Fallschirmjäger said:
budder said:
[quote="Fallschirmjäger":3qci80d7]I don't think it at all odd that he would choose a Soviet example to illustrate his plan. It's not like there are many American examples to choose from. :cantsay: :cantsay: :cantsay:
What was the last Sputnuk-level event we had? The only thing I can think of was the Manhattan Project, which probably isn't the type of research he wants to encourage.
Sputnik, was a ball in space going
'"beep...beep....beep". All it proved was that if you throw something higher it takes longer to come back to earth, which everyone was already pretty durn sure about. It was the invention of liquid fueled rockets in the US that allowed it to happen.
Sputnik, did not provide any advances, but it Did encourage the "space race" of two super powers competing against each other. Is that what Obama had in mind when he came up with it, encouraging other countries to compete with us? The Soviet Union, the country of origin for Sputnik didn't come off too well in that race, if I remember.
Oh the other hand, I can think of a few inventions by the US that have demonstrably grown economies and furthered civilization - -
ARPANET, which everyone today recognizes as the internet
the assembly line
the transistor
the integrated circuit
the personal computer
the computer floppy drive
the computer hard drive
the compact disk
television (although its merits are debatable)
mobile phones (ditto)
If anything, the invention of the personal computer itself revolutionized the world quicker, and to a greater degree than any invention before.[/quote:3qci80d7]
The assembly line and transistor were post-Sputnik? The computer (not just personal computer) has had a tremendous effect, but I don't think it's to the level of Sputnik. It's certainly close enough that I'll concede the point, thought I don't think it was as globally-inspiring as Sputnik was, which can be shown by how long it took for them to catch on for business and personal use.