Comment on Why it's so hard to build a jet engine - by Brian Potter
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The way they explain how advancements are possible by throwing money at it and ramping up man-hours doesn‘t sit right with me. That’s not how it really works. There‘s a reason why the US suddenly caught up to the technology in the mid 1940s. The engineers and scientists who joined their jet engine force weren‘t just random university grads that suddenly spawned.
I mean… That’s basically how you accomplish this kind of thing. You throw educated people and resources at the problem for as long as it takes. Often you can do it faster with more people working on the problem. How is that not how it really works?
I mean you can certainly save time by looking over someone else’s shoulder, espionage and defecting engineers have of course led to local advances, but the process is generally the same. Development takes time and effort, and that equals money.
I can’t remember where I heard this quote but somebody was one saying that the television wasn’t invented because somebody wanted a television, it was invented because thousands of scientists over decades worked on ancillary technologies that culminated in the television.
The most recent major invention in jet engines came from the 3D printer industry. I don’t think anybody who was working on 3D printers was really necessarily thinking that this could be applied to jet engines, it’s just how it turned out.
Most of the mathematics behind modern computer graphics were come up with in the 18th century. The equations were just an interesting mathematical oddity for centuries until the technology caught up with the theory. Obviously the mathematician wasn’t trying to optimize rendering pipelines for a technology that wouldn’t exist for over 200 years.
Technological innovation is like evolution, there isn’t necessarily a target objective, things just evolve over time. You don’t just throw a lot of people at a problem and expect a solution, academics understand that which is why they do research. Research is not necessarily in aid of anything in particular, it’s just more knowledge to the toolbox of humanity, amd who knows how that knowledge might subsequently be applied.
I built jet engines every day. By far my biggest daily obstacle is the business and money people getting in my ducking way, trying to “increase my efficiency” by squeezing more work out of me with their jedi mind tricks. And when I don’t make 35% more output, they’ll try to turn younger union members against me. Telling them I’m the reason tgey have to work faster because I’m not doing my part. Fuck this shit system. Let me build my fucking engine in peace like I have been for 17 years you fucking fucks!!
Viri4thus@feddit.org 1 month ago
Exactly, paperclip…
SnortsGarlicPowder@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Was that not spending money? Gotta find and get them into your labs somehow.