TECH

Dependent on the West, dependent on the East or the EU’s troubles with technological innovation

As artificial intelligence continues to develop faster and faster, it is becoming clear that we as Europe have a real problem with innovation. It’s not that we didn’t innovate in Europe once, but today we kind of follow the world’s best and help rather than really dominate or even lead.

Once upon a time, Europe represented the absolute pinnacle of innovation. Have you ever heard of the Leduc 022 aircraft? This project started before the Second World War – and it was not a normal jet fighter, it was a ramjet jet fighter! Today it seems almost unbelievable that jet propulsion was created almost simultaneously with the propeller – and that we were not far behind and jumped right into the era of ramjets and hypersonic aircraft, but really – it could have been. And even more surprisingly – neither the Germans nor the English were behind it, but the French!

If you know the history of aviation, you know what a terrible blow the post-war collapse of their colonial empires and the costly wars they fought to maintain them was for both Britain and France. Suddenly Europe was noticeably smaller and poorer, export markets shrank and the flow of raw materials into Europe became more complicated. Europe started to shrink, but its decline was gradual, after all, we still have Airbus today, and until recently we were quite a powerhouse in electronics manufacturing.

We were…but we are not. The truth is that Europe is technologically behind today. You should definitely pay attention to the video The Death of Europe’s Last Electronics Giant, which discusses how Philips, which pioneered formats like CDs and sold Europe’s top-of-the-line Philips NMS personal computers, became essentially just a home hygiene brand.

The biggest culprit of this problem is globalization, when the West deprived itself of high-end production and moved it to countries where production was cheaper. It looked like a good idea in the short term, but the long-term consequences are catastrophic: The rise of China as a geopolitical competitor and the loss of competitiveness, because we should be exchanging products for products and not necessarily for wine and cheese.

by Michal Rybka