Context :
Half
the atoms in the planet could be digital data by 2245
Adam Mann /
August 30, 2020
Extract :
Information
might seem immaterial.
But within a few short centuries, the
total amount of digital bits produced annually by
humanity could exceed the number of atoms on our planet and, even more unexpectedly, account
for half of its mass.
We live in information-rich times. Cell
phones everywhere and high social media use mean that almost every human being is generating astonishing
quantities of computerized content every day.
IBM
and other technology research companies have estimated that 90% of the world's
current digital data was produced in the last decade alone, prompting physicist
Melvin Vopson of the University of Portsmouth in England to wonder where we
might be headed in the future.
His analysis began with the fact
that Earth currently
contains roughly 10^21, or 100 billion billion,
bits of computer information.
"This
is everything we collectively do," Vopson told Live Science. "Any digital content produced and stored anywhere on the planet
by anyone."
Vopson
then calculated how much more data might exist in the future. This isn't simply
a linear extrapolation, since the amount of new information is also growing with
time.
Assuming
a 20% annual
growth rate in digital content, Vopson
showed that 350 years from now, the
number of data bits on Earth will be greater than all the atoms inside it, of
which there are about 10^50 or a hundred trillion trillion
trillion trillion.
Even
before this time, humanity would be using the equivalent of
its current power consumption just to sustain all these zeros and ones.
"The
question is:
Where
do we store this information? How do we power this?"
Vopson
said. "I call this the invisible
crisis, as today it is truly an invisible problem."
While
such timescales might seem far enough in the future to ignore at present,
Vopson also warns of another possible concern.
In
1961, the German-American physicist Rolf Landauer proposed that, because erasing a digital bit produces a tiny amount of heat,
there's a link between information and energy.
Though still a matter of scientific
debate, this finding, known as Landauer's principle, has received some
experimental verification in recent years.
In a 2019 study published in the
journal AIP Advances,
Vopson posited that there might therefore be a relationship between information
and mass.
The conjecture relies on the famous
equation E = mc^2, derived by Albert Einstein at
the beginning of the 20th century.
Einstein's work showed that energy
and mass are interchangeable, leading Vopson to calculate the potential mass of
a single bit of information — about 10 million times smaller than an
electron.
This means that the current mass of
information produced every year is insignificant, about the weight of a single E. coli bacteria, Vopson said.
But, assuming that same 20% growth
per year, half of Earth's
mass could be converted into digital data in less than 500 years.
Assuming a 50% growth rate, half the planet would be information by just 2245.
Vopson's findings appeared Aug. 11 in the same
journal, AIP Advances.
"I see this as a real
problem," Vopson said. "Just [like] burning fossil fuels, plastic
pollution and deforestation, I think the information
is something overlooked by everyone. We are literally changing the planet
bit-by-bit."
In fact, he considers the growth
rates in his paper to be somewhat conservative (the International Data
Corporation estimates the current data growth rate at 61 percent) and thinks this information catastrophe might occur sooner
than predicted.
A way to alleviate the issues of
storing such vast amounts of data might be to develop technology that would
keep information in non-material mediums such as holograms,
he said.
The
arguments put forth in the study are thought-provoking and surprising, particle
physicist Luis Herrera of the University of Salamanca in Spain, who was not
involved in the work, told Live Science.
But
the idea that information has mass remains theoretical and will require experiments to prove
it, he added.
Given the long timeframes involved and the reality of
other, more immediate crises, "I think there are a lot more important
problems than this one," Herrera said.
MY
TAKE :
And , it seems
this nightmare may not wait till 2245. It may arrive by 2025 !
If you have any
doubt , here is some indication :
Generative
AI Could Pollute the Internet to Death / Alberto
Romero / 16 Nov 2022
Extract :
Generative AI is the
most transformative application the field has ever seen. It will redefine how
we create but also how we interact with and relate to the creations of others.
Whereas traditional AI allows us to extract patterns and insights from data,
shaping them into new knowledge, generative
AI goes beyond that.
It uses that data
to generate more data.
And that isn’t even its most profound implication. The
fact that its usefulness
manifests at the consumer level will
change everything.
Anyone can use
generative AI to create new data.
We’re living in an unprecedented era of creative expansion.
What historically has been reserved for the few is now within reach for anyone with
a computer and internet access.
Most people are still unaware this technology exists,
but it won’t be long before it becomes mainstream.
It’s easy to access and use, super cheap, and extremely
versatile. And it improves fast.
Generative AI’s potential at the individual level is huge, but at the collective level, it’s life-changing.
At that level, what matters most is scale — not as in
“large enough to solve a problem,” but as in “ large
enough to cause one. ”
The fast-paced development combined with transversal
usefulness and inherent scalability (easy to use and cheap) is generative AI’s greatest strength — and its
greatest weakness.
It’s not the tools it’s how we use them
Two caveats.
First, as I’ve written in the past, I think generative AI tools can help enhance human ability — writing, painting, coding, and
anything else that may come next.
Second, not everyone uses these tools to mindlessly
generate content. Some truly explore their creative selves. They imbue their creations with intent and personality (even if it’s impossible to
capture them fully with words).
These caveats reveal that this “weakness” isn’t
intrinsic to the tools — it’s not about “they lack intent,” “AI art isn’t art”
or anything of the sort.
Instead, the problem emerges where these tools intersect
with our lack of a sense of measure and the external incentives we all are
subject to — when our goal
is to generate as much content as we can to obtain some benefit, the
story changes.
Many people won’t just enhance their abilities, they’ll
replace their presence — using the tools at every chance.
If we can use these tools for any creative
activity, many ( if not most ) will use them for all creative
activities.
Also, people will use them as surprise boxes, not
as creativity explorers:
“ let’s see what
comes out on the other side and hope it’s good enough.”
The problem is not
in the tools but in our use of them.
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
hcp@RecruitGuru.com / 11 Dec
2022
Related Reading:
Data
becomes an Air Molecule : Free to travel anywhere………[ 30 July 2019 ]
Extract :
Parallel to the Theory
of Thermodynamics , I would like to
propound the
as the “ Theory of Information “
is concerned :
“ Like
Entropy , content keeps growing with
each and every human
with
other humans or with his environment , and content
hidden , nor can it be
destroyed “
============================================
Ø
LESSONS
FROM DISTANT PAST ? …………………………….[ 15 March 2016 ]
Extract :
In the epic story of RAMAYAN
, following incidence is described :
After Sita's abduction by
Ravana , Lord Rama invaded the isle of Lanka with his army
A fierce battle followed
At one point , when Ravana
feared that he might lose the battle , he asked two of his ace warriors ,
Ahi-Ravana and Mahi-Ravana to go and fight Rama
When an arrow of Rama hit
these brothers , hundreds of drops of blood would fall on the ground
But , horror of horror !
From each drop of blood,
arose another clone of Ahi-Ravana / Mahi-Ravana !
So , a hundred drops of blood
gave rise to another hundred demons !
And when Rama's arrows hit
those hundred demons and shed ten thousand drops of blood , ten thousand demons
got multiplied !
No comments:
Post a Comment