From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Sun Mar 23 2003 - 22:16:05 MST
Technotranscendence wrote:
> On Sunday, March 23, 2003 8:33 PM spike66 spike66@attbi.com wrote:
>
>>...Altho you see a lot of
>>humvees on the road these days, we found that in
>>general military equipment is not highly adaptable
>>for civilian use.
>
>...what about GPS? I know, it's only one example...
>
> Dan
Certainly there are shining exceptions like GPS, and
I suppose we could also argue that the internet of
which we are so fond was initially conceived as a
means of communications in the event of a nuclear
war, in which case it is kinda like an adaption of
mil-tech. Aircraft technology has always been pushed
forward by military needs, along with vertical take-off
and landing. Eventually commercial forces became the
driver, but computers were initially developed to meet
the needs of the war fighters. The interstate highway
system was built to move war machines from coast to
coast.
Paraphrasing an old saying: if necessity is the mother
of invention then war is its brutal father.
spike
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