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Comment by scottLobster | Hacker News Reader

Given that military funding is likely the main reason this amazing tech might see the light of day, I'm not so sure.

Also, that GPS in your phone? You can thank the military for that. Not to mention the foundations of the internet, among many other technologies that have had massive impact after transitioning into civilian hands.

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I doubt that without military those inventions, especially the internet wouldn't have been created. Especially if the humongous funding of the military would be completely used for research. In fact we might have seen even more amazing inventions.

In the end there is no way to tell.

The money wouldn't be use for research because that's not how the economy works. This is covered in the frequent HN submission "Why Explore Space? A 1970 Letter to a Nun in Africa"

https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-...

That's just an argument for government directed research spending (specifically: astronomy), not military spending.

The point is that if you don't spend the money on the military, it doesn't mean that the money will be redirected to non-military research. We justify spending large amounts of research dollar in the name of "national security". If we didn't need a military tomorrow, social programs would get the money or taxpayers would simply want their money back.

A lot of our wars are funded with borrowed money, so we never really had it in the first place.

http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/economic

Where did I say anything about war? The military is always a big expense.

Oh sure. But that doesn't make military spending a particularly efficient way of financing research, just a politically opportune one.

No one said that it was the most efficient way. I'd love for more private sector or publicly research but alas corporations and the taxpayer doesn't seem to want to fund more.

You didn't make any such claims, but the fact remains that fielding the research benefits of military spending without those caveats we've worked out is misguiding, which is how the whole thread started out.

This goes pretty far back into the past.

For instance, Leonardo was a military engineer for a large chunk of his life, and many of his inventions are clearly military-themed.

Yes and the trillions of dollars wasted would not have produced any results had it not been for the military. Seriously we can all do without the military. Period. The quicker we can get rid of such a parasitic organization that has plagued humanity for thousands of years the better.

"Cyrus explained softly to Adam the nature of a soldier ... He told his son of the sad dignity that can belong to a soldier, that he is necessary in the light of all the failures of man - the penalty of our frailties"

They exist because humans and our current behaviour are flawed, we haven't found better conflict resolution techniques.

The sad truth of this world is nothing is yours unless you can protect it. I know the reply button is right there but please stop spouting rubbish.

Perhaps your understanding of the role and capabilities of a military are too narrow-minded for you to see how to employ them in a positive and productive manner?

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