0207EN-Cory.doc
John Blyler
@head: Consumers Forget the Real Cost of Commodified Technology
@text: Recently, I offered to interview Cory Doctorow – famous science-fiction writer and Guest of Honor at the OryCon28 Science Fiction conference ( To get the interview going, I asked Cory about his latest work, a novel called ThemePunk ( “This novel is about an economic singularity that occurs when all business comes to an end because it becomes too cheap and easy to do amazing, revolutionary things with technology,” explained Cory. “As a result – with nothing to invest in – the capital markets fall apart, particularly when you only need $1500 to start a business.”
Cheap and easy? I’m not used to hearing those words – especially when dealing with the complexities of SoC design and manufacturing. So naturally, I protested: “But the creation of any newer technology – especially in high-tech electronics – requires millions and even billions of dollars in R&D, manufacturing, etc.” Cory agreed, but noted that as the technology becomes commodified, it becomes cheaper and easier for the average person to use. He was a big fan of boutique logic, whereby the average, educated but non-technical person can create customized logic applications by using low-price/low-tech FPGAs and existing electronic modules. Such customized, low-priced apps are wonderfully displayed in such magazines as Make ( for which Cory is a contributor.
That’s all well and good for older technology. But on the bleeding edge, a lot of money and guts are needed to bring new things to market. I asked, “What about nanotechnology?” This revolutionary technology enables the creation of electronic and mechanical systems at the atomic level. Consider the promise of nanobots that can travel between cellular structures within the body. Isn’t that the stuff of science fiction? Surprisingly, Cory simply noted that the promise of nano is to make things cheaper. “The whole idea is that it lowers production cost. If nano is expensive, it defeats the purpose.”
On a certain level, that statement is true. As I noted, “the progression of Moore’s Law seems relentless.” In that sense, the surface goal of nano is to make products that are cheaper and smaller yet with even greater feature sets. But there’s an up-front price to pay for those achievements – namely, expensive research, design, and manufacturing costs by a highly educated workforce. Only decades later – after that price has been paid – will the technology enter the “commoditized” phase of its life cycle.
Cory agreed, but suggested that perhaps the market doesn’t bear the cost of that expense. Maybe vast amounts of high-priced R&D and technological developments actually become boutique operations happening in garages throughout the world. At this point in the interview, I realized that we were talking about two very different worlds. One was the world of Make or today’s equivalent to yesteryear’s Popular Mechanics. The other is the world of Create – technically rigorous magazines like the IEEE conference transactions or journals. One world uses commoditized, older technology. The other helps create the technology of tomorrow.
Personally, I enjoy both worlds. I live in the “boutique” logic world whenever I teach the wonders of engineering to high schoolers (SaturdayAcademy, ( and non-technical graduate students at PortlandStateUniversity ( That is also why I enjoy talking with the folks who use older technology to make new things, like Cory Doctorow and Joe Arnt (“Hardware Hacking Can Be Truly Fun,”
But it is a mistake to imagine that commoditization doesn’t come at a great price – one that is paid by the creative energies of dedicated engineers and scientists as well as the business and investment community. My concern is that U.S. consumers – who already consider technology professionals to be little more than geeks – will continue to carelessly consume technology without realizing that it comes at a price. That price must be paid through the funding of education, basic government-sponsored R&D, and incentives for companies to create new technologies. Judging by ongoing funding cuts in all of these critical areas, this is a price that today’s consumers seem willing to pay.