Technological Progress Without WW1

Sort of a counterpoint to this thread discussing how military technology would develop if WW1 hadn't happened, how do you think technology in general would develop if the World Wars hadn't happened? Would petrol vehicles have been slower to gain dominance? Would the early heavier-than-air airliners have developed most swiftly or petered out?
 
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The technological progress without WW1 would be considerable.

The engineers, scientist and entrepeneurs living in countries on the losing side will not be limited in their technological abilities due to restrictions laid out in peace treaties ( Germany)
The engineers, scientist and entrepeneurs living in the "winning" countries will not be hampered by the lack of capital which was burned and shot away in the war. ( Great Brittain , France and their colonial empire, Russia and Austrian-Hungary )
Further, and this is speculative, among the million of men who died or who lives were ruined during the war including civilians, there might be some bright minds and smart entrepeneurs who would invent and market technologies and idieas some year, or even decades before our time.
 
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One interesting point: prior to WW1 electric cars were a common competitor to gasoline powered cars, and in Britain particularly steam powered lorries were still competing with internal combustion engine models. Electric transmissions were also a popular concept amongst automotive designers.

Now, none of these technologies were at all likely to become the dominant form of motor transportation, and the economies of scale that companies like Ford were starting to achieve were likely to drive them out of the market whether or not the war occurred. However, WW1 and its mass truck purchases by effectively every army in the conflict (though to varying degrees, of course) which were made for gasoline powered models since those were clearly superior in the long range military transport role undoubtedly helped speed the transition. A longer transitional period with more efforts by manufacturers tied to models other than the ICE (note that Doble Steam Cars operated into the 1930s OTL) presumably would result in more research on items like electric transmissions, which even if they failed to make a difference at the time (and without significantly better batteries than the lead-acid ones available in the 1920s, electric cars are screwed) might have hastened the development of electric cars decades later, when gas shortages or climate change provide corporations with the motivation for change.

While I'm on the topic, the geopolitics of a Middle East where the Ottoman Empire hasn't been forced out of the Arabian peninsula by forces tightly allied to Britain and France; and Iran has not been occupied by Britain and Russia, are obviously going to be very different. Oil gluts and shortages in various parts of the world may be more or less common depending on butterflies: given the importance of oil in developed 20th-century economies OTL those changes could have huge, difficult to predict spillover effects in all kinds of technologies.
 

Paradoxer

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Sort of a counterpoint to this thread discussing how military technology would develop if WW1 hadn't happened, how do you think technology in general would develop if the World Wars hadn't happened? Would petrol vehicles have been slower to gain dominance? Would the early heavier-than-air airliners have developed most swiftly or petered out?
The major difference you see a lot of stuff especially in US directed to civilian or commercial sector first instead of military

For example, a jet plane is still damn useful for transportation of goods or people at higher speeds increasing growth and innovation desires for it. Or in US you still need heavy duty trucks for rough terrain her and travel across large US. An 18 wheeler does good job at that and better for specific locations to get goods vs being stuck to railroads or river ways or city.

Technology could go similar rate but it’s funding and how it starts out would be different.

For examples, we see aircraft innovation first focused on civilian market and economics instead of military first for widespread use

Technology was rapidly developing during “long 1900th” century as well which was rather peaceful time(between Napoleonic wars and World War 1).

Although the Zepplins and aircraft massive blimps might stay longer or even get innovated on.

Those zeppelins especially without ww1 making them cut back on materials and reply on cheap gas which lead to crash and incident after war, they could turn that into major commercial industry for short distance travel and in comfort compared to Jet. You still take jet across the Atlantic but London to Cornwall or Berlin to Pomeranian you take a zeppelin
 
While I'm on the topic, the geopolitics of a Middle East where the Ottoman Empire hasn't been forced out of the Arabian peninsula by forces tightly allied to Britain and France; and Iran has not been occupied by Britain and Russia, are obviously going to be very different. Oil gluts and shortages in various parts of the world may be more or less common depending on butterflies: given the importance of oil in developed 20th-century economies OTL those changes could have huge, difficult to predict spillover effects in all kinds of technologies.
I would imagine that in a world without the world wars, the cold war and Israel there wouldn't be any large oil shortages like the ones of the 1970s and probably no OPEC. Without the unstable international situation caused by the world wars a lot of oil reserves would be more accessible to international markets and oil would be cheaper. On the other hand I think that nuclear and solar power would be more developed due to a lesser association of nuclear power with war and further research on solar that IOTL was dropped between 1914 and the 70s. So basically without ww1 I see oil, nuclear and solar winning while coal would be phased out sooner due to more competition,
 
Although the Zepplins and aircraft massive blimps might stay longer or even get innovated on.

Those zeppelins especially without ww1 making them cut back on materials and reply on cheap gas which lead to crash and incident after war, they could turn that into major commercial industry for short distance travel and in comfort compared to Jet. You still take jet across the Atlantic but London to Cornwall or Berlin to Pomeranian you take a zeppelin
One issue airships run into on the continent is that they can't seem to manage much more than 70 mph in a straight line, and are horribly vulnerable to the weather. Without WW1 interrupting progress, high-speed rail is likely to overtake this by the mid 20s if not earlier. They are more likely to stick around on long-haul flights though, especially over rough or undeveloped terrain, eventually getting edged out by a mix of seaplanes or landplanes, depending on destination.
 
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