Comment by redleader55
2 years ago
> Were any of these big achievements side effects of creating nuclear weapons? If not, then they're not relevant to the issue.
I think so, yes. Resources are allocated in the most efficient way possible, because there are multiple actors who have the same power. Everyone having nuclear weapons ensured that no one wanted a war between the big powers, so resources were allocated in other areas as the big powers tried to obtain supremacy.
Initially they allocated resources, a lot of them, into the race for space, the moon, etc. Once that was own by US after the moon landing, and after the Soviets were the first in space, there was no other frontier, and they discovered they couldn't obtain supremacy by just being space without further advancements in technology.
Instead they developed satellites, GPS and communications in order to obtain supremacy through "surveillance". Computing power and the affordability of personal computing, mobile phones, Internet and telecommunications was a result of the above.
I would argue that the presence of nukes increased rather than decreased military spending. since nuclear war was not an option, the nukes being only a deterrent, big powers had to continue investing heavily in their conventional forces in order to gain or keep an upper hand.