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The World's Most Valuable Resource is No Longer Oil, But Data (economist.com)

Posted by msmash on from the regulating-the-internet-giants dept.

An oil refinery is an industrial cathedral, a place of power, drama and dark recesses: ornate cracking towers are its gothic pinnacles, flaring gas its stained glass, the stench of hydrocarbons its heady incense. Data centres, in contrast, offer a less obvious spectacle: windowless grey buildings that boast no height or ornament, they seem to stretch to infinity. Yet the two have much in common. From an article on The Economist: A new commodity spawns a lucrative, fast-growing industry, prompting antitrust regulators to step in to restrain those who control its flow. A century ago, the resource in question was oil. Now similar concerns are being raised by the giants that deal in data, the oil of the digital era (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternative source). These titans -- Alphabet (Google's parent company), Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft -- look unstoppable. They are the five most valuable listed firms in the world. Their profits are surging: they collectively racked up over $25bn in net profit in the first quarter of 2017. Amazon captures half of all dollars spent online in America. Google and Facebook accounted for almost all the revenue growth in digital advertising in America last year. Such dominance has prompted calls for the tech giants to be broken up, as Standard Oil was in the early 20th century.

86 comments

  1. This is just silly by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Data only appears more valuable because the cost to "mine" it is very, very low. That makes the margins on it look great. But in terms of actual value show me anybody who'd rather have the same amount of data vs land if you're measuring in dollars.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:This is just silly by epyT-R · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah.. data won't matter for shit without oil to power the machines.

    2. Re:This is just silly by TWX · · Score: 1

      Data is all about potential, and that potential can in some cases have volatility- if there's no use for it then it goes stale and becomes essentially worthless, until suddenly someone comes up with a new algorithm or a whole application for it, when suddenly it becomes valuable, or the results from interpreting it become valuable. Cycle then repeats itself as more and more data is collected.

      Sometimes real estate loses value too. I'd hate to have owned a business in a small midwest town that was dependent on a single large manufacturing employer, sitting on a million dollars worth of real estate that became a hundred-thousand dollars worth due to shifting market conditions would suck. Granted, in a lot of places land doesn't swing that quickly that fast, but then again, my wife and I were able to buy a house in late 2010/early 2011 when the market had bottomed-out for about 3/5 of what it appraises for now. Land can change.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    3. Re:This is just silly by Jzanu · · Score: 1

      There is only so much land globally, especially land suitable for sophisticated business services which require extensive infrastructure. At most that satisfies the requirement for plant, but it barely scratches the surface of a business model. Consumer data powers new market research and business intelligence; an organization is like an organism, data analysis is how it knows what to do to survive and better to thrive in competitive business environments. Skepticism and arrogance are popular lately but that fails to add anything to any discussion.

    4. Re:This is just silly by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Only useful data is valuable. But the whole of data is diluted with much useless data. For example, Slashdot articles have a very low DVD (data value density).

    5. Re:This is just silly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Data only appears more valuable because the cost to "mine" it is very, very low.

      No... it appears more valuable because data is power. It's power over other people, over governments, over other corporations, over political processes and public opinion.

      If I can influence a vote... threaten a senator with "awkward" disclosures if he doesn't vote for this bill that benefits my industry... if I can predict consumer behavior on a mass scale... if I can influence a large collection of people and have them believe it is their own idea... that is power.

    6. Re:This is just silly by the_skywise · · Score: 1

      Yeah - lemme know when I can invest in data futures.
      (Not that I'd want to)

    7. Re:This is just silly by taiwanjohn · · Score: 1

      measuring in dollars

      Even measuring in dollars is a pretty "rough" way to compare these two. Even an apples to oranges comparison would be more apt -- at least they're both fruits, about the same size and nutritional value. Data and oil are completely different commodities. Though the market for data is booming, I think it's still a bit early to start projecting long-term trends.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
    8. Re:This is just silly by mr_mischief · · Score: 2

      Oil is also power. Directly, it's chemical energy waiting to be tapped to physically move things. Indirectly, those who control the oil control whole countries, their own or those of others. See the Arabian peninsula.

