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The World's Most Valuable Resource is No Longer Oil, But Data (economist.com)
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.
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.
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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.
Pretty sure it's still printer ink.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
>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.
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.