Second half of the CHESSBOARD

Today , more than 1500 years ago, in ancient china, a wise mathematician invented the game of chess. The emperor, impressed by the invention’s strategic depth and the intellectual challenge it presented, offered the inventor any reward he desired. The mathematician’s request was simple but profound: he asked for a single grain of rice to be placed on the first square of the chessboard. Then, double that number for the second square, double it again for the third, and continue this way, doubling the grains for each of the 64 squares.

The emperor readily agreed, unaware of the deceptive power of exponential growth. What seemed like a humble request soon spiraled into astronomical figures, far exceeding the entire empire’s rice reserves and, in fact, surpassing the world’s rice production.

What’s tricky about this is that for the first few squares, the growth appears linear, almost negligible. A single grain becomes two, then four, then eight, and so on. It’s not until you reach the 33rd square that you begin to see the curve steepen dramatically. By the time you get to the 64th square, the numbers are incomprehensible, edging into the realm of astronomical figures. The growth is not linear as it seemed at first, its actually exponential.

This ancient parable holds a profound lesson for our understanding of technology’s growth trajectory, particularly in the realms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum computing. For decades, we’ve watched technology advance at what seemed like a consistent pace. Moore’s Law, the observation that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years, seemed to encapsulate this steady progress. However, much like the grains of rice on the chessboard, we’re beginning to realize that we’re not dealing with linear growth; we’re facing exponential growth. And just like the emperor, we might be ill-prepared for what this means.

We are now entering what could be considered the “second half of the chessboard” in technological advancements. With developments in AI algorithms, machine learning capabilities, and quantum computing, technology is not just doubling; it is reshaping the very fabric of society at an exponential rate. The numbers, the capabilities, and the potential impact have grown so large that they are hard to comprehend—much less predict.

As we see the evolvement of AI and quantum computing’s current status and future impact, keep the lesson of the chessboard in mind. The stakes are high, and the growth is exponential. We’re no longer in the realm of steady, predictable advancements. We’re in a territory where each move can dramatically amplify the outcomes, for better or worse.