What is it called when system demand constantly expands to fill system capacity?

Question

It seems like a reoccurring theme that any time your computer gets faster, applications suck up more CPU time without giving you much more output. As network bandwidth increases, web pages waste more of it for high-bandwidth advertisement.

Is there a generic term or concept to describe the phenomenon?

Answer 1

It is generally called wasteful and lazy programming.

There used to be a time when you had very little space and bandwidth to work with in computing. A few KB of memory, slow I/O devices, simlpe processors. That was the golden age of computing, IMHO, because people optimized their code down to the last bit, byte or nibble. A lot of long forgotten techniques were developed back then when a computer was considered new if it was less than 2 years old.

Now, the technology is changing so fast, and hardware has become so cheap, fast and high capacity, that coders don't waste their time making programs tight and efficient. They throw all the bells and whistle at it for the media hungry consumers.

The term Filled To All Available has been used to describe how people will expand to fill out to all boundaries. Nowhere is this more readily seen on a corporate e-mail or file server. No matter how much space you allow users to use, they will tend to use as much as they are given and clamor for more.

Answer 2

It's also known as Erlinger's law: "Consumption rises to consume all available resources."

Answer 3

Its about business. Money talks.