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Just to point out a few things about the semiconducter. First of all it's silly IMO to believe that if we had no government research we wouldn't have the semiconducter.
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This is a crystal ball argument and an absolute eternity statement which gives it a double whammy. Not touching this.
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Actually it's not. Are you saying that Gordon Moore what not have done anything in advancing semi conducter techonlogy without government research? Preposterous if you are.
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Second of all computer technology advances were brought about by the private sector.
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True but when computer technology was in it's infancy the vast majority of novel breakthroughs were not from private industry. Your statement does not conflict with anything I've said.
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Right the private sector has and will make plenty of "novel breakthroughs."
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Third of all we don't know that government resources were allocated in the most effecient manner in developing this technology.
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I've never witnessed any research firm, private or public, that allocated resources in the most efficient manner. To expect this level of perfection is to expect consultation from God himself.
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A little history on the transistor.
Transistor History
During WWII and immediately thereafter a disproportionate amount of GDP was contributed to by government spending as opposed to the private sector investment and also at the expense of the private sector investment. That's shouldn't be a hard concept grasp but maybe.
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It may not have even been close to the most effecient allocation of resources.
In fact it's possible that resources were allocated so poorly that the private sector would have come up with this technology far sooner. Don't know, probably not, but a possibility.
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Research in one area harms the progress of research in a completely independent entity? I'd love to see a historical example of this occurring. Either a principle investigator can prove his case to an angel investor/venture capital firm or he can't. In my experience that's pretty much the only thing that matters in a tech startup.
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See comments above. If I remember corectly you advocate having a disprportionate contribution to GDP by government spending ala WWII to "solve" energy problems and such. If you think that the private sector investment won't change as a result sorry to say you're sadly mistaken.