Have you ever wondered what the world would be like now if the Cold War had never happened?
As World War II spurred U.S.
military funding for aviation, the Cold War spurred military funding for computers.
The military and military contractors developed computer graphics, virtual
images, word processing, cutting and pasting, the use of separate windows,
hypertext, computer conferencing, and even the mouse -- and, of course, the
first Internet. The U.S.
military was the first to embrace computers as communication devices rather
than simply complex calculators. And that has made all the difference. That
alone has completely shaped my and your daily experiences.
No cell phones. No laptops. No sensors in my washing machine to know when to
stop adding water. No bluetooth in my car. And if you work in a hospital,
imagine all the computerized equipment you would have to do without.
Without the Cold War, I don't think you'd
be reading this right now. I love these advances. But the fact that our modern
lifestyle is so intrinsically tied to war blows my mind a little. Does it blow
yours? What else would we be different now?
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