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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."

1 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. 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.)