Microchips – their availability, their geopolitical importance, and their arduously exacting fabrication – have been in the news constantly for the past few years. From Rasberry Pi lead times to the proliferation of fake chips to Intel's reshoring efforts, we've covered many manifestations of the ongoing chip shortage. Now, we’re excited to dig into the root causes. Starting on 2023-03-10, Scope of Work's Reading Group is starting Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller. This timely book chronicles the decades-long battle for control of semiconductor development and fabrication. Chris is an associate professor of international history at Tufts University and contextualizes semiconductors within US, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese history to trace the emergence of global conflicts around this critical technology.
We meet each week on Zoom to talk through a few chapters, share our thoughts, and reflect on how it all relates to our everyday lives. We also chat throughout the week on Slack, sharing marginalia and related links.
Once we've finished reading the book, we're looking forward to meeting with Chris for a group interview on the book and other aspects of the geopolitics of technology.
Members of Scope of Work can join the conversation in the #community-reading-groups channel on Slack – and follow along with the book themselves starting on 2023-03-10.
