Hey all. I've just read an article in this month's Atlantic Monthly
(available online at www.theatlantic.com) about the effects of computer
technology on the oil industry, and by extension the rest of our
industry.
Well, it appears that we have our own expert on this subject here at
the brin-l, namely the congenial Dan Minette. I was hoping to hear his
comments on said article. Does it jibe with his experience? Any
glaring errors?
A sample paragraph:
"Although at this point no one can prove anything, a story that seems
plausible to many economists and business executives goes like this: In
the 1980s Old Economy businesses tended to waste much of what they
spent on computers and software. Companies in traditional industries
would drop a PC on every desk and declare themselves computerized; they
would buy spreadsheet programs and word-processing software and
networking equipment that as often as not just substituted new
frustrations for old ones. This began to change, however, as software
and hardware grew in power, and as companies began learning how to use
them not just as conveniences or crutches but to change the nature of
the job. At first the impact, like a misty drizzle, was too small to
show up in the national economic statistics. However, each innovation
enabled other innovations, none of them revolutionary but all of them
combining in an accelerating cascade. By the second half of the 1990s
the aggregate effect on productivity became large enough to register in
the national accounts, and the line between the New Economy and the Old
Economy began to blur. That is the story of the New Old Economy."
The rest of the article is available at their website.
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Darryl
Think Galactically -- Act Terrestrially
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