Operation paperclip? A huge number of scientists and engineers unable to accomplish much under an authoritarian regime, but then driving massive innovation and discovery when freed from it, is exactly my point. Even when employing brilliant creative people authoritarians will always setup a work culture and organization fundamentally incompatible with innovation where traits like creativity and honesty are seen as threats, and aggressively punished.
Even in the USA, you can see the effects of this- highly innovative research programs from Skunkworks to DARPA always have a radically anti-authoritarian work culture.
They did accomplish a lot you just don't hear about it because history is written by the victor. Think about the numbers it took to defeat them: USSR, USA, British Empire, French Empire, and China.
The reason the scientists were gobbled up by the US and USSR is precisely because of the knowledge they developed during and why everyone else was hanged.
One can argue a lot of the advancements made until the era of computers was made because of that horrible war
Not pro authoritarian regimes but logically if your life depended on creating something 9/10 you will
I do hear all about it because my wife is an obscure history buff interested in Ww2 and Soviet history, and I am particularly interested in foreign science and technology we don’t here about in the USA, and enjoy learning about soviet research and other science that still hasn’t made it back into mainstream western knowledge.
Authoritarianism does not fundamentally make it impossible to develop technology, it just stifles innovation and creativity to a degree that creates a noticeable disadvantage. Even US academic and government research institutions suffer from this to a substantial extent. Even being under stress for your life will be motivating but stifle your own creativity to an extent- and that physiological dynamic itself is very much central to how differently authoritarian organizations function, as they maintain a high stress environment to motivate and control people- which it does, but not in a way conducive to creative thought or risk taking. You also have the aspect of just giving individuals much less freedom and independence: needing to justify and seek approval up front for every little experiment, etc.
Just wanted to thank you and the commenter above for your thoughtful comment chain. It’s exceedingly rare to encounter such thoughtful nuanced conversation online.
I also wanted to add that although I chose a specific example from WWII, I agree with you that this dynamic I am taking about ended up not being a decisive factor in the war.
I would argue that this dynamic was one reason we got the bomb first- and that the leadership and culture of the Manhattan project was uniquely effective, and the culture persists today in the USA national labs to great effect, but the bomb also happened too late to be a factor.
