I think your observation about the historical connection between important technological innovations and the military/armed conflict is correct and well taken. This is certainly the case in the history of the internet, as well as Global Positioning Satellites, and the technologies which came out of the Cold War during the Space Race. We can even go as far back as looking at cartography, the study of map making. Advancements in the field of map making were largely motivated by imperial interests, yet had many positive consequences for trade and increasing cross cultural exchange and cosmopolitan sensibilities.

“Does this mean that war is necessary for innovation? Conflict at least is in my opinion.”

I think we need to be careful when we talk about the historical inevitability of conflict because it allows for the treatment of people as a means to an end, (I’m thinking of WWII here.) But I do agree, there does seem to be something paradoxical at play here.

In talking about Western technology and innovation we often tell the story of Progress in which Reason and discovery lead toward some Utopian future. Typically the story of the rationalization of society is traced back to the Enlightenment, the emergence of the free market, the industrial revolution, and the emergence of democracy. However these innovations also led us to great atrocities like the Holocaust and the Atomic bomb.