To begin this semester’s conversation about important technological advancements in today’s society, it is important to circle back to some of the thinkers who kick started the industry and influential people who are continuing to explain their ideas today.
Gordon Moore, Intel co-founder and popular American engineer, began his career in Silicon Valley after earning his Ph. D. in chemistry and physics from Caltech. Moore worked feverishly in his field, coming up with the latest and greatest in silicon chip manufacturing. As advancements in technology continued to be made, Moore coined a theory to predict chip improvements in a two-year cadence. This theory is now referred to as Moore’s Law, and it has been predicting silicon chip improvements for the past 47 years.
Ray Kurzweil created a very similar theory to Moore’s Law that further explains the rapid growth of computer chip processing; it’s called The Law of Accelerating Returns. Kurzweil is best known for his invention of the text-to-voice computer speaking software, speech recognition technology, and other music synthesizing machines. He is also very well known for accurately predicting technological advancements. The Law of Accelerating Returns supports his famously accurate technological predictions, explaining the advancements of technology through the process of biological evolution. Kurzweil believes that the exponential growth of new computing software overtime is a result of generational improvement in the minds’ and bodies’ of the human race. The repurposing and build-up of ideas over generations explains why technology continues to get smarter and smarter.
Buckminster Fuller is another important and influential inventor who never gave up on any ideas that had the potential to better society. Having spent much of his career trying to improve the quality of life with innovations in the technology and architecture industries, Fuller is known for coining the term “Spaceship Earth”, inventing the blimp-shaped Dymaxion car, and his lattice shell geodesic domes. Although many of his inventions never picked up full steam in common society, Fuller’s lack of popularity never discouraged him. Lastly, he created the Knowledge Doubling Curve, his theory that the process of learning and obtaining new information was never ending. Fuller believed that any setbacks or failures that people experienced only improved human innovation for the future, ultimately doubling the amount of expertise people gained overtime.
Finally, Peter Thiel is another influential public thinker and innovator in the technology world. He is most famous for co-creating PayPal, but he is also a major investor and an important board member of Facebook. However, unlike the theorists and inventors I discussed above, Thiel’s theory surrounding the rapid growth of technological innovation criticizes the impact these advancements are making on society. While Thiel understands the benefits that technology can bring, his “The End of the Future” theory says that due to all of the attention and investments backing the tech industry, other important fields are being neglected. Health, medicine, transportation, and energy are just a few that Thiel feels are being left behind for the benefit of improving technology. His concern for where the future of technology is going, namely about artificial intelligence, is very bothersome to think about if other industries are not on the same page.
All of these intelligent thinkers and innovators share the passion for wanting to know how technology can grow and positively impact our society. However, their theories vary on what the path of technological innovation looks like. Moore’s Law and Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns are similar in that they both explain the doubling of technological innovation, but Kurzweil attributes this doubling to generational improvement of human knowledge. Fuller’s theory of the never ending human capacity to learn builds off of Kurzweil’s ideas in that a person’s intellectual capabilities are limitless and are improving generationally. This would also mean that technological innovation is limitless. Thiel’s theory criticizes this point because while he understands that technology benefits society, he believes that the industry is drawing away from other important fields.
After reading about and analyzing these theories, Fuller’s Knowledge Doubling Curve struck me as the most interesting theory because of its claim about the human potential. It is very humbling to learn that Fuller never gave up on himself nor his inventions, and I think this makes him an inspiration for any entrepreneur trying to pave their own way. I also think it’s interesting how this theory clashes with Thiel’s ideas because to me, it sounds like Thiel wants innovation of technologies to halt while other industries try and “catch up”.
Thank you so much for reading!
Technology for an Aspiring Educator 