John some of your logic here seems upside down to me.
As an aviation and space Engineer myself, I don't think our record of achievement on that front is all that great. We've lost all of the icons of aviation and space technology, one by one, including lunar exploration, the space shuttle, supersonic commercial aircraft, and most recently, transatlantic flight has disappeared from most peoples lives.
That has nothing much to do with technical capability or ambition, it seems to me to be all down to a strangulation effect of the economics of scarcity.
Nikola Tesla wanted to give us wireless internet and free solar power, in 1900 but was defunded by JP Morgan, no doubt after it was realised that if Tesla was successful, it would have been the end of scarcity, oil, profit, and even banking.
No scarcity would have meant no protests over poverty, which would have avoided Franz Ferdinand being assasinated, thus there would have been no first world war.
With no first world war, and no scarcity, no reparations would have put on Germany by the rest of Europe, thus Hitler would never have come to power.
Thus there would have been no world wars.
With no world wars there would have been no nuclear weapons or nuclear power plants left in a hazardous condition for thousands of years, as virtually all have been, due to safe decommissioning being unprofitable.
With no scarcity, or fears of mechanisms of bankruptcy, there would have been nothing preventing scientists who wished to pursue covid vaccines prior to viruses appearing, from creating said vaccines.
With no fears of bankruptcy, we could have shut down all business throughout the world, as done by China, to stamp out the virus.
The defence department did create the internet, but did they mean it to go public, even to their enemies? Of course not. We got it by accident.
Personally I think the business of profit, wars, and competition. have been the biggest obstacle to technology ever, bigger than can even be imagined.
I hope we see this sense soon, and get onto the Kardashev scale quick, because further imposed scarcity, or another war will finish us off for sure.
