Evgeny Morozov On Chips

 From Le Monde diplomatique, 24 October 2022 a new introduction to a 2021 article:

There has been an escalation in the struggle over semiconductors, which was revealed by the pandemic. As the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party opened, Washington published a 135-page document banning US companies from selling advanced computer chips to Chinese companies. Those Chinese companies operating on US soil, and researchers working with Chinese firms, will come under increased scrutiny.

At the heart of this confrontation is Taiwan, where the vast majority of the most sophisticated chips are manufactured. At the CCP Congress, Xi Jinping declared that he was determined to defend China’s sovereignty across the Taiwan Strait, as well as his country’s technological security — so how will he respond to these retaliatory measures?

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August 3, 2021

The technological arms race that will shape our future

Chips with everything

Our lives run on semiconductors, the dizzyingly powerful and sophisticated chips found in every device we use. This century, dominating chip design, manufacture and supply will be at least as significant geopolitically as oil was in the 20th.

by Evgeny Morozov

Our lives run on semiconductors, the dizzyingly powerful and sophisticated chips found in every device we use. This century, dominating chip design, manufacture and supply will be at least as significant geopolitically as oil was in the 20th.

As crises go, this year’s chip famine — the global shortage of semiconductors that run electronic devices, from PCs, cars and washing machines to toasters and gaming consoles — has been a weird event, not least geopolitically. In May, US companies wrote to South Korean president Moon Jae-in, urging him to pardon the disgraced Samsung chair Lee Jae-yong, currently serving an 18-month prison sentence for bribery (1). Given American chip dependence, it was imperative Samsung should proceed with its planned multi-billion dollar investment in chip manufacturing facilities in the US. With the US’s ‘semiconductor sovereignty’ at stake, there was no mention of the rule of law.

The dialectic of the chip crisis would have delighted scholars of the Frankfurt School, if only for exposing the inner dumbness of today’s smart society. The scarcity of chips has forced us to wait for the latest consumer electronics: without semiconductors (some at only $1 a piece), they cannot function. All those electric cars, smartphones, smart fridges and toothbrushes have suddenly disappeared into the black hole of global capitalism, as if an invisible spoilsport had cancelled the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas.

Today's crisis has come amidst wider anxieties over globalisation, declining western industrial activity and politicisation of technologies such as AI, a strategic domain in US/China relations

Today’s crisis isn’t exceptional. This time, however, it has come amidst wider anxiety about globalisation, the decline of western industrial activity, and politicisation of advanced technology such as AI, now a strategic domain in the US/China standoff. This explains how a boring technical issue, which ten years ago would have had little impact outside the directly affected industries, has become a massive headache for governments.

This had something to do with the pandemic. Global lockdown was made bearable by an unprecedented increase in consumption of digital services, all requiring chip-dependent devices, routers and servers. It also pushed bored consumers to upgrade to slicker household appliances, boosting demand for blenders, rice cookers etc.....

....MUCH MORE

And more chips tomorrow.