Longtime
TiB readers will recall that back in January, along with my friend Arnaud, I started a reading group on the topic of “Organising Genius”. The pandemic forced a hiatus, but I’m delighted that we’re now restarting remotely; the next session is on Silicon Valley and MIT. You can learn more and
sign up here. This week Ryan Khurana has
an excellent essay on the Apollo Missions, the focus of our last pre-lockdown session. It’s based on Charles Fishman’s
One Giant Leap, which I also recommend.
It strikes me that Apollo has two important lessons for governments thinking about how to invest in technology today, (as for example the UK Government’s plans for ARPA - see
previous coverage). The first is that, if successful, the cultural impact of a successful “moonshot” will far outweigh the short-run economic impact. As Khurana notes, Apollo shifted the cultural association of the idea of “technology” from the violence of the B-29 bomber to the optimism of the moon landing, as well as attracting countless students into science.
Second, Apollo demonstrated the ability of a government to drag technology from the future into the present through visionary procurement. NASA’s demand created the market for integrated circuits - and ensured that the price fell by 90% in five years. Apollo effectively kicked off Moore’s Law before Moore even coined the term. On both counts, something analogous is possible - and desirable - today.