TECH
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
FEBRUARY 2013
•
ILLUSTRATION BY KEITH NEGLEY
65
You might not be aware of it, but you’re being buried beneath a mountain
of clu er. Every day, the global stock of digital information grows by about
2.5
quintillion bytes (a quintillion, in case you’ve forgo en, is a 1 followed by
18
zeros). And themain force behind this insane proliferation canbe summed
up in a single word: you.
Every time youbuyabookonAmazon, change your profilepic onFacebook
or use your car’sGPS, you’re adding to theheap—and the thing about
BIGDATA IS
WATCHINGYOU
A NEWGENERATION OF SUPERCOMPUTERS IS ALLOWING US TO PROCESS
INFORMATION INWAYS THATWERE ONCE UNIMAGINABLE—AND
WHICH REMAIN UNPREDICTABLE
BY BOYD FARROW
