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In the keynote "Hardware/Software Co-design: The Coming Golden Age" at RailsConf 2021, Bryan Cantrill emphasizes the growing importance of co-designing hardware and software as we enter a new era in technology. He critiques the prevailing idea that software alone will drive innovation, arguing that this software-centric mentality overlooks the critical role of hardware.

**Key Points Discussed:**  
- **The Disconnect Between Software and Hardware:** Cantrill notes that software engineers have distanced themselves from hardware complexities, which has led to a software-centric perspective that can undermine system performance and innovation.  
- **Critique of Software Dominance:** The speaker refers to Marc Andreessen's 2011 essay “Why Software is Eating the World,” stating that while software has enabled remarkable transformations, it does not negate the necessity and potential of hardware. He mentions how major innovations in healthcare, like mRNA vaccines, and in education, like Chromebooks, involve both hardware and software in significant ways.  
- **Moore's Law and Its Implications:** Cantrill elaborates on Moore's Law and how the past decades have seen continual improvements in transistor density and cost reductions, yet acknowledges that this trend is slowing down due to economic factors.  
- **Historical Perspectives on Innovation:** He references historical essays by Gordon Moore, Theodore Wright, and W. Stanley Jevons to illustrate economic principles that affect technological advancements and market needs, suggesting that efficiencies in technology often lead to new demands, a phenomenon he terms "Jevin's Paradox."  
- **Emerging Trends:** Cantrill highlights the rise of open instruction sets like RISC-V, open-source FPGAs, and improvements in hardware description languages as key enablers of integrated hardware/software ecosystems. These innovations foster a collaborative environment between software and hardware engineers, leading to better systems design and implementation.  
- **Call to Action for Collaboration:** He encourages software engineers to embrace hardware knowledge and collaborate more with hardware engineers, as systems become increasingly complex and performance-driven.

**Conclusion:** Cantrill concludes that the future lies in the integration of hardware and software, promoting an era of co-design that will open new avenues for innovation. This collaboration will not only enhance system security and performance but will also enable more individuals to participate in hardware development. The overall message is one of optimism about the opportunities ahead in the intersection of hardware and software.

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