Intel has recently unveiled a new computer chip that will be available next year that is set to increase computer speed by a whopping 1000 times. They are called Optane Drives, and they are built on a new technology of data storage that can operate as much as 1,000 times as fast as the flash memory technology inside hard drives, memory sticks, and mobile devices today, according to MIT Technology Review. The iteration of the Optane Drive unveiled on Tuesday August 17, 2015 in San Francisco revealed an increase of speed of only 6-times faster than the fasted flash drive in computer existence today. However, it's yet to be seen what a year will do in terms of that speed increasing toward that of a thousand times projected by Intel.
How can this happen? Well to understand this we have to go back to Ray Kurzweil's seminal book, The Singularity is Near, in which one of the world's leading futurists outlines his theory of Exponential Growth, namely that technology does not increase linearly, but rather each new technology provides the platform and power for the next iteration of that technology thus causing spikes of development that are beyond linear expectations.
So how would this apply to Intel? Simple: if there is a six-time increase in performance on the current Optane, over time that can jump to 25, then to 100, and from 100 easily to 1000--again, the development is exponential, not linear.
Intel claims there will be myriad ways in which we'll see dramatic advances in these technologies, for the technology will be affordable enough that "Optane drives will be made available next year for uses ranging from large corporate data centers to lightweight laptops." According to Rob Crooke, a general manager on Intel’s memory project, [Intel expects] to see breakthroughs in personalized medicine, in business analytics to allow companies, cities, and maybe countries to run more efficiently."
Here's Ray Kurzweil on the matter, from the book mentioned above, The Singularity is Near:
Most long-range forecasts of what is technically feasible in future time periods dramatically underestimate the power of future developments because they are based on what I call the “intuitive linear” view of history rather than the “historical exponential” view.”
Given Kurzweil's model, Intel's announcement of the Optane Drive could very well be a game-changer in pushing civilization into a next wave of technological development, especially if other tech companies follow suit advancing the technology further from there.
And of course with such technological changes there will be human changes as well: we can expect greater complexity in our lives under the guise of 'better machines' as well as more compromises of our freedom and further development in the question of what it means to be human.
If you're a business owner, you can expect this new chip to change the ways you do business, as well as the technology you use; you could even face being put out of business.
If you work in a particular area of technology whose advancement is threatening to push you out of work, you may want to get working on an exit strategy.
These technologies come out in great heraldry, but the shake up is often like a tsunami: you don't know what lies under the surface, and what will emerge from it.
We know that the push is toward a kind of singularity of human and machine; however, the block thus far has been a lack of the kinds of chips necessary to push this vision forward. Intel seems to have cracked the nut--at least for this stage of innovation--which will ricochet throughout the world causing intended and unintended consequences that will take the next 5-10 years to realize.
If the Optane Drive in fact drives the speed of computers up 1000 times, you can expect your laptop to reach great heights of intelligence, and may even force you to enhance your brain to keep up with it. Again, it's nothing new: writing about such advancements have been around for decades--many have already seen it coming, and still more have worked diligently for such drives to be realized.
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