Not Making Smaller Atoms
Channel: Ian Phillips
Date: 24/11/2019

"Scientists investigate that which already is; engineers create that which has never been." - A.Einstein. By 1833 the knowledge about physical materials had advanced to a point where the first electronic amplifier was made. It was a relay, but it enabled the creation of the first control systems which found immediate use for military and commercial purposes ... Electronics had arrived, and the world didn't look back. In 1951 the first transistor appeared, and within the next 9 yrs the first integrated circuit and the recognition of Moores' Law. And with each beat, the sophistication of the products linked to it increased ... And society, became increasingly dependent on them. Through all of this, Physicists have increased their knowledge about our 118 elements, but the atoms themselves haven't changed! And so today with individual transistors approaching the size of the atom, the possibilities to maintain this 'logarithm of expectation' has clear limits. After 186yrs are we approaching the end of the electronic system scaling, that society now accepts as a fundamental law? [+1943 on LinkedIn]