Moore's Law needs a social brother or sister...

 Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore described his law in a 1965 paper. 

Moore’s Law 

The number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. 

This law is a key reason why my MacBook Pro is many million times more powerful than the computer that put a man on the moon. A modern washing machine has more computing power than the computer used for the Apollo space missions.

What does this mean? First and foremost, astronauts have huge cojones and modern washing machines are pretty awesome. It also means that it wasn't computer power that put man on the moon. It was people power. Ambition, passion, creativity, collaboration, intelligence, perseverance - inputs that are difficult to measure, but outputs that change the world. Moore's Law only describes the science of the engineering driving modern computing. It does not capture the social sciences amplifying the impact and value of modern Internet services.

I became aware of modern computing while evaluating the economics of business-centric information technology products and services. I was a huge fan of Web-based applications because they were easier. More specifically, they required less time and money to operate. Modern Internet services offered more for less - what else did you need to know? Economics sealed the deal for me but modern computing is more complex and more powerful. This is why Moore's Law needs some company.

To add some context, let's define the social sciences.

A branch of science that studies the society and human behavior in it, including anthropology, communication studies, criminology, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, social studies, and sociology.

Let's extend Moore's Law to include some more abstract realities of modern computing. What's more important? How many transistors can be placed on a microchip or how many transistors are made available to each person on planet Earth?


Modern Internet services are the most efficient model of transistor distribution. The number of transistors that is being placed at the disposal of an individual in a modern country is growing exponentially faster than doubling every 18 months and we're just getting started!