- Somewhat counter intuitively, it works to fund soft subjects like politics, sociology and governance -- because humans have the capacity to create physical technologies we don't have the social technologies to be able to use without a loss of social harmony. This capacity gap is an important opportunity for vigorous research and invention of new social & governance technologies, which don't just include things like digital forms, and also encompass the notions behind the ways we organize and talk about our societies and their purpose. Without funding to advance the conceptual basis of governance and society, the alternative is to rely on advanced military power to provide a guarantee of stability, which is also necessary, and in the long term alone insufficient to create the kind of societies it works to create.
- Military technology, because hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and protect what's valuable.
- Alternative propulsion, because everything depends on transportation networks. The faster we can turn space transport from "horse and carriage" through "steam age" to "high speed rail", the faster we create more wealth -- to fund everything else.