New fable of the tortoise and the hare

12/01/2002

Once upon a time, some very clever engineers found that by fiddling with sand and light beams (and a few chemicals) they could build wonderful things. Not only did they make useful gadgets that worked quickly, they found that by shrinking the parts, they could make many more of them out of the same wafer molded from sand, thus cutting costs and also adding many nifty new functions. The gizmos had so many functions, in fact, that they soon were covered with buttons and accompanied by instruction books the size of novelettes.

Some of the engineers, like jackrabbits, kept making everything go faster and faster with more and more parts inside. Others took a slower course, recognizing that the people using the gadgets might be able to give them simpler commands, and then instructions running around inside could get the thing to do what the user wanted. At first these attempts were pretty crude, but like the tortoise, these slower, more methodical types began to make progress in making things that were more responsive and easier to use.

Meanwhile, more and more riches were flowing to the jackrabbits that could make even speedier gadgets with still more functions from wafers of sand. Separate groups of them got together and made handy things that worked by different rules, so that only those made by the same group would work well together. Recognizing the annoyance this sometimes caused, some of the slower, more methodical types got together to work out uniform rules so that all sorts of things would work in concert. They figured out how to make interfaces that would link gadgets following many different rules. It was slow, plodding work, like a tortoise crossing a wide beach, but eventually they got a whole lot of things to go together seamlessly, and they made them handier to use.

Many languages were invented to send instructions around within the gadgets, until there were hundreds, often with unique dialects. Again, the tortoise types went to work, and eventually found a way to encapsulate the way things worked and how to proceed in such a way that others could not tinker around inside. They could even reuse these handy sealed objects, and perform similar tasks requiring different parameters. Then they worked out ways to pass these objects around so that different gadgets could still make use of them even if they were written in different tongues.

The impatient hares found it was getting harder to make useful devices from the wafers of sand because their tools were slow and there were many defects on the wafers. Fortunately, the tortoise types found ways to improve the tools, so they could step up the pace. Some also found better ways to clean the wafers as processing progressed so there were fewer defects.

In the early times, a certain Dr. Moore had noted that the rate of progress in packing more functions onto wafers of sand seemed to follow a straight line on a semi-log graph, and he predicted that this trend would continue unabated. Amazingly, those making gadgets from the chips of sand observed that by working very diligently they were able to continue on the path laid out by the prescient Dr. Moore in the first days of their quest. Indeed, they seemed to be going somewhere, and every couple of years they got halfway there, but, instead of stopping, they would continue on to get halfway there again, and again, and again....

How long could this go on? Many said they couldn't make things smaller than the wiggles on the light beams, but then clever scientists figured out how to fool the light. The tools they needed to put all the functions on the wafer became much trickier to build. Looking at the results to find defects and to make sure the functions would work right was harder than catching fleas in a sandstorm. They had to borrow almost every instrument known, and then invent new ones. Somehow, they continued to make it work.

The jackrabbits continued cranking out faster and faster chips, moving even ahead of the rate defined by Dr. Moore's incredible trend line. Gadgets of every stripe were gushing out by the millions, until some began to wonder if they really needed more of them when those they had worked just fine.

The methodical types began to consider how all of these things could not just get faster, but could also perform new feats that would be handy and useful, and even more fun, rather than just making the previous gadgets go faster. Maybe they could make things work in tandem, or even within groups, with messages flowing on wires or through the air. They tried lots of ideas, and some of them failed, but gradually, as they crept along, they began to discover what made people happy, and willing to buy new kinds of gadgets.

"Where is all this going?" sceptics asked, much as a Greek philosopher had asked eons ago. "Can we keep going halfway there forever, or will we finally reach the end?"

Things were moving so fast that the wind blowing across the sand made it hard to see very far ahead. But those following Dr. Moore's path looked back to see where they had been to help them find the way ahead. As long as the hares keep running like blazes, they realized, they could still follow the path, and faster, more capable chips would come along for some time to come. But what could be done with such highly packed functions? Slowly, methodically, with some fits and starts along the way, they realized, the tortoises would keep figuring it out and make it all work well together.

MORAL: It takes both hares and tortoises to build a beautiful castle of sand.

Robert Haavind
Editor in Chief