• zifnab25 [he/him, any]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Data collection at the current scale and trajectory is totally unsustainable.

    Amazon literally delivers data by snowmobile because putting Zetabytes of info on the back of a physical vehicle and driving it around is faster than sending it on the wire.

    (Hat tip to WTYP Y2K episode on highlighting this)

    Like, this seems a bit scary on its face. But its worth noting how much of this information simply falls into the void. It's also worth noting that we're at the very beginning of what will likely be a generation long decline in the labor pool - both domestically and globally. And that it will be particularly pronounced in the professional class.

    Yeah, we've got websites vacuuming up data and warehousing it for the kind of data analysis that would make a Bitcoin miner blanche. No, nobody really cares about what you wrote, specifically. If you bang out "Kill All Mormons" and delete it, the biggest thing you have to worry about is getting a dynamically generated ad with that phrase written on a t-shirt spammed back at you.

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Amazon literally delivers data by snowmobile because putting Zetabytes of info on the back of a physical vehicle and driving it around is faster than sending it on the wire.

      I can't believe that hasn't appeared in a movie yet.

      Boss: "So - I brought you all here and I didn't tell you anything about our next score because it's going to be huge. We're going to hit a snowmobile and the data should be worth tens of millions. At least."

      Muscly guy - the driver: "A snowmobile?"

      Thin-necked guy - in charge of logistics: "It's a shipping crate filled with data. They are moved by truck ."

      Muscly guy - the driver: "I don't get it."

      Then the Boss explains to the driver (and the audience) what's what.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Would be a fun prelude-to-a-bigger-heist scene. Like, they're ostensibly raiding this truck to steal a bunch of credit card numbers. But there's something even more valuable in the truck that only the protagonist knows about. And, on stealing it, the thieves get targeted by a shadowy Deep State counter-intelligence operation.

        Honestly, a fantastic setup for some QAnon-style National Treasure shit.