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Comment by biofox

3 years ago

C, UNIX, radio astronomy, cellular networks, the transistor, integrated circuits, the laser, photovoltaic cells, the charge-coupled device (CCD), information theory, super resolution microscopy, optical tweezers, error-correcting codes, fibre optic networks...

7 comments

biofox

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fatjokes  3 years ago

Seriously, when you list it all out it sounds like a reasonable trade.

  • kqr  3 years ago

    The question isn't whether those things are nice, it's whether they wouldn't have been developed as fast in a competitive environment.

    (Personally, I think just based on human nature that competition is anti-innovative in the long run, but I can't prove anything either way.)

    • bluGill  3 years ago

      The question is what we lost because we did those things.

      We know what happened, we don't know what alternative histories would have been like. We don't know if they would have been better or worse.

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