Re: Way OT: Adam Smith and Software Markets

[Samuel Tardieu <sam@rfc1149.net>]

>>>>> "Ted" == Ted Dennison <dennison@telepath.com> writes:

Ted> Let's not forget the space program, which created the first true
Ted> need for smaller computers. More than likely, everone here
Ted> indirectly owes their current job and a large portion of thier
Ted> standard of living to the US Space program.

Not only the USA space program:

+ Blaise Pascal invented the first calculating machine to help his
  father -a tax collector- to do his job[1]. So we indirectly owe our
  current job and a large portion of our standard of living to the
  taxes, taxes collector and France (who was collecting taxes and
  paying Blaise Pascal's father to do so).

+ The first digital electronic computer, the ENIAC, was built mainly
  "for military purposes, such as calculating ballistic firing tables
  and designing atomic weapons"[2], so we indirectly owe our current job
  and a large portion of our standard of living to the people who were
  killed by those weapons.

However, it is true that the USA space program sponsored the computer
research industry *a lot*. Noam Chomsky even writes that the main
purpose of the USA space program has been to sponsor private companies
(such as IBM in the past, whose research centers were indirectly
founded by USA tax payers through the USA space program).

  Sam

References:

[1]  http://sol.brunel.ac.uk/history/hist1650.html
[2]  http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story072.htm

-- 
Samuel Tardieu -- sam@rfc1149.net -- http://www.rfc1149.net/sam