Felton is always illuminating little examined corners of twentieth century European warfare. Lots of interesting and factual narrative without the customary hyperbole. It's never a disappointment to watch.

I'm reminded of how war has driven the technology that provides us with the lion's share of the conveniences that we enjoy today.

Would you trade that lifestyle based on the pace of progress war has made possible for the millions of souls that perished in the last hundred years?

What would the world have been like? Something I think about a lot.

I'm reminded of how war has driven the technology that provides us with the lion's share of the conveniences that we enjoy today.

That's interesting. Could you give some examples, please?

I can think of a few. War (hot or cold) drove the development of radar, firearms, aircraft, and the so-called space race with earth orbiting satellites. Those are all pretty big, and I'm sure there are more.

But the two things that fundamentally transformed society -- and are responsible many of the conveniences we enjoy today -- were electrical power and the internal combustion engine. These got horses and people out of cities, increased agricultural output, and facilitated transportation and (with refrigeration) storage of food. Not sure if war drove these technologies?

Yeah, you've listed some of the more well-known ones, and mentioned a couple of them that had origins before the world wars. And thanks for the good examples.

But even with respect to these, electrical power generation and the internal combustion engine, war posed gigantic problems in the mass provsion of such goods for large scale conflict. They presented problems that demanded immediate improvements. In fact, world conflict demonstrated the limits of the latter and made the development of practical jet turbine technology indispensible.

We don't like to think of war as a great benefactor because it chews up the lives of so many good men. But there you are.

Still in the end: Wanna trade?

Thanks for your thoughtful response.

Yes, I would trade much convenience for the lives of the millions of people slaughtered by governments over the last century or two.

Many of these innovations and improvements (but admittedly not all) would have been developed anyway in time, even without war's spurring them on.

Yes, I would trade much convenience for the lives of the millions

Yeah and you and I might well not be here as history would have worked itself out quite differently.

But the world could well hve been a much better place as well.

There's no turning back the clock.

Which I feel certain is also true of the space race -- one of my least popular opinions.