https:\/\/www.thenationalherald.com\/the-geopolitical-storm-surrounding-semiconductor-chips-addressed-in-piraeus-2\/<\/a><\/p>\nPIRAEUS \u2013 Dr. Chrysostomos L Nikias, President Emeritus and Malcolm R Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities at the University of Southern California, offered a fascinating presentation titled The Geopolitical Storm Surrounding Semiconductor Chips in the Library of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation on November 18.<\/p>\n
Sponsored by The Council for International Relations \u2013 Greece, (CFIR-GR), the Department of Informatics and the Graduate Program in American Studies \u2013 Politics, Strategy and Economics of the University of Piraeus, Nikias offered a comprehensive overview of a heretofore little known topic that is not only dominating the news but is now impacting our daily lives and threatens the economic future of nations and the dominance of the West. As a Hellene \u2013 Nikias is from Cyprus \u2013 he also pointed out that the semiconductor industry offers opportunities to Greece.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho would have thought even 10 years ago,\u201d Nikias began, \u201cthat semiconductor chips would become the world\u2019s most important industry? As I am sure you are all aware, we are currently experiencing a worldwide shortage of semiconductor chips. It\u2019s having a significant impact on the world\u2019s economy. The most visible impact is probably in the auto industry. Factories have shut down because they cannot secure the chips needed to make many cars.\u201d<\/p>\n
He emphasized that now, \u201cchips are the brains behind everything,\u201d and that \u201cthe quest for faster, cheaper, more memory and lower power semiconductor chips with AI applications added on top continues unabated.\u201d<\/p>\n
And there are geopolitical implications. Nikias said, \u201ca senior security expert in Washington DC recently stated, \u2018whoever controls the design and production of these microchips \u2026 will set the course for the 21st century.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
At the moment, 90% of chip technology and patents are still controlled by the United States \u2013 but China is ahead in other high tech sectors and is investing heavily to catch up and forge ahead where necessary.<\/p>\n
Indeed, \u201cCold War style tensions have slowly developed in recent years between the United States and China,\u201d Nikias said, complete with an ideological dimension: \u201cThe geopolitics of semiconductors are rooted in the starkly different systems of governance of the world\u2019s two largest economies. To put it bluntly, it is democracy versus autocracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But which system has the advantage in the technology race? Introducing the Q&A, Tziampiris addressed the question by juxtaposing the fact China is the rising power and is becoming ever more autocratic with the phenomenon that semiconductor technological progress has been quicker in the Asian, European, and North American democracies. Nikias acknowledged, \u201cit is open democratic society and open free market economy that allowed the semiconductor industry to flourish.\u201d On the other hand, he noted, autocratic China is demonstrating an ability to innovate, confounding experts, and stressed that with semiconductors, \u201cChina is 8-10 years behind \u2013 no more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nikias ended on optimistic notes, however. \u201cDemocracies by their very nature\u201d \u2013 with their parliamentary debates \u2013 \u201calways delay reacting to a threat,\u201d but when they do, they make great leaps. \u201cTechnology enabled by democracy is how we will flourish and ensure the freedom that we cherish,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A panel consisting of professors Athanasios Platias and Georgios Tsichrintzis of U of P offered commentary and participated in the Q&A afterwards with Aristotle Tziampiris of U of P and President of CFIR-G serving as Moderator.<\/p>\n
One of the most fascinating parts of the discussion centered on the still hazy future of the semiconductor industry. Chip technology is rapidly approaching limits imposed by physics on the number of transistors \u2013 electronic switches \u2013 chips can contain; currently they hold 15 billion. \u201cThe question is, what comes next\u201d technologically Nikias said. He noted that the revolutionary field of quantum computing is progressing, and while it appears that the United States is behind China at the moment, he suggested that could due to American secretiveness.<\/p>\n
He cautioned, however, that quantum computing\u2019s complete replacement of current computer technology is decades away, although its threat to cybersecurity in general and to financial institutions in particular is imminent and will require advances in security technology \u2013 a sector Greece can participate in \u2013 to counter.<\/p>\n
Platias said, \u201cwhat emerged from today\u2019s talk is the important point that whoever controls technology \u2013 especially semiconductor chips \u2013 has a tremendous advantages enabling them to dominate the global economy as well as international politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tsichrintzis told The National Herald that, \u201cAmerica and the West must organize and cooperate to fight China\u2019s attempt to establish a hegemony in the technology domain. It will have catastrophic consequences for the Western world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another dimension of the discussion addressed the challenges and opportunities for Greece. Maria Virvou, head of the Department of Informatics of the U of P, said, \u201cwe need to retain our talent to work in Greece in these important technologies. We have we have very good students at the university,\u201d a fact acknowledged by companies like Microsoft.<\/p>\n
Nikias believes \u201cGreece can establish for itself a place in the international semiconductor supply chain,\u201d and that Greece is in a position to carve out niches for itself because \u201cthe software side of semi-conductor chip development is blossoming and the major companies need to recruit IT talent.\u201d which Greece has in relative abundance. At point Platias noted that U of P\u2019s Department of Informatics is currently producing that talent.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
November 27, 2021By Constantine S. Sirigos Source: https:\/\/www.thenationalherald.com\/the-geopolitical-storm-surrounding-semiconductor-chips-addressed-in-piraeus-2\/ PIRAEUS \u2013 Dr. Chrysostomos L Nikias, President Emeritus and Malcolm R Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities at the University of Southern California, offered a fascinating presentation titled The Geopolitical Storm Surrounding Semiconductor Chips in the Library of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation on November 18. Sponsored by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfir.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfir.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfir.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfir.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfir.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cfir.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3524,"href":"https:\/\/cfir.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions\/3524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfir.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfir.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfir.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfir.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1129"},{"taxonomy":"tmauthors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfir.gr\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tmauthors?post=1129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}