But let’s go back to Chris Miller’s book and his view on “Chip War.” This book immerses us in the exciting world of technology wars and how battles for dominance of chips and processors have shaped recent history. Now, imagine a place where geeks compete in meme duels, where battles are fought with emoticons instead of swords, and where the battle cry is “Ctrl + Z, or you’ll regret it!”
On the other hand, Oppenheimer reminds us how the human mind can be a double-edged sword. In his case, his scientific skills brought the atomic bomb to life, changing the game in World War II. And here’s where the curious element comes in: I don’t know about you, but I imagine Oppenheimer and his team in the lab making nerdy jokes while assembling their own Death Star.
Today the economy is based on technological supply chains, that is, silicon. Nearshoring, this opportunity that is opening up in our country, is driven by the technology industry, which is based on chips, created by silicon and which also emerged as a result of military research, such as the Oppenheimer bomb. .
Chris Miller, in his book “Chip War,” explains how chips began life in the midst of war, with the Army looking for ways to make their machines smarter and more efficient in battle. Chips are little electronic brains that power everything from your smartphone to your smart toaster (yes, that exists). That is why multiple companies invest millions of dollars in rebalancing the supply chain of this technology.
But here comes the million-dollar question: what about ethics? Oppenheimer had the ethical dilemma of his own with the atomic bomb, and it’s not that different when we think about how the technology we use every day often has its roots and greatest advances in the military industry. It’s like every time we text, a little part of Oppenheimer is screaming in the background of our phones, “Boom!”
And how have all these technologies evolved?
The irony is that, after the war, many of these war technologies have been transformed into peaceful tools for the progress of humanity. For example, GPS went from guiding missiles to helping us find our way to the nearest pizza place. There is also the ARPANET, a precursor to the Internet, which emerged from military research and became a fundamental pillar of global communication, democratizing access to information throughout the world.
To give you a little statistical flavor, according to a recent study, more than 50% of technological innovations in recent decades have their roots in military research. And here’s another one: it is estimated that around 70% of technological patents in recent years originated in the military field. It sounds crazy, but war has been a strangely effective engine for technological progress.