What is the value of the State?

[jim bell]

From: \0xDynamite <dreamingforward at gmail.com>

>Without a State, would we have electronics?  Radio?
That's a question which displays a lack of knowledge of technical history.  Radio transmission was known as a consequence of Maxwell's equations, Maxwell's equations  .    Heinrich Hertz        Electronics can be traced to the "Fleming Valve",  Fleming valve   the rectifying diode implemented using the Edison effect, which was actually discovered by Frederick Guthrie.  Frederick Guthrie    Shortly afterwards, Lee DeForest  Lee de Forest   added a grid, which made it possible for the "vacuum tube" to oscillate and amplify, leading to radio communications.   Radio broadcasting occurred BEFORE government regulation:  Arguably, the need to allow many stations to share a limited spectrum made such regulation necessary.  

>Computers?Computers existed before IC's; I used one, the DEC PDP-7, in 1976-80.   But at about $50,000 in 1964 dollars (about $500,000 in today's), the average individual wasn't going to buy one. What we know today as "computers" was primarily the product of the invention of the integrated circuit (IC) by MOSFET - Wikipedia   various scientists and engineers. Once the concept of the  Integrated circuit existed, and was seen to follow the scaling described by Moore's law   (initially, in the 1960's, a doubling of transistors on a chip every 12 months; later in the 70's and 80's the doubling period lengthened to 18 months, then to 2 years in the 1990's and later), if one transistor was possible in, say, 1961, 13 years later 2**13 transistors (8192) was possible, in 1974.  So, the development of early microprocessors such as Intel's 8080, 6502, and 6800 was virtually assured.  This was definitely NOT the product of government!  And it would have happened regardless of the "space race" of the 1960's and 70's.
Also, you didn't mention The Internet.  Statists are fond of suggesting that the United States government made the Internet possible.  Well, no, it didn't.  During a time in which that government was financing research, some money was spent to develop network interface controllers Network interface controller, which at the time typically fit into a single RETMA 19" rack.  Not long afterwards, the same thing could have been (and was) implemented by means of more modern IC's.  But at that point, "the Internet" (as we know it, or at least knew it in 1995), was still impossible.
If you still doubt this, consider:  Why didn't the Internet as we know it today exist in 1980?  To me, the answer is simple.  The fastest modem in common use by consumers at that time was a 300 bits-per-second, Bell 103 (different Bell!) compatible.  Great improvements followed:  1200 bps in about 1981; 2400 bps in 1983, 9800 bps in the early 1990's. Modem    I'd say it was the latter, 9600 bps, which really made the modern Internet plausible for the vast majority of the population.  So, it was the people who developed and built 9600+bps modems that made the Internet (as we knew it, in 1995) possible.  

>  MassTransit? 
I think most of the New York subway systems were originally privately financed and built.  Similarly, most railroads.  Similarly bus lines.  And airlines.  

> Bikes?

BTW, you haven't forgotten that powered human flight was first accomplished by Orville and Wilbur Wright, two bicycle mechanics.  
>And if we need a State, what form should it take?

Written into history books as events long past.
          Jim Bell

   
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