# 75 Road Kill on the Information Highway - II
In this post I'll summarize the second part of an internal memo written by Nathan Myhrvold in 1993 while he was working at Microsoft. Nathan highlights the impact of exponential growth in the price-performance of computing on different industries.
Nathan predicts that just like the Gutenberg's printing press had a massive impact on reproduction of content (making it easier and cheaper to replicate content), exponential growth in computing will hugely impact distribution of information (make it cheaper to distribute information). Distribution has more pervasive effects than authoring. Industries that have traditionally relied on physical distribution of information - like newspapers, magazines and books will be impacted the most. Newspapers and magazines that are dependent on advertisers will be hit harder.
He argues that price performance improvements in switches (ATM switches, networking equipment) and fiber optics driven by semiconductor lasers will make it dramatically cheaper to distribute information.
Any technology that makes it easier and cheaper to create content and makes it easier and cheaper to distribute the content to a larger number of people will help create billion dollar businesses that will change the world
The information highway will break the tyranny of geography - the stranglehold of location, access and transportation that has governed human societies from their inception. Industries whose economics have traditionally been dependent on geography like retail and banking will be impacted greatly. The new "haves" who are connected to the information highway will over time have a greater range of opportunity than those who are not online.
Summary of the first part of the memo can be found here (implications for Microsoft, PCs, mainframes, and minis). It’s fascinating that Nathan got some many predictions right - Read the memo. Watch the video.