No doubt, one has to marvel all the recent technologies (and your understanding of them). But here's the conundrum: Either economic growth has moderated because of something else, or, true economic growth is not being measured. Or, perhaps we shouldn't be studying technology from the perspective of its effects on economic growth alone. There are so many other ways modern life has altered due to technological advancements.
That is such a satisfying song of the flow of technology, rising straight and smooth on a logarithmic scale, that I really hate to quibble. But there is one area where I think your dates and rates understate how early the advances and geometric increases began and that is in data communications. (Voice communications lagged by ten or more years because of the inertia and indolence of traditional leaders in communications, the telephone companies.)
By 1980, Email messaging had been in place for a decade. Chip and machine designers in one state could send the details of a completed design, once checked, to a factory in another state. Not long after, the factory could be in another country. At first this only worked for companies that could afford large satellite antennas on their rooftops, but by 1990 the internet in its several early forms was firmly in place with the capacity required. By 2000, cables stretched across almost all oceans. Certainly the Atlantic and Pacific were densely covered. The telecom bankruptcies of 1999-2000 found much of this buildout still dark, so it was quickly snapped up for pennies on the dollar by the software survivors of the tech crash of about a year later, Google among them. This provided a platform for the explosion in distributed services that took place in the first decade of the 2000s.
Power of technology transformed the world. As much as it quickly arbitraged goods and labor prices around the world, it also spawned new industries. Previously impossible, imagination and creativity can now become marketable commodities.
I think you were indulging yourself with the explanation of why doped silicon (and what about germanium?) is a semi conductor. I think it would have been a lot better to have devoted some space to the rise of information handling, especially the replacing of valves with transistors and why information technology is so important. You give a few examples, but it really is a transformative technology, even if economists cannot seem to detect the productivity gains from computers. [I think economists miss the real value of infotech in terms of deeper analyses in science and technology, and improving product design and quality. IIRC, hedonic pricing captures features, but not intangibles like design quality.]
No doubt, one has to marvel all the recent technologies (and your understanding of them). But here's the conundrum: Either economic growth has moderated because of something else, or, true economic growth is not being measured. Or, perhaps we shouldn't be studying technology from the perspective of its effects on economic growth alone. There are so many other ways modern life has altered due to technological advancements.
That is such a satisfying song of the flow of technology, rising straight and smooth on a logarithmic scale, that I really hate to quibble. But there is one area where I think your dates and rates understate how early the advances and geometric increases began and that is in data communications. (Voice communications lagged by ten or more years because of the inertia and indolence of traditional leaders in communications, the telephone companies.)
By 1980, Email messaging had been in place for a decade. Chip and machine designers in one state could send the details of a completed design, once checked, to a factory in another state. Not long after, the factory could be in another country. At first this only worked for companies that could afford large satellite antennas on their rooftops, but by 1990 the internet in its several early forms was firmly in place with the capacity required. By 2000, cables stretched across almost all oceans. Certainly the Atlantic and Pacific were densely covered. The telecom bankruptcies of 1999-2000 found much of this buildout still dark, so it was quickly snapped up for pennies on the dollar by the software survivors of the tech crash of about a year later, Google among them. This provided a platform for the explosion in distributed services that took place in the first decade of the 2000s.
Power of technology transformed the world. As much as it quickly arbitraged goods and labor prices around the world, it also spawned new industries. Previously impossible, imagination and creativity can now become marketable commodities.
I think you were indulging yourself with the explanation of why doped silicon (and what about germanium?) is a semi conductor. I think it would have been a lot better to have devoted some space to the rise of information handling, especially the replacing of valves with transistors and why information technology is so important. You give a few examples, but it really is a transformative technology, even if economists cannot seem to detect the productivity gains from computers. [I think economists miss the real value of infotech in terms of deeper analyses in science and technology, and improving product design and quality. IIRC, hedonic pricing captures features, but not intangibles like design quality.]
It's a good explanation. Thanks for sharing it.