Moore's Law as a Model for Solving America's Social Problems

In 1965 Gordon Moore,, the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel made a prediction regarding the exponential improvement of the microprocessor. He stated the number of transistors in an integrated circuit would double approximately every two years.

What was particularly interesting was that Moore had virtually no data from which to extrapolate this prediction. That law has held true for 50 years. But it wasn't because of some natural order on the universe. It wasn't some mere chance that Moore's prediction has held true.

Moore's law become a target which the industry strove to achieve. Brilliant minds worked at a feverish pace, constantly searching for new innovations which would allow them to MAKE Moore's law hold true. It was a sort of manifest destiny for the semiconductor industry.

And oh how we have benefited from that drive to fulfill Moore's prophecy! The amazing gadgetry, the advances in healthcare, travel, communication.... nearly every facet of our lives has been improved because the of ever more capable processors which were innovated to meet the demands of Moore's law.

This idea, this methodology is not unique to this one use case. The concept is known by many other names: Positive affirmations, The law of attraction, "Fake it 'till you make it"... self-fulfilling prophecy...

It works. It is one of the first concepts I wrote about when I started this blog (String Button Mind Magic).

So why don't we use it more often? Why don't we use the methodology to fix some of America's social challenges? Instead of constantly going on about "White Privilege", "Institutional racism", "Police brutality", "Illegal Immigrants".... (Which doing so, according the the above mentioned methodology, will tend to lead to increased racism, increased brutality...), focus instead on the goal?

"America is unified", "Police are generally excellent!", "People of religion x are good people!"

Say it. Believe it. Act it. Say "high" to a police officer every chance you get. Introduce yourself. Get to know them by name, and address them by name. Invite them to your neighborhoods. Invite them to neighborhood events. Talk with them about what you can do to help them do their job more safely and effectively.

When someone says something that could potentially be misconstrued as racial (remember the lawyer who said the California DMV was a black hole, and the black judge got offended because he thought the lawyer was making a racial slur?)., assume they did so innocently, ignorantly. Unless it absolutely needs to be corrected, let it go. If it simply must be corrected, do so privately, kindly.

Assume that most people are good at heart. frazzled perhaps, overwhelmed perhaps, afraid of change, and the unknown... But good at heart. Assume that you can talk rationally, keep your cool, listen to each other, understand one another's perspective, and then work to find an out of the box solution that works for both sides.Assume that you can find a way to co-exist. More than co-exist. Cooperate.

Sure, it will be hard at first. We have spent years practicing at hateful, unyielding, standing our ground, holding firm in our "righteous cause". Stick with it. It will get easier, we will get better at it, and given time, miracles will occur.