The republic of Venice was, surely, the most technologically advanced, financially sophisticated and organizationally capable state of the 12th century. They applied their abilities, above all, to navigation and commerce. Applying their capabilities allowed them to maintain them, since trade financed the fleet and practicing nautical science made it possible to continually improve it. The Venetians were also pioneers in the production of ships, with their famous arsenal, where they manufactured Henry Ford-style ships, thousands of people worked and they stored large quantities of ships, which they could quickly assemble and launch during emergencies. Its sailors were pioneers in the use and development of compasses, nautical charts, course books and sailing upwind (against the wind). Let us remember that a ship is mainly a complex and expensive technological gadget that needs an ecosystem. The Venetians observed that, in the sea, the further you go, the deeper it is and the more difficult and dangerous it becomes.
Technology in itself is not something necessarily useful or differential. A GPS, without further ado, would have been a useless eccentricity in a Venetian galley, because to function it requires electricity, a satellite constellation and minimally qualified personnel. All technologies need the cost/benefit tetrahedron, people, solving a problem and operating in an appropriate environment. They are vehicles that need these four wheels.
We can see the same thing where there is maximum stress: on the battlefield. In Ukraine, a wheel is missing: the use of Western technology is limited by serious environmental deficits, namely the lack of ammunition and ground vehicles. These limitations mean that the Ukrainian armed forces today are stagnant and their objectives dangerously fragile. On the contrary, the Russians today are effective because, despite their technological limitations, they are making up for their own ammunition deficits with old North Korean arsenals. Today, they have four wheels, which are not very good, but they work.
We can also see how cost/benefit is key in technology. On the battlefield, missiles do not compete well with drones in some areas for cost reasons. A missile is faster, carries a greater payload and can go further, but is more expensive than a drone. If 400,000 euro missiles are used to shoot down 35,000 euro drones, the victory becomes like what King Pyrrhus described: “Another victory like that and I am lost.”
Sam Bankman-Fried created a cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, in the deregulated paradise of the Bahamas, a complex, almost lysergic financial technology that it is not clear what it solves. His market imploded because he didn't have a tetrahedron, not because of technological problems or lack of vision. He has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for lying to investors and has gone, in a sneeze, from being a twenty-something billionaire with enviable hair, loved and universally admired, to being a convicted criminal, with no income and abandoned by his friends and family. girlfriend, who testified against him. He is the crew member who is abandoned half-naked on a desert island as punishment.
Investors in technology companies would do well to remember that you have to know what you are investing in and that technology itself has no value, nor is it a good investment without a tetrahedron. Never buy a car, no matter how good it is, if it doesn't have four wheels.
