How about a technology that has significant value and influence BECAUSE   
they are never intended to be used.  Atomic bomb and nuclear arsenal for   
example.  
  
The Cold War era remain a "cold" one - because of nuclear   
weapon.  Indirectly the weapon also posed as an important factor on backing   
up certain ideology and possibly the survival of an economic system.  How   
do we "calculate" the effect of such technology...?  Or should we just   
dismissed it?  
  
Poltak Hotradero