The Nakamura article told a story that complicates the narrative of Silicon Valley being the epicenter of the technological revolution. Rather than simply retelling the already household histories of tech giants like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Nakamura focuses on the contribution of Navajo women who worked at the Fairfield plant in New Mexico producing computer chips. Because the Navajo women were willing to work for a low wage and because Fairfield could avoid paying taxes by building on reservations, costs remained low.

Fairfield publicized that these women were particularly well suited for the job due to their transferable skill from their practice of weaving, an algorithmic art that was often overlooked due to its association with the domestic sphere. Because of the meticulous attention to detail necessary to weave rugs, Navajo women were seen as perfect for producing chips accurately, quickly, and painlessly. These women were also hailed as the ideal workforce because they were mobile, cheap, and above all, flexible; they could be laid off at any time. As a result, their previous experiences allowed for these digital circuits to be manufactured in such a large scale.

However, although this decision to insource work was advertised as of dual benefit to both Fairfield and Navajo women from both sides, the project did not result in a great economic payoff to the women themselves. Furthermore, the manufacture itself was made to seem like it was “preserving” Navajo culture. Nakamura describes a Fairchild brochure from 1969 in which the transition from weaving to circuit making is made to seem an “extension of Navajo culture. Through the reading we come to understand that it is not due to these traits that Navajo women were hired, but rather, as Nakamura eloquently explains, “these traits were identified after the company learned about the tax incentives available to subsidize the project, the lack of unions and other employment options in the area…” (Nakamura, 935). Thus, while on the base surface the whole project was seen in one light, Nakamura urges us to realize and understand the “cultural” rhetoric adopted for the exploitation of the fact that there was a lack of jobs for Navajo women.

This article comes from the tradition of critical theory, calling for us to look beyond the commonalities of the digital field and see this labor for what it is, digital manufacture, not an innate part of the “Indian psyche.”

• Sean → wrote the topic sentences for each paragraph, the introduction, and helped edit
• Luis →  wrote the second paragraph
• Kate →  wrote the third paragraph and part of the fourth paragraph

Transistors were the successors to the vacuum tube technology which dominated the electronics industry through the mid-1950s.  Following the invention of transistors, engineers began to design more complex electronic circuits with a variety of components.  In order to improve the performance of the electronics, more components were necessary. At the time, this meant that thousands components had to be connected by hand soldering a bunch of wire.  This was expensive, time-consuming, and faulty.

Jack Kilby realized that the resistors and capacitors used to make electronic circuits could be made from the same material and interconnected in a single circuit and thus, he built the first successful integrated circuit made of germanium in 1958 at Texas Instruments.  Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductors built an integrated circuit on silicon in 1960 and along with Kilby is considered a co-inventor of the integrated circuit. Silicon is the most popular material for semiconductors today and Noyce’s design was overall more suited to mass production.  Noyce was also one of the co-founders of Intel, one of the largest manufacturers of integrated circuits in the world.

In the late 1950s, Gordon Moore noticed that transistor density (as in the number of transistors) on integrated circuits was doubling each year. Moore eventually condensed these observations into Moore’s Law, which charts a progression of growth in transistor density eventually leading to exponential increase and thus an exponential increase in processor speed. So far, Moore’s Law has proven to be accurate.

The first uses of the newly invented integrated circuit were fairly select. Texas Instruments, the company where Jack Kilby worked, developed a handheld calculator using the technology. The military and space exploration agencies also made use of the integrated circuit.

Silicon Valley arises out the silicon chip manufacturers within the area because most semiconductors are made from silicon. The 1980s brought widespread use of the term Silicon Valley because of the IBM personal computer that used the chip as well as many semiconductor companies in the surrounding area. Silicon Valley is now the home of many technology giants as well as thousands of small start ups aiming to make a considerable impact.

Division of labor: Each group member summarized about two pages of the text.