When the Planet Becomes a Computer
A new study makes a surprising claim about the growth of data
Everyone knows the Internet is big, and getting bigger all the time.
It’s adding almost 200 million emails a minute, and 18 million text messages, and half a million Tweets, a quarter million Instagram stories and … well, you get the idea.
So here’s a question. With the Internet growing like this every minute of the day, have you ever wondered how much the Internet weighs? I don’t mean the weight of the hardware like computers and cables and servers. I’m talking about the weight of the information itself.
The answer might surprise you. According to a recent study by physicist Melvin Vopson, the total mass of all the data we produce in a year is equal to the mass of just one E. coli bacteria.
I suppose this is a relief. I won’t have to use the spare bedroom to store my daughter’s Tik Tok videos. And data centers like this one Facebook is currently building in Singapore won’t blanket the planet.
But this is not the end of the story.
