Nostr Web Client

It's actually not different as military tech advances drive infrastructure investment. The Autobahn, for instance, was invented to move tanks. The Romans built sturdy roads and bridges, and invented logistics, to move their armies faster. AI, satellite, and drone tech is advancing so quickly because of the Ukraine war. A lot of medical advancement comes from battlefield hospitals.

And etc. Even a lot of seemingly peaceful advancement, like Bitcoin and Nostr, are effectively a form of libertarian insurrection or covert guerilla warfare. Peacetime doesn't lead to invention or infrastructure improvements, it leads to widespread sloth, atrophy, and decadence.

That's where the "hard times make strong men" meme comes from. Those who fight, build. There are only the quick and the dead.

Diacone Frost 9mo ago

I assume your keys have been stolen. Probably by Otto von Bismarck?

This is so "that which is seen, and that which is not seen"

What about the opportunity costs, capital consumption, distruption, capital misallocation, and many more negatives of war/fight.

In peacetime, entrepreneurs (and capital) are far more likely to focus on long term investments, research and development.

It's capital accumulation which leads to longer more complex production structures (and innovation/inventions).

And consumers will have more income and will look for new and improved products. Those are again incentives for entrepreneurs.

I'm quite sure this is not exhausted list by far.

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Discussion

Silberengel 9mo ago

I never said that there was no downside to war. Just that major innovation shifts tend to happen during some sort of conflict, so that war industry and industry aren't in conflict.

Diacone Frost 8mo ago

Don't know if that's true.

I quite sure, however, that all that innovation was at expense of something people actually wanted. Misallocated and perhaps wasted.