[gameprogrammer] Re: Innovation and Creativity. Getting OT?

[Bob Pendleton <bob@pendleton.com>]

On Sat, 2004-05-01 at 18:34, Ray Gomez-Bravo wrote:
> WAR
> It’s a thread…that is all.
> War has not and never will be a contributor to the development of
> technology or the growth of Humankind (a game).
> War is a user of technology and humankind.

This seems to be an article of faith for a number of people on this
list. Sorry to say, it is simply not true.

>  
> The contributors to the development of humankind (and a game) have been
> and probably will always be (in no particular order):
> *	need (the drive to satisfy something: shelter, hunger,
> reproduction, sleep, adoration…)
> *	strife/conflict (you got something I want or you want something
> I have, either way we will conflict over shelter, hunger, reproduction
> or…)

You say above that war is not a contributor to technology, and then you
say strife is a contributor... War is just strife on a large scale. You
can't have it both ways.

The electronic computer was invented as a faster way to compute firing
tables for artillery. The Internet was invented as a way to build a
network that would keep working as cities evaporated in nuclear fire. 3D
graphics were developed to give the military a cheaper way to train
combat pilots. The driving force behind the transistor was to reduce the
weight of guidance systems for nuclear missiles. The search engine was
developed to automate espionage. 

The first recorded instance of a government funded research grant was
IIRC in Babylon. It resulted in the development of the two armed
catapult. As a side benefit they invented a mechanical analog computer
for computing third roots of numbers.

There are many other things that drive the development of technology.
But, war is one of them and over the last 2 or more centuries has been
the driving factor. In fact, some wars occurred *because* of new
technologies that were developed for other uses. It is not hard to argue
that the development of the cotton gin lead to the civil war or that the
development of the long boat by the Norse lead to centuries of raiding
through out Europe as well as the settlement or Greenland, Iceland, and
temporarily of North America.

There is also a feed back between civilian and military technology. The
development of steam engines for draining coal mines in the UK lead
through a series of feed back loops to the British Empire and ultimately
to the attack on Peal Harbor that lead to the development of the nuclear
bomb.

No one is saying that war is good. We are saying that it does lead to
the development of technology.

		Bob Pendleton

-- 
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+ email: Bob@Pendleton.com             +
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