sponsored research I need a little more convincing. Certainly there are good anecdotes and at $3B a year DARPA way be great relative value compared to DOE or NIH. Thanks for pointing me to Tim Wu - very interesting analysis.