So is space advancement worth a military space race? Certainly. And not just for techie reasons. The very real threat of complete annihilation by asteroid certainly isnt scaring anyone into space travel. If China can, good on them.
The last space race ended almost causing a nuclear war between Russian and USA. It was so close that it was prevented from the disobedience of one guy to push THE button. Sure, asteroids are dangerous but there are far greater dangers here on earth.
Or to turn the question upside down in a rather unfair way: Would you prefer penicilin, space travel, the internet. etc. would not exist just because they were funded by the military?
They would eventually come to existence whether they were sponsored from the military or not. I made this argument in an earlier post. Science progresses in small steps. If it wasn't for Einstein then another guy would fill in. If it wasn't for the military the funds that push the research would generate similar outcomes.
That was the nuclear arms race. They may have been intertwined to some extent, but they are still two distinct endeavors.
Sure. But you wouldnt want technology to get rid of those.
Of course. But how much longer would it have taken? 100 days? 100 years?
How much spacerelated funding is there if you take away military or military-related funding? (That includes NASA, ESA and every other space agency even if they don't count into the defense budgets)
How much research money flows into prosthetics if you takeaway military research budgets in that field?
Point being: any technological research funding is beneficial. It's not a very efficient route but the world is full of stupid so it is what it is.
I think it would have taken around the same time.
Don't you think is a bit weird to argue that if there was no "arms" motivation we wouldn't do shit?
In some cases it may have taken about the same time, in others infinitely longer. Either way, it's just speculation.
I never said that. Just less "shit" and more of this, more useless consumption.