{"id":2143,"date":"2007-11-01T08:44:59","date_gmt":"2007-11-01T15:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2143"},"modified":"2007-11-01T09:04:09","modified_gmt":"2007-11-01T16:04:09","slug":"the-luddites-lament-at-the-new-yorker-why-wont-the-world-just-hold-still","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2143\/the-luddites-lament-at-the-new-yorker-why-wont-the-world-just-hold-still\/","title":{"rendered":"The Luddite’s lament at The New Yorker:<\/I> Why won’t the world just hold still?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day Cathy asked me what a semi-conductor is. It takes courage to ask me an open-ended question, because you risk getting the full answer. We started with integrated circuits, which is what most people mean when that say “semi-conductor,” then got into the conductive properties of metals and minerals, slid from there to quantum physics and electron tunneling, jumping to the idea of electronic gates, which leads back to Boolean algebra, all of which briefly encapsulates the idea of contemporary computer science.<\/p>\n

But: The role of semi-conductors in all this is relatively recent, so we talked about Pascal’s automated looms, Babbage’s Analytical Engine, Ada Lovelace’s invention of software engineering, Turing’s Enigma and the idea of the Turing machine — which, despite all the hype you read, is the underlying engineering for the computer in front of you right now, scaled up a bazillion times.<\/p>\n

The Turing machine was mechanical. The role of semi-conductors in data processing came even later than that. So: We talked about integrated circuits, about Moore’s Law and most importantly about the information explosion, the practical corollary of Moore’s Law. We continued with the idea of the Semantic Web, the notion that, very soon, instead of you trying to find the data you want, the data you want will avidly be trying to find you.<\/p>\n

There’s more: We talked about multi-core computer processors and their implications, particularly about their application in compute-intensive functions. As a matter of physics, there is a finite limit to Moore’s Law. Heat is a significant problem right now, but even postulating computers running immersed in liquid nitrogen, data moves at the speed of light. At some point, no matter how close together chip-makers manage to plant circuits, propagation delay will limit further speed increases.<\/p>\n

But this is where massively-parallel multi-core processors come into their own. Imagine not two cores, or four, or eight — the most you can buy in a computer store right now. Imagine 64 cores, or 256, or 1,024 microprocessors running side-by-side, splitting jobs up into 1,024 separate tasks and performing all of them simultaneously.<\/p>\n

There’s even more at the outer edges of Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day Cathy asked me what a semi-conductor is. It takes courage to ask me an open-ended question, because you risk getting the full answer. We started with integrated circuits, which is what most people mean when that say “semi-conductor,” then got into the conductive properties of metals and minerals, slid from there to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,24,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-disintermediation","7":"category-egoism-in-action","8":"category-technology","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8622,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8622\/when-a-bloodhound-loses-the-scent-uptime-can-be-a-dawgs-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":2143,"position":0},"title":"When a Bloodhound loses the scent, uptime can be a dawg’s life","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that we've had availability problems lately. In fact, we've had four problems, and three of them may be fully addressed. First we had memory issues, which I didn't understand at first. Y'all would have seen them as memory errors or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1461,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1461\/watermark-play-ten-samples-for-proof\/","url_meta":{"origin":2143,"position":1},"title":"Watermark play: Ten samples for proof","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Using PicMark for the Macintosh, I built a watermark that satisfies my objective: To put a proprietary mark on photos that does not destroy the beauty of the image. I also wanted to satisfy Thomas Johnson's goal, to put a web address on each photo. The ten examples below show\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5705,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5705\/you-dont-hear-many-msm-analysts-making-this-obvious-connection\/","url_meta":{"origin":2143,"position":2},"title":"“…you don’t hear many MSM analysts making this obvious connection”","author":"Richard Riccelli","date":"November 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting piece at kausfiles.com.\u00a0 Excerpt: Real estate prices started to plummet just as expectations of imminent semi-amnesty were turning into the reality of harsher enforcement. Schools in immigrant heavy areas of L.A. for example,\u00a0reported declining enrollments in 2006.\u00a0 The\u00a0nationwide character of the Gran Salida\u00a0became apparent,\u00a0even to the press\u00a0by early 2008.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16400,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16400\/how-are-you-getting-leads\/","url_meta":{"origin":2143,"position":3},"title":"How Are YOU Getting Real Estate Leads?","author":"Ryan Hartman","date":"December 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's get back to it. We're all sitting around today, plotting and planning our strategies for 2014... Writing down goals. Looking over our numbers, canceling the crap that aint working and signing up for stuff that might... For me, (ever since I read MREA back in 2004) the modus o\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Screen Shot 2013-12-31 at 9.45.41 AM","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Screen-Shot-2013-12-31-at-9.45.41-AM.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10744,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10744\/unchained-melodies-a-sublime-mash-up-of-william-shatners-common-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":2143,"position":4},"title":"Unchained Melodies: A sublime mash-up of William Shatner’s cover version of Common People","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I have time to write software today for the first time in a while -- which is well because we need it. While I was working, Radio Paradise (commercial-free semi-hip music for middle-aged white people) played William Shatner's cover of Pulp's Common People, and it made me so nuts I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dirty Laundry"","block_context":{"text":"Dirty Laundry","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dirty-laundry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1400,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1400\/a-projectblogger-challenge-the-problogger-top-5-contest\/","url_meta":{"origin":2143,"position":5},"title":"A ProjectBlogger challenge: The ProBlogger Top 5 contest","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm swamped, probably not all that hard to figure out. As with the Tomato Gang, I'm kinda bored with ProjectBlowhard. I still have work to do, and and I have a couple of big ideas still to cover, but -- without intending to insult the proteges -- it's kind of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}