Editing Information society (section)

== The growth of computer information in society ==
[[File:Internet users per 100 inhabitants ITU.svg|thumb|360px|{{center|'''Internet users per 100 inhabitants'''}}<small>Source: [[International Telecommunication Union]].<ref>[http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/statistics/2014/ITU_Key_2005-2014_ICT_data.xls "Individuals using the Internet 2005 to 2014"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528031339/http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/statistics/2014/ITU_Key_2005-2014_ICT_data.xls |date=2015-05-28 }}, Key ICT indicators for developed and developing countries and the world (totals and penetration rates), International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Retrieved 25 May 2015.</ref><ref>[http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ict/ "Internet users per 100 inhabitants 1997 to 2007"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150517033104/http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ict/ |date=2015-05-17 }}, ICT Data and Statistics (IDS), International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Retrieved 25 May 2015.</ref></small>]]
[[File:Hilbert InfoGrowth.png|thumb|right|360px|The amount of data stored globally has increased greatly since the 1980s, and by 2007, 94% of it was stored digitally. [http://www.martinhilbert.net/WorldInfoCapacity.html Source]]]

The growth of the amount of technologically mediated information has been quantified in different ways, including society's technological capacity to store information, to communicate information, and to compute information.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hilbert|first1=M.|last2=Lopez|first2=P.|date=2011-02-10|title=The World's Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information|journal=Science|volume=332|issue=6025|pages=60–65|doi=10.1126/science.1200970|pmid=21310967|bibcode=2011Sci...332...60H|s2cid=206531385|issn=0036-8075|doi-access=free}}</ref> It is estimated that, the world's technological capacity to store information grew from 2.6 (optimally compressed) [[exabytes]] in 1986, which is the informational equivalent to less than one 730-MB [[CD-ROM]] per person in 1986 (539 MB per person), to 295 (optimally compressed) [[exabytes]] in 2007.<ref name="HilbertLopez2011">[https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1200970 "The World’s Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727161911/http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6025/60 |date=2013-07-27 }}, Martin Hilbert and Priscila López (2011), [[Science (journal)|Science]], 332(6025), 60-65; free access to the article through here: martinhilbert.net/WorldInfoCapacity.html</ref> This is the informational equivalent of 60 [[CD-ROM]] per person in 2007<ref name="Hilbertvideo2011">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIKPjOuwqHo |title="video animation on The World's Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information from 1986 to 2010 |website=[[YouTube]] |date=11 June 2011 |access-date=2016-11-29 |archive-date=2013-02-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130221144621/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIKPjOuwqHo |url-status=live }}</ref> and represents a sustained annual growth rate of some 25%. The world's combined technological capacity to receive information through one-way [[broadcast]] networks was the informational equivalent of 174 newspapers per person per day in 2007.<ref name="HilbertLopez2011"/>

The world's combined effective capacity to exchange information through two-way [[telecommunications network]]s was 281 [[petabytes]] of (optimally compressed) information in 1986, 471 [[petabytes]] in 1993, 2.2 (optimally compressed) [[exabytes]] in 2000, and 65 (optimally compressed) [[exabytes]] in 2007, which is the informational equivalent of 6 newspapers per person per day in 2007.<ref name="Hilbertvideo2011"/> The world's technological capacity to compute information with humanly guided general-purpose computers grew from 3.0 × 10^8 MIPS in 1986, to 6.4 x 10^12 MIPS in 2007, experiencing the fastest growth rate of over 60% per year during the last two decades.<ref name="HilbertLopez2011"/>

[[James R. Beniger]] describes the necessity of information in modern society in the following way: “The need for sharply increased control that resulted from the industrialization of material processes through application of inanimate sources of energy probably accounts for the rapid development of automatic feedback technology in the early industrial period (1740-1830)” (p.&nbsp;174)
“Even with enhanced feedback control, industry could not have developed without the enhanced means to process matter and energy, not only as inputs of the raw materials of production but also as outputs distributed to final consumption.”(p.&nbsp;175)<ref name="Beniger 1986"/>