    9. Re: This is just silly by Type44Q · · Score: 1
      Yeah, no shit. Tell us, msmash, what common units of measurement we should use so as to actually be able to compare these two orthogonal concepts?

      In other news, four blowjobs and a roasted turkey contain more BTU's than a bungee jump and an English essay...

    10. Re:This is just silly by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Great point. Besides, one could have all the data one wants about me, but if I'm either broke, or simply refuse to buy anything, what good would all that data about me do?

      For the Googles, the Amazons & the Microsofts, it's that proverbial 'numbers game', where they'd find billions of people like me, but w/ a few who are more willing to buy things.

    11. Re: This is just silly by avandesande · · Score: 1

      Didn't you know baseballs are way better than flower pots?

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    12. Re:This is just silly by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Yeah - lemme know when I can invest in data futures.

      That is what you are doing when you buy shares in Google or Facebook.

    13. Re:This is just silly by avandesande · · Score: 1

      Hah! Try burning that oil without oxygern.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    14. Re:This is just silly by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      You're more or less correct.

      However, I would like to suggest that Data wants to be free (easily duplicated, see Streisand Effect for example), and People want data to be secret. The ONLY valuable data is that which remains under control of dissemination.

      Data itself isn't powerful, what is powerful is what it can do or what it can prevent. Think of it this way, when man learned he could control fire, that was huge, but not as huge as learning how to generate it. The data (ability to control fire) led to all sorts of things. And it was once only in control of a few "enlightened" people, who realized not only could fire produce heat, and cook, and all the things, but it could also control people. And that was the beginning of the "secret arts" of the Magicians, Shamans, Wise-man and Chiefs. Data is the same thing. Secret information has power, but when everyone learns what that data can do, it has less power.

      Which gets me to my point, which is, the things of value in this world are things that are hard to attain / gain. Common things are not valuable. Now that everyone has (or can have) a box of matches or a lighter, the value of fire is less than the kingdom it once was. Real value is created when you provide something that is Unique to the marketplace. Something nobody else has, that everyone else wants; Fire 10,000 years ago, data gathering today.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    15. Re:This is just silly by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      The real value of Oil (or anything really) is the difficulty in producing it, and rarity. While is easy to extract, and is plentiful, it will be less expensive than the harder it is to get, and how rare it becomes. Because it is used up (burned), there is a constant need for supply, and therefore, the work done with oil (cars, heating etc) is equal to, or less than the cost to generate it.

      Understanding supply demand curves is still important. As demand increases, the supply drops. As supply drops, the price goes up. As price goes up, the growth in effort in increasing supply, and demand drops. As demand drops, supply and prices drop. It all works towards a imaginary point of equilibrium.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    16. Re:This is just silly by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      At some point in the future, V-Ger will return to its creator, having attained knowledge of everything. At that point, we're screwed, unless we have a sexy bald officer on hand.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    17. Re: This is just silly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would let me know to not bother spending advertising dollars trying to recruit you as a customer.

    18. Re:This is just silly by presidenteloco · · Score: 1

      Or, you know, the sun to power the machines.

      https://blog.google/topics/env...

      --

      Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
    19. Re: This is just silly by networkBoy · · Score: 1

      I *think* that is dependent on the length (and storage format I suppose) of the essay...

      none the less, I fine it an entertaining comparison. /hat tip

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    20. Re:This is just silly by zenbi · · Score: 1

      Until they don't need it.

    21. Re:This is just silly by psycho12345 · · Score: 1

      What happens when you invest in financial advisers? They use models and financial data to predict what the markets will be, and an investment in them would suggest you are confident in their data modeling, which should allow them to get high returns (for those that use their services) and thus high fees and thus high returns to the original investor.

