Information Renaissance - a technical perspective
From a more technical perspective, the information renaissance appears to be changing at an even greater exponential rate than the purely academic information renaissance. Technology is changing so fast today that we cannot keep up with the specifics, only generalities. While this concept itself is not new to us, I did not realize just how fast technology is changing until I viewed the “Shift Happens” presentation.
“The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. For students starting a four-year technical or college degree, this means that… half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study. By 2010, it is predicted to double every 72 hours.” This is an insane thought, should it actually turn out to be true. What about those students who change their majors during their undergraduate careers (which would be most of them)? Will the every obtain the most up-to-date knowledge?
“Third generation fiber optics have recently been separately tested by NEC and Alcatel… that carry 10 trillion bits per second down a single strand of fiber. That is 1,900 CD’s or 150 million phone calls every second. It is currently tripling every 6 months and is expected to do so for the next 20 years.” What!?!? Did he say 10 trillion? I’m fairly certain I can’t even conceptualize such a number. While this is exciting, this seems to be getting so big, so fast, that I am a little intimidated by it. So what happens when the machines develop actual intelligence instead of artificial intelligence and take of the world? Ok, maybe this is a stretch, but you get my point.