Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Medienwissenschaft

Since the end of the Second World War, we have come to expect continual growth in computing power. This assumption is underwritten by Intel Corporation co-founder Gordon Moore’s “law.” Since its formulation in 1965, this tech industry axiom has specified the tendency of semiconductor density to double every two years. Yet we are rapidly approaching a material boundary to this longstanding consensus: the physical impossibility of continually halving the size of processor components. Critics of contemporary political economy, on the other hand, have noted growing tendencies toward automation and un(der)employment as capitalism appears to be nearing an inflection point. As we have come to rely upon computation to do more work across a range of tasks and domains, then, we have simultaneously disregarded our dependence on its internal dynamism. A renewed emphasis on the material basis of our globally-networked industry and culture is therefore necessary to move beyond a transnational political economy unsustainably predicated on continual technological and economic growth alike.