The Doubling

“…Most important principal - exponential thinking.”

Rick Warren190

Author of the Purpose Driven Life

Chapter Footnotes and Hyperlinks

  1. This statement is made in the first minutes of: Exponential Thinking. 40 Days of Purpose Overview Video. Purpose Driven, 2004. Rick said this at a Pastor’s conference where he was trying to convince church leaders to think in much bigger numbers than they were used to.

Exponential “Doubling ” or Back to Moore’s Law

  1. George Gilder. Moore's Quantum Leap. Wired Magazine, Jan. 2002. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.01/gilder.html “Why has the microchip's explosive growth rate never happened before? George Gilder explains the micro microeconomics and why silicon is just the beginning.”

  2. History of computing hardware. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 7 April 2006 21:53 UTC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computing
    _hardware

  3. Joel Garreau. Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human. Doubleday, May 2005; The Curve, Page 52

  4. Deep Blue. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 27 March 2006 01:24 UTC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue

  5. Flops. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 5 April 2006 20:02 UTC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOPS

Nanotechnology – Smaller is Bigger

  1. What is Nanotechnology? National Nanotechnology Initiative Website, April 9, 2006. http://www.nano.gov/html/facts/whatIsNano.html

  2. Mavroidis, C., Dubey, A., and Yarmush, M. Molecular Machines. Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering, 2004. Vol. 6, Page . 364 http://www.coe.neu.edu/Research/robots/papers/
    annurev.pdf

Computer Doubling will Double Almost Everything

  1. Gordon E. Moore. No Exponential is Forever… Intel, 2003. ftp://download.intel.com/research/silicon/Gordon
    _Moore _ISSCC_021003.pdf

  2. The National Nanotechnology Initiative has an excellent scale depicting the various sizes of very small things, from an ant, 5mm, to atoms of silicon .1 nm. A picture is worth a teraflop of words. http://www.nano.gov/html/facts/The_scale_of_
    things.html

  3. Joel Garreau. Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human. Doubleday, May 2005 The Curve, page 58-59

  4. Americans Embrace Technologies that Bring Control to their Lives. The Barna Research Group, Ltd., Ventura, CA, April 1, 2003. http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Barna
    Update &BarnaUpdateID=136

  5. Exponential Increase. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Exponential stories; The water lily. 29 March 2006 17:42 UTC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponential_increase

The Digital World in 2016

  1. “Converting into sensation.” Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc. © 1996, 1998

Listen to Greg read this section:

In a land far away there lived a wealthy king. He was strict with his subjects and exacted very high taxes, but he was honest in his judgment and his word was always true. His son became ill and all of the kingdom’s physicians were unable to find a cure. Word was sent throughout the kingdom that if anyone found a cure the king would reward that subject handsomely, up to one quarter of his kingdom.

One of the peasants who worked in the castle helping the chief steward with the castle bookkeeping noticed that the food being prepared for the son contained walnuts and he himself had often become ill while eating these nuts. He told the chef to stop using the nuts and in two days, the boy was well. When the king found out who had brought forth the wise council, he called the peasant bean counter to his chambers.

The king was beside himself when he announced, “You have saved my son and, more importantly, the heir to my wealth and kingdom.” The king continued, “Up to one quarter of my kingdom is at your disposal; what shall I grant you?”

The peasant replied in a very humble manner, “Great king, you are fair and your word is always sure. I will only ask for a humble portion.” He knew exactly how to stroke the king’s ego, “I ask for a simple thing: that I might feed my son and provide for his needs. Would you, oh great king, please observe that I have brought a chess board to your chambers.”

The peasant pointed to the corner and sure enough, there was the board. He brought it before the king and continued, “I humbly ask that you would place one bean on the next square of the board each day and have it delivered to my home and storehouse.” He paused for effect as he placed a bean on the corner square.

“Is that all you ask?” inquired the king with a puzzled look.

“One more detail, your majesty,” replied the peasant. “You are a great and mighty king; would you also double the beans each day so that I receive twice the amount from the day before? I beg the king and his court’s indulgence on this matter.” The peasant looked timidly around the chambers and continued. “Today I am given one bean and tomorrow, two, the next day, four and the next day, eight, until the entire board is full.”

The king looked at his chief assistant who was shaking his head with a bewildered look. He advised, “I think this will more than adequately requite the gentleman, sire.”

The king turned and pronounced, “Let it be so. As I give my oath and kingdom, so you shall be rewarded with the beans.” He paused the way kings do in such officious pronouncements, “Ah, we shall call it: The Doubling .”

Papers were prepared and documents signed. The king’s word was law.

Each day the chief was ordered to come and add the beans. A royal courier was assigned to deliver the beans. Each day brought new banter in the chambers. Even on day ten when the tired chief brought out the 512 beans for delivery, the court broke out in laughter. Some shouted, “Perhaps the peasant can make his son bean soup today!”

Nobody had any idea what to expect in the coming weeks. On day fourteen, they had their first crisis. The chief could not find enough beans in the palace storehouse to provide the 8,192 beans. For the first time, two weeks into the agreement, the chief wondered what he would do tomorrow.

Over the next few days, the king’s steward solved the problem by taxing the kingdom’s subjects beans instead of money. Everyone happily handed over their supply. By the third week the crisis returned. On this day, the king’s servants delivered 1,048,576 beans. The king himself was desperately worried about keeping his word. He sent ships and armies out to find every bean within two weeks’ distance of the kingdom. He began to glimpse his fate.

All was lost on day thirty when the king could not provide the 536,870,912 beans. Realizing that he still had thirty-four squares of the chessboard remaining, he summoned the peasant.

With as much dignity that he could muster, the king said, “I have failed in my oath. I have forsworn my kingdom. I am in your hands”

“Indeed you are,” retorted the former peasant. “I will have your entire kingdom. I will have all of your goods and I will have your crown.”

The honest king had no choice. He relinquished his crown, stepped aside and left the kingdom. Rumor has it that he started a bean farm. . . . . .

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