From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,1ea92c0e5255811d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-03-06 00:50:50 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!colt.net!peernews3.colt.net!news0.de.colt.net!newsfeed.r-kom.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!tar-alcarin.cbb-automation.DE!not-for-mail From: Dmitry A. Kazakov Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Way OT: Adam Smith and Software Markets Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2003 09:50:49 +0100 Message-ID: References: <3vo86vk60e69shjgqdbpp6e5pb8qfop3hr@4ax.com> <4519e058.0303050739.28cb2997@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: tar-alcarin.cbb-automation.de (212.79.194.111) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: fu-berlin.de 1046940649 63260960 212.79.194.111 (16 [77047]) X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.8/32.548 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:34957 Date: 2003-03-06T09:50:49+01:00 List-Id: On 5 Mar 2003 07:39:24 -0800, dennison@telepath.com (Ted Dennison) wrote: >Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote in message news:... > >> I would not be so sure, if we would consider how much was invested in >> software and hardware. It would be not a big exaggeration to say that >> humankind has in fact dropped space exploration, fusion energy >> research to develop ... well, MS-Windows! > >No, it would still be a big exaggeration. Very few of the folk >developing Windows would be capable of working on that other stuff, Does our civilization really need so many programmers? I mean, to build pyramides one deadly needs a huge amount of workers. But what for one would build a pyramide? -- to fight unemployment! (:-)) >and very few of the financial resources used to do it would have been >otherwise available for the things you list (which pretty much require >Government, not private sector, funding). True. It is the lack-of-a-threat problem. There would be no landing on the moon without the Cold War. Only a real threat gives birth to real solutions. Should the fate of the Free World depend on Programming, there would be no place for C++ etc. Alas, nobody wants to live in interesting times. (:-)) >That's nearly as fallacious as the folks who argue that we shouldn't >sink a single penny into space exploration until we cure the common >cold (or poverty or hunger, or whatever their pet unsolvable social >problem is). --- Regards, Dmitry Kazakov www.dmitry-kazakov.de