I think you are missing the point. What I think GP was saying is it's sad that the only way to fund grand projects seems to be making them useful for killing other people.
That would be true if grand projects only came out of military funding. There are plenty of examples of wonderful projects that are the result of civilian enterprises without a primary military motive.
The Internet and GPS are more visible examples, but semiconductors, medicine, algorithms (like machine learning) etc are no less grand and marvelous in terms of taking humanity forward!
The Internet and GPS are more visible examples, but semiconductors, medicine, algorithms (like machine learning) etc are no less grand and marvelous in terms of taking humanity forward!