Future Workbook: DARPA Worksheet

I knew someone who once argued that the greatest invention humankind ever produced was war. Why? He claimed that conflict, at that immense level, inspires so many innovations, that many of the greatest inventions throughout human history have either directly or indirectly come about because of war, i.e., war trumps all.

Is there some merit to that thought? That's the question I had in mind when I visited the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA’s) website.

DARPA works on a lot of different projects. I already knew that DARPA held an important role in the development of the Internet, but a lot of their current work is on renewable energy and microsystems. I could see both of these fields having a huge impact on my daily life in the future. Portable fuel cells, for example, could change the way we power our lives.

DARPA is a military agency, and a lot (but not all) of its work is specific to combat, but I did notice that a nearly everything they do has greater uses, outside of combat, in mind. However, anything they could potentially achieve would be, largely, because of war. Does that mean there is some good in war? If there was no war (and no military), would science progress as quickly? Would we need it to?