And Yet
Teenagers with internet access still whine.
I'm Booooored
The BBC has splendidly reported that all of the data we accumulated between 1986 and 2007 on PCs, DVDs and good old-fashioned paper would, if slapped on CDs, create a megastack of discs "that would reach beyond the Moon". Yes indeed, the distance to the International Space Station measured in stacked dollar coins just doesn't …
I agree. The question though arised more in the "equivalent of 175 newspapers per person per day" which somewhat implied that all those data need to be processed (or read) in a way or the other - 'who is able to read 175 newspapers a day?'
However, the fact that we have countless duplications of data puts it into a slightly other perspective.
... how is that information useful anyway? How about in BluRay discs? Didn't that pop in mind because it only makes it a 50th ish (someone will correct me) of the way to the moon? Then if the whole purpose is to sound impressive, forget paper and floppies, how about calculating the volume of granite slabs carved with hieroglyphs to retain it all? Surely that's even less space efficient!
And that is why I'm happy to hear that less of our tax money will be used to fund "research".
Or, give or take 10%, 1 layer of books on the entire land surface of the Earth. Why pick China and then a funny multiplier like 13? How about Mongolia 79 layers deep? Anyway, what's the volume?* How about a hybrid unit of 1 Wales in area x 1 Double-decker bus in height? or 1 China x 1 Dollar Coin?
* Actually, what font size are they assuming?
Oh come on people, everyone knows that the "Belgium" is the standard comparative area.
Taking the area of
China at 9,596,961 km^2
Belgium at 30,528 km^2
we get a ratio of 314.365
Therefore if the layer of books is 13 deep across China it would be 4086.75 deep over Belgium.
Now the next question is how many standard trade paperbacks does it take to fill
a) the London Double Decker Bus
b) an Olympic Sized Swimming Pool
Taking the area of
China at 9,596,961 km^2
Belgium at 30,528 km^2
we get a ratio of 314.365
Hmmm... a ratio between China and Belgium of about 10Pi. Is this Sweet and Sour Pork Pi or Belgian Chocolate Pi? Or does it matter, since Ms Bee probably ate all the Pi.
I think they meant "without duplicates", so your pr0n only counts once even when many have it.
Now I'm intrigued on how you could store your pr0n on paper as per the article: maybe draw each frame on a page? But then they'd need to double the amount of paper needed, because surely you'll then want to use it as a flip book, meaning that only one side of each sheet can be used.
All this talk of books and CDs just does not get a feel for the size of that number.
If punched onto paper tape (10cpi), it would reach 80 light-years to here: http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13316
It would take a trillion years to read that tape on an ASR-33, which is unfortunate, since the universe probably doesn't have that long to wait.
Since normal reading speed is about the same as an ASR-33, If, since 1 AD, everyone in the world had been given a different part of it, to read out continuously their entire life, 24 hours a day, we would be finishing it around now. (Assuming an average world pop. of 300M until 1800)
Interesting ... Not got figures for 1986, but a year later the entire content from the principle UK national on-line information service, would have taken up 330Mb, or about half one one CD-ROM...
http://www.viewdata.org.uk/index.php?cat=15_Prestel&page=51_General-nbsp~Images&zoom=13#zoom