Integrated Circuits (Originallly published on August 25, 2006)

Occasionally something minor reveals something larger. We have had a network outage at the office for roughly 24 hours. The result is a company with 0 productivity. No one can get to their files or their e-mail. We are far from a paperless office. However, we can't run on paper alone.

The simple fact is that we have become reliant on the integrated circuit. Our cars, our phones, our clocks, our music, our currency exchanges, our lights, our heat, all of the things that define our civilization are contolled by wafers of silicon.

This is not true on most of the planet. Most technologies still predate IC and only the industrial centers have invested themselves so heavily.

Even here in Philadelphia, in this very office, the effect would have been minimal 10 years ago. 5 years ago it would have effected people but only 20% of the workforce would become significantly less productive. Then again, 10 years ago, my department didn't exist. 5 years ago my job didn't exist.

I guess I've found another thing that's reliant on the integrated circuit: me.