Competition Drives The World
I was reading something in Forbes yesterday that struck a chord with me. The reason I say that is because it's almost like Rich Karlgaard was reading my mind. The topic, Goofy Contests. The subject, NASA. As I've said to many people before, as a by-product of any competition you get better products and processes.
You get better weapons. Throughout the early 20th century "war" (the competition) drove us to develop better weapons, climaxing with the hydrogen bomb. Lately other contests have us developing smart missiles and UAVs.
You get better operating systems. The battle between Microsoft and IBM in the mid 90's produced two products, OS/2 and Windows. Eventually we all know who the winner was, but it was that battle between the two companies that saw 6 major releases of (DOS based) Windows in a little over 6 years. Now, what has happened since OS/2 dropped off the face of the earth for home users? We haven't seen nearly the frequency of releases or the innovation.
You get better internet browsers. The battle between Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator saw major advances in browsing technology that we haven't seen since IE6 was released mid-2001. It looks like FireFox is getting the competition going again with IE7 on the horizon.
But all of the above competitions are business or politically related. What about competition for those companies or products that have no competitors? NASA for example?
JFK's push towards the moon in the 60's was a commitment by the administration to fund NASA and get humans to the moon before the Soviet Union did. NASA accomplished that feat in under a decade.
Some 40 years later, NASA is committed to getting a human to the moon. They say that the money has been budgeted. The president is on board. But why is it planned to take some 13 years to get a man BACK to the moon? Have we not learned anything over the last 40 years? Were all of the X projects a waste of money?
I think that the space race should once again be put into a competition. Put up some money for the first team to successfully return a sample from the Moon's surface. Reward the first team to successfully return a human from the Moon. Make it worthwhile for private corporations to build space vehicles. Maybe then we'll see some real advancement in space technology.
It's obvious that NASA is too bloated to effectively reach their goals anymore. Let someone else fire up the human spirit of adventure and exploration!
You get better weapons. Throughout the early 20th century "war" (the competition) drove us to develop better weapons, climaxing with the hydrogen bomb. Lately other contests have us developing smart missiles and UAVs.
You get better operating systems. The battle between Microsoft and IBM in the mid 90's produced two products, OS/2 and Windows. Eventually we all know who the winner was, but it was that battle between the two companies that saw 6 major releases of (DOS based) Windows in a little over 6 years. Now, what has happened since OS/2 dropped off the face of the earth for home users? We haven't seen nearly the frequency of releases or the innovation.
You get better internet browsers. The battle between Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator saw major advances in browsing technology that we haven't seen since IE6 was released mid-2001. It looks like FireFox is getting the competition going again with IE7 on the horizon.
But all of the above competitions are business or politically related. What about competition for those companies or products that have no competitors? NASA for example?
JFK's push towards the moon in the 60's was a commitment by the administration to fund NASA and get humans to the moon before the Soviet Union did. NASA accomplished that feat in under a decade.
Some 40 years later, NASA is committed to getting a human to the moon. They say that the money has been budgeted. The president is on board. But why is it planned to take some 13 years to get a man BACK to the moon? Have we not learned anything over the last 40 years? Were all of the X projects a waste of money?
I think that the space race should once again be put into a competition. Put up some money for the first team to successfully return a sample from the Moon's surface. Reward the first team to successfully return a human from the Moon. Make it worthwhile for private corporations to build space vehicles. Maybe then we'll see some real advancement in space technology.
It's obvious that NASA is too bloated to effectively reach their goals anymore. Let someone else fire up the human spirit of adventure and exploration!
posted by Pad22 at
9:48 PM
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