988 Exabytes (billion billion bytes) of Digital Info
Monday, June 1st, 2009
This year we will generate approximately 988 exabytes of digital information globally. That is 18 million times more than the information contained in all the books ever written. This goes far beyond the well-worn issue of information overload. It verges on the cognitively harmful even if ignored.
On this point an article in The Times, Warning: Brain Overload, argues the data tsunami dulls our capacity for empathy and wisdom. I read this as a clear mandate for the cognitive re-design of our personal and professional digital dataspaces.
