Illustration by Claudio Munoz

THE earliest computers were used to crack codes and simulate nuclear explosions. The internet grew out of a military research project. In-car navigation systems rely on satellites that were put into orbit to guide ships, troops and missiles. The Boeing 747, with its raised cockpit, was designed as a military transporter. In each case a technology created for military use has gone on to become widely used by civilians. That this happens so often is not surprising: the military is, after all, a deep-pocketed customer prepared to fund the development of expensive new technologies. As gizmos become smaller and cheaper—and they invariably do—they are then able to percolate from the soldier on the battlefield to the man in the street.

But lately some kinds of technology have been moving in the other direction, too. The United States Air Force has just placed an order for 2,200 Sony PlayStation 3 video-game consoles, which will be the building-blocks of a supercomputer (see article). Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are using Apple iPods and iPhones to run translation software and calculate bullet trajectories. Xbox video-game controllers have been modified to control reconnaissance robots and drone aircraft. Graphics chips that power PC video-cards are being used by defence firms to run simulations.

What has caused this shift? Global defence spending, at about $1.5 trillion a year, far exceeds sales of consumer-electronics, at around $700 billion a year. But only a small fraction of defence spending is devoted to developing electronics. The consumer-electronics industry can therefore outspend the military in research and development, and spread out those costs over a far larger market: more than a billion mobile phones are sold every year, for example. Electronics firms also move much faster than the slow, multi-year grind of military procurement programmes, with few products remaining on the market for more than a year before being replaced by something better or cheaper. And the emergence of open standards and open-source software makes it easier to repurpose off-the-shelf technologies or combine them in novel ways. (All those PlayStation 3s will have a customised version of Linux, an open-source operating system, installed on them and will be wired up using Gigabit Ethernet, the networking technology commonly used in offices.)

So much for the $1,000 screwdriver

All this is to be applauded. Where consumer technology can be used, it is much cheaper and quicker to do so. The air force's new supercomputer will cost around one-tenth as much as a conventional supercomputer of equivalent power. Using an iPod to run translation software in Iraq makes much more sense than designing and building a dedicated device. America's armed forces are also using commercially available green technologies to reduce their demand for fuel (see Technology Quarterly). Of course, there are limits to this off-the-shelf approach: it is no way to procure tanks, helicopters or missile systems. But the selective use of existing technology allows military planners to focus their spending on the development of new technologies, rather than reinventing the wheel. The consumer-electronics industry has been taking advantage of military innovations for years. It seems only fitting that it should now return the favour.