Well, they do interfere, for example, lifespan issues help tell us if we’re actually taking advantage of the exponential growth in information processing, or for that matter if even if we are taking advantage that it actually matters. If for example information processing ability increases exponentially but the marginal difficulty in improving other things (like say lifespan) increases at a faster rate, then even with an upsurge in information processing one isn’t necessarily going to see much in the way of direct improvements. Information processing is also clearly limited in use based on energy availability. If I went back to say 1950 and gave someone access to a set of black boxes that mimic modern computers, the overall rate of increase in tech won’t be that high, because the information processing ability while sometimes the rate limiting step, often is not (for example, generation of new ideas and speed at which prototypes can be constructed and tested both matter). And this is even more apparent if I go further back in time. The timespan from 1900 to 1920 won’t look very different with those boxes added, to a large extent because people don’t know how to take advantage of their ability. So there are a lot of constraints other than just information processing and transmission capability.
Edit: Information processing might potentially work as one measure among a handful but by itself it is very crude.
Well, they do interfere, for example, lifespan issues help tell us if we’re actually taking advantage of the exponential growth in information processing, or for that matter if even if we are taking advantage that it actually matters. If for example information processing ability increases exponentially but the marginal difficulty in improving other things (like say lifespan) increases at a faster rate, then even with an upsurge in information processing one isn’t necessarily going to see much in the way of direct improvements. Information processing is also clearly limited in use based on energy availability. If I went back to say 1950 and gave someone access to a set of black boxes that mimic modern computers, the overall rate of increase in tech won’t be that high, because the information processing ability while sometimes the rate limiting step, often is not (for example, generation of new ideas and speed at which prototypes can be constructed and tested both matter). And this is even more apparent if I go further back in time. The timespan from 1900 to 1920 won’t look very different with those boxes added, to a large extent because people don’t know how to take advantage of their ability. So there are a lot of constraints other than just information processing and transmission capability.
Edit: Information processing might potentially work as one measure among a handful but by itself it is very crude.