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Does the Military Dominate CS Research?
An anonymous reader asks: "It seems at my university the military has their fingers in much of the computer science research happening on campus: sensors, intelligent agents, autonomous vehicles, supercomputing. Is this the case at other schools around the US? How about outside of the US? How is the military shaping the current state of CS research? What areas of research atrophy because the funding goes to investigating military applications of new technology?"
You fill their house with a giant Jiffy Pop before you ignite it with your designed (but they took control over) laser.
Let's be realistic here. When has it not?
Computers were originally people who determined calculated firing tables. The first computers were used to calculate this information and break encryption codes.
The Internet is based on equipment and protocols that DARPA paid for. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Check out the current and recent solicitations.
I'll grant you that business plays a large role too. It funds its fair share, but it seems as though it is more practical and immediate. The military seems to fund things that might not be very practical now, but can possible provide the edge in battle.
The reason most things get done is because there is a pressing need, and people in the military understand this better than anyone else. Defending yourself and defending a nation is a pressing need, whether you'd like it to be or not.
It would be nice if we could all hold hands and do research for the good of humanity, but unfortunately, human beings aren't wired that way. Nothing would get done. This is why communist societies, which are beautiful ideas on paper, don't work.
One of the major fallacies that far too many people put a lot of faith in is that people are basically good. We are not.
I know this might sound harsh and cynical, but the fact of the matter is, once you accept the fact that human nature is brutal, selfish, and ugly, you're most of the way there toward a realistic world view.
And if you look at it pragmatically, you'll realize that necessity is the mother of invention, and almost all of the great technological advances in history stem from military necessity.
Yeah, it's not nice. No, I don't like it. But that's how it works.
If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.
The history of computation is the history of war. From the Greeks and their studies of quadratics, to Galileo's ballistics tables (which funded all his later work), the Difference Engine, early mechanical calculators, etcetera. War has always been the driving force behind computation, sadly. Just look at super computers -- the US military keeps building new record holders JUST to model nuclear deterioration and detonation! Many physics simulations (the exact same ones that make cars safe now) were invented to test rocket, artillery, and bullet design.
The military is one of the few institutions to tackle fundemental research, and almost hopeless challenges on a large scale. Why, their need is great, their reasources are large, and so are the rewards.
It is arguable that computers would not exist at all without the military. Let alone global computer networks. Add to that communications satillites, and anything in space. For both the US and USSR the space race was about puting nukes on people. But that also gave us aluminum cans. And a lot of ceramic technologies. Need I point out RADAR, and the multitude of uses we put it to today? Or the lives it saves with weather forecasting? Or nuclear power. Did I mention jet engines? Or turbine technology in all it's incarnations? Let alone consumer products like Jeeps and Humvees. Or trauma medicine. The stirup? Can't leave out frequency hopping.
All this, monsterously large segments of the civilian economy, exists because of a military need at one time. General solutions to nearly forgotten problems. Take the military our of research institutions and you put a lot of researchers out of work.
So nothing new, another SNAFU, and your argument is FUBAR, another goof ball with a hemp cap and not enough common sense to fill it. Have a little appretiation for the freedom you enjoy, the freedom to bitch, and not know any better. More admirable people than yourself die to stamp your hand at the door of the little freedom party, and many of them never killed anyone. So your task, should you find you have any personal honor and decide to accept it, is to learn about the US Army Core of Engineers.