CONCEPT
Stored Pressure
The accumulated potential energy of unsatisfied human needs that builds between each compression of the imagination-to-artifact ratio — and the physical model that explains why adoption curves accelerate rather than merely improve across successive transformative technologies.
The telephone took seventy-five years to reach fifty million users. Radio took thirty-eight. Television thirteen. The internet four. ChatGPT reached fifty million users in two months. These adoption speeds are usually cited as evidence that something qualitatively different is happening with AI. Moore's framework offers a more precise explanation: adoption speed measures stored pressure — the accumulated potential energy of unsatisfied needs that builds between each compression of the imagination-to-artifact ratio. The pressure is cumulative. Each compression satisfies certain needs and, in doing so, reveals others. The unsatisfied needs do not dissipate; they accumulate. When a technology arrives that releases the accumulated pressure, adoption speed measures the total stored energy, not the capabilities of the release mechanism.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The semiconductor analogy illustrates the mechanism. The first transistor (1947) replaced the vacuum tube and satisfied existing needs for electronic switching. Adoption was significant but measured. The integrated circuit (late 1950s) satisfied needs