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Top1. Moore’S Law And Social Theory
Silicon Valley’s famous and fundamental underpinning, Moore's Law, has played such a significant role in determining the current place of technology in today’s society, that the term “technology” has become synonymous with “computers”. Moore’s Law was and remains today a prediction towards smaller, cheaper, more reliable and ubiquitous computing. Technically, It is often cited as “the number of transistors that can be fit onto a square inch of silicon doubles every 12 months” (Stokes, 2008), however how it is described as a socio-technical system, is the focus of this paper. Moore’s Law is described as a predictive guide, an industry expectation, the organizing goal of a multibillion-dollar global industrial segment, and a bellwether and emblem for the technology industry (CHF, 2006:4). Stokes (2008) suggests Moore’s Law is “a maxim that has taken on multiple forms over the years”, “a statement of performance” and “a social/psychological/industrial phenomenon”.
It all began in 1965 when Gordon Moore, a chemist and physicist, made an empirical observation that performance enhancements in electronic devices will keep getting smaller, while at the same time, become more powerful. Originally focused on the semiconductor industry that manufactured transistors, Moore’s Law, in 1975, was refined as a projection of exponential growth in transistor count per computer chip over a two-year period. This prediction positioned Moore’s Law as the innovation driver of silicon-based transistor design and performance. Simply put, a transistor is the electrical switch at the heart of a microprocessor, similar to a wall switch that governs whether electric current will flow to light a lamp. Millions of transistors connected together on a modern chip process information by influencing each other's electrical state. Today’s computer chips are comprised of silicon, which is a type of material known as a ‘semiconductor”, as it has conducts electrical currents or insulate them depending on conditions. Over the past 47 years, and to sustain Moore's Law, scientists and engineers have been driven to innovate in reducing the size of transistors and thus, computer chips. This ambitious behaviour is evident in Intel Corporation’s current manufacturing process of a silicon computer chip currently measuring 22-nanometer, which is roughly a 4,000th the width of a human hair and thousands of times more powerful than a mainframe of the 1970s (Shankland, 2012).
As one of the most discussed concepts in the computer technology industry, Moore’s Law continues to inspire innovation practices resulting in continued economic success in California’s Silicon Valley and across the globe. Considering the task of sociology is to characterize the ways in which materials interrelate and reproduce institutional and organizational patterns in the networks of modern society, Moore’s Law’s significance deserves an observation and interpretation from social theorists. Weber (2005:29) may suggest it is an example of a “formal value system” that exists through the “modern metropolis”, where society’s relationship with the impressions, aesthetics and rhythms of the metropolis affects its trajectory. Shapin (2010:380) may reflect on Moore’s Law as an example of “technocracy”, where a social system appears ruled by science and technology experts and thus sustains the rapid development of and growing dependence on technology. Smith (1999:79) could frame Moore’s Law as an example of “ruling relations” formed through its complexity of interconnected activities, technologies and technical labour. Latour (1999:185) might argue Moore’s Law is like opening a black box, that it is a system of fabricated truths and beliefs, comprised of human and non-human interconnections and mysteriously driving innovation for the technology industry. Callon (1981) may suggest Moore’s Law is a ‘translation’, a movement of technological development over time from where ideas are experimented with inside research labs and moved to people and institutions, who in turn transform the technology to better meet their goals. The explored social theories above simply serve to suggest that a sociological examination of Moore’s Law is warranted and is the objective of this paper.