[sligor]

That's exactly how we were able to go to the moon in 55 years ago. And why it's complicated today. It was of course lot of money. But it was mostly a lot of highly skilled, motivated devoted people doing for an ultimate common goal. Money would not have been sufficient by itself.

[HPsquared]

Since then, a LOT of the smart motivated people have been lured into either banking or adtech. The pay is good and the technical problems can be pretty interesting but the end result lacks that "wow factor".

[athrowaway3z]

Fingers crossed that next century we'll look at our current banking and adtech and go: Wow - that was unbelievably sad and dumb.

[seb1204]

I also read that nowadays we are more risk averse and many people/manager/companies are mostly administrators of status quo. Pair that with lack of vision and public engagement for current challenges to humanity.

[wvh]

In other words, if you permit, pure capitalism isn't a sufficiently good motive to get something significant done. But of course most of us don't work towards an ultimate common goal – and neither did most people in those times. One wonders if there is enough meaning left these days to go 'round and ensure most of us feel passionate about the stuff we (have to) do. Maybe we really need a god or war or common enemy to unite all strands into a strong rope.