SPIN-OFFS AND SPIN-ONS
Military technology has historically found new applications in civilian life. While wars are devastating to the civilians caught in the middle, they also push technological advancements that benefit civilians long after their conclusion, from Roman roads built to speed troop transit to the Internet, which was initially developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as ARPANET.
But not every transfer of military technology to the civilian sector goes smoothly or efficiently. Many are too costly or sophisticated for commercial application, and specific military requirements can impede viability for civilian use. Examples include nuclear power, developed from nuclear weapon research but which has struggled as a commercial industry, and supersonic aircraft, which are vital to the Air Force but never caught on commercially, largely due to their high price tag.
Increasingly, some experts say, the direction of transfer is reversing -- rather than the military providing spin-off technology for civilians, civilians are developing "spin-on" technology for the military. Development can also occur from both directions at once. In 1999, the Army created the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) at the University of Southern California to research artificial intelligence, graphics and virtual reality immersion. ICT has built on the technology developed for commercial video games and created immersive virtual reality training for U.S. troops. The same technology might later be used to create virtual training environments for civilian jobs. Coming full circle, ICT's Full Spectrum Warrior training video game became a hit when it was released commercially.
Scholar John A. Alic, in his book Beyond Spinoff, outlines the range of pathways for technology transfer:
- Institute for Creative Technologies researches and develops virtual reality possibilities for the military
- American Military Technology: The Life Story of a Technology by Barton C. Hacker, available as an e-book
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
- From Spin-Off to Spin-On: Redefining the Military's Role in Technology Development [PDF]