Special to WorldTribune, September 9, 2021 BIG TECH Watch The invention of the solid-state transistor in the 1950s transformed the electronics and computing industries, and later, human society as a whole. The innovation and refining within the semiconductor manufacturing process drove the so-called “Third Industrial Revolution” from the 1950s to the 2000s. Gordon Moore, founder of Intel, analyzed the rapid development trends within the computing industry and saw that the power of state-of-the-art processors effectively doubled every 18 months (by reducing the “feature-size” of the transistor). This observation – now famously and endearingly referred to as “Moore’s Law” – has…