Moore's Law and Technological Determinism: Reflections on the History of Technology

Chapter 3 highlights the critical role materials have in the development of digital computers. It traces developments from the cat’s whisker to valves through to relays and transistors. Accounts are given for transistors and the manufacture of integrated circuits (silicon chips) by use of photolithography. Future potential computing techniques, namely quantum computing and the DNA computer, are covered. The history of computability and Moore’s Law are discussed.

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Dominance of the Digital (1990–2016)

HoST - Journal of History of Science and Technology ◽

10.2478/host-2019-0005 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 106-109

Author(s):

Thomas J. Misa

Keyword(s):

Social Constructivism ◽

Integrated Circuit ◽

Internet Technology ◽

Technological Determinism ◽

Global Culture ◽

Moore’S Law ◽

Moore's Law ◽

Technology And Culture ◽

Firm Cooperation

Abstract This talk presents the theme that anchors the new third edition of Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present, which is organized around technical-economic-political “eras” spotlighting the long-term interactions of technology and culture. The book’s first edition (2004) concluded with an optimistic assessment of global culture, then added a pessimistic assessment of systemic risk (2011). The eras point to socio-economic structures that foster and channel the development of certain technologies (and not others). This approach steers for a middle ground between social constructivism and technological determinism. This talk analyzes Moore’s Law (1975–2005), widely hailed to explain, well, everything. By 1975 Gordon Moore appeared to accurately “predict” the doubling every 18 months of the number components on each integrated circuit. During these years chips expanded from roughly 2,000 to 600 million transistors; more important the “law” guided a technical revolution and an industry transformation. At first national and then international cooperative “roadmapping” exercises predicted the exact dimensions of chips in the future, and semiconductor companies all aimed exactly where their peers were aiming. So Moore’s Law is a self-fulfilling prophecy supported for three decades by inter-firm cooperation and synchronized R&D.

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Technological Determinism(s) and the Study of War

Vulcan ◽

10.1163/22134603-00701003 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 4-18

Author(s):

Steven A. Walton

Keyword(s):

Science And Technology Studies ◽

Science And Technology ◽

Military History ◽

History Of Technology ◽

Military Policy ◽

Technological Determinism ◽

Political Leaders ◽

Military Revolutions ◽

Strategic Factors ◽

History Of

The concept of technological determinism has been a mainstay of discussions in history of technology and especially in science and technology studies (sts) for about half a century, yet military history as a field has generally sidestepped the idea as a category of analysis. Military historians, however, would do well to consider some of the insights from these other fields, for they can fall prey to (tacitly) deterministic analyses. Although the emphasis on tactical and strategic factors, as well as leadership and soldiers’ experience, sometimes insulates technological explanations from appearing to be causal, a casual reading of both military history and contemporary military policy seems to show that warfighters and political leaders often see technology as transformative. This is all the more evident in the discussion of military revolutions and especially revolutions in military affairs (RMAs), where technology is a least a leg of the stool, and at “best” a transformative agent.

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