Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Sum Total of the World's Knowledge: 250 Exabytes

Posted by timothy on from the well-250-exabytes-and-this-article dept.

arkenian writes "The BBC reports on an article in Science about scientists who calculate that the sum of all the world's stored data is 250 exabytes. Perhaps more interestingly, the total amount of data broadcast is 2 zettabytes (1000 exabytes) annually. In theory this means that the sum of the world's knowledge is broadcast 8 times a year, but I bet mostly that's just a lot of American Idol reruns."

9 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. And a lot of it is free by commodore6502 · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-to-air - "Free-to-air (FTA) describes television (TV) and radio services broadcast in clear (unencrypted) form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription (or other ongoing cost)"

    http://www.hulu.com/ (free tv)
    http://www.youtube.com/ (free music vids and tv)
    http://www.piratebay.org/

    --
    Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
    1. Re:And a lot of it is free by arkenian · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I swear I read 250 the first time I read the article. I must be getting blind as well as old. My apologies. (Although I grant, one would have hoped the editors would take the trouble to read the article and catch it.)

  2. Something I'd like to know is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    How much of that is pornographic "knowledge"?

    1. Re:Something I'd like to know is... by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Funny

      In UNIX, that's what we used to call the "sticky bits".

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  3. "Stored Data" does not equal "Knowledge" by sgage · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nice way to conflate terms for a sensational headline. What a bogus metric. A good chunk of that "stored data" is junk. Probably most of it. Not to mention duplication. (Duplication? I told you not to mention duplication :-)

    1. Re:"Stored Data" does not equal "Knowledge" by kangsterizer · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nice way to conflate terms for a sensational headline. What a bogus metric. A good chunk of that "stored data" is junk. Probably most of it. Not to mention duplication. (Duplication? I told you not to mention duplication :-)

      Sorry, i'm just increasing world's knowledge database at the moment.

  4. So, then, get the backlog done. by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So, then, get the backlog done.

    It is about time we have high definition copies of all old texts, like the all hieroglyphs ever documented, all Babylonian texts, all Sanskrit texts, the Dead Sea scrolls, all Medieval hand writings, etc.

    I guess all these together could not muster 1% of all the crap that is out there today. I wouldn't be surprised if all the foolish blabber-blobber-blubber on Facebook a single day outcompete all pre-1700 texts combined.

    So, back to work. Get the backlog done.

  5. Editors, please edit by RockMFR · · Score: 5, Informative

    The submitter messed up two of the basic details of this story - the number is actually 295, not 250, and this value is as of 2007, rather than the implied present day. (I know, I must be new here.)

  6. Re:In conclusion by Surt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    38 Gigabytes per person is enough? I don't think so.

    --
    "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking