This was new to me. I read an article in Cigar Aficionado that made the claim, so naturally when I arrived back at home, I had to look it up and lo and behold, it looks like this is true! Is there some sort of counter to this, like with the "government invented the internet" claim? Not that it really matters much, I'm just curious.
I'm thinking that they were the first to deploy one, which was because military had the first need. And once one is in place, it's hard to justify deploying a second. I'm sure that many people had ideas for such systems before that, since it's basic geometry at the core: multiple satellites, measure time to each and calcuate position. The high cost would keep it theoretical until there was a strong commercial justification.
I'm thinking that they were the first to deploy one, which was because military had the first need do not have to pay from their own pocket ;)
"GPS" is a blanket term for a system comprised of a few pieces, none of which the government invented. The government invents nothing, anyway.
Satellites: Not invented by government
Radios: Not invented by government
Trigonometry: (for triangulation/direction-finding "DF")... not invented by government
NAVSTAR: Satellites + Radios + Trigonometry
In fact, the government put in this "random offset" into GPS to "hobble it" to around 100m accuracy (+/- 300 feet) which is horribly imprecise. This was supposed to be some kind of security measure or something. So, the free market invented a workaround for this... called DGPS... using a fixed base location, the DGPS system calculates the random offset being injected by the GPS satellites at any moment in time and then broadcasts this differential to DGPS receivers so they can "un-sabotage" the government's stupid system. It rendered the government's GPS-sabotage system obsolete, so they finally switched it off completely. But by this time, DGPS stations were more accurate than the "true" GPS signals themselves! So the free market continued using DGPS anyway for high-precision applications such as GPS surveying, etc.
Clayton -
The first satellite was created by government, although the idea was not.
Yeah, the GPS satellites were constructed by the State, but for military purposes and not for civilian use. GPS is convienent, but it's always important to remember that there were navigational systems that worked beforehand. The materials, time, and labor used to create the GPS system were diverted from civil society. Would you rather have a GPS in your car, or more housing, food, and sustainable jobs? The standad statist response is something like "oh GPS would have been too expensive for the private sector to build", which may very well be true. However, this tells us that there was probably better stuff for us to have spent our resources on.
Assembling various pieces (new or pre-existing) into a new working system is invention. Russia has a competing global system. If you check wikipedia, there are several other systems at least in the works. Some are only regional. Most if not all are state run. Just FYI. And yes, one must consider the opportunity cost of such monumentally expensive systems.
Let me repeat again: Government has never invented nor created anything. Ever. People - individuals - are the only thing that has ever invented anything. The individual mind is the sole unit of human advancement. And government in its purest form is the complete abnegation of our humanity, including the human mind.
And yes, one must consider the opportunity cost of such monumentally expensive systems.
+1
Given that DGPS is actually more accurate than GPS and that DGPS serves the markets where there actually exists demand for GPS-services (urban areas, developed-agrarian areas, etc.), you realize immediately that the GPS satellites are actually useless. They don't really do anything ... well, except, they enable the Pentagram to drop 2000-lb JDAMs anywhere, from Chicago to Podunkistan. So, I guess I'm glad government invented GPS, because how else would we kill people and blow shit up anytime, anywhere on the globe??