His cellphone uses GPS and connects to other computers over the internet using TCP/IP, but I guess you're waiting on pizza gyroscopes to see any valuable tech crossover relative to this project.

Imagine the things achieved if the money being spent wasn't focused on military applications.

I imagine military applications for "know where something is in world" and "have network of computers communicate in a damage resistant way" are no more costly to develop than non-military applications.

Hard to say. Would the research even have occurred if there weren't military applications? At the end of the day, there are only a few ways to get politicians to fund research:

* War (physics, chemistry, computer science, psychology)

* Fortune-telling (astronomy, economics, political science)

* Immortality (medicine, fine art, humanities)

To illustrate just how capable that tech was even back in 1986, look at 1:45 of this Bundeswehr video demonstrating a Leopard tank carry a keg of beer and not lose a drop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2mcO6l-0cY

It’s actually a stein of beer, carried on the end of the barrel of the tank’s main gun, for others that like me did not understand. It’s cool.