Since this is a discussion about edge computing, I’m not focusing so much on what Nero Wolfe does to solve the crime, but rather what Archie Goodwin does to make that possible. In other words, as Moore’s Law continues to up the game, how do we best use our limited resources at the Edge to make the best use of that ever more powerful Cloud which is just a little too far away for instant access?
Even as Moore’s Law keeps changing things up, the laws of physics remain immutable, which means that some things never change. For example, if you plug your fancy PC into the wall, you have hundreds of watts of power to play with, and heat dissipation isn’t a major problem.
But anything you carry in your pocket or wear on your head is not going to be able to draw more than a few watts of power. And even if it could, heat dissipation would quickly make things very uncomfortable.
This means that the computational power of that fancy PC under your desk is always going to be about 10 years ahead of anything you can carry with you. And the computational power you can draw from the Cloud will easily be 10 years beyond that.
If we look at all this in terms of Moore’s Law, we’re asking different parts of our computational infrastructure, from the Edge to the Cloud, to work together across different eras of the computer age. It’s as though we’re asking H. G. Wells’ Time Traveller to collaborate with Neo from The Matrix.
It is then maybe more our emergent uses of known technology, from technical experience to cultural appropriation, coupled with a certain economy around low-tech, that bring us to this new edge.
Constraints seem way more enriching creatively than mere limitless computational capacity. I’m still but astonished of what was accomplished by processing power far less advanced than what lays in our pockets.
The real mystery for me is the dialogue we have with the technology : what we made of it / what we believe, we expect we can make of it versus what can really be done with it.
I propose we collectively freeze ourselves in hardware advancement for 10 / 15 years and see what new ecology and philosophy come from it. But I suspect it impossible for some members of our human tribes.