Large-scale R&D in recent centuries seems to take two primary paths: "Civilian", driven by profits from corporate investments, and "Weapons", paid for out of governmental taxes. The competition between those two reinforcing loops has shifted from time to time, and varies from field to field of research. Nuclear fission, computational science, biochemistry, precision timekeeping, space, ...

Fascinating!

(sketch thanks to LOOPY, an ultralight tool for systems thinking ©2021 MITRE Corporation ...) - ^z - 2021-10-07