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The Progress of Technology
I haven’t been posting much recently, in part because my primary computer had a mild meltdown and I went ahead and replaced it.
In doing so I could not help reflecting on the advances in technology. The laptop I replaced was 5 years old and cost me around $ 1,500 when purchased.
The new unit I am now using cost less than half of that and is many times faster with many more features.
The same is true of a new Blu Ray player I purchased for Christmas. A few years ago it cost $ 200 or more for a top quality DVD player, now a Blu Ray player with wireless streaming costs under $ 150.
Isn’t technology amazing ?
7 Responses to “The Progress of Technology”
Try this on for size Patrick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjOZ8upPXyc&feature=related
Arn’t humans amazing?
Technology marches at far too fast a pace.
As far as the PC goes, that added speed and features is needed to run the OS amd the Internets. For things like TMV, I miss the older more text based days over streaming YouTube and Flash…
Much of the advancement in computer technology has much more to do with improved manufacturing technology than fundamental improvements in actual computing. We have a bigger and cheaper hammer, not a better hammer, and the only reason we have the bigger & cheaper hammer is that we now know how to make them. And this should be seen as big warning too.
Virtually no US companies own the semiconductor manufacturing IP that allowed this to happen, it was outsourced long ago as being “too costly.” Only Intel and IBM still invest in the R&D needed to keep playing at these levels, and they have reduced their investments to satisfy Wallstreet’s demands for ever increasing quarterly profits. This is an entire industry the US (government agencies, universities, and companies) invented, but we have given it all away in the name of reducing costs. And we are now more dependent upon it in all facets of our lives than ever before.
I worked for the better part of 2 decades in the semiconductor manufacturing area. When I started back in the ‘90s our manufacturing fabs were implementing techniques that were 1 to 2 generations ahead of the rest of the world. We shipped our old equipment (and manufacturing knowledge) to overseas fabs to allow them to build our old “commodity” products at lower cost. By the turn of the century we were implementing techniques at roughly the same time of the rest of the world, competing with them for the same production equipment. When I left the industry, we were implementing techniques already in use in South Korea, and Taiwan, and were starting to receive their old equipment to allow us to build their old commodity products closer to the end user. We have given away our technology know-how all for the bigger short-term $. The US is very near the point of becoming a third world nation in the very technology we invented. We have already lost key technologies, now dependent for such things as memory and imaging sensors on foreign companies. It certainly makes one concerned about our security when much of the military’s technology comes from outside the US, and we couldn’t replicate even if we wanted to since we no longer no how to do it.
But enjoy your cheaper computer and BluRay player.
STinMN:
While I don’t know enough about commercial technology to comment on your claims that the U.S. is very near becoming a third world country in this area, I wonder if you can provide some sources/background to the following claim on military technology:
“It certainly makes one concerned about our security when much of the military’s technology comes from outside the US, and we couldn’t replicate even if we wanted to since we no longer no [sic] how to do it.”
From my belief that even major powers such as Russia, China and lesser powers such as Iran would give their right arm to get a hold of some of our stealth, aircraft, avionics, drones, communications, counter-measures, and other military electronics applications technology to “replicate,” that claim sounds somewhat unrealistic. However, I could be wrong.
Dorian,
I worked in defense for 8 years, until Gramm-Rudman made me unemployed after killing the program I was on. Since then I’ve kept an eye on what is going on in the defense industry. One of the biggest concerns within the defense electronics sector is that they cannot completely trust the components they use because of where they originate from.
There is widespread fear that foreign companies have built in backdoors or kill switches in the electronic components they supply to the US. IEEE Spectrum Magazine had an article on this in 2008, it can be found at http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/design/the-hunt-for-the-kill-switch (IEEE is the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It is the largest electrical and electronics professional society in the world, and establishes many of the standards used world wide like 802.11, the wireless local area network standard used on your computer.)
As far as the other ascertains, I know from my former colleagues that I still keep in contact with that they have no other sources for RAM memory than foreign companies. No US company makes the memory in the density they need for the advance defense electronics they work on. For imaging sensors the most advance manufacturers are in Japan and Israel. I know for certain that the US military uses these foreign manufacturers for the imaging systems because I needed to get my DOD security clearance reactivated to install the semiconductor manufacturing equipment in these facilities.
One good bit of information on all this is that this is only hardware. Virtually anyone can build the hardware. What is really critical is the algorithms, and in these areas the US still holds a substantial advantage over other countries. Unfortunately, without being able to completely control the hardware design, the algorithms are often altered to work with what hardware is available, often compromising the effectiveness of the algorithm. The algorithms are also what needs the most protection. Unfortunately, if you don’t have capable hardware, it doesn’t matter how superior your algorithms are.
Incidentally, the seminal research for both stealth technology and spread spectrum communications come from Soviet Union. Both were described in Soviet scientific papers published during the height of the cold war, the Soviet Union not understanding their significance. And if the articles I’ve seen are correct, an offshoot of the latter will obsolete the former in 10-15 years.
Very interesting, STinMN, especially about the “backdoors or kill switches.” I have to read your reference on this.
Thanks for taking the time to expand.