Azeem Azhar

And computational systems emerged at the turn of the 20th century.

They were initially mechanical and since 1938, electronic.

But what they do to our information system is they allow the processing of that information to take place out of our skulls and in these machines.

And the machines go faster and they do it more consistently and they benefit from manufacturing economics.

And I think that that shift is what really drives technology.

our desire to use computation.

I mean, since 1960s, our economies have really depended on computing.

It may not feel like that.

If you were like me born in the 70s, it didn't feel particularly digital, but the economy's really, really depended on the ability for computers to do the information processing from a supply chain and inventory to payroll processing.

I mean, even things like fast fashion fundamentally depend on databases, on being able to log customer preferences, on being able to keep a large number of SKUs, on being able to update prices and update inventories really, really rapidly.

And now we're getting to a stage where every senior exec has lived in that world of computing.

Many of them grew up with the internet alongside them rather than growing into it.

And that additional knowledge combined with the greater capability of computing

is creating a demand for companies where really they want to do things increasingly in silico.

I mean, that is a major shift in the last 10 or 15 years, modeling, simulating drug discovery.

I mean, thinking about how to optimize a portfolio of products rather than running that optimization month after month after month by manufacturing them and seeing how well they sell.

Or it could be planning and optimizing the routes that your logistics vehicles are going to take.

Far cheaper to do that in silicon than to drive thousands of vehicles around the country.

A quick note.

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