Good summary of Portuguese vs Chinese sea exploration.
Bad extrapolation into modern space exploration. Also, there's an artificial distinction between publicly funded space tech. and publicly funded military space tech.
Military spec tech. is funded from our taxes just like the shuttle is. And while it may serve as a deterrent, there also may be much cheaper ways to get the same peaceful results. Like for example changing foreign policy to be less interventionist.
I think it's important to remember that Columbus was funded by the Queen of Spain, so it wasn't all private efforts.
It's also important to remember the modern day trade restrictions on space tech and flight restrictions imposed due to military needs.
And that's what's common between us and ancient China, it's not the public funding, it's the public restrictions.
I think it's important to remember that Columbus was funded by the Queen of Spain, so it wasn't all private efforts.
The kingdoms and the city states of 15th century Europe were like competing family owned businesses (large property owning and managing businesses). The two keys for building a scalable success are competition and the profit motive. By definition, profitable means you get out more resources than you get in. Thus anything that is scalable must be profitable. The Chinese ran the missions for reasons of glory, so they did not concentrate on profit. As a result, the missions did not scale and were cut back when new rulers came to power. The same goes for NASA. But the monarchs of Europe were trying to make a profit so their exploration strategy was far different and far more cost effective.
Bad extrapolation into modern space exploration. Also, there's an artificial distinction between publicly funded space tech. and publicly funded military space tech.
Military spec tech. is funded from our taxes just like the shuttle is. And while it may serve as a deterrent, there also may be much cheaper ways to get the same peaceful results. Like for example changing foreign policy to be less interventionist.
I think it's important to remember that Columbus was funded by the Queen of Spain, so it wasn't all private efforts.
It's also important to remember the modern day trade restrictions on space tech and flight restrictions imposed due to military needs.
And that's what's common between us and ancient China, it's not the public funding, it's the public restrictions.