Preventing Technological Surprise

<p>Inventing the internet and pioneering satellite navigation, U.S. government agency DARPA has had an illustrious history since being founded by President Eisenhower (as the Advanced Research Projects Agency) on February 7th, 1958. </p><br><p>Created in response to the Soviets launching Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, its mission, which continues to this day, is ‘to prevent technological surprise.’</p><br><p>In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly uncover how DARPA helped create the humble computer mouse; explain how former Nazi Wernher von Braun found his way to the head of this supposedly All-American organisation; and look forward to a world of self-sustaining surveillance robots eating us out of house and home…</p><br><p><strong>Further Reading:</strong></p><ul><li>‘Fifty years of DARPA: A surprising history’ (New Scientist, 2008): <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13908-fifty-years-of-darpa-a-surprising-history/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13908-fifty-years-of-darpa-a-surprising-history/</a></li><li>‘The Nazi Science That Fed the Apollo 11 Moon Landing’ (Time, 2019): <a href="https://time.com/5627637/nasa-nazi-von-braun/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://time.com/5627637/nasa-nazi-von-braun/</a></li><li>‘3 of the strangest projects DARPA has worked on’ (Tech Insider, 2017): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hSs0S5FVx8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hSs0S5FVx8</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>For bonus material and to support the show, visit</strong><a href="https://create.acast.com/episodes/ca1f94a1-0921-446a-ae00-4d4bfd2ba3ef/Patreon.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong> </strong></a><a href="http://patreon.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Patreon.com/Retrospectors</strong></a></p><p><strong>We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts:</strong><a href="https://create.acast.com/episodes/ca1f94a1-0921-446a-ae00-4d4bfd2ba3ef/podfollow.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong> </strong></a><a href="http://podfollow.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>podfollow.com/Retrospectors</strong></a></p><br><p><em>The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.</em></p><p><em>Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.</em></p><p><em>Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2021.</em></p><br><p><em>#50s #Inventions #Technology #Russia #US</em></p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

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