    22. Re:This is just silly by Altrag · · Score: 1

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Of course, ClF3 is significantly harder to get than O2 but you know.. Its possible.

    23. Re:This is just silly by Altrag · · Score: 1

      I think most people understand that. Where they usually go off the rails is considering other factors beside simple supply and demand. For starters, supply isn't just one number. There's the whole concept of supply chain. The supply of iPhones isn't limited entirely by a measurement of demand -- it could be limited by for instance a war in the Middle East jacking up the price of oil and thus the price price of the plastic for making the moulded shell. That is, the (relatively) simple supply/price change in oil makes a fairly complex change in supply 3 or 5 or 10 steps down the line.

      Never mind if say, North Korea went nuts and decided to bomb a factory in China.. that just happened to be a major iPhone factory. Now the supply drops significantly due to absolutely no change in demand and so on.

      Then we get into conversations about monopoly influences, macroeconomic influences, etc. The supply/demand curves you see in your intro to econ course are literally the most simple scenario given a theoretically perfect world. But the real world is nowhere near theoretic perfection and a lot of people (especially "the market fixes all" types) don't make it past that introductory course, so there's a hell of a lot of misinformed folk who somehow don't consider the fact that a full econ course is more than one semester for a damned good reason.

    24. Re:This is just silly by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      The real value of Oil (or anything really) is the difficulty in producing it, and rarity.

      Tommy-rot. The value is what you can use it for.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    25. Re:This is just silly by mr_mischief · · Score: 1

      Indeed. A mile-tall pile of rubbish would be a rare sight and something difficult to construct, but I don't think anyone's clamoring for it in their front lawn.

    26. Re:This is just silly by mr_mischief · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the recap of the first week of my high school macroeconomics class.

      The part you've got wrong-way round, though, is that the value isn't in the difficulty to make it. That's the cost base. The value is in what it'll do for the purchaser. When the value is below the cost to produce, demand falls rapidly.

    27. Re:This is just silly by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      I was referring to the entire technology stack being riddled with dependencies on dead dinos and plant matter. It's not just used to generate electricity.

    28. Re:This is just silly by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't discount skepticism so quickly. Skepticism is the cornerstone of the sciences which enable the technology stack required for mass information collection and processing. Without it, you would not have an information economy.

    29. Re:This is just silly by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Yeah.. data won't matter for shit without oil to power the machines.

      Funny comment given that I see a lot of Oil companies looking beyond oil and part of the beyond oil mix is data. We hear things like: Yes if we install all these EV charging stations we lose our margins and there's no money in electricity. What we really need is a way to own the consumer (i.e. control the data stream)

    30. Re:This is just silly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Got you! Knowing that oil can power machines is er data or something.

    31. Re: This is just silly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fire was neither invented nor particularly valuable as an exchange commodity 10,000 years ago. If you had useful data, you would know that.

      Then I saw your name and realized your just a pompous fool in general. So that's a piece of data for me.

  2. Holy Hyperbole Batman! by TWX · · Score: 4, Funny

    An oil refinery is an industrial cathedral, a place of power, drama and dark recesses: ornate cracking towers are its gothic pinnacles, flaring gas its stained glass, the stench of hydrocarbons its heady incense

    I think a college somewhere is missing an English major.

    I've been in industrial sites, physical plants, power plants. They are the opposite of a church; form follow function, and often everything to do with maintenance has to do with function, not simply with keeping things tidy, and there's nothing hallowed or sacrosanct other than the ability of the machine to function as intended.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re:Holy Hyperbole Batman! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      An oil refinery is an industrial cathedral, a place of power, drama and dark recesses: ornate cracking towers are its gothic pinnacles, flaring gas its stained glass, the stench of hydrocarbons its heady incense

      I think a college somewhere is missing an English major.

      Word. I mean I have an asshole too, but I'm not going to spend the entire day talking out of it.

