U.S. Government Developed the iPod

ezavada writes "Engadget reports that in a speech at Tuskegee University, President Bush claims that government research developed the iPod." From the article: "While we have to gratefully acknowledge the efforts of government agencies such as DARPA in some of the fields mentioned by the President, we also feel obligated to point out the accomplishments of private companies in the US and abroad, including IBM, Hitachi and Toshiba -- not to mention the Fraunhofer Institute, which developed the original MP3 codec ..."

Comments

Vint Cerf said Al Gore was instrumental...

[Futurepower(R)]

In a private email message, Vint Cerf told me that it was true that Al Gore was instrumental in the development of the Internet. Before Mr. Gore's involvement, it was a semi-private utility known as ArpaNet and NSFNet. Mr. Gore championed the development of the private network as a public utility. This was years before Bill Gates, for example, recognized its importance.

Re:Sounds like a (bad) joke to me

[TrappedByMyself]

It was a joke. I dug up the speech

Here is more of the quote:
" Here's another interesting example of where basic research can help change quality of life or provide practical applications for people. The government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the Ipod. I tune into the Ipod occasionally, you know? (Laughter.) Basic research to meet one set of objectives can lead to interesting ideas for our society. It helps us remain competitive. So the government should double the commitment to the most basic -- critical research programs in the physical sciences over the next 10 years. I look forward to Congress to doubling that commitment."

Re:US government Invented the iPod

[online-shopper]

Bush never claimed the government developed the iPod. Slashdot boned this one, engadget boned this one. From TFA:
"the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod."
Turns out the government decided to spend our money researching some technologies that happened to be useful in portable mp3 players. no more, no less.

US Basic Research Made iPod Components Possible

[quickdot443]

I think this is what Bush was trying to put into words.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/ima ges/mp3-technologies.gif

This graphic explains what Bush is talking about. Many of the components in the iPod were made possible because of basic research funded by the federal government. Much of this basic research was done at government labs, universities, and within companies with funding from the Pentagon, Department of Energy's Office of Science, National Science Foundation, etc. Hosts of other individuals and companies developed that basic research into components, but the initial funding and reseach was supported by the U.S. government.

Smaller hard drives, codecs, file compression, etc. are build on the foundation of basic reseach - much of it made possible by initial U.S. funding.

Re:Absurd

[Gulthek]

Bingo bango, Snopes strikes again: Internet of Lies

Claim: Vice-President Al Gore claimed that he "invented" the Internet.

Status: False.

Origins: Despite the derisive references that continue even today, Al Gore did not claim he "invented" the Internet, nor did he say anything that could reasonably be interpreted that way. The "Al Gore said he 'invented' the Internet" put-downs were misleading, out-of-context distortions of something he said during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "Late Edition" program on 9 March 1999. When asked to describe what distinguished him from his challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Gore replied (in part):

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.

Clearly, although Gore's phrasing was clumsy (and perhaps self-serving), he was not claiming that he "invented" the Internet (in the sense of having designed or implemented it), but that he was responsible, in an economic and legislative sense, for fostering the development the technology that we now know as the Internet. To claim that Gore was seriously trying to take credit for the "invention" of the Internet is, frankly, just silly political posturing that arose out of a close presidential campaign. Gore never used the word "invent," and the words "create" and "invent" have distinctly different meanings -- the former is used in the sense of "to bring about" or "to bring into existence" while the latter is generally used to signify the first instance of someone's thinking up or implementing an idea. (To those who say the words "create" and "invent" mean exactly the same thing, we have to ask why, then, the media overwhelmingly and consistently cited Gore as having claimed he "invented" the Internet, even though he never used that word, and transcripts of what he actually said were readily available.)

If President Eisenhower had said in the mid-1960s that he, while President, "created" the Interstate Highway System, we would not have seen dozens and dozens of editorials lampooning him for claiming he "invented" the concept of highways or implying that he personally went out and dug ditches across the country to help build the roadway. Everyone would have understood that Ike meant he was a driving force behind the legislation that created the highway system, and this was the very same concept Al Gore was expressing about himself with his Internet statement.

Whether Gore's statement that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet" is justified is a subject of debate. Any statement about the "creation" or "beginning" of the Internet is difficult to evaluate, because the Internet is not a homogenous entity (it's a collection of computers, networks, protocols, standards, and application programs), nor did it all spring into being at once (the components that comprise the Internet were developed in various places at different times and are continuously being modified, improved, and expanded). Despite a spirited defense of Gore's claim by Vint Cerf (often referred to as the "father of the Internet") in which he stated "that as a Senator and now as Vice President, Gore has made it a point to be as well-informed as possible on technology and issues that surround it," many of the components of today's Internet came into being well before Gore's first term in Congress began in 1977.

It is true, though, that Gore was popularizing the term "information superhighway" in the early 1990s (although he did not, as is often claimed by others, coin the phrase himself) when few people outside academia or the computer/defense industries had heard of the Internet, and he sponsored the 1988 National High-Perf

Re:Want to read more?

[samkass]

Here's part of a speech Al Gore entered into the Congressional Record in 1986, almost exactly 20 years ago. At the time, I remember running a BBS on a 2400bps modem-- I was probably one of the geekier people among the general population then-- but even then I think Gore probably had more vision on the topic than any geek I knew. I personally think it's pretty obvious how much the Gore Vice-Presidency must have advanced the state-of-the-art over what may have happened if, say, Quayle had remained Vice-President. I honestly think Slashdot exists in no small part because of Gore's vision...

[Note that text entered in the Congressional Record is supposed to be all-caps, but Slashdot disallows that, so it's in all lowercase.]

both of these amendments seek new information on critical problems of today. the computer network study act is designed to answer critical questions on the needs of computer telecommunications systems over the next 15 years. for example, what are the future requirements for computers in terms of quantity and quality of data transmission, data security, and softwear [SIC] compatibility? what equipment must be developed to take advantage of the high transmission rates offered by fiber optic systems?

both systems designed to handle the special needs of supercomputers and systems designed to meet the needs of smaller research computers will be evaluated. the emphasis is on research computers, but the users of all computers will benefit from this study. today, we can bank by computer, shop by computer, and send letters by computer. only a few companies and individuals use these services, but the number is growing and existing capabilities are limited.

in order to cope with the explosion of computer use in the country, we must look to new ways to advance the state-of-the-art in telecommunications -- new ways to increase the speed and quality of the data transmission. without these improvements, the telecommunication networks face data bottlenecks like those we face every day on our crowded highways.

the private sector is already aware of the need to evaluate and adopt new technologies. one promising technology is the development of fiber optic systems for voice and data transmission. eventually we will see a system of fiber optic systems being installed nationwide.

america's highways transport people and materials across the country. federal freeways connect with state highways which connect in turn with county roads and city streets. to transport data and ideas, we will need a telecommunications highway connecting users coast to coast, state to state, city to city. the study required in this amendment will identify the problems and opportunities the nation will face in establishing that highway.