| >What on earth does "costs are fixed" mean? I don't think you're that simple, I think you're just trying to be derisive. In case you're not : Regardless of the effort involved, a value must be paid in order to form a new technology or model. We, the people who strive to create, choose in what way we would like to
pay this value. We can choose to pay for progress through time, or pay for progress through means of trial and error. While not mutually exclusive, one methodology tends to detract from the other while serving the same purpose : the pursuit of a novel model. The methods of payment are not mutually exclusive, the ethos behind the choice to prioritize one over the other typically (but not necessarily) is. An off-topic example I can think of would be the drive behind early Russian aviation/aerospace versus the drive behind early United States aviation/aerospace. Different priorities got both parties to a comparable level of technology regardless of the differing means used to get there. Free market competition rushed much of early Russian aviation and made wide use of anecdotal evidences and test piloting and created leading edge machines because of it, whereas government subsidy and large cash flows drove the US to stay on top using theory and finances instead of prioritizing the happiness of pilots and fulfilling 'stick-feel'. (before anyone mentions it, both parties did the same stuff, they just differed in prioritization) Both parties created fantastic machines. One paid in blood, the other in time for such achievements. |