[ekianjo]

> It is the result of trillions of hours of R&D over tens of thousands of years.

Wow, I did not know that Ars was so much into hyperbole. That claim is just ridiculous.

[Boxbot]

It's not hyperbole but you could probably say the same about any modern computing device. Think about all the hours spent by the countless engineers designing all the individual components in a modern laptop. Now think about all the hours spent developing / iterating on previous versions of those components to get them to the point they are now.

It's very impressive.

[ryanlol]

Assuming "trillions" means 3 trillion. Divided by the average work hours during a persons career that'd come up to about 33 million people.

That's quite a few engineers.

[scarmig]

It's like the Civilization technology tree. To get the laptop, you first have to invent Electronics, and before that Physics, and before that...

Easily adds up to trillions of hours.

[rosser]

Man-hours and man-years? Probably not hyperbole at all.

[jkldotio]

Ars has never been too serious. The same author has an article titled "Is the Internet a failed utopia?".

[klez]

If you haven't read that article[0], you should.

If you have read it, what's your quip with it? It seems quite reasonable. Is it the title?

[0] http://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2015/06/is-t...