16
Feb
2010
Posted by: Mark Ashley
A photo from the Intel visitor center in Santa Clara, where they invoke Moore’s Law — the observation that, roughly translated, speed of computer processing chips doubles every two years, while the price moves inversely — toward air travel:
The 1-cent flight? That part we’ve seen, albeit with plenty of strings attached. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the concept of a 3635-mile flight in 1 second.
Granted, the engineering challenges of air travel are vastly different from circuits on a silicon chip, so it’s not a fair comparison. But apparently they were able to shrink a Delta plane.
1 cent, 1 second… but how much is the luggage fee?
(Thanks to reader Steve B for the image link!)
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February 17th, 2010 at 11:33 am
[...] Comparing the advancement of travel to semiconductors (two industries which have no relationship with any basis of comparison, except for the mental exercise): In 1978, a commercial flight between New York and Paris cost about $900 and took seven hours. If the principles of Moore’s Law had been applied to the airline industry the way they have to the semiconductor industry since 1978, that flight would now cost about a penny and take less than one second. — via Upgrade: Travel Better [...]
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:12 pm
I think the laws of physics would be severely tested if it were truly “air travel,” however, I did see a pretty cool show on the history channel basically laying out a hypothetical alien ship visit to Earth. The ship came complete with invisibility cloaking and, yes, a transporter (think star trek). They provided plausible explanations as to how each of the futuristic features might actually operate — all adhering to the known laws of physics. Pretty cool stuff, but we’re a ways off yet. I think airfares are going to get higher before they move lower thanks to consolidation.