Moore’s Law was stated 60 years ago, but it only became a law once its predictions came true.
The reason that your laptop doesn’t cost as much as your house is that computer chips get relentlessly cheaper and more powerful. Just as Gordon Moore predicted.
But perhaps it wasn’t a prediction. Perhaps he wasn’t imagining what would happen. It might be that it was a prescription. That computer chips get faster on his schedule precisely because he said they would. We build fabs and new business models in anticipation of the drop in prices, and that causes the drops to happen.
We’ve seen this happen with economic forecasts, bank runs and even, with Joe Namath at the helm, football teams.
Eric Ries has a new book, Incorruptible. It’s based on the clear truth that our economic system is filled with incentives that cause well-meaning people (especially bosses) to make short-term, selfish and toxic decisions. It also describes a different way forward.
It’s easy to point to the power of selfish extractive capitalism and imagine that there’s nothing to be done about it. But perhaps we’ve been waiting for a map, one that can be a scripture and a Baedeker to people seeking coordinated change.
Systemic change requires systemic action. And the prescription is often a good place to begin.