    2. Re:Holy Hyperbole Batman! by TWX · · Score: 1

      An oil refinery is an industrial cathedral, a place of power, drama and dark recesses: ornate cracking towers are its gothic pinnacles, flaring gas its stained glass, the stench of hydrocarbons its heady incense

      I think a college somewhere is missing an English major.

      Word. I mean I have an asshole too, but I'm not going to spend the entire day talking out of it.

      Only in meetings with upper management!

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    3. Re:Holy Hyperbole Batman! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Although to be fair - a cathedral is an industrial processing plant, it's just that it is for the worshippers - its function is to elicit reverence and a sense of the great mysteries in you, and its form follows that.

      And to be even more fair, that also passed our English major by.

  3. Re:Wrong! It's APPS, you filthy LUDDITE! by TWX · · Score: 1

    I think you opened the wrong article, you're looking for the one four entries down.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  4. This is like by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a company saying "employees are our most valuable asset." It sounds nice, but it's apples and oranges, or at least depends on what you call "valueable."

    Obligatory Dilbert: http://dilbert.com/strip/1993-03-03

  5. Most Valuable Resource? by lobiusmoop · · Score: 3, Informative

    Pretty sure it's still printer ink.

    --
    "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
    1. Re:Most Valuable Resource? by mr_mischief · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure it's the data about how to corner the printer ink market.

    2. Re:Most Valuable Resource? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty sure it's cars. Car owners have endless amount of money, that can be taxed and fee'ed infinitely for all kinds of other things, that have nothing to do with transportation.

      captcha: motors

    3. Re: Most Valuable Resource? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...and Monster HDMI cables.

    4. Re:Most Valuable Resource? by mikael · · Score: 1

      Many cities are moving to a future where a car isn't essential - good safe public transport with buses, trains and taxi services for long distances, walking for short distances.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    5. Re:Most Valuable Resource? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All cities moved _from_ that to what we have today. They may reverse a little, but it says nothing of the transport situation in the hinterlands in the city footprint, which they still rely on to survive.

  6. yeah right... by MindPrison · · Score: 2

    >The World's Most Valuable Resource is No Longer Oil, But Data.

    I'd like to see you drive a car based on data fuel, oh...I mean ...plastic...I mean. Data...

    Bah, bullshit - when shit hits the fan, your data on my health history or the neighbors criminal history means diddley squat - only resources means something, something you can eat, use and consume. Data is whatever you think of, resources is what you need to survive.

    --
    What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
    1. Re:yeah right... by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      No, data is used to end up owning your car.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    2. Re:yeah right... by mr_mischief · · Score: 1

      Knowing where and how to procure those resources is data.

    3. Re: yeah right... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I have data that indicate you have resources, what your security posture is, and when you are most vulnerable, not only is my data valuable, your resources will soon be my resources.

    4. Re:yeah right... by networkBoy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oil/Food/Resources are to Data as gold is to USD fiat paper money

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
  7. be prepared by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    that's why me and all my prepper buddies are stocking up on disks and flash memory. we gonna have plenty of data to survive on, suckers!

  8. Interesting by Thelasko · · Score: 1

    My career is turning oil into data. Seriously, I test engines. Sounds like business will be good!

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  9. Prove it. Disable the Lameness Filter by itomato · · Score: 1

    24 well-publicised hours should do the trick.

  10. Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lets see you run your lights on data, or the computers that hold this precious stuff.

  11. Re: Wrong! It's APPS, you filthy LUDDITE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nope! Too late, you missed your chance several articles ago.

    Your trolling appity app app has failed you and needs a luddite to fix it's faulty code so that luddites can lud lud dites. Dites!

  12. AKA Tech Bubble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Data just makes things better, Oil actually makes things.

    It seems obvious that data is over valued and oil under valued.

    Invest in ExxonMobil today!

    1. Re:AKA Tech Bubble by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      I want to invest in Exxon/Google but they still haven't looked at my merger suggestion.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    2. Re: AKA Tech Bubble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For a long time, I've thought that tech companies have been over valued, and energy/manufacturing companies undervalued.

