The big talk around the interwebs at the moment is the so-called “collapse” of Moore’s Law. This fundamental tenet of modern computing, established by co-founder of Intel Corp Gordon E. Moore at the dawn of the digital era, sort of guided the way we think about the future of technology. However, lately, this idea has been challenged by physicists and digital professionals who say that Moore’s Law cannot, in fact, keep up with the exponential pace of technological advancement. In other words, the future doesn’t rest, as we’d always expected it to be, within the realm of silicon-based microprocessors.
This is an interesting notion, because after all, as we’ve seen with the rise of social media and the “second coming of the Internet” (Web 2.0), technology actually evolves according to the zeitgeist of contemporary life. It’s almost like an organic thing, something that needed initial human intervention to kick-start it, and then was able to grow as we grew.
I think the next few years are going to be quite interesting in the technological realm. Whilst I wouldn’t go so far as to start speculating about human-like robot butlers, I think that the parallel advancements in technology and science, with new discoveries in both quantum mechanics and materials engineering will allow for the creation of systems that can truly go beyond the scope of the notion Gordon Moore had of an exponentially-evolving computing landscape.
Life in Pixels 