Imagine, for a second, paging through the entire written works of human history, or watching 600 years' worth of high-definition video. This is but a fraction of the amount of digital data reported last year*; likely to be dwarfed by the amount reached in 2010 - 1.2 zettabytes, a neat little term translating into every person on earth tweeting continuously for 100 years. Millions and millions of pieces of information, idly passing the time in e-mail archives, data centres and storage units, wondering what to do with themselves.
Here's an idea; club them together, link up their various readings, and use it to form an integrated system that makes use of various flows of information to make things simpler. But on a huge scale that impacts the very way we live.
The idea isn't a new one; IBM is one famous proponent, its “smart” interpretation of the concept being extended to systems, cities, and finally, the planet. But, while it's been something promoted from more of a business perspective, the issue of environmental sustainability is now giving the idea a new application and urgency. As these parallel concerns become increasingly pressing - the state of the climate and the explosion of information at every level - their potential relationship has become critical.
Granted, not all the data being generated can be used for these purposes, with much of it falling into social and entertainment realms. But this doesn't negate the fact that devices measuring various aspects of daily living are increasing exponentially. And advanced designs often incorporate great complexity into a system that is incredibly simple to use. Think of the number of computations that go into making a single cellphone call, or a simple instruction in a software program.
While many of today's industrial systems have seen vast improvements in functioning and processes, there is still a huge amount of waste that takes place along the way. Building structures, running factories and transport and communications networks - which all involve using resources and creating waste products - often operate in a rather segmented and isolated fashion. Goods are packaged, distributed, used and disposed of, with more waste occurring at every step. What if the whole chain could be maximised for efficiency by intelligently managing energy and materials? A kind of urban central nervous system that uses various flows of information to make decisions about supplies and services.
Finding a practical way to interconnect data streams to function intelligently could lead to homes and offices designed to incorporate their environments, not fight them. Rooms where solar and wind technologies power appliances and natural air flows replace energy-guzzling air-cons. Where a building “senses” activity and switches devices on and off accordingly. It's not about sacrificing comfort or forgoing modernity, it's about changing the approach.
While these kinds of technologies are being realised in places like the US and Singapore, what about the many areas where people don't even have access to basic infrastructure, never mind advanced, interconnected systems. The very people most likely to be worst affected by environmental stresses caused by climate change.
Here the key word is adaptation. Technology and data are merely tools, which can be fashioned to fit various contexts through innovative thinking and the will to make it happen.
An urban central nervous system could link various flows of information for greater efficiency.
Lezette Engelbrecht, copy editor and journalist, ITWeb
Given that an estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide don't even have access to electricity, there is a huge opportunity to establish renewable energy networks rather than investing in fossil fuel-based sources that will be obsolete or prohibitively expensive in 50 years' time. These regions have to adapt, using funds which are hopefully forthcoming following the Copenhagen Accord, and plough them into green technologies that are available now.
Authorities will have to roll out solar water heating initiatives, encourage programmes whereby clean sources of energy can be used for upliftment, and train people in what could become a growing, and green economy. They can also use the digital tools that are widely used, such as cellphones, to create the root structures of what can be developed into a more comprehensive, connected system in future. There exists a window of opportunity to learn from others who are already building intelligently designed systems to pick up what works and what doesn't.
The old “measure to manage” mantra applies on a wider scale too, and with embedded devices constantly measuring various aspects of the world, surely they can be used to better manage its industrial and consumptions patterns.
If this doesn't start happening, all we'll have left is a million little pieces of data, chronicling how we destroyed ourselves and the planet, because we were too busy creating information to do something about it.
*IDC, EMC Digital Universe study 2010
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