      For a long time, the market has disagreed with me. It shocks me that SNAP is valued higher than the auto majors. But, this is real; perhaps illusory based upon ridiculous valuations, but still real.

      Making real, concrete things is passe today, I suppose.

  13. but, what about the children? by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    if data saves Just One Child, then it's worth it. (well, in Star Trek TNG, didn't Data save one or two?)

  14. Take that for data! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm still trying to figure out what he meant by that.

  15. Who will be our hero during data-geddon?? by foradoxium · · Score: 1

    "Data creation is exploding. With all the selfies and useless files people refuse to delete on the cloud, was created in the last two years alone. At the current rate, the world's data storage capacity will be overtaken by next spring. It will be nothing short of a catastrophe. Data shortages, data rationing, data black markets. Someone's compression will save the world from data-geddon, and it sure as hell better be Nucleus and not goddamn Pied Piper! I don't know about you people, but I don't wanna live in a world where someone else makes the world a better place better than we do."

    1. Re:Who will be our hero during data-geddon?? by slew · · Score: 1

      "Data creation is exploding. With all the selfies and useless files people refuse to delete on the cloud, was created in the last two years alone. At the current rate, the world's data storage capacity will be overtaken by next spring. It will be nothing short of a catastrophe. Data shortages, data rationing, data black markets. Someone's compression will save the world from data-geddon, and it sure as hell better be Nucleus and not goddamn Pied Piper! I don't know about you people, but I don't wanna live in a world where someone else makes the world a better place better than we do."

      I think there must be a Mad Max parable in there somewhere... Mad Max: The data warrior?

      It's kind of interesting how the Seven Sisters seem to have parallels to FAMGA (although there are only 5 in FAMGA, 3 of the seven sisters were Standard Oil)...

  16. Job opportunities by ArhcAngel · · Score: 1

    I'm gonna go see if Liara T'Soni needs any information brokers.

    --
    "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
  17. stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    this article is just as stupid as having an XM radio subscription

  18. And just like oil... by xession · · Score: 1

    And just like oil, we need to put a stop in its use. Just like its unethical and illegal to have people unknowingly join as part of an experiment, it should be recognized as unethical and illegal to have people unknowingly offering up the entire contents of their lives, especially when they essentially get absolutely nothing in return.

    Sure, you could argue that a site like WasteBook offers a valuable service to people who pay nothing to use it. However, the core function of the site, is to connect people who want to post messages and pictures. Guess what, people have been doing that for several generations now from BBSes to modern forums. Sure, they cost money to run and sometimes they aren't free to use. A forum the size of FB would certainly cost a fair bit more than the typical forum as well. But it absolutely wouldn't be prohibitively expensive by using their current market, ad space that prohibits annoying and intrusive ads and other techniques that most certainly don't require FB to actively know anything about you. Site bloat is what makes FB truly expensive, as does their data analyzing and mining systems.

    The sites that bitch the most about having to use these methods to stay open, are also the largest sites on the web, who have killed or bought the competition to be in the position they're currently in. Maybe they should go fuck themselves so we can get some newer sites to take the place of these no-longer-affordable conglomerates.

  19. data about oil...that is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is a new headline for you

  20. The World's Most Valuable Resource by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is, has been, and always will be water -- get it right for once.

    1. Re: The World's Most Valuable Resource by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously agreed!!

  21. Think of the children by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We need to think of the children. The internet will be over run and there will be no bandwidth left.

  22. How many kilometers to a gallon of data? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sigh.

    Captcha: molest

  23. Clickbait logical fallacies by avandesande · · Score: 1

    I'd be curious to know what percentage of clickbait article have built in logical fallacies. My kids used to play this game, would I rather eat worms or have my foot run over by a tractor. Do I have to choose?

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  24. Uh huh, sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let me know how you fill a 747's fuel tanks with data and "copy paste" yourself across the Atlantic. Also let me know how that in-flight meal of data tasted.

  25. Let's trade my data for gold by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's do this, I'm game

  26. Not true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oil is still more valuable. Without oil, our civilization wouldn't exist. Without data, it wouldn't be great, but we would still get along.

  27. It's not the data as much as the services provided by King_TJ · · Score: 1

    If you're going to take companies like Amazon, Apple and Microsoft and just lump them under "sellers of data", that's a really broad description, almost to the point of being useless.

    The reason these companies make revenue is because they provide complete "user experiences", making computers and other devices functional and useful. The entire smartphone business relies on Android (Alphabet/Google), iOS (Apple), or a small number of them running Windows Phone (Microsoft).

    Every tablet out there? Same story, except Amazon has the whole Kindle Reader thing and Microsoft has pretty much zero at this point.

    Microsoft has the lion's share of the personal computer and the server market down, selling not only the operating systems they run but the business apps used as staple items (MS Office, Great Plains accounting package, SQL Server, Exchange Server, Visio, MS Project, etc. etc.).

    The fact these guys have huge data centers that collect information is a necessary component of what they do -- but it's not like just possessing quantities of data is equivalent to possessing large quantities of oil!

  28. By 2023 by tgibson · · Score: 1

    we are expected to reach peak data, after which data will irreversibly decline.

  29. MOST data is ... by surfcow · · Score: 1

    Most data is
    worth its weight in bitcoins.

  30. Obviouly not bullshit by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

    The lesson to take away from this is that a barrel of oil is worth less than a barrel of data.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  31. Conversuon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Around 5.3 TB per barrel I assume?

  32. Cheap clean water is and always will be by BlueCoder · · Score: 2

    Cheap clean water is the most valuable resource on the planet without a doubt. It is needed and used in every industry. The oil production industry uses a significant amount of it. So does all mining and resource extraction.

    In agriculture in particular obviously we are talking 1000 and 10,000 to 1 ratios for the production of food. A quarter pound of hamburger requires 110 gallons alone. Imagine the amount of energy required to clean that much water and having to include it in the price.

    Incidentally forget about the drought in southern California which is a desert. We get the vast majority of our water from the mountains of northern California. There is plenty of water there even in a "drought". The problem is the farmers in California which produce a significant amount of the worlds food. They are water greedy. People watering their lawns and cars in LA is a drop in the bucket compared to farmers.

  33. Numbers? Statistics? Facts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The article provides no facts to support its premise. What's the total size of the world energy market vs. the data market? What are their yearly revenues? How are these yearly revenues changing?

  34. Are you sure? by dbIII · · Score: 1
    Oil is so much easier to get out of the ground, ship and store than many other things so that is IMHO why it has value and the others are not used as much (eg. the US natural gas producers who went under when the Saudi's dropped the oil price to bankrupt their competition).
    Around a century ago oil replaced coal for transport due to those factors. That made the value of coal decline.

    As demand increases, the supply drops. As supply drops, the price goes up

    To a point, yes, but that two-dimensional way of looking at things doesn't apply very well when there are other options that are less convenient in current conditions but become a serious option when conditions change.

    The "irony" is that oil is of so much value because it's dirt cheap. If it becomes rare it's suddenly not worth using instead of something else so is then of very little value.
    Neat little 2D economic ideas (price vs time) sometime fare poorly in a 4D (lots of stuff and time) world.

  35. The Most Valuable Resource is Land by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Because you have to stand somewhere.

    After that it's clean air, then clean water, then clean food.

    Then clothes and shelter.

    And we're compromising our future ability to have all of these things.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  36. remeber... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    rmoney IS data

  37. Said something much like this on /. long ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When I stated "The FUTURE isn't OS or apps/programs that ride on them: DATA they process, is" https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9561561&cid=52755151/ since knowledge IS power (that unfortunately is a double-edged sword that does a lot of good but quite often gets abused).

    * Information's powerful (but so is misinformation).

    APK

    P.S.=> You can't win... apk