Have there been studies on this topic?
There are several ways to calculate the mass of the Internet, at least
The first method for calculating the mass of the Network proposedRussell Seitz, uses data on the number of servers that support its operation (from 75 to 100 million according to various sources), their average power consumption (from 350 to 550 W), the average voltage in their logic circuits (3 V) and clock frequency (1 GHz).
A current of 1 Ampere produces a flow of approximately 1,018 electrons per second. A direct calculation shows that the Internet as a whole is powered by the movement of just over 50 grams of electrons.
Russell Seitz, lead researcher
A different point of view was shared by the staff of the American popular science magazine Discovery.
This is how they reasoned: the longest chain of ones and zeros, in which the transmitted document is encrypted, is split into packets ranging in size from several tens to several hundred bytes to travel across the network. Each packet also clings to the address where to send it, and the number that allows at the place of receipt to correctly assemble the packets into a single whole. On the way, these packets pass through many computers, and in each they are briefly held in memory and analyzed. Then their further path is determined, and they are forwarded further.
Both calculations are based on the electron rest mass (9.1*10−31 kg). According to the same Russell Seitz, about 50 million horsepower must be applied to “feed” the flow of 50 grams of electrons.
How to calculate mass?
If this small article is sent by emailmail, it will take about 25 KB (text only, no picture). In kilobyte 1,024 bytes, in byte - 8 bits. Consequently, the volume of the article in bits is 205,000. We can assume that half of them are ones, half are zeros. This means that there are 102,500 units, and each is represented by 40 thousand electrons. In total, about 4 billion electrons went to write this article. Electron mass 9.11.10 28 grams, multiply - and you get the mass of this text in the computer's memory.
But that's just one email. According to 2008 data, all information sent per day weighed 0.0057 milligrams. And another third of this weight must be added if we want to take into account not only the exchange of files between users, but also the information requested from sites.
How has activity changed today?
According to Internet Live Stats, everyper second, more than 50,000 search queries are made on Google, 120,000 videos are watched on YouTube, and almost 2.5 million emails are sent. Yes, it’s very impressive, but still these data do not allow us to fully imagine the size of the Internet.
In September 2014, the total number of siteshas exceeded a billion, and today there are approximately 1.018 billion. But the so-called “deep web” has not yet been counted, that is, a collection of sites not indexed by search engines: the content there can be completely harmless (for example, online databases) , and completely illegal (for example, black market trading platforms with access only through Tor). Although the Tor browser is used not only by violators, but also by users who want anonymity.
Note that the above estimate of the abundancewebsites is approximate. Sites come and go, and the size of deep and dark cobwebs is almost impossible to determine. Therefore, even roughly estimating the size of a network using this criterion is very difficult. But one thing is certain - the network is constantly growing.
One of the ways to assess circulating inInternet information is traffic measurement. According to Cisco, by the end of 2016, 1.1 zettabytes of data will be transferred worldwide. And in 2019, the traffic volume doubled, reaching 2 zettabytes per year.
But how can one try to imagine 1021 bytes? One zettabyte is equivalent to 36,000 years of HDTV video. And it will take 5 years to watch the video transmitted around the world every second.
How is this information presented on physical media?
Despite the rise of the digital age, for manyFor us, bits and bytes remain somewhat abstract concepts. Previously, memory was measured in megabytes, now in gigabytes. What if we try to imagine the size of the Internet in some tangible form?
In 2015, two scientists proposed usingReal A4 paper pages for evaluation. Using data from the aforementioned WorldWideWebSize service as a basis, they decided to count each web page as equivalent to 30 paper pages. We got 4.54 x 109 x 30 = 1.36 x 1011 A4 pages.
But from the point of view of human perception, thisno better than the same bytes. Therefore, the paper was tied to the Amazonian jungle. According to the authors' calculations, 8,011,765 trees are needed to make the above amount of paper, which is equivalent to 113 km2 of jungle, that is, 0.002% of the total area of Amazonian thickets.
Although later in the Washington Postsuggested that 30 pages is too much, and one web page would be more correctly equated to 6.5 A4 pages. Then the entire Internet can be printed on 305.5 billion sheets of paper.
But all this is true only for textinformation that occupies far from the largest share of the total volume of data. According to Cisco, in 2015, video alone accounted for 27,500 PB per month, and combined website, email and “data” traffic accounted for 7,700 PB.
Slightly less file transfers - 6,100 PB. If anyone has forgotten, a petabyte is equal to a million gigabytes. So the Amazonian jungle will not allow you to present the amount of data on the Internet.
In the 2011 study mentioned aboveit was proposed to visualize using CDs. According to the authors, in 2007, 94% of all information was represented in digital form - 277.3 optimally compressed exabytes (a term for data compression using the most efficient algorithms available in 2007).
If we record all this wealth on DVD (4.7 GB each), we will get 59,000,000,000 discs. If we assume the thickness of one disk to be 1.2 mm, then this stack would be 70,800 km high.
For comparison, the length of the equator is 40,000 km, andthe total length of the state border of Russia is 61,000 km. Moreover, this is the amount of data as of 2007. Now let's try in the same way to estimate the total traffic volume that is projected for this year - 1.1 zettabytes. We get a stack of DVDs 280 850 km high. Here it is time to move on to space comparisons: the average distance to the Moon is 385,000 km.
How the volume of information will change: forecasts of scientists
Portsmouth University Fellow MelvinVopson calculated that digital information could account for half the mass of the Earth by the year 2245 at its current rate of increase. The scientist published his article in the journal AIPAdvances.
Vopson is based on the principle of equivalencemass and energy in Einstein's general theory of relativity, as well as the work of Rolf Landauer, who applied the laws of thermodynamics to information, and the research of Claude Shannon, who invented the bit.
According to Wopson, in aboutIn 130 years, the energy required to support the creation of digital information will equal all the energy currently produced on planet Earth, and by the year 2245, half the Earth's mass will have been converted into “digital information mass.”
The scientist made this conclusion because humanityuses resources such as coal, oil, natural gas, copper, silicon and aluminum to create and maintain huge computer farms and process digital information, this leads to a redistribution of earthly matter from physical atoms to digital information—the fifth state of matter, along with liquid, solid, gas and plasma.
In the end, according to the author of the new work, wewe will reach a state where the number of bits created by man exceeds the number of atoms on Earth. According to Wopson's calculations, this will happen in 150 years, given the current rate of increase in the amount of information by 50% per year.
The growth of digital information seemsunstoppable. According to IBM and other big data companies, 90% of the world's information today was created in the last 10 years alone. In some ways, the current COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this process as it has allowed us to produce and consume more digital content than ever before.
Melvin Whopson, University of Portsmouth
The physicist stated that after 130 years the energy,required to support the digital creation process will equal all the energy that is currently being produced on Earth. The scientist also noted that 90% of the world's information that exists today was created in the last ten years.
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