Chip War: the Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller

Every other time some or the other technology is called the future. Semiconductor was no different when it was invented, and won a couple of Nobel along the way.

The book explores the history of semiconductors/chips. How it started, developed and what lies in the future. And, it is an interesting read.

There are two main things which anyone can find common with any other technology that we see around today. First, it was developed for war (later it got commercialised because business has to make money), and second is that obsession for cheap and efficient never stops, no matter the price.

The same happened to semiconductors where the design came from one place funded by the speculation of wars and being second to none but eventual production was transferred to any place in the world which can do it cheaper. This was short sighted focus on profits without taking into account the global equation of mutual mistrust among the stakeholder countries.

The funny example here is the shortage of semiconductors during the time of pandemic where the supply chain got broken and a lot of production got halted due to shortage of chips. It is funny because when people were struggling for their lives, semiconductor was the last thing on their minds. But this argument doesn't go down with the calculation of loss in productivity.

Proverb was "Necessity is the mother of invention" but from the oldest times it was war which led to inventions.

Peace