I had an idea walking the dog yesterday: “Peak Data.” This is nonsense on one level. How can we have less data in the future – surely the supply of data will increase one hundred, one thousand, one million fold due to the fact that more and more individuals and individual devices will broadcast data (devices but also sensors). But perhaps the concept does make sense in the sense of being about mankind reaching a peak in terms of the amount of data each of us is exposed to or allows past certain filters. How could you do this? One way would be to partly switch off (unrealistic?) or another would be to use smart software or known social networks to filter incoming data for us.
Second idea. Has anyone ever attended a future film festival? I’ve been asked by ABC Radio in Australia (Future Tense) to talk about a film that sums up the future. Nothing too obvious – Truman Show perhaps? Anyway, this in turn got me thinking about how fun it would be to take over a cinema for 24-hours and run a series of films about, set in or predicting the future. And what’s on the run list? You tell me, but my list of contenders – not ranked – is below.
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Brazil
3. Metropolis
4. Modern Times
5. The Matrix
6. Gattaca
7. Minority Report
8. Splice
9. Clockwork Orange
10. Blade Runner
11. Minority Report
12. iRobot
13. Soylent Green
14. Children of Men
15. Fahrenheit 451
16. Silent Running
17. Logan’s Run
18. Escape from New York
19. 1984
20. Artificial Intelligence: AI
21. On the Beach
22. Mad Max
23. Sleeper
24. Truman Show
25. Back to the Future
26. The Road
27. District 9
28. Things to Come
29. WALL-E
30. Westworld
31. Contact
“In 2012, the world generated and replicated about 2.8 zettabytes (ZB) of data. The “digital universe” is forecast to reach 40 ZB by 2020, up from previous estimates of just 5 ZB.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/data-internet-Global-Volume-Zettabytes,19728.html
[Interesting graphic on that link].
According to IDC, the data volume will have grown 50-fold in 2020 from 2010 levels. One of the most significant drivers of this growth will be machine-generated data which will grow 15x until 2020. By that time, the data created in emerging markets will exceed the data created in the developed world.
IDC used some interesting images to illustrate the sheer quantity of 40 ZB: 40 ZB is equal to 57 times the amount of all the grains of sand on all the beaches on earth. If we could save all 40 ZB onto today’s Blu-ray discs, the weight of those discs would be the same as 424 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. Or, 40 ZB will represent 5,247 GB of data per person worldwide.”
So…what exactly are we (companies, government primarily I assume?) going to do with all this new data?
“I can’t handle infinity in my pocket”
https://medium.com/life-hacks/80f8d525b0d8
Just one of many signs of a growing trend towards the desirability of silence over noise: perhaps this will develop into a full-blown rejection of the ‘internet of things’ which is rapidly heading our way?
Wi-Fi cold spots? – where mobile devices don’t work.