What the atomic age means to technology

Generally the first thing that comes up when we study the atomic age is the advancement of military technology. The race for military superiority has been repeated throughout history and technological advances have helped numerous civilizations rise to power. In the spirit of our digital civilization course I decided that my personal study on the topic would be focused more on the implications of the atomic age on our digital culture.

photo by x-ray delta one

Like this boy with his big toy gun, military has always been about the most efficient way to hit the enemy. Many military advances have also brought to pass a myriad of other changes. A great blog I found called Blast Fax did this post about the history of technology.  In it they said "20th Century technology developed rapidly. Communication technology, transportation technology, broad teaching and implementation of scientific method, and increased research spending all contributed to the advancement of modern science and technology. Due to the scientific gains directly tied to military research and development, technologies including electronic computing might have developed as rapidly as they did in part due to war. Radio, radar, and early sound recording were key technologies which paved the way for the telephone, fax machine, and magnetic storage of data. Energy and engine technology improvements were also vast, including nuclear power, developed after the Manhattan project. Transport by rocketry: most work occurred in the U.S. (Goddard), Russia (Tsiolkovsky) and Germany (Oberth). Making use of computers and advanced research labs, modern scientists have recombinant DNA."

An article I found in the library called "The democratic control of science and technology" (Physics in Technology, March 1979, Vol.10(2), p.49-53) talked about how many advancements in technology are direct results of government spending in military research. This article talks about advantages as well as many disadvantages of this system. Many times the government has the resources that no other organization can muster to delve into the intense research of technology. The government may also work quicker in these areas because of immediate threats or possible ones. A disadvantage of this is that much of this technology is not publicly released until many years after it has been implemented. This hinders the rest of the economy as they are not allowed to build on this technology until they have access to it. Many things may advance much faster if it is put onto the open market sooner. Another disadvantage is the dependency on the government once it advances technology. This article expresses this very well and I wont go into it too much, but it helped me look at the way our technology advances in a new light. Is it really the best thing for the government to lead the way in technological advances? There are obviously many reasons that this is the case. Being above the competition on a global scale helps greatly in the defense of our country, but could it all be improved? Let me know what you think.