The world's technological capacity to store, communicate, and compute information
- PMID: 21310967
- DOI: 10.1126/science.1200970
The world's technological capacity to store, communicate, and compute information
Abstract
We estimated the world's technological capacity to store, communicate, and compute information, tracking 60 analog and digital technologies during the period from 1986 to 2007. In 2007, humankind was able to store 2.9 × 10(20) optimally compressed bytes, communicate almost 2 × 10(21) bytes, and carry out 6.4 × 10(18) instructions per second on general-purpose computers. General-purpose computing capacity grew at an annual rate of 58%. The world's capacity for bidirectional telecommunication grew at 28% per year, closely followed by the increase in globally stored information (23%). Humankind's capacity for unidirectional information diffusion through broadcasting channels has experienced comparatively modest annual growth (6%). Telecommunication has been dominated by digital technologies since 1990 (99.9% in digital format in 2007), and the majority of our technological memory has been in digital format since the early 2000s (94% digital in 2007).
Similar articles
-
Advances in digital video for electronic media.Stud Health Technol Inform. 1997;46:477-80. Stud Health Technol Inform. 1997. PMID: 10175444
-
Digital image recording: an integral aspect of video endoscopy.Stud Health Technol Inform. 1999;62:268-74. Stud Health Technol Inform. 1999. PMID: 10538370
-
The world's first digital hospital.N Z Health Hospital. 1995 Mar-Apr;47(2):10-1. N Z Health Hospital. 1995. PMID: 10142326 No abstract available.
-
CD-ROM: a primer for physicians.J Fam Pract. 1993 Nov;37(5):483-7. J Fam Pract. 1993. PMID: 8228861 Review.
-
Telemedicine and teledermatology: Past, present and future.J Dtsch Dermatol Ges. 2008 Feb;6(2):106-12. doi: 10.1111/j.1610-0387.2007.06440.x. Epub 2007 Nov 12. J Dtsch Dermatol Ges. 2008. PMID: 18005076 Review. English, German.
Cited by
-
Digital technology and social change: the digital transformation of society from a historical perspective .Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2020 Jun;22(2):189-194. doi: 10.31887/DCNS.2020.22.2/mhilbert. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2020. PMID: 32699519 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Social Transmission of Leadership Preference: Knowledge of Group Membership and Partisan Media Reporting Moderates Perceptions of Leadership Ability From Facial Cues to Competence and Dominance.Front Psychol. 2020 Jan 14;10:2996. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02996. eCollection 2019. Front Psychol. 2020. PMID: 32010029 Free PMC article.
-
Effects of automated smartphone mobile recovery support and telephone continuing care in the treatment of alcohol use disorder: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.Trials. 2018 Jan 30;19(1):82. doi: 10.1186/s13063-018-2466-1. Trials. 2018. PMID: 29382367 Free PMC article.
-
Broadband Near-Infrared Emission from Bi/Cr Co-Doped Aluminosilicate Glasses.Micromachines (Basel). 2024 Aug 29;15(9):1093. doi: 10.3390/mi15091093. Micromachines (Basel). 2024. PMID: 39337753 Free PMC article.
-
Big Data: transforming drug development and health policy decision making.Health Serv Outcomes Res Methodol. 2016;16:92-102. doi: 10.1007/s10742-016-0144-x. Epub 2016 Mar 5. Health Serv Outcomes Res Methodol. 2016. PMID: 27594803 Free PMC article.
Publication types
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Other Literature Sources
