The Evolution of Optical Data Storage

摘要

Gradual step-by-step technical progress is commonly called "evolutionary," todistinguish it from more radical innovation. In this sense, Moore's law or the arealdensity improvement in hard disc drives is evolutionary, even though the speed ofprogress is astounding. Equating gradual rather than breakthrough technicalprogress with the term evolution reflects a 19~(th)century grasp of biology. WhereasDarwin' and his contemporaries envisioned a process of gradual environmentalchange and survival of the fittest, Gould and Eldridge~2have more recentlyintroduced the idea of punctuated equilibrium: "We expect no slow and steadytransition, but a break with essentially sudden replacement of ancestors bydescendants ... this break may record the extinction or emigration of a parentalspecies, and the immigration of a successful descendant rapidly evolved elsewherein a small peripherally isolated population."