---
title: "Adoption clock: what it means · The AI Compute Race · DRYBURGH"
source: https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/adoption-clock
description: "Adoption clock: The pace at which the economy puts the technology to work."
---

# Adoption clock

What does “Adoption clock” mean?

Adoption clockThe pace at which the economy puts the technology to work. It runs slower than the capability clock, and the money was committed against the faster one. *Chapters 3, 11.*

From *The AI Compute Race*. [Read the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#buy)

The book uses this term in a sense of its own.

## Where the book uses it

- [Chapter 3 — The Missing Researcher](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes/chapter-3)The dated promise of an AI that does its own research, what the laboratories have published, and what the public record can and cannot yet check.
- [Chapter 11 — What the Machine Has to Earn](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes/chapter-11)The revenue the buildout needs against the revenue it has, on whose clock the gap must close, and the two ceilings on what AI can earn.

## Related terms

- [Capability clock](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/capability-clock)
- [Clock](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/clock)
- [Agent](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/agent)
- [AGI](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/agi)
- [Alignment](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/alignment)
- [ARC-AGI-3](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/arc-agi-3)
- [Astra](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/astra)
- [Automated AI researcher](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/automated-ai-researcher)
- [Benchmark](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/benchmark)
- [Brake, the](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/brake-the)
- [Chain of thought](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/chain-of-thought)
- [Checkpoint](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/checkpoint)

From the glossary of The AI Compute Race.

- [Campuses](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/ledger)
- [Tests](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/tests)
- [Scorecard](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/scorecard)
- [Data](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/data/releases)
- [Chapter by chapter](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/companion)
- [The record at a glance](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/observatory)
- [The machine](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/machine)
- [One campus, four futures](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/hyperion)
- [Glossary](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary)
- [People](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/people)
- [Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources)
- [Notes](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes)
- [Where the book was wrong](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/corrections)
- [Where its sources were wrong](https://dryburgh.com/corrections?book=vol1)
- [The Paper](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/paper)
- [Consent](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/consent)
- [Who builds and pays](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/parties)

*The AI Compute Race: Five Races, One Machine* is a book by Lee S. Dryburgh, the first volume of THE COMPUTE ECONOMY, published by Dryburgh, an imprint of Contestra OÜ, Tallinn, Estonia; its record closes on 8 November 2026.

[About the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1)[Tell me when it is out](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#notify)