We all struggle with digital technology, frustrated at times by anything from the lack of dexterity of the machine in our hand to the opacity of “the cloud” above. When we do, it is likely that, directly or indirectly, our frustration is soothed by the promise of Moore’s Law. In 1966, Gordon Moore, one of the founders of the chipmaker Intel, noted that the power of computer processing had roughly doubled every year since the invention of the microchip. Computing enthusiasts recast this historical observation into a futuristic “law”, one that promised endless, exponential growth in computer power. One useful role for this law, enthusiasts found, lay in the way in which it could deflect criticism. Those who complained that machines failed to live up to expectation could simply be told “they will improve” and Moore’s Law suggested how. With more and ever cheaper computing megahertz, this year’s limitations would disappear by the next, the ponderous object on your desk would become a light gadget in your palm, the inanimate interface would transform itself into an interactive “personal assistant”, all driven by a relentless growth in computational power.
Paul Duguid