Quote from: myrkul on July 25, 2011, 09:41:21 PM

Quote from: niemivh on July 25, 2011, 09:20:38 PM

Quote from: myrkul on July 25, 2011, 08:22:09 PM

Quote from: niemivh on July 25, 2011, 03:49:29 PM

Of course the irony here (which is of course completely lost on a pup such as yourself) Atlas is that you are typing this on a computer and sending it over the Internet for us to see. Computer technology sprung out of NASA research (invented the first microprocessor) while you can pen a letter to DARPA thanking them for the Internet.

Which if they still had ahold of, would still be Green-on-black text only.

And Dialup.

Your Point: that government doesn't commoditize technology well which is best left to the private sector.

Agreed, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't need to be invented first.

Your point: That only Government can come up with new technology.

Patently false.

That's pretty great how you intentionally misread his comment just half a page after accusing him of putting words in your mouth!

His obvious point was that commercial endeavors tend to focus on things that they can start selling now or in a year or two or whatever instead of the hard science that leads to amazing things, but may take a decade or two to show concrete results. Or may never show them, a terrifying prospect if your only objective is profit. And that's absolutely right. The list he posted contains some of the most significant discoveries of the last 60 years.

Quote from: em3rgentOrdr

There is no reason to conclude that just because the government helped fund certain endeavors or because the government grants private monopolies to inventors via patents, that therefore these things would never have been invented without the government.

There's absolutely a reason to conclude that. The one just mentioned. Corporations are really great at taking existing technology and putting a clock in it, and not so great at coming up with world-changing technology through pure research.