Progress

It is an exciting, but frustrating time to be interested in technology. It is clear what people desire: thin, light, fast, portable computers with detachable touchscreens. Gorgeous HD (and beyond) displays. Minimalist, intuitive operating systems; customisable and unencumbered with useless bloat. Elegant, comfortable and durable hardware. Brushed metals. Reasonable prices.

Sometimes I wonder if we don’t spend more time lusting, dreaming, than doing. But for another Gb of RAM. But for a slightly higher clock speed. But for another couple of pixels. I could do it. I could get to where I want to be. If I had a backlit keyboard.

And yet, Moore’s law doesn’t run on its own steam. These burning upgrade fantasies drive actual upgrades, after all. Intel doesn’t tick and tock just for the hell of it. 

So I wonder. Consumer culture has a kind of short term pointlessness and wastefulness to it, sure. Literally nobody needs to be desperate for the next Nexus phone if they have a Nexus 4. On the other hand, innovation comes from desire. If what we already have is enough, then we’ll never go any further. We’ll never spread portable technology to the developing world. Never become more energy and resource efficient. Just as nobody needs a Galaxy S 4, nobody needs a Tesla S, an amazing new electric sports car. But if people start buying them, then Tesla will make more of them. Other manufacturers will start copying, and then innovating themselves. 

The short term price might be a lot of wasted resources. But the long term benefit are both enormous and likely unclear. Pushing blindly into the future, hunger in our eyes, grabbing at the next new iteration, might seem barbaric and dangerous to some. But if there is not progress, then what is the point at all?