This does not have much to do with current politics and economics, maybe, but I thought that it would be an interesting topic to discuss. This actually came as an offshoot from Ellie's "War Games" post, and I commented:
Most technological advances happen during times of war.
Allen Tao responded with:
when you say technological advances, do you mean it in a good or bad way? I don't really see how something like a nuclear bomb could help us.
And an anonymous poster said:
"In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed — they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." -The Third Man
What do you think? Does most technological advances happen during times of war?
10 comments:
I don't think that most technological advances happen during times of war, but I think a lot of important advances have come during times of war. The reason is because war makes countries desperate to find some way to defeat their opponent. When a country knows its existence is on the line during a time of war, it will stop at nothing to try and gain an advantage on its opponent. This is how the advances happen. But most advances come during times of peace, like the light bulb, the telephone, etc.
I think... I'll take a cuckoo clock over terror and bloodshed. That and a good banking system.
Switzerland has some damn good chocolate too.
The Military Advances in WWII created the foundations for post-war development of computers.
If it wasn't for WWII we might not have a class blog :O
~Annie C
I think that war causes you to think about things outside the box to get an edge over your enemy, so yes, war does create technological advances.
The internet wasn't invented in time of war, but it was concieved and the foundation of it was made during the cold war.
I think war brings along some technological advances, but I wouldn't say that the "majority" of advances happen during or because of war.
It seems so, doesn't it? I think it has to do with a country trying to find joy in art r science, sonce there sure isn't any happiness in war.
I dont think that most technological advances happen during times of war but I think the MOST important ones do. Because of the threat and nationalism that war usually raises, most companies/people start moving faster in their pursuits of a victory for their country. They start making new things that would help, and eventually someone creates something so revolutionary (aka A-Bomb) that once it is used, the war is basically over.
Give me a time in the world where there was no conflict between nations, and all give you a time when no technological advances were made :). Why improve if not to out due your enemy? Therefore someone always has to have an opponent or be at war if there is to be any new technological advances in society.
Nice answer/explanation, Ryan.
Competition pushes everyone to do well. How could this possibly apply to school? And maybe even to this blog? Hmm.
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