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<blockquote data-quote="John Roberts" data-source="post: 66117" data-attributes="member: 126">Re: Uli Behringer of The Music Group Q&amp;ANot to quibble or demur, but I did say &quot;cost&quot;. Yes, Military and space development pioneered packaging miniaturization and some innovation (IIRC velco was a space program invention). NASA publishes (published?) a journal with all their patents that they wanted to license (I was not very impressed, but I&#039;m sure there&#039;s some jewels in there among the chaff). You and I could never afford what that stuff costs the way NASA or the military contractors built it. Without a consumer mass market to drive costs down we wouldn&#039;t have cell phones with more computer power than an old IBM mainframe. During the cold war space race the Soviets spent almost as money as we did, (before they ran out). I don&#039;t recall too many (any) world changing innovations coming from their space/military programs. Maybe bigger rockets to lift heavier payloads and tube avionics. Note: I&#039;ve known a few really&nbsp; smart Soviet engineers, but their economic system did not reward innovation as much as our free markets. Wait untill China really catches fire, The last 10-15 years there have seen remarkable growth. Last time I was there they were happy to have a bicycle, now its cars everywhere.Speaking about miniaturization, the transistor and solid state electronics were the magic bullet that facilitated putting a room sized computer into a file cabinet sized package, and now a cell phone or wristwatch. AFAIK the transistor invention was based on primary research work done at Bell labs, which was funded by AT&amp;T (the phone company) before the government broke them up years ago. While this may not be a popular position these days, IMO private industry and good old profit margin is the most powerful driver of innovation, while I understand there is another theory being floated. :-(JR</blockquote>

[QUOTE="John Roberts, post: 66117, member: 126"] Re: Uli Behringer of The Music Group Q&A Not to quibble or demur, but I did say "cost". Yes, Military and space development pioneered packaging miniaturization and some innovation (IIRC velco was a space program invention). NASA publishes (published?) a journal with all their patents that they wanted to license (I was not very impressed, but I'm sure there's some jewels in there among the chaff). You and I could never afford what that stuff costs the way NASA or the military contractors built it. Without a consumer mass market to drive costs down we wouldn't have cell phones with more computer power than an old IBM mainframe. During the cold war space race the Soviets spent almost as money as we did, (before they ran out). I don't recall too many (any) world changing innovations coming from their space/military programs. Maybe bigger rockets to lift heavier payloads and tube avionics. Note: I've known a few really smart Soviet engineers, but their economic system did not reward innovation as much as our free markets. Wait untill China really catches fire, The last 10-15 years there have seen remarkable growth. Last time I was there they were happy to have a bicycle, now its cars everywhere. Speaking about [b]miniaturization[/b], the transistor and solid state electronics were the magic bullet that facilitated putting a room sized computer into a file cabinet sized package, and now a cell phone or wristwatch. AFAIK the transistor invention was based on primary research work done at Bell labs, which was funded by AT&T (the phone company) before the government broke them up years ago. While this may not be a popular position these days, IMO private industry and good old profit margin is the most powerful driver of innovation, while I understand there is another theory being floated. :-( JR [/QUOTE]

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