How much does the internet weigh?

Ron DMC

No, I'm not quoting the IT Crowd here, it's for real.

Here's a 2007 article in Discover magazine that tries to make sense of all the bits and bytes, and equate them their equivalent in actual weight.
Obviously only an estimate and probably impossible to ever get right, but interesting nonetheless.

Further reading here

drunkmonkey

I bet it weighs more than Mary Harney, maybe as much as Mary Harney and Derek Davis together. WOW that's big man....

Interesting article.

I love the final two paragraphs:

Love letters, business contracts, holiday snaps, spam, petitions, emergency bulletins, pornography, wedding announcements, TV shows, news articles, vacation plans, home movies, press releases, celebrity Web pages, home movies, secrets of every stripe, military orders, music, newsletters, confessions, congratulations—every shade and aspect of human life encoded as 1s and 0s. Taken together, they weigh roughly the same as the smallest possible sand grain, one measuring just two-thousandths of an inch across.

William Blake’s famous poem Auguries of Innocence (1803) begins, “To see a world in a grain of sand....” He was being more prophetic than he could have ever known.

It reminds me of something Carl Sagan would say. It's an amazing thought that all of the information that you could ever imagine weighs so little.

ElBarco

What about the really deep question - what does it smell like?

Ah lads come on, can ye not try to take things a bit seriously here, no? This forum has been petitioned for for a long time, we don't need silly half-arsed jokes ruining it 3 threads into its life.

ElBarco

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

Ah lads come on, can ye not try to take things a bit seriously here, no? This forum has been petitioned for for a long time, we don't need silly half-arsed jokes ruining it 3 threads into its life.

I know, I know - but how much does the internet weigh?

Maybe knock together a guideline on what the forum is about, what you're looking for and sticky it?

ElBarco

ElBarco wrote: »

I know, I know - but how much does the internet weigh?

Maybe knock together a guideline on what the forum is about, what you're looking for and sticky it?

That's for The_Minister to do. Have a look here and you'll get an idea of what the forum is about.

netwhizkid

ElBarco wrote: »

What about the really deep question - what does it smell like?

Fish I'd imagine considering the prevalence of certain material on it.

brazilicious

ElBarco wrote: »

What about the really deep question - what does it smell like?

like new car smell....


or a brand new book....


or when the telly overheats.... (dja know that one?)

Earthhorse

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

I love the final two paragraphs:

...

William Blake’s famous poem Auguries of Innocence (1803) begins, “To see a world in a grain of sand....” He was being more prophetic than he could have ever known.

It reminds me of something Carl Sagan would say. It's an amazing thought that all of the information that you could ever imagine weighs so little.

Given the content of some sections of the internet, it might make sense to remember Eliot's equally propehtic line; "I will show you madness in a handful of dust".

Overheal

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

Interesting article.

I love the final two paragraphs:

The internet needs to put on some weight.

challengemaster

How much does the information itself weigh? I'd imagine not enough to matter, the content is virtual, and everything is electrons moving, hence, negligable weight, despite how much data is moved...

From Wiki: According to a June 2007 article in Discover magazine, the combined weight of all the electrons moved within the Internet in a day is 0.2 millionths of an ounce. Others have estimated this at nearer 2 ounces (50 grams).

How much do all the harddisks which the information being accessed is spread over weigh? I'd imagine quite a lot...

Mahatma coat

Thats the thing I was thinkin meself, although the information itself is fairly light, the Storage devices used would be heavy.


kinda like what does a soul weigh?

A quiet one

With an engine it's power to weight ratio can be determined
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-to-weight_ratio

Trouble is; what is the power of the internet? is it the combined weight of the people affected by it, or are controlled by it, or can influence it. Or can it's power be measured in as a ratio to power consumption?
And then what is it's "engine", the 1s and 0s or, the hardware, or again, people?

Standard Toaster

challengemaster wrote: »

How much does the information itself weigh? I'd imagine not enough to matter, the content is virtual, and everything is electrons moving, hence, negligable weight, despite how much data is moved...

From Wiki: According to a June 2007 article in Discover magazine, the combined weight of all the electrons moved within the Internet in a day is 0.2 millionths of an ounce. Others have estimated this at nearer 2 ounces (50 grams).

How much do all the harddisks which the information being accessed is spread over weigh? I'd imagine quite a lot...

http://www.matrixstore.net/2009/07/08/how-heavy-is-a-petabyte/



How Heavy Is A Petabyte? It’s sometimes hard to visualise just how much disk technology has advanced in the last 30 years. There is an excellent graphic on the Gizmodo website which successfully portrays: “How Large is a Petabyte?” leading Mark Coleran (Gridiron Flow fame) to ask “How much does a Petabyte weigh?”
Here is my take on just how heavy 1 Petabyte of disk drives was in 1980 and is today. (Disks only, not taking into account server chassis, racks, power and airco units to support it! UPDATE: also all information, the weights, garnered via internet search and wikipedia ..)
The answer from 1980:

One Petabyte of IBM 3380

And the answer today:
One Petabyte of Western Digital Caviar Green

sKepTics_George

It is worth its weight in gold.

meathstevie

It's a bit like asking about the weight of language or mathematics etc... . As such human knowledge has no weight, on the other hand it's the combined weight of it's containers; the combined weight of every human. And to sustain humanity you have to include the weight of everything else on the planet supporting human life, including Earth itself. The long and short of it in my opinion is what do you include in your guesstimate ?

JJJJNR

Interesting, so what would happen if it all ended tomorrow, I mean life itself as we know it, would there be anything left over of the internet, would the bones of ARPANET be uncovered. there so much information about mankind stored there now, it would be a shame if it all went missing without a trace.

alexlyons

maybe I read it wrong, but was that all the transfer for a single day? or all the data present anywhere on the internet? 40 petabytes doesn't seem that much if it's the latter