The Pace of Technology

When the pace of technology these days is mentioned, what comes to mind? For many people, it moves a bit quickly. Some of you may have heard of Moore’s law, which basically states that the number of transistors which can be inexpensively placed on a circuit board doubles roughly every two years. If you haven’t heard of this, it was an observation made by Intel’s founder Gordon E. Moore, and you can find a whole bunch of information out there about it. (May we suggest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law).

If it seems to you that something new comes out virtually every day, or if you’ve ever shopped for a computer for a few weeks, you probably already know a bit about this principle. That top-of-the-line computer you bought six months ago? No, it isn’t obsolete, but it certainly won’t win any awards anymore.

At this point, you’re probably wondering where that six month figure came from, since just prior we were talking about a two-year mark. As with anything, not all advances come out at the same time, so your video card might become antiquated before your processor does.

  

The standard amortization for a computer is set at five years, at which point it holds no pertinent value, at least in the business world. Is this a concern? Only if you run newer programs all the time. For many people, a five-year-old computer works just fine. If you aren’t much of a computer gamer, or don’t do much with programs like Photoshop, then you probably don’t need to be concerned much with the pace of technology. All of your standard programs (i.e. office suites, internet browsers, email clients, etc.) that are out today work just fine on older systems. Exactly how well is often a matter of personal taste, but if you find yourself getting irritated with your technology, it’s time to consider some upgrades, or possibly a replacement.

Back to the actual pace of technology, however, the question most often asked (at least around here) is why? While it is a relatively simple question, the answer is not quite as simple as the question. For one, the market allows this kind of pace, and it’s something we’ve come to expect from our technology these days. Another reason is that there are people out there who are constantly attempting to push the envelope. Researchers and scientists work every day to improve on our technology. Of course, cost is a factor as well. Referring back to Moore’s law, you probably noticed the word “inexpensively” in there. The final reason (at least in the interest of keeping this article slightly brief), is that it has always been this way. If you look at the introduction of technology, it has always been at a certain pace. Take the evolution of how we listen to music. Vinyl records, at least for music purposes, came around 1925. Cassettes were introduced in 1964, and the CD made its debut in 1984. The MP3 format became official in 1995. If we look at the trend, we can see exactly how it works. Almost forty years passed between the record and cassette. Twenty years passed between the Cassette and the CD, and roughly ten years for the introduction of the MP3 format. If we are to take this trend as an example, then technology has been doubling its pace for a very long time, and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

 

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