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Comment by AprilArcus | Hacker News Reader

off the cuff, non-exhaustive list:

  1930s — video image tubes
  1940s — nuclear power, atomic clocks, transistors
  1960s — lasers, fiber-optic communications, PET-CT scans
  1970s — MRIs

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It's worth acknowledging that the fears of the cold war funded tremendous scientific and technological innovation on both sides of the iron curtain.

People had singular focus - not on the betterment of humanity in the abstract sense, but for primal SURVIVAL - because both sides believed that if given the chance the other would wipe them out.

This created a unifying focus (amongst two divided sides).

A lot of people have hoped for some event to unify humanity (like the space squid in the watchmen) towards a common goal again. Alas, COVID has shown that is just simply not possible any longer.

Curiously, and sadly, it seems that the only threat we are always primed and ready to deal with is other humans. Which I suppose makes sense given our 'tribe' ancestry.

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