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The CHIPS and Science Act, Moore's Law and other political acknowledgements of the importance of research for human progress

ygolo

My termites win
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
6,761

Laws and regulations to control math that's been around for centuries were certainly bad.

But laws trying to wrangle chips that have been around for decades seem foolhardy also.

This has been the only direction humanity has actually made significant progress since the 70s.

Why are so many in a rush to not allow technological progress of any sort?
 

ygolo

My termites win
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
6,761

Laws and regulations to control math that's been around for centuries were certainly bad.

But laws trying to wrangle chips that have been around for decades seem foolhardy also.

This has been the only direction humanity has actually made significant progress since the 70s.

Why are so many in a rush to not allow technological progress of any sort?
When you create a burden to employ lawyers for effectively no reason (DeepSeek R1 showed how stupid these laws and regulations were), it maybe an annoyance to the big players, but they essentially guarantee that the US and Europe can't have smaller companies (like DeepSeek) succeed.

I essentially had the same idea as the DeepSeek researchers well over two years ago(a lot of people did), but I had to spend a lot of energy on nonsense regulations.
 

ygolo

My termites win
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
6,761
The events of this last week make this video from three months ago much more interesting:
 

ygolo

My termites win
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
6,761
I think because of my career background I assumed the following was common knowledge:


Upon reflection, I think there are probably software professionals who don't know even this much.

It's only about seventeen minutes. At least people who watch and understand this will fill a little less of their lack of knowledge with fiction.
 

ygolo

My termites win
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
6,761

Losing semiconductor fabrication capabilities is more crippling than most people realize. They're part of the supply chain for most modern electronic equipment--cars, planes, medical devices, washing machines, toasters, microwaves, and things like that, not just cell phones and laptops. Look up the terms "microcontroller" and "embedded software."



You could say "let's go back to making the older stuff," but the supply chains for those are also dead, and have been for longer.

I have life saving equipment in me that have microcontrollers too, like so many in the US. A lot of that supply chain is imported from all over.
 
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ygolo

My termites win
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
6,761

I didn't know the details of the things they talked about, but the broad shape of what happened, I already knew.

I should also say people learn new skills and pulling themselves out of poverty is a good thing, even if they happen to be in a adversarial nation.

Apple may have provided training materials, but the Chinese people trained themselves (just like all learning and training).

Once again another author fails to see the humanity and agency of technical people.
 
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