3 ms·

I wonder if anyone would be able to calculate the amount of data created in the last two millennia... and if so, how.

by corin_ 16y ago

simias 16y ago
I guess the first issue would be to define what "data" is. Speech is data, weather is data...
- arethuza 16y ago
  "Data (plural of "datum") are typically the results of measurements" Weather isn't data, a measurement of temperature would be data... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data [Not that I am trying to imply that other things aren't data - but I don't think weather itself is data although you can, of course, have weather data!]
  - zb 16y ago
    The quote said "information", not data. Edit: "There were 5 Exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every 2 days."
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- corin_ 16y ago
  As arethuza said. Obviously there would be plenty of questions, ranging from the most basic (a CD released in 1990 contains 'x' MB of data on it... but there's also the sleeve design, printed track listing etc...) to more complex (how do you measure the data of a painting in computer terms?), but I'm sure if someone were to set about trying to work this out, they could think up (albeit debatable) definitions.
  - rflrob 16y ago
    It's actually not all that difficult to measure the data of a painting in computer terms: get a high resolution scan and store it as a JPEG. Of course, this is open to some reasonable disagreements about what constitutes a "high resolution", but the basic principle applies. I'd suspect that it won't make a huge difference, since audio recordings take up roughly an order of magnitude* more space than still images, and video roughly an order of magnitude more information than audio. * I have no substantiation for this, but it seems about right: a JPEG is a megabyte or 2, while a single movement of a symphony is 10 or 20, and a short movie at reasonably high quality is easily 100 MB.
    - Retric 16y ago
      That depends on what you call a high res img. Worst case: http://articles.cnn.com/2007-10-17/us/monalisa.mystery_1_leonardo-da-vinci-painting-eyebrow?_s=PM:US http://articles.cnn.com/2007-10-17/us/monalisa.mystery_1_leo... 150,000 dots per inch, 13 light spectrums, including ultra- violet and infrared at say 10 bit per spectrum * largest painting in the world (12 384 000 square inches) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14309591/ns/world_news-weird_news/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14309591/ns/world_news-weird_new... 150 000 x 150 000 x 13 x 12 x (12 384 000 bits) = 4.71279266 exabytes
Wawl 16y ago
I would urge you to watch this video on how these kind of claims can be made : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY

I wonder if anyone would be able to calculate the amount of data created in the last two millennia... and if so, how.

by corin_ 16y ago

I wonder if anyone would be able to calculate the amount of data created in the last two millennia... and if so, how.

simias 16y ago

I guess the first issue would be to define what "data" is. Speech is data, weather is data...

arethuza 16y ago
"Data (plural of "datum") are typically the results of measurements" Weather isn't data, a measurement of temperature would be data... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data [Not that I am trying to imply that other things aren't data - but I don't think weather itself is data although you can, of course, have weather data!]
- zb 16y ago
  The quote said "information", not data. Edit: "There were 5 Exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every 2 days."
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
corin_ 16y ago
As arethuza said. Obviously there would be plenty of questions, ranging from the most basic (a CD released in 1990 contains 'x' MB of data on it... but there's also the sleeve design, printed track listing etc...) to more complex (how do you measure the data of a painting in computer terms?), but I'm sure if someone were to set about trying to work this out, they could think up (albeit debatable) definitions.
- rflrob 16y ago
  It's actually not all that difficult to measure the data of a painting in computer terms: get a high resolution scan and store it as a JPEG. Of course, this is open to some reasonable disagreements about what constitutes a "high resolution", but the basic principle applies. I'd suspect that it won't make a huge difference, since audio recordings take up roughly an order of magnitude* more space than still images, and video roughly an order of magnitude more information than audio. * I have no substantiation for this, but it seems about right: a JPEG is a megabyte or 2, while a single movement of a symphony is 10 or 20, and a short movie at reasonably high quality is easily 100 MB.
  - Retric 16y ago
    That depends on what you call a high res img. Worst case: http://articles.cnn.com/2007-10-17/us/monalisa.mystery_1_leonardo-da-vinci-painting-eyebrow?_s=PM:US http://articles.cnn.com/2007-10-17/us/monalisa.mystery_1_leo... 150,000 dots per inch, 13 light spectrums, including ultra- violet and infrared at say 10 bit per spectrum * largest painting in the world (12 384 000 square inches) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14309591/ns/world_news-weird_news/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14309591/ns/world_news-weird_new... 150 000 x 150 000 x 13 x 12 x (12 384 000 bits) = 4.71279266 exabytes

Wawl 16y ago

I would urge you to watch this video on how these kind of claims can be made : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY