The Technology Snowball

Computer technology is like a snowball rolling down the hill.

The further it goes, the bigger it gets, the bigger it gets, the faster it goes, the faster it goes, the bigger it gets …

It’s the Technology Snowball.

Moore’s Law states that computer power doubles approximately every eighteen months.

If you apply this law, every Christmas, new computer games are almost twice as powerful (in terms of the number of transistors) as those from the previous year. Applying this theory, you can see the snowball effect that occurs. With each year, technology compounds itself.

In fact, the computer chips found in singing birthday cards, has more computer power than the entire Allied forces of 1945.

Hitler, Churchill, or Roosevelt might have killed to get that chip. But what do we do with it? After the birthday, we throw the card and chip away.

Crazy.

You can see the size of the technological snowball is getting huge:

Today, your cell phone has more computer power than all of NASA back in 1969, when it placed two astronauts on the moon. Video games, which consume enormous amounts of computer power to simulate 3-D situations, use more computer power than mainframe computers of the previous decade.

As it has gained in size, its velocity has increased:

The Sony PlayStation of today, which costs $300, has the power of a military supercomputer of 1997, which cost millions of dollars.

Millions.

How big and fast will the technology snowball be in the next three years?

Or will this giant, speeding snowball cause an avalanche?

[via Salon]

Eric Dye

Support Lead at Valet, and Proprietor of DYECASTING. Human by day, gamer at night, lover of coffee, and all things spicy.