From: Dani Eder (danielravennest@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Jun 03 2002 - 12:09:05 MDT
Let me give an example of what I mean by 'economic
crossover'. My day job is testing software for
the Space Station. Our test group is about 30
people. An application that could generate a suite
of test scripts from our software requirements
automatically could probably cut our manpower by
2/3. This would save $2.4M a year in personnel
costs. Thus we could afford to spend up to that
much in computer equipment.
At present it is less expensive to rent human
brain power and support it with a little computer
power (a desktop PC). When computer power becomes
less expensive than humans for a given task, it
makes sense to use a lot of the computer power and
minimize the human component.
Extrapolating to engineering in general, once
a function that used to be done by humans can
be cost-effectively replaced by computing, it
becomes subject to Moore's Law. In addition,
the humans who did that function will find
themselves largely replaced, just like human
manual laborers have been replaced by powered
machines.
Dani
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