Because software cannot produce resources just because it exists. Productivity refers to being able to actually manufacture more widgets and things like food, r

Because software cannot produce resources just because it exists. Productivity refers to being able to actually manufacture more widgets and things like food, roads. Yes technology has made things cheaper. By moving things across the globe and creating a complex supply chain that can produce more goods for less energy and raw material input. But the per Capita availability of energy and minerals is a fundamental bottleneck that things like CRM software can only go so far in helping. The article talks about software that allows a call center employee to handle more customers better. This is great but how does something like this help society produce more heating and food which are currently in short supply ? It makes the company more profit and saves customers some money. But if they try to actually get more food it will cause inflation. I would highly encourage people to read the work of Vaclav Smil. In the grand scheme of things iPhones are irrelevant. Half the world depends on natural gas and ammonia fertilizer so they don't starve to death. We are living through the consequences of this as we speak. Software simply isn't on the scale of things like coal, oil, natural gas, electricity or even washing machines. Computers might be more like the printing press. Perhaps centuries from now we can look back and say what innovations came about due to multi century second order and third order effects. We in the industry have become lost in the world of bits and "productivity" in producing TikToks and targetting ads for mobile games doesn't help as much as we think towards supply. These are fundamentally ways of aggregating and coordinating demand. The problem is now on the supply side. We need software that runs on robots eliminating workers and working 24x7 doing things like mining, agriculture and warehouses. We also need eliminate middle men and deliver directly to the consumer. Beyond that we need fundamentally new energy sources. Software can help here but increasing digitization mainly creates fat middlemen who don't add as much productivity into the world as they take. Hence I think Chinas new approach to tech regulatuion that curtails middleman platforms and encourages startups on the supply side makes a lot